To Have and To Hold by Ruth Ann Nordin Page B

against a wal . When he looked at her, she motioned for
    him to come into the room. “He’s ready to see you now,” she whispered.
    Dave nodded and entered the room. Unsure of what to do, Mary held back while he
    approached her father’s bed. He reached out and shook her father’s hand. “It’s nice to meet
    you, sir.”
    “Thank you for being good to my little girl.” Glancing in her direction, he asked, “Would you
    leave us alone, Mary?”
    Mary obliged him and slipped out of the room, shutting the door softly behind her. She stood in
    the hal way for a moment before someone cal ed out to her from the stairs. Turning in the
    direction of the voice, she smiled when she saw Grace. With Grace, she was beginning to feel
    an inkling of friendship similar to what she had with Sal y, April, and Jenny.
    Making her way toward Grace, she smiled. “It’s good to see you.”
    Grace stepped in her direction. “Did you see Father?”
    “I did. He seems happy, despite his condition.”
    “He is.”
    The two stopped close to the bedroom Dave and Mary were staying in, and Mary decided if
    she could ask anyone about the missing mirror, it would be Grace. Clearing her throat, she
    asked, “Why isn’t there a mirror in my room? Did someone take it out of there because they
    needed it?”
    Grace’s smile faltered. “You didn’t want a mirror in there while we were growing up.”
    “Why?”
    “Does it matter? It’s al in the past. Do you have a mirror in your bedroom in Nebraska?”
    “Of course, I do. I thought everyone had mirrors in their bedrooms. How else can you see
    whether or not you combed your hair right or look presentable after dressing?”
    With a sigh, Grace shrugged. “You said you didn’t need a mirror to tel you those things. You
    said you just knew.”
    “But if that’s true, wouldn’t I have refused to let my husband put a mirror in our bedroom?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe being with him gave you a reason to want to have a mirror. Al the
    letters you wrote to me indicated that he’s wonderful to you.”
    Her eyebrows furrowing, Mary thought it was strange that Grace and her father emphasized
    how good Dave was to her, as if having a man be that way toward her was something unusual
    for her. But then her father had said she hadn’t been happy with her life in Maine. She
    debated whether or not to express her feelings to her sister, but she got the feeling she could
    tel Grace anything and receive an honest answer. And if part of the reason she came here
    was to learn about her past, then who better to go to than someone who’d been a dear friend?
    Making sure they were far enough from her father’s door so Dave wouldn’t overhear in case he
    came out of the room, she lowered her voice further and asked, “I’ve been having dreams
    about mirrors every time I go to sleep. There’s something important about them. Why didn’t I
    want the mirror in our bedroom while we were growing up, Grace? There has to be more than
    you’re tel ing me.”
    “It doesn’t matter, Mary.”
    “Then why do you look like you’re afraid to tel me?”
    Grace brought her hands together and stared at them for a long moment. “There’s nothing
    wrong with the way you look.”
    “No, there’s not. But what does that have to do with anything?”
    “A lot. It had a lot to do with how you saw yourself when you lived here. There were some
    people who were unflattering in the terms they used to describe you, and after a while, you
    came to believe them.”
    “Unflattering? How?”
    Shooting her a firm look, Grace said, “I won’t go into detail, and there’s nothing you can say to
    make me.”
    Disappointed but understanding her sister only wished to protect her, she nodded. “Alright. So
    people didn’t think I was attractive, and over time, I accepted what they said about me.” She
    was a grown woman with a husband and children. Surely, she could handle that aspect of her
    past.
    “They were wrong. I