Lost Memories by Katie Winters

Author:Katie Winters [Winters, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: womens fiction, sisters fiction, Family Saga
Publisher: Katie Winters
Published: 2020-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

AFTER THE SERVICE, Elise and her children stood near the casket to greet the guests. Her mother’s cousins approached and kissed all their cheeks and announced they would be at Elise’s house by the end of the hour. “We’ve packed several dishes for you,” one of them said brightly, as though Elise and her children had some sort of outrageous appetite in the wake of her mother’s death. “So don’t you worry about anything.”

One of her mother’s old friends from high school gripped Elise’s hands and said, “You know, I always felt like your mother should have been so much more famous than she was.”

Elise’s stomach clenched at the thought. “I don’t know. I think she had precisely the kind of life she always wanted to have.”

Of course, it was easier to say this now.

“She was just spectacular!” the high school friend continued. She squeezed Elise’s hands still harder and turned her eyes toward Penny, who continued to nod ferociously. “When she played Annie from Annie Get Your Gun in high school, she brought down the house. I’ve never seen anyone so spectacular. Everyone said that she would be this mighty force in Hollywood.”

“She played some good parts...” Elise affirmed, dropping her mother’s old friend’s hands with distaste.

Still, this woman wasn’t the only one with similar sentiments.

“She was such a stunner,” one older man said. “I wanted to marry her, but she always told me that she wasn’t keen on the idea of marriage.”

Elise guffawed. “When was that?”

“I guess around the time she left Los Angeles for a bit,” he said.

Elise arched her brow. “She left LA?”

The man gave a shrug and glanced toward the casket. “I married my wife after she left. We had our own brood of kids. It wasn’t such a bad life. But everyone told me—life with Allison Darby would be alive and fiery every step of the way. I always wondered if I really missed something.”

Elise wanted to roll her eyes, to explain to him how little her mother had needed anyone—not a husband, and certainly not anyone like him.

Another older woman stepped forward. She was beautiful, her dark blonde curls wafting about her ear, and her blue eyes twinkling with humor.

“Elise. I haven’t seen you since you were a little girl,” the woman said.

Unlike the others, she didn’t reach out to touch Elise. She seemed to understand the benefit of personal space.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I don’t remember.” Elise offered.

“My name is Margaret,” the older woman said. “And I worked with your mother when we both left Los Angeles in the late ‘70s.”

“Oh.” Again, Elise’s heart banged away in her chest. Her mother had never mentioned any departure from LA. Throughout her life, Allison Darby had told Elise she was an LA-girl, through and through.

“It was a terribly long time ago, now. Your mother and I were just actresses with hopes and dreams of our own. Of course, everyone spoke about Allison as though she was God’s gift to cinema. I suppose it’s why she got in with some of the more famous cast members.

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