Read Online Hear the Children Calling by Clare McNally - Free Book Online

currents—”
    “No, there were no currents,” she said, shaking her head vehemently. “Danny, I know Laura is alive. I’ve seen her . . .”
    “You’ve seen dreams!”
    “I’ve seen Laura,” Kate said. “She’s sending messages. Just like the ones she used to send me years ago. Don’t you remember, Danny, how she could do that?”
    Danny picked at a loose thread on the couch, saying nothing.
    “I can remember one time she did it,” Kate went on. “It was when she was three and a half, when Mrs. Ginmoor first started sitting for us. I was driving home from the boutique and I saw Laura running down the block crying. By the time I swung around to catch up to her, she was gone. But when I got home, Mrs. Ginmoor said she had never left the back yard.”
    “You saw a child who looked like Laura,” Danny said.
    “It was Laura,” Kate insisted. “I know my own daughter, for God’s sake. And I found out something: a big stray dog had come into our yard just moments before, and it frightened Laura so much she started crying out for me. Her physical body was in that back yard, but she sent her spiritual body out looking for me.”
    Danny sighed. “Kate, I remember that incident. I still say it was just a child who looked like Laura. The whole thing was coincidence.”
    “Like the time I saw Laura crying at the foot of our bed, only to find she was still in the throes of a nightmare in her own room?”
    Kate’s eyes challenged Danny for an answer. He didn’t respond.
    “Like the time Mandy Seacoff’s mother called to say Laura was comforting her sick daughter when all the time Laura was sitting right on this couch, watching television? Like the time—”
    Danny shot up from the couch. “All right,” he cried. “There were strange incidents. But they mean nothing now, because Laura is dead. And no amount of hoping is going to bring her back.”
    “Danny, I don’t think she is dead,” Kate said. “I think something happened to her and she’s trying to send the same kinds of messages to us. She’s in trouble, Danny, and I can’t ignore her.”
    Danny bowed his head, looking like a forlorn little boy despite his size. “Dear God, Kate,” he moaned. “You were doing so well these past years. I thought, after we had Chris and Joey, that everything would be all right.”
    “It won’t be all right until I find Laura.”
    Danny went back to the couch again, taking Kate in his arms.
    “I know you wish our little girl was still here—”
    “I’m going to bring her back again.”
    “Oh, Kate . . .” He said nothing more. Danny knew his wife was a stubborn woman, and if he pushed her, there was no telling what she would do.
    “Danny, help me?”
    “You know I will,” Danny said, kissing her softly. “Come up to bed, Kate. Come and rest. In the morning you’ll be thinking differently.”
    “No, I won’t.”
    “It’s late, Kate,” Danny said. “We’ve had a hard time.”
    “I’m not crazy, Danny.”
    “I never said you were.” He stood up, leading Kate with him.
    Upstairs in their bedroom, Kate went to the window and pulled back the priscilla curtains. The full moon illuminated the beach below, where the dark rim of the bay rippled gently along the sand. Kate followed the sparkles of moonlight on water as far as the horizon.
    “She’s out there,” she said. “Somewhere, our little girl is out there waiting for us.”
    She let the curtains fall and shuffled over to the four-poster.She climbed in next to her husband, cuddling close to him.
    Danny reached to flick off the light, then turned in the blackness and embraced his wife. He wished at that moment that he could hold her like this forever, to protect her from the demons that toyed with her mind. For it had to be demons, even the psychological kind, that had brought about this renewed interest in Laura. And Danny didn’t want anything to hurt his beloved Kate.
    In a short time, hugging tightly, the two of them were fast asleep.