Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [141]
“When I heard no telepathic answer I turned and looked at him, and I saw that same grave expression on his face that I had remarked down in the cemetery, after I’d buried the remains of Rebecca.
“ ‘Can’t you talk to me, Goblin?’ I said. ‘Listen, I’ll have them bring me paper and crayons tomorrow—a big sketchpad, you know—and we can write to each other.’
“He shook his head. He almost sneered. He did sneer. He looked cold and then angry. Computer, Quinn, bring a computer here.
“ ‘Of course,’ I replied. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? I’ll get a laptop, I’ll tell them I have to have it.’
“I was getting sleepier and sleepier. He sat there, my guardian, and then he spoke to me telepathically again. Anger makes me strong, Quinn.
“ ‘Anger’s bad,’ I murmured. I was drifting off. I woke with a start, then reminded myself that I was safe. Aunt Queen came in. I heard her telling the nurse that I was falling asleep. They had to wake me up.
“I heard Jasmine at my ear:
“ ‘Little Boss, listen to me,’ Jasmine said, ‘we’re booked solid at the Manor for the next two weeks. I have to go on back home again and so does Mamma. We have no choice. But Miss Queen is all set up. And the guards are outside. Don’t you worry on that account. I’ll be back when I can.’
“ ‘Kiss me,’ I murmured. I was falling asleep.
“Was it sleep? Rebecca and I were on the lawn again in the big wicker peacock chairs and the sun was slanting down on the zinnias that Pops had planted all along the side of the house, and Rebecca said in a rippling, rhythmic voice, ‘Oh, of course I’d like to live in a civilized fashion and pretend it all never took place, that he married me and made me mistress of this house and that my children would have been loved by him, and you know that you always had love, you always had love, you don’t know what it means to not have love, to have nothing, simply nothing, and you, with Jasmine, you didn’t taken any measures, and what if a child came from that union, would you love that child, the child you had with that colored bitch!’
“I tried to wake up. I had to ask Jasmine. Could she have gotten pregnant, but then it seemed dreamlike that I’d been with her, and I feared she’d be mean to me if I brought it up, and I knew she hadn’t taken measures and neither had I, and maybe there could be a baby, and it almost made me happy.
“I couldn’t move my hands.
“I opened my eyes. They had tied my hands to the bed! ‘What are you doing?’ I tried to say more but Rebecca was talking. They had tied my feet. I began to shout for help.
“Aunt Queen stood over me: ‘Quinn, darling, you ripped out the IV. You were talking out loud to someone. You were agitated. You pushed the intern away. He has to put the IV back.’
“This was too terrible, simply too terrible. I looked at the ceiling tiles. To get away, to get far away, I went into unconsciousness. And of course Rebecca was there, she was pouring coffee for me and smiling, and the marguerites were blooming with the zinnias, and I loved the marguerites so much, those little white-and-yellow daisies.
“ ‘You’ve got to find a way to get out of here,’ I told Rebecca. ‘You have got to find a way to escape this place and go into the Light. God’s waiting for you. God knows what’s happened to you, he knows about the hook, he knows what they did. Don’t you understand that it’s God who’s going to give you justice?’
“(’Wake up, Quinn. Quinn, wake up.’)
“ ‘And why should I go when it’s so nice here,’ Rebecca said. ‘Here, look, this is the blouse you found upstairs in the trunk. Big Ramona’s been washing and ironing all my clothes just like you told her to do. I wore this specially for you, and you see my cameo? How pretty it is. It’s Venus with the little cupid at her side. I took it from Aunt Queen’s display. Oh, I just love being with you. Have some more coffee. What are you going to do with all my old clothes?’
“(’Wake up, Quinn, come on, open your eyes.’)
“ ‘What am I going to do with you is more the question,’ I replied, ‘and I