AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She wraps her arms around my shoulders and rises on her toes to kiss me. I grunt into our kiss, wrapping my arms around her.
“I’m not going anywhere, Arsène Corbin. Whether you like it or not, I will always be your home. I will always wait for you, like the poster. I’m your family now.”
I believe her.
EPILOGUE
WINNIE
“I am a seagull.”
Only I do not symbolize destruction, the way Treplev demolished the seagull in Chekhov’s play.
I represent freedom, and healing, and tranquility.
I once read somewhere that seagulls are one of only a few species on Earth that are able to drink saltwater. How amazing it must be. To defy nature like that.
The theater lights pound over my face hotly as I finish my monologue, Rahim by my side. My feet are firm on the stage, and I know that’s where I belong.
And when I deliver my closing line, when the curtains are drawn, when the audience is on its feet, giving us a standing ovation, and I hold my colleagues’ hands—my secondfamily’s, home away from home—I know I made the right choice. That staying in Mulberry Creek was never my calling.
“Can’t believe you almost gave all of this up,” Rahim whispers in my ear, as if reading my mind.
“Can’t believe you didn’t run after me to stop me.” I squeeze his hand in mine.
He laughs. “There were moments I was tempted to.”
Backstage, Ma, Dad, Lizzy, and Georgie are all waiting for me. Georgie jumps on me, knotting her legs around me in a sloth hug, as always. “Oh my God, you don’t even suck a little bit. What’s the opposite of embarrassed?”
“Proud?” I murmur, squashed to her chest.
“Yes!” she exclaims. “That’s how I feel about you right now.”
“Georgie!” Ma chides, peeling my sister off me as I laugh breathlessly. “What a terrible thing to say to your sister.”
Momma gives me a fierce hug, and I tremble a little in her arms. Lizzy’s and Dad’s turns are next.
“Y’all can give it to me straight if I need to find a new day job,” I say. I don’t mean it, though. I could have the acting chops of an expired Twinkie, and I still wouldn’t give up this dream of mine. Especially as Lucas was kind enough to give it back to mebeforehe found out I’m about to be the owner of Calypso Hall.
I don’t like you one bit, Winnie, and I want you to know that. But no one does Nina better than you.
As it turned out, I learned how to like myself in the process, because now my hands are going to be full. I’m also opening a theater class in Brooklyn, free of charge, for at-risk youth.
“You did amazing, honey,” Dad says.
“So good I cried three times!” Lizzy bellows.
“You always cry,” Georgie points out, side-eyeing her. “You literally cried when they ran out of your favorite peanut butter at the grocery store.”
I’m about to turn around and look for the one person I long to see now, but Chrissy and Arya—the latter holding little Louie in her arms—charge toward me from the distance like possessed rugby players.
“It’s so good to have you back!” Arya kisses my cheeks.
“Literally,” Chrissy adds, plucking Louie from Arya’s arms and cooing at him. “I thought Lucas was going to commit murder if he didn’tfind a new, suitable Nina. You know he used to call me five times a day asking if I could bring you back? At one point he suggested we shouldsedateyou.”
“I’m here, and I’m getting my butt kicked for ditching him.” I laugh, stealing a sleepy Louie from her hands, breathing the sweet toddler in.
Lucas has been making me stick around after shows for a daily minitalk, just to assure him I’m not going anywhere. He also changedThe Seagull’s poster so that the entire cast is featured before me. That’s fair. He shouldn’t have given me a second chance after what happened in the first place.
