Free The Turning by Francine Prose

potatoes if she wants.”
    “Are you okay?” I asked Linda.
    “Fine,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
    “I don’t know why I asked,” I said. Linda wasn’t her normal cheerful self. She looked worried or just distracted. Well, it must have been stressful, taking a little girl with a raging toothache to get dental surgery and get back to the island.
    I kept Linda company while she cooked dinner. The children came downstairs and immediately started chattering about their trip to the neighboring island. If Flora was still woozy from whatever the dentist gave her, I couldn’t tell.
    The kids described all the passengers on the ferry and an enormous Great Dane they’d seen waiting outside the post office for its owner, and the funny eyeglasses that Dr. Jacobs’s receptionist wore. I acted as if I agreed that they were amazing things to see, though, to tell the truth, what impressed the kids wasn’t all that exciting. But I knew it was a treat for them to see anything they didn’t see every day on the island. Flora did an imitation of how the dentist’s voice sounded when she was coming out from under the anesthesia. Linda asked if her tooth hurt now.
    Flora said, “Not very much.”
    All through dinner, I had the feeling that Linda was worried about something. I still didn’t know her that well, so maybe it was nothing. Just something else I imagined. But from time to time I’d catch a look in her eyes that reminded me of the way my dad looks when a job isn’t going well or a client is giving him a hard time about paying a bill.
    After the kids went off to bed, Linda asked if I wanted to go out on the porch. I’d been looking forward to drinking more chamomile tea and maybe finishing the conversation—though I couldn’t remember where we’d left off—that Linda and I had been having when we’d been interrupted by Flora’s howl of pain.
    We rocked in silence for a while, sipping our tea. Then Linda said, “I know you practically just got here, and I don’t want to burden you with this. I probably shouldn’t mention it at all, but I need to tell someone.”
    So I’d been right. Linda did have something on her mind. The first thing that occurred to me was that maybe the dentist had said that Flora needed lots of dental work or braces. Her teeth looked straight enough to me, but I’m no expert.
    Linda said, “I need to figure out how to deal with this. As I’m sure you know, Jim Crackstone has made it very clear that he doesn’t want to be bothered with good or bad news about the kids. Not ever. Not about anything.”
    “I did kind of get that impression,” I said. But Linda didn’t laugh.
    She said, “There was another letter in the mail. I don’t know why it came here instead of directly to their uncle. Maybe because Jim Crackstone has informed everyone involved that the less he hears about the kids, the better he likes it. The letter was from Miles’s school. It said they were sorry, but they don’t want Miles returning to school in the fall.”
    “Why not?” I said. “Were his grades bad? I’ll bet it was hard for him to adjust to being away from the island and you and his sister. After my mom died I practically failed out of elementary school. He was probably homesick, and his schoolwork suffered. I know Jim Crackstone doesn’t want to be bothered, but I’m sure if he talks to someone at the school they’ll give Miles another chance—”
    “His grades were excellent,” interrupted Linda.
    “Then what?”
    Linda’s voice was so soft, I had to lean close to hear. “They said that he was a bad influence on the other boys.”
    “What kind of bad influence? How could that be possible? Miles is the most polite kid I’ve ever met. I’ve never heard him curse, not once—”
    Linda said, “They used the word evil . They said he’d had an evil influence over the others.”
    “ Evil? ” I said. “ Miles? It’s a mix-up. They’ve got the wrong kid. He’s not evil;