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Was it because Allison just hadn’t wanted her to know? Or was it something else?
But a girl deserved to know her father, didn’t she? And if this wasn’t possible—if he was dead or a jerk or something, then Elise felt she deserved to know this, as well. She was a storyteller after all; it was her job in this life to uncover these stories, to tell them back to herself and to others in a way that made sense, both beautifully and romantically.My mother, Allison Darby, fell in love with a man named Dean on a gorgeous island in the Straits of Mackinac. I’m the result of a wild affair. One in which they never spoke of again.
She wanted to know enough to fill in the blanks.
Elise boarded the plane and placed her carry-on in the overhead compartment. She then settled in next to an adorable older woman who announced almost immediately that she was headed to Chicago to see her son for the first time in over two years.
“My gosh! That’s wonderful for you,” Elise said as she buckled her seatbelt.
“It’s been too long,” the woman continued, her eyes growing glossy. “We got into some stupid fight two years ago. I don’t think I liked his girlfriend. She wasn’t very nice to him. Maybe he told me too much and then decided to push me out of his life after that. In any case—” She grabbed a tissue and dotted it beneath her eye.
“You’ll have a beautiful reunion,” Elise whispered, flashing the lady a genuine smile. “The kind you deserve. Nobody should live in resentment for the rest of their lives.”
“You’re right,” the woman replied. After another sniffle, she said, “I don’t suppose you want to tell me why you’re headed away from our sunny California?”
“How can you tell I’m a California girl?”
“You’re like me. You’ve got the look,” the woman said.
Elise chuckled. “I’m headed out to Michigan to uncover a mystery.”
“Sounds exciting. Do you have any clues?”
Elise winced. “To be honest with you, I don’t. Only a diary and some lost memories. My mother just died a bit ago, and I guess... well, my daughter thinks I’m having a nervous breakdown.”
“Everyone deserves a nervous breakdown every now and again,” the woman said, smiling. “When I had mine, I nearly married a man I had only just met and moved to Jamaica.”
“Why didn’t you?” Elise asked.
“I wonder that almost every single day,” the woman said, tilting her head. “Imagine me now. I could be on a beach somewhere, drinking something out of a coconut. Maybe I would have been happier.”
“But you wouldn’t be you, I guess,” Elise affirmed.
“No. I suppose not. What a pleasure that would be,” the woman said.
This time, both of them laughed uproariously, so much so that the woman suggested they grab drinks together when they got up into the air. Elise was grateful to have found a friend in the midst of all her panic.
When they ordered vodka tonics, they clinked their drinks together as the woman—whose name was Janice, said, “Here is to uncovering secrets.”
“To having no regrets,” Elise returned.
Elise was sufficiently feeling a little light-headed from the alcohol when the plane whipped down toward the Chicago skyline and rushed down the airstrip. Janice had given her multiple secrets of her own life—including the fact that her son had nearly died in childbirth and Elise had offered her own stories.
“That Sean guy sounds like he’s miserable,” Janice said, her brow furrowed. “Living in Silver Lake with a younger woman? I mean, can you imagine how difficult that must be to keep up? He’s probably reading style blogs every day and trying to catch up with all the younger lingo about the newest famous directors.”
Elise guffawed with laughter. “The thing about Sean is he always wanted to be much cooler than he was. I bet you’re exactly right.”
“The thing about ex-husbands is, no matter how long time goes by, they affect us so much,” Janice said. Her eyes turned toward the window as a bling noise cut through the cabin, an alert that told them they could now unbuckle their seatbelts and grab their overhead items. “You can’t get rid of them so easily.”
“I guess you’re right,” Elise agreed.
“People affect people,” Janice said, rising up from her chair onto rickety legs. “It’s the best part about being alive. We influence each other. We change one another’s lives like that.” She snapped her fingers and grinned even wider. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Elise and Janice waited for their luggage together. When Janice missed her suitcase, Elise rushed forward and gripped the handle with more strength and agility than an Olympian. Janice laughed and gripped her stomach.
“I’ve never seen anyone work that hard for me before,” she said. “Are you an angel?”
Elise beamed and hugged her newest, dear friend. “Is your son picking you up?”
