The Doll in the Garden

Chapter 8

Secrets

WHEN I WOKE UP, the first thing I saw was Anna Maria's pale face beside me on my pillow. Admiring her beauty, I smoothed her hair and straightened her white dress.

Cuddling her close to my chest, I knew I didn't want to share her with anybody. Not Kristi. Not Mom. I wanted to keep her for myself. Quietly slipping out of bed, I went over to my dresser. I laid Anna Maria in the bottom drawer and covered her carefully with my sweaters. No one would find her there, I thought."

While I pulled on clean shorts and a tee shirt, I remembered what I'd seen last night. Had Snowball really cast no shadow? Even in the morning sunlight, I shivered a little thinking about it. I must have been mistaken, I told myself. Moonlight is tricky; it can fool you into imagining all sorts of silly things.

Grabbing a brush and comb, I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and walked down the hall to the kitchen.

"You're up bright and early, Ash," Mom said. "Did you sleep well?"

"I heard that sound again - like somebody crying," I said. "And Max was barking - didn't you hear him?"

"You know me," Mom said. "They could drop an atomic bomb next door and it wouldn't disturb me."

"That's because you stay up so late working," I said. "You should go to bed earlier."

Mom shook her head. "The sooner I finish my dissertation, the sooner I'll get a job," she reminded me.

I chewed my English muffin and watched Mom pour cream into her coffee. It only Daddy were here, I said without thinking. As soon as the words slipped out I felt my eyes fill up with tears, and I pressed my hand against my mouth, too late to take back what I'd said.

Mom reached across the table to pat my arm. I wish he were here, too, Ashley she said softly. "Don't feel bad for saying you miss him. I miss him too. It's okay to talk about him."

But I couldn't talk about Daddy. Not to Mom, not to anybody. He'd left such a big hole in my life, I knew nothing could ever fill it up. Just saying his name made the hole bigger, so it was better to say nothing.

Pulling away from the comfort Mom was offering me, I went back to my bedroom and took a book from the shelf under the window. I didn't want to see Kristi, not now that Anna Maria lay hidden in my dresser drawer.

***

It wasn't long, though, before I heard Kristi calling me. When I didn't answer, she came to the back door and knocked. Mom let her in and sent her down the hall to my room.

"Ashley, something awful has happened," Kristi said. "Anna Maria's gone!"

I stared at her, trying my best to look surprised. "What do you mean?"

"I went to the garden first thing this morning, and all I found was the empty box." Kristi's eyes glistened with tears, and I struggled to keep myself from feeling sorry for her.

"I thought you weren't ever going there again," I said, reminding her of what she'd told me yesterday.

"I was worried all night about Anna Maria," Kristi explained. "I could hardly sleep for thinking about her lying there by herself in the dark. And I kept hearing that crying and I got to imagining it was her, Anna Maria, crying for me to get her and bring her inside. So the minute I woke up, I went out and looked for her, but she was gone!"

"She must be there," I said, hoping Kristi wouldn't guess I had Anna Maria hidden in a drawer two feet from where she was standing.

"I think the white cat took her," Kristi said sadly. "Or else Max got her and tore her to bits. I heard him outside barking."

Too ashamed to look at Kristi, I just shook my head as if I didn't believe her.

"Come on, Ash, I'll show you." Kristi ran down the hall to the kitchen door, and I followed her reluctantly.

As we slipped through a hole in the hedge at the back of Kristi's yard, I told myself I had every right to keep Anna Maria. Wasn't I the one who opened the box? If I'd listened to Kristi, we would've reburied poor Anna Maria without even seeing her face.

"See?" Kristi dived into the brambles and pulled out the empty box. "All that's left is the note."

I frowned at the little scrap of paper, and, while Kristi was examining the box, I slipped the note into my pocket.

"What should we do?" Kristi stared at me, her eyebrows drawn down over her eyes.

I shrugged and turned away from her to watch a butterfly on a cluster of Queen Anne's lace. It was an orangc-and-black monarch, so close I could have touched it with a fingertip.

"You took her, didn't you?" Kristi said suddenly.

I looked at her, feigning innocence. "Why would I do a thing like that?" Unfortunately, my voice came out unnaturally high and I stammered on the words.

"Because you want her for your own!" Kristi hurled the empty box into the bushes.

I drew myself up as tall as I could, glad I was both older and bigger than Kristi. "You were scared to death, remember? You told me to bury the box and you begged me not to open it. You thought Anna Maria was a dead girl!"

Kristi's face got red. "I have just as much right to that doll as you have!" she yelled.

"You do not. This is my yard, not yours!"

"It's Miss Cooper's yard!" Kristi's voice was getting louder and louder.

"Will you shut up?" I hissed. "Miss Cooper and Max are sitting on the front porch. They'll hear you!"

"I don't care if they do!" Kristi shrieked. "You give me that doll, right now, or I'm telling!"

"Be quiet, Kristi!" I wanted to shake her I was so mad. Through the tangle of honeysuckle and shrubbery, I could see Max coming around the corner of the house.

As Max started barking, Kristi scurried away through the undergrowth, heading for the safety of her backyard. At the same moment, Snowball crept out of the weeds and rubbed against my legs. When I reached for him, he backed away through the brambles, meowing at me, his eyes imploring me to follow him.

Ghost or not, Snowball's fur was soft and his body was as warm as Oscar's. I wanted to pick him up, but before I could catch him, he darted out of the garden and ran across Miss Cooper's lawn.

Afraid Max would get him, I followed Snowball onto the lawn and through a small opening in the hedge that separated Miss Cooper's yard from the field next door. Behind me Max was barking, and I expected to feel his teeth sink into my leg at any moment.