Read Online What's Left of Her by Mary Campisi - Free Book Online Page B

way to visit Niagara on the Lake when she died. Appendicitis, they said.”
    “Damn.”
    “I didn’t have any relatives, no place to go, so I stayed in the town where she died.” Her voice drifts. “Next thing I know, I’m thirty-eight with a husband, two kids, and a wood-paneled station wagon.”
    “So, you’re running away.”
    “No. Maybe. Am I? Maybe I’m running to something.”
    “Niagara on the Lake?”
    “My life, Peggy. Maybe I’m running to my life, my real life.” The truth spills out after so many years, it pushes through the pinhole of discovery and bursts into the open like a newly birthed baby.
    “And the husband, the kids,” Peggy says, “the dog you probably got, what about them? Is it just ‘adios amigos’?”
    “I’ll destroy them if I stay.”
    “Spoken from one who’s never been left behind.”
    “I have no choice.” She leans forward, dares the other woman to understand. “ I have no choice. I’m falling apart, a day at a time. I have to figure things out.”
    “And then what? You’ll send them a note saying it’s been nice? My old man did that, it doesn’t work.”
    Evie says nothing.
    “They’ll hate you for leaving.”
    Evie closes her eyes, tries to block out the pain of Peggy’s words. “They’d have hated me more if I’d stayed.”
    ***
    She’s been on the road three days. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Peggy needs to make her deliveries and Evie needs time to think, come up with a plan. Niagara on the Lake is where she’s headed but once she gets there, then what? There’s only seventy-six dollars and thirty-two cents left from the hundred-dollar bill Rupe gave her for groceries. Her money is shrinking, spent on a toothbrush, comb, gum, bag of peppermint patties, and meals, though she keeps the latter to $2.99 dinner specials.
    Peggy loans her a few oversized T-shirts and a jean jacket to fight off the early morning frosts. But soon, she’ll be down to no money and no plan.
    They are driving through Lansing, Michigan. It is drizzling and Evie’s throat is sore, her head’s pounding and she’s shivering. Peggy pulls into a diner with a banner advertising “Home-cooking.” She knows everyone on this route, even what the specials are. This one’s called Jack’s and the specialty is always meatloaf and mashed potatoes with canned green beans. Evie and Peggy slide into one of the gray and silver booths and order coffee.
    As she scans the menu, trying to decide if she wants to splurge on a side dish of “homemade” applesauce, the bell above the door jingles and a family of four enters: mother father, son, and daughter. Evie looks up and her eyes freeze on the boy. He’s in his mid-teens, tall, dark with wavy hair and silver-blue eyes, looking so much like Quinn that she almost runs to the pay phone and punches out the numbers for home.
    “Evelyn?”
    Oh, God, the pain. She clutches her chest, her throat, opens her mouth, gasps.
    “Evelyn?” The boy turns to his mother and smiles, a bright, wide smile that rips into her. “Evelyn!” She closes her eyes, tight, sucks in air, slowly, until the pain subsides and the image fades. When she opens them, the boy is gone. “What is it?”
    “The boy who just walked in reminds me of my son.” She focuses on Peggy, afraid the Quinn look-alike will pop up in front of her and bring back the memories.
    “I can take you home,” Peggy says quietly.
    “I miss them.”
    “We can leave now, drive straight through. It should put us back around 11:00 tomorrow night. Nobody has to know what really happened. You’ll just say you ran out of gas and a man picked you up and then he forced you to stay with him. Say that he didn’t touch you, and you don’t remember what he looked like or what kind of car he drove. If they keep at it, make something up. All they’ll care about is that you’re safe, right? They’ll want you back so you can all pick up right where you left off: car pools, meatloaf and mashed potatoes,