Lost Read Online Free PDF Page A

where she knew in her heart she belonged? Was it misguided pride that kept her with her father year after stubborn year?
    It seemed that even in her absence, Julia had taken up a disproportionate amount of space in the house onBalmoral Avenue. Missing Julia had become a steady part of Cindy’s life, a persistent ache in the pit of her stomach, an ulcer that refused to heal even after Julia decided to move back home.
    A slight movement caught Cindy’s eye and she turned her head toward her next-door neighbor’s house. Faith Sellick, a new mother at age thirty-one, was rocking back and forth on the top of her front steps, her long brown hair uncombed and all but covering her face.
    “Faith?” Cindy cautiously approached her neighbor’s front path, watched as the normally friendly and outgoing young woman slowly raised her head from her knees, tears streaking a face that was round and pretty and totally void of expression. “Faith, what’s going on? Are you all right?”
    Faith glanced over her shoulder toward the house, then back again at Cindy. Cindy saw that the front of the young woman’s white blouse was stained with the milk leaking from her swollen breasts, creating quarter-sized circles in the thin fabric.
    “What’s the matter, Faith? Where’s the baby?”
    Faith stared at Cindy with sad, dull eyes.
    Cindy looked past the young woman, straining to detect sounds of life from the interior of the house, but the only thing she heard was Elvis barking next door. A thousand thoughts rushed through Cindy’s mind: that Faith and her husband had had a terrible fight; that he’d walked out on her and the baby; that something horrible had happened to Kyle, the couple’s two-month-old son; that Faith had come outside to get a breath of fresh air and inadvertently locked herself out. Except none of that explained the blankness in Faith’s eyes, and why she wasstaring at Cindy as if she’d never seen her before in her life. “Faith, what’s the matter? Talk to me.”
    Faith said nothing.
    “Faith, where’s Kyle? Has something happened to Kyle?”
    Faith stared at the house, fresh tears falling the length of her cheeks.
    In the next instant, Cindy vaulted past the young woman and into her house. She took the stairs two at a time, racing toward the nursery and pushing open the door, her breath stabbing at her chest like a hunting knife. Tears stung her eyes as she threw herself toward the crib, terrified of what she might see.
    The baby was lying on his back in the middle of crisp, blue-and-white gingham sheets. He was wearing a yellow sleeper and a matching yellow cap, his beautiful face as smooth and round as his mother’s, his perfect lips settled into a perfect pout, red little fists curled into tight little balls, tiny knuckles white. Was he breathing?
    Cindy edged closer to the crib, and leaned her body over the side bar, pressing her cheek to the baby’s mouth and breathing in his wondrous infant scent. Gently she touched her cool lips to his warm chest, holding her breath until she felt his body shudder with the effort of a single deep breath. And then another. And another. “Thank God,” Cindy whispered, feeling the infant’s forehead with her lips to make sure he wasn’t feverish, then straightening up and backing slowly out of the room, her legs wobbling as she closed the door behind her, having to remind herself to breathe. “Thank God, you’re okay.”
    Faith was still sitting on the top of the outside landing,swaying rhythmically from side to side, as if mimicking the branches of the maple tree in the middle of her front lawn, when Cindy stepped back outside, sat down beside her. “Faith?”
    Faith said nothing, continued rocking from side to side.
    “Faith, what’s wrong?”
    “I’m sorry,” Faith said, so quietly Cindy wasn’t sure she’d heard her at all.
    “Why are you sorry? Did something happen?”
    Faith looked quizzical. “No.”
    “Then what’s the matter? What are you