The Western Light

The Western Light by Susan Swan Page A

Book: The Western Light by Susan Swan Read Free Book Online
Authors: Susan Swan
Tags: Adult
Ads: Link
head. Not then, or later. I imagined the thrill of showing him my great-grandfather’s letters. It amazed me that he and I had ancestors who drilled for oil in the same unlikely place, although I knew it wouldn’t be right to let somebody like him see our family papers.
    After lunch, I found myself having one of my useless conversations with Hindrance. Per usual, I tried not to listen, because Hindrance sounded like Sal blowing hot air.
    Â 
    A Sobering Conversation with Hindrance
    Â 
    Hindrance: John Pilkie is mean and cruel, Mouse, and you better watch out.
    Me: What if he didn’t mean to hurt his wife?
    Hindrance: He wanted her out of the way and he didn’t really like you either.
    Me: He does so, Hindrance.
    Hindrance: Who would like you? You’re short and skinny, and you walk like a duck.
    Me: That’s not fair. Besides Mr. Pilkie asked me about my great-grandfather.
    Hindrance: Listen to you! You’re all puffed up because somebody asked you about your stupid composition. Well, sucks like you get fooled sooner than you can say Jack Robinson. So you better watch out or you’ll get murdered too. See you later, alligator.
    Â 
    MAYBE HINDRANCE HAD A POINT. I felt flattered because a murderer listened to me talk about my school composition. What on earth was I thinking? I didn’t want him to know I was interested in him — although I was. Wasn’t everybody?

9
    MADOC’S LANDING ABSORBED THE KILLERS LIKE WATER IN A PAIL absorbed a stone. But we didn’t see John Pilkie or the other prisoners on the hospital grounds during the two weeks before Easter. For one thing, they couldn’t wander around the hospital grounds like the harmless patients. Then Sal heard that John might go to the Anglican Church on Easter Sunday with his mother, who was a pot-licker (or Protestant) like us. In our kitchen, John had used the word “dogan” to describe himself. It meant Irish Catholic and I’d been surprised because “dogan” was usually said by a pot-licker with the word “bloody” or “damn” in front of it.
    Now none of that mattered. Mrs. Pilkie had asked Dr. Shulman to let John worship with the Anglicans so John, along with the hospital guards, was coming to our church for Easter Sunday. Light-headed with excitement, I put on my new felt skirt and starched blouse plus my white ankle socks. For the first time in months, it was a mild spring day so I could go outside without my long woolen stockings.
    WE DROVE TO CHURCH IN my mother’s old Ford station wagon. Morley was off on a call. Going to the eleven o’clock service wasn’t something required of the men in my family. As I struggled out of the backseat, my grandmother reached for my hand, and I politely shook my head. I didn’t want the Bug House kids calling me a suck who clung to her grandmother’s skirts. Luckily, the Bug House kids were still in Sunday School. So, one step at a time, I humped Hindrance up the stairs and into the church. As I took my seat in our pew, I spotted John standing near the vestry with two of the other prisoners. He carried his full-length raccoon coat over his arm and he had on the smartlooking striped chocolate-brown suit he had worn at the train station. Sib Beaudry and two other hospital guards stood nearby in the hospital uniform: a serge suit and bowtie that made them resemble the friendly baker in the Wonder Bread advertisement. The prisoners took off their hats and shrugged off their jackets. Then they sat down, clearing their throats and bowing their heads. The guards sat down, too. Mrs. Pilkie sat six rows behind them and something about the stiff way she held herself suggested she thought that everyone was watching her son. But neither the women, in their white gloves and Easter bonnets, nor their hatless men were looking at the killers. The same pride that lay behind our town’s attitude to the hospital kept them from gawking

Similar Books

Score - A Stepbrother Romance

Caitlin Daire, Alyssa Alpha

Appleby Farm

Cathy Bramley

Rogue with a Brogue

Suzanne Enoch

Deadly Fall

Susan Calder