Page 60 of That Last Carolina Summer

After a moment, she nodded. “I have something for you, but I think it’s supposed to be a secret.” She showed me her other hand, the fingers closed over her palm, and placed it in her lap.

“Does it have something to do with what happened last night?”

She nodded once. “Mimi wanted to take the boat into the water, so Will dragged it out to the dock for her. He called his daddy to ask if it was okay and he said no, so we told Mimi it would have to wait until the next day.”

“What did Mimi do then?” I kept my voice calm, trying to keep out any conjecture or accusation in my tone.

“Will and I brought her back to her room. Will fell asleep, but I couldn’t because Mama had left, and somebody needed to make sure that Mimi was okay.”

I squeezed her hand. “Thank you for doing that.” I wanted to add that it wasn’t her job, that Addie was supposed to have been in charge and to put the responsibility on a nine-year-old was the worst kind of neglect. “And then what happened?”

“I heard Mimi go downstairs, so I got up and followed her. She went down to the dock and tried to get the boat in the water, but she couldn’t. I told her that we needed to wait until the morning, but she yelled something awful at me.” Her face crumpled, and I squeezed her hand.

“I’m so sorry. But you need to know that Mimi loves you so much, and the real Mimi would never yell at you or say anything mean.

She’s sick, and it’s the disease saying those things.

But deep, deep down, where the real Mimi is, she loves you and would never say or do anything to hurt you.

” My own voice cracked, surprising me. How long had I known that to be true?

Maybe I hadn’t until just now, while trying to explain dementia to a nine-year-old.

Ophelia nodded as she tightened her left hand, still closed into a fist.

“And then what happened?” I gently prompted.

“She yelled at me to help her, so I did. And then I got inside the boat so I could help her get in, but that’s when she slipped and fell.

I saw her throw something in the water. I’d seen her holding it before, so I knew what it was.

Mama would be mad if she found out what Mimi had done, so I jumped in to get it before it sank too far.

By the time I came up for air, the boat had drifted away, so I swam after it to bring it back.

” She shook her head as fat tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I climbed inside, but when I tried to row back, I only had the one oar, and I accidentally dropped it in the water.” She began crying in earnest now, and I kept squeezing her hand to let her know that everything was okay.

I struggled to sit up, cursing the IV line.

I untaped it and slid the needle out, impervious to the pain, then reached over and hugged her.

“Ophelia, you’re a great kid. You’re smart, and kind and compassionate, and you love your grandmother.

When she asked you to do something, even though you didn’t know why, you did it.

Everything that happened afterward wasn’t your fault. None of it, okay?”

She nodded once, just enough to let me know that she’d heard me, then continued crying.

I waited for Ophelia’s sobs to subside while I carefully considered my next words, though I realized that no matter how I asked it, the answer would be just as devastating.

“You were very brave, Ophelia. You did what you thought was right, and nobody can blame you for that.” I let go of her hand and cupped her sweet face, using my thumb to wipe away her tears just like my mother had done for me years ago when I’d allow her to see me cry. “What did Mimi throw in the water?”

She opened the fingers of her hand one finger at a time.

In her palm lay Addie’s necklace with the black pearl.

The almost-identical replacement necklace for the one she’d lost. Almost. The one in my dream, the small object floating briefly on the surface of the water, had the small diamond perched on top, its reflection of the ambient light winking at me.

Addie had been wearing it the night she drove Julie Fitch somewhere in Julie’s car.

She’d lost the necklace in the accident, and it had sunk to the creek bottom where it would never be found.

And its absence wouldn’t be noticed because our parents had bought her another one to wear instead.

I took it from her, allowing my fingers to close over it. “Thank you, Ophelia. I’ll give this to your mama when she wakes up.”

“You’re not mad at me?”

I hugged her again. “Never. I promise to never be mad at you.”

She pulled away to look me in the eye. “Really?”

“Okay. Maybe not never. How about never without explaining why I’m angry, and then working it out together? How does that sound?”

She lay her head on my shoulder, and I kissed her hair, which still smelled like saltwater. And then I remembered something Aunt Sassy used to say to me. “It’s you and me, kid. We’re in this together for the long haul. Got it?”

Ophelia nodded. “Got it.”

After Ophelia returned to the waiting room, I changed into a pair of clean scrubs that had been left on a chair in my room then went to find my sister.

When I located her room, Addie was alone with the sound of the beeping monitors.

Her face was blanched of color, and she seemed smaller, almost childlike, as if she were disappearing into the hospital bed.

A large bouquet of red roses sat on the bedside table.

The small card that had been delivered with it sat faceup next to the vase.

Get better soon. Love, Dale. I wondered how much he knew.

Or what he would do when Addie told him the whole story.

A rush of sympathy for my sister surprised me.

I found myself hoping that Dale truly did love her and would stay by her side for what would come, whatever that might be. She’d need more than one ally.

Her eyes were open, and she watched me as I sat down next to her bed. “How are you feeling?” I asked.

Her voice was slow and deep. “Like I was hit by a train. You?”

“I’m fine. They’re letting me go home today, so I’ll be there for Ophelia.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.

“I should be thanking you. You saved my life.”

She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “What are sisters for?”

I reached for her hand and placed the necklace in her palm. She didn’t have to look at it to know what it was.

“Mother was trying to throw this in the marsh,” I said. “That’s why she and Ophelia were out on the dock.”

Addie closed her eyes. I watched her throat move as she swallowed. “I need to tell you about Julie Fitch.”

“I already know, Addie. Maybe not all the little details, but I know that she’s dead and that you were driving when her car went off a bridge with her in the passenger seat.”

Tears leaked out of the corner of her eye, creating a dark stain on her pillowcase.

“I wanted to go to a party in Awendaw, but I didn’t have a car because I’d wrecked mine, and all my friends had already left.

” Her voice sounded weak, and I wanted to tell her that it could wait, that I knew enough to put the story together.

I also understood that she needed to tell me.

Not for exoneration but to free herself of the burden of carrying the secret.

She’d once shared it with our mother but had unexpectedly found herself struggling to bear it alone.

“Julie and I had stayed late after choir practice to work on our parts, so when I saw her in the parking lot, I convinced her to go to the party. I’d been asking her all week, and she’d kept saying no, but.

..” Her eyes closed briefly. “I finally wore her down. Except it had started to rain, and she said she didn’t like to drive at night when it was raining, so I told her that I would.

” She shook her head as tears fell down her face.

“I didn’t mean for her to get hurt. And I tried to save her.

I did. But I couldn’t get her out of the car. ”

“I know.”

She didn’t seem surprised. “You saw it in a dream, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long, but I’m such a coward.

I was always afraid you’d dream about it, especially after Celeste and Liam became involved in your life.

” She paused to take a breath, as if the memories were pressing all the air from her chest. “I wanted to go to the police right after it happened, but Daddy said no. Nobody saw Julie leave with me, and he said it was best just to let her family think she’d run away, and I could forget it ever happened.

But that wasn’t true. I should have known. I should have told him no.”

“You were eighteen years old, Addie, and we’d been conditioned to never say no to Daddy. He was a bully to all of us, including Mother. Mother just wanted to protect us.”

More tears slid down her face. “What am I going to do now?”

Even though Addie was the older sister, she’d always looked to me for direction.

Birth order had little to do with the parceling out of talents.

I’d always been able to look at a problem and find its weakest point to know where to attack it.

That was the one good thing I’d inherited from our father.

“You need to tell Celeste. She has to know where to find her granddaughter so she can bury her and finally have closure.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“Yes, you can. You have to.”

Her eyes didn’t leave my face. “I’m in a lot of trouble, aren’t I?”

I considered lying, but there had already been too many lies.

“Even if you didn’t mean to cause harm, your actions led to the death of another person.

And then you hid the fact so that a family was kept in the dark for decades.

It might help your case if you tell your side of the story to the authorities as soon as possible. ”

“Will you be there with me?”

“Of course.”