Greenglass House

MM
by Melinda McColley18 views·Updated Apr 17, 2020
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  1. Okay. Green Glass house, Chapter two, part three.
  2. So you're adopted, then?
  3. Arms full of suitcases.
  4. Milo paused on the second floor landing and turned to
  5. stare a medi.
  6. Excuse me.
  7. She looked at him curiously.
  8. I heard you were He snorted, which he hoped made
  9. it sound like he thought this was just a stupid
  10. question. But his face was already going red.
  11. She'd heard he waas.
  12. Of course, all you had to do was look at
  13. Milo and his parents, and you could make a pretty
  14. good guess that he wasn't their biological kid.
  15. But many was implying that someone had specifically told her
  16. he was adopted.
  17. That meant Mrs Carraway and Lizzie had been talking about
  18. his adoption.
  19. It felt like a betrayal.
  20. The idea that people people he liked entrusted we're discussing
  21. his family his past behind his back.
  22. Well, Mehdi peered at him as if she were asking
  23. as if what she was asking was just was just
  24. no big deal, which was not the case.
  25. Your room's this way.
  26. Milo spent the rest of the walk trying to decide
  27. how to answer from Eddie didn't get the hint.
  28. There were two special guest rooms on the second floor
  29. that were only used for visiting friends and family.
  30. Milo opened the east facing guest room, the one with
  31. the twin beds, and set Lizzie's bag down at the
  32. foot of the bed.
  33. She usually took.
  34. Did you bring a suitcase?
  35. Mehdi gave him a long look, then look, then shook
  36. her head.
  37. I just threw my stuff in with hers, okay.
  38. Then he waved his arm weekly in a vague gesture
  39. of welcome, and left many to make herself a home
  40. while he dropped off Mrs Carraway suitcase down the hall.
  41. When he emerged, he found many standing in the doorway
  42. of her room with folded arms.
  43. You didn't answer me.
  44. Yes, I'm adopted, Milo said, exasperated.
  45. It's none of your business.
  46. She rolled her eyes.
  47. Don't tell me it's a secret.
  48. It's pretty obvious you don't look anything like your parents.
  49. I know exactly what I look like and what I
  50. don't look like, he retorted.
  51. It's personal.
  52. Many shrug, then turned on unzip Lizzie's bag.
  53. Where you from?
  54. She asked, peering inside.
  55. I'm from here, Milo said evenly.
  56. I lived in Nags Speak my whole life.
  57. I was adopted when I was a baby.
  58. Yeah, but before that, before you were adopted, honestly, it
  59. was if he hadn't just told her this was personal.
  60. I was adopted here, he said coldly from an agency
  61. here in town.
  62. Didn't mention having been a foundling.
  63. That was really none of her business.
  64. Yeah, but aren't you checked?
  65. Yes, I am, he said.
  66. He said, And I said It's personal.
  67. Mild turned and left her staring at him as he
  68. stalked back down the stairs to the love seat by
  69. the window where he'd left Georgie's book.
  70. He sank as far back into the cushions as he
  71. could, studiously ignored the adults in the kitchen and tried
  72. to get back into the story.
  73. A few minutes later, Mrs Pines squatted down next to
  74. him. Everything okay?
  75. Fine. We thought we might have heard.
  76. Everything's fine.
  77. She nodded slowly.
  78. What are you reading?
  79. Milo held it out so that she could read the
  80. title. Georgie, the one with the blue hair, lent it
  81. to me.
  82. It's folk tales about nags speak.
  83. I remember reading that book as a kid, Mrs Pine
  84. said. I remember liking it a lot.
  85. Yeah, it's pretty good.
  86. You sure you don't want to talk about anything.
  87. Milo stared at a photo at a paragraph he'd re
  88. read about three times positive, just going to stay up
  89. and finish the story.
  90. His mother nodded and squeezed his hand.
  91. Once before straightening and turning back to the kitchen, Milo
  92. shifted, and in turn he felt the leather wallet shift
  93. in his pocket.
  94. Ma'am, Yeah, you didn't see anybody out for a walk
  95. when you went out again.
  96. The person I saw because nobody came in while you
  97. were gone, she shook her head.
  98. Not a single solitary soul.
  99. Whoever itwas we probably just weren't paying attention when he
  100. or she came back.
  101. If you beat the devil, the tattoo twin called Maigret
  102. began over the torrential rain, beating upon the windows of
  103. the inn.
  104. In the story, you can't win your heart's desire.
  105. Everyone knows that, and some foolish folks probably think they
  106. could do it, too.
  107. But the devil is a master gambler, and he makes
  108. his living off that sort of fool.
  109. It takes arrogance to dream of challenging him, but arrogance
  110. really helps every anyone win, and the devil who is
  111. not usually arrogant almost never loses.
  112. Still, it's happened, though It's a rare and peculiar thing
  113. when it does, this is the tale of one of
  114. those occurrences.
  115. When the devil got the worst of the deal on
  116. the road between two remote towns, the devil was walking
  117. alone at twilight when he came to a crossing of
  118. ways and they're stopped.
  119. Under the finger post was a scavengers wagon.
  120. As the devil approached, it occurred to him that this
  121. scavenger was a bit on the small side.
  122. Then, as the devil's shadow fell across the ground before
  123. the scavenger and announced his diabolic presence, this small figure
  124. turned and the devil noticed two things.
  125. First, the scavenger had eyes, the silver gray of half
  126. dollars or the full moon on the right kind of
  127. night. Second, the scavenger was small because it was a
  128. child and not only a child but also a Girl
  129. Mile estate in the living room, reading until almost two,
  130. which was a truly unthinkable time to be allowed to
  131. be up.
  132. The fire had burned down to embers.
  133. The hot chocolate was cold and outside the front windows,
  134. the world was all shadowy.
  135. Snow and thick, deep night.
  136. The rack on tours commonplace books that open on his
  137. knee. The house, with its noises thrown off by all
  138. the stranger stashed here and there on the floors above,
  139. was just unfamiliar enough, and the story he was stuck
  140. on was just creepy enough that Milo had decided it
  141. was time to call it a night.
  142. He shook himself awake for the fourth time and tried
  143. to make the words swimming on the page resolve themselves
  144. into sentences and paragraphs.
  145. It didn't work.
  146. He stretched in yon, and then he spotted the dark
  147. blotch out in the snow, a darker shadow, a person
  148. size shadow.
  149. The wind came pouring across the lawn and into the
  150. trees, carrying a swirling cloud of white.
  151. When it cleared, there was no one there.