The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1946-03-14

sharply and started to rise.
But jules menacing gesture
pushed her back and jules soft,
pain-wracked voice said sharply,
sit still Ann-the guards off
this gun-it'n fire if I press my
finger the least little bit-and-l
couldn't miss hitting your heart
from here"
And then the front door open
ed and closed and there was gay
treble of laughter and the patter
of childish feet in the hall.
jules rigid body jerked as
though she had been wooden
doll in the hands of an awkward
puppeteer; the hand that held
the gun dropped SO that the ug-
,ly blue-nosed thing was hidden
in the folds Of the peacock-green-
blue brocade housecoat; and
through the door came a scamp
ering child, laughing, Growing
with delight as she evaded the
middle-aged, white-clad nurse
who followed her. The child
flung herself on Julie with lit
tie whoop of delight and bur-
rowed her flushed face in the
folds of jules housecoat.
The nurse paused in the door
way and Julie lashed out at her
furiously, Il told you to keep her
in the park until six"
The nurse stiffened into hos
tility, her pale eyes flashing with
resentment as she said CURLY,
1T was beginning to rain, Ma
DAM"
The nurses eyes flickered to
AIMS white face and back to Jul
lies, that was stiff and mask
like beneath its careful makeup.
The child, sensitive as children
invariably are to the queer be-
havior that sometimes makes ter
rifying strangers out of the most
beloved adults, looked up at her
mother and shrank a little as the
nurse came in to pick her up.
"Come along, Baby" said the
nurse tenderly, her voice gentle
and soothing though her eyes
were angry. Supper time-the
dollies will be wanting their nice
baked apples"
She carried the child out OF
the room, her very back rigid
with her sense of outrage, her
stiffly starched skirts with in
dignation,
Ann was on her feet now,
breathing again, moving again;
realizing that the child had un-
doubtedly saved her life; because
there had been no mistaking the
madness that had leered from
jules eyes in that split-second
when her finger had CONSTRUCTED
a little on the trigger of the gun
and the child's voice had been
heard.
Julie looked at Ann with a daz-
ed, bewildered expression, as
though wondering who she was.
AS though she came slowly and
reluctantly from the grip of
some hideous nightmare. The re-
volver slipped from her hand to
the beige-colored carpet; and Ju-
lie collapsed like a doll out of
which the sawdust is slowly pour
ing. She went down until she
sat huddled on the floor, her face
hidden against the sage-green
cushions, her thin shoulders
shaking convulsively.
Ann stood for a moment, look
ing at her he1plessly. But there
was nothing she could do; moth
ing she could say that would ease
the grip jules private devil had
upon her; and so Ann turned and
went out of the house and into
the warm summer rain and walk
ed a block before she realized
that it was raining.
Her knees were jelly, and she
paused and chung to the friendly
trunk of a slim young tree, shak-
ing so that but for the trees sup
port, she could not have stood.
She shivered in the warm,
misty summer rain and felt as
though an icy wind had swept
over her. And she knew a feel
ing of sharp pity for Julia, as
we'll as a quite natural distaste
for her.
She huddled there beneath the
scant shelter of the little tree and
when her bus finally came, she
stumbled a little getting on it
and was grateful that it was
packed with tired people who
paid her no heed at all, as she
availed herself of a strap, and
tried to adjust her tired body to
the swinging and jerking of the
big bus as it numbered on it's
way.