All the Days of Summer by Nancy Thayer

Author:Nancy Thayer [Thayer, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

thirteen

Wednesday morning, Kailee woke in a state of alarm. She sat in her bed, taking deep breaths, saying aloud to herself, “It’s okay. It’s okay. She’s okay.”

It was six-thirty, so she showered, dressed, and went down to the kitchen. The house was oddly quiet and she saw that her father’s truck wasn’t in the driveway. Nor was Ross’s. Ross had probably gone to work. Her father was probably at the hospital with her mother.

Kailee made herself a cup of coffee and took it out to the garden. In the early morning, the day was fresh, sweet, renewed. The flower beds had been neatly edged by her mother’s gardener, and green shoots carried swelling buds. The new dawn rose climbed the trellis, pale pink petals swelling within their green shells.

“She’ll be back soon,” Kailee told the garden. She spoke aloud, as if the garden were capable of hearing, and maybe it was. In any case, she thought it was what her mother would want her to do. She’d overheard her mother talking to her plants often.

“It was only a mild heart attack,” Kailee continued. “Evelyn had pains in her chest, and she couldn’t get her breath, and she was nauseous. Dad drove her to the hospital. They gave her an EKG, and some blood thinners and anti-inflammatories. When I got to her, she was sitting up in bed with wires attached to her chest, covered by a hospital gown and sheets. She was indignant about having to wear the gown.”

A catbird flashed across the yard, perching on a holly tree near the house. Kailee’s mother believed the catbird knew her and chatted with her when she sat on the patio or worked in the garden.

“I’m supposed to check Mom’s calendar and take care of whatever she’d planned for today.”

The catbird twittered.

Kailee looked at it. “I know I can’t replace Evelyn. I’m not intending to do that. I can’t replace my mother.”

The catbird flew away. Kailee bent over, covered her face with her hands, and cried.

It had been frightening to see her uber-capable mother shrunk down into a slender body in a room full of machines and instruments. Evelyn’s lipstick and other makeup had faded, and her hair was disheveled.

“Evelyn’s hair was a bird’s nest.” Trying to be cheerful, Kailee called out to the birds in the garden. “That’s cool with you guys, right?”

And now, here Kailee was, with an empty coffee cup, abandoned by the catbird.

In the conservatory, Kailee approached her mother’s desk with trepidation. Her mother would hate anyone messing with her correspondence, but Kailee had to do it, and she realized with a shiver down her back that her mother might not be able to work full force again this summer. She sat in her mother’s executive chair, opened her computer, and began making notes in her phone about what she had to do.

Evelyn was president of the Essex Nature Foundation, secretary of a conservation foundation, treasurer of a historic organization, and vice president of Save the Water committee.

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