Читать книгу A Portal in Time - James A. Costa Jr. - Страница 6

Chapter 1

Spring 1939

Her Shirley Temple ringlets bobbed in time with her feet descending the wooden staircase.

“Come straight home and don’t dilly-dally along the way,” her mother called after her. “It will be dark soon.”

Dolly stopped and called back. “I won’t, Mama.”

“And don’t talk to strangers.”

Dolly started down again. “I won’t, Mama.”

Day was fading to dusk when Dolly emerged from the old tenement building onto the pavement. Her yellow pinafore was mostly hidden behind a hand-me-down woolen sweater that hung loose on her. “Milk and bread, and a pack of Camels for Daddy,” she sang to herself as she skipped along keeping a rhythm with her little black shoes scraping the sidewalk.

The street was quiet and her shadow fell long before her in the dull evening light. The grocery store lay two blocks ahead, not far, and she didn’t really know why her mother always told her not to talk to strangers. What would a stranger do anyway, ask how to get someplace or where somebody lived? What was so bad about that? Besides, nobody ever stopped to ask her for anything in her whole life.

Her thoughts turned to the birthday party she would be going to next Saturday at Dante Cosner’s house and what kind of present she could get for him. She liked Dante a lot because he was cute, and she knew he liked her too because he was always pulling her hair in class and teasing her. It made her happy just to think of him. Someday maybe she might even marry him! She tittered at the thought of it.

At first she didn’t see the man standing across the street. As always, her attention was drawn to the deserted house she had to pass on the way to the store. It was so spooky the way it just stood there covered with shadows, like it was alive and staring at her with its broken windows like eyes watching her go by, and the broken porch posts hanging like arms that wanted to shoot out and grab her. And, as always, she was tempted to cross the street and then cross back again, but that seemed a silly thing to do now that she was older, almost ten. A little closer and she could just dash past it faster than it could ever catch her. She was about to break into a run when the man seemed to appear out of nowhere, a big man wearing a long, black coat.

“Little girl,” he said, his voice soft but distinct, “little girl, did you see a little dog around here anyplace? A black and white dog?”

Dolly’s first instinct was to glance around. The man stood next to her now, a big man, twice as big as her daddy. “Gee, mister--”

The huge hand he suddenly clapped over her mouth cut off her words and powerful arms hauled her in under the flap of his coat. Her feet came off the pavement thrashing as he carried her down the crumbled walkway alongside the deserted house. Stifled screams swelled her throat, suffocating her. Eyes wide with terror peered out between the thick fingers nearly covering her entire face….