Read Online Charley's Web by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online Page B

tentative bites. Quiet, contemplative—the complete opposite of Charley—she never spoke unless she had something to say.
    “She’s a very thoughtful child,” her grade-two teacher had pronounced at the start of the school year. “You can actually see the wheels turning.”
    She must get it from her father’s side of the family, Charley thought now, picturing the broodingly handsome man who was Franny’s father, as Franny grabbed her brother’s hand, looked both ways, then led him across the street. As soon as they reached the curb, James broke free of his sister’s grasp and raced up the front walk to Charley.
    “We painted a picture today in school. I painted an alligator and a snake.”
    “You did?”
    “Where’s my picture?” James asked, as if she should know. He spun around. “Oh, no. I lost it.”
    “I have it,” his sister said calmly, coming up behind him. “You dropped it on the bus floor.” She offered it to Charley.
    “Look,” James exclaimed triumphantly, pointing to a shapeless blob of fluorescent green and a narrow streak of purple. “There’s the alligator, and there’s the snake. Can we tape it to the fridge?” Already he was racing through the front door.
    “And how was your day, sweetheart?” Charley asked her daughter, who stood before her patiently, waiting her turn.
    “It was good. How about you?”
    “It was good,” Charley echoed, deciding she wanted to be just like her daughter when she grew up.
    “Hey, Franny,” James called excitedly from inside. “Guess who’s here.”
    “It’s your uncle Bram,” Bram announced, approaching the front door, James tucked under one arm.
    Franny’s face lit up, as it always did when Bram was there. “Hi, Uncle Bram. I like your shirt.”
    “You do?”
    “Blue’s my favorite color.”
    “Really? Mine, too.”
    “Mine, too,” James squealed.
    “You like purple,” Franny reminded him.
    “I like purple,” James quickly concurred. “But blue’s my favorite.”
    Franny smiled and said nothing. She knows when to keep quiet, Charley thought with growing admiration. She’s made her point. There’s no need to say more. “Anybody feel like some milk and cookies?” she asked.
    “Me!” shouted James, now hanging upside down from Bram’s arms.
    “What kind of cookies?” asked Franny.
    “I have an idea,” Bram said. “Why don’t we order Chinese food for supper? My treat.”
    “Yay!” James exclaimed.
    “Can we, Mommy?” Franny asked.
    “Absolutely,” Charley said. “Maybe we could see if…”
    “Don’t even think about it,” Bram interrupted…. Grandma would like to join us, Charley finished silently.
    “Don’t think about what?” Franny asked.
    “Absolutely nothing.” Bram scooped Franny into his other arm and took off with both kids for the kitchen.
    When did I end up with three children? Charley wondered, picking up the picture of the alligator and the snake that fell from James’s hand, and following after them.
    Later, after Bram had gone home and the children were in bed, Charley sat on top of the white comforter on her bed, rereading the letter from Jill Rohmer.
    Dear Charley, Hi. I hope you don’t mind my writing to you…
    “Well, now that you mention it, I can’t say I’m exactly thrilled.”
    This might sound strange, and I hope you won’t take it the wrong way, but you’ve always been a kind of role model for me….
    “And look how wonderfully that turned out.”
    I’m really a very good person at heart…. I even hope one day we might be friends….
    “God forbid.”
    Mine is a story that needs to be told. I think you have the courage to tell it.
    Did she? Charley wondered. Did she have the courage, the desire, the stomach to revisit the horrifying events that had held all of Florida in its terrible clutches for months? Even now, a year after the trial, and almost two years since the murders themselves, the details were never far from her mind.
    Little Tammy Barnet was five years