AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’ll be ten bucks,” I said cutting her off. “That’s today’s rule.”
She looked at me incredulously. “But I am sorry.”
“Now it’s twenty. Pay up and stop saying you’re sorry. You’ve used your quota for today.”
“I owe you an explanation about before.”
I held out my hand. “You owe me twenty bucks. I won’t listen to your explanation until I get it.”
She laughed—finally the reaction I was fishing for. She reached for her purse, and I got my twenty.
I pocketed the money. “Now I’m all ears.”
“You’re a goofball.”
“So I’ve been told.”
She sighed. “You know Uncle Ernst took over because my parents died.”
I nodded.
She blinked several times. The tears threatened again. “They died in an accident.”
I nodded. “A nighttime accident on a trip is what you said.” It had been so obviously painful for her to say even that much that I hadn’t brought the subject up again.
“It was on the water.” She started to sob. “They were…” Sniffles followed but no more words.
“You don’t need to go into it. I understand.”
She took the napkin and dabbed under each eye. “No. I need to. It’s not something I can hide from. I have to face facts and move on. They died in a boating accident.”
“I’m sorry.” I wanted to hold her and soak up the hurt she was feeling. Losing your parents before their time wasn’t something anyone should have to endure alone. I felt shitty that I’d triggered this by suggesting going out on a boat.
“They shouldn’t have gone…” She took a deep breath. “Let me back up.” She seemed to be getting stronger as she released the pent-up emotions.
She continued after another sip from her cup. “I was away at school. I told you that part. Ernst called and told me they went missing after taking the boat to Catalina for the weekend. They loved going to Avalon, but they never made it to the island that night.” She sniffed. “We never found out what went wrong, and our boat was never found. The hardest part has been not knowing, not having closure.”
I didn’t know if I should ask any more about it—if that would help her or hurt her.
“They shouldn’t have left at night, I guess.” She twisted her mocha. “Anyway, they searched, and for days all I could do was cry and hope they’d ended up on one of the other Channel Islands.”
I waited.
“After less than a week, the Coast Guard called off the search. I begged them to keep looking—you know, check everywhere again, but they said they’d done all they could. Uncle Ernst had the company pay some people to keep looking, but that didn’t get us anywhere either. I couldn’t function. I could hardly get out of bed.”
As she spoke, it became apparent how hard it had been for her to face the loss.
“You’re going to think I’m stupid.”
I reached across to touch her hand. “Never.”
“I paid a psychic.” She looked down before twisting her cup. “Two actually, and the best I got was that they were not far away. News flash: Catalina is only thirty miles offshore. When Ernst heard I’d wasted twenty thousand on that, he threatened that if I didn’t get some counseling, he was going to have me committed.” She huffed. “Can you believe that?”
I silently waited for more.
“Well, long story short, I did start to see someone.” She twisted her cup again. “She helped a lot. It took a while, but I got over it—all except the boat part. The idea of getting on a small boat is something I still can’t deal with.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I’d known.”
