Read Online The Orphan by Robert Stallman - Free Book Online

passed.
    The whole time she sat at the table, she looked at her father, with whom she seemed in full sympathy. She did not once look at Rusty, and it was as if he and his comments did not exist. Robert felt her as a source of strength, for she seemed to banish evil by ignoring its existence.
    “There’s no more money here,” Martin said. “We got a small bank account, but they wouldn’t let you fellas cash a check.”
    “Let’s look around, farmer,” Old Hackett said. “Cause I just don’ believe you. Gimme that gun, he said, pawing at Gus. “I’ll get the money outta this damned liar.”
    “Get away,” Gus said in a low voice. “I’ll take care of the gun.” He pushed the old man back and swung the shotgun to cover the room again.
    “Tommy, you and the old man take the farmer around and see if you can help him recall where he’s got his savings hid at,” Rusty said. “Gus and me will stay here and talk with the ladies.”
    “I swear,” said Martin, his face pale in the dusky kitchen, “there isn’t any more money. It’s not ...” Thunder crashed in a long rolling roar, drowning the rest of his words, and continued as Old Hackett said something fiercely, pantomiming silently in the crashing sound with his arms raised, a funny little Punch figure on a puppet stage, weak and ridiculous.
    Tommy and Hackett each took one of Martin’s arms and led him out the back door. “Let’s look down the cellar,” Tommy said. They all ducked out the door into the gray downpour of rain, becoming hazy figures at once, humped against the fall of water, moving past the screened porch out of sight.
    “Bunch of fools,” Aunt Cat said so suddenly that Gus jumped and swore. “We haven’t got any more money. That pig money was ust about the whole savings we had. We had to borrow this year to put the soybeans in the ground.”
    “Well, we’re going to find out,” said Rusty. “Happen I don’t believe you. I seen all that farm machinery, and that car ain’t but two years old.” But the whole time he was talking, his hands were touching Vaire, her hair, her bare arm, the side of her neck, her cheek. And his eyes looked at her with the bright blank stare a cat gets watching a hurt mouse that can’t run.
    Robert’s stomach felt like a fist squeezing. Above the pounding rain now they could hear splintering and crashing sounds from the cellar.
    Rusty was touching Vaire’s bare arm with the point of the knife now, making the flesh dimple. “You gotta be that farmer’s daughter in all the jokes,” he was whispering in her ear. “You’re pretty enough for a whole train load of salesmen, baby.”
    Vaire shook her head as if a fly had buzzed too close. Robert’s eyes were fixed on Rusty’s face, following each movement of his head as he sniffed the young woman’s hair and whispered in one ear and then the other.
    “It’s all right, Little Robert,” Vaire said, reaching over to take his hand. “It’s going to be all over with soon. These bad men will be gone. It’ll be all right again.”
    “Quit messin’ around, you goddam fool,” said Gus. He was more tense than before, holding the shotgun at the ready, his finger inside the trigger guard.
    “Fuck off,” said Rusty. “This’s my party.” He allowed the hand not holding the knife to slide down Vaire’s shoulder until it rested on her left breast. He was saying something in her ear, and this time she could not ignore it as a flush rose in her neck and face. Robert could hear the spit working in Rusty’s mouth.
    The noises in the cellar had stopped, and the rain was pounding steadily like huge drums beating in different rhythms, making no rhythm at all but just a heavy sound that made you feel deaf and stupid.
    “You watch ’em for a minute or two, Gus,” Rusty said, his hand sliding over to take Vaire’s wrist. He twisted her arm behind her with a sudden move, bending her body forward over the table, and then pulled her up off the chair. She