The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz

Author:Connie Schultz [Schultz, Connie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2020-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Ellie slammed the letter down on the dining room table and called for Sam, who was making Reilly giggle in his playpen.

“What do you think you’re doing, telling your teacher about our private business?”

Sam’s chin started to quiver. “She asked, Mommy. She asked me why I was sad.”

Ellie pulled Sam onto her lap. “What happens in this family stays in this family. Is that clear?”

Sam nodded, biting her lip to keep from crying. Ellie reached for her daughter’s hand. “Sam, honey,” she said, her voice softer, “you’re only six. The world can be very confusing to a little girl. But I’m a lot older than you.”

“You’re twenty-three,” Sam said.

“That’s right,” Ellie said. “I’m sorry you’ve had to learn so early that you can’t depend on the men in your life. They’ll disappoint you.”

“You mean Daddy.”

“What I mean, honey, is that men just don’t have it in them to be everything they promise to be.”

The sad look on Sam’s face made Ellie wish, for the first time, that she’d had only sons. God made the world for men. Women were an afterthought, just like Eve. No matter what she did, Ellie would never be able to save her daughter from that heartache waiting to ambush her.

That night, Sam woke up again to her mother’s sobs and crawled into bed with her, as usual. Feeling her daughter’s warmth against her back, her little arm draped across her shoulder, stirred such guilt in Ellie. She had to fix this. She wiped her face with the edge of the sheet and turned to face Sam, stroking her cheek until Sam closed her eyes. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this new life of hers.

Who was she if she wasn’t Brick McGinty’s wife? She had no idea, and with an alarming clarity, she realized that she had no interest in finding out. Her train case, the gift from Aunt Nessa, was on the top shelf of her closet, wrapped in tissue and packed away with the high school dreams of Ellie Fetters. She was Ellie McGinty now, the mother of two children who needed her—and their father.

The next day Walter Cronkite interrupted regular programming and Ellie’s life. When she heard the car door slam in the driveway that evening, she ran to the back door and into Brick’s arms, breathing in the scent of her husband.

That had been months ago. She had not kept her promise to God, to make the most of this second chance. She had to start by making things right with Sam.

That evening, Ellie stayed in Sam’s room long enough to pull the covers taut and wedge them under her armpits. Sam beamed, lifting her arms as Ellie tucked, and then lowering them to clasp her hands over her chest for her bedtime prayer.

“Dear God, now I lay me down to sleep…”

“Sam, honey.”

Sam opened her eyes. Ellie smoothed her daughter’s bangs from her forehead. “Remember when I said men will always disappoint us?”

Sam nodded.

“Well, I forgot to tell you something else about that.

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