The Memory of Us: A Novel Read Online Free Page A

seen.
    “Nothing to it. She might have had your head on a platter for dinner, and we can’t have that, now, can we?”
    “It is rather useful to have a head!”
    “A perfectly reasonable expectation.” He smiled.
    I took my place next to him and remembered the so-called reason for my visit. “So, how are Charles’s plants coming along?”
    “Quite well, actually. Some of them have grown an inch or so since you were here.”
    “And the caterpillar?”
    “It’s in its chrysalis stage now.”
    I tried to recall a long-ago course in science, but came up with nothing.
    “The chrysalis stage. That’s where it curls up into itself and its skin is hardened into something like a shell,” he offered.
    “That sounds unpleasant.”
    “Not at all. Not when you know what’s happening underneath.”
    “Can Charles understand the changes in the plants?” I found myself hoping desperately that he could.
    “I wouldn’t know. Maybe he does. But he does enjoy having them in his room. Miss Ellis told me that she often walks by and sees him holding them.”
    “Why, that’s wonderful!”
    “I agree. It’s at least something different for him, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    I glanced at the book on the table. I pulled mine out of my bag slightly, making sure that the title was visible. He was not reading detective stories, however, which was just as well, since I wasn’t, either. I was two chapters away from finishing Gone with the Wind . He closed his book, and I saw, with some trepidation, that it was titled Advanced Latin II .
    He caught me staring at it. “Not exactly light reading, is it?” he said. “It’s for school. I’m just getting a head start on next term.”
    “Aren’t you the smart one?”
    “I had better be. I’m on scholarship, and I don’t want to take any chances.”
    My mind raced back to Miss Ellis’s single word, the one that had plagued my thoughts for a fortnight. Priest. Could she be mistaken? She must have seen him reading this colossal tome and jumped to conclusions. Surely, lots of people studied Latin besides priests. That had to be it. Just a misunderstanding.
    “And I don’t want to disappoint my father.”
    “Your father?”
    “Yes. It’s all he lives for, to see me become a priest.”
    My heart sank, though I’d known all along that this was the truth of the matter. “Yes, I’d heard something like that. A—a priest.” I could barely say the word, and I felt my face prickle with emotion. Dogs are flying, Lucille, I thought. Monkeys are talking.
    “Yes. Two years down and six to go.”
    “So many?” I asked. “That’s how long it takes to become a doctor.”
    “Well, I will be one, in a certain way. My father says it’s like being a doctor for the soul.” He paused, placing his elbows on the table. “What about you?”
    Archie dropped a pot at the sink, and the clamor echoed in my ears. But not as shrilly as Ethel’s voice: “Archibald Smythe, you had better pick that up and get to the potatoes before I—”
    “You’d never believe that they were married, would you?” Kyle had leaned in so close that I could feel his breath in my ear, and I became light-headed.
    “I beg your pardon?” I couldn’t decide if he was joking. But his face looked sincere enough.
    “For better or worse!”
    “In dishes and in grease.”
    “’Til dinner do they part.”
    “Quite so.”
    “A fine example of wedded bliss,” Kyle said. “Makes the seminary look all the more attractive.” He grinned, and I pulled away and looked out the window, afraid of what my expression might reveal. “What about you?” he said. “Are you going to university?”
    “Yes. In September. I’m going to London. To study nursing.”
    “Well, how about that? I’ll be tending to people’s souls, and you’ll be tending to their bodies. Together, we’re a full service shop.”
    Like a fool, I couldn’t help but like the way he said together . “Yes, I suppose we are.” I glanced at my