Chapter 4 - CERYS’S SHOES
Cerys came to my house with Owen.
She carried the shoes.
The polished pair from the dinner.
I stared.
“Why?”
Cerys looked at Eluned.
“I don’t want them.”
Eluned frowned.
“They’re your shoes.”
“My mom made you clean them.”
“That doesn’t make them mine.”
Good.
Owen and I looked at each other.
Children had already moved past the symbolic object adults wanted to make enormous.
Cerys put them near the door.
Then she said:
“I told Mom I could do it.”
Eluned looked at her.
“I know.”
“She said you needed to help.”
“I know.”
Then:
“Are you mad?”
Eluned thought.
“At your mom.”
Not Cerys.
Good.
Then they went to the living room.
Cerys kept her socks on.
The shoes stayed by the door.
Owen sat at the kitchen table.
“Morgause says you’re trying to turn Cerys against her.”
“I haven’t discussed Morgause with Cerys.”
“I know.”
Then:
“She says the letter is proof Dad was confused before he died.”
“Was Dad confused?”
“Not that I saw.”
Neither had I.
Then Owen told me something new.
“Your dad called me.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before he died.”
“Why?”
“He asked whether Morgause ever punished Cerys by withholding meals.”
My entire body went cold.
“What did you say?”
“No.”
“Did he explain why?”
“He said he had seen something he didn’t like.”
There.
“What?”
“He wouldn’t tell me over the phone.”
Then:
“He asked if Morgause believed chores should come before food.”
Owen answered:
“Normal chores, maybe. Not denying food.”
Then Dad said:
“There’s a difference.”
That was all.
Now we had three separate clues.
Dad to Naomi.
Dad to Morgause.
Dad to Owen.
All in the same two-week period.
May you like
Something had happened before he wrote Eluned’s letter.
Something Morgause desperately did not want me to read.
