Cabin Fever - Page 69/118

Two tears rolled down her cheeks, and were traced to the corners of her

mouth by the fat, investigative finger of Lovin Child before Marie could

find her handkerchief and wipe them away. Was any one in this world

ever so utterly, absolutely miserable? She doubted it. What if she found

Bud--drunk, as Joe had described him? Or, worse than that, what if she

did not find him at all? She tried not to cry, but it seemed as though

she must cry or scream. Fast as she wiped them away, other tears dropped

over her eyelids upon her cheeks, and were given the absorbed attention

of Lovin Child, who tried to catch each one with his finger. To distract

him, she turned him around face to the window.

"See all the--pitty cows," she urged, her lips trembling so much that

they would scarcely form the words. And when Lovin Child flattened a

finger tip against the window and chuckled, and said "Ee? Ee?"--which

was his way of saying see--Marie dropped her face down upon his fuzzy

red "bunny" cap, hugged him close to her, and cried, from sheer, nervous

reaction.