Read Online Separate Beds by Lavyrle Spencer - Free Book Online Page B

preconceived notions had been about this place, none of them fit. The four girls she'd met so far exuded such an air of goodwill and sorority that she felt quite Victorian at what she'd expected. They all seemed happy and industrious and helpful. Following the bouncy Marie down a hall that led to the rear of the house, Bobbi began feeling better and better about leaving Catherine here. They came to a small room tucked beneath what must have been the servants' stairway at one time. It was as comfortable as the living room, only more crowded. It housed a large desk and bookshelves, and a patchwork sofa in shades of rust and orange that gave a homespun feeling to the room. Shutters were thrown back to let the noon light flood in upon an enormous fern which hung above the desk. Behind the desk a woman was searching through the depths of an open drawer.
    “Hey, d'you lose something again, Tolly?” Marie asked.
    “Nothing important. It'll show up. It's just my fountain pen. Last time Francie borrowed it she hid it in this bottom drawer. I guess I'll just have to wait until she decides to tell me where it is this time.”
    “Hey, Tolly, we got company.” The woman's gray head popped up, her face appearing for the first time from behind stacks of books. It was a flat, plain middle-aged face with smile lines at the corners of its eyes and bracketing its mouth.
    “Oh, glory be, why didn't you say so?” Smiling, she said, “Well, Catherine, I wasn't expecting you quite this early or I would have told the girls to watch out for you and bring your things in. Did anyone get your suitcases yet?”
    “We'll take care of it while you talk to her,” Marie offered, “if Bobbi'll show us where the car is.” But before they left, Marie said to Mrs. Tollefson, “I'll be her sister.”
    “Wonderful!” the woman exclaimed. “I take it you two have already met, so I'll dispense with introductions. Catherine, we usually have one of the established girls help each new girl, show her where things are, tell her how we arrange work schedules, what time meals are served, things like that.”
    “We call it being sisters,” Marie added. “How'd you like to take me on?”
    “I . . .” Catherine felt rather swamped by the goodwill which she had not quite expected, at least not in such immediate displays. Sensing her hesitancy, Marie reached out and took Catherine's hand for a moment. “Listen, we've all been through this first day. Everyone needs a little moral support, not only today, but on lots of days when things get you down. That's why we have sisters here. I rely on you, you rely on me. After awhile you'll find out this is really almost a terrific place to be, right, Tolly?” she chirped to Mrs. Tollefson, who seemed totally accustomed to such scenes. She wasn't in the least surprised to see Marie holding Catherine's hand that way. Catherine, who had not held the hand of another female since she'd given up jump rope and hopscotch, was far more uneasy than anyone in the room.
    “Right,” answered Mrs. Tollefson. “You've been lucky, Catherine, to be adopted by Marie. She's one of our friendliest residents.”
    Dropping Catherine's hand, flapping a palm at Mrs. Tollefson, Marie chided, “Oh, yeah, you say that about every single one of us here. Come on, Bobbi, let's get Catherine's stuff up to her room.”
    When they were gone, Mrs. Tollefson laughed softly and sank into her desk chair. “Oh, that Marie, she's a ball of fire, that one. You'll like her, I think. Sit down, Catherine, sit down.”
    “Do they all call you Tolly?”
    The woman was carelessly dressed and exuded a friendly warmth that made Catherine think she ought to be wearing a cobbler's apron. Instead she wore a pair of maroon jacquard-knit slacks of definitely dated style, and a nondescript white nylon shell beneath an aged cardigan sweater that had long ago lost its shape to that of Mrs. Tollefson's rotund breasts and heavy upper arms. Altogether, Esther