Breakdown Read Online Free PDF

nodded, stared at her face, as if needing to reassure himself it was really her.
    “Come on up, then,” Jon said, “and you can shower.”
    Jon led him out of the kitchen and up to his own room. Chris surveyed the bed and bedside tables, the bureau with its framed pictures, the desk and chair in the corner, the bookshelf full of books, the electric lamps.
    “Posh,” Chris said.
    “Is it?” Jon asked, and Chris shifted his eyes over.
    “Compared to some places, yes.” He made a quick gesture toward the bedside lamp. “You’ve got lights.”
    “Yes. Not awfully reliable. We lose them if a good wind blows. For years we didn’t have any. But we can get news on the radio most nights. And we have the solar, of course. That runs the well pump and the Aga, and we can charge batteries for torches and the like. One of Simon’s extravagances that turned out to be invaluable.” He put Chris’s blanket roll on the bed.
    “And a shower?”
    “Sure.” Jon shrugged. “Or a bath, if you’d prefer.”
    “No lugging pails up the stairs,” Chris said quietly. He moved into the room, pulling his duffel bag off over his head.
    “You had to do that? Where?”
    “In Breton, a little town near Portsmouth. I worked on a farm there. If it was warm enough, we washed outside, in a little room built against the house. But Grace never liked—” He stopped, did not look at Jon, put his bag on the bed, and unzipped it. “Showers in London, though,” he said, as if to change the subject.
    “How long were you in London?”
    “Couple of months.” Chris rummaged in his bag, pulled out some clothes. “None of this is really clean.”
    “I’ve got clothes you can borrow.”
    “I couldn’t carry much, so I left some stuff behind. I’ve got coupons, though.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” Jon said. He opened drawers and gathered everything Chris would need.
    Chris stood still, watching Jon. “I didn’t expect to find you.”
    “Why not?”
    “You were reckless. Kevin was careful. I guess he was too careful, stayed where he was, like he was told to do. He should have tried to get out of London.”
    “That’s what he said, when he rang me. He said, ‘They told us to stay put.’ I told him to pack what he could and get out. I told him it would be safer in Bath.” Jon shook his head. “It wasn’t much safer, really. But he said he was coming. I think he just needed someone to tell him what to do. He said he’d been trying to ring you, but couldn’t get through. He wanted you to tell him to get out.”
    Chris took a long breath and let it out slowly.
    “It’s not your fault,” Jon said.
    “Yeah, I know. But if I’d made it here, after Christmas, he’d have come out from London.”
    “Maybe.” Jon waited, holding the clothes, and when Chris didn’t go on, he asked, “What happened, on your end?”
    Chris straightened with a little shudder. “Sophie drove me to the airport. We took Rosie along. There’d already been some flight cancellations, but not mine, so she left me and went home. They canceled my flight after that. I stayed the night, got on a plane the next morning, but it turned around after a few hours and went back. Then they held us at the airport for days. Things were starting to go all to hell. By the time I got home, Rosie was gone, and Sophie...died that night.” Chris pulled a few pieces of clothing out of his bag without really looking at them, then glanced at Jon. “Do you know where Mum is buried?”
    “Yes. There was still a bit of room left at her church. Some of the members helped me dig her grave.” The memory of that hellish day, hacking blindly at the frozen ground for hours, remained jagged-edged. “I’ll take you, if you want.”
    Chris nodded, pulled another shirt from his bag. “It all happened so fast, within days. If my flight had been just one day later, I might never have gone to the airport. Everything would have been different.”
    “What if I’d gone to New York for