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Afterward, they drove into Southport and had di
It was a good day, a day she knew she’d always remember. But as she sat alone in the living room after her dad had gone to bed, she once again found herself thinking that there was something more she could do for him.
The following week, the third week of September, she began to notice that her dad was getting worse. He now slept until midmorning and took another nap in the afternoon. Though he’d been taking naps regularly, the naps began to lengthen, and he went to bed earlier in the evenings. As she cleaned the kitchen for want of anything better to do, she realized after adding it all up that he was now sleeping more than half the day.
It only got worse after that. With every passing day, he slept a little longer. He also wasn’t eating enough. Instead, he moved his food around the plate and made a show of eating; when she scraped the remains into the garbage, she realized he’d only been nibbling. He was losing weight steadily now, and every time she blinked, she had the sense that her dad was getting smaller. Sometimes she was frightened by the thought that one day there would be nothing left of him at all.
September came to an end. In the mornings, the salty smell of the ocean was kept at bay by the winds from the mountains in the eastern part of the state. It was still hot, high season for hurricanes, but as yet the coast of North Carolina had been spared.
The day before, her dad had slept for fourteen hours. She knew he couldn’t help it, that his body gave him no choice, but she ached at the thought that he was sleeping through most of the little time he had left. When her dad was awake, he was quieter now, content to read the Bible or walk slowly with her in silence.
More often than she expected, she found herself thinking about Will. She still wore the macramé bracelet he had given her, and as she ran her finger over its intricate weave, she wondered what classes he was taking, whom he walked beside on the greens as he moved from one building to the next. She was curious whom he sat next to when he ate in the cafeteria and whether he ever thought of her as he got ready to go out on a Friday or Saturday night. Perhaps, she thought in her lowest moments, he’d already met someone new.
“Do you want to talk about it?” her dad asked one day as they strolled along the beach. They were making their way toward the church. Since the construction had started up again, things were moving fast. The crew was massive: framers, electricians, men who specialized in trim carpentry or drywall. There were at least forty trucks on the work site, and people flowed in and out of the building constantly.
“About what?” she asked carefully.
“About Will,” he said. “The way it ended between the two of you.”
She gave him an appraising stare. “How could you possibly know about that?”
He shrugged. “Because you’ve mentioned him only in passing over the past few weeks, and you never talk to him on the phone. It’s not hard to figure out that something happened.”
“It’s complicated,” she said reluctantly.
They walked a few steps in silence before her dad spoke again. “If it matters to you, I thought he was an exceptional young man.”
She looped her arm through his. “Yes, it does matter. And I thought so, too.”
By then, they’d reached the church. She could see workers carrying in loads of lumber and cans of paint, and as usual her eyes sought out the empty space beneath the steeple. The window hadn’t been installed yet-most of the construction had to be completed first to prevent the fragile glass pieces from cracking-but her dad still liked to visit. He was pleased by the renewed construction, but not primarily because of the window. He spoke constantly of how important the church was to Pastor Harris and how much the pastor missed preaching in the place that he’d long considered a second home.
Pastor Harris was always on site, and usually he would walk down to the beach to visit with them when they arrived. Looking around now, she spotted him standing in the gravel parking lot. He was talking to someone as he gestured animatedly at the building. Even from a distance, she could tell he was smiling.
She was about to wave in an attempt to get his attention when she suddenly recognized the man he was talking to. The sight startled her. The last time she’d seen him, she’d been distraught; the last time they’d been together, he hadn’t bothered to say good-bye. Perhaps Tom Blakelee had simply been driving by and stopped to talk to the pastor about the rebuilding of the church. Maybe he was just interested.
For the rest of the week, she watched for Tom Blakelee when they visited the site, but she never saw him there again. Part of her was relieved, she admitted, that their worlds no longer intersected.
After their walks to the church and her dad’s afternoon nap, they usually read together. She finished A
Her dad continued to study his Bible, and sometimes he’d read a passage or verse aloud at her request. Some were short and others were long, but many of them seemed to focus on the meaning of faith. She wasn’t sure why, but she sometimes got the sense that the act of reading them aloud had shed light on a nuance or meaning that he had previously missed.
Di
One night after di
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” she said. “You can ask me anything.”
“When you told me that you were in love with Will, did you mean it?”
She remembered Megan asking her the same question. “Yes.”
“Then I think you might have been too hard on him.”
“But he was covering up a crime…”
“I know. But if you think about it, you’re now in the same position that he was. You know the truth, just as he did. And you’ve said nothing to anyone either.”
“But I didn’t do it…”
“And you said that he didn’t either.”
“What are you trying to say? That I should tell Pastor Harris?”
He shook his head. “No,” he said to her surprise. “I don’t think you should.”
“Why?”
“Ro
“But-”
“I’m not saying I’m right. I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong about a lot of things. But if everything is just as you described it, then I want you to know this: Pastor Harris doesn’t want to know the truth. Because if he does, he’ll have to do something about it. And trust me, he would never want to hurt Scott or his family, especially if it was an accident. He’s just not that kind of man. And one more thing. And of everything I’ve said, this is the most important.”