Read The Woman Who Fell From Grace for Free Online

failed, she started yowling out there in the growing dark. I had to shoo her off. She darted under one of the pickups, her eyes glowing.
    I poured myself another Macallan. I was unpacking my briefcase when someone tapped at the screen door. I went over to discover a midget human life-form, type male, standing out there looking warily up at me. I opened the door. He was maybe eight years old, with a mess of dirty-blond hair and freckles and narrow shoulders. He wore a blue sweatshirt cut off at the elbows, soiled khakis, and high-topped sneakers.
    “Thorry to bother ya, mithter,” he said. He was missing a couple of front teeth. “Can I … ” He looked nervously over his shoulder at the house, then turned back to me. “Can you keep a theecret?” he whispered urgently.
    “I doubt it,” I replied. I ought to tell you right off — I like cats a lot more than I like kids. Kids I rate dead even with large, spiny reptiles. “What kind of secret?”
    He hesitated, swallowed. “Y’all theen Thaydie?” he asked gravely.
    I frowned. “Thaydie?”
    “Not Thaydie,” he said, shaking his head. “ Thaydie .”
    “Sadie.”
    “Have ya?”
    “That all depends,” I said, tugging at my ear. “Is she small and furry? Has a tail?”
    He nodded eagerly.
    “Under that pickup over there.”
    He scampered over to the truck, knelt, and talked her out softly. Then he carried her back to me, hugging her tightly to his small chest. “Thankth, mithter. Thankth a whole lot.”
    “No problem. I’m a big believer in happy endings.”
    He glanced inside at my sitting room through the screen door. “Y’all have a dog ? Wow!” Thrilled, he barged inside, handed me Sadie, and bounded over to Lulu.
    “Sure thing,” I muttered. “Come right on in.”
    “What’th her name?”
    “Lulu.”
    “Hey, Lulu.” He fell to his knees and began stroking her.
    She suffered this quietly. She isn’t crazy about kids herself. Most of them tend to tug on her ears and call her Dumbo. Sadie, meanwhile, began wriggling in my arms. When I tightened my hold on her, she bit my thumb. Her teeth were razor sharp. Wincing, I put her down on the sofa.
    “I thought cats weren’t allowed here,” I said as she made herself at home.
    “She’s mine !” he cried, suddenly terrified.
    “Okay, okay. She’s yours.”
    He relaxed. “She’th a thtray. I found her. Been hidin’ her, feedin’ her from my plate. Don’t tell the witch, okay? She’ll take her off to the pound to get murdered, for sure.”
    “The witch?”
    “That of Fern.”
    “Seems pretty nice to me.”
    “I hate her.”
    “I’m Hoagy by the way.”
    “I’m Gordie. Live in the cottage next to ya, Mithter Hoagy.”
    “Make it plain Hoagy, seeing as how we’re neighbors.”
    He gave Lulu a final pat and jumped to his feet. “Wanna play catch? I can throw a thpitter.”
    “Darn. I didn’t think to bring my mitt down with me.”
    “Wanna watch a movie? Got me a tape with my favorite actor in it.”
    Before I could reply, someone outside called out his name. It was Fern.
    “Oh, no!” he gasped, shoving Sadie at me. “Hide her, quick! She’ll kill her!”
    “Gordie?” called Fern from my doorway. “You in here?” She put her glasses on and saw he was and came in after him.
    I hid Sadie under my sweater, wondering just how I’d gotten myself into this.
    “Gordie, you’re supposed to be taking yourself a bath,” Fern barked, every inch the drill sergeant. “You ain’t supposed to be bothering Hoagy here.”
    “He wasn’t,” I assured her.
    Gordie said nothing. Just stood there stiffly.
    She pointed a finger at him. “Bathe yourself, Gordie. Or I’ll be in to do it for ya, hear me?”
    He still said nothing. His manner had changed noticeably in her presence. He’d withdrawn into himself. His face was now a mask, betraying nothing.
    Exasperated, she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “You hear me!”
    “Yeth’m,” he finally said softly and