Wish me luck.
Gina Simon
"Who's Gina Simon?" May signed and then pronounced as best she could.
"Just someone I once knew," I said. "No one, really." I tossed the card into the garbage can, but later, I went back and retrieved it.
I couldn't help it. I was like someone lost on the desert who had been given a drop of water to cherish. What else could I do?
I went upstairs and put the letter with my other mementos.
And then I looked at Laura's bag of
possessions, the only things left from her strange and tragic existence. Neither Cary nor I could get ourselves to do anything about them.
I couldn't just ignore them anymore, however. I reached in and took out the thick notebook which had been her diary. Then I went downstairs and sat behind the house in the big wooden chair that faced the ocean and I began to read.
A long time ago, I lived a fairy tale life, it began. My eyes lifted from the page as I took a deep breath.
Off in the distance a sailboat looked caught in the calm and remained painted against the blue horizon while above it, puffy white clouds waited for the same wind.
All the world was standing still, holding its breath. Even the terns froze on the beach and looked my way.
When the wind began again, it carried a song it wished I would sing for Laura, for Cary, for all of us.
I would sing it, I thought.
Now, finally, I would sing it.