Key West Read Online Free PDF Page A

of a light there—inside what was now a storeroom. Hadn’t she?
    The rain grew heavier by the moment. She was soaked.
    No light showed now. It had probably been moonlight on the glass…There wasn’t a moon anymore. A streetlight a few yards past the property gleamed on the downstairs windows. That was what she’d seen.
    She studied the upper windows again. If what she’d seen had been a reflection from the streetlight, it would still be there.
    One thing she’d never been was easily frightened. Just as well. If she had been, she couldn’t have dealt with these last months. She hadn’t really seen a light—an impression of one could be caused by many things.
    A hot shower; then she’d lock herself into the room where her suitcases stood open on the floor and her hanging clothes were draped over several chairs.
    She must force herself to open the house properly. She’d start on that in the morning, take her things to one of the bedrooms and put them away, make the place feel alive again.
    If she could become convinced that the story she’d been told in the hospital was true, she’d find peace. That was the best she could ask for now—peace. And when and if she found that peace, what then? Where did you go when the one plus in your life was a chance to start over? How long did it take to forget the past and grab the chance?
    Billy hadn’t wanted her to come here. Older by five years, Billy worried about Sonnie. But the time had long since passed when Sonnie could allow her sister to lead the way.
    This is ridiculous. Rain drizzled down her face from hair plastered to her head. Her shirt and skirt clung to her, and her feet squelched in her sandals. Accompanied by a popping sound at every step, she went to the front steps, climbed, and crossed the veranda. Once she’d found pleasure in filling pots with the tropical flοwers that thrived here, then clustering the pots about the veranda posts. Why not try to get interested in those things again?
    The screen needed oiling. It didn’t just squeak when she opened it; it screamed. Sοnnie gritted her teeth at the noise and slid the key into the lock. Once inside the broad entry she noted that the smell of disuse hadn’t gone away yet. Tomorrow she’d open all the doors and windows and let the sweet air in.
    “You’ll stay where you are, Sonnie. You understand me, girlie?”
    She stood still again. Her father’s voice wasn’t one that came to her often. There were others that set up a discordant cacophony in her brain, but Daddy’s usually remained silent. He’d been afraid she might decide to leave Denver again. He hadn’t known where she might go, just that she was restless and distant. Daddy loved her, but he didn’t understand her, and the only way he knew to reach out was through orders and demands.
    “Just let yourself go, Sonnie. Go on, let go. Go to your baby now. You know you want to. She’s waiting, Sonnie. Your baby’s waiting.”
    She threw her hands up before her face. “Stop it.”
    An androgynous voice. A sexless whisper. She’d heard it twice before, or was it three times? But not since she’d left the hospital.
    Sonnie backed to the wall beside the front door and fought for breath. When she’d been close to death, someone had told her to let go and die. Yet when she’d fully regained consciousness and there was increasing hope of her recovery, everyone around her had insisted she would get better, and had shown her in so many ways that they wanted her to. And, despite her injuries, her physical rehabilitation had been dramatically rapid because she was fit, and because she had things she wanted to do.
    She had dreamed the voice.
    And now she was remembering the dream again.
    Sweat had joined the rainwater. She was burning up. And sick to her stomach. And afraid.
    Drawing herself up, edging away from the wall, she pushed the door shut, put the key on top of a wicker chest, and walked toward the parlor. Sleep was what she needed.
    A