Read Online The Sisters Montclair by Cathy Holton - Free Book Online Page A

on the top of my glass?”
    “I was told to do it that way. I was told that was what you wanted.”
    “Well, it’s not.”
    “Okay,” Stella said. “No more napkins then.”
    Alice shoved her walker out in front of her and they moved off into the dining room.
    After a few minutes, Stella said, “So what happened to the Shufflebottom girl?”
    “She was very smart in school. She went away to college and never came back. I don’t know where this story is going. I forgot what I was going to say.”
    “So you never heard from her again? You don’t know what happened to her?”
    “Oh, I know all right. Her mother wrote me a letter. That’s right, now I remember. I’m telling you this because I need to sit in the library after we exercise and write a letter to the poor little Shufflebottom girl’s mother.”
    “Did something happen to the poor little Shufflebottom girl?”
    Alice stopped and looked at her. “What number are we on?”
    “Four.”
    “So I can go through the door?”
    “Yes.”
    The door was a short cut from the butler’s pantry through the dining room that ended the walking for the day.
    “Oh goody,” Alice said. She went through the dining room and into the living room and shuffled off toward the library.
    “So what happened to the poor little Shufflebottom girl?” Stella asked, following her. She felt it was good to keep Alice on topic; she thought it might help to improve her memory.
    “She grew up to work for that group of diplomats in New York that Roosevelt started.”
    “The United Nations?”
    “Yes. That one.”
    “Wow. So her life was a success after all.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t say that. She married a black man.”
    Stella was quiet and Alice sighed. “I know, I know,” she said. “It’s a different world.”
    “Yes,” Stella said firmly. “It is. Thank God.”
    They walked a few more feet and then Alice said, “I’ve always been a champion of colored folk.”
    “Have you?” Someone had moved the coffee table. Stella pushed it out of the way with her foot so Alice could get by.
    “I was on the Board of Big Brothers and Big Sisters for over twenty years.”
    “Well, that’s good.”
    “You don’t need to take that tone with me.”
    “What tone?” Stella said mildly.
    She got Alice settled in the wingback chair near the window in the library, setting her walker up against the wall, out of the way.
    “Push that chair over closer to me,” Alice said. “No, not that one. That one,” she said, pointing emphatically. “I use it as a desk.”
    “Can I get you anything else?”
    “No. I’ll just sit here and write my letter. I’ll ring you when I need you.” She picked up a little gold bell on the table beside her, and then set it down again.
    “Okay,” Stella said. She stopped at the bookcase on her way out, perusing the titles. The library was filled with good books, volumes on history and biography and literature by writers like Tolstoy and E.L. Doctorow.
    “I don’t know who’s been moving things around in here,” Alice said.
    “It wasn’t me,” Stella said.
    “Someone’s moved everything around and now I can’t find anything.”
    Stella took down a collection of Flannery O’Connor short stories. “Do you mind if I read this?” she said.
    “Help yourself.” Alice rummaged around on the chair beside her, which was stacked with envelopes and stamps and engraved note cards. She stopped suddenly and looked up at Stella, her expression curious, intent. “Do you have a young man?” she said.
    “I suppose so. Yes.”
    “Do you love him?”
    Stella opened the book and began to flip through the pages. “He’s all right.”
    “Not exactly a ringing endorsement.”
    “I’m only twenty-one.”
    “That’s old enough to know whether or not you love someone.”
    Stella looked up from the book. They stared at each other in silence and then Alice said, “Will you marry him?”
    “I’m not marrying anyone. I’m never getting