Read The Velvet Room for Free Online Page A

before, when Theda and Robin had first started sharing a folding cot, it had not been so bad; but now they were both bigger. So they had worked out a system. A folding cot is much too narrow for two to sleep side by side, so they each took an end. Part of the night they curled up tight, leaving half the bed for the other person. Then, when their knees started aching to be straightened out, they turned on their sides so that each girl could stretch out her legs.
    In spite of everything, Robin overslept the next morning, so there was nothing to do, she decided, but go to Bridget’s and get back very quickly so she wouldn’t be missed. After breakfast, Mr. Criley came in the truck to get Rudy. They were going to the highway to get the Model T and haul it to the Williamses’ cabin. Robin went out to watch Rudy off, and then she just stayed outside. After Theda and Shirley went back in, Robin started easing away from the house. She was pretty good at that sort of thing. It was just a matter of looking innocently busy at something — like maybe hitting a rock with a stick — while you edged closer and closer to the point where it was safe to make a run for it.
    Robin had knocked her rock clear out in front of the next cabin and had started after it when suddenly, from somewhere quite close, a voice said softly, “Robin’s wandering off again.”
    It was Cary’s voice, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. “Shh!” she said. “Where are you?”
    “Here, under the house.”
    Robin got down and looked, and there he was, stretched out in the dust behind a clump of sickly-looking weeds. He was looking at a book. At least it was part of a book. It must have been in someone’s bonfire, because the cover was missing and the outer pages were charred.
    “I won’t say it any louder,” Cary said, “if you’ll tell me some words.” Cary was always after Robin to tell him words. He hadn’t been to school much because there had been so much moving since he was old enough to go. But Cary wanted to read, and nobody ever stopped Cary from doing anything he really wanted to do. His system was to go through every bit of reading material he could get his hands on and underline every word he didn’t know. Then he cornered someone, usually Robin, because she was the best reader, and made that person tell him all the underlined words. Robin had to admit he hardly ever had to be told twice.
    But the half-burned book was an old almanac, and there were lots of big words. Cary insisted that Robin pronounce each word slowly and then wait for him to say it over after her. His homely little speckled face was puckered with concentration, and he whispered each word fiercely, as if he could threaten himself into remembering. Robin felt a grudging admiration. Feeling the way she did about books, she couldn’t help but understand, in spite of her impatience. But with all the hard place names, and words like “population” and “agriculture,” it took a long time to go through the three pages that Cary had underlined.
    When he finally repeated the last word, Robin jumped up and started off across the yard. Any minute now someone would be calling her from inside the cabin. But Cary called after her softly, “Will you tell me some more when you come back?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Robin!”
    She stopped and looked back. “Shh!” she said. “What is it?” But she saw the wicked blue flicker in his eyes and knew what was coming next. He was going to threaten to tell on her again. “All right!” she said angrily. “All right, I promise.” Cary crawled back under the house, and Robin was finally off down the Village road.
    In the orchard she ran as fast as she could go. She came to the wall, climbed over it, and stopped only a second to look at the big stone house. When she reached Bridget’s cottage, she was out of breath. She stood for a minute at the gate, slowing her breathing and looking at the bright flowers and the dark richness of the