The Color of Water in July: A Novel by Nora Carroll

Author:Nora Carroll [Carroll, Nora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Up North Press
Published: 2011-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

The ride back to Wequetona was silent. Mamie said nothing—didn’t even look her way. Jess, was plastered up against the passenger side door, stared resolutely out the windows, watching the farms and fields go by, the funny broken down castle walls at the old Loeb farm, and finally, the gateway to Wequetona, the back road past the neighboring cottages, and the broad back of Journey’s End. Her mind was spinning. What was the doctor talking about? What did he mean by cousin? She cast an occasional sideways glance at her grandmother, but Mamie’s eyes stayed firmly fixed on the road.

Cousin? It made no sense. Margaret never talked about the family, nor did Mamie, come to think of it. She realized she knew almost nothing—only that Mamie had been married only briefly, to someone named Cleves, and that Margaret had never known her father. But she had no cousins, that she had ever heard of, and she had never heard the name Daniel Painter until this summer. She closed her eyes, and tried to blot out all of it—the pain and bleeding, the doctor’s words, and even the face of Daniel—it was too much to think about. She was exhausted and felt shattered inside.

Finally, once back inside the cottage, Jess blurted out the question.

“Am I related to Daniel Painter?”

For a moment, the question hung in the air between them. Jess studied her grandmother’s face. She waited for her grandmother to look puzzled by such an off-the-wall question. Related to Daniel Painter—of course not. What an absurd idea!

But, in a split second, Jess knew the truth. She could see from the look on Mamie’s face, all at once ashen and eager, that her grandmother was planning to tell her something. But instead answering the question, Mamie put a firm hand on Jess’s arm.

“Not now, dear. Not now.” Mamie said, “right now, you are in a delicate condition.” Before Jess could think to protest, Mamie had guided her up the stairs, covered her with a cool sheet, and said a no-nonsense “Get some rest.”

In spite of everything that had just happened, Jess fell into a deep sleep. When she opened her eyes, the slanted sunrays of late afternoon were making a pattern of golden diamonds on the pineboard wall beside her bed. For a brief moment, she remembered nothing, but then, it all came flooding back to her.

When Jess came downstairs, late that afternoon, Mamie had laid out the table for tea: two china teacups with saucers, the blue and white sugar bowl, and two carefully polished silver teaspoons. Mamie sat down at the table and Jess sat down facing her, feeling her weariness as she sank into the chair.

“I’ll explain everything,” Mamie said. “But I’ll have to begin at the beginning.”

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