The Sisters Montclair Read Online Free PDF

okay?”
    “I need to go to the bathroom, please.”
    She helped Alice to the bathroom and then got her settled again on the bed, her puzzle books spread around her. She seemed less confused now, more aware of her surroundings, yet there was a distance in her gaze, a slump of defeat in her shoulders.
    “
Family Feud
is on at four,” Alice said.
    Stella stopped in the doorway and looked at her.
    “You have to turn it on for me because I don’t know how to use the clicker.”
    “I can do that,” Stella said, wondering now if she had dreamed the voice on the monitor. With the sunlight streaming into the bedroom it seemed impossible that she had heard what she thought she heard.
    “But first we have to do our exercises.”
    “Yes,” Stella said. She stood in the doorway, hesitating.
    “And after that, you’ll need to check the mail.”
    “Okay.”
    “And get me my Ensure.”
    “All right.”
    “I’ll ring when I’m ready to walk.”
    Stella went out. Halfway down the long hallway to the kitchen she stopped, her hand to her throat. The heavy front door, which she had passed just a short time before, stood wide open.
    The dream hovered at the edge of her consciousness, buzzing around her like a swarm of angry bees. The memory of it faded but the feelings it evoked did not. Alice sat on the edge of the bed, stunned, frozen. The dreams were becoming more insistent now, trying to tell her something, to wake her from her self-imposed slumber.
    Yesterday, she had seen Bill Whittington. He was standing in the doorway watching her with a severe expression as if to say,
Look at you. Didn’t I say you would end this way?
    She drew herself up and turned her head and when she looked again, he was gone.
    And now the girl with the heart-shaped face was there, standing in the doorway and smiling her sad smile, and her face was so familiar it caused a stirring in Alice’s heart and a quickening of her breath, so much like the beloved’s face, and yet not her at all.
    Are you all right?
the girl’s expression seemed to say.
    No, I am not all right
, Alice thought.
I will never be all right.
    Stella was surprised how tired she was at the end of that first day. The bell rang continuously. Alice could not close the blinds or change the channel on the TV or pick up a large book without assistance. Stella had brought her laptop but she hadn’t opened it, spending the entire day reading and dozing and listening for the sound of the bell, the strange creaking noises of the old house.
    After dinner she got Alice settled in her room with
Wheel of Fortune
blaring on the television, and she went back to the kitchen and washed the dishes and put them away in the cabinets. Alice had so few dishes and it seemed ridiculous to stack them in the cavernous dishwasher and so she washed everything by hand. The light was dying in the west and a rosy glow filled the kitchen. Stella stood at the sink feeling exhausted and sleepy. It was seven-thirty and the night caregiver would arrive at eight. She tried to remember what Janice had told her about getting Alice ready for bed.
    “It’s like taking care of a big old baby,” Alice said, as Stella helped her undress. She put her arms up so Stella could pull her dress over her head, but at the last minute she said impatiently, “Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Her head reappeared from the dress and she carefully pulled each sleeve off at the wrist. “There,” she said. “Now it’s right side out.” She sat on the edge of the bed in her slip and tennis shoes watching while Stella neatly folded the dress.
    “Would you like to wear a different dress tomorrow?” Stella asked.
    “No, I would not.”
    Alice pointed at the pink sweater that lay folded on the bed beside her. “Here, take this and hang it on the back of that chair.”
    Stella took the green dress and folded it neatly over a small chair in the corner. Then she took the pink sweater and arranged it carefully across the back.
    Behind