Naked, on the Edge Read Online Free PDF Page A

obvious he couldn't think of what to say next. He did not know the beach of the lake and could not even imagine it well. William rubbed his face and looked around the circle at the friends. Susanne looked at the empty bookcase. Joseph licked his lips and folded his hands. Anna looked at William for a moment before looking away. She knew about lakes but was afraid to speak up and help William with his story. William's burned hand was the result of a music lesson Greta had given one morning. William had no rhythm, and Greta had insisted on all the friends clapping to her song. Try as he did, William could not keep the rhythm. When Greta had come back with the friends' daily meal, she had also brought one of Erik Brummer's cigars. William still could not clap in rhythm, but now he bore the rightful sign of the failed lesson.
    "And what then?" asked Greta.
    William's eyes squeezed into red slits.
    Margarette's hand went up. Greta turned to her, the smile gone. "Now what, little girl?"
    "Please, I'd like to tell some of the story, too." Greta crossed her ankles like her mother must have done. Her eyebrows strummed a rhythm of irritation across her brow, but then she said, "All right."
    "They liked to go fishing, these children," said Margarette. "They caught many colors of fish, red and blue and green and gold. Some they caught with nets and some with hooks."
    Greta said, "Did they eat the fish?"
    "Oh, some of them they did. Some they cooked and ate on the beach. They made a fire and cooked them, and the smoke went up as high as the clouds. Everyone sang songs. There was a girl named Greta, and she could sing better than any of the other children."
    And the story went on. It wound around the bitter air of the hot attic, in Margarette's lilting, little-girl voice, laced with distant bits of Margarette's memory, embellished with daydreams.
    After some time, Greta held up her hand to halt the tale, and she left the attic. She promised, in reward for the story, to come earlier with the daily meal. The dust and soot swirled where her footsteps had been. The door closed with a click. No one spoke. Margarette closed her eyes, and shivered.
    Then Joseph said, "Thank you."
    All the friends looked at Margarette and whispered, "Thank you."
    Anna said, "I'll give you half my meal," although she knew Margarette would refuse, and she knew that was part of the reason she offered.
    The friends stayed in the circle for a while longer. Then, slowly, they fell apart, moving to their own spots on the attic floor where they rested between lessons and dreamed their own dreams and fought their own nightmares. Anna curled up beneath the tiny window and looked at the crude beams of the ceiling. Outside, the mockingbird sang the tunes of the robin, the jay, the chickadee, the sparrow.
    After a few minutes of silence, Joseph said, "The children sang as they sat on the beach. They sang as they sat with their parents in the boats and fished. They sang the same song as their parents, and there was no harmony, just melody. The melody was flat and ugly."
    William grunted as he turned to face Joseph.
    "The fish were not different colors," Joseph continued. "They were all the same, silver and blue, like shining gems. But some were big and some were small. Some had twisted fins, and some were blind. The parents drew the fish in on the lines and put them into buckets. When they got to shore, they put the buckets on the muddy bank."
    Anna turned her head slightly, her nostrils blowing the soot on the floor beside her, listening.
    Joseph's voice was tight, and it trembled. He said, "The parents only fished for sport, to see the creatures struggle out of the water. The big fish with no flaws were sorted into one bucket. The fish that were not perfect went into another. The baby fish were taken from the parent fish and given to the children as pets."
    Margarette said, "Joseph, I liked my story better."
    Joseph said, "This is a good story. So listen. The fish with flaws