[Section opener]
Birdie
Chapter 14
“Can somebody please answer that?” I was carrying an eight-foot ladder and brushes and a
bucket of paint down the hall of the Orphan. I’d been bored out at the Tartt’s house ever since I’d
finished the books, and decided my parting gift to the big girls would be to paint that ceiling
upstairs with the leftover blue paint. I would not be asking permission. What could anybody do,
assign me to unpaint it? I’d be home in a week anyway, at least that was my best estimate for
when Frances would ask Rory for the money, sometime after her birthday celebration tonight.
Somebody knocked on the door again, harder.
“Alright, alright, don’t anybody get up,” I called, “I’ll answer it.” I leaned the ladder next
to the front office, where I still half expected to see Meg. Though Mildred was here somewhere,
most of the volunteers were still at home at seven in the morning, including Frances, who was
spending the day in her room, primping. Garnett was down in Jackson trying to win some big
charity award. If it’d been for Coldest Woman of the Year, she’d be a shoo-in.
I opened the front door to a woman in a dirty wool yellow dress with a red wool beret
pulled down low above her eyes. It was the dead of August.
“Hello, may I help you?” I said.
Her eyes skittered past me into the little entryway. “I’m here to see a little girl. Her
name’s Margot Louise.”
“I’m sorry, who?” Something was splattered on the front of her dress, rust colored but
smeared like she’d tried to scrub it out.
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