Winter Sparrow Read Online Free Page B

to the willow tree planted on the front lawn. Its roots stretched across the dirt-and-pebble driveway and a number of other spots around its formidable trunk. At first, Mary squinted to see what was carved at the center. She walked down the porch steps to get a clearer look. Joshua didn’t notice. He was busy jangling his keys and trying to break in out of frustration because the lock now refused to budge.
As she edged closer, the carving in the willow tree became clearer. It was a solitary word no one would raise a question about. A forgettable something, really. Nothing elaborate or poetic. Just simple, scratched into the bark. It read, Once . 
Who put it here? she wondered.
Just then, Mary glimpsed a shadow from the road that led to their future driveway, which she could see herself pressuring Joshua to get paved as soon as humanly possible. The shadow captured her glance when she touched the tree, felt the cut-up pieces that comprised the fragile, infant word. She swore she saw a face too with the shadow. It was a man with a soft complexion and a beard. A black hat kept his long hair neat and tucked. He had on a lengthy coat as well, and his teeth appeared yellow, glistening in the moonlight as he smiled at her from the road.
But then he was gone. Suddenly, a fog drifted in from the woods, and the chill forced her to blink. And shudder a little. She turned on the spot and saw Joshua coming closer.
She reached for his arm.
“What’s got you all jumpy?” he asked.
“It’s awful dark out here.”
“Yeah. Looks like we’ll have to get used to that,” Joshua said. “Hmm, did you notice our voices echo out here too?” Without awaiting a response, he repeated, “Echo!”
“Stop it,” she demanded.
“Why?”
“Because you never know who could be out this time of night.”
Tell him, Mary. Tell him what you saw. Tell him you saw a man, well, what looked like a man, with long hair and a beard and a black hat and…
That is what you saw, isn’t it?
“I got cold all of a sudden, Joshua. I want to head back now.”
“Okay,” he said, embracing her. “Let’s get you warm.” He unlocked the car with the keyless entry device.
Mary immediately went for the passenger door and sank into her seat, fastening her belt as tight as it would go. Joshua walked slowly, however, intensifying the tension inside her.
Just tell him what you saw.
Mary shut her eyes and pictured the garden. Maybe her mind had invented the man in black. Her mind had invented things and ideas before, so it wasn’t all that strange, was it? An imagination could be a dangerous thing, a very dangerous thing, the years had taught her. 
Joshua opened the driver’s side door and slipped into his seat. He started the car and backed out. Mary looked out the window as a branch scraped the front hood. She couldn’t help but feel saddened by the carving there in the heart of the willow tree. In a matter of seconds, they were backing out of the driveway, leaving the property of the mansion, and heading back to the city.



THERE WAS CHANGE AGAIN IN the air. The June sunlight invaded her apartment, and the heat started to get to her. At least, Mary blamed her anxiety on the heat, an appropriate scapegoat.
She was glad to admit she sensed something a little more alive in herself lately. Her mind often returned to the garden and the beauty it held. It wasn’t that her doubts about the mansion itself had evaporated, because they hadn’t fully. But with these winds of change came confidence and ambition. She was closer to accepting the future, even if part of her—most of her—feared it.
Maybe Joshua’s constant imagination about what the mansion could be kept her mind running in circles.
A collection of cardboard boxes lined the walls of her cramped bedroom. The beaten, pulled-open worlds seemed to act as mirrors, reflections of the way she had been dealing with it all up until today. Week upon week she had been second-guessing the decision to move the