Pictures of bright-eyed soldiers in uniform filled the screen, one after another …
“I thought women weren’t allowed in combat,” Betsy said quietly behind him.
Michael thought, God help me. It was bad enough that he’d just heard the report, and now he had to comfort his daughter. How could he reassure her when the truth was obvious to both of them?
What would Jolene do? What would she want him to do?
He turned slowly, saw the tears in Betsy’s eyes. She looked as fragile and shaky as he felt right now.
“She’s lying to us,” Betsy said. “All those letters and pictures … they’re lies. ”
He reached out for Betsy, took her hand, and led her over to the sofa, where they sat down together. “She doesn’t want us to worry. ”
“Are you worried?”
He looked at her, into her scared eyes, and knew that she would remember what he said next. Would he tell her a lie? He knew how to bend the truth, but for once he wanted more of himself. “I’m worried,” he said at last, pulling her onto his lap.
“Me, too. ” Betsy coiled her arms around his neck as if she were a little girl again, buried her face in his neck. He felt her crying—the shuddering of her slim shoulders, the dampness on his skin, and he said nothing more.
When she finally drew back, shaking, her pale face streaked with tears, he felt a surge of love as powerful as any he’d ever known. “I love you, Betsy, and we’re all going to be okay. That’s what we have to believe. She’ll come home to us. ”
Betsy nodded slowly, biting her lower lip.
“Hey,” Lulu said, coming into the room. “I want a hug. ”
Michael opened his other arm and Lulu scampered up beside her sister. “I think I should take my girls to the beach today,” he said after a moment.
Lulu drew back, her eyes big. “You?”
“But it’s a workday,” Betsy said.
“I’ve worked enough,” Michael said. The unfamiliar words loosened something in him, made him feel buoyant. He reached for the phone on the end table and called his mom. “Hey, Ma, I’m going to stay home with the girls today. We’re going to hang out at the beach. You want to come?”
His mother laughed. “I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do at the store. I’ll meet you there?”
“Perfect,” Michael said, hanging up. Then, to his stunned daughters, he said, “Why are you sitting there? I thought we were going to the beach. ”
“Yay!” Lulu yelped, bouncing off his lap and running upstairs.
In the garage, Michael found that Jolene had everything organized neatly—folding beach chairs, marshmallow-roasting sticks, lighter fluid, coolers. He had an entire cooler packed by the time Betsy and Lulu came back downstairs, wearing their bathing suits and carrying beach towels. “I got Lulu ready,” Betsy said proudly.
After breakfast, Michael grabbed the cooler, directed the girls to get the buckets and shovels, and down they walked, toward the beach. At the street—quiet this morning—they crossed holding hands and went to their small dock.
They spent the whole day on the beach, making sand castles, looking for shells, wading in the cold blue waves. Sometime around noon, he built a fire in the round, metal, portable pit on their small deck, and in no time at all they were roasting hot dogs over an open flame.
At about one o’clock, his mom showed up and joined in the fun. For the first time in months, Betsy dropped her preteen attitude and became a kid again, and come evening, when the sky turned lavender and a ghostly moon came out to see who played on the beach below, they sat in chairs pulled close together, with blankets wrapped around them.
“Daddy,” Lulu said, tucked in the lee of his arms. “I’m scared about starting school. When is next week? Can Mommy come home?”
An emotion moved through him, tightened his chest. “I know your mommy would love to walk you into school, but she can’t. I’ll be there, though. Will that be good enough?”
“Will you hold my hand?”
“Of course. ”
“How come I have to go all day? Mommy said I would be done by lunchtime. ”
“It’s different now, baby. You need to be in the all-day program. ”