I glanced over at Nancy. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know. She won’t say,” Nancy replied, then shoved a runny casserole into the oven. “I’ve tried all afternoon to get her to see the doctor. No use wasting your breath-she won’t go. She’s been spooky ever since I found that little clock.”
“You found the clock?” I asked, my mouth dry.
“Now, don’t you get funny on me.”
“Where was it?”
“On the hall table, behind the silk flowers.”
I pulled a chair up close to Grandmother and sat down.
“How are you feeling?”
“Fine.”
“You don’t look it. I want to call your doctor.”
“I forbid you,” she said.
Nancy gave me an l-told-you-so look.
“As you know, Grandmother, I don’t always listen.”
“You may call, but I won’t go.”
I stood up. “Matt should be home soon. He’ll know what to do.”
Nancy shook her head. “He called and Mrs. Barnes told him he could stay at Alex’s.” The woman sounded exasperated. “She could have told me earlier. All the time I put into that casserole, and her with no appetite and you a vegetarian.”
“I eat meat,” I said.
“Take it out when the buzzer goes off,” Nancy went on.
“You can dig around for the peas.”
I didn’t correct her a second time, just waited for her to leave, hoping Grandmother would talk to me then. But as soon as Nancy was gone, Grandmother retreated to her room. I followed her upstairs and told her I would check on her in an hour.
“You will not,” she said, then closed the door. I heard the lock click.
I ate alone in the kitchen that evening, glad to be away from the gory deer in the dining room. Afterward, I went to the library to see the antique clock. I weighed it in my hands and ran my fingers over its cold metal surfaces, hoping they would remember what my mind did not: Was this the first time I’d held it? Could I have moved it before I went to the rose-papered room? I set the clock down gently, knowing no more than I did before.
At ten o’clock Matt still hadn’t come back from Alex’s. I found the number and called to tell Matt the situation. He said he’d check on Grandmother when he got home. I went to bed, leaving my bedroom door cracked, knowing I wouldn’t sleep.
Twenty minutes later Matt knocked softly on Grandmother’s door, calling to her. The door creaked open.
I slipped out of bed and went to the entrance of my room.
Though I couldn’t make out Matt’s words, I knew from his tone he was asking questions.
Grandmother was upset and either forgot I was in the next room or didn’t care. She spoke loudly. “I have brought it on myself, Matt.”
He quietly asked her something else.
“I have brought it on myself!” she repeated, sounding frustrated. “Don’t you understand? I’m being punished.”
“But there’s nothing for you to be punished for,” Matt replied, his voice growing as intense as hers.
“God has chosen her as his instrument,” Grandmother insisted.
“God hasn’t chosen anything,” he argued. “You were the one who invited Megan. Things are being misplaced, Grandmother, nothing more. It’s all in your head.”
Her response was muffled with emotion.
“Hush! Everything’s going to be all right,” he said. Then I heard him take a step inside the room. The door closed.
Cut off from their conversation, I closed my own door and rested back against it. Their conference lasted a long time.
Finally I heard Grandmother’s door open and close again, then Matt’s footsteps in the hall, heading in the direction of the stairway. He stopped at my door. I knew he was standing on the other side and I waited for him to knock.
When I heard him walk away, I quickly opened the door.
He turned around.
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.
His mouth formed a grim line. “She’s confused. If she doesn’t get better, I’m taking her to a doctor.”
“And you?” I saw how shaken he looked. “How are you doing?”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Do anyway.”
He looked away.
I stepped into the hall. “Matt, why is she acting this way?”
“You should never have come here, Megan.”
“Are you saying it’s my fault?” I asked. “Are you? Please look at me.”
He did, and for a moment neither of us spoke.
“Are you asking me to leave?”