Free When the Wind Blows by John Saul

to love her, but sometimes, for reasons Christie could never quite understand, Diana seemed to be angry at her. She was starting to get used to it though, and had decided that once she learned what she was supposed to do, things would be all right. So far, today, they had been all right.
    She pulled her eyes away from her father’s coffin and looked at the crowd that was gathering in thecemetery. Most of them were strangers to her, but she waved shyly to her few friends.
    Crowded close together were Jeff Crowley, Kim Sandler, Steve Penrose, and Jay-Jay Jennings. As Christie waved they smiled hesitantly at her and whispered among themselves.
    The funeral began, and as Reverend Jennings talked about her father, Christie began to cry. It was, at last, real. Both her parents were gone now, and she would never see them again.
    Diana Amber tried to listen to the minister’s words, but as Jennings droned on in his steady monotone, her mind began to wander. Her eyes drifted to Bill Henry, standing with Dan Gurley, and for a moment their glances met. There was a warmth in Bill’s eyes that told Diana that even after all the years that had passed since their long-ago courtship, he still cared for her; it wasn’t the love she had once seen in his eyes, but something else—something that made her vaguely angry. She felt robbed of something, and she wanted it back. If it hadn’t been for her illness, she would have married Bill, despite her mother. But now it was too late.
    She thought about that for a while, trying to remember what had been wrong with her. It was gone; the memory of that illness locked away with the other memories. Sometimes, when the wind blew, she would feel the fringes of the memories, like faraway voices calling to her, but they never seemed to come close enough for her to really grasp them.
    Her thoughts were interrupted by the tightening of her mother’s grip on her arm, and as she shifted her attention from Bill to the woman beside her, Diana realized that it was as if Edna had known what she was thinking. Edna’s blue eyes blazed, and her face was drawn into an admonitory scowl, but as soon as she had Diana’s attention her expression cleared and her grip eased. Then both women were again listeningto the words of Jerome Jennings as he eulogized the life of a man he had barely known.
    Across from the Ambers, Dan Gurley nudged Bill Henry and spoke just loudly enough so only the doctor could hear.
    “Still runs the whole show, doesn’t she?”
    Bill nodded, feeling oddly embarrassed by the knowledge that the marshal had witnessed what had just happened. Diana had lived her life submitting to her mother’s domination, and it was no secret. Still, Bill wished she would find the strength to break away from her mother. Perhaps, he reflected, the child would do it. People would do practically anything for a child they cared about. And Diana certainly seemed to care about Christie.
    “I’ll bet Miss Edna’s going to love having the reception this afternoon,” he heard Dan saying. “The whole town tramping through her house? Huh!”
    “What makes you think it’s going to be in the house?” Bill whispered. Then, as Dan Gurley’s expression shifted from amusement to puzzlement, Bill began edging his way through the crowd, intent on being at Diana’s side when Reverend Jennings eventually came to the final prayer.
       As the people of Amberton moved slowly past them, offering a few murmured words of sympathy to Christie and uncertain smiles to the Amber women, Diana again began to drift. A sound was coming to her, as though from within her mind. It was a sound she had lived with for many years now, though it usually came to her at night when the wind was blowing.
    But today was bright and clear, and the wind was still.
    And yet the sound was there.
    A baby, crying out for its mother.
    Instinctively Diana knelt next to Christie and took the child in her arms.
    “It’s all right, baby,” she