Michelle looked to her mother for permission, but June hesitated for a moment.
“She isn’t sick?”
“Sally?” Carson said. “Good Lord, no. Just hurt her arm. But if you want Michelle to stay here—”
“No — take her, by all means. It’s time she met a girl her age. In the last two weeks, the only person she’s seen is Jeff Benson.”
“Who’s a very nice boy,” Cal pointed out.
“I didn’t say he wasn’t. But a girl needs girl friends, too.”
Michelle started toward the stairs. “I’ll be right back.” She disappeared up the stairs, and a moment later reappeared with her green bookbag tucked under her arm.
“What’s that?” Josiah Carson asked.
“A doll,” Michelle explained. “I found it upstairs — in my closet. I thought maybe Sally might like to see it.”
“Here?” Carson asked. “You found it here?”
“Uh-huh. It’s really old.” Suddenly Michelle’s face clouded, and she looked up at Carson worriedly. “I guess it must belong to your family, huh?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Carson replied. “Why don’t you let me see it?”
Michelle opened the bookbag and took out the doll. She offered it to Carson, who glanced at it, but didn’t take it.
“Interesting,” he said. “I suppose it must have belonged to someone in the family, but I’ve never seen it before.”
“If you want it, you can have it,” Michelle said, disappointment plain on her face.
“Now what on earth would I do with it?” Carson replied. “You keep it, and enjoy it. And keep it at home.”
June looked at the old doctor sharply. “Keep it at home?” she repeated.
She was sure Carson hesitated, but when he spoke his voice was ingenuous. “It’s a beautiful doll, and obviously an antique. I don’t think Michelle would want anything to happen to it, would she?”
“She’d be brokenhearted,” Cal agreed. “Take it back up to your room, honey, and then we’ll get going. Josiah, shall we follow you?”
“Fine. I’ll wait in my car.” He said good-bye to June, then left the Pendletons alone together.
Cal gave June a quick hug. “Now don’t do anything you shouldn’t. I don’t want to be up all night with you in labor.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll do the dishes, then curl up with a good book.” Cal started out the door as Michelle came downstairs once more. “Be careful,” she suddenly added, and Cal turned back.
“Be careful? What could happen?”
“I don’t know,” June replied. “Nothing, I suppose. But be careful, anyway, all right?”
She waited at the open door until they were gone, then slowly started clearing the table. By the time she had finished, she knew what was bothering her.
It was Josiah Carson.
June Pendleton just didn’t like him, but she still wasn’t sure why.
Josiah Carson drove quickly, so familiar with the streets of Paradise Point that he had no need to concentrate on the road. Instead, he wondered what was going to happen when Cal Pendleton had to examine Sally Carstairs. Cal, he knew, had been avoiding children ever since that day in Boston last spring. But tonight Josiah would find out just how damaged Cal Pendleton was. Would he panic? Would the memories of what had happened in Boston paralyze him? Or had he regained his confidence? Soon, Josiah would know. He pulled up in front of the Carstairs home and waited while Cal parked behind him.
They found Fred and Bertha Carstairs, a comfortable-looking couple in their early forties, sitting nervously at their kitchen table. Carson made the introductions, then briskly rubbed his hands together.
“Well, let’s get at it,” he said. “Michelle, why don’t you keep Mrs. Carstairs company here in the kitchen, just in case we have to take Sally’s arm off?” Without waiting for a response, he turned and led Cal into a bedroom at the rear of the house.
Sally Carstairs was sitting up in bed, a book precariously balanced in her lap, her right arm lying limply at her side. When she saw Josiah Carson, she smiled weakly.
“I feel dumb,” she began.
“You were dumb the day I delivered you,” Carson deadpanned. “Why should today be different?”
Sally ignored his teasing and turned to Cal. “Are you Dr. Pendleton?”
Cal nodded, momentarily unable to speak. His vision seemed to cloud, and in the bed, Sally Carstairs’s face was suddenly replaced by another — the face of a boy, the same age, also in a bed, also in pain. Cal felt his stomach churn, and the beginning of panic welled up inside him. But he fought it down, forced himself to be calm, and tried to concentrate on the girl in the bed.
“Maybe you can teach Uncle Joe how to be a doctor,” she was saying. “And then make him retire.”
“I’ll retire you, young lady,” Carson growled. “Now what happened?”
The smile left Sally’s face, and she seemed thoughtful. “I’m not sure. I tripped out in the backyard, and it felt like I hit my arm on a rock …” she began.
“Well, let’s have a look at it,” Carson said, taking her arm gently in his large hands. He rolled up the sleeve of the child’s pajama top and peered at her arm carefully. There was no trace of a bruise. “Couldn’t have been much of a rock,” he observed.
“That’s why I feel dumb,” Sally said. “There wasn’t any rock. I was on the lawn.”
Carson stepped back, and Cal bent over to examine the arm. He prodded tentatively, feeling Carson’s eyes watching him.
“Does it hurt there?”
Sally nodded.
“How about there?”
Again, Sally nodded.
Cal continued his probing. Sally’s entire arm, from the elbow to the shoulder, was in pain at his touch. He finally straightened up, and made himself look at Carson.
“It could be a sprain,” he said slowly.
Carson’s brows rose noncommittally. He carefully rolled Sally’s sleeve down again. “How bad does it hurt?” he asked.
Sally scowled at him. “Well, I’m not going to die,” she said. “But I can’t do anything with it.”
Carson smiled at her and squeezed her good hand. “I’ll tell you what. Dr. Pendleton and I are going to talk to your parents for a while, and we brought a surprise for you.”
Sally suddenly looked eager. “You did? What?”
“Not what — who. It seems Dr. Pendleton brought his assistant with him, and she happens to be just your age.” He moved to the bedroom door and called to Michelle. A moment later, Michelle came hesitantly into the room. She stopped just inside the door, and looked shyly at Sally. Her father introduced the two girls, then the adults left them alone together to get acquainted.
“Hi,” Michelle said, a little uncertainly.
“Hi,” Sally replied. There was a silence, then: “You can sit on the bed if you want to.”
Michelle moved away from the door, but before she got to the bed, she suddenly stopped, her eyes fixed on the window.
“What’s wrong?” Sally asked.
Michelle shook her head. “I don’t know. I thought I saw something.”
“Outside?”
“Uh-huh.”
Sally tried to turn in bed, but the pain stopped her. “What was it?”
“I don’t know.” Then she shrugged. “It was like a shadow.”
“Oh, that’s the elm tree. It scares me all the time.” Sally patted the bed, and Michelle settled herself gingerly at its foot. But her eyes remained fixed on the window.
“You must look like your mother,” Sally said.
