Bone Harvest - Mary Logue [41]
“No, that won’t be necessary. She’s going to stay with her grandparents. It’s all set up.”
This was the first he had heard about Meg’s going away so soon. When had Claire arranged that? “Oh, that works out well.” He hated the edge he heard in his voice.
“Well, I know you’ve got your work to do and I just didn’t want to have to worry about her.”
“I don’t mind watching her.”
“I ask enough of you already, Rich. I need to save you for special times.”
“Special times—what a load of crap! What does that mean? You don’t have to save me for nothing.”
“I don’t?” Claire looked up at him with trepidation. “What does that mean?”
He decided to be very clear. He pulled out the box with the ring and handed it to her. “I want you to marry me.”
“Oh!” Claire held the box out in front of her as if it might explode.
Rich knew he was deep into it now and there was no way to go but straight ahead. He plunged forward.
“I want to be next to you when these things happen. I want to have a reason to get so worried about you. I want to know that if anything happens to you, I’ll be the first person to be notified. I’m in love with you and I want to make a life with you. Will you marry me?”
Claire opened the box and saw the ring. Then she sat down in a chair at the kitchen table and burst into tears.
July 7, 1952
Louise Schuler was sitting on the floor in her bedroom, showing Elisabeth how to put clothes on a paper doll. Louise didn’t really like to play with them much anymore—she was almost too old for that—but she loved to cut them out.
She heard a loud bang downstairs in the kitchen and then Arlette cried for a moment and then another bang and the baby stopped. Louise stood up. It must mean something, that noise. It nearly sounded like a gun. She hoped it meant it was time for dinner. Usually her mom hollered out the front door to tell them to come in and eat. Maybe she was trying something new. Or maybe her dad had dropped something.
She hoped he hadn’t dropped the birthday cake. Mom had let her help frost it and she had dipped her finger in the frosting when her mom wasn’t looking. It was so delicious her mouth watered just thinking about it.
Louise stood up and told Elisabeth to put her paper dolls away. It was time to go eat.
“I didn’t hear Mom.”
“Mach schnell,” Louise said, imitating her mother. She didn’t know many words in German, but her mother said those words all the time. It meant, Make it snappy; be quick about it.
Elisabeth couldn’t do anything fast. She carefully put her paper dolls back in their folder and put all their clothes away. Louise decided to practice her pirouettes in the middle of the floor. She was wearing only her stockings, so she could turn better. She wanted to take ballet lessons but her mother said they didn’t have enough money.
She heard some steps coming down the hall and stopped turning around, but her head was still dizzy from all the spinning and she couldn’t walk straight. A third loud bang happened, only this time right outside the door. Elisabeth fell down on the bed.
Louise stood very still, her arms stretched out for balance. The fourth time the gun went off she didn’t hear it.
CHAPTER 13
Meg sat out on the front steps in the shade of the crabapple tree. Another hot day. Too hot to even think about being productive. All she felt like doing was going down to the beach. But it didn’t look like the day was shaping up that way.
She wanted to have her life be the way it was supposed to be: her mom with the day off, Rich and her mom smiling and happy, her visit to her grandparents’ not for a few weeks yet. Instead her mom had woken her up early this morning and helped her pack a suitcase. Now she was sitting on the front steps, waiting for her grandparents to pick her up.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like her grandparents. They were great, even if they tried too hard. She always felt like they were trying to make up for their son, her father, being dead. They always gave her toys and took her to movies. They did some kind of major activity every day—went to the science