Island of Lost Girls - Jennifer McMahon [50]
A 61 Impala. A true classic. When I got it, it was a wreck. Daniel and I worked nights and weekends on it, restoring it. Im telling you, Ronnie, when we were through, it was a beauty. I was so proud of this damn car.
Rhonda nodded, fiddled with the glove compartment. Usually, she loved it when her father told her stories about his past. He got all dreamy-eyed and lost in his own memories, and sometimes hed seem to almost forget she was there. It made her feel special; like there was a secret window into her fathers past and Rhonda was the only one hed open it up for. Her mother wasnt much of a talker. She preferred to read Rhonda stories out of books: fairy tales about handsome princes and fair maidens. Not much different from the romance novels she lost herself in each day.
This time was different, though. Clem was going to tell her something she wasnt sure she wanted to hear.
I used to take Aggie for rides. Back when I first met her. When she worked at the mill. Daniel would come along, too, sometimes. Wed go fishing. Wed all three sit around a little campfire by the stream, frying up trout, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, thinking,This is as good as it gets . Clem gave a wistful little smile that made Rhondas stomach ache. This was nother story, but the story of what might have been, and how Rhonda almost wasnt. It was the story of a time when Clem had imagined his life whole and perfect without either Rhonda or her mother in it.
I was nineteen years old when I asked Aggie to marry me. I took her out to the middle of Nickel Lake in this old aluminum canoe I had. Water had pooled there and soaked through my pants. I pulled the ring in its velvet box from the pocket of my fishing vest. I couldnt believe it when she said yes.
When Rhonda was a very little girl, one of her favorite stories was how her parents met. Clem took a trip to Hanover, New Hampshire, in the spring of 1981 to go to a forestry conference. Justine was the desk clerk at the hotel. She was ten years older than Clem and he was immediately taken by her green eyes and the faint lines around them. He thought she looked patient, kind, and wise. When she asked if he needed help getting his bags up to his room, he winked and said only if she promised not to drop them. This made Justine laugh, and it got Rhonda laughing too, hearing the story told and re-told when she was a little girl. Justine called a bellhop to help with the bags, and Clem asked if she would join him for a drink later in the hotel lounge. By the end of the week, hed talked her into going away with him the next weekend. She got to pick where. She picked Niagara Falls, and he proposed to her there, two weeks after theyd met.Love is love , he told her, down on his knee.
HOW LONG WEREyou and Aggie married? Rhonda asked.
Not long. Less than two years.
When was this?
A long time ago. Before I met your mother.
But what year?
Aggie and I were married September 9, 1978.
Rhonda frowned as she did the math.
Peter and Lizzy came crashing through the woods, up the path from their house, arguing.
Theres no way to make it work, Lizzy was saying.
Come on, Peter said. Im Peter Pan. If I say I want to fly, Ill find a way.
I guess I should get out of here and let you kids rehearse, Clem said, putting a hand on Rhondas knee before jumping out over the stuck door.
1978,Rhonda was thinking.And then Peter was born in July of 1979, which means
Well talk again later, Clem promised.
Are you Peters father?
DANIELS IDEA THATspring and summer, the latest scheme that was going to make him rich, was coffins. His own father had died over the winter (no one had been very upset about this, least of all Peter and Lizzy, who were never