Mystery fiction; Trials (Murder) -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction
"Two things, Mr. Warner, which I didn't understand at the time as I
should have. When she was crying and hysterical, she said: 'I want my
father, my father, I can't find out how to live without him.' Well, I
knew he'd died away back when she was seven years old. Then later she
said, twice I think: 'I wish I was dead.' That--oh, I took it to be
simply an unthinking expression of grief and exhaustion. It seems to be
a thing people say without considering quite what it means. I took it
that way: alarming but not to be understood literally. But I think now,
she meant it literally."
"You stayed with her a while, I suppose?"
"Yes, took her back to my place and made her go to bed there, gave her a
sleeping pill. I played some hi-fi records, things she liked, until she
fell asleep. In the morning she seemed to be in good command of herself,
sense of humor restored anyway. That's when she said she hoped she was
cured, and for a while I stopped worrying about other things she'd
said."
"But only for a while?"
"Only for a while. During the following month, the rest of July, it was
clear that things weren't right for her. Not herself. Deep abstractions
for instance, when she wouldn't answer because she really didn't hear.
Normally with me she's completely courteous, wouldn't dream of ignoring
a question if she heard it. In July she was slipping down into the
bluest of blue moods, and I couldn't reach her. I wondered about
pregnancy because of what she'd told me, and asked her about it, I guess
a week after she'd first told me the situation. She said: 'Oh, I'm all
right.' Mistakenly, I took that to mean she'd had the delayed period.
Either she answered evasively, which isn't like her, or she didn't
understand my question. The last, I think. I think she was in such a
faraway mood it was hard for her to get hold of what people said."
"Did she say any more, that month, about suicide?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account