“You should ask Caro if you’re curious,” David said irritably.
Fat chance,I thought. Carolyn didn’t like Benjamin. To her, he was a townie at worst, an upstart at best. She tolerated him because he was my date to several functions and because Edgar Yates got along with him.
“I think Mr. Wingrave is in trouble and that’s why Caro is clearly turning into a boyfriend snatcher. She’s hardly let Edgar out of her sight. Watch out, Ginny, Carolyn Wingrave is a mean competitor. She probably intends to be Queen of All Tuna,” he said.
Among his assets, Edgar’s dad had a canning facility in New Bedford, hence the cheeky reference to tuna. It was rather a cruel thing to say with David and Ginny both sitting there, even if it was true that Carolyn was playing the part of the coquette that night. But to essentially call her a gold digger, well…I figured David was going to punch Benjamin if he kept talking that way.
Ginny surprised me with a light laugh. “Carolyn may be mean, but she’s no match for me, Mr. Hoffman,” she said cheekily. “I’ll tell you a secret: Edgar proposed over the phone yesterday and I’ve accepted. You are saluting the future Queen of Tuna.”
The boys laughed. I stared at Ginny in surprise and felt as though I were the one who had been punched in the end. “But your studies!” I exclaimed.
“We won’t get married until the summer and I still intend to complete my degree.”
How likely was that? Not very, I thought. Once married, most women had to dedicate themselves to the upkeep of their home. Even if Edgar was a modern, liberal type who wouldn’t begrudge his wife’s studies, she’d live off campus. She’d commute. We would no longer share a room and we wouldn’t have conversations late into the night. She would no longer be my Ginny.
I knew she loved Edgar, not me, and I had expected Ginny to marry him, but I had thought we’d have more time together. I felt as though she were being snatched away.
I muttered a cheery-sounding congratulations but could hardly keep the tears from spilling from my eyes, and at the first chance I said I was going to get fresh air and another cup of punch.
I sat down on an iron bench by the house’s front door and stared listlessly ahead while the band inside struck up one merry tune after the other.
I’ll lose her, we’ll never go to a party like this again,I thought.
This, of course, was to be a chillingly accurate prediction. Soon she would vanish, slipping into the snowy whiteness, disappearing in the dead of night. I’ve spent years attempting to reconstruct that disappearance, to pierce the mystery of her vanishing.
Was it Santiago? Was it someone else? Did a stranger wrap his hands around lovely Ginny’s throat and squeeze the life out of her, then drag her body into a grave?
But I am getting ahead of myself.
I was sitting there, feeling bitter and melancholy, when there came Carolyn’s familiar laughter. She was walking arm in arm with David, who looked at her with renewed devotion. Benjamin and Edgar accompanied the couple. They smiled at me.
“These fine gentlemen want to drive us back to our lovely dorm before curfew strikes,” Carolyn said. “I think we can all fit in Edgar’s car if I sit on David’s lap.” She giggled and pinched her date’s cheek.
“Where’s Ginny?” Edgar asked.
“Ginny must be inside,” I said.
“She went out looking for you,” Benjamin said. “She’s been gone for a good half hour.”
We figured she’d drifted back inside, but when we walked into the ballroom, we didn’t spot her. Out we went again and circled the house, thinking maybe she was chatting with someone, and then walked in again and looked around the dining room. It was late by then and most of the girls were heading back to the dorms. We stepped out once more and began calling out to her.
Quickly everyone’s high spirits were doused, and I felt the chill of the night against my skin, wrapping tight the long black cape that was part of my costume. We yelled her name. I strained my eyes trying to spot her.
Then I saw her running toward us. Even in the darkness and at that distance I sensed something terrible had happened to her. Her mouth was open as if she wished to scream, yet no sound came out.
I dashed in Ginny’s direction, and she sobbed when I reached her and threw my arms around her. I held her tight as she shivered.
“Ginny, what’s happened?” I asked.
In a few moments the others were next to us. Ginny turned her face toward Edgar and reached for him, disentangling herself from my embrace and hugging him.
“Ginny, darling,” he said, pressing a kiss against her brow, “where have you been?”
“I went to look for Betty, but then I saw you walking ahead, Edgar, and I followed you. At least, I thought it was you,” she said. “It seemed like you from behind, but when I called out you didn’t turn toward me and you kept walking. I thought maybe you were playing a game.”
“I was inside,” Edgar said.
Ginny didn’t seem to hear him; her eyes were bright and large as she spoke. “Then there was a bend in the road, and you were gone. I figured I’d mistaken someone else for you and began walking back toward the dance. I was alone, yet after a few paces I felt as if someone was looking at me.
