Black Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

exhausting.”
    “Yeah,” she replied. “I’m glad I didn’t choose a teaching career. Phyl should be here. It might send her into something simple like medicine.”
    “Speaking of Phyl,” he said, lowering his voice, “what the hell do you mean, ‘she’s going away for a few days?’ ”
    Gesturing at the children Barbara said, “Naughty Santa. Mustn’t swear.”
    “She’s supposed to be going away with me.” He filled a cup with champagne. “Damn it to hell!”
    Barbara smiled at a small boy who had come by holding his cup aloft. “Here, honey. Let Barb give you some more of that delicious punch. Won’t make you a bit drunky-poo at all.” When the child had left she said to Patrick, “Some of us decided to go skiing for a few days. Right after merry old X-mas.” She took another drink of champagne and then added, laughingly, “I suspect she knew what you had in mind for her and decided skiing was more restful.”
    Bitterly he replied, “Ho, ho, ho. Look, Barb, she promised me! All term I’ve been looking forward to spending a few days alone with her. Christ, what am I supposed to do? Sit around and study all holiday?” A little girl had come up behind him and he didn’t see her as he added, “What a bitch!”
    The little girl looked wide-eyed and Barbara said to her, “Isn’t Santa naughty. Bad, bad Santa. Here, have some punch. And I’ll give Santa something to wash out his mouth.”
    By the time she had ladled the punch into a glass for the little girl Patrick had stomped across the room leaving her alone. She shrugged and poured herself some more from the champagne bottle.
    At the Kappa Gamma house Mr. Harrison and Mrs. MacHenry were standing in Clare’s room, staring into her empty closet. The suitcase sat on the bed where she had left it and the room showed no signs of anything untoward happening.
    “Well, Mr. Harrison, her clothes are all packed and ready to go, so she couldn’t have gone far.” She closed the closet door and surveyed the room. “I just don’t know. Maybe she went over to Delta Chi. There’s a party there today for underprivileged children.” She was wishing to herself that she had never answered the front door. He was a pompous man, she decided on first seeing him and nothing so far in their tenuous relationship had done anything to change her mind. Besides, she was in a hurry. It was those damned girls. They were forever spending the night where they shouldn’t have been, and the parents acted as if the world had come to an end.
    Mr. Harrison lifted a glass on the night table and sniffed at it as he said, “Yes, I know. I was to meet her near there. A young man who is a member of the fraternity directed me here. He said she had not come to the party. Is there alcohol in this glass?”
    “We had a party last night. The girls did. They made a punch. I daresay it had a small amount of alcohol in it. A little Christmas cheer, you might say.”
    “Mrs. MacHenry, I never was in agreement with Clare’s staying in a sorority house. I was afraid the atmosphere would be too lax. As house mother, isn’t it your responsibility to keep control over the girls’ activities?”
    Obsequiously she replied, “Well, I try to do my best, Mr. Harrison.” (To herself she added, “you old fraud.”) “But they’re all young women with minds of their own and I don’t like to restrict them too much. I mean times are different than when you and I were growing up.” Good thing he wasn’t around vaudeville. Times aren’t different at all, as far as I can tell.
    “I’m very disappointed in the atmosphere my daughter is living in, Mrs. MacHenry, and I intend to do something about it.” He rummaged through the suitcase and pulled out a photograph of Chris. “And who, may I ask, is this?”
    As she led him out of the room, Mrs. Mac said, “Oh, that’s a friend of Clare, a very nice young man from the town, Chris Hayden. He’s on the hockey team.”
    Mr. Harrison sniffed.