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.Give me aquarter of an hour. After she had changed and washed the dog s shower bathhad left freckles of mud even on her face she went to thekitchen, accompanied by a hopeful entourage of cats.Theysat in front of the refrigerator meowing imperatively; severalof the bolder ones jumped onto the counter and tried to takepieces of chicken breast out of her hand as she put them be-tween pieces of bread. Mayo or mustard? she asked, asMary Jo entered. Mayo, please.Hold the cat hairs. She cleared the coun-ter of cats with a sweep of her arm, scooped up a doublehandful of offenders, thrust them out the door and slammedit in their outraged faces. How did you do that? Diana asked in amused respect. Takes practice.And a firm hand.I like cats, but not in myfood. She went to the refrigerator and got out a bottle of milk,moving with the brisk efficiency of a woman who has no timeto waste.Nor does she, Diana thought.Holding down Godknows how many jobs, trying to keep up with classwork.A thought occurred to her, and she voiced it aloud. Ihope I didn t do you out of a job by house-sitting this week-end. Bluntness obviously suited Mary Jo. I could use the money,sure.But I wouldn t stay here alone at night for.well, awhole semester s tuition might do it. 56 Barbara Michaels Why? You don t strike me as a timid woman. Mary Jo waved the milk carton at her; Diana nodded, andMary Jo poured a second glass.They sat down.Mary Jotook a bite of her sandwich.At first Diana thought she wastrying to avoid answering the question.As she was to learn,Mary Jo didn t avoid issues.If she chose not to answer aquestion, she would say so.After chewing in thoughtful si-lence she swallowed, and then said, It s hard to put it inwords.You d think I was nuts. I doubt it. I m not scared of much, Mary Jo said. Bats or mice orsnakes or burglars or rapists.A guy tried once.They hadto take him to the emergency room. What did you do to him? Mary Jo told her.Diana winced and grinned. Congratu-lations. He had it coming.There s not much of that kind of thingaround here, Mary Jo added calmly. You d be pretty safeanywhere, even in the Fox s Den on Saturday night. Shelaughed. Embarrassed, uncomfortable, mad as hell, butsafe. Oh? But Mary Jo did not pursue the subject.She was eatingquickly and neatly and, Diana realized, trying to find a wayto answer the original question.Finally she said, I couldn tsleep.I kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye andand not quite hearing sounds, if that makes sense. It may not make sense, but it certainly makes a strongimpression. Mary Jo s lips tightened. Now you re going to think Iwant to scare you. No.If you were trying to scare me, you d be more ex-plicit.Levitating furniture and ghostly forms Clanking chains and moaning in the dark, Mary Jo fin-ished.Her lips relaxed into a smile. Nothing like that.Icould have handled traditional spooks more easily than.Hell, there I go again.Pay no attention.The last thing I wantto do is discourage you, because I d have been stuck with thejob if you hadn t been here.I wouldn t refuse the Nicholsons Vanish with the Rose 57anything they asked, they ve been so nice to me.I didn t tellthem what I told you.Can t imagine why I did tell you.Youmust think I m a neurotic nitwit. There are a number of rational explanations for your ex-perience, Diana said. Yeah, yeah, I know. Mary Jo glanced at the clock andjumped up. I d better get cracking.Just forget what I said,okay? It wasn t possible for Diana to forget it, or to think MaryJo had invented the story.Its very vagueness testified to itshaving been a genuinely disturbing personal experience, ofthe sort that is impossible to communicate in words.Watch-ing from a discreet distance as Mary Jo dashed around fin-ishing her chores, Diana realized the other woman wasuncomfortable in the house even in daylight.They didn t speak again except for an exchange of good-byeswhen Mary Jo left.Diana stood at the open door watching asMary Jo got into her car.It was almost as old and decrepit asthe one Andy had wrecked, but not even that uncritical collec-tor would have used the word vintage to describe it.It wasjust old and undoubtedly the only kind Mary Jo could af-ford
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