Free Circle of Shadows by Edna Curry

the
picture his words drew in her mind. “Our pillows broke once, too. Aunt Agnes
made us pick up all the feathers and put them back inside the ticking, and then
sew them up by hand. It took us hours.”
    Their eyes met and held for a
long searching moment before Lili drew a deep breath and looked away. What had
gotten into her? She rarely talked about her personal life or her past to good
friends, let alone to a man she hardly knew.
    Ken seemed to sense her
withdrawal. He stepped forward and sat down in front of his computer. His voice
sounded a bit ragged as he said, “Pull up a chair and watch, then I’ll let you
try it. You can tell me what you understand and what you don’t as we go along.”
    Lili obeyed and was surprised to
find him an excellent teacher. While the system was similar to the one she was
used to, the accounting software was new. It looked so easy when he did it, but
when she tried, she’d forget some little detail that brought everything to a
halt. Then Ken would patiently explain it all over again.
    Each time he leaned close to
correct something that she had done or tell her how to correct it, her pulse
and breath quickened. No wonder she couldn’t keep her thoughts on remembering
the computer commands.
    He went over the commands again.
The spreadsheet of dollar figures danced in rows on the screen in front of her.
The cursor and his long fingers moved in a smooth, choreographed dance across
the keys. Figures and formulas appeared on the screen as if by magic.
    “Then you can check your work
this way.” His voice went on, and his fingers followed, then he leaned close to
watch the screen as she imitated his actions.
    She tried not to notice how his
nearness affected her mind. “I understand. The principle used is the same as
the program I used in St. Louis, but the commands and set-up are different.”
    “Good. I’ll give you a sample
spreadsheet, so you can look back to mine if you forget. I’m sure you’ll be
doing it automatically in a short time.”
    At last Ken stood up and
stretched. “Let’s quit for today. You can ask me more questions, after you get
your machine and have had a chance to play around with it for a while. Wait until
you’re comfortable with it before you try doing your reports on the computer.
Give Renee your figures and she can enter them for you for a couple of weeks.”
    “All right,” she agreed, still
looking a bit skeptical.
    “Will all this stuff be delivered
in boxes ? ” She waved
a hand at the array of equipment he had spread out on the long table along one
wall that served as his desk.
    He grinned at her nervousness. “I
wouldn’t do that to you. Someone from the computer shop will deliver it all.
He’ll set up your system, install the software, and make sure that everything
is working properly. I’m sure you have more important things to do with your
time than reading those obscure instruction manuals in order to figure out what
plugs into what.”
    Relieved, she nodded. “Thanks.
I’m not very mechanical.”
    “How about some dinner? Are you
hungry?”
    Glancing at her watch, she was
surprised to see that it was after five. Her stomach agreed that food was a
nice idea.
    “Sounds great.”
    As they stepped outside, she
craned her neck to see if it had indeed been Aunt Agnes’ tulips and daffodils
she had glimpsed from the overlook the day after her father’s funeral.
    Ken locked the door, and noticed
her glance. “Would you like to see the flowers? They’re blooming beautifully
already,” he said. “Yesterday’s rain seemed to make them just pop open.”
    “Oh, I’d love to. Aunt Agnes was
always so proud of them.”
    She followed the path to the back
of the house, and exclaimed enthusiastically over the beds of gold and red
blooms edging the house. White rock lined the flower beds and low evergreen
shrubs completed the picture. He followed her down the flat rock paths that led
from the patio to the dock stretching out into the