Read Online Falling by Anne Simpson - Free Book Online

the hall. Damian could hear the low voices of his mother and Roger through the screened door as they sat on the porch, but he wasn’t about to tell them that Elvis had run away. He hesitated. The ghostly coil of the snake’s skeleton turned gently as it hung from the light fixture. Moonlight came through the window halfway up the stairs, slanting down the steps and across his sandalled feet, turning them into softly tinted fish.Damian walked through the foyer of the funeral parlour, made to look like someone’s home, past the photos of Lisa on the gilt-framed bulletin board on an easel: the photo of Lisa with her paddle raised in the air as she sat in her kayak; the photo of Lisa waving, with her best friend Alicia, just before the school trip to Atlanta; the photo of Lisa with Damian; the photo of Lisa at Christmas in front of the tree, with her hair in braids; the photo of Lisa as a little girl, wearing a yellow-and-white-striped dress that she held out on either side as if she were going to curtsy; the photo of Lisa as a baby in Ingrid’s arms.
    He returned to the viewing salon for Lisa Felicity MacKenzie, where a few people were still gathered in a corner, whispering respectfully. His mother was sitting in front of Lisa’s casket; she had taken off her high heels and closed her eyes. Damian was about to turn away when Trevor approached and said something quietly to her. She opened her eyes and made an effort to greet him.
    Hello, she said. You are –?
    Trevor.
    Oh yes, Trevor. I remember now. You went to a dance with Lisa.
    I have something for her – for Lisa, he said, uncrumpling a piece of paper. I wrote it. Would you mind if I read it?
    Damian could see he was going to read it to her whether she wanted him to or not.
    It’s something you’ve written? she asked.
    Yes. It’s a poem.
    Lisa would have liked that.
    Trevor looked at Ingrid bashfully. I don’t know if it’s all that good.
    Don’t worry, said Ingrid.
    For one ridiculous moment, Damian felt the urge to laugh.
    Trevor composed himself. For Lisa.
    Why don’t you sit down? said Ingrid.
    All right. He sat beside her. For Lisa, he began again. Lisa, you were my heaven and earth, though you were here just ten years and seven –
    The paper trembled in his hands.
    It was too short a time, he went on. Sun and moon can’t – Sun and moon can’t rhyme, now you’re gone.
    That’s it, he said. That’s my poem.
    Ingrid put a hand on his sleeve. Damian could see that she wanted Trevor to be quiet, but he took it for encouragement.
    I’m really going to miss her, he said.
    Ingrid put her hand quickly to her mouth and got up from her chair. She went to kneel next to the casket. It wasn’t her custom to kneel, or even to pray, Damian thought, but now she clutched the edge of the casket with both hands.
    Trevor hovered nearby, folding the paper and slipping it into the casket.
    I need to be alone with her now, Ingrid said, her voice quietly firm.
    Thank you for listening to it.
    It was – courageous of you, she told him.
    Trevor brushed his hand over his eyes. He left the room and walked through the foyer without seeing Damian.
    There were two beefy security guards at the entrance to the casino when Damian got there. One was chewing gum. Heblew it out of his mouth in a transparent pinkish bubble, smacked it so the bubble collapsed, and drew it back into his mouth.
    She really gets off on it when I do that, the other man was saying. You wouldn’t think a feather would do it, but it does.
    Damian asked if they’d seen Elvis.
    Nope.
    In the lobby, the lights were duplicated in mirrors, fractured and reflected, making them seem larger. A wide stream of water ran down a glass wall and cascaded into an illuminated pool fringed with palms. When Damian reached the top of the escalator and stepped off, he felt the luxuriously soft carpet under his sandals. A woman spun around on her stool with one leg in the air, so her shoe dropped from her foot, and Damian