All the Ugly and Wonderful Things(111)

“Was that fun?” Leslie said.

“It was a whole lot of noise and people, and we were tired when we got there, but you know, we had a great ride, and we didn’t have to wait three days for a marriage license.”

“Impatient.” Wavy gave Kellen a sly look that made him grin.

“Hell, we was engaged for eight years. I’d say I was plenty patient.”

Wavy laughed. Mom scowled at her plate.

“We talked about eloping, but Leslie wanted to do the big ceremony,” Brice said.

“What was it like? You didn’t have an Elvis impersonator, did you?” Leslie said.

Mom stood up, like you would at a wedding reception to make a toast, and I thought she would finally say something to make Wavy feel welcome. All she did was put her salad and dessert plates on top of her dinner plate and gather up her silverware.

“You cooked it, Brenda. We can clear it off,” Kellen said.

She let him take the plates out of her hands. While he carried her dishes to the kitchen, the conversation was dead. Mom sat down, but without a plate to glare at, she finally looked at Wavy.

I wondered if she was doing the same thing I was doing, trying to figure out what was different about Wavy. There was something different. Not just that when Kellen came back to the table and ran his finger across his pie plate, Wavy opened her mouth and let him stick the whipped cream in. Something passed between them and he frowned.

“Oh, sweetheart, are you sure you wanna do this right now?” he said.

“Before Donal comes back.”

“Fair enough.”

Wavy took a deep breath and said, “Sean killed Val and Liam.”

Aunt Val had been dead for seven years, but finding out who killed her turned it into a fresh wound. Leslie cried. I cried. Mom fell apart. Everyone else sat there quietly, waiting for it to be over.

Finally, Leslie wiped her eyes and said, “Do the police know?”

Kellen reached for his wallet, chain rattling, and pulled out a folded sheet of notebook paper. With a worried look on his face he smoothed the paper on the table.

“No, we haven’t told the police nothing. I don’t think Donal’s ready for that. He hasn’t exactly been making friends with the cops lately. He wrote this to Wavy, while he was still in juvie, right after we found out where he was. They sent a whole lot of letters while we were trying to get the custody stuff figured out. The first half is about Sean, about the situation. Look, I don’t wanna say nothing rude. I don’t know if I—”

“Just say it,” Mom said.

“The first part is just about, you know, Sean being Donal’s father.”

Kellen wasn’t a fast reader, and he seemed worried about saying the wrong thing. I thought of offering to read it, but it was Wavy’s letter and she’d given it to him.

“That day, when you dropped Donal off at the ranch, he says he went up to the farmhouse and Liam’s bike was there and Val’s car. Donal says, ‘I could hear him yelling.’ Sean, he means. ‘You said you loved me. You promised, you bitch.’ Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

“‘And Mama was screaming, You killed him! She was crying and I was too scared to go in, because they were yelling the way Liam did. You know, how he would get crazy. I wanted to run away, but I was scared to leave Mama there.’”

Wavy stared through the dining room wall, but the rest of us watched Kellen, who put his hand over his eyes for a moment. When he went back to reading, his voice was raw.

“‘Mama was saying, No! No! And then I heard the gun. After that, it was quiet for a while. So I opened the door and saw Mama. She was on the floor with the gun in her hand, but Sean was standing over her. He told me what to say to the cops. To tell them I was alone, that nobody else was there. He made me say it over and over, so I wouldn’t screw it up. Sean said if I told anybody he was there, something bad would happen to you. That’s why I went back to the house after Sean left and took the gun. I went—”

Kellen stopped. Mom was crying again. Wavy squeezed Kellen’s arm and he said, “I don’t wanna read that part.”

“Yes,” Wavy said.

“No, sweetheart, I really don’t.”

“Please.”

After almost every sentence, I thought Kellen would cry, but he made it to the end of the letter.

“Donal says, ‘I went to the garage and I saw you and Kellen together. I’m sorry about spying on you, but I was so scared. I needed to know you were okay. If you were with Kellen, I knew you were safe. Except the cops said … he—he raped you. Maybe that was my fault, because I told the cops that I saw you on the desk in the office with him. And then after Kellen got arrested, it wasn’t safe to tell anybody. Sean always said something bad could happen to you. I didn’t know what he might do, if Kellen wasn’t there to protect you. Now that Sean’s dead, I guess I can tell you. I hope you’re really coming to visit me like your letter says. Since you’re my sister, they say I can have a contact visit with you. See you soon. Love, Donal.’”

Kellen picked up his napkin and blew his nose. He sat with his head down, until Wavy stood up and leaned over him. When he raised his head, she held his face in her hands and kissed him.

She glanced at Mom and, for a good minute, all they did was look at each other. Mom had tears running down her face, but Wavy was smiling.