Chapter 19
Corporal Killian excuses himself, and I walk downstairs with him. He goes out the front door without looking back. I watch until he disappears, wrap my sweater tight, and avoid making eye contact with anyone. It's bad enough I feel their eyes upon me. Too many of them are wearing outlandish aftershave and perfume. I turn, hoping I can make it to the kitchen before someone asks me something. No such luck. Cold fingers touch my arm. I stop and look at a woman’s face. I watch her lips move. The man next to her adds something. Out of my peripheral vision my sister Shirley moves in my direction from across the room. She thinks because she and her husband are doctors, and Leland was a politician and I was a nobody that they were better than us.
I'm so tired of her condescending ways
