Little Red Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

scratching the insides of my elbows.
    He stumps out his cigarette in a saucer. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.” He’s not looking at me, but I catch the worry in his profile.
    “I thought you were going to be a doctor. That’s what you always used to say.”
    “Not now.”
    “Why not?”
    “Ah, I don’t know. Maybe I’ve seen enough smashed-up and broken people over there to completely turn me off that idea.”
    “You could be a pharmacist, like Dad.”
    “Yeah, I know. Go to university, take pharmacy, and end up selling pills and cough mixtures like a good little Dingbat, which would be all right, I guess, but then there’s all that other stuff—hot-water bottles and women’s stuff and all that junk—and, good God, no! I’m not doing that.”
    “They have hot-water bottles in Dingbat Land.”
    “Does Doctor Melvin still have those calendars on his walls?”
    “Yup.”
    “Too bad this isn’t Dingbat Land. I’d know what my role is.”
    “Listen, you just got back. What’s the rush about a job? Why not take some time to be a regular guy? Wait until we get some nice warm weather before you decide what you want to do.”
    “Much depends on the weather, eh? Dad’s philosophy of life. It
would
be good to put people back together instead of blowing them to smithereens, or at least try. But, right now, I don’t have the courage to even consider becoming a doctor. I don’t feel right. It’s as if the war made something go wrong with my own insides. Maybe it’s shell shock.”
    “What’s shell shock?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Rachel!” Mother calls from downstairs.
    “Right. You see? The minute I get into an interesting discussion with my brother, it’s time to go and help with the dishes. No one else can do dishes around here without good old Rachel pitching in.”
    Jamie grins, but shakes his head to sympathize.
    I’m on my feet. “Look, why don’t you visit the Coopers? Tomorrow’s Saturday. I could go with you.”
    “Maybe next week.”
    “Why are you putting it off?”
    “I’m not. I get sidetracked with other things.”
    “Just do it.”
    He stares into the dark beyond the window. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as alone as I do now that I’m home. I miss my buddies. I miss Coop.” He lights another cigarette.
    “He’ll turn up.”
    “Rachel!” Mother shrieks.
    “Sorry, but I’m in a conference. Perhaps you would consider hiring a maid.” I say this aloud but not loud enough for her to hear me.
    I thump down the stairs hoping the noise adequately expresses my displeasure.

CHAPTER

4
    In the morning, after the usual Saturday chores, I buttonhole Jamie. “Let’s go to the Coopers’.”
    “I’ll go by myself later. I have to get used to being a loner.”
    “You said I could go!”
    I beam my fiercest gaze in his direction until he sighs and mutters, “Okay, okay.”
    Granny’s in the kitchen rolling out pie crust. Quietly, we leave by the front door to avoid the where-are-you-going-and-why drill. “It’s chilly out there,” Granny calls before we can make our escape. “I hope you’re warmly dressed.”
    “I’m wearing my pullover,” I yell.
    “Jamie?”
    “I’m fine! At what point,” Jamie whispers, “does your grandmother start to see you as an adult?”
    “Maybe never.”
    As he closes the front door behind us, we fall immediately into Mother’s clutches. Bundled up in a warm cardigan, she’s on her knees carefully removing dead leaves from around the new sprouts in the flower beds.
    “Going out?” she says.
    We look at each other and bite our tongues. “Yup,” we call, and walk quickly on.
    “Cold wind,” Jamie says, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
    “The sun’s warm.”
    “We’re doing the weather thing again.”
    Someone’s calling us. We look back and, sure enough, there’s Granny coming after us with Jamie’s jacket.
    “I feel like running the other way, just for the hell of