Hum: A Novel by Helen Phillips

Author:Helen Phillips [Phillips, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
Published: 2024-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

22

The children walked into the woods with more confidence than she. They knew the way to Jewel Falls, even in the darkening evening, and they led her there, keeping always eight or ten feet ahead, never glancing back to confirm her presence, ignoring her questions about where they had been, what they had done, how they had felt, if they were okay.

Jem was sitting on a rock at the top of the waterfall, cross-legged, his head drooping, a position of defeat, the phone in his hand glowing incongruously against the trees.

The children called out to him and ran to him, as they had not run to her. He was electrified by their voices, he slipped sloppily down the rocks and collapsed over them, looking into their eyes, dodging her eyes. He didn’t ask them a single question, he just held them.

The three of them linked arms, a single six-legged creature, as they walked back to Cottage 22. She wanted to join, but the path wasn’t wide enough, especially when they passed other guests, so she walked behind them, in silence.

Yet she was ebullient. She had made bad decisions, messed up her face, removed the bunnies, lost the children. But everything was fine. It was okay. They were all okay. The children were right here before her. She almost laughed with joy.

When they reached Cottage 22, the children ran straight through to the yard, to the fruit tree. Once again the illumination from the globes in the tree distorted May’s vision. Once again the strange orange light strobed her children’s movements into individual frames; Lu pulling down a branch, Sy picking the unknown fruit; they took her breath away; they were wondrous and united, and they no longer belonged to her.

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