the prime of his lifeâher mind went to the picture of Paul on her refrigerator at home, her favorite, in which he was holding up a plastic fish in a souvenir shop in Cozumel, pretending heâd caught it.
She forced the image out of her mind.
âMaâam,â Jennie said quietly. âWhat you got to understand is some of the families donât have the money for the hospital bills. And the burial. If the company ainât going to cover it, itâs a powerful reason for them to make a deal. Iâm not saying theyâre happy about it. I got this friend from school, her boyfriend got his hand crushed last year, he canât work now. She told him to sue, but the company lawyers sat him down and laid out how if he took them to court they were going to get this whole team from Minneapolis to fight it, and even if he eventually won theyâd make sure it took years. And they got a baby coming. So he took the settlement. And it was a lot of money, almost two hundred thousand dollars. Theyâre building a house south of town.â
âButââ Colleen did the calculationâa few hundred thousand dollars was no compensation for the years ahead that the boy wouldnât be able to earn. She didnât know what to say. She settled for, âIâm very sorry for your friendâs boyfriend.â It hardly seemed adequate.
âMrs. Mitchell, can I ask you something?â
âYes, of course.â
Jennie took a breath and looked down. âDid your son have some sort of like . . . problems?â
Colleen froze. The habit of years, the defensiveness, surged up instantly. Heâs just an active boy, just like all the other boys âthe old chant, the one she recited in her mind like a mantra since preschool, echoed in her brain. This was it, the thing they spent all the money on, making sure he could pass for just like everyone else. Money and a raft of tutors and coaches were what allowed him to get into the college prep track and thenâmiracle of miraclesâSyracuse. His success was proof it had worked. No teacher had sent home notes with the names of specialists in the last few years; Paul hadnât returned home despondent over teasing since before puberty. But paradoxically, the more successful the ruse became, the more insistent the voice: Please just make him like all the other kids, donât let them notice.
âCan you be more specific?â she asked faintly, stalling for time, trying to figure out where the greater betrayal layâtelling his secrets or letting even the tiniest sliver of a clue slip through her fingers.
âIâm sorry, I donât mean anything by it, but did he like to gamble? Like did he have a gambling problem ?â
âWhat? Oh, Lord, no,â Colleen said, her relief so great she lost her composure. âI mean, heâs never gambled, that I know of. Maybe a few slots in the Las Vegas airport.â
âOh. Because why I ask is, thereâs been a few guys that get hooked on the casino up on the reservation. It sounds crazy, but theyâll go up there and run through their whole check and keep going. I just thought, I donât know. If heâd got in trouble that way. Him or Fly.â
âFly?â
âI mean Taylor. Sorry. Itâs these nicknames they give each other.â She smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
âJennie, why did they call my son Whale?â
âWell, because of those shirts,â Jennie said with what seemed like fondness. âWith the little whale on them? Nobody had ever seen those before. Especially that one he had? It was yellow and blue, I think.â
Colleen got it. The shirts she bought at the preppy little shop downtown, the one that the local kids were so crazy about. They were way too expensive, seventy-five dollars for a polo shirt, but Colleen had always felt it was well worth it to buy the trappings that would help Paul fit in. The
Terra Wolf, Mercy May
Jennifer Collins Johnson
Louise Penny
Tamara Hogan
Mary Hanson
Roderick Gordon
Aimee Agresti
Dean Murray
Amy Malone
Katharine Davis