The Dwelling: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

with her arms, forcing her almost to walk in a crouch. The three of them stood outside the blue room, looking up into the hole. The girl’s sobs slowed and she sniffled. Glenn offered her tissues from her purse.
    They listened to Don’s footsteps, at first stomping, then not. Then just walking. They could follow him around the attic by the sound of his feet.
    “Why did you go up there?” Glenn asked.
    “It was open!” she said defensively.
    “It wasn’t. I’ve never seen it open.”
    The girl turned to her mother, her face indignant. “It was open! It was, honest!”
    Mrs. Trent gave Glenn a look that could not be interpreted. But she suspected it was embarrassment. “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay.”
    Glenn went to the ladder. “I’m going to go up,” she said. The girl was calming down. There was no one up there. She climbed the ladder carefully. It was steep. At the top she stuck her head through the hatch and saw a man. It was, of course, Mr. Trent. He stood in the middle of the huge, empty room, clutching what at first looked like a spear. It was a hook for the ladder and hatch. There was not so much as a piece of drywall to hide behind. A bare bulb that hung from the dropped ceiling, swayed. He must have banged it as he went past. It cast shadows.
    “I think maybe the light played a trick,” Glenn said. She stood on the ladder, not going up. It was chilly up there. Don looked at it absently. Slowly he nodded. He stuck his hands into his pockets. “She got quite a scare. Someone could have run out between the time she screamed and we got upstairs,” he said feebly.
    “We would have heard him, seen him. She would have said. I don’t mean to question her, but I really believe it was the light playing tricks.”
    He nodded and dropped the pole. It clattered loud in the empty room, and Glenn jumped a little at the sound of it. He came to the hatch. Glenn backed down. Mrs. Trent and Amber looked expectantly at the two of them as Mr. Trent descended.
    He shrugged. “No one up there, honey,” he said kindly. “I think you saw the lightbulb swinging—”
    “I did NOT! There was a man, Daddy! Honest to god there was.” She looked at everyone in turn, wanting support. When she found only sympathetic glances, she buried her face in her mother’s sweater and resumed her sobs.
    “What the hell was that hatch doing open, anyway?” Don said, unwilling to leave his daughter undefended.
    “I swear it was closed the last time I was here. I suppose another agent could have—” It was too late, of course, for the Trents. The four of them walked down the stairs. Don took over comforting Amber. At the door, Glenn apologized profusely and asked them if they would like to see something else.
    Mrs. Trent wrinkled her nose. “I think, give us a couple of days before you call. I suppose Amber wouldn’t let us buy this place over her dead body, now,” she said.
    “I’m terribly, terribly sorry. Nothing like this has ever happened.”
    “She’s a little high-strung,” Mrs. Trent said.
    “I think they all are at that age, aren’t they?” Glenn said, not really knowing one way or the other.
    Father and daughter got into the backseat of the car together.
    “I’m sorry, Mrs. Darnley, thank you for your time,” the woman said. She took two steps down and said oddly, “She’s Daddy’s girl, you know,” as though by way of explanation.
    Glenn repeated her own apologies and watched them drive away. Don looked back at the house through the back window. Glenn raised a hand; he didn’t return the gesture.
     
    After they’d left, Glenn went back up. The hatch had been closed, she was sure of it. She tried to think of the last time she had been upstairs, and it had been the evening before. She’d shown it to the Gillespies. If it had been open, she would have seen it.
    She climbed the ladder and got up inside the attic to turn out the light.
    The girl had been seeing things. The bulb was still now. To prove