Picturing Lucy by Debra Carttar

Author:Debra Carttar [Carttar, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Infinity Publishing
Published: 2010-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Summer finally arrived and each day the sun spent a little longer in the sky above Spruce. Lucy started her second photography class at the art studio with nothing else on her schedule to distract or exhaust her. Three more prints at the bookstore had sold and she had finished paying off her grandfather, putting the remaining funds away for her printer. But when she had signed up for the summer class, she was informed that a more advanced photo software program was required. She had used the money she had saved for the printer and had reluctantly asked her grandfather for the additional money. She felt like she would never come out ahead. The printer she had hoped to purchase remained a picture on her wall, a dream she couldn’t quite make real.

On her way out of the studio after the first day of class, Lucy heard a voice behind her.

“Your name’s Lucy isn’t it?” the voice asked.

Lucy turned around and looked at the woman who had called her name.

“I’m Patricia Olsen, Patty,” she continued. “I saw you at your mom’s funeral.”

“You knew my mom?” Lucy asked.

“We were best friends for a while. Well, for a long time actually. Do you want to grab a coke or something? There’s a little place right around the corner.”

Lucy wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t know this woman, but she wanted to ask her about her mom. They were just going around the corner and they would be in a public place.

Patty was watching her.

“I’m sorry,” Patty said. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“No, I’m OK,” Lucy said. “I just need to call my grandfather and let him know I’ll be late.”

She called her grandfather and told him she would be at class for about another 30 minutes. It wasn’t exactly a lie. It just wasn’t the exact truth.

She followed Patty around the corner to a quaint restaurant Lucy hadn’t noticed before. The waitress came and Patty ordered a coffee. Lucy ordered a Coke. She thought she had just enough money in her purse to cover that and a small tip.

“I knew your mother was pregnant with you, but then she disappeared,” Patty told her. “That was about … how old are you?”

“I’m thirteen,” Lucy answered.

“That was about fourteen years ago.”

“You said you were best friends with my mom?”

“Starting from when we were about your age. We were inseparable. Even when boys came on the scene, nothing got in the way of Wright-Olsen team. Your mom was the vibrant, outgoing one. I was quiet and reserved. What she ever saw in me, I never really knew.”

The waitress brought their drinks and Patty added milk and sugar to her coffee, taking a sip and then setting it back down.

“That all changed our freshman year in college. We both had boyfriends. She was dating a guy by the name of Sam Kearney. They had started dating in high school, senior year. She was crazy about him. At least she was in high school.

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