The Long Night of Waiting - Andre Norton, ebook, CALIBRE SFF 1970s, Temp 2
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What--what are we going to do?" Lesley squeezed her hands so tightly together they hurt. She reallywanted to run, as far and as fast as she could.Rick was not running. He stood there, still holding to Alex's belt, just as he had grabbed his brother tokeep him from following Matt. Following him where?"We won't do anything," Rick answered slowly."But people'll ask--all kinds of questions. You only have to look at that--" Lesley pointed with her chinto what was now before them.Alex still struggled for freedom. "Want Matt!" he yelled at the top of his voice. He wriggled around tobeat at Rick with his fists."Let me go! Let me go--with Matt!"Rick shook him. "Now listen here, shrimp. Matt's gone. You can't get to him now. Use somesense--look there. Do you see Matt? Well, do you?"Lesley wondered how Rick could be so calm-- accepting all of this just as if it happened everyday--like going to school, or watching a tel-cast, or the regular, safe things. How could he just standthere and talk to Alex as if he were grown up and Alex was just being pesty as he was sometimes? Shewatched Rick wonderingly, and tried not to think of what had just happened."Matt?" Alex had stopped fighting. His voice sounded as if he were going to start bawling in a minute ortwo. And when Alex cried--! He would keep on and on, and they would have questions to answer. Ifthey told the real truth--Lesley drew a deep breath and shivered.No one, no one in the whole world would ever believe them! Not even if they saw what was right outhere in this field now. No one would believe--they would say that she, Lesley, and Rick, and Alex wereall mixed up in their minds. And they might even be sent away to a hospital or something! No, they couldnever tell the truth! But Alex, he would blurt out the whole thing if anyone asked a question about Matt.What could they do about Alex?Her eyes questioned Rick over Alex's head. He was still holding their young brother, but Alex hadturned, was gripping Rick's waist, looking up at him demandingly, waiting, Lesley knew, for Rick toexplain as he had successfully most times in Alex's life. And if Rick couldn't explain this time?Rick hunkered down on the ground, his hands now on Alex's shoulders."Listen, shrimp, Matt's gone. Lesley goes, I go, to school--"Alex sniffed. "But the bus comes then, and you get on while I watch--then you come home again--" Hissmall face cleared. "Then Matt--he'll come back? He's gone to school? But this is Saturday! You an'Lesley don't go on Saturday. How come Matt does? An' where's the bus? There's nothin' but that meanold dozer that's chewin' up things. An' now all these vines and stuff--and the dozer tipped right overan'--" He screwed around a little in Rick's grip to stare over his brother's hunched shoulder at thedisaster area beyond."No." Rick was firm. "Matt's not gone to school. He's gone home--to his own place. You rememberback at Christmas time, Alex, when Peter came with Aunt Fran and Uncle Porter? He came for a visit.Matt came with Lizzy for a visit--now he's gone back home--just like Peter did.""But Matt said--he said this was his home!" countered Alex. "He didn't live in Cleveland like Peter.""It was his home once," Rick continued still in that grown-up way. "Just like Jimmy Rice used to livedown the street in the red house. When Jimmy's Dad got moved by his company, Jimmy went clear outto St. Louis to live.""But Matt was sure! He said this was his home!" Alex frowned. "He said it over and over, that he hadcome home again.""At first he did," Rick agreed. "But later, you know that Matt was not so sure, was he now? You thinkabout that, shrimp."Alex was still frowning. At least he was not screaming as Lesley feared he would be. Rick, she wassuddenly very proud and a little in awe of Rick. How had he known how to keep Alex from going intoone of his tantrums?"Matt--he did say funny things. An' he was afraid of cars. Why was he afraid of cars, Rick?""Because where he lives they don't have cars."Alex's surprise was open. "Then how do they go to the store? An' to Sunday School, an' school, an'every place?""They have other ways, Alex. Yes, Matt was afraid of a lot of things, he knew that this was not his home,that he had to go back.""But--I want him--he--" Alex began to cry, not with the loud screaming Lesley had feared, but in a waynow which made her hurt a little inside as she watched him butt his head against Rick's shoulder, makingno effort to smear away the tears as they wet his dirty cheeks."Sure you want him," Rick answered. "But Matt-- he was afraid, he was not very happy here, now washe, shrimp?""With me, he was. We had a lot of fun, we did!""But Matt wouldn't go in the house, remember? Remember what happened when the lights went on?""Matt ran an' hid. An' Lizzy, she kept telling him an' telling him they had to go back. Maybe if Lizzy hadn'tall the time told him that--"Lesley thought about Lizzy. Matt was little--he was not more than Alex's age--not really, in spite ofwhat the stone said. But Lizzy had been older and quicker to understand. It had been Lizzy who hadasked most of the questions and then been sick (truly sick to her stomach) when Lesley and Rickanswered them. Lizzy had been sure of what had happened then--just like she was sure about theother--that the stone must never be moved, nor that place covered over to trap anybody else. So thatnobody would fall through--Fall through into what? Lesley tried to remember all the bits and pieces Lizzy and Matt had told aboutwhere they had been for a hundred and ten years--a hundred and ten just like the stone said.She and Rick had found the stone when Alex had run away. They had often had to hunt Alex like that.Ever since he learned to open the Safe-tee gate he would go off about once a week or so. It was abouttwo months after they moved here, before all the new houses had been built and the big apartments at theend of the street. This was all more like real country then. Now it was different, spoiled--just this oneopen place left and that (unless Lizzy was right in thinking she'd stopped it all) would not be open long.The men had started to clear it off with the bulldozer the day before yesterday. All the ground on thatside was raw and cut up, the trees and bushes had been smashed and dug out.There had been part of an old orchard there, and a big old lilac bush. Last spring it had been so pretty.Of course, the apples were all little and hard, and had worms in them. But it had been pretty and a swellplace to play. Rick and Jim Bowers had a house up in the biggest tree. Their sign said "No girls allowed,"but Lesley had sneaked up once when they were playing Little League ball and had seen it all.Then there was the stone. That was kind of scary. Yet they had kept going to look at it every once in awhile, just to wonder.Alex had found it first that day he ran away. There were a lot of bushes hiding it and tall grass. Lesley felther eyes drawn in that direction now. It was still there. Though you have to mostly guess about that, onlyone teeny bit of it showed through all those leaves and things.And when they had found Alex he had been working with a piece of stick, scratching at the wordscarved there which were all filled up with moss and dirt. He had been so busy and excited he had nottried to dodge them as he usually did, instead he wanted to know if those were real words, and thendemanded that Rick read them to him.Now Lesley's lips silently shaped what was carved there.A long night of waiting.To the Memory of our dear children,Lizzy and Matthew Mendal,Who disappeared on this spotJune 23, 1861.May the Good Lord return themto their loving parents and thisworld in His Own reckoned time.Erected to mark our years of watching,June 23, 1900.It had sounded so queer. At first Lesley had thought it was a grave and had been a little frightened. ButRick had pointed out that the words did not read like those on the stones in the cemetery where theywent on Memorial Day with flowers for Grandma and Grandpa Targ. It was different because it neversaid "dead" but "disappeared."Rick had been excited, said it sounded like a mystery. He had begun to ask around, but none of theneighbors knew anything--except this had all once been a farm. Almost all the houses on the street werebuilt on that land. They had the oldest house of all. Dad said it had once been the farm house, onlypeople had changed it and added parts like bathrooms.Lizzy and Matt--Rick had gone to the library and asked questions, too. Miss Adams, she got interested when Rick kepton wanting to know what this was like a hundred years ago (though of course he did not mention thestone, that was their own secret, somehow from the first they knew they must keep quiet about that).Miss Adams had shown Rick how they kept the old newspapers on film tapes. And when he did his bigproject for social studies, he had chosen the farm's history, which gave him a good chance to use thosefilms to look things up.That was how he learned all there was to know about Lizzy and Matt. There had been a lot in the oldpaper about them. Lizzy Mendal, Matthew Mendal, aged eleven and five--Lesley could almost repeat itword for word she had read Rick's copied notes so often. They had been walking across this field,carrying lunch to their father who was ploughing. He had been standing by a fence talking to Doctor LeviMorris who was driving by. They had both looked up to see Lizzy and Matthew coming and had wavedto them. Lizzy waved...
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