Naked, on the Edge Read Online Free PDF Page B

together.
    "Please let me do a problem," said Margarette.
    Greta opened the chest by the window and took out the sewing kit. She lifted the lid and stared inside.
    Joseph licked his lips. William's tic picked up speed. Susanne looked in confusion between the friends. Margarette folded her hands and trembled. Anna's heart leapt into a fear-driven arrhythmia.
    Greta stared into the open sewing case. Then she slowly lowered the lid. She turned to face the friends.
    Margarette said, "Please, let me do a problem. I like numbers."
    Greta said, "You have all been my friends for many weeks now. I've brought you good food and have taught you good lessons." She pressed her fingertips together into a steeple of consideration and control. "Music lessons, art lessons, things other children of your station would beg for."
    Greta walked to her low chair and sat, smoothing down the hem of her green dress with the white collar. "If not for me, you would not have learned to listen, you would not have learned manners at a meal. I have been a good teacher." Her face clouded over then, darkening storms growing at the corners of her eyes. She said, "But oh. You are still very selfish, selfish children."
    Anna needed to cough, but she swallowed it down. The hairs on the backs of her hands were prickled and alert. She looked at the window and back at Greta.
    "My father has told me that I shouldn't expect very much of you. I don't want him to be right."
    Joseph began to groan. It was a soft growl that, by the twist of his face, Anna could see frightened even him.
    "Joseph," said Greta. "Is it you who has been selfish?" Joseph's growl grew louder, a pinched animal sound almost musical in its intensity. Susanne put her hands over her ears; Margarette held a hand up as if to quiet him.
    "Joseph," Greta said. "I asked you a question. Answer. Is it you who stole from me?"
    And Joseph stood suddenly, driving his hand into the waistband of his filthy short pants and pulling out the hair scissors. He screamed and lifted the scissors into the air, pointing them at Greta. His good eye was wide and ready. Greta stood from her chair and backed up a step.
    Joseph took a step forward, the scissors poised.
    Greta said, "Children, if he hurts me none of you will eat for a week, perhaps two weeks. And you know I never lie. I was taught not to lie. Lying is a sin.”
    Joseph took another step forward, but Greta did not move. She knew she was safe now. At once, William, Susanne, and Anna were up, taking Joseph's arms and wrestling them down. William pulled the scissors from Joseph and presented them to Greta like a kitten presenting a prized mouse to its owner.
    Greta brushed a tiny strand of hair from her face. She went to the chest and returned the scissors to the kit. Susanne and William and Anna sat down in the circle. Margarette took Joseph gently by the hand and helped him sit.
    With her hand on the rough wall, Greta stood for a moment and looked out the tiny window. Anna looked at Greta, at the slice of shed roof outside the window, at the dark tops of the smoke stacks beyond the yard of Greta's home, at the smoke that hung, like the smoke in Joseph's story, too thick to reach the clouds.
    Greta went to the door. She did not turn back as she whispered, "Selfish children."
    When she was gone, Margarette said, "This won't be forever. We won’t be here forever.”
    Anna did not sleep for a long time that night. She listened as William and Susanne tossed restlessly on the floor. She listened as Joseph buried his face in Margarette's little-girl arms and, with her words and lullabies, she tried to soothe the insanity away.
    Morning came with rain outside the tiny window and stale, humid air in the attic. The mockingbird's call was faint, as if he had found shelter from the rain in the branches of a distant tree, somewhere outside the yard. Anna lay awake for a long time. Her neck ached from the hard floor and the change of weather. No one spoke. Joseph was up,