The Day the Siren Stopped Read Online Free Page A

system.  We're really backed up in that department.” 
     
    It became apparent that the back up to which she referred was the stacks of papers on the folding table in the back room.  From the look of things, Mrs. Wade never filed anything at all—except, perhaps for her nails.
     
    At the end of the day, Kathy Mae found she still had Mason on her mind.  He had touched her with his eyes, and it was as if he had run his fingers over her face with just a look.  He saw her, really saw her.   She felt that he’d seen through her simple, perhaps even drab, appearance and saw the real Kathy Mae Graves—someone she hardly knew herself.  She grabbed her purse and walked cheerfully to the door.  What an amazing day it had been!  She woke up jobless, landed a great job, and met a fascinating man that made her feel like a woman.  The future looked good to her for the very first time.
     
    Passing the hallway and to the front desk, Mrs. Wade stopped her to give her a computer print off with her schedule.  Reading it over before leaving for the day, Kathy Mae saw that she worked a few late afternoons.
     
    “Is there a problem?” asked Mrs. Wade.
     
    “I'm scheduled to close on several nights,” Kathy Mae answered, “and I don't know the procedures.”
     
    “The procedures are simple,” Mrs. Wade answered snidely, as if Kathy Mae had to have been incredibly stupid to not inherently know what to do.  “We shut down the computer, turn off the lights, and lock the door. That’s it.  In the real estate business we have to accommodate people’s work schedules.  Is that going to be a problem?”
     
    “Not at all. Thanks, see you tomorrow,” said Kathy Mae, going outside.  She then realized that she dreaded going home.  If she had had any friends, she would have called them. 
     
    Once, she had a best friend, Carrie Stapleton, several years ago.  In the early years of high school that friendship had been a comfort.  By the time they were both seventeen, Carrie had decided that Kathy Mae was too nice, and perhaps too dull for her taste.  A little drinking, dancing, and driving around town without a license was one thing.  But, Carrie was quickly becoming the local tramp, despite being under age.  She was out having sex with every guy that called her number which they found scribbled in all the men's toilet stalls for miles around.  This was not something Kathy Mae liked, and the guys Carrie tried to fix her up with seemed to expect it.  Carrie ended up pregnant by some plumber named Tom who took little interest in her welfare.   He was already married to someone else and had several kids.
     
    Several years after high school, Carrie renewed their friendship once life's lessons had slowed down her spirit of adventure somewhat.  By then she lived with her alcoholic cross-dressing father and druggie mother.  Kathy Mae discovered this secret the first night she went to Carrie's to see her little boy and hang out.  She remembered knocking on the door, and looking through the glass pane to see a green skirt and white high-heel shoes flutter past.  Finding that Carrie came to the door in sweat pants and that her mother was out, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the rest of the story.   She asked about what she had seen, and Carrie confirmed her assumption.
     
    Not long after they had just started getting reacquainted, Carrie started going out with another man, and got pregnant again.  Kathy Mae had never even met him, and only knew that his name was Adam.  Then one morning she was watching the news about a local child who had been beaten and was in critical condition.  It was Carrie Stapleton's child, Matthew, and he died the next day.  Kathy Mae cried for two days, remembering the boy's adorable face—his dark complexion and bright green eyes.  Her friend’s sanity was gone from that time forward; she began smoking marijuana even though she was pregnant with another child—the one