Mercy Read Online Free PDF Page A

down beside him. Eddie stamped his feet with happiness and petted her all over.
    â€œGood girl, good girl.” Elaine reached out to ruffle Sunny’s ears. “She
is
gentle. What a sweetie.”
    Told you
, Haley thought.
    â€œWell, that’s enough for her first night, I think.” Haley’s dad swept Eddie up, away from his fabulous moving, breathing, furry new toy. “Come on, little monster. Book? Story?”
    â€œDown, down!” Eddie insisted.
    â€œNo down. Haley, take Sunny upstairs again. Let’s do this gradually.”
    â€œDown down
down
!” Eddie bellowed. Elaine sighed. Haley gladly dragged Sunny upstairs and shut the door of her room on the noise. Sunny headed for the closet again. Haley took out her camera. Hooking it up to her laptop, she transferred the photos over and tapped the touchpad to move from one to the next, trying to make up her mind which to print out.
    There, the close-up of Mercy’s headstone. She zoomed in even closer, so that the letters, their edges softened by time and weather, filled the screen. She could almost make it an abstract, but the last sentence of the epitaph, down in the right-hand corner, still announced what it was—a life cut short.
    Haley’s thumb brushed the touchpad and a new photo flashed on the screen.
    Jake had just glanced up at the camera. His skin, tinted a warm gold by the lamplight, almost gave him a look of health. But he’d grown so thin you could see the lines of his skull where it made hollows at his temples and under his cheekbones. Even his nose looked skinny. On the side away from the light, the shadows of the room curled around his face. One eye disappeared into them. His short black hair seemed to be dissolving into the darkness.
    Haley slapped at a key to turn the program off, and Jake’s face vanished from the screen.

“W hy don’t you go ask your aunt?” Haley’s dad suggested, looking over her shoulder.
    Haley had brought her prints of Mercy’s grave and the cemetery down to the kitchen and spread them out on the table. The photos were the easy part. But she also had to write a report, and that was going to be a pain. The Browns may have lived in Rhode Island for a hundred years, but they’d never been the kind of people who made it into the history books. Where was Haley going to come up with enough details about Mercy’s life to get an A?
    She picked up a tangerine from the pottery bowl in the center of the table and looked up at her father. “Aunt Brown? She’s your aunt, not my aunt.” Digging her fingernails into the peel, she let loose a spray of sharp, sweet scent.
    â€œTechnically I think she may have been your grandfather’s aunt. Except she was young enough to be his sister. Or something. I forget. The point is, she’s got a bunch of family history stuff. Why don’t you go out there and ask her? Maybe take Sunny with you. Elaine will have Eddie back from playgroup soon.”
    â€œCan you drive me?”
    â€œSorry, no can do, hon.” Her father slathered peanut butter on a toasted bagel and took a bite, licking his fingers as he chewed. “Got a big order yesterday. Wedding present. Thank God people still get married.”
    That had always bugged Haley’s mother, that her dad was happy to live on sales to the tourists in the summer and the occasional big order for a wedding. With his talent, he should be in museums, she said. Art galleries. Charging hundreds, maybe even a thousand, for a single piece. But her dad liked the idea of people
using
the pottery he made—coffee in his mugs, soup in his bowls, milk in his graceful pitchers with the long, slender necks.
    â€œCould you take me to Aunt Brown’s this afternoon, maybe?” Haley asked hopefully.
    â€œDoubt it. What’s wrong, got a flat tire on your bike?”
    â€œNo, it’s—”
    I just want you to come with me
, Haley wanted to