excerpt
Rachael awakened slowly, fighting to stay asleep in spite of the numbing cold that rendered her incapable of lying still. Her whole body shook so hard she finally had to yield to consciousness.
Why was she lying on the floor? Had she fallen out of bed during the night, or been pushed out as she had been a time or two when she first came to live here? But no, she couldn’t remember falling – or being pushed. Then why? She became aware that she clutched something in her shaking arms, and she looked down. The lamp on the bedside table was still turned on, and in the dim light Rachael saw that she held the doll she got for Christmas. When? Just yesterday?
Then she remembered the dream. Lyssa had hurt her doll; she’d gouged its pretty eyes out. And Rachael had tried to hurt her cousin, tried in fact to gouge Lyssa’s eyes out. Even now Rachael could feel the rage she had felt in the dream. It swept over her like a surge of heat, making her forget how cold she was, how stiff and uncomfortable from lying on the bare floor.
It was a dream, wasn’t it? It had to have been a dream. No one had hurt her Shirley Temple doll, had they? Not even Lyssa would do such a thing.
Libros Libertad 