eye contact. Striding to the front door, he turned and smiled before opening it. “Bye,” he said and was gone.
When she returned to her room, she found Alice putting fresh towels in the bathroom.
“You seem like you’re doing a lot better today, Miss Marnie. I was lookin’ for you earlier, to be sure you were OK, and Cook said you and Mr. David went out for lunch.”
“Yes, he took me to the Roadhouse.”
Alice said nothing, but the look on her face registered disapproval.
“He told me I used to work there. I think he was hoping that going there would bring up some memories.”
“Did it?”
“No, it didn’t.” Marnie went to one of the armchairs in front of the window and sat down. “Alice, David told me you have known me since I was a little girl.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Since the doctor has said people can tell me some things about my past, would you come sit with me and visit? Please? I have to get some clue about why I am the person David and Ruth say I am. They are painting a terrible picture of the things I’ve done.”
Alice went to the chair facing Marnie and sat down. “Ever since you came home with no memory, I’ve been thinking a lot about those days and what you were like then.”
“Tell me. What was I like?”
“You were just a little girl when you and your mother moved in across the hall from me. That was in the Green Oaks Apartments over on Poplar Street. She and your papa had just gotten a divorce.”
“My parents! You know, Alice, in all this trouble, I haven’t given any thought to my mother and father. Does she still live here? Where is my father?”
“No, honey. She died about five or six years ago. I don’t know nothin’ about your papa, whether he’s still alive or not. I never knew him. I think he lived in Phoenix. She mentioned that one time.”
“I’m sorry I interrupted. Please go on.”
“Anyway, Pamela had just gotten a divorce and a job. I don’t remember right off where you moved here from, Phoenix maybe, but she got a job as secretary to Mr. Robert Barrett, David’s father, and moved here. Like I said, she moved in right across the hall. I was already working here in this house. I’ve been a maid here since I was old enough to work. I was part time when I was in high school, helping out with parties and such. When I graduated, I had a job working at the five and dime, but when another maid quit, I came to work here and I’ve been here ever since.
“That sort of made a connection between me and Pamela, both working for the same folks. Of course, she was in a different class from me. She was real high class, always dressed to the nines, she was, and I’m just working folk.”
Marnie leaned forward and rested her forearms on her legs. “What did she look like, Alice? Do I look like her?”
“No, you don’t. Well, maybe I’m wrong about that. You have her chin and mouth. But her coloring was different. She kept her hair blond, but I think her natural color was light brown. That’s what color her eyebrows were, and that’s usually how you tell. You must have gotten your dark hair and eyes from your papa.”
“This is so interesting, Alice. Thank you for sharing.” She leaned back in the chair. “Did I ever get to see my father?”
“Not that I ever knew, and I think I’d know. I’d baby-sit you when your mother went out, which wasn’t very often, or when she had to work late, which she did a lot. You’d come across the hall to my place or else I’d go across to yours. She and I were friends, but she didn’t tell me her personal stuff.”
“Doctor Means said I was always getting scrapes and bruises when I was a kid.”
Alice laughed. “Yes, you were. You was never interested in playing dolls with the other girls in the neighborhood. You followed the boys instead, on your bike or roller skates. At that age, they’d try to avoid you or run you off, but you were a persistent little thing. You tried your best to keep up.”
“The doctor told me I broke my arm when I was ten trying to get into their treehouse.”
Alice gave another chuckle. “Yes, I remember that time. The boys had a treehouse in that great big oak tree