Page 28

Chapter Twenty-One

G race was already seated at the table when Claire walked into the cute little diner.

The special was fried chicken, and Claire had to smile as she read it.

She signaled to the waitress that she was going to be sitting with Grace, and the waitress nodded and said, “I’ll bring a glass of iced water and get your drink order in a bit. ”

She nodded and walked over, sliding into the booth on the opposite side of the table and saying, “Hey there. Sorry I’m a bit late.”

“No problem. I was early. On purpose. I guess you might remember that’s kind of how I am.

” Grace grinned sheepishly, and Claire nodded.

She remembered that her friend was always punctual and perfect.

Although the thought used to send a little spike of jealousy buzzing through her, now it just made her smile.

She loved her friend that way. And she didn’t want her to change.

“You look different. Better,” Grace said, sounding surprised.

“Yeah. I’ve gone through a lot the last 48 hours, but it’s all been good things, I think. And I’m hoping that today is a good thing too.”

“Same. That’s the whole reason we’re meeting. For me anyway. I wanted it to be good.”

“I was hoping you’d be willing to talk about the tragedy. I… I’m afraid that I am not remembering correctly, and I’m afraid… I’m afraid to e ven think about it or talk about it or bring it up at all. I think facing it will help me face my fear and make it so that I can see it for what it is.”

“I think a lot of times when we face our fears, we realize that they’re not as big as what we thought they were.”

“That’s my hope.”

“Hi, ladies. Here’s your water, and the coffee that you ordered. Would you like something else to drink to go with it?” the waitress asked.

They placed their drink orders, and both of them got the special of fried chicken. The waitress nodded, telling them it was a really good choice, especially if they were looking to take some home to give to a possible marriage prospect.

Grace winked and said she’d take a box to go, but Claire, although she was tempted, did not.

“I thought you said you and Trevor are already getting married?” Claire said when the waitress left.

“There’s nothing like a little extra insurance, right?” Grace said, laughing. “We decided that we were going to get married maybe in two weeks or so. And we’ll have a reception at the church. We’re finalizing the details, but I hope to see you at the reception.”

“I’ll be there. Unless something comes up. Life has been a little unpredictable lately.”

“I think you have every right to say that. But I think things will settle down. We go through stages in our life, right? Where it just seems like there’s turbulence everywhere we turn, and then we have smooth sailing for a while.

I think God knows we need those rest periods in order to have enough strength to make it through the next turbulent time. ”

“I like to know that, because sometimes I feel like I can’t handle any more, but…

God’s been so good. So many lessons, so much stuff I’ve realized about the old me and how I don’t want the new me to be that way.

Just…a lot, and it’s been mostly good, although it’s been a hard time, for sure.

” She would never say that her grandma dying had been a good time necessarily.

Or an easy time. But it had been a time full of good lessons.

“Anyway. I don’t want to take up all of your time. I know that when we talked, you said you only had a week with your kids. I’m sure you don’t want to be gone any longer than what you need to be.”

“I appreciate your consideration. You’re right. Josiah is at home getting ready to have a bonfire this evening. And I promised I wouldn’t be long.”

“I’d like to hear about Josiah, but I think it’s more important that we talk about what happened the day Yolanda died.”

She thought that Grace was very deliberate in not calling it “the tragedy,” as she had been, but saying Yolanda’s name and saying that she died.

“It’s too bad Lauren can’t be here. I’m pretty sure she blames herself.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but she ended up not coming.

And I remember Yolanda saying something about Lauren telling her to go on without her.

Maybe Lauren feels like she talked Yolanda into going instead of staying, and that made a difference. ”

Claire thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “That makes sense. And I guess that would just add another dimension to our conversation, because it was obvious to me on that day that Yolanda wanted to be there. I don’t think anyone talked her into going.”

“I don’t think so either.” Grace nodded. “We all were excited about the trip. We were sad that Lauren wasn’t there, but none of us were thinking that we wished she were there. At least, no one said anything.”

“The weather was supposed to be nice,” Claire started saying, trying to remember the details. “And I remember Yolanda saying that she wanted to get a tan and she didn’t want to wear her life vest. We agreed, and none of us had life vests on.”

“I know. I’ve gone back to that moment over and over again. We were so vain. It was so important to get a good tan—more important than living?” Grace shook her head. “Why? Why were we so dumb? We just…put something really stupid over something that was important. And I can’t go back and change it.”

“I know. I’ve relived that moment too. I remember her throwing her life vest down and wish that I would have just picked it up and said, ‘Let’s wear it for a little bit anyway.’ Or something.”

“Yes. Anyway, it didn’t look like we would need them. The water was calm. And when we rode out, I thought it was the perfect day. I remember saying we couldn’t have had a better day.”

“Same. I know it was close to school starting again. Maybe the day before?”

Grace nodded thoughtfully. “I think so. Because I’m pretty sure both of us missed the first day of school that year.”

“Yeah. We did. I lay in bed and cried all day.”

“Yeah. I lay in bed with my phone to my ear talking to you and crying.”

Claire smiled faintly as she remembered. They were so close. “Anyway, one of those unexpected storms came up, and we were really scared, because we didn’t have a lot of experience on the water. At least I was scared.”

“I was scared too. But I remember glancing back and looking at Yolanda, who was behind me, and that look on her face has haunted me for years. I think she was scared.”

“Do you think she had a premonition?” Claire asked, feeling goosebumps go down her arms.

“No. But I just remember seeing her looking at the sky, and she didn’t look me in the eye after that. It was like she knew that it was going to be worse than what we thought it was going to be. I turned back around and looked at the sky myself, but I just didn’t see what she did.”

“Interesting. I guess I was in the front, and I didn’t see either one of you two. I just, once we decided to row for the shore, rowed as fast as I could. I didn’t ever think about the life vest. I wish I would have. That’s something else that’s haunted me. That stupid life vest.”

“Me too. Various times throughout the ride, I could have said, ‘Let’s put it on.’ Or ‘How about now.’ Or ‘We better do this before we head back to the beach.’ But I didn’t.”

“It was one of those rogue waves. The water wasn’t especially rough. I personally thought we were going to have plenty of time to get back. But a wave that was bigger than the rest of them just flipped us over.”

“Yeah. It happened so fast. Did you see the wave coming?” Grace asked thoughtfully, and the way she asked made Claire think that she had never seen it .

“At the last maybe two or three seconds, I did. But that was way too late. I remember yelling, ‘Hang on!’ And that was it.”

They paused for a moment, and the waitress came with their meals.

Claire, who had been hungry up until that point, wasn’t really interested in food. But the scent drifting up was so tantalizing that she picked up her fork without thinking about it.

Grace must’ve felt the same, because she also pulled her plate toward her and said, “Let’s pray.”

Claire nodded and then bowed her head while Grace said a short blessing.

She didn’t say anything profound, and Claire wondered if it was tempting for her to pray for Yolanda, even though she was long gone.

For some reason, Claire thought they should.

But she knew there was no point in praying for someone who was already dead.

“I remember hearing you yell, ‘Hang on,’ and then it seemed like almost immediately, the wave picked up our boat, and almost like it had fingers, it tipped us over.”

“Yeah. Like it grabbed a hold of the bottom of the boat and dumped us out. You felt that too?” Claire asked, thinking that that was one of the things that she didn’t remember very well.

“Yeah. It was clear to me that that was what happened. Except…it was ridiculous. Waves don’t have hands.

But I never saw Yolanda surface at all. It’s like she went down and kept sinking.

” Grace shook her head, like she didn’t understand why Yolanda wouldn’t pop back up.

“She was a strong swimmer. Stronger than I was.”

“Far stronger than me. Swimming was never my thing. As soon as I felt myself coming out of the boat, I thought about my life vest. That was the only thing I was looking for until I grabbed a hold of it. Thankfully, my foot caught it as I was coming out of the boat, and I had the strap in my hand before I even surfaced.”

“Mine was right in front of my face when I broke the water. I grabbed it immediately. That, and the kayak, which somehow settled right side up.”

“We might not be here to talk about it if it hadn’t. You’re right. It did. And between us, we had two paddles.”