Since She Went Away(109)
4. Jenna and Celia have been close friends since childhood, but they have drifted apart in the years before Celia’s disappearance. Is it unusual for close friends to drift apart like this as their adult lives change? Do you think Jenna and Celia drifted apart because Celia had moved into a higher social class? Is it possible for friends to grow close again at some point? Draw from examples in your own life, if possible.
5. On the night Celia disappeared, Jenna was late to meet her because she discovered alcohol in Jared’s room and wanted to talk to him about it. Do you think Jenna handled this the right way? Do you blame her for putting her son ahead of her friend? Why do you think Jenna feels as guilty as she does about Celia’s disappearance? Should she feel so guilty?
6. Jenna and Ian have a complicated relationship, starting all the way back in high school when the two of them almost started dating. Do you think they have unresolved feelings for each other? Are you surprised that Celia “stole” Ian away from Jenna? Would Jenna have harbored anger toward Celia? Have there been times in your life when a friend betrayed you? Were you able to forgive?
7. What role does Sally play in Jenna’s life? Is she the kind of friend who tells someone the truth even when they don’t want to hear it? Do we all need a friend like that? Do you have a friend like that, or are you that friend?
8. What did you think of Reena Huffman? What part do the news media have to play when someone like Celia disappears? Do they sometimes overstep their bounds in an effort to get a story? How can the media affect people’s perceptions of a crime? Do you think Jenna made the right decision by not going on Reena’s show?
9. William Rose is obviously not a role model as a father, so why do you think he kept Natalie with him as he traveled around? Do you think in some way he really cared for his daughter?
10. Were you surprised to find out that Ian had Celia followed in the wake of her infidelity? Do you understand why he felt he had to take extreme measures to try to keep his family together? Do you agree or disagree with what he did? What would you do if you found out your spouse was having you followed?
11. Were you surprised to find out that Ursula was responsible for Celia’s death? Can you understand at all the pressures that might have contributed to her violent outburst against her mother? How difficult would it be as a teenager to watch your parents’ marriage almost fall apart as the result of infidelity?
12. How difficult will it be for Jenna and Jared to put their lives together and move on after the end of the novel? Do you think they will maintain a relationship with Natalie?
Don’t miss another exciting novel of suspense from David Bell.
SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW
Now available from New American Library
CHAPTER ONE
When I saw the girl in the grocery store, my heart stopped.
I had turned the corner into the dairy aisle, carrying a basket with just a few items in it. Cereal. Crackers. Spaghetti. Beer. I lived alone, worked a lot, and rarely cooked. I was checking a price when I almost ran into the girl. I stopped immediately and studied her in profile, her hand raised to her mouth while she examined products through the glass door of the dairy cooler.
I felt like I was seeing a ghost.
She looked exactly like my college girlfriend, Marissa Minor, the only woman I had ever really loved. Probably the only woman who had ever really loved me.
The girl didn’t see me right away. She continued to examine the items in front of her, slowly walking away from me, her hand still raised to her mouth as though that helped her think.
The gesture really got me. It made my insides go cold. Not with fear, but with shock. With feelings I hadn’t felt in years.
Marissa used to do the very same thing. When she was thinking, she’d place her right hand on her lips, sometimes pinching them between her index finger and thumb. Marissa’s lips were always bright red—without lipstick—and full, and that gesture, that lip-twisting, thoughtful gesture, drove me wild with love and, yes, desire.
I was eighteen when I met her. Desire was always close at hand.
But it wasn’t just the gesture that this girl shared with Marissa. Her hair, thick and deep red, matched Marissa’s exactly, even the length of it, just below her shoulders. From the side, the girl’s nose came to a slightly rounded point, one that Marissa always said looked like a lightbulb. Both the girl and Marissa had brown eyes, and long, slender bodies. This girl, the one in the store, looked shorter than Marissa by a few inches, and she wore tight jeans and knee-high boots, clothes that weren’t in style when I attended college.
But other than that, they could have been twins. They really could have been.
And as the girl walked away, making a left at the end of the aisle and leaving my sight, I remained rooted to my spot, my silly little grocery basket dangling from my right hand. The lights above were bright, painfully so, and other shoppers came past with their carts and their kids and their lives. It was close to dinnertime, and people had places to go. Families to feed.
But I stood there.
I felt tears rising in my eyes, my vision starting to blur.
She looked so much like Marissa. So much.
But Marissa had been dead for just over twenty years.
? ? ?
Finally, I snapped out of it.
I reached up with my free hand and wiped my eyes.