Brenda looked down. Mama sucked back her sobs and sat up, wiping her cheeks.
"Your father has left us. April," she said, speaking with such a lack of emotion it made me shudder to hear. "He has been planning this departure for some time, apparently. He sold his practice, for example, without my knowing anything about that, and all those cases he was supposedly working on were not true. He has provided us with a considerable flow of income. All the paperwork is right here," she said, touching one of the piles. "Neatly and competently arranged. I don't suppose there is a question unanswered when it comes to any of it.
"He left like some rat deserting a ship, in fact," she continued with bitterness infecting her tone, "He didn't bother taking much of his own wardrobe. He left instructions for that, too, however." she added, pulling one folder from a column. "Uncle Palaver is welcome to whatever he wants, and the rest goes to the Angel View Thrift Shop to raise funds for needy sick children. He even left most of his personal jewelry."
I walked farther into the living room and gazed down at the papers. I looked at Brenda, who turned away.
"When did he do all this?" I asked through my quivering lips.
"When? Much of it was done over the last month or weeks. I guess. Last night. I waited up for him, but he was busy arranging all this in his office. I finally knocked on his door and told him I was going to bed, and he said..." She started to cry again. Uncle Palaver held her firmly and kissed her hair. "Easy. Nora, easy," he urged softly.
She got enough control of herself to continue. "And he said. 'Good night, Nora. Don't wait up for me.' Don't wait up for him. Don't wait up," she repeated.
"Why did he do this? Where did he go?"
"Don't be stupid," Brenda said, her voice dripping with venom. "Where do you think he's gone? He's off with some other woman."
"But he can't be!" I cried. I looked at Uncle Palaver. His expression held no hope of it not being so. No matter how silly or inconsequential Daddy had thought Uncle Palaver's life to be, he was still a man of the world to me. He could and would see the reality of events I would or could not.
He just shook his head in utter disbelief himself.
"How could Daddy just walk out and forget all about us like this?" I moaned.
"That's not the amazing part to me." Brenda said. "What is. then?" I asked quickly.
She looked at Mama. "Tell her. Mama. Tell her what you discovered after you found all this."
Mama looked up at me, her eves so red I thought she would cry blood soon. "He's been going through all the albums in the house. He's destroyed every picture of himself and cut himself out of every picture with us or with me, even our wedding photograph!" she shouted.
It roared in my brain like a clap of thunder.
I turned and looked over at the fireplace mantel. The picture of her and Daddy from their courting days was gone.
"All of our family vacation videos are gone. too. I've looked everywhere. I did find the family albums in his office," Mama continued, taking deep breaths. "It was the first thing I saw when I realized he hadn't come to bed and had gotten up to find him. The office door was open, and the albums were there on the floor beside his desk. I went through the house looking for him and saw all these papers on the table."
"I heard a cry." Uncle Palaver said. "and came out as fast as I could."
"I did. too," Brenda told me. "Now I know why I couldn't find that picture I was describing to you earlier, the one where I received the trophy. I was going to put his smiling face on our door. remember?"
It was as if they were reporting the actions they had taken after a major crime had been committed. I sank slowly to the floor to sit and stare at the papers on the coffee table.
"He left a letter for us." Brenda added, the corners of her mouth dipping. She pushed the letter toward me.
"A letter?"
Mama started to cry again.
I looked at her and then picked up the letter and read it.
.
Dear Nora, Brenda, and April,
After a good deal of thought, I decided this was the bestway to handle the situation. What I -would like the most is for you all to forget me as quickly and as painlessly as you can. I know it's a strange request to make, but it has to be made for your sakes more than for mine.
As you will see, you are -well taken care of financially and should have no worries on that score.
I realize I cannot do worse than give you all grief and unhappiness, and thatwould be unfair to you.