The Trouble With Nancy by Chautona Havig

Author:Chautona Havig [Havig, Chautona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Havilah Press Publications
Published: 2019-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

Raymond would never have recognized his study after over three weeks as Lewis’ recovery room. Edna stood in the doorway, surveyed the lay of it all, and made a decision. “Lewis?”

With the sunlight streaming in through the window and illuminating his head, the boy looked almost Raphaelic. “Mama! I just found the most wonderful passage about you in Papa’s journal.” He held out his hand, urging her closer. “Come read it with me.”

She couldn’t. Edna knew what Lewis didn’t. She’d weep until she made herself sick to read what her husband had written about her. Still, she sat beside him, took the journal in her hands, allowed him to put an arm around her, and sighed. “It’s good to see you feeling better. Does it ache much today?”

He poked at the plaster of Paris cast that Dr. Leonard had put on just that week. “It’s much nicer than the hard, heavy splints. And he says I can begin moving about on the crutches as soon as Mr. Styne finishes sawing them down a bit.”

Of course, Edna knew it all, but it pleased Lewis to tell her, so she listened, sympathized, and then, to distract him from the journal, made her proposition. “I think it’s time we planned for this to be your study, now. I’d like a few things moved upstairs, but you’ll need to decide what you want in here and how you’d like it arranged.”

She’d expected a protest. At the very least, he’d assure her it wasn’t necessary. But it was. Instead, Lewis looked at her, eyes glistening with tears he’d never let fall, and nodded. “Thank you, Mama. I’ll try to do him proud.”

Hattie appeared in the doorway, smiling at Lewis as if she had the greatest surprise imaginable. Edna’s heart swelled with hope for Nancy’s return. “Yes, Hattie?”

“Those noisy boys are here to visit. I’ve told them they may not roughhouse or excite our invalid, but I thought he might like the compa—”

That’s all Edna heard. While her heart shriveled, Lewis beamed. “That’s a good joke on me. I thought you were happy—maybe that Nancy—”

Rarely did Edna allow herself to display her emotions too freely but hearing Lewis mention Nancy just as she’d been thinking of the dear girl proved too much. She fled the room. Only when she reached her own room and began pacing did she see she’d taken the journal Lewis had pressed her to read.

“This is the perfect time to read it—when I’ll cry regardless.”

Finding the entry proved easy enough. The length of ribbon Nancy had bought and subsequently rejected—that very one Edna had snipped a length of for both herself and Lewis—poked out where he’d been reading. Her heart constricted at the sight of it. “Why did I tell her it didn’t look well? Why didn’t I allow her to have the pleasure of a color she enjoys?”

Her husband’s cramped but precise penmanship stared back at her from the page… black and white blurred into a blotchy gray, until Edna could rejoice at not being able to read a word.

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