Cameo Lake by Susan Wilson

Author:Susan Wilson [Wilson, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2002-01-27T06:00:00+00:00

I went straight out, seeking to let the warm breeze take the nursing home odor out of my nostrils. I walked down the short block, turned, and walked back, sitting down on a bench a little way from the front door. I knew that Ben's bringing me here to see Talia was because I had shared my own secret last night with him. To show me that we all have things we keep from others. Except that Ben's sharing had not explained anything to me, only created more questions.

An old man sat on the bench opposite to mine and in the time it took for Ben to come out, smoked two cigarettes. He smoked them slowly, considering each inhalation. By the scruffy slippers on his feet, I assumed he was a resident, given outdoor smoking privileges. He carefully dabbed each of the two cigarettes out on a scarred spot on the iron framework of the green bench and then got up and went inside. As he passed through the wide wooden door, Ben came through. Seeing me sitting there, he smiled and put his baseball cap back on. “Thanks for being patient.”

“Ben, I'd feel bad if you hurried for my sake.”

We walked quickly back to the parked car. The passenger-side door creaked in loud protest as Ben opened it for me. “Is it very expensive to have her there?”

“About like having a child in a little ivy college.” Ben adjusted the rearview mirror. “This is a good place, despite being out here in the middle of nowhere. Her parents were very upset with me keeping her here in New Hampshire when they had found a place in New York that specializes in cases like Talia's. But this place is very caring and she gets the same therapies as she would in a big-city place, maybe even better. We have a guy named Jeremy who is her private nurse and he gives her the best care possible. He's teaching me some things, you know, basic nursing care, so that when she becomes . . . end-stage, I can bring her home.”

Benson Turner had been grieving for the dying, not the dead.

“Can I ask you something, Ben?”

He kept his eyes on the road in front of us, but nodded. I'm sure he must have known that I would ask.

“Why do you let everyone think Talia is dead?”

“Is that what they think?”

“Ben, you know that they do, you told me yourself they resented you because you didn't have a funeral service. Why have you let this evil misapprehension go on, let those women treat you with disdain?”

“Cleo, I don't know those women. Despite what I said last night, I really don't care about them. They only knew Talia slightly. Since I've lived on the lake they've always treated me with disdain, because I was different from them, didn't fit into their worldview. But, believe it or not, it was the greater world I wanted to keep out of our business. You have to understand that as a popular recording artist, Talia was a public figure.

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