Trompe l'Oeil Read Online Free

the girls bored easily, though Theo liked the high intricate domes. That Wednesday, like the other mornings, the Murphys walked the city together. James and Theo studied the cars; they spotted a parked Alfa. Nora stepped into a church with the girls.
    Later, the day would come back to her as a broken, shifting puzzle: emerging from the church into the bright air, down stone steps. Telling the girls, Let’s sit , and the hard stone beneath her. Molly, four, holding Katy’s hand. A glimpse of James and Theo, across the street beside the tiny convertible. One of them waved; maybe both of them waved. Lunch? What should they do for lunch? She rummaged in her bag for oranges. And then: No! Katy, only seven, yelled no . Molly was in the street: a running step, the back of Molly’s dress, an instant of space between Molly and a white delivery truck, and then no space.
    As if, for Molly, traffic had become invisible. A sick thud, the high screeching brakes, though often Nora’s memory is more or less silent—just Katy’s No! and silence until she heard her son yelling, but of course there were other sounds, her own sounds, the shouting crying truck driver, and James. She and James somehow crossed to Molly’s body. She has no memory of crossing, only the image of Molly yards away, crooked and bloody, and then crouching on the stone pavement with James. Everything on the adjacent piazza stopped, everyone stopped, and there was silence even as Nora and James bent over Molly, whose eyes were half-open and distant. They spoke to her, James saying, Molly hold on , Nora repeating, I’m here , her face close to Molly’s, beside them a curious spill of blood. Then shouting in Italian, and medics pushing in, pushing Nora back, and around them a crowd, a ring of people who were not shouting, all silent in the heat, and Katy and Theo, only a few yards away. Nora wanted to grab them and Molly both at once. Katy clutched Molly’s sun hat, and Theo, only ten, broke the crowd’s silence, yelling in English, Stop it, stop staring at her .
    Nora wiped her hands on her dress and hurried to Theo, grabbed his hand and placed it in Katy’s. For a moment her hands hovered over them while she leaned toward Molly—and then a woman, a stranger, stepped next to Theo and Katy and told Nora Go . Go. Black hair pinned up, a hand with a slender gold watch, thin-strapped sandals, coral nails. The truck driver paced and wept. James knelt beside Molly and the medics, and when Nora joined them Molly did not look at her, gazed if anywhere at the shirtsleeve of the medic. Nora kissed Molly’s face, didn’t she? How vividly she remembers the kiss,but it’s possible she’s remembering the sensation of a different kiss, earlier, before they left the hotel, or as they left the church and she promised something to eat: the oranges, the almond cookies. There was a moment with the medics and James, James stricken, the ambulance loading up. Theo started shouting again, Stop , just Stop , and Nora caught a glimpse of Katy’s now paste-white face, and of Katy pushing forward, trying to get to Molly. No .
    â€œDon’t bring them to the hospital,” James said.

    And what if she had said more firmly, Let’s stay right here , when she took that moment to look for oranges? But that would depend on how distractible Molly was, if she was listening in the moment or too struck by the brilliant light and the vivid crowds. In her mind Nora could step back to the other side of that moment, to the shadowed entryway and the sudden brightness, but again there was the feeling of the orange against her palm and Katy’s shout.
    The woman with the gold watch spoke English, and she remained beside them until a police car drove them back to the hotel, Nora between Theo and Katy in the backseat. Dad will stay with Molly . It seemed that those words swelled and filled the sedan throughout the ride to the hotel, or as