Read Online Forever by Judith Gould - Free Book Online Page B

know,' she said.
'Unfortunately, I couldn't acquire a live caterpillar or a
chrysalis. Yet.'
    Eagerly he opened the box. Barely touching
the delicate edge of a wingtip, he murmured, 'In death it gives us
beauty everlasting.'
    'Yes,' she agreed softly and continued
stroking his shoulders. 'Indeed it does.'
     
     
    After leaving the police station, Stephanie
wandered around midtown. She had no clear destination, and went
wherever her feet carried her. She needed time to clear her head
and make sense out of everything that had happened. She couldn't
shake the feeling that she had wandered through a looking-glass -
and had been plunged into another, darker world. A nightmare world
inhabited by suffering and pain.
    There was so much to cope with. So many
questions gnawing at her. And the police had been of no help.
They'd insisted her grandfather had committed suicide - showing her
his note to prove it. A note typed on his treasured old Remington.
The one on which he'd written his bestsellers.
    'It's not even signed!' she'd pointed out
angrily. 'And what kind of sentence is this - "/ cannot bare to
live any longer ." He'd never misspell a word like bear.'
    'A man under stress would,' she'd been
told.
    And now she suddenly wasn't so sure any
more.
    What if Grandpa had typed that
suicide note? she asked herself.
    He didn't , she answered herself at
once. I know that in my heart .
    And what if the police were right, and the
cigar he'd smoked had been the last earthly treat he had permitted
himself?
    It wasn't. I have no proof, but I know.
    Perhaps he'd been ill. Suffering from some
painful, terminal disease he'd kept secret from her?
    The thought was like an explosion in her
chest. She practically reeled under the impact.
    Oh, God.
    Dont' let it have been that! Oh please, dear
God -
    Suddenly she became aware of where she was -
the corner of Park Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street. The very block
where her grandfather's doctor had his offices!
    She wondered: Has my subconscious guided me
here?
     
    'Doctor will see you at once, Miss Merlin,'
the receptionist told her warmly.
    Stephanie conveyed her thanks and walked
into the doctor's office. She was filled with trepidation. The idea
that her grandfather might have been hiding a terrible disease from
her was unbearable.
    Lyle Forsyth, M.D., Carleton Merlin's
physician, said, 'I gave your grandfather a thorough physical not
three weeks ago. X-rays, EKG, blood tests, the works. He was in
excellent health for his age, Stephanie. Other than his leg injury
from long ago, nothing was bothering him. That's why I couldn't
understand it when I heard he -'
    'He didn't! Stephanie cut in
vehemently. 'I just had to make sure there was no reason he might
have wanted to.'
    Dr Forsyth's manner was gentle. 'Are you
holding up all right? Can I prescribe anything for you?'
    'Thank you, but no.' She shook her head. I
have to feel the hurt, she thought. I don't want my bereavement
clouded by chemicals.
    She rose from the chair and shook the
doctor's hand. 'I appreciate your having seen me.'
    'If there's anything I can do ... ' His
voice trailed off.
    Sighing, she smiled wistfully and thought,
If only you could bring the dead back to life . . .
     
    She returned to the Osborne to find Pham
puttering around the living room, trying to clean between fits of
silent tears.
    The moment Stephanie came in, the young
Vietnamese man opened his arms wide. 'Oh, Miss Stephanie,' he
moaned, clutching her tightly. 'I am so sorry.'
    For a while they clung to each other and
shed tears together.
    'He was such a fine man,' Pham said thickly,
shaking his head. 'I am going to miss him.'
    'I know, Pham, I know.'
    'When I found him, I could not believe my
eyes.' Pham wiped away tears with thin fingertips. 'I still
cannot!'
    Stephanie thought, Neither can I.
    After a while, Pham sniffled, then drew a
mantle of dignity around his tender feelings. He said, 'By the way,
some gentlemen called. The lawyers. Also the accountant. They