At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)(46)

The cemetery was jammed with mourners, row and rows of people, every single one of them there to honor Gramma Del. The crowd from Patsy's, the school, church, the Gazette, everyone at the animal hospital including Doctor Jim, her friends from high school. Even Noah's mother had made a brief appearance at the church, just long enough to give Gracie a swift hug in the vestibule before she disappeared. Gracie didn't ask any questions. She was merely grateful that Mrs. Chase had shown up at all. It was more than her father had done.

The crew from Walker's Funeral Home had told her that her father showed up right after she and Noah walked out onto the dock. He had taken one look at the hearse then turned and bolted. There had been random sightings over the last two days, always at a bar or tavern, but beyond that, nothing. She knew what that meant. Her father's boozing had formed the pattern of her days. She told herself she wasn't disappointed, that this was no more than she had learned to expect from her father, but it was all a lie.

This time she thought he was going to make it. He had been sober for almost six months. He went to work each day at the church, helping to rebuild the rectory inside and out. She knew it was a struggle but he'd been hanging onto sobriety for the first time she could remember. When she told Gramma Del how excited she was for him, Gramma had only nodded and continued watching Wheel of Fortune.

Anger filled her chest. She was angry for all the lost years, for the little girl who had looked up to a father who couldn't see her through the haze of booze. She was angry for Gramma Del who deserved so much more from her son than she had ever received. If Ben had dared to show up she would have—

She heard him before she saw him. He must have bumped into one of the other mourners because his "Excuse me" seemed to shatter the stillness of the cemetery like the sound of glass breaking beneath a sledge. She looked up at Noah. His gaze was riveted to a spot slightly behind her and to the right and she turned around, knowing what she was about to see.

Ben walked slowly toward her. She saw nothing but her father; heard nothing but the slide of grass beneath his shoes. He wore dark pants with bent creases, a white shirt and a navy blue tie. His eyes were red-rimmed and glassy. The corners of his mouth were turned down in sorrow. From forty feet away she could see the splotchy skin and the broken veins spidering his cheeks and nose. That he had the nerve to show up at Gramma Del's graveside after a two-day drunk pushed Gracie over the edge.

"Get out," she said as he came closer.

He stopped for a moment then took another step forward. "Graciela, I'm sorry."

"Get out," she repeated, dimly aware of Noah by her side.

"I have a right to be here," her father said.

"You gave up your right to be here when you got back in your car and hauled ass the night Gramma died."

"I made a mistake."

"You've made lots of them."

"You're right. Let me make up for it. Your grandmother deserves a proper goodbye."

"You should have thought of that when you missed her funeral mass."

"Gracie, I'm sorry. I—" His words stopped cold as he focused in on Noah. "You're the Chase boy, aren't you."

Noah nodded and shifted his weight from his left foot to his right. "Noah," he said and extended his right hand.

Ben ignored it. "You're not welcome here," Ben said in a voice loud enough to be heard in Cape Cod. "Get the hell out before I have you thrown out."

Noah's face reddened but he stood his ground. "I'd like to pay my respects to Mrs. Taylor and to Gracie," he said, his voice steady and calm. For the first time Gracie saw him not as the boy she had always loved, but as a man.

"Your parents didn't think they had to come around. Why should you?" Ben was in his face, jabbing at Noah's chest with an angry forefinger.

"Mrs. Taylor was always kind to me. I figure it's the least I could do for her."

"Get out," Ben said, jabbing Noah again. "We don't need anything from you or from your family."

"Please!" Gracie stepped between them. She was shaking so violently she thought she would collapse. "He's here for Gramma Del. Don't take that away from her because you hold some stupid grudge against the Chases."

"Don't go poking your nose where you don't belong, Graciela." Ben stumbled over his words in a stink of Pepsodent and Johnnie Walker Red. "You don't know what came before."