The Wreck by Landon Beach

Author:Landon Beach [Beach, Landon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Landon Beach Books
Published: 2018-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

28

“The house got finished just as Abner left on deployment. Sherry moved out of my spare room, but we would still have coffee every morning. After a while, however, she started coming over less. We had never made morning coffee on my porch an official date, so I didn’t give it much thought. I figured she was busy getting the house together, and Melanie had come to visit a few times. Towards the end of Abner’s deployment, I drove up to their place because I hadn’t seen Sherry in close to a month—there used to be a driveway but Abner tore it up after Sherry died. Sherry looked so thin and sick. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She had always been a heavy smoker. I asked if Abner knew and she said that he was due back in a week and wanted to tell him then. I urged her to tell him immediately, but she insisted she didn’t want to worry him. Four months after Abner got home, she died.”

Nate refilled his mug as Lucille ate more of her breakfast. Birds chirped in the woods next to the porch and the sun was at the top of the tree line casting narrow shadows onto the dirt. Nate eased back in the wicker chair, mulling over what had been said.

Lucille set her fork down and looked into Nate’s eyes. “He’s dealt with a lot of pain, but there’s some that he’s never dealt with—and may never deal with. It turns up now and again as anger towards the Coast Guard and sometimes he takes it out on other people. I used to worry a lot about him, but he’s lightened up in the past few years. If you had found that coin five years ago, you could have forgotten about coming out here.”

“He asked me yesterday when the last time was that I cared about something,” Nate said.

“For him to ask you that tells me that what you and he are doing means something to him. All he could talk about over coffee this morning was getting to the bottom of the coin that you found. It’s given him something to focus on, which takes away the pain.”

Nate nodded.

“We fried some fish here for dinner last night and I turned on the porch lights while we read. He brought over a book that Tyee had gotten for him and I was settled into another one of my Agatha Christies. Around eleven I left him out here reading when I headed to bed. I got up this morning to have coffee at five-thirty, and he was still out here scribbling notes on a pad of paper.”

“Did he say anything to you about what he had found?” Nate said.

“If and when he’s ready to tell me, he will.”

They finished their breakfast and Nate rose to leave.

Lucille had moved to her rocking chair with a full cup of coffee. “When do I get to meet Mrs.

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