Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nice,” Nurse Geralin said, looking at the blood pressure gauge. “Right where we want it.”
My mom had still been asleep when I left for the Egg.
Then, thanks to Cardoon and his buses, I’d hardly had a chance to think much about our talk the night before.
When I returned after closing and found her at the table, facing the water, I’d slid into the seat next to her, now distinctly aware of the lack of questions and mystery.
Without them, there was another space. Maybe this one we could fill together.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” my mom yelled. A moment later, Jeremy, the eco-designer from the Tides, appeared in the kitchen. He was in a plaid shirt and jeans, clearly off duty, and carried a tray of plants.
“Hope I’m not intruding.” He smiled. “I told Kasey I might drop by. Is she here?”
“Not at the moment,” my mom said. She waved him to a seat and he took it, then put the tray between them. “What are you doing with these?”
“I found them at my new place,” he replied. “I’m trying to fill it out with native species. Which is hard to do when you don’t know their names.”
“You have a house here now?” my mom asked.
“It’s an investment,” he explained. “But such a steal! Needs a lot of work.”
My mom shook her head. “I had no idea you were anything but fully corporate.”
“Ah.” He nodded, then smiled. “I’m full of surprises.”
My mom pointed at one of the pots. “Well, this one is a low-grass fern. And the tall one, with thorns, is a temperance plant.”
Jeremy looked at her. “Wow. Catherine! Now who’s the surprise?”
My mom shook her head, but I was pretty sure she pinkened a bit, hearing this. “My mother knew them all. As kids, she used to take us walking around the lake, naming the species.”
It was one of the first times I’d seen her recall a memory in a fond way. Or at least not under duress as someone else got nostalgic. Would I have noticed this if not for our talk the night before? Maybe. But it seemed more important now.
“What about this?” I asked, pointing to a prickly green one.
“Sand plum. In late summer, when it fruits, you can make jelly.”
I heard the door bang shut. A moment later, Kasey appeared in the kitchen. My mom, still talking to Jeremy, didn’t see her.
“… and this,” she was saying, “is called a hawk flower. See the red and white?”
“Beautiful,” Jeremy replied as he studied it.
I looked at Kasey. She was in another oversized golf shirt, shorts, galoshes on her feet, now watching as my mom continued.
“Carolina grass,” she said now. “Spreads like wildfire, so keep it contained. Same with this one, the lake mint. And this last one…”
She fell quiet, studying it. I wondered if Kasey would pipe up. She didn’t.
“… is a heartspice,” my mom finally said. She plucked off a leaf, smelling it. “Smells like cinnamon.”
Jeremy leaned closer, and she handed him the leaf. He closed his eyes, breathing it in. “Okay. That’s super cool.”
Just then, the house phone rang. Loudly. Jeremy jumped. I really needed to see if there was a volume button. I went into the living room, lifting the receiver. “Hello?”
“It’s me,” Lana said. “Clark’s trying to reach Kasey, but she’s not picking up. Is she there?”
I relayed this to Kasey, who pulled her phone from a back pocket. “Whoops,” she said, beginning to type.
“She’s texting him now,” I told Lana.
“Speaking of basic communication, you know what would be great?” she asked. “If you’d turn on your phone. I’ve tried to be understanding about your whole woo-woo thing about wanting to separate home and here, but seriously.”
“It’s not woo-woo,” I told her, irritated. “It’s a conscious choice for very valid reasons.”
The silence that followed was not respectful as much obviously restrained. Finally, she said, “Okay, well, my point is, it’s getting kind of ridiculous. Earlier Anne was asking where you were and I had no clue how to find out.”
“Anne?” I asked. “What did she need?”
“Company. She was going back to her and Jonathan’s place to get some stuff and didn’t want to be alone.” Since calling off the wedding, Anne had been staying with Liz and Travis, in her childhood bedroom.
“You can’t go?” I asked.
“Kasey was desperate for someone to run flowers to the Tides for a baby shower. I’m loading up the truck now,” she said. “Just turn on your phone, please. If not for me, for Anne. But really, for me.”
While I wasn’t a fan of her exact approach, I had to admit she was probably right.
The line between here and the rest of the world, once distinct, had been muddied, now that I knew my mom’s past as well as why she’d not been present in my own.
An actual direct line between them wouldn’t change that, as much as I wanted to believe otherwise.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll do it now.”
“Yes!” She literally cheered. “I’ll send you a text as soon as we hang up. I’ll expect to be a favorite contact, just FYI.”
Of course she did.
We hung up and I went to my room, finding the bag from the phone store. My mom and Jeremy were still talking over the plants as I headed outside. Nurse Geralin, Kasey, and now Liz were in a huddle right by the door.
“… definitely a vibe,” Geralin was saying. “I mean, to me.”
“Oh, it’s obvious,” Kasey agreed.
“But this is Cat,” Liz pointed out. “You know how she is.”
I looked back. My mom looked relaxed as Jeremy said something, waving a hand to make a point. “What are we talking about?” I asked.
“He wants to take her out to eat,” Liz whispered.
“It’s so cute,” Geralin added. Then, more quietly, “He’s sweet on her.”
Liz and Kasey were tittering. I looked back at Jeremy: gentle face, somewhat boyish, nice smile. He was a little… like my dad, actually. Did she have a type?
“Oh, please don’t let him take her to that shamrock place at Bly Point?” Kasey said.
“O’Grady’s has great chowder!” Liz told her. “And those yeast rolls? With the butter?”
“It’s in a mall,” Geralin pointed out.
“What else is there?” Liz asked. “I mean, besides the Tides.”
A beat. From the porch, someone was laughing. We all looked. It was my mom. What was happening?
“I should go,” Kasey said, putting a hand over her mouth as she yawned. “Take advantage of this rare unexpected downtime.”
“I thought you had to drop off bouquets for that baby shower,” Liz said.
“I did, but Lana said she’d go. Wouldn’t take no for an answer, actually. Not that I’m complaining.”
Huh. I went out onto the porch, wondering if a certain seasonal professional was involved in this errand, not to mention her willingness (determination?) to do it.
I sat on the bottom step, taking the box out of the bag. I was just opening it when I heard footsteps, crunching on the gravel of the driveway. It was Ben. In his arms was a crate from Bly Supply, a large (of course) bag of coffee sticking out of it.
“So today’s the day, huh?” He nodded at the phone box. “Lana wear you down?”
“Using Anne’s broken heart as an assist.” I lifted off the lid, revealing the new phone: silver, sleek. The cord was wrapped in plastic. “She’s right, though. I can’t just hide out here in the dead zone forever.”
He considered this. “Well, in that case, maybe I’ll bite the bullet and get one too.”
I looked up. “Really?”
“Clark spent an hour trying to get hold of me about something yesterday. He was pissed.”
“Of course this is all about other people,” I observed.
“Or not.” He shifted the box. “We could be in touch with each other too.”
“You think our epic awkwardness will translate?”
“Maybe,” he said, “we could make it a goal to be even more so. Think of all that could be cringeworthy over text.”
“The possibilities are endless,” I agreed.
We had decided that Daytime Us would let things play out. Maybe this was the next logical step, forging a literal connection. And we had managed to do so in other ways first, which had to count for something.
Now I picked up the phone, unwrapping it as Lana had a few nights earlier. The screen was beautiful, pristine, just as she’d said.
I could feel Ben’s eyes on me as I put a finger on the Power button. It felt right for him to be a witness. My previous phone was somewhere out there, deep down in the dark below. I took a breath and pushed.
I had so many messages.
The most recent was from Lana, sent as promised only minutes earlier. Welcome Back! she’d typed, followed by a tiny fireworks, muscle flex, and champagne bottle. I’d not figured her for an emoji type, for some reason.
I was distantly aware, as I processed this, that my phone continued to chirp repeatedly with other notifications. But it wasn’t until I started actually paying close attention that I realized that many of them were actually emails. From Colin. They all had the same subject line: Finley.
I don’t even know if you are reading these.
You’re the last person who cares about me right now.
And maybe that’s why it feels good to talk to you.
On the cruise, I literally felt at sea. Like the world was so much bigger than I’d ever known.
It scared me, to be honest. I’m a Smart Kid. I thought I knew everything.
Below it was another. Sent the same day, a few hours later.
Camp Dogwood was short a counselor so I agreed to fill in for a week. It’s not so great. I feel so disconnected from the kids. It’s all new for them, even stupid lanyards and kickball.
Some were long, many paragraphs. Others just a few sentences. None signed.
After that day I talked to you, it was like all I knew was wrong.
I was questioning everything. I deleted my UMe profile, stopped posting.
Kind of vanished for real, too. Which led to some pretty serious talks with my family.
They’re worried about me. The thing is, I thought I had it all figured out.
Everything in a line. You understand, right?