Chapter 41
It was soup weather, inside and out, but all they had was tuna and some stale white bread. There wasn’t even any lettuce or celery in the fridge. Hannah stood with the pantry door open and scanned the shelves again and again, hoping to spot something she’d somehow missed.
The rain had dampened everyone’s spirits as it often did on the island, though the Barefooters were the least susceptible of all. Usually when it rained on Captain’s, the four women pulled out the board games and playing cards and played with enthusiasm, injecting their own brand of fun by creating new and crazy rules for every game. Suddenly, Monopoly involved dares and poker bets included storytelling. Later in the day, cocktails would be mixed and the singing and dancing would begin.
Today, though, it was different. Perhaps it was the intensity of their conversation the night before. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that Aunt Amy had slept on the couch and Aunt Zo on the stiff narrow daybed in the sun room. Both were uncomfortable places to sleep, but they had all insisted on a “sleepover”, letting Hannah remain in the master bedroom with Aunt Pam taking Jacob’s bedroom.
The most likely culprit was the whispered argument between Aunt Amy and Aunt Zo that Hannah had overheard early this morning when she was halfway down the stairs en route to the bathroom, an argument that ended with the front door slamming. Hannah, paused on a step, could only make out a few of the words spoken, but her name and her mother’s were among them. “Time” also was mentioned by both of them. After the door slammed, Hannah snuck back up to her room and waited a while, legs crossed in discomfort from her full bladder, before venturing back downstairs to the bathroom.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she spotted Aunt Amy standing in the living room and looking out the window. So the slammed door had been Aunt Zo leaving, walking out into the rain. If Amy heard Hannah’s footsteps on the stairs, she didn’t acknowledge it, her gaze trained on the boardwalk. Later, after Hannah dressed and came back down for breakfast, she found Aunt Pam sitting in her robe at the kitchen table with her iPad, furiously typing with knitted brows. She looked up when Hannah entered.
“Hey, sweetie. Sorry, stupid things going on with work, as always. I can never leave without something blowing up. And I’ve got to get this press release out, too, but after that we’ll look at those albums. I made coffee, if you want some,” Aunt Pam said and tilted her head at the range where the old-fashioned stainless steel percolator was sitting. Hannah got a cup, savoring it more than usual as Pam was far better at making coffee than she was, and then sat down across from Pam and watched her godmother type and sigh. In the living room, she could hear Aunt Amy’s husky voice, her tone reasonable but firm, clearly talking on her cell to one of her sons.
Hannah hadn’t thought about it until now, the difficulty these women must have had extricating themselves from their busy lives to come to the island. They probably had to scramble. Aunt Pam had her busy PR business and her son, Jacob, who wasn’t old enough yet to be without supervision. Aunt Amy had three energetic young boys and a dog to care for and, Gus, Amy’s husband, was already overloaded running a general contracting business. Gus had to have been pulled in to this drama, too. And Aunt Zo – well, she was the only one who really could easily find time, and she had always gone out of her way for Hannah.
Yesterday, Hannah’s heart had finally felt light, but now it was heavy as ever. They had dropped everything to come out here and take care of Hannah, their worry obvious. They had come to tell her the truth about Keeley’s childhood, which had been horrible and sad, and in some ways, relieving. Her mother hadn’t left her alone all those times because she didn’t love Hannah. She left, maybe, because she didn’t know how to handle being a mother. If only she could talk to her mother, really talk. If only her mother would let her past that high bolted gate that guarded her heart.
The thing was, even after a wonderful day spent with her godmothers, even with Aunt Amy’s tale told, the problems – her defective relationship with her mother, the venomous novel that should never have been written, her broken engagement, her self-destructing life – were still all waiting for her this morning. All the sacrifices that her aunts had made, their efforts to cheer her and to inform her, didn’t change a thing. And the saddest part was that they thought it fixed everything, that all that was wrong was a misunderstanding between Keeley and Hannah, one that could be resolved by the telling of Keeley’s family’s tragic history.
Now Aunt Amy and Aunt Pam were sitting in the sun room, poring over their photo albums and reminiscing, forgetting their originally stated goal of helping Hannah see how well-loved she was. Well, Hannah didn’t need that, anyway. She knew she’d been loved, knew it now that it was too late, now that the poison had been unleashed. What she did need, though, was for Aunt Zo to come back. She had started to worry. Crazy Mrs. McGrath was out there somewhere, spewing her own poison. Hannah closed her eyes and said a prayer. Please, God, protect my Aunt Zo and bring her safely back soon. Please let her and Aunt Amy stop fighting. Please help me with-
There was a knock on the front door, shave and a haircut. Hannah’s eyes flew open. Oh, no! Was it Mrs. McGrath? She had knocked, too, though shave-and-a-haircut seemed too jaunty and joking for that miserable woman. Hannah shut the pantry door and walked into the living room. Amy and Pam had gotten up and were looking out the window, smiling. They turned to her. “Someone’s got visitors,” Pam sang out.
“What? Who?”
Amy nodded at her, smiling a Cheshire Cat grin. “Go and see.”
Hannah ran to the door and threw it open.
Her mother stood on the front porch wearing jeans and a huge forest-green poncho, hand on hip, blond hair wild and curling in the moist air. She was leaning against her umbrella as if she was about to break into a dance number like something from Singing in the Rain. “Hannah-banana-fo-fanna, what are you up to? I hear you’re entertaining some middle-aged delinquents around here and I wasn’t invited. I mean, what’s up with that? Come on! I am the ultimate middle-aged delinquent. Huh? C’mere, you. Give me a hug,” she said and opened her arms wide, letting the umbrella drop to the floor.
“Oh, Mom,” Hannah said and went gratefully into her Keeley’s arms, which wrapped around Hannah’s waist as Keeley was almost a full head shorter than her daughter. Her mother’s hair smelled like lemon and sunshine and a little musk, her own personal scent like none other. She never wore perfume.
They stood, quietly hugging for a minute, and then Hannah opened her eyes and saw Daniel, standing a little ways off on the walkway to the house, hands in pockets. He pulled his right hand out of his pocket and gave a little wave at her while shrugging a little.
“Daniel,” Hannah said softly.
“That’s right,” Keeley said, stepping back and extending her arm and then waving him closer. “You two kiss and make up. Enough of these shenanigans. I’ve got a wedding to help plan, and you two are just being ridiculous. Come on! Kiss! Make up!”
Daniel stepped onto the front porch but then stopped, his gaze falling on Hannah’s bare left hand. Hannah stuffed her hands in the front pockets of her khakis.
Keeley looked back and forth between the two of them. “Oh, fine. You want some privacy? I’ve got a whole cooler of goodness right here that needs to get in the fridge anyway.” She turned around, stooped and picked up a large red cooler with a little grunt and then walked over and stood in front of the screen door. She yelled, “You know? You guys really are delinquents. Is someone going to help me with this door, or what?”
Then Amy and Pam came rushing out, chattering and laughing and hugging Keeley and then bearing the cooler away. The door snapped shut after them, the cacophony from their raised voices inside the little house sounding like a small party.
Hannah looked back at Daniel. “Will you let me explain this time?”
He looked at her sadly and shook his head. “Why? It’s obvious. I shouldn’t have even come out here. This was all your mother’s idea. She insisted. I shouldn’t have listened. You didn’t call.”
“You didn’t want me to call! You’re so mad at me, and you want answers that I just don’t know right now.”
“You’re right. I didn’t want you to call, not now anyway. I should go.”
She took two steps forward and grabbed his right hand that still dangled at his side. “Please don’t go. Please.” She looked up into his handsome craggy face, searching his eyes for that open warmth she had always taken for granted.