By the Bay Read Online Free

must get your things together because he will be in a hurry to leave.”
    This wasn’t anything new. For years now, her mother had gone through periods when she insisted her husband was still alive and would come home to reclaim his family. In those delusions Jillian was sometimes her current age, or might be any age in between. Tonight she was an infant.
    Christine peered suspiciously at her. “Who are you? I don’t know you! What are you doing in my house?”
    “Mom, I’m Jillian, your daughter.”
    “Nonsense.  Jilly is only two months old. She’s over there in her crib.”
    Christine walked to the other side of the small bedroom, obviously finding what she sought. “See! There she is sleeping like a sweet baby.” She laughed softly. “Babies are so dear when they’re asleep. I can’t wait to show her to her daddy. He won’t believe how much she has grown.” She stood there, her gaze tender as she looked down at something only she could see, her hand reaching out to pat what she obviously thought was her baby.
    Jillian’s heart ached. “You’re tired, Mother,” she said gently, reaching for Christine’s arm.  “You’ve had a sick headache all day and now you need to rest.”
    Indignantly Christine jerked her arm free and went over to look out the window. “Look how big the cotton has grow n . We’ll be picking it soon. Florence , we’re going to pick enough this fall to buy you some new clothes. Wouldn’t you like a new coat for school this winter?”
    Now she was back in east Texas with her sisters. Auntie, who was in her forties was evidently a little girl in Christine’s eyes.
    Jillian knew from experience that there was little benefit  in argument, in trying to bring her mother back to reality. Sometimes she went on like this for days, obviously living in a world more to her liking. Other times, she might be all right and herself in a matter of minutes.
    Jillian hoped this was to be a brief interlude.
     
    Two hours passed before Christine could be persuaded back into her bed. In the meantime she’d chattered wildly. Having decided tonight that Jillian was one of her sisters, this time she was Aunt Dorothea , the one who lived in Kansas, she’d spent half an hour scolding her for being such a flirt and having a taste for wild boys. Jillian couldn’t help smiling a little at the thought of steady Uncle Mel, her aunt’s farmer husband, and wondered if he’d once been different or if her aunt had followed  her sister’s advice and finally settled down with a stable young man. Knowing Uncle Mel, she’d bet on the latter.
    It seemed unfair to peek at the past through her mother’s eyes this way. Poor Mom had no idea of what she was revealing and Jillian didn’t know if her memories were true or imagined. But her dignified middle-aged aunts had a right to their privacy.
    Still there was no way to still the flow of words and Jillian supposed that while she’d been away, only Auntie’s sympathetic ears or an unaware helper had received these confidences.
    Anyway she didn’t look anything like Aunt Dorothea who was a plump brunette with a sweet way about her. Wryly, Jillian admitted to being neither plump or brown-haired and certainly not sweet of disposition.
    But over the years Mother had chosen her to play many roles from that of her own long dead mother to each of the sisters. Mother chose who she wanted to be at her side and it was rarely the current incarnation of her actual daughter.
    By the time she finally went to sleep, Jillian was shaking with exhaustion but knew she’d never be able to settle into slumber without winding down first. She was only hours away from starting her new job, but would just have to rely on coffee and willpower to get her through the day. Aunt Florence , who had managed to line up help to start in two more days, had volunteered to fill in herself for tomorrow—actually already today—and the next day.
    Jillian was just considering the choices between