Ширли Мерфи - Poor Jenny, Bright As A Penny

“We could stay on our own,” Bingo said.

She picked up the telegram and folded it neatly. “We’ll stay until New Year’s so the Dermodys will have the holidays to themselves until Barbara goes back to school.” She turned away from him. “I’d better put the turkey on. Then let’s go out into the snow.”

As she began to peel the onions she thought angrily, We never were a real family. Not really. Because Mama didn’t care.

Could we stay here alone? I’m not a child any more. But I guess I’m not so independent, either, sometimes I want dreadfully for someone to take care of me. Oh, I don’t want to run to Georgie and spoil their Christmas. And yet I do want to. I’m all in between.

Crystal was in between, Jenny thought suddenly. She stopped her work and stared out at the snow. Crystal was in between! Crystal didn’t want childhood and she didn’t want to be grown up either. She was just lost in between, trying to find something to hang onto.

And suddenly the tragedy of Crystal rose like thunder around her. She gripped the back of the chair and bent double with the agony and the great sobs that shook her. All the tears that were locked inside came now, all the tears she had not shed came now.

*

We are home. The view from my window of the snow-covered rooftops is magical, it is my window now, and my room forever. Georgie says it is. Bingo is so happy. Sam came running to greet him the minute he heard our voices and he mewed and mewed, he will hardly leave Bingo.

We came up on New Year’s Day, walked up through such a heavy snow storm we could hardly see, a whirling mass of snowflakes so thick that nothing of the world was visible. Perhaps there was nothing else at all and when we stepped out of it into the Dermody house we were in another world.

Jack opened the door for us. The house was bright and the lighted tree was a thousand colors. Jack said quietly, “Welcome home. A very welcome home.” Georgie hugged us and cried, and Ben gave me a kiss on the forehead. I wanted to throw my arms around him and try a real kind of kiss on him, but I didn’t.

It’s nearly midnight now. The snow has stopped and the trees below my window look like they’re wrapped in white gauze. Ben built a fire and we talked and talked. We had eggnog and drank a toast to New Year’s Day. Georgie said, “It’s going to be a special year!” We put some records on and Jack danced with me and I almost cried I had such a feeling of warmth and safety. When I came upstairs and saw my desk and the typewriter waiting for me, and a big new stack of white paper that Georgie had put there it was as if someone really cared about me, about what I am inside. I can feel a great fit of writing coming on. I want to just dive into it. There’s so much I want to say. I wonder, am I ready to try a story with a publisher? Georgie says it’s hard getting started, that you’re bound to get rejection slips before you sell a story, that it’s kind of shattering every time you get one. I guess it would be. She said, “You’re tough, though. You can take it.”

I guess I can, then. I guess someday soon I’ll try. Maybe that’s what life is all about, loving it enough to really try, and being tough enough to get over the hard places.

*

A tear fell on the page and she looked at it with surprise, then got up and went to the mirror.

Her eyes were bright with tears and with happiness. She looked at herself as if searching for something, then she opened her window so the icy air washed over her and gazed out at the glittering night.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shirley Rousseau Murphy grew up in southern California, riding and showing the horses her father trained. She attended the San Francisco Art institute and later worked as an interior designer while her husband attended USC. “When Pat finished school, I promptly quit my job and began to exhibit paintings and welded metal sculpture in the West Coast juried shows.” Her work could also be seen in many traveling shows in the western States and Mexico. “When we moved to Panama for a four-year tour in Pat’s position with the U.S. Courts, I put away the paints and welding torches, and began to write.” After leaving Panama they lived in Oregon, Atlanta, and northern Georgia before returning to California, where they now live by the sea.

In addition to this novel, Murphy wrote eight Young Adult fantasy novels (also available as ebooks) plus many children’s books before turning to adult fantasy with The Catswold Portal and the Joe Grey cat mystery series, which so far includes sixteen novels and for which she is now best known. She is the winner of five Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists Author of the Year awards as well as eight Muse Medallion awards from the national Cat Writers Association.

MORE EBOOKS BY SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY

The Shattered Stone

An omnibus containing the first two books of the five originally published as the Children of Ynell series. To be a Seer, gifted with telepathic and visionary powers, means death or enslavement by the dark powers determined to conquer the world of Ere. In The Ring of Fire , young Seers set out to free others who are imprisoned, aided by the shard of a mysterious runestone. In The Wolf Bell , a gifted child seeks the stone itself, aided by thinking wolves and pursued by an evil Seer who wants it.

The Runestone of Eresu

An omnibus containing the last three novels of the five originally published as the Children of Ynell series— The Castle of Hape, Caves of Fire and Ice , and The Joining of the Stone —which tell of the adult lives of the characters in The Shattered Stone . Ramad of the Wolves, leader of his fellow Seers, knows it is up to him to find and rejoin the shards of the shattered Runestone of Eresu, which alone can save their world from the dark. Following his true love Telien into unknown reaches of Time, he is followed in turn by the Seer Skeelie, who also loves him. But only far forward in Time can the final battle against the dark forces be fought.

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 1: Nightpool

As dark raiders invade the world of Tirror, a singing dragon awakens from her long slumber, searching for the human who can vanquish the forces of evil—Tebriel, son of the murdered king. Teb has found refuge in Nightpool, a colony of talking otters. But a creature of the Dark is also seeking him, and the battle to which he is drawn will decide Tirror’s future.

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 2: The Ivory Lyre

The bard Tebriel and his singing dragon Seastrider together can weave powerful spells. With other dragons searching for their own bards, they have been inciting revolts throughout the enslaved land of Tirror. Only if they can contact underground resistance fighters and find the talisman hidden in Dacia will they have a chance to break the Dark’s hold on the world.

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 3: The Dragonbards

Only the dragonbards and their singing dragons have the power to unite the people and animals of Tirror into an army that can break the Dark’s hypnotic hold over the world. Before their leader Tebriel can challenge the hordes gathering for the final battle, he must confront the dark lord Quazelzeg face to face in the Castle of Doors, a warp of time and space.