Chapter 20
Charlie was sitting down to breakfast when Nora emerged from the basement for the second time that morning. She gave him a curt nod of the head as she shoved her feet into the boots by the side door.
“Where are you off to?” Charlie asked through a mouthful of generously sugared bran cereal.
“I’m visiting Charles,” said Nora. “He might know what’s going on.”
“And we can trust him?”
“No. But so far we can distrust him less than a lot of the others. Richard and Ruby out for their walk?”
“I guess.”
Nora nodded. “I’ll be as fast as I can. Please, please, for the love of god, please stay away from them as much as possible. And if Patty or Phil stop by, come find me. Okay?”
Charlie gave one of his infuriating salutes and Nora was out the door.
It was another gloomy day, the sky as thick and milky as the kind of upscale tea latte you’d never find in a place like Virgo Bay.
Nora breathed it all in, the salty scent of the sea gently tickling the back of her throat, the long grass brushing her boots, the quiet so complete it almost felt rude when birdsong or lapping waves occasionally interrupted it.
This was not the kind of place Nora had ever pictured herself, but now she could see herself learning to love it.
The slow pace, the ease…it was growing more and more appealing.
She might not even miss her vitamin subscription service in a place like this—she’d have no reason to take them anyway.
Nora crunched across the grass and down the dirt path to what passed as Main Street in this little town.
Just as she reached the general store, a familiar figure stepped out.
Patty had her coat wrapped around her small frame, a length of freshly purchased rope held tight to her chest. Spotting Nora she immediately dropped her hands, letting the coil fall to her side in a firm grip.
Her smile seemed forced, her teeth glinting despite the dimness of the day.
“Good morning,” she greeted, tone pinched. “Where are you going?”
“I’m popping into Charles’s for a quick chat,” said Nora, who saw no reason to lie.
“Oh,” said Patty. “And Charlie’s back in the cottage on his own?”
“No,” said Nora, who suddenly saw many reasons to lie. “He’s out for a walk. Not sure which direction he went.”
Patty nodded. She fidgeted with the rope for a second, then seemed to realize she was drawing attention to it and lowered it again.
Nora swallowed down the nervousness marching up her throat and forced herself to say, “New rope?” Which she realized was an odd question, if she was being honest with herself, but she was in an odd situation, so she supposed further oddness was to be expected.
“Yeah,” said Patty. The word hung in the air alone for longer than it should have. Then she added, “It’s for Uncle Vic. He needed it for something at the farm.”
“Nice of you to run errands for him,” Nora said.
Patty shrugged. “He’s busier than I am.”
Nora opened her mouth to press her aunt further, but before she could, Patty jumped back in. “Well, I should really get this to Vic. Do me a favor and tell Charles I say…hi.” And with that, she hustled away.
Nora shoved her hands in her pockets and hurried to Charles’s place.
Her encounter with Patty nearly made her change her mind and head back to the little red house instead.
If Patty figured out Nora had lied, she could easily catch Charlie alone.
Hell, even if Ruby and Richard were back by now, who was to say they wouldn’t help their daughter in whatever awful thing she had planned with that rope?
But Patty had rushed off in the opposite direction, and Nora needed answers like she needed Valium on plane rides, so she prayed her lie had done the trick, and knocked on Charles’s door.
The door pulled back a moment later and Charles emerged, his sweater-vest of the day a Nordic-patterned navy-and-white work of—if not art, then craft at least. He adjusted his glasses as he took in his guest.
“Oh, morning, Nora. What brings you to my doorstep?”
“Could I come in?”
Charles looked over his shoulder into his immaculately appointed little house. “My place is a bit of a mess right now, I’m afraid.”
Nora’s face fell, which seemed to elicit an almost fight-or-flight response in Charles, who didn’t strike Nora as the type to be particularly comfortable with other people’s emotions.
“Oh, no, I, um, yes, sure, why not?” he stammered, stepping aside to let Nora in.
She found the space almost as she’d remembered it, though the kitchen was, she had to admit, a bit of a mess.
A stack of dishes sat unattended in the sink, a wood cutting board strewn with vegetables in various stages of chopping.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Nora said, taking in the room.
“That’s all right. You’re family, family doesn’t interrupt. I was just making myself an omelet for breakfast. Would you like one?”
Nora could feel the hollow spot in her stomach where a breakfast should be. The smell of recently minced garlic and onion drew a small gurgle of agreement from her gut.
“Let me help,” said Nora. “I just came to ask a few questions. There’s no reason we can’t cook and talk.”
In response to her offer, Charles gave a smile that was almost shy.
He found another cutting board in one of his well-organized cupboards, and together they sliced up some more vegetables and one very generous slab of ham.
A few cuts into a red pepper, Nora worked up the courage to start.
“I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions about the town.”
“Of course,” said Charles. “This town is as much your home as any of ours, as far as we’re concerned. You deserve to know whatever you’d like to know about it. You are a Bird, after all.”
Nora nodded her thanks. “The house in the woods,” she began, tentatively easing into the topic. “It’s Richard’s dad who lives there, right?”
Charles stopped chopping for a beat. “It looks like you already know a decent amount about this place,” he said.
“Not as much as I’d like,” said Nora.
Charles went back to cutting. “Yes, that’s Grandad out there.”
“All alone?”
“Yes.”
“But why?” Nora asked, unable to keep the intensity from her voice. “Why does he live away from the rest of the family?”
“He prefers it,” said Charles. “Though I couldn’t tell you why. Years ago, the woods weren’t so dense and he was much more connected to the rest of us, but I suppose when you’ve lived as long as he has, the company of others might begin to bore you. He’s lived mostly in solitude for decades now.”
Nora wiped her hands on a towel and contemplated this. She understood being a bit of a loner, but not a complete hermit. Something must have happened to make him a recluse.
“Did you ever ask him why?” said Nora.
Charles shook his head. “I haven’t really seen him in years, if I’m honest. We were never especially close.
Clashing personalities and all that. Ironic, since Mom and Dad gave me Oliver as a middle name.
We used to be much more alike, but times are different now and so are we.
He’s grown to be a stubborn man, and at his age I don’t see that changing. ”
Stubborn. Nora wondered if that’s where her father had gotten it from. Or her brother. Or maybe even her. It was an odd thought, to have a genetic link to this strange man in the forest outside a town few knew existed.
“So you don’t see him, but do other people visit him?” Nora asked, remembering Phil leaving the house. If there was something suspicious about the man in the woods, Phil’s presence there would make sense.
“He and Patty have always been quite close. I think she goes out there a decent amount. Aunt Dorothy goes on occasion, and Phil brings him supplies when he starts running low. Otherwise he lives a pretty isolated life.”
Charles cracked four eggs into a patiently waiting frying pan and added the vegetables and meat they’d been chopping.
The smell of food cooking immediately filled the small house, sending Nora’s tummy rumbles into overdrive.
Charles directed Nora to the cupboard with the dishes, and she set the table while he scooped two perfectly formed omelets onto plates.
They sat down at the round wooden table by the kitchen window, and Nora threw all sense of propriety to the wind, her first eggy bite roughly the size and shape of an inflated puffer fish.
When Nora finally felt her hunger ease, a bigger void crept into its place.
It was an empty space she hadn’t expected to fill today, but she was already here, and the seal of secrecy had already been at least pierced if not yet entirely broken.
She lowered her fork and wiped a rogue onion from her chin.
“Why did Dad leave?”
“Hmm?” Charles asked, chewing his own breakfast at a much more socially acceptable pace.
“I just don’t get why anyone would choose to leave this place.”
Charles swallowed his bite and gave Nora his full attention.
His eyes were soft and filled with sympathy.
“I wish I could answer that question. I wish I could understand. I’ve been trying to figure that out since long before you came along.
Your father was never satisfied with life here.
He always wanted more. I suppose he always wanted you, and your brother, and your mom, and his work, and everything else Virgo Bay just couldn’t give him.
We tried, for what it’s worth. But I don’t think he would ever have been truly happy here. It’s just not the way he was built.”
“But you’re happy here?”
“I am,” said Charles. “I love this place. Can’t imagine ever wanting to leave for longer than a night or two at a stretch. But my brother and I always had different ideas of what life should be.”
“I think I could be happy here too,” said Nora.
This drew a gentle smile from Charles. “I don’t doubt that. I see a lot of myself in you, Nora.”
“You said Dad used to write to you. Do you still have any of those letters?” Nora asked, too intent on her own mission to acknowledge his words.
Maybe there was something in those letters that could tell her why Martin Bird did what he did.
Why he really left this place. Not that what her uncle said didn’t make sense, but it didn’t feel like the whole story.
Nora couldn’t imagine trading a life without fear for a job or even a family.
“Afraid not.” Her uncle took a sip of water and began clearing the table.
Nora trailed him as he continued. “I was still living at Mom and Dad’s at the time.
They would have thrown the letters out years ago.
” He put the dishes down and faced Nora square on, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“But I’ll tell you one thing: the past is an easy place to get lost in.
It’s tempting, isn’t it? Hazy and imperfectly remembered so we can fill it in as we see fit.
Spend too much time there, though, and you miss out on everything happening right now, and everything that could happen in the future.
I think Martin understood that better than any of us. He’d want you to keep looking forward.”
Nora forced a nod through the emotions swirling through her. “I’ll try,” she said.
“Good,” said Charles. He let go of her shoulders and took a step back. “You know, for all the times I’ve wished he never left, I’m very glad he gave us you. As much as I see myself in you, your father’s in there too. He lives on through you.”
“Not as much as he does in Charlie,” Nora said.
Charles gave a small laugh at that. “No, I’ll grant you that. Charlie definitely inherited your father’s fearlessness and ease with life. But just as Martin left to make his way in the world, you found your way home.”