Opening
Scene
Dark clouds mushroomed and
thunder rumbled over the house on Mountain Brook Road, disrupting the
peace of the late May afternoon. Above
the diminishing rumble, a motor roared and the
sharp ping of flying gravel sprayed the side of the house. Susanne ran
from the
laundry room and peered out the front window in time to see a battered
old
pick-up tear down the lane away from her home, sounding like a steam
boiler
ready to explode. What in the
world? Some teenagers out playing a prank? They must have turned down
the wrong lane, an easy thing to
do
this far out of town.
She headed across the living room and stopped
in
the kitchen doorway, stifling a groan. The kids had tracked in mud
before they left for school and dirty dishes still littered the kitchen
counters.
She’d
been
busy changing beds and catching up on laundry all morning and forgot
about the
kitchen.
She leaned against the wall,
feeling about as energetic as the loser
of a ten-mile race, her enthusiasm drained by the recent phone call
from her
husband setting back their plans for her birthday.
The
door bell rang. The truck had disappeared
down the road and she hadn’t heard anyone else arrive. Great.
The last thing she
needed was company. The house certainly
wasn’t in its usual neat state.
She sighed and smoothed back her rumpled curls. She
should have stayed in bed this morning.
The
door bell rang again,
its insistence pulling her away from the wall where she
leaned.
A glass of wine and a
hour to relax
would
help put her back in the mood for tonight, if David kept his word and
made it in time for their reservations. She'd
get rid of
whoever was at the door and try to pull herself together. This needed
to be a special evening. They'd had so few of those lately. She
swung open the door.
A bedraggled girl who
appeared to be about twelve stood before her, clutching a battered,
well-worn suitcase. Small-boned and
petite, she could have been pretty but
for the greasy dark hair and dirt-streaked face. Staring
up at her were a pair of
strangely familiar eyes that gazed at her shyly before darting away in
apparant fear.
A prickle of apprehension
ran
through her as she looked in those eyes, but she brushed it away. Her
imagination must be
working overtime today.
“Is
Mr. David Carson
here, ma’am?” The waif shifted her weight from one
foot to
the other, glancing over her hunched shoulders to the base of the
driveway.
What
was someone thinking, dumping a child off
and driving away. If she was selling something, or needed directions,
the
driver could have stayed nearby, not headed down the road.
“I’m
afraid
he’s at work right now. Is there something I can help you
with?” Susanne pushed open the screen, curiosity
and sympathy drawing her forward. "Are you selling something? Do you
need help?"
The
youngster’s gaze
returned to Susanne’s face, a worried pucker showing around
the
corners of her mouth. “I’ve come to live with
him.” Her voice was barely audible but hit Susanne like a
clap of
thunder. Confusion raced through her mind. Was this someone's idea of a
joke?
“Live
with him? What
do you mean?” She pushed the door open a bit wider. Had David
offered to take this poor girl in without discussing it with her? Of
all the times for David to drop a strange child in her lap.
