At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)(101)

Sophie hated loud voices unless they were hers. She didn't like the way grownups shouted at each other and then made the children pay the price. She lay there for an awfully long time, listening to the sounds. Her mind danced all over the place. She thought about all the people she had met today. She thought about how much fun she had playing outside with Sage's and Morocco's children. She thought about the food and the music and Gracie and the poor bird she had found on the beach. She didn't want to think about the bird but every time she closed her eyes she saw him lying there, scared and cold and alone on the rocky beach.

What if there were other birds on the beach who needed help too? There could be lots of them all tangled up in fishing line, hoping somebody would come along and save them. The more she thought about the birds, the sadder she felt, until there was nothing left to do but go down to the beach and see for herself.

At least at the beach she wouldn't be able to hear Papa and Gracie fighting.





#





Ruth had been about to retire for the night when Noah and Gracie burst into the room. Their clothes were wrinkled. Gracie's hair was decidedly untidy. She would have thought they were fresh from a romantic encounter if the air between them hadn't sizzled with anger.

"What is it?" she asked, trying to seem her usual calm and placid self. "Is something wrong?"

"We need to talk," Noah said. He didn't sound like her son. The fierceness of his tone made her uneasy.

"Noah has some questions," Gracie began and Ruth could see the fear in her eyes. "If this isn't a good time..."

"It's about my father and Mona Taylor," Noah interrupted.

Ruth's eyes closed for a moment. Just hearing Mona's name brought back so many memories, both painful and sweet, that she felt overcome with emotion. She drew in a deep breath then looked at her son. "They dated in high school," she said, "but you probably already knew that."

"I don't give a damn about high school," he said. "I want to know about after."

"There is no 'after'," she said quietly. "Mona married Ben the year after graduation. I married your father three months later. There isn't much to tell."

You're a coward, Ruth. He deserves better than this... they both do.

"Is that what you wanted to know?" she asked.

Gracie pulled at his sleeve. "This isn't a good time," she said. "Your mother's tired."

"Not at all," Ruth lied. "It's just a very old story. I'm surprised you're interested."

"He loved Mona, didn't' t he?" Noah persisted. "He loved her enough to leave you for her."

Ruth laughed nervously. "Where on earth did you hear such a thing?"

"That's how Gracie's mother died. She was on her way to meet my father... they were running off together—"

"No!" Gracie broke in. "That's not true. Simon was lying. My mother was on her way back home from taking me to the pediatrician for a checkup. She had a quart of milk in the car, Noah, and donuts for Ben. She wasn't running off with Simon. She was going home."

"Gracie's right," Ruth said, taking another step toward releasing her burden. "I saw Mona at the convenience store just before the accident and she had laughed about those donuts with Willie Sloane who was at the register that day. She said Ben's belly was bigger than hers had been at nine months along. She saw me standing near the newspapers and we just looked at each other across the store for what seemed like the longest time, then she gathered up her change, grabbed her groceries, then left." It was the last time Ruth saw Mona alive. "I always wondered if I could have stopped it somehow... if I had said something to her... delayed her for five or ten seconds... maybe—" What was the point? Mona was gone and Ruth was here and there were days when Ruth wasn't sure which woman was the luckier.

Gracie cried softly. Ruth's words had found their mark deep inside the young woman's heart. It was her mother, after all, who had been at the center of the drama. It was her mother who had died. Noah, however, hurt too much to hear what she was saying. Ruth had lived with the truth for so long now that she had almost forgotten the way unbearable pain obscured everything but the source. It was a lesson she had prayed her son would never have occasion to learn.

See what you've done, Ruth? It's all catching up with you...