Free The Glory Hand by Paul, Sharon Boorstin

die that day. This letter . . . was it her mother's last wish for her? She slipped the letter back into the envelope, feeling ( but how could it be?) that her mother hadn't forgotten the purse that morning, that she had deliberately left it here, where she knew Cassie would discover it, a clue to how to survive the ache of her death.
    As Cassie raised the envelope to her lips, licked the seal, then smoothed it firmly shut, the door to the studio creaked open behind her. The shadowy silhouette of a woman hovered at the threshold, and Cassie was seized by a giddy panic that her mother had been summoned here by her reading the letter. She shoved it quickly into the purse, is if she had been caught stealing.
    'CassieT
    It was Robin.
    For a moment, neither of them moved. They were painted on the mirror, caught in an uneasy balance. Then Robin rushed over to her.
    'Cassie, I'm sorry.'
    'Sorry for what?' Cassie hugged her.
    'I wanted to write you . . . about your mother. It must have been so terrible for you. But I couldn't make it sounc right. You're so good about putting your feelings into words, but I . . .'
    it's okay.'
    'I thought you'd never forgive me . . . for not coming to the funeral. I've been such a lousy friend.'
    'You're a good friend,' Cassie said.
    i'm really glad you came back.' Cassie didn't reply. 'Aren't you?'
    'I don't know. Maybe I thought that being here would make everything the way it used to be.' Cassie shook her head. 'Or maybe I thought I could take her place.'
    'What matters is, you're here.'
    Cassie ran her foot along a scuff mark on the floor. 'I shouldn't have come.'
    'Why not? We can be together all summer. You, me . . . Todd.'
    'No, it won't work for me here anymore. Even if my mother were alive, it wouldn't have worked.'
    'I don't get it.'
    Cassie thought of showing Robin the letter, but realized it would be like giving away a secret her mother had meant only for her. 'My father,' she said. 'I can't give him what he needs. He should be in Washington. The investigation is what he lives for, what keeps him going.'
    Robin pulled away from her. 'But you can't leave now. I don't want you to . . .'
    'There's always Todd.' It was a bad attempt at a joke, Cassie knew, and neither of them laughed.
    'Anyway, what would you do in D.C. all summer? It's the pits.'
    Without answering, Cassie took the letter from the purse and tucked it into the pocket of her skirt. 'Look, we'll see each other . . . maybe this fall. I'm sure Dad will be going up to Boston.'
    'Sure.'
    They hugged again. When Cassie pressed her cheek against Robin's, she could feel that her friend's was wet. Cassie took her arm and they walked down the stairs.
    Clay was sitting in the Queen Anne chair in the parlor in his wet jogging;-shorts, his feet propped up on the captain's trunk, next to a glass half-filled with Glenfiddich. The fire in the hearth gleamed in the opalescent eyes of the figurehead over the mantel, and it was as though The Harpy's presence prevented the crackling flames from taking the chill out of the room.
    'I guess I'd better go.' Robin brushed her hand across her eyes, then turned abruptly, her rubber zorries slapping against the wood as she ran down the steps. Cassie let out a sigh when the screen door banged shut. Better to part quickly, than face the thought that she might never see Robin again.
    When Cassie walked into the parlor and sat down on the arm of her father's chair, she saw that he was twirling a wishbone from the jar in the kitchen. 'Ann liked to save up her wishes,' he said. 'She should never have done that.'
    it's not going to work here, is it?'
    He looked up, surprised, yet seemingly relieved that she had said it first. 'What do you mean?'
    'You should be in Washington. Your work is there. And the investigation . . .'
    'But you wanted to come here so much . . .'
    She didn't answer. Instead, she took the wishbone from him, and held it by one prong. 'Wish?'
    He took hold of the other end and they both closed