Sorority Sister Read Online Free PDF Page A

thin woman in white nodded. “You can take those plates in,” she said, and muttered something under her breath.
    As Maxie picked up the plates, she murmured to Erica, who was gathering a handful of silverware, “If she’d brought the whole staff back, it would go faster.”
    “She did bring the whole staff back,” Erica whispered. “That’s what she’s complaining about. She has to pay them all double time.” She sighed. “So, of course, we’re going to have to pay her twice, too. After all, that mess in the frig wasn’t her fault.”
    “She did not bring the whole staff back,” Maxie disagreed as the two headed for the dining room with their burdens. “There’s one missing. That older woman with gray hair. Reminded me of my Aunt Minnie. She was in the pantry when I was downstairs earlier.”
    Erica frowned. “There wasn’t any older woman, Max. There were only three of them, and none of them had gray hair.”
    Maxie shook her head. “I saw her, Erica,” She set the plates on a corner of the dining room table. “She was wearing white, just like the others.”
    “I don’t know who you saw, Maxie, but it wasn’t a member of the catering staff.”
    Then the food was brought in, everyone was invited into the dining room, and Maxie was left wondering if she could have imagined the elderly woman in white in the pantry.
    She hadn’t actually seen the woman’s face. When she had entered the pantry to grab a bag of chips, the woman was standing with her back to the door. Maxie had said hello, and although the woman had answered pleasantly enough, she hadn’t turned around. Her face had been aimed toward the shelves and wasn’t visible. Maxie had seen a white uniform, gray hair worn in a bun, covered with a hair net, and a pair of sensible white shoes like her Aunt Minnie, a nurse, wore.
    But she hadn’t seen the woman’s face.
    If you were standing somewhere and someone came up behind you and said hello, wouldn’t you automatically turn your head to see who it was?
    Sure you would.
    Maxie took a seat at the table, between Candie and Joan Bingham, who was complaining loudly about the delay. “When I lived in this house,” she said in a thin, high-pitched voice, “the teas we held were served at four o’clock sharp.” She directed a disapproving glance at her red-faced daughter, seated on her right.
    “It couldn’t be helped, Mother,” Erica said meekly. “I’m sorry. After you came all this way …”
    Maxie glanced at Erica in surprise. She sounded so totally unlike herself. They were all used to Erica making plans in a voice that was self-confident and optimistic. This Erica, ‘ so apologetic, so embarrassed, was foreign to all of them.
    “It wasn’t Erica’s fault,” Maxie couldn’t help saying. “Something — ”
    She had been about to say, “Something happened,” when Erica cut her off sharply, silencing Maxie with a desperate look.
    “It’s nothing,” Erica said hastily, passing her mother a basket of rolls. “Really, I just screwed up. I apologize to everyone. Now, let’s just enjoy, okay?”
    Joan Bingham fell silent and began eating, to everyone’s relief, and after a tense, uneasy moment or two, everyone else did the same.
    Erica is scared to death that her mother will find out what really happened, Maxie told herself, wielding a butter knife with an expert touch. She could get herself off the hook so easily by telling her mother the truth. No one could blame Erica for what happened in the kitchen. Why isn’t she being honest?
    She asked Erica that, the first chance she had. The mothers had left, and everyone else had scattered to their rooms to get ready for dates or to study. Maxie found Erica in the kitchen, sweeping the floor.
    “Erica,” she began, “why didn’t you tell anyone about the frig? You let everyone think you screwed up, and you didn’t.”
    “You mean I let my mother think I screwed up,” Erica said, continuing to sweep. “And you can’t