please, honey. Pull yourself together. Go wash your
face. Freshen up. We don't want to show the servants
we're unhappy, do we? After you have something in
your stomach, you will feel a lot better anyway. I'm
sure."
"I'm not hungry," I cried. I ran to the staircase.
"Leigh!"
I didn't turn back. I couldn't, II ran up the stairs
and into my room. I rushed to my window to look out
in hopes of catching sight of Daddy leaving the house,
but the street below was empty, the street lights
casting long, dark and lonely shadows over the
sidewalks.
I clenched my hands into fists to grind away my
eyes and then I looked about my room. I looked at all
the things I had that reminded me of Daddy, looked at
his picture, looked at the models of ships. It was over.
This life I had known had passed on into that empty
night below.
Daddy had a saying when he met someone new,
especially someone he liked.
"Let's not be like two ships passing in the night.
Call again. Stop by."
Oh Daddy, I thought, will we now become like
two ships passing in the night?
One day slipped into another. I returned to
school and described my Jamaican trip to all my
girlfriends. Everyone was interested in my stories
about Fulton and Raymond, and a week after I had
returned home, I received a nice letter from Raymond.