AllFreeNovel
Share Us
AUGUST 16
LONG ISLAND, MAINE
There would be seafood chowder at the funeral dinner, Ginny knew. Maybe even lobster, and plenty for all. The Conways didn’t have the money for that, but the whole island pitched in when there was a death of one of their own.
Even the promise of a good meal couldn’t tempt her away from the graveyard, now that everyone else was gone after the short memorial service. Somehow, it felt easier to pay her last respects in front of the simple headstone alone, rather than squirming under the preacher’s droning in the tiny island church. It felt like one of the only unchanged structures on the island—she’d cringed to see the waterfront dominated by a concrete block of a boiler plant, then Wharf Street studded with low, ugly navy buildings.
At least here, in the churchyard, there wasn’t an eyesore of a bunker or artillery piece in sight.
Ginny shifted in the uncomfortable borrowed shoes above a plot of dirt without a body buried underneath it. “You were loved, Mack. An awful lot.” Maybe she’d never have been able to love him the way he wanted, but he was a good friend who’d died a hero.
It didn’t feel like a real good-bye. Ought to at least go withthe dropping of a flower or the saying of a prayer, but she didn’t have either at hand. So it would have to do.
When a hand rested on her shoulder, Ginny near about jumped out of her skin, whirling around. It was her brother, next oldest in the family after her, clomping along in a dark gray suit that slid on his shoulders—borrowed from Pa, it looked like.
“Lew!” She glared at him. “You can’t just go sneaking up on a lady in a graveyard like that.”
He shrugged. “Thought you’d want to see me.”
“I do, of course.” Had he gotten taller? There was no sign he’d been crying.
He was studying her too. “Fancy dress.”
In a flash, Ginny was conscious of the pearl buttons, the plaited belt at the waist, the perfectly shined leather shoes, all loans from Avis, along with more pity than she’d wanted. “Borrowed from a friend of mine.” He couldn’t think she would waste her money on something like that. “I didn’t see you in the service.”
“Came in late. Sat in the back.” Lew wandered out of the churchyard, and she followed, but instead of taking the road toward the Conway place, he meandered down the path that wound around the coast.
“Did anyone else in the family come?”
“Nah. They didn’t know Mack so much.”
What did you say to someone just after a funeral? It was hard enough to drag words out of Lew on an ordinary day. Before she could come up with something, Lew sent her a sideways glance. “You don’t write much anymore.”
It wasn’t like she didn’t try. “These days, I’m just ... busier.”
He grunted. “That book club of yours?”
Why had she even told them about that? “Some. And work and other things. It’s no crime to have a social life, you know.”
“Ma’s mad you haven’t sent money.”
Ginny knew that much. It had been hinted between the lines of nearly every short letter she’d gotten from her mother. “Didn’t figure I should.”
The look that passed between them was enough to confirm what Ginny had feared. Away from home and flush with cash from the sale of their land, Bluffing Betty Atkins was back in business. How much of their family’s money had she gambled away this time?
No sense in scolding Lew for not keeping her under control. He likely tried. Of all of them, only Ginny, the lone daughter, ever had much luck in that department.
And I left them.
Sure, it had seemed the smart thing at the time. Pa had given her a chunk of the cash from the sale of the house to get started, and she’d saved every last cent she could since then. The government had promised them they’d be able to buy their land back, but Ginny wasn’t counting on it. Still, with the money she’d stored up, she was their hope for getting back on the island somewhere, at least.
She just had to stay out of Ma’s reach.
“What’s Pa up to?” she asked, to change the subject.
“The same. He gets construction jobs here and there. Travels to worksites. It’s not steady work, but he doesn’t want to get too tied down. Figures the war’s gonna end any day.”
Ginny knew from conversations with Freddy that that wasn’t likely, but she didn’t say it. Better to let him hope.
