Free The Kings and Queens of Roam: A Novel by Daniel Wallace Page A

hopeful. Things could change: they always do.” And she squeezed Rachel’s shoulder before she turned and walked away.
    “Hopeful for what?” Helen called after her. “Hopeful for what ?”
    But Mrs. Samuels was already gone around the corner.
    Rachel and Helen stood there, both of them appearing to look at Mrs. Samuels as she left them, but neither seeing her. Helen’s eyes were clouded, too.
    “That was nice,” Rachel said, fingering the brooch on her chest.
    “Yes,” Helen said, as she felt her strength returning. “Now we have money for the cake.”
    T here were other customers that day, but only a few, and none of them spent any of their precious money. When Rachel said shesmelled rain—she was good at that—they packed everything up and covered their things with a tarp and almost made it home before the first drops started falling. It was a warm rain, the kind you could steep a tea bag in. So although they were just a few feet away from the awning that would bring shelter, they stopped and let the rain fall all over them. The girls, would you just look at the girls. It’s what you would say had you seen them, standing in the warm summer shower.
    They both closed their eyes and raised their heads toward the heavens. Rachel’s hand reached out, her fingers gently waving like the fronds of a sea flower, until they found Helen’s wrist. Then she clasped their wet hands together.
    “What they said about leaving,” Rachel said then. “The boys.”
    “Idiots,” Helen said. “What makes them think anywhere else is going to be better than Roam?”
    “It just made me think,” Rachel said. “Maybe we should go, too.”
    “Really?” Helen said. “And do what, where?”
    Rachel had no answer for that, of course. “Or maybe—maybe I should leave. Just me. I’m a grown woman now.”
    “Really?” Helen laughed. “A grown woman? A grown woman can take care of herself, Rachel. I don’t see you doing that anytime soon. Or ever.”
    “Because you never let me try.”
    Helen bit her bottom lip to keep from screaming and let go of her sister’s hand. “Go ahead,” she said. “Try. See how far it gets you. You couldn’t find your shoes without me! Actually, Rachel, sometimes I feel more like your servant than your sister. ‘Get this, get that. Clean this up.’ It’s never ending. Literally.”
    “I don’t want to be a burden to you,” Rachel said. “I want to show you—”
    “I think it’s too late for that, Rachel. It’s a lifetime too late for that. Have you ever considered what I’ve given up for you? I could havegone anywhere, done anything. But then Mother and Father died, and I had to babysit my little sister instead.”
    “I’m sorry,” Rachel said. She was crying now, though she couldn’t tell the tears from the rain. “I’m so sorry. But is it too late? Mrs. Samuels just said—”
    Helen looked at her sister. Her dress was translucent against her body. Not too long ago little blind girls were put away with other little blind girls in an asylum, because no one even wanted to know such people existed, blind people with their twisted faces and bad posture and eerie stares. Could have happened to Rachel, too, after their parents died. No one would have blamed Helen had she done that. But she didn’t, and now it was too late. Over the years it had happened: now Helen needed Rachel more than Rachel needed her.
    “Don’t leave me,” Helen said. And then, almost too softly to hear, “Please.”
    “Never,” Rachel said, but with less conviction than Helen would have liked. “Where would I even go?”
    The rain came down harder. Against the metal porch covering it sounded like thunder.
    “Never,” Helen said. And she took her sister by the shoulders and shook her, pressing her lips to Rachel’s ear. “ Never! Never! Never! ” she said.
    And Rachel, through tears, said, “Let go of me, Helen. Please.”
    But Helen wouldn’t let go, and they stood like that until the rain