The Twisted Window by Lois Duncan Page B

Street characters. A throw rug on the floor was in the shape of Big Bird.
     
    Crossing to the bureau, Tracy pulled open the topmost drawer. It was filled with panties, socks, pajamas, and T-shirts. She began removing the clothing, stack by stack, placing it in neat piles on the top of the chest of drawers. When the first drawer had been emptied, she shoved it closed, pulled out the one below it, and began to remove the clothes from that.
     
    "The sweetest songs I ever knew; she has no child to sing them to," crooned the lullaby lady. "Poor lonely moon, poor Mother Moon...."
     
    Gentle as it was, the voice on the tape was loud enough to cover the sound of the front door opening, and although she had been expecting him, Tracy was startled when Brad appeared suddenly in the doorway to the bedroom.
     
    "I was parked down at the corner and saw the car drive off," he said. "They sure took their own sweet time about leaving the house. I was beginning to be afraid they might have changed their minds about going out." He paused. "What are you doing over there?"
     
    "I'm getting Mindy's things together," Tracy told him.
     
    "You don't have to do that. She's got plenty of clothes back in Albuquerque," said Brad. "Mom was going to give all her stuff to Goodwill, but I wouldn't let her. I made her put it in boxes and store it in the attic."
     
    "That was close to half a year ago," Tracy reminded him. "It's not likely many of those things will fit her now."
     
    "You may be right. She sure has grown a lot." He went over to the bed and stood staring down at the sleeping child. "She's beautiful, isn't she? Like a princess in some fairy tale. I can't wait to see Mom's face when I walk through the door with her."
     
    "The Carvers have a nickname for her," said Tracy. "They call her Cricket, because she's always hopping around."
     
    "That's stupid. What do they think she is, a bug?" He reached down and smoothed back a lock of hair from the little girl's forehead. "Mindy's such a pretty name, why would anybody change it?"
     
    "There'll be plenty of time to admire her later," said Tracy. "What you'd better do now is find something we can put these clothes in. It doesn't have to be a suitcase; any sort of sack or bag will do. And while you're at it, see if you can locate her bear."
     
    "Doesn't she have him in bed with her?"
     
    "She's sleeping with a monkey."
     
    "That's odd," said Brad. "It used to be she wouldn't go to bed without Bimbo. She'd throw a fit if we tried to get her to sleep with any other toy." He bent closer to examine the object his sister was clutching to her chest. "You're right, though, it is a monkey. That doesn't make sense. I wonder why she took that shabby thing to bed with her."
     
    He left the room and returned a few moments later with his arms loaded with brown paper sacks, which he placed on a chair next to the bureau.
     
    "I found these in a storage room off the kitchen," he said. "Now I'll check around for Bimbo."
     
    "Maybe you didn't see a bear the other night," Tracy suggested. "That lump on the floor could have been almost any toy. Neither of us could see very well through the window."
     
    "It was Bimbo," Brad said firmly. "I know that bear. After all, I'm the one who went out and bought him."
     
    Alone once again, Tracy continued with the task of removing Mindy's clothing from the second drawer and loading it into the grocery sacks. Then she pulled open the third drawer and emptied that also. The lullaby tape came to an end and the recorder switched itself off.
     
    With the cessation of the music, the only sound in the room was the even breathing of the child on the bed. This time, when the front door opened, Tracy heard it perfectly. There was another short silence, during which she tried desperately to convince herself that she had been mistaken about the source of the sound. Then Doug Carver's voice exploded into the quiet.
     
    "Who are you, and what are you doing in my home?"
     
    Shocked