Sweet Mercy Read Online Free PDF

Charleston and the Lindy Hop, the waltz and the fox-trot.
    I had often gone to school dances with my friends, wherewe were asked to dance by boys we didn’t like. We accepted anyway and spent the time looking over their shoulders at the boys we longed to have ask us, but who never did. Nevertheless, I enjoyed dancing. I’d learned how to waltz along with everyone else as part of the physical education requirement in school. Once I was paired up with Scott Hampton, one of the handsome boys I contemplated from afar. I didn’t want the song to end. I wanted to go on feeling what it was to have my hand on his shoulder, his arm around my waist, our other hands meeting palm to palm as we slid around the freshly waxed gym floor. Scott Hampton had never spoken to me before, and he didn’t speak to me even then, but that was all right. While the song lasted I could pretend he had asked me out to the floor, that the look on his face had been one of delight rather than agony when my name was called with his.
    A portable phonograph sat on the edge of the stage and, curious, I went to it. It was a big wooden box of a player, an RCA Victrola that looked brand-new, a far cry from the old gramophone back in our Edgecombe Court apartment that pumped out scratchy music through an ancient morning-glory horn. I looked at the record on the turntable. Viennese Waltzes. Perfect.
    I turned the knob and lowered the needle. I shut my eyes, raised my arms, and imagined myself in Scott Hampton’s embrace. I began to twirl, slowly at first, but then more rapidly, knowing the whole room was mine. Alone yet not alone, I moved with my imaginary lover in wide circles around the floor.
    Oh, Scott! Oh, darling! You dance divinely. . . .
    Oh! With a jolt, I found myself tumbling face-forward andlanding with a thud on the floor. I’d backed into someone or something, but I couldn’t imagine what. Stunned, I shook my head and pulled in a deep breath. I let the air out in a quiet moan as I turned over and sat.
    An extended hand slipped into my field of vision. When I looked up, I fell back on one elbow and stifled a scream. Marlene had been telling the truth. The red-eyed devil was standing over me, looking for all the world as though he was ready to pounce.

Chapter 4

    T he attack I was bracing against didn’t come. Instead, the red-eyed devil withdrew his hand and straightened his back. “All right, then,” he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice, “you can just get yourself up.”
    My muscles relaxed, except for those between my eyes that pulled my brow into a frown. “I . . .”
    â€œYou’re not hurt, are you?”
    â€œUm, no, I don’t think so. I—”
    He lifted his chin and started to move away. I knew what he was, but I’d never seen one before and I hadn’t expected to see one now. That’s what startled me. I pushed myself up from the floor.
    Abruptly, he swung around. “Just who are you anyway? And what are you doing here in the ballroom? It’s off-limits during the summer season, you know. You can do your dancing on the island like everyone else.”
    â€œListen,” I said, “I’m sorry. I’m Eve Marryat. I just came in here because I couldn’t sleep and—”
    â€œOh yeah,” he said. “I know the name.” He noddedslightly, the dim light in the room illuminating his pale skin, his stark white hair. Combed straight back without a part, his hair was a ghostly halo on top of his narrow face. Central to that face were the two crimson eyes, glowing like rubies on a bed of lambs’ wool. He wore a washed-out gray shirt that was several shades darker than his skin and a pair of weathered denim pants held up with black suspenders. It was hard to tell, but I guessed him to be a few years older than I was.
    When he didn’t go on, I said, “I’m Cyrus’s niece.”
    â€œYeah.” He