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Authors: Jodi Thomas
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fine. I’ve had my lunch and my nap. Now it’s sit-up time until supper. My days seem to move around meals and bowel movements. I think I’ve figured out why people die in places like this…boredom. I was thinking about planning my escape, but now that you’re here, I think I’ll stay until dinner.”
Emily smiled. Paulette had always been one of thoserare people who said the unexpected, only now she couldn’t tell if Tannon’s mother were kidding or being deadly serious. She decided to play along. “I’ll smuggle in a map of the grounds for you, if you like. With all the construction, I had to walk around a pile of lumber and a mountain of dirt. I had to drop leftover French fries so I’d be able to find my way back to the lot where I parked.”
Paulette laughed. “You’re a dear. That’s just what your mother would have done. People always wondered why we were friends, me so outgoing and her so quiet and shy, but they didn’t see the real her. She was always whispering funny things in my ear. I used to tell her I lived big on the outside and she lived big on the inside.”
“You two were friends,” Emily agreed, remembering pictures of them standing side by side since they’d been in grade school.
“More than that. We accepted each other just the way we were. I remember back when we were young, Shelley’s mother was always badgering her to take bigger bites out of life, be braver, take a risk now and then. Shelley hated that. She said once that she was a nibbler at life’s banquet and liked it that way.”
“You knew my grandmother?”
“Of course. She used to say she wished she had me for a daughter and not Shelley, but I didn’t want her for a mother any more than Shelley did most days. Your momma was a good momma, but she sure didn’t learn it from any example.”
Emily asked questions about her grandparents. Paulette filled in where she could, but she said she rarely went over to Shelley’s house, and when she married so young her parents got so mad they moved up north somewhere. “They wouldn’t even come to your mother’s wedding, so I told her I’d be her mom for the day. I even had an usher walk me in and seat me in the first row.”
Emily smiled realizing she’d got that little bit of information she’d hoped for. One glance of her mother’s life. “I never knew they didn’t make the wedding. My grandparents wouldhave changed their minds if they’d seen how happy my parents were. They were sweethearts.”
Paulette agreed and filled in any details she could.
Shelley’s mother died of cancer when Emily was a baby. Shelley wasn’t able to make it to the funeral, but she heard her father married three months later. As far as Paulette knew, he never made any effort to contact his only daughter or anyone else in Harmony.
“He’s dead by now,” Paulette said, without any caring in her tone. “No loss. He was pretty much invisible even when we were kids. Never came to any of your mother’s school events. If I remember right, he sold farm equipment and was gone a lot.”
Emily listened. In her mind, when she’d been a child, she’d imagined grandparents who loved her dearly living far away, but she knew it was only a dream. No cards, no presents, not even phone calls. She could never get her mother to talk about them. Apparently they hadn’t been bad parents or good parents—they’d simply faded away.
A nurse stopped in and seemed delighted to see a visitor in the room. “If you’d like, you can wheel her through the main hallway and around to the north door. The grounds outside haven’t been torn up there. It’s not so windy right now, though the temperature seems to be dropping. This may be the last warm afternoon we have for a while. I hear a cold front is heading our way.”
Emily stood. “Are you up for a stroll, Mrs. Parker?”
“Of course. I need to learn where the hole in the fence is.”
The nurse tucked a blanket around her while Emily
Emily smiled. Paulette had always been one of thoserare people who said the unexpected, only now she couldn’t tell if Tannon’s mother were kidding or being deadly serious. She decided to play along. “I’ll smuggle in a map of the grounds for you, if you like. With all the construction, I had to walk around a pile of lumber and a mountain of dirt. I had to drop leftover French fries so I’d be able to find my way back to the lot where I parked.”
Paulette laughed. “You’re a dear. That’s just what your mother would have done. People always wondered why we were friends, me so outgoing and her so quiet and shy, but they didn’t see the real her. She was always whispering funny things in my ear. I used to tell her I lived big on the outside and she lived big on the inside.”
“You two were friends,” Emily agreed, remembering pictures of them standing side by side since they’d been in grade school.
“More than that. We accepted each other just the way we were. I remember back when we were young, Shelley’s mother was always badgering her to take bigger bites out of life, be braver, take a risk now and then. Shelley hated that. She said once that she was a nibbler at life’s banquet and liked it that way.”
“You knew my grandmother?”
“Of course. She used to say she wished she had me for a daughter and not Shelley, but I didn’t want her for a mother any more than Shelley did most days. Your momma was a good momma, but she sure didn’t learn it from any example.”
Emily asked questions about her grandparents. Paulette filled in where she could, but she said she rarely went over to Shelley’s house, and when she married so young her parents got so mad they moved up north somewhere. “They wouldn’t even come to your mother’s wedding, so I told her I’d be her mom for the day. I even had an usher walk me in and seat me in the first row.”
Emily smiled realizing she’d got that little bit of information she’d hoped for. One glance of her mother’s life. “I never knew they didn’t make the wedding. My grandparents wouldhave changed their minds if they’d seen how happy my parents were. They were sweethearts.”
Paulette agreed and filled in any details she could.
Shelley’s mother died of cancer when Emily was a baby. Shelley wasn’t able to make it to the funeral, but she heard her father married three months later. As far as Paulette knew, he never made any effort to contact his only daughter or anyone else in Harmony.
“He’s dead by now,” Paulette said, without any caring in her tone. “No loss. He was pretty much invisible even when we were kids. Never came to any of your mother’s school events. If I remember right, he sold farm equipment and was gone a lot.”
Emily listened. In her mind, when she’d been a child, she’d imagined grandparents who loved her dearly living far away, but she knew it was only a dream. No cards, no presents, not even phone calls. She could never get her mother to talk about them. Apparently they hadn’t been bad parents or good parents—they’d simply faded away.
A nurse stopped in and seemed delighted to see a visitor in the room. “If you’d like, you can wheel her through the main hallway and around to the north door. The grounds outside haven’t been torn up there. It’s not so windy right now, though the temperature seems to be dropping. This may be the last warm afternoon we have for a while. I hear a cold front is heading our way.”
Emily stood. “Are you up for a stroll, Mrs. Parker?”
“Of course. I need to learn where the hole in the fence is.”
The nurse tucked a blanket around her while Emily
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