around women and women talk, is all. He shouldn't
have taken it out on you and I told him so." She
looked away again.
"Someday, Aunt Sara," I said taking her hand
and forcing her to turn back to me, "everyone in this
family is going to have to start telling the truth." "What do you mean, Melody?"
"I don't know what I mean yet, Aunt Sara, but I
have a feeling you do, and so does Uncle Jacob, and
especially Grandma Olivia."
She stared, fear in her eyes.
"Maybe you shouldn't have gone to see
Belinda," she said, her voice in a whisper, "maybe she
put bad thoughts in your head."
"Or maybe she pointed me toward the truth," I
replied.
Aunt Sara shook her head sadly.
"Don't go out too far, Melody," she said in a
voice suddenly full of wisdom and firmness, a voice
unlike any other she had used before. "It's what
happened to Laura."
She turned away to stare into the darkness as if
she half expected her lost daughter to come walking
up the beach, in from the sea and the storm.
I left her alone and cleaned up the dinner dishes
before going up to bed to ponder her warning. "I guess you didn't have such a great weekend,"
Kenneth said after glancing at me when I got into his
jeep Monday morning. He put it in gear and drove
away before I could respond. He glanced at me again
as we turned down the street and headed out of town.
I sat stroking Ulysses and gazing out at the ocean. A