Girl Sent Away by Lynne Griffin

Author:Lynne Griffin [Griffin, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SixOneSeven Books
Published: 2015-11-28T23:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Toby saw the red and white bull’s-eye from the expressway in time to pull off the exit and into the Target parking lot. In one stop, he could get everything he needed to stock the house in Maine. After all that had happened back at Mount Hope, he wasn’t up for multiple errands. He knew Ava wouldn’t be either.

She’d been asleep for nearly the entire ride. He didn’t know how teenagers did that, curled up in the most uncomfortable positions. Didn’t she have to go to the bathroom? Or ever get hungry?

“Honey,” he said, gently touching her shoulder through his leather jacket.

She jerked awake, putting her hands out in front of her like she was going to hit something or someone. He could tell it took her a second to realize where she was, to recognize him.

“I’m going to grab a few things. It won’t take long.”

Ava didn’t say anything.

“You could come. Use the restroom.”

“I’m fine.”

That was it? His daughter had been in the car with him for hours and all she could come up with was I’m fine? Maybe she really hadn’t wanted to leave. Toby thought the change of scene, going to their house above the Reach in Blue Hill to set things right between them, was a good idea. After all, Ava had written so fondly of their summer home in one of her letters. Sitting there now, seeing his daughter turn her body toward the window, her back to him, he wondered if his plan to bring her to a place packed with memories wasn’t potentially a colossal disaster.

He reached into the backseat, unzipped his duffel bag, and rolled out a pin-striped oxford. “I’ll leave this here in case you change your mind. If you want, meet me inside. Or when I’m done, we can ask how far out of the way it is to better stores.”

Ava remained silent, her eyes closed tight against him. Toby laid the shirt that could’ve fit three of her over the back of her seat.

At the entrance to the store, he wrestled a large cart from the corral and shimmied it through the automatic doors. Buttery popcorn invited him inside. Wheeling the carriage by the promotional aisle where pallets of ticketed sale items were stacked, Toby grabbed a box of Wheat Thins. These would tide him over till he and Ava got at least as far as Bucksport.

Up one aisle, down the next, he filled his cart. Aside from last month’s out-of-the-blue phone call from the caretaker about a leaky pipe, Toby hadn’t really thought much about the place in a while. Now certain items went into the cart without a moment’s hesitation. Things they’d need there came back to him automatically. Paper towels, aluminum foil, scissors, tape, a pad of paper, a pack of pens. Other things, specifically for Ava, took longer to choose.

In the women’s clothing department, Toby pulled a pair of pants off a shelf. Even before he’d unfolded them, he knew they’d be too big on his daughter.

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