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Gasping. I shouted for help and worked myself to my feet. By the time I got up the steps and under the porch roof. which leaked. I was soaked to the skin. I practically lunged for the door, but it was locked. I pounded hard and finally Suze came to it.

"Look you now. I said so." she remarked. "'You need to get clothes off quickly and not track in all that mud, too. I just done washing the floor."

She shut the door.

"Wait." she said and rushed down the hallway. Moments later, she was back with a towel and started to rub my hair vigorously. I had to stop her because she was so rough, Then she started to help me take off my clothes.

"I get these dry," she said as she gathered my jeans and my blouse. My bra and panties were wet as well. She waited, beckoning me to give my

undergarments to her. I did so quickly and wrapped the towel around me. Then I moved as quickly as I could to the stair.vay and went up to my room. I got out some new clothes: another pair of jeans and a sweatshirt along with another pair of panties. Then I went into the bathroom to clean up.

I considered taking a warm bath and stripped off my Ace bandage so I could use it again. Then I started to fill the tub. What a mess I was in. I thought. Everything I do to try to make it better, just makes it worse. However, once I lowered myself into the warm water. I immediately relaxed. It was so soothing. It even helped my ankle. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the soak. imagining I was back home, back in my own luxurious bathroom. Soon I would go downstairs to one of Mrs. Geary's wonderful lunches. If you pretend hard enough. I thought, maybe you could make it happen.

Of course, it didn't. but I did feel better. The rain would stop. The phone line would be fixed. and Id be able to call Mommy and Daddy. They'd understand. They'd be happy to hear from me. Harley would get to know his father and all would be well.

Why. I wondered, did that sound so much like someone's fairy-tale hope?

It wouldn't be all that much longer before I would find out.

12

The Shrine

.

It suddenly occurred to me that here I was in

some strange house daydreaming in a bathtub, but daydreams were really no more than cobwebs easily tearing under us and dropping us back into reality, and the reality was that I was in a place so different from my home, I could be on Mars!

The water was warm

enough and clean enough, but the tub was old and chipped and stained with rust. The faucet dripped no matter how hard I tightened the handles. The linoleum on the floor was torn and cracked as well as faded. The walls around me were crying out for a coat of paint like some naked child in a snowstorm crying for clothes and warmth, but mostly crying for loving concern.

Harley's father lived here with his Haitian woman. However, they didn't treat this home with love and respect. They weren't half as proud of it as Harley was. and Harley had just seen it for the first time yesterday.

All of these thoughts left me cold, even in the tepid bath. I had seen and heard enough to start a small drip of ice down my spine. Harley won't be happy here. I concluded. He won't find the father he's never had or the family he thought was just waiting to embrace him as soon as he showed up on their doorstep. There wasn't really much of a doorstep, and no one had put out the welcome mat the way I would have wanted it put out for me. If they had, it would probably have been a shredded, torn and faded thing anyway. I concluded.

Hopefully. Harley would realize all this for himself, and when he returned from work with his father, he would come to me and almost

apologetically say, "Let's go home. Summer. Let's go now."

Surely it was too weird here to stay much longer. His father had only vague memories of his mother. and Suze was truly from another world, spoke another language and lived with a much different set of ideas and beliefs. Harley would feel like a stranger in this house.

I was sure I'd soon be calling Mommy from the road to tell her we were on our way back.

"We just had to see for ourselves," I would say. "You understand. Mommy. I know you do. Now it will be easier for Harley to go on."

When I arrived home. I knew she would welcome me proudly, proud that I had helped Harley.

"You frightened us," she would say. "but you did a nice thing for someone you care about. and I guess I can't fault you for that."

Was I daydreaming again, imagining it all and wishing too hard?

My reverie ended when I heard Suze in the upstairs hallway. What she hummed wasn't exactly a song so much as it was a chant. Unexpectedly, she opened the bathroom door and stopped the moment she saw me.

"Excusez-moi," she muttered. "Excuse. Pardonnez-moi, but me need to get water."

She held up her pail and mop.