Free Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman

isn’t.” Charlotte usually expects the worst of people, but she’s more than willing to make an exception in Ethan’s case. There has to be someone worth trusting, hasn’t there? One man among them to whom even a disbeliever like Charlotte can pledge her faith. “The whole idea is insanity. Jay called me from the Safehouse. and everyone down there is outraged. Don’t worry about what people are thinking. Everyone knows they’ve got the wrong man.”
    â€œ Really? Well, our friends were the ones who came to get him,” Jorie says with real bitterness. “Hal Roderick. Adam Sorrell. Dave Meyers.”
    These men have worked with Ethan on dozens of occasions, pooling the resources of the volunteer fire department with the police whenever there’s an accident on the highway, or a heart attack phoned in, or a stretch of woods left in flames after a fierce lightning storm.
    â€œDave himself stood out on our front porch and read Ethan his rights. As if he had any!”
    Charlotte and Jorie have known Dave Meyers, now the sheriff of Monroe Township, since grade school, and although that hadn’t stopped him from arresting Ethan, Dave certainly wasn’t able to look Jorie in the eye. I’m sorry, he’d muttered, as if his apology was worth anything.
    As Jorie speaks of the morning’s events, her voice rises dangerously; and Charlotte nods at Collie, who starts in his sleep. The women retreat to the window seat Ethan built last year, making use of some old oak paneling he’d removed from the tumbled-down Monroe house, abandoned long ago on the outskirts of town. Jorie moves the curtains aside, and from where they sit she can spy a man on the sidewalk, peering up at them. It’s still hot outside and the man keeping watch wipes his face with a handkerchief “Don’t worry. It’s only Barney Stark.” Charlotte leans her elbows on the casement. Just as she suspected, Barney has stationed himself on the walkway. He’s taken off his loosened tie and stuffed it in his pocket, but he still looks awkward and overdressed and worried. Charlotte waves, and Barney cautiously waves back. “He’s come to see if you need help,” Charlotte tells Jorie. “The big oaf.”
    â€œHow do we get rid of him?”
    The women look at each other and laugh.
    â€œEasy enough. I could always get rid of him.” Charlotte motions to Barney that he can go. “Come back tomorrow.” she calls. “Jorie will be fine till then.”
    â€œTell her I’ll meet her down at the holding station.” Barney certainly doesn’t wish to use the word jail . He’s a polite, well-bred man whose mother was extremely proud of him up until the day she died. “At nine.”
    Charlotte turns to Jorie. “The jail at nine A.M. And remember,” she adds when she sees the wash of anxiety cross Jorie’s face; again Charlotte is thankful for Barney “Innocent people need lawyers, too.”
    â€œRight.” Jorie pulls at her tangled hair. She is frighteningly pale, as though her flesh has turned to fish scales, her blood to ice water. “They say he was in the same town where some girl was killed, but what does that prove? How many people pass through Monroe every day? Does that mean they’ve all murdered someone?”
    â€œIt means nothing.” Charlotte is quick to agree.
    Collie is deeply asleep now ; he turns and flings one arm over the side of the bed. Awake he is close to being a teenager, and the man he’ll become is evident in his rangy appearance. Odd how children look so much younger when they sleep; perhaps their slumbering forms are what prompt adults close by to try their best to protect them from every evil under the sun.
    â€œI had him sleep in here tonight because I didn’t want him to be scared. Now I think I was the one who didn’t want to be alone.”
    Jorie had cried in the car