Eddie’s Prize Read Online Free

too, but not until after they made everyone sick. The Woman Killer Plague is why there aren’t too many women now.”
    “That’s ridiculous!” Carla snapped.
    “It’s true,” Mrs. Madison insisted quietly. “You told my husband you walked for over a day. How many people did you find during that day? How many empty homes did you find?”
    A wave of cold raised goose bumps on Lisa’s arms. “But that’s impossible,” she argued weakly.
    Carla’s arguments were louder and stronger. “ You’re taking this pretty calmly. If it were true, it would be pretty amazing to me to have two women show up out of nowhere and claim to be from the past.”
    “You’re not the first people from the Times Before to come to this area,” was Mrs. Madison’s unruffled reply. “There were some women who came to Colorado about ten years ago. My friend saw them and told me about it.”
    Carla continued to argue, but she kept her feet in the soothing water. She went on for quite a while, until Mrs. Madison left the table to go to the steaming kettle on the stove.
    Bree said sympathetically, “You can go to the library and look up everything. Mr. Gray has newspapers from the Times Before and the Terrible Times. I’m sure he’d let you look at them. And you should talk to my brother. He’s studied all about it.”
    “Come wash up, girls,” the mayor’s wife said. “You can have nice hot baths and wash your hair tonight after supper in a real bathtub, but for now you can wash up here. Leave your clothes behind, and Bree will get them washed for you while you’re napping.”
    “But what about the people at the plane crash?” Carla said angrily.
    “My husband will know what is best to do for them,” was Mrs. Madison’s tranquil answer.
    “It’s nice of you to offer to put us up,” Lisa said with desperate courtesy. “But we’d like to go to the hotel.”
    The older woman looked at her with cool eyes a little bluer than Eddie’s. “If you went to the hotel, you’d be raped and married by morning. Women are scarce here because of the plagues, and some men are unscrupulous in their methods of finding a wife. You’re far safer here. Hurry now and get washed up.”
    Bathing in public was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as the compassionate remarks Mrs. Madison and her daughter made about Lisa’s slenderness.
    “Have you had bad harvests?” the teenager asked sympathetically. “We have plenty, so be sure to eat your fill.”
    It made Lisa glad to pull the much-too-big flannel granny nightgown over her head to hide a body once celebrated in the swimsuit editions of sports magazines.
    “Now you go on upstairs and take a nap until supper,” the mayor’s wife ordered. “Bree, do you have their clothes in the washtub?”
    “Sure do, Mom,” Bree said brightly. “I’ll let them soak a while before I scrub them.”
    Lisa cringed at the thought of her cashmere sweater being scrubbed until she remembered the bloodstains. It was already ruined. Scrubbing couldn’t make it any worse.
    Mrs. Madison waved them out of the kitchen. “Then show the girls to the guestroom on the north side.”
    Lisa followed Bree up the beautifully carved staircase in a numb daze. But she could see that Carla was stiff with anger. As soon as Bree opened the door of a room and ushered them in, the singer let the anger loose in furious words.
    “How stupid do you think we are?” she demanded. “2064? Seriously?”
    Bree paused in turning down the blankets on the double bed, frowning at Carla with obvious confusion. “Stupid? I don’t think you’re stupid.”
    “Then why would you think we’d swallow your story about us being fifty years in the future?”
    Bree’s plump, previously cheerful face hardened. She straightened with a snap. “Because it’s the truth! I don’t know how you got here. Maybe you’re the crazy ones! Why should I believe you’re from the Times Before?”
    When Carla glared, speechless, Bree softened.