Mockingbird Read Online Free PDF Page A

if she hasn’t found it, she’s walking still.
    â€œToni?”
    I was lying on my back on a tile floor and someone was supporting my aching head.
    â€œToni?”
    Ah, Daddy’s voice. I recognized it now. That would be his hand under the back of my skull. My eyelids fluttered open, then fell shut again, like butterfly wings too new and wet to stay unfurled. Ow! I meant to say, but only a weak grunt came out.
    â€œWhat? What was that?”
    â€œOw. Ow.”
    â€œI’ll bet. Just take it easy there, kiddo. You aren’t fixing to go anywhere soon.”
    Candy’s voice came from off to one side. “It was the Widow, Toni. She mounted you.” I opened my eyes again, with more success, but Candy was not in my field of vision and there was no way I was going to turn my head. I settled for looking up at the ceiling fan, watching the slow sweep of its long wooden blades. Even when it isn’t hot we keep the fan going on low, just to move the air around. Momma always thought that was healthful.
    â€œOw,” I said, more vigorously. I had a brutal pulsing headache, my stomach was queasy, and my whole body felt like a fried egg someone had just slapped into a hot skillet sunny side down.
    I remembered the Widow’s smell and prayed Momma’s demons wouldn’t get me.
    Candy said, “This better not turn out to be your idea of a joke.”
    â€œOh, hysterical,” I said. “Fuck off.”
    â€œYour sister’s a little jumpy,” Daddy said. “The Widow put a scare into her.”
    â€œAre you laughing at me? It’s not funny! Toni, the Widow said I had to marry Carlos! Marry him! And pump out a few little bambinos afterwards!”
    â€œCongratulations. I look forward to your pregnancy. It will be nice to see you fatter than me, for once.”
    Candy nudged me in the side with her foot, none too gently.
    I straightened out my shaking legs. “Most people have to buy a bottle of cheap tequila to feel like this. Guess I should consider myself lucky. S’okay, Daddy. You can put my head down. I’ll just rest here a second or two longer.” Daddy remained squatting behind me, holding my head in his hands. I loved him for it. “Anyway, Candy, you don’t have to do what the Widow said.”
    â€œYeah, right.” Candy started to pace again.
    Another throb of pain made my vision wobble. “God, sis, it should have been you the Widow mounted. You like this stuff. Oh Candy. I don’t want to fight with the Riders. It can’t be the Mockingbird Cordial; we both drank that.”
    â€œUm—well . . . To be honest, Toni, you were the only one who drank that stuff. My glass had Dr. Pepper in it.”
    â€œWhat!”
    â€œMomma said so! She said the cordial was only for you.” More quietly Candy said, “Her last gift was only for you.”
    â€œOh, great.” A wave of nausea made me gasp and close my eyes. The pain in my head went on and on. “You jealous?”
    Candy’s footsteps stopped. “To the heart,” she said.
    Apparently I had been possessed for about thirty minutes. The Widow had inspected the house, looked through some of Momma’s photographs, and informed Candy that she was to marry Carlos. Eventually she had returned to the chifforobe on the ground floor and opened the doors so the dolls could look out. At that point she must have considered her work done; she left my head so fast, Daddy barely managed to catch me as I crumpled to the floor.
    By the time I was able to sit upright at the table with my face in my hands, nearly an hour had passed and we were expecting the condolence calls to start at any moment. Candy ran out to pick up some coffee and cakes. At my request, Daddy got one of Momma’s bottles of Evan Williams seven-year-old sour mash bourbon and unhurriedly poured me one shot. “You sure you want this, Toni? You’re not much of a