“Shelly’s room. If you want to.” She stared at me.
“Okay,” I said quietly, but inside, I was terrified.
I followed her up the winding staircase and stepped into a room that looked like a blast form the past. There were pom-poms on the bed and hand-drawn pictures on the wall of the two girls, side by side. In pencil drawings, I couldn’t tell who was who. I stared hard at them.
“It’s uncanny how much they look alike, isn’t it?” she remarked.
I had always been able to tell them apart in person. “They don’t look anything alike in real life. Not to me.”
“You’re the only one who’s ever said that. When Lynn would spend summers here, no one could tell them apart. They made a game of it, trying to play pranks and terrorize the neighborhood.”
“Why didn’t you try to get custody of Lynn? After they brought you Shelly and you knew how bad it was, why didn’t you try to get Lynn?”
She heaved a sigh. “I did try. I hired lawyers. I went to judges. I spent money. I did everything I could, but the investigators for the state where they lived found no wrongdoing. Besides, my son went to prison a couple of years after Shelly came to live with me. He was out of Lynn’s life for a while. Then he got out on parole, and then went back. He never got out again after that. Not until right before he died.”
“You’re sure he’s dead.”
“Positive.”
“Because Shelly said so?”
She shook her head. “Because Shelly didn’t say so. That was all I needed to hear. He was gone. She was in good spirits. Lynn was happy with you. Life was good. I chose to let it rest. I wanted to have a normal life, for once.” She turned to face me. “Do you want a normal life too, Mason? Don’t you, sometimes, wish Lynn were normal?”
“I’ve always known about Lynn’s friends. Through them, her past was revealed to me. And Lynn has become my new normal. She’s my everything, and she has been since the day I met her.”
“You might love Lynn, but you just tolerate the rest of them.”
“Not true,” I rushed to say. “I love all of her friends.” I picked up a shred from the plastic pom-poms and started to run it through my fingers. “I probably shouldn’t, but I do. They’re all a part of her.”
She nodded. It was a slow movement. “I believe you.”
“Frankly, Mrs. Punter, I don’t give a damn if you believe me.”
She smiled. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“Why did Lynn cut you out of her life? You weren’t even invited to the wedding. Why was that?”
“Lynn didn’t tell you?”
I shook my head.
“I told Lynn she needed to disassociate from all her friends. That if you two were going to be happy, she would have to stop seeing them, because they would rip you apart. I was adamant about it. What man in his right mind would want to marry a woman and put up with all her friends? Rather than argue with me over it, she stopped talking to me. Entirely.”
I felt the need to remind her. “I didn’t marry her friends. I married Lynn.”
“And her friends came with her.”
“Yes.”
“You’re as crazy as they are.”
“Yes. Probably.”
My eyes landed on a big box on the bed with writing on it. Lynn’s Letters, it read. “What’s that?” I asked.
“Lynn’s letters. What else?”
“What letters?” I asked, but I was already walking toward the box.