The Girl Who Never Came Home by Nicole Trope

Author:Nicole Trope [Trope, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838889708
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Lydia

Thursday – Five Days Since the Accident

Summer feels very far away in the early-morning spring weather. Lydia should not be outside, should not be walking in the wind. She could have waited for it to warm up but she knows that people, the well-meaning neighbours and family and friends, would frown upon the idea of her leaving the house at all. Yet she cannot stay cooped up any longer. It feels like her thoughts are chasing her through all the rooms of the house, and no matter where she goes, she cannot simply just be. She has assumed that a walk will help, and Walter has deigned to accompany her, despite the cold. She needs a walk and some space today before this afternoon, before the terrible afternoon that is to come.

She cannot think of what to make of Jessie’s revelations. Her daughter is gay and was seeing a much older woman, and she went, secretly, up to the camp on Friday night. She was secretly seeing a former teacher, the very teacher who was meant to be looking after Zoe on the school trip.

Gabriel had left the room after she stormed out, but before heading upstairs, he had stood outside the living room while Jessie spoke to the detective.

‘She told the detective that she saw Zoe heading away from the camp and that she seemed distressed,’ he reported to Lydia.

‘What? Why on earth didn’t she stop her?’

‘I don’t know. I guess she didn’t want anyone to know she was up there…’

‘But she could have… It wouldn’t have mattered. She could have helped her.’

‘I can’t explain it,’ said Gabriel.

Her daughter was seeing a much older woman and she had seen her sister out of her cabin and in a distressed state and done nothing. Not only that but she had failed to report this to anyone when they first found out Zoe was missing. This is what she cannot let go of. Jessie saw Zoe heading away from camp and she saw she was upset and then not only did she do nothing about that, when she found out she was missing she still said nothing. Nothing. Maybe she would have pointed the searchers in the right direction and they would have found Zoe earlier and maybe, just maybe, she would have been alive. But she got in her car and drove away. Jessie saw her sister and drove away and then she said nothing.

Lydia keeps listing these facts to herself, trying to make sense of them, trying to find a thread she can pull so she can understand why her child has betrayed her, betrayed her sister, in such a way.

Concealing that she is gay is understandable even though it’s hurtful. As a mother you want to believe that your children trust you enough to open up to you. But she understands that Jessie may have needed time to work out exactly how she felt. Jessie being gay is simply who she is and Lydia is fine with that, but she lied about where she was.

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