The House of Wood Read Online Free PDF Page A

stairs to their room.
    ***
    Rachel didn’t know how long she
had been sobbing on the bed; the pillow case was soaked through.
The light in the room had dimmed, as the sun made its way around to
the back of the building. Nobody had bothered to come up and check
to see if she was alright. In a way, she was glad of that.
    She sat up. The constant
droning of conversation buzzed through the floor from downstairs.
In her hand was the last happy memory she had of her parents. Her
raw eyes stared hard at the graduation photo. It had been a bright,
sun-filled day that had culminated in a huge party. She could
remember being filled with giggles, as she had stumbled home with
Chelsea at two in the morning, blind drunk. At the time Rachel had
hated them for grounding her. But now she could see it was out of
love. It was funny, she thought, how old resentments got buried
along with the dead. She’d give anything for them to ground her
now; take away her credit cards, her car. Anything.
    Tears dropped off her cheeks
and landed with a faint tap on the shiny surface of the photo. A
knock at the door startled her. It was probably Becky come to check
on her, she realised.
    “Come in,” she said, wiping her
eyes. The door opened.
    “I’m sorry, I was passing and
heard crying. Are you alright?”
    It was a man poking his head
around the door. One she didn’t know. Rubbing away the tears, she
made herself look more presentable. “I’m fine, thank you.”
    “No offence, but you don’t look
it.”
    Who is this guy? Rachel
wondered. “I’m sorry, but do I know you?”
    “No I don’t think so,” the head
replied. “I’m pretty new in town.”
    The man was nothing special,
but attractive enough. He had a full head of mousy brown hair
sitting on top of a pale, boyish face. “So, what’s up?”
    Rachel had never been in the
habit of telling complete strangers her problems, but something in
the man’s deep eyes made her want to open up, pour her heart out in
an attempt to cleanse the demons inside her. “It’s nothing really,”
she said, putting aside the photo. “I don’t even know your
name.”
    “Sorry, the name’s David.
Doctor David Cochrane.”
    “Rachel, Rachel James.”
    “Pleasure to meet you,
Rachel.”
    She had never felt so awkward
in her life. Here was this stranger, beaming at her, and she looked
an absolute mess.
    “You still haven’t told me what
the tears are for? By the way, you don’t know what the shindig
downstairs is, do you?”
    The tears almost started again.
“Yeah,” she said, lowering her eyes. “It’s my parent’s wake.”
    “Ah, way to go, David. Excuse
me, while I remove my foot from my mouth.”
    David mimed pulling a shoe from
his mouth. The laughter it caused scared away any more tears.
    “My sympathies,” he said, a
gentle smile forming on his lips.
    “Thank you.”
    Rachel found herself
increasingly attracted to the man standing in the doorway. There
was something about him that she couldn’t put her finger on. He had
an easy manner. Maybe it was because he was a doctor? She mused. It
was as if a dark cloud had been lifted. She had almost forgotten
there was a wake going on downstairs.
    “So, doctor huh?”
    “Psychology. I haven’t long
finished my four year residency. Hence the B&B.”
    “Ah, I see. Have you been in
town long?” she asked, wanting to know more about the stranger.
    “No, not really,” he replied.
“Barely over a month.”
    “Wow, that long. And you
haven’t run for the hills?”
    David chuckled at her feeble
joke. “Nope. I kinda like it. How long have you lived here?”
    “This is where I was born.” The
dark cloud had begun to descend again. “I’m just back in town for a
while. Until everything is sorted.”
    A painful silence entered the
room, like a morbid presence. A spectre of the past.
    “You’ll probably say no, but if
you’re going to be in town for a while, maybe we could have a chat
sometime?” His cheeks had turned a deep red.