Two Truths and a Lie(72)

“Sure thing. Intro to the Stock Market. Remember I told you I had her in class?” He looked proud, spine straight, eyes eager and alert, like Bernice when she’d done something special and was waiting for a reward.

“Wow,” said Rebecca. “Well, I think you did a really good job. She seems like an actual expert. But—” She paused. “But don’t you think it’s terrible, that I didn’t know about it? It makes me feel like such a bad mother. I found out from Morgan, of all people. I used to be the one who told Morgan things that she didn’t know, and now Morgan is schooling me. My own daughter.” They continued along the path to where it curved toward the formal Italian and rose gardens, which were part of the original estate and were still kept up by the park service. In these gardens roses and other flowers grew willfully, abundantly.

“I don’t think it’s terrible at all,” said Daniel. “I think it’s the opposite of terrible. I think it’s fantastic. Really. Teenagers do all sorts of things without their parents’ knowledge. You know that.”

“I know,” said Rebecca morosely. “I was a teenager once too.”

“Much of it way, way worse than secretly learning about the stock market. Believe me. I’ve been teaching high school since the dawn of the Internet. And at the risk of sounding self-referential, I couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait to see some of these videos myself!”

Daniel’s unbridled enthusiasm put Rebecca at ease, and she reached down and unclipped Bernice’s leash from her collar, allowing her to indulge in some illegal off-leash walking. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “No, I don’t guess you’re right. You are right. You are. There’s no harm done, right? And it’s just for now. She probably won’t keep up with any of this once she leaves for college.”

“Exactly,” said Daniel. “I think that’s exactly right.”

“But what do I do? Do I confront her about it? Do I put some limits on her?”

She could tell Daniel was thinking long and hard about this because furrows appeared on his forehead. “You know what? I wouldn’t. I’d give it some time, a week or two, maybe more. Does she seem happy?”

Rebecca thought about seeing Alexa and Cam walking pleasantly down Pleasant Street; she thought about how Alexa was helping Sherri out whenever she needed it—sometimes, Sherri had told her, free of charge! “Happier than I’ve seen her in a long time,” she admitted.

“Then let it be, for now. Give yourself some time to figure out how you feel about it. When the time feels right, have a talk with Alexa. That’s what I would do. Wait here for a sec,” he said.

Daniel climbed the few small steps to the rose gardens, and Rebecca stayed behind with Bernice, who was sniffing around the small pet cemetery, where the estate owners had purportedly buried favorite horses and dogs. Rebecca at first imagined that Bernice was paying homage but then she saw that actually she was relieving herself.

Every time Rebecca was in Maudslay she thought about all of the lives spent on the grounds, where once people had lived grandly and where now there remained only a few scattered outlines of structures: parts of the stone foundation of one of the homes, a thicket-choked understructure of a swimming pool, a root cellar. These surroundings at once gave Rebecca a sense of peace and well-being and shot her through with a reminder of the smallness of her life in the vast historical landscape, where one day they would all be rubble and dust.

Wow, that was morbid. She looked up to see Daniel coming toward her with a rose plucked from one of the bushes.

“A rose for my rose,” he said.

“That’s illegal!” said Rebecca, delighted and horrified. She looked around to see if a ranger might be lurking. First her dog had desecrated the pet cemetery, and now this. “This is a state park! You’re going to get us arrested.”

He tucked the rose behind her ear and kissed her, in front of God and Bernice and everyone else. “I don’t care,” he said. “It’s worth it. I’ve missed you, Rebecca Coleman. I’m glad you’ve come back to me.” Then he said, “Are you free today? Maybe we can find a summer adventure.”





54.





Alexa


Alexa’s mother rapped on her door at nine in the morning, which was about ninety minutes earlier than Alexa generally considered acceptable, and then opened the door without being invited to do so. Alexa, who had been sleeping deeply, raised her head and said, “What?”

“I’m sorry to wake you,” said her mother. “But I have to be gone for a lot of the day and Morgan will be at loose ends. Do you think you could keep an eye on her?”

Alexa had the day off from the Cottage. She flopped back on her pillow and pulled the comforter over her face. “Okay,” she said, her voice muffled by the comforter. “I can do that. But where are you going?”

“Oh, here and there,” said her mother. Alexa felt her mother pause in the doorway but she didn’t move her head from the comforter. “Alexa? Are you sure you’re okay? About Tyler and . . . Cam? Is there anything you want to talk about? Or maybe something not related to Tyler and Cam? Just . . . anything at all? You can talk to me about anything, you know.”

“Nope,” said Alexa. “I’m good.”