The Brushstroke Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

help Mom move Dad into a secure unit.”
    No, surely not Daddy. Isn’t there some new medication that will help? Something?
Ragni gulped, “Is there one close by?”
    “Yes, but it has a waiting list. I already paid for his place on the list. Mom still thinks she’ll be able to handle him.”
    Ragni, feeling rumbling in her stomach, swallowed all the things she’d almost said. “I need to get going.” Despair tasted bitter.
    “Thanks.”
    “You’re welcome—I guess. This sure changes my looking forward to the trip.”
Maybe Erika will help a lot and we can get back sooner. Yeah, right
—
dream on.
    “Maybe when it’s just the two of you, you’ll find that rapport you used to have.”
    “I’m hoping.”
    “I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate this.”
    “Right.”
What could it be that Susan can’t tell me? Can’t or won’t?

    Packing the car was an exercise in frustration, even without Erika’s things. The trunk that usually carried only groceries left a lot to be desired. A mound of equipment needed to go in it. Ragni took everything out and started again.
    Studying each space and each item, she fit things together like a jigsaw puzzle. She had to lean on the trunk lid, but it finally shut with a satisfying click. Everything else would have to go on the backseat; her toolbox could not be left behind. If only she had gone and bought a rack for the top of the car. She glanced at her watch. Nearly nine. Too late to go to the store now.
    Ragni made her way back to her apartment, knowing her car was safe in the underground parking garage. Everything was packed, except her morning things. The plants sat in a pan on gravel so that the moisture from the evaporating water would sustain them. They would need to be watered only once or twice while she was gone.
    This was one of those times she was grateful she had no pets. Perhaps when she returned, she’d get a cat. Ragni let her mind wander as it willed, anything to keep from thinking of tomorrow morning, but inevitably it returned to the upcoming trip.
Susan promised to have Erika here at six so we can get to the cabin before dark. It would have been easier if Erika had spent the night, but of course she declined the invitation. As usual, whatever Erika wants…
    Ragni scanned her lists to make sure everything was marked off. Every item on the supplies list bore a check. Was there anything she should have added and hadn’t? Her to-do list had the same checks. Plants, paper, mail, empty the refrigerator, laundry finished, pick up the dry cleaning—not that she’d need any of that where she was going. They’d stop for breakfast wherever Erika chose; snacks were already in the car. She’d notified her neighbors that she’d be gone two more weeks, and she could access her phone messages by her cell phone. As her father would have said, she “had all the bases covered” and would say no more. Just like they’d never go to another baseball game at Wrigley Field.
    Once in bed, she stared around her room. She’d decorated it with pure comfort in mind, the colors drawn from a painting she’d done of a garden that she’d dreamed of having at one time. A riot of flowers in every hue, shape, and size. An apartment house for purple martins—a weathered shed with a pot of bright pink geraniums on the step—the picture brought a lump to her throat. Gardening and painting were dreams that had gone by the wayside, long before the departure of Daren. Once her world had bloomed with color, but no longer. Even her clothes had slid into monochrome.
    Don’t even think about him
, she ordered herself. Easier said than done.
Lord, if you are listening, I do wish him, pray him happiness and real love with this new woman. Obviously he wasn’t the one for me. But then, I’m beginning to doubt there is a man anywhere in my future.
She shook her head.
Just as I doubt You are listening. Or is it that I have a hard time believing You really care about me and