The House of Frozen Dreams by Seré Prince Halverson

Author:Seré Prince Halverson [Seré Prince Halverson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-EIGHT

Snag sat, watching her mother breathe. The in, the out, the up, the down, of Lettie’s breath filled Snag’s own chest with a sweet sadness—gratitude for what had been, dread of what was to come.

She started singing her mom’s favorite song. “The water is wide. I can’t cross over. And neither have I wings to fly …”

Gilly stuck her head through the doorway. “I just love that song. You are one sweet daughter, Snag Winkel. Sweet voice, too.” And then she was gone down the hall in a flurry of nurse busyness.

Snag felt her cheeks go red and turned back to her mom. “Build me a boat, that can carry two …” Theirs had been an easy mother-daughter relationship, as far as mother-daughter relationships went. Snag grew up worshipping the ground Lettie walked on, which also happened to be the ground Lettie worshipped. Because Lettie’s religion, if you chose to call it that, was steeped in those four hundred acres overlooking the Kachemak Bay. Lettie told Snag she’d only been half alive before she and A.R. moved to Alaska from Kansas. She was even convinced whatever had caused her infertility had died on the boat trip up; Lettie arrived on this shore, suddenly Mrs. Fertile Myrtle. As a token of her gratitude for Snag and Glenn, she’d offered up herself—with years and years of hard work and dedication to their land.

But Alaska was the same land that had taken away not only Glenn, but Bets and dear Denny too. When Snag had brought that up once after the accident, Lettie said she didn’t see it that way. They’d loved their lives here in Alaska, doing what they enjoyed. Sure, they might not have gotten in a plane crash if they’d lived in LA or Tallahassee, but who was to say? Lettie didn’t blame Alaska for the accident. But she might blame her daughter, once she heard the whole story.

When Lettie woke, Snag didn’t waste any time. “Mom, I really need to talk with you.”

Lettie rubbed her eyes and reached for her glasses. “Last time I tried to have a heart-to-heart with you, you ran out of the room. Or crawled, was more like it.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking of everything you said. Thinking and thinking. All this time, I didn’t know you had a clue about me and I wonder why we didn’t talk about this back when it would have been helpful—back when I was a young woman instead of an old lady.”

“You’ve still got time to get it right.” Lettie sighed. “But that’s no excuse for me. I thought I was being a good mom to keep quiet and let you find your way. But we didn’t live in an area where you got much guidance. It wasn’t like we had a Gay Pride parade on the Spit. You could have used some straight talk about being a lesbian. There, I said it.” Snag’s ears felt hot. The heat spread down her chest and she took off her cardigan. “But I felt ill-equipped back then.

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