Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I t was already time to take Nellie back to college. It seemed impossible. But here they were, all four of them piled up in Rick’s truck, whisking Nellie away from home again. Ida glanced back to see Frankie and Nellie holding hands between the seats. They’d wept last night over dinner, and out on the veranda, and on their beach walk, and after the movie. They’d watched Working Girl as a family . They’d tried to stay up all night together, but they hadn’t made it past three. Now they were zonked.
It was a summer that had brought them closer together than ever.
Incidentally, it had brought Sophie and Ida closer together, too. Now that Ida didn’t have Shelby, she leaned hard on Sophie for the first time ever. Now that she was sober, Sophie could take it. She was stronger now. She’d been through hell and back.
I’ll be there when she gives birth to her first child. I’ll be there through thick and thin.
They reached Nellie’s college apartment at two that afternoon and piled out to walk the streets and find a place to grab lunch. Nellie led them to a burger restaurant with craft beer and “the best french fries on the East Coast,” and they ordered heaps of food and laughed together as a family. Many other families were there, too—all of them bracing themselves to say goodbye to their kids for another semester.
Ida had already asked Nellie to come back a few more times than normal this semester. “I’ll come pick you up. I just think your sister needs you more than ever.” Nellie had promised and said she’d already invited Frankie to come to her college to visit, too.
To combat her medication and her aimlessness, Frankie had picked up exercising for the first time ever. She looked brighter and happier than she had since her graduation in May. She ate french fries and teased Nellie about something that had happened when they were eight and ten, something Frankie had lied to Nellie about that Nellie had believed for a little too long.
It broke Ida’s heart to think of her babies so young and naive. She wished she could go back.
Rick paid the bill for lunch and led them back to Nellie’s apartment to unpack. They’d resolved to get her as “moved in” as possible so she could get a head start on her next semester. She had parties to attend; she had textbooks to buy; she had friends to see.
Nellie had even confessed that she was excited to see a certain boy again this semester. Ida had glowed with joy at hearing this. I want my girls to share their secrets with me.
Of course, Ida was terrified that Nellie would fall in line with another version of Zane. But now that they’d been through that trauma as a family, Ida had to trust Nellie to know the difference between right and wrong and love and manipulation. It was a difficult balance.
They carried boxes into Nellie’s apartment and greeted her roommates hello. They were enthusiastic, already decorating the living room with photographs of old movie stars, band posters, and art illustrations from a recent trip one of them had taken to Paris.
Ida made a quiet resolution to herself. When the trial is over, I’ll celebrate by taking the girls to Paris.
It didn’t take long to unpack Nellie’s suitcases and boxes and set up her bed. Ida found herself trying to stretch the hours. She even heard herself say, “If we need to get a hotel tonight, we will.”
But Rick assured her there was no need. It was time to go.
Ida, Frankie, and Rick hugged Nellie hard, waved goodbye to the other roommates, and stepped into the swampy air.
“Too hot today,” Rick said because it was easier to talk about the weather than about their broken hearts.
“It really is,” Ida said. She wiped tears from her cheeks.
We have such limited time with each other, she thought. I wish we knew how to cherish it.