Free In All of Infinity by H. R. Holt Page B

year and all?” he asked,
almost whispering. “Please tell me. It is of most importance. I
will answer all the questions you may have at a later time. I have
not the time now. Please.”
     
    “August 24, 1939. Who are you? What are you
doing in my house?”
     
    “I am Truth,” he said and smiled. He found
it peculiar that the doctor was questioning him even though he’d
been requested not to. “Where is your daughter? It is best she is
not here. She is away?”
     
    “Wh-why? I don’t understand. Yes. Yes, she’s
gone. She’s at school.”
     
    “Good. I hope she may stay away for a time.
Come,” the man-child said and ran off. He stopped at the end of the
hall and looked back at Emmanuel. “Come. We haven’t much time. I
can only stay untainted for so long.”
     
    Emmanuel started running, wondering if he
had lost his mind. He followed the man-child known as Truth, and
found him in the attic. Truth looked at him and smiled, his hands
still pressed to his head. The doctor realized the splotches were
showing up on more of the man’s skin and debated on what was
causing it. Was he ill? If that was the case, he had never seen
such a disease.
     
    Truth was standing beside a collection of
stuff covered by a familiar pale sheet, telling Emmanuel to run
through it. “Are you insane? I’m not going to—”
     
    The man-child nudged Emmanuel along, and
then shoved him in with his own body weight. He realized the time
was almost up, could feel the presence of evil, and glanced into
the attic once more before disappearing. She was standing there,
dressed in black, smiling wickedly.
     
    ***
     
    Reverie started home directly after class,
shouldering a bag one of the teachers had gotten for her. Ms. Mary
Smith was the English teacher and saw plenty of potential in
Reverie as a writer, and had plans to make sure the young girl fit
in. So far, the attention seemed to be working. Ms. Smith, who was
nearly seventy, had seen plenty of students through rough times,
even those who didn’t claim they needed help.
     
    Ms. Smith also knew that Emmanuel wouldn’t
give his daughter something to carry her books in because he
figured she could carry them like he had to. Although she didn’t
have much to do with the other school in York County, she had seen
Reverie carrying her books on many occasions. Being caring a
teacher, Ms. Smith had addressed him more than once in church and
at the market. She stated that times were changing, children had
book bags, and that Reverie was a girl. She couldn’t carry such
hefty books in her small hands. He would merely look at her with a
raised eyebrow, not saying anything about how she’d contradicted
herself. Were the times changing? Were girls still considered too
weak to carry their books? If that was the case, times weren’t
changing in the slightest.
     
    When Ms. Smith presented
the large black bag to Reverie, the younger girl had merely looked
at it with a raised eyebrow. She’d been told to stay a few minutes
for this ? She
couldn’t in her wildest dream believe that she would be cornered by
an elder woman. Since it would prove beneficial for her to have a
bag so that she didn’t have to stop by the house and relieve
herself of the burden. She could then walk around in the woods,
holding her chosen book, and not worry about dropping the others.
Reverie accepted the bag with a large smile.
     
    “Thank you, Ms. Smith,” she said and
immediately began putting her work away. “I will definitely use
this, even though I don’t know what my father will say about my
accepting it.”
     
    “Well, if he gives you any trouble, tell him
to address me on Sunday. I’m sure he won’t be bothered about it so
much. He’s a nice, gentle man, and he knows I gave it to you for a
reason.”
     
    “He does have his moments of anger, Ms.
Smith. I mean, I guess everyone does, so I don’t really hold that
against him. I think everyone has been angry before, but it’s
usually good that it