The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (guided reading books .TXT) ๐
Read free book ยซThe Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (guided reading books .TXT) ๐ยป - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Catriona Ward
Read book online ยซThe Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (guided reading books .TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Catriona Ward
When I reached my street I was very tired. I had walked ten miles or more, to the clinic and back. I gave Lauren the antibiotics by hiding them in her food. She got better quickly after that. My plan worked!
When things with Lauren got bad I knew I had to get some answers. Not about her body but her mind. So thatโs how I got the idea to go to the bug man and pretend to talk about myself, while really asking him questions about Lauren. Itโs just like when I got the antibiotics except this time the medicine is information.
I come back. I am on my street. The house in front of me is yellow with green trim. I am in front of the Chihuahua ladyโs house again, and that same feeling is in me too, like I almost know something. Itโs like ants in my brain, marching with their little feet.
I see that there is something stapled to the telephone pole. I go to look, because it is usually a missing cat. Cats can seem very capable and independent, but they do need our help.
It is not a cat this time. One face is repeated in blurred photocopy into the distance, pole after pole. It takes me a moment before I am sure. She looks much younger, sure, and thereโs no dog with her, but itโs the Chihuahua lady. In the picture she is leaning against a wall in a sunny place, smiling. She looks happy.
The last time there were flyers on the telephone poles it was Little Girl With Popsicle.
Lauren is waiting when I get in.
โWhere have you been?โ She is breathing too fast.
โCalm down, kitten. You might pass out.โ It has happened before.
โYou are seeing a lady,โ she screams. โYouโre going to leave me.โ She seizes my hand between her sharp teeth and bites.
Eventually I get her to sleep. I try to watch monster trucks but I am exhausted by the day. Feelings are hard.
I wake in the night-time, sudden and breathless. I feel the dark on my skin like a touch. The record player is supposed to be on constant repeat but itโs old now or maybe I did something wrong. In the silence, I can hear Lauren crawling across the floor. Her sharp little teeth click.
โYou bad man,โ she whispers. โOut, out, out.โ
I try to soothe her and settle her again. She cries out and bites my hand again, this time drawing blood. She fights me, crying, all night.
I say, โEven if I were seeing someone, I would still love you best.โ
I know immediately that was the wrong thing to say.
โYou are! You are!โ Lauren scratches and fights until morning leaks grey into the room.
I meet the day tired and bruised. Lauren sleeps late. I use the time to update the diary. This is a habit Mommy instilled in me.
One day a week, she examined the house from top to bottom. The examination must be made twice, she was very clear about that, because of human error. She missed nothing. Each speck of dust, each spider, each cracked tile. She recorded everything in the book. Then she gave the book to my daddy so he could fix it during the week. She called it her diary of broken things. Her English was very nearly perfect; it was always a surprise when she missed the shade of a wordโs meaning. Daddy and I never corrected her.
So each Saturday morning after dawn, I take the book around the house. I do it again in the evening just before dusk. I do one circuit around the boundary of the property to make sure the fence is all good and so on, and then I come in for a tighter circle, to check the house for damage โ loose nails, rat and snake holes, signs of termites, that kind of thing. Itโs not complicated but, like I said, itโs important.
The three locks on the back door open loudly. Thunk, thunk, thunk. I wait. I never know what will wake Lauren. But she sleeps on. The day is blinding, the earth baked hard underfoot, cracked as old skin. The feeders hang empty. No breeze moves in the trees, each leaf is still and silent in the rotten heat. It is as if death has put its finger on the street and pinned it down. I lock the door again behind me and go to the tool shed around the side of the house.
In the lean-to itโs cool and dim, filled with the scent of rust and oil. It is the scent of all tool sheds, everywhere. I must be careful โ scent is a highway for memory. Too late; in a shadowed corner of the lean-to Daddy stands tall and silent. He reaches for a box of screws, and the brown bottle behind it. Little Teddy tugs at his hand. He wants to get in
Comments (0)