Suffer the Children by John Saul Page A

said she saw you coming out of the woods.”
    “I know,” Elizabeth said. “And I don’t know why she thinks that either. I wasn’t in the woods.”
    “Were you near them?”
    Elizabeth nodded. “I thought I saw Cecil, and I was following him. But I don’t think it was Cecil. It looked like him, but then, just as he was about to go into the woods, he jumped. ‘Cecil’ turned out to be a rabbit.”
    “How could you mistake a rabbit for Cecil?” Jack asked. “Of all the un-rabbitish cats I know, Cecil is the most un-rabbitish of them all.”
    “Search me,” Elizabeth said. “But he sure looked like Cecil till he jumped.”
    “Well, I’m glad he did,” her father said. “If he hadn’t, you might have followed him into the woods.”
    “I’d have noticed,” Elizabeth said. She was silent for a moment; then: “Daddy, why aren’t I allowed to go into the woods or to the embankment?”
    “It’s dangerous, that’s why,” Jack said, his tone indicating that he would like to leave it at that. But Elizabeth was not to be put off.
    “But, Daddy, I’m thirteen years old now, and I can take care of myself. I don’t see how the embankment can be any more dangerous than the quarry, and you let me go there any time I want to.”
    “I’d just as soon you stayed away from there, too,” Jack said.
    “But why?” Elizabeth pressed. When there was no answer she said, “It’s because of Anne Forager, isn’t it?”
    “Anne Forager?” Jack said guardedly.
    “All the kids are talking about it They say something awful happened to her, and that it happened out here. Is that true?”
    “I don’t know,” Jack said truthfully. “I don’t really think anything happened to her, and if it did, I doubt very much if it happened out here. At any rate, that doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s just that the embankment is very dangerous.”
    “Not any more than the quarry.”
    Jack shook his head. “If you slipped at the quarry, you’d at least have a chance. You’d fall into deep water, and you can swim. With the embankment, you wouldn’t hit water. You’d hit rocks and surf. That’s a whole different story.”
    “I suppose you’re right,” she said. Then she looked up at him, and there was a glint of mischief in her eyes. “But in five years I’ll be eighteen. Then I’ll go see just what’s at this embankment, and you won’t be able to stop me.”
    “That’s five years,” Jack said. “In five years you could change your mind.”
    “I won’t,” Elizabeth assured him. Then she slipped her hand into his, and together they walked back to the house.
    *    *    *
    Dinner was a quiet affair for the Congers that night, at least at the beginning. Out of respect for the delicate stomachs of Rose and Sarah, Mrs. Goodrich had put together a light omelette, which she had restrained herself from binning. Conversation was dilatory, much of it in the form of encouraging remarks directed toward Sarah by her parents. Sarah seemed not to hear; instead she concentrated on her plate calmly shoving each forkful of egg into her mouth, chewing stoically and swallowing. To Elizabeth, Sarah seemed to be as she always was.
    Mrs. Goodrich cleared away the plates and brought in the dessert.
    “Here we go again,” Elizabeth said.
    “Hmm?” Rose inquired, turning her attention from Sarah to the older girl. Elizabeth grinned at her.
    “I said, ‘Here we go again.’ We had the same pudding at school today. Except this is better.”
    “Oh?” Rose said. But she was not really interested; her attention was back on Sarah. “How was school?”
    “Not bad. We got our history tests back. I think Mr. Friedman must have made a mistake. He gave me a perfect score.”
    Now both Rose and Jack turned to Elizabeth, and she could see the pleased expression in their eyes. But before they could speak, a sound rent the air.
    Elizabeth turned, then ducked just in time to avoid the bowl of pudding that was flying