Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

distract him. There was a buffet with a silver urn on top. Josie
took a look at the books: classic fiction, Hawaiian history, and
a full encyclopedia. The man in the wheelchair hadn’t moved
so Josie went back to the hall. The time dragged on and still
Stephen did not come back. Josie was about ready to follow
him when she heard a noise upstairs. She listened harder and
heard it again. Without a second thought, Josie went toward it,
taking the stairs lightly.
The first.
The second.
She took the third and fourth and paused.
The sound was slight, even, and it was directly above her.
She went up three more steps and then four until she was on
a wide landing. There was another shorter flight. She went up
to the next landing that opened on to yet another hall. The
walls and the three doors on either side were painted bright
white. The sound must have come from behind the door at the
end of the hall, discernible only when Josie had been directly
beneath it downstairs.
She went straight to it but stopped before she went in. After
all these months it couldn’t be this easy no matter how much
she wanted it to be. A crazy man had pointed the way, after all.
And it was only a sound that had come from this room, not the
sound of a voice she recognized. Yet, she couldn’t turn back
without knowing. Josie opened the door and found herself in a
two-room suite.
The floor was the same dark wood that ran through the
entire house. The main room was painted white but the light
that came through the leaded glass windows made walls
shimmer like silver. There was a bed covered with a blue and
white Hawaiian quilt. To her left was a set of french doors, the
glass panes covered by white lace curtains. The doors stood
slightly ajar and through the lace Josie could see a woman
rocking in the high backed chair. She could just make out the
delicate shape of her head and her short, dark hair.