Awake and Dreaming - Kit Pearson [55]
“Did you have a good sleep, Theo?” asked Laura.
“Not at first,” said Theo. “I got up and sat by the window.” Then she remembered what she’d seen. “I thought I saw someone come to the door,” she said. “A woman.”
“That’s odd. Did she knock?” asked Dan.
“No—she sort of disappeared. I was too tired to see her properly.”
“You were probably dreaming,” said Laura.
“Maybe you didn’t even get up,” said Anna. “Sometimes I dream I get up when I don’t.”
“Sometimes I dream I have to pee and in my dream I get up and go to the bathroom—but I don’t!” said Ben.
“And then you wet the bed,” said Lisbeth. “Only babies do that.”
Theo didn’t listen to them argue. She thought of the strange woman and how familiar she’d looked. Then she remembered how she’d lost her quilt during the night but had been covered up in the morning. But she could have done that in her sleep, too. Maybe Anna was right and she’d dreamt she’d got up. Maybe even her wish had only been a dream.
It was a blustery, rainy day. In the morning they stood under umbrellas and watched Anna and Grace’s soccer team lose their game.
After lunch Dan made a fire and they sat in the living-room. Dan read a magazine, Ben played with his Lego and John joined the girls as they continued to put together the huge jigsaw puzzle they’d started yesterday.
Laura looked up from a letter she was writing. “Isn’t this nice, being in here all together like this!”
“But—but don’t you usually sit in here?” asked Theo. They hadn’t since she’d started visiting, she realized.
Laura laughed. “We’re too busy—someone is always being picked up or driven somewhere.”
Theo sighed. Before they had sat in here every evening—all of them, as peacefully as they were right now. The fire crackled, Bingo groaned in his sleep, and she tried to forget she had to go back to Sharon’s in a few hours.
She lost interest in the puzzle and went over to the chair by the bookshelf. One of the books was lying face up on the floor. Theo picked it up. It was old and grimy, with a faded cover showing two children standing around a sundial. It didn’t look very interesting, but she remembered how the ugliest books in school libraries were often the best ones. It was such a long time since she’d read a book; maybe she should try this one.
“What have you got there, Theo?” asked Laura.
“In Summer Time by Cecily Stone. I found it on the floor.”
“That’s the lady who used to live here!” said Anna.
“Now, how on earth did that book get down here?” said Dan. “It’s supposed to be shelved upstairs with the other Victoria writers! I wish this family would put books back when you’ve done with them.”
“It wasn’t me,” said Lisbeth. “That book’s too hard for me to read.”
“What does it matter, Dan?” said Laura calmly. She smiled at him. “You’re obsessed. Books are meant to be read, not kept in neat order. Cecily Stone was a children’s writer,” she explained to Theo. “She lived in this house for years.”
“She was born here,” said Dan. “She wrote two books, then she died of cancer. Her books were excellent, but they’re out of print now. I have several copies of each title—I keep a lookout for them in secondhand stores.”
“I’ve read them both,” John told Theo. “The first one’s historical and that one’s a time travel.”
“They’re really good,” said Anna. “I read them, too.”
“When did she live here?” asked Theo.
“Let’s see…,” said Dan. “She died in 1956—so about forty years ago. Three other families lived in this house after that, before we did.”
“Would you like to read her book, Theo?” asked Laura. “You can borrow it.”
Theo looked at Dan. “Yes, take it,” he said. “I have several other copies upstairs. I’d still like to know what this one is doing here, though.”
When they all ignored him, he retreated behind his magazine and Theo opened up In Summer Time.
The spongy pages smelled stale. Theo read the description of the story on the front flap of the jacket—it did look good. And its author had lived right in this house! She turned to the back