Dead Voices Read Online Free PDF Page A

gruffly nodding at Elizabeth as he hurriedly washed his hands at the kitchen sink. He reached for the half-full coffee pot on the counter and poured himself a cup. Without adding either cream or sugar, he took a slurping sip before going over to the table and sitting down. He took one bite of his breakfast, then wrinkled his nose and said, “These eggs’re cold. Should’a called me in sooner.”
    As she nibbled on her toast, Elizabeth twisted away from her father, hoping he wouldn’t notice her pale, tear-streaked face; but she knew from having grown up with him that, although he said little at times, he never missed much.
    “So, Elizabeth,” Kendall said, turning to her after taking another bite of eggs followed by a sip of coffee. “What’s your plans?”
    Leave it to her dad to be so damned blunt and to the point, she thought. After giving her nose another blow into the napkin, she looked at him, not caring how red-rimmed her eyes might be.
    “I don’t know,” she said, her voice hitching slightly. She noticed that her mother was slyly watching their interaction over her shoulder as she busied herself washing the frying pan at the sink. “I told you both last night that I just needed to get away. I was hoping I could .stay here awhile ... until I can start pulling things together. “
    “I already told you, you can stay with us for as long as you want,” her mother .said quickly, before Kendall could reply in his slow, measured way. Elizabeth looked at her dad and felt thankful when she didn’t see a contradiction in his eyes.
    “It’s just that, you know, after Caroline ... and all, and Doug going for a divorce and all, I just felt like my life was ... was — out of control.” She ended with a helpless shrug, painfully conscious that she hadn’t been able to say the word died .
    Caroline had DIED!
    Her lower lip began to tremble and — damn it all! — she could feel the tears burning in her eyes again. Looking down, her gaze landed and stuck on the bottle of prescription tranquilizers on the table in front of her. She hadn’t taken one yet this morning, and although she felt as though she should, she just couldn’t do it now — not with her parents watching.
    “You could’ve called ‘fore you come,” her father said. “Seems kind o’strange, you appearin’ on the doorsteps ‘round midnight, tellin’ us you left your husband ‘n’ askin’ if you can stay here awhile.”
    “You know what they say about home, Ken; it’s where they have to take you in, no matter what,” Rebecca said mildly.
    A tightness took Elizabeth by the throat, but she forced herself to speak. “Last night ... Doug and I had one hell of an argument. It wasn’t the first, but it was the worst. So I just packed and took off, spur of the moment. It wasn’t exactly something I planned or anything.”
    “So you don’t know what you’re going t’do?” her father asked.
    “I think what Elizabeth should do ,” her mother said, addressing her husband before Elizabeth could speak, “is take as much time as she wants or needs to decide. Her bedroom’s been empty all these years. We can give it a fresh coat of paint, get some new furniture, and she can live here as long as she wants.”
    “No, Ma,” Elizabeth said, glancing back and forth between her parents. “I don’t want to be a burden on either of you.” Her voice was still raspy from her recent crying jag, but she forced it to stay steady.
    “You know you won’t be a burden!” Rebecca said sharply. “Will she, Kendall.”
    Kendall rubbed the side of his face with the flat of his hand. His stubble of beard made a harsh sandpapery sound. “You ain’t forgot how to milk a cow, have yah?”
    “I don’t think so,” Elizabeth said, chuckling faintly.
    “Well then, ‘slong’s I get a bit of help out to the barn now ‘n’ then, I don’t spoze you’ll be overburdenin’ us.”
    A trace of a smile flickered across Elizabeth’s face. She looked