The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay Read Online Free Page B

watched as the room grew lighter. It was morning now. Avis must be awake, afraid to come down, lying up there with the door cracked, listening. Idella placed her hands on her stomach. She realized that she was hungry. She wished she could reach out and grab a piece of the bread from off the table. Mother had made it just yesterday. How could she be hungry with something so bad happening?
    Suddenly the voices got louder. “Emma! Emma!” Dad was calling Mother’s name. Something made a loud noise, like a crash, something heavy hitting the floor. There was commotion. Then everything stopped all at once and got quiet. There weren’t even whispers. She listened and listened, pressing her whole body down so that nothing would move, but there was still no sound.
    Finally the bedroom door opened, and Mrs. Jaegel came out carrying the bowl of hot water, holding it with both hands. Steam was still rising from it. The water droplets slid down her face. She stood in the middle of the room and said aloud, quiet but clear, “She’s gone.”
    Mrs. Pettigrew came behind her, like a drunk person. She reached out to keep from falling over and collapsed into a chair, flinging her head and arms down over her knees. She was crying. Idella could see her body shaking.
    Idella’s mouth was dry, her tongue thick and heavy. Everything was far-off-sounding, as though the fog had come into the house and filled it up.
    “Them pills.” Mrs. Jaegel walked slowly to the table and put down the bowl. She bent over next to Mrs. Pettigrew and whispered. “He threw them pills into the fire. He took one look at her, and he took that packet and come out here and threw the whole thing into the fire. You seen it as well as me.”
    Mrs. Pettigrew sat up in the chair. “Do you think . . . ?”
    “He walked right up and threw them in.” Mrs. Jaegel gestured toward the stove. “She was healthy as a horse. You know it. That baby come out easy. Then we give her them pills he give her for the after-birth pain. That’s when the trouble started. And she kept asking for more.”
    “But we’ve all took them pills when it was our time.”
    “He took one look at her, and he took them pills and threw them into the fire. Just like that.” Mrs. Jaegel made a quick throwing motion.
    Mrs. Pettigrew looked over at the closed bedroom door and then back up into Mrs. Jaegel’s face, which had come to life with a thick rage. She wiped her eyes with her skirt. “Holy Mother of God. Did Bill see it?”
    “He took no notice. He was on his knees to her, poor man.”
    “It won’t do no good to tell him. It won’t bring her back. He’d kill him with his bare hands.”
    Dad came out of the bedroom. The women stopped talking. He stood in the doorway, staring out at the room. Then he crossed the kitchen and went out onto the porch. “That bitch! That goddamned Christly bitch!” Dad’s fist, his boot, something, was hitting hard up against the side of the house. “That goddamned bitch!” Idella could feel the vibrations as he kicked and kicked and kicked at the porch posts.
    “He’ll hurt himself,” Mrs. Pettigrew whispered. “He’ll break a window.”
    “Leave him be,” Mrs. Jaegel said. “Leave the poor man be.”
    Gone. Idella heard the word over and over in her head. Gone, she thought. Mother was gone. Idella crumpled over onto the bench. The cries that she had held off for so long came shuddering through her.
    “Holy Mother of God!” Mrs. Jaegel was standing over her, trying to lift her. “Come, child. Come on out from there.” Idella clung to the bench, her fingers grinding into the rough grain of the wood. “Get her upstairs. Dear God, let’s get the child upstairs.”
    “Della, honey, Della, hang on to me now. Let Mrs. Pettigrew get ahold of you.” Mrs. Pettigrew was picking at her, poking at the back of Idella’s neck, grabbing at her wrists.
    “What’s going on?” It was the doctor’s voice, dark and low. “Poor child. Let me help. How