Envious Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

any of these things.
    â€œI have to go,” I whispered, as if this was the reasonable thing to do now. I turned away and I began to bound down the steps.
    I took them two at a time and in the dark I did not see the man until he was right in front of me. He came up the stairs as fast as I went down.
    â€œGet over here,” he said, and I tried to sidestep him. Hewas bigger than I was and when he wrapped his arms around me I felt his breath hot against my face. I shook him off and he kept coming. For a moment he was gone and then I felt him again, and he was on top of me, on my shoulders, and he was trying to take me down. He was a very strong man and the weight of him drove me into the railing. I flailed at him with my arms and I think I cried out. I smacked at his hands and I wanted nothing more than to be free of him and then, all of a sudden, I was. He had gone over the railing and landed on the floor below. I heard him hit. It took a minute for it to register and I stood there dumbly looking into the dark.
    I heard the girl now and when I looked up she was coming down the stairs toward me, quickly, two steps at a time. “Daddy,” she called, saying it over and over, and something inside me broke and I started to run. I ran as fast as I could. I flew down that staircase, and I raced for the open door and through it and I was out on the porch and then onto the lawn.
    I tore around the corner of the house and sprinted across the dewy grass and when I reached Victor I said, “Come on,” and I kept running. His face looked empty, his jaw slack, brown eyes just staring at me. I ran so fast I almost went off the path and into the undergrowth that was the top of the cliff. I heard Victor panting behind me and when we reached the cove I said, “Get in” and Victor said, “Oh, Jesus,” but I barely heard that.
    We shoved off from the beach and when the skiff was in water deep enough, I started the engine and it went on the first try. I pulled down on the throttle and turned the boat toward open water.
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    W e rode straight out to sea and we did not talk. I pushed the skiff as hard as I could and when the island was no longer visible in the dark behind us, I cut the engine. The mainland was to our right now and we could see the dim lights from the villages of Galilee and Jerusalem. The boat rocked slightly in the wake. I turned to Victor and before I could say anything I saw in his eyes the fear and I knew it mirrored my own. I tried to tell him what happened but speaking was difficult and my words kept coming out mangled. Finally, I said, “There was a man.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œOn the stairs.”
    â€œShit,” said Victor. “They said it was going to be empty.”
    â€œAnd there was a girl.”
    â€œWhat? Where?”
    â€œA beautiful girl,” I said. “I mean crazy beautiful.”
    â€œTony, I don’t get it.”
    I ran my hand through my hair and I looked toward the point and to where the lighthouse beam cut a swath across the water. I told Victor everything at once. I told him about goinginto the house. About climbing the stairs. Knocking over the lamp and then finding the money. I told him how the light went on at the top of the stairs behind me and how I turned to see the girl standing there. How I could see all of her when the light passed through her gown. I told him how lovely she was. I tried to capture her shadow-draped face for Victor but words alone could never do her justice. There was nothing to do but to stare, I said, and this was why I did not see the man until he was on me.
    â€œBut she didn’t see you?” Victor asked.
    â€œNo,” I said. “No, I don’t think so. She couldn’t have. It was too dark. I was in the shadows. Listen, light me a cigarette, will you? My hands are shaking too much.”
    Victor lighted a cigarette and then lit another one off of it. He handed one to me and I drew on it