Tamarack County

CHAPTER 24

When the doorbell rang, Stephen didn’t respond immediately. He thought, This is what it’s like here. Colder than you could ever imagine. Hope you enjoy it, Skye.

The bell rang again, and from upstairs, Jenny called, “Stephen, get the door.”

He crossed the living room in no hurry, took hold of the doorknob, but gave himself another few seconds before opening up.

Skye Edwards stood in the light from the porch lamp, smiling at him out of the oval frame her parka hood created around her face. In one hand, she carried a big plastic bag with “Four Seasons” printed in elegant script across the side.

“Hi,” Stephen said, with no great enthusiasm. He stood aside so that she could enter.

She brought the cold. It not only came in the air that entered with her but poured off her clothing. She made a brrrrr sound and stamped her feet and said, “Oh, God, I think my toes are going to fall off.” She flipped the parka off her head. “Boozhoo, Stephen. Did I say that right?”

“Close enough,” Stephen replied.

She shed her parka and glanced around. “Where should I put this?”

“I’ll take it.” He nodded toward her boots, which had carried in snow on their soles. “Leave those on the mat by the door.” He hung the parka in the closet in the hallway.

Skye put down the plastic bag she carried, knelt and undid her laces. “Where’s Jenny?”

“Putting Waaboo down.”

“Oh, I’d hoped I could spend some time with him.”

“Past his bedtime already.”

“Next time,” she said brightly and put her boots together on the mat. “Would you give this to him when he’s awake?” She reached into the bag she’d brought and lifted out a stuffed orangutan two feet tall. “I picked it up in the gift shop at the hotel. I hope he likes stuffed animals.”

“I’ll give it to him,” Stephen said.

He figured he should invite her into the living room, but instead he stood more or less blocking her entrance to the rest of the house. She kept on smiling, and her eyes went past him, taking in the living room and dining room.

“You have a lovely home here,” she said.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have anything to do with that. I was kind of born into it.”

“Lucky you,” she said.

Jenny came down the stairs. “Hello, Skye.”

The two women embraced warmly, and Stephen felt something go hard in him, like a fist.

“Annie’s told me so much about you, I almost feel like we’re sisters,” Skye said, holding both of Jenny’s hands in her own.

“Do you have siblings?”

“A mean, older stepsister straight out of Cinderella. And a brother who’s nowhere near as nice as Stephen.” She threw him an easy smile.

“Come in, won’t you?” Jenny invited and led the way into the living room. “Can we get you something to drink? Beer, wine, soda?”

“Red wine?”

“We have merlot.”

“Perfect.”

Jenny looked at the stuffed orangutan in Stephen’s hands. “Where’d you get that?” she asked.

Skye answered, “I brought it. A present for Waaboo. I hope it’s okay.”

Jenny laughed. “It’s perfect. Thank you. I’ll give it to him when he’s awake in the morning.” She took the orangutan from Stephen and said to him, “You know where the wine is. And could you pour a glass for me, too? And one for yourself, if you’d like.”

“Not of legal age yet,” Stephen pointed out dourly.

“Special occasion,” Jenny replied. “And just one glass. But only if you’d like.”

What he’d like, he thought, was to get drunk, something he’d never done before. He went to the kitchen, got out three wineglasses and the bottle, already opened, and poured wine for them all. When he came back to the living room, Jenny and Skye were on the sofa, laughing together.

“Before she wanted to be a nun, she was dead set on becoming the first female quarterback for Notre Dame,” Jenny said.

“On the softball field, I’ve never seen a better pitching arm. She’s amazing. Thanks, Stephen.” Skye took the glass he offered. “What about you?” she asked Jenny. “Do you play softball?”

“Annie and Stephen got all the athletic genes.”

Skye watched Stephen slump into an easy chair. “You play sports, Stephen?”

“I run.”

“Cross-country,” Jenny said. “He’s good.”

Skye said, “Annie’s a runner, too. I admire the endurance it takes. Me, I like fast action.”

Stephen hated this, the pointlessness of this kind of conversation. He wanted to say, “Why? Why Annie?” No, he wanted to shout it. And he wanted to shout, “Get out of Annie’s life and leave her alone!” Instead, he sat and sulked while the two women carried on like old friends.

In a few minutes, the pizza arrived. Stephen had the dining room table already set, and Jenny had thrown a tossed salad together before she put Waaboo to bed. They ate, and Jenny and Skye drank more wine, and Stephen brooded.

“Always this quiet, Stephen?” Skye finally asked.

The question seemed to come out of nowhere, mostly because Stephen had been off for a while in his own head, having a stern imaginary conversation with this intruder from California.

Skye put down the wineglass she was holding and turned her whole self toward him. “Or is there something you’d like to talk about?”

It was so pointed an opening that he knew exactly what she meant. And although he’d been primed all evening for a confrontation, he said, “Nothing.”

Jenny said, “Stephen, it’s okay to talk about it.”

“In fact,” Skye said, “I wish you would. It’s easier if everything’s on the table.”

“There’s nothing easy about this,” Stephen shot back. “Who do you think you are?”

“Someone who loves your sister very much.”

“Annie’s a . . . a . . .”

“A woman?”

“A nun!”

“Not yet, she isn’t, Stephen,” Skye said gently.

“Not ever, if you have your way.”

“You must be pretty strong in your faith to care so much about Annie’s vocation.”

“It’s not about my faith. It’s about what we’re called to do. Annie was called a long time ago. She’s known since she was a little kid that she’d be a nun.”

“Or the first female quarterback for Notre Dame,” Skye said. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“This isn’t about her being a lesbian,” Stephen said. “Honest to God, that doesn’t matter to me. She could prefer polar bears for all I care. The thing is that when you’re called to a higher purpose, you don’t just turn your back when the first temptation comes along.”

Skye folded her napkin and set it beside her plate. She seemed to be considering her words carefully. “Stephen, I don’t think of myself as just some temptation.” She leaned nearer. “Is there a young woman you like a lot? Someone very special to you?”

Stephen thought instantly of Marlee and was ashamed that with the same thought came the image of those haunting breasts.

“I can see there is,” Skye said. “What if some guy made a play for her, tried to take her away from you? What would you do?”

“God’s not just some guy.”

“I’m not religious, Stephen, so to me that’s exactly who he is. And not just some guy, but a myth. Annie, on the other hand, is very real to me, and I love her with all my heart.”

“Then you won’t try to interfere with what she’s doing out at Crow Point.”

“What is she doing, Stephen?”

Jenny, who’d been quiet in this long exchange, said, “I can tell you that, Skye. We had a long talk today. She’s struggling, struggling like she never has before. She’s told you about the school shooting here?”

“School shooting?”

“It was headline news five years ago. When Annie was a senior, her best friend was killed by a kid on a rampage at our high school. He was going to kill Annie, too, but God intervened. At least, that’s how Annie has always seen it. That experience turned her from trying to be a quarterback at Notre Dame to spending her life in the service of others, and doing it as a nun.”

“You didn’t know?” Stephen said, making his voice purposely incredulous. “And you’re supposed to be so close to her.”

“It was an important turning point in her life,” Jenny went on. “The important turning point. And she’s never doubted her journey since. Until now.”

Skye sat back, looking a little stunned. “I didn’t know.” But only a moment later, a defiant fire came into her eyes. “But I do know about your aunt Rose and her husband, Mal. Annie’s told me they’re very happy together, and that they don’t feel guilty at all that he left the priesthood to marry her. She said they both figure God had a different vocation in mind for them. So why not for her?”

Jenny said, “I can’t answer that. Only Annie can. I think Stephen’s point is that it’s a consideration maybe best done alone.”

“And I’m an interference?”

“A distraction,” Jenny said.

Skye said, “I think I’d better go,” and she stood up.

“There’s dessert,” Jenny offered.

Skye looked at them both, and although Stephen didn’t care for her presence, he wasn’t blind to the struggle he could see on her face. “I’ve never been in love like this before. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but if I decide I can’t let Annie go, I’ll do everything I can to keep her. And, Stephen, if that makes me a monster in your eyes, we’ll both just have to live with that.”

Jenny saw her to the door, and Stephen heard them exchange words, but too quietly for him to make them out. When Skye had gone, Jenny came back to the table and sat down. “In the end, Stephen, it’s Annie’s life. And you and me and Dad, we have no more right to interfere with her decision than Skye does. I think her question to you was valid, and one you ought to think about.”

“What question?”

“How would you feel if someone tried to take Marlee away?”

But Stephen already knew the answer to that. Someone had tried it, someone in a green, mud-spattered pickup. And, afterward, all Stephen had wanted to do was shoot the bastard dead.