Read Online Scraps of Paper by Kathryn Meyer Griffith - Free Book Online

dark. Is ten too early?”
    “No, it’s fine. I’m an early riser.”
    “Great. We can walk from here if you don’t mind? Parking in town is tough on a holiday.”
    “Good, you know I like to walk. See you then.” Through the open door she watched Frank run out to his truck, dodging raindrops, and drive off into the fog. So she and Frank were to be friends. Friends were nice. She looked at her gold wedding band and experienced the old sadness. How long would she feel married and continue to mourn for Joel? Till death do us part …she’d made that promise so long ago. But now that Joel was dead why did she still feel this way? Like by going out, she was cheating on him? She wished she knew.
    She prepared a box lined with a soft towel for the kitten to sleep in; thinking that tomorrow she’d return the little feline to its real home. Then she went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night she woke up to a soft purring and a fluffy body curled up beside her neck, tiny paws patting her skin. It smelled of dirt and urine and she gently shoved it away from her face, but it was back in moments. She didn’t have the heart to push it away again. She realized it was lonely, like her, so she let it stay.

Chapter 5
     
    The kitten woke her up, licking her face. Hungry again. Abigail found a can of tuna in the cabinet, refilled the milk saucer and the creature gobbled every morsel and drank every drop. “Hungry little mite, aren’t you?” she spoke to the kitten as it ate. But it did look half-starved and Abigail felt sorry for it.
    Outside the rain had ended and the sun was shining. Abigail got dressed and tugged on boots. The woods would be muddy, but at least there’d be no more water coming from the sky.
    The Fourth of July picnic was only two days away and she was looking forward to it. Barbeque chicken was one of her favorite foods and she loved picnics, especially the ones with the carnival rides. She used to love holidays, any holiday, with Halloween her favorite and Christmas second. The Fourth of July brought back poignant memories of being a child, of hot nights, cold watermelon and multi-hued sparklers lighting up the dark. Whiffs of fireworks burning in the air. Her family had never had much money but every holiday her parents scraped together every penny they could to give them those happy times. They’d had a lot of love.
    She ate a bowl of cereal and picking up the kitten, headed out the door. Frank had said straight behind the house through the woods so she began walking in that direction. The whole way two phantom children skipped around her among the trees, laughing and whispering secrets. Since Frank had mentioned sitting so long ago at Emily’s kitchen table with the kids outside playing she’d had this image of them out there twirling sparklers, laughing and running through the mist. She’d go to the window, peek out, and be surprised they weren’t there.
    Abigail was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with her. This morbid fascination with a past she had nothing to do with and could never change was nagging her. Why were these children haunting her? And when Myrtle had mistaken her for Emily in the street and Frank had compared her, as an artist, to Emily, why had that bothered her?
    Evelyn Vogt’s house was a sprawling estate with a dilapidated structure that passed for a house on it. Abigail noted the peeling paint and the grimy windowpanes, each one filled with some animal or other making faces at her. Cats and barking dogs romped all over the grounds and she had to be careful of where she stepped. What a portrait it all would make. Crazy Animal House.
    Up to the front door and knock - knock - knock , the kitten asleep in her arms. She was glad to be getting rid of it before its tiny claws got hooked into her heart. A woman most likely in her seventies, stringy and as tall as Abigail, answered the door dressed in a bright ruby dress. With jewelry at her throat, ears, and on