Act V Read Online Free PDF Page B

thing is, I didn’t even tell them the
rest of it. It just sounds too weird.” Carl spotted a flash of
brown fur in the tree branches outside the French doors of Glynn’s
home leading to the sun porch. He catapulted from her lap almost
flattening himself against the door while barking like he’d just
treed an elephant. He jumped three feet straight up and down trying
his best to get to the squirrel and leaving wet nose prints on the
glass. Glynnis sighed. “I just cleaned those doors, you
pest.”
    Glynnis decided to leave the glass
cleaning for another day. She picked up the television remote and
flipped through more channels than ought to be allowed before she
decided that reruns and reality TV weren’t worth losing a few hours
of her life over. After hitting the power button and watching the
screen go black, she went into her room and grabbed the novel she’d
started last week. Glynnis went to the kitchen, poured herself a
glass of white wine and sat down with the book. It was a suspense
thriller, the kind of book she normally devoured…maybe not tonight.
She went to the basket of unread paperbacks she kept by the couch
and thumbed through two or three before she decided on a
light-hearted, feel-good, family overcoming tough times sort of
novel…not her usual fare, but she kept this kind of book on hand
for visitors that needed reading material. It was inoffensive,
simple and left you feeling good. Maybe it would take her mind off
Claude Danning and that sword. She’d made it through three pages
and half a glass of wine before she realized that she had no idea
what she’d just read.
    Glynnis just couldn’t stop seeing that
red wine running down Danning’s starched, white shirt, mixing with
blood. It was the strangest, most violent, precognitive dream she’d
ever had. Maybe just this once it would turn out to be just a
dream. But Glynnis knew, even as she wished it, that it would
happen again.
    She stared at the book in her hand.
This was just impossible. She slammed it onto the floor, causing
Carl to go into a barking fit and then she jumped about a foot when
the phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, she pressed the talk
button. “Hey, Mama. What’s up?”
    “ Not a thing. Just calling
to check on you,” Two beats of silence passed. “Since you haven’t
called me in a few days.”
    How did she do it? Waves of
guilt assaulted Glynnis followed by irritation for allowing it to
happen every single time. “Sorry Mama, I’ve just been busy with the
play and all…and you know, Sissy’s getting married so I had to go
to her shower yesterday.” That, and I just
couldn’t call you because you always know when there’s something
wrong and you have this uncanny ability to read my mind over the
phone.
    “ I know, sweetheart. I just
hadn’t heard from you, and your daddy and me were
worried.”
    Daddy and
I , she mentally corrected, but she had
enough respect for her mother to leave that be. “I’m just fine,
Mama. Are you coming to the play when it opens next
month?”
    “ Are you gonna be in
it?”
    “ I’m directing, Mama. You
know I don’t act.”
    “ Oh, we’ll try our best to
come. You know your daddy has a hard time with those steps going
down to the park, but we’ll manage.”
    “ You know there’s a handicap
access if you need it. The doctor gave you a tag for Daddy.” She
reminded her.
    “ I just can’t convince your
daddy to use those handicap spaces. He sees it as
unmanly.”
    Glynnis ground her teeth, bit her
tongue and changed the subject. “How’re Jeremy and Gina and the
kids?” Grandchildren were a sure bet to distract her mother from
other issues.
    “ Oh, that little Amy is such
a doll. Now don’t forget her birthday’s coming up. Do you know what
she did today?”
    It always worked. Mention the grandkids
and Mama was on the Grandma train for a good fifteen minutes or
more. She rattled on for a while and Glynnis, who usually found it
a bit overwhelming to hear Mama talk