Chapter 27
By the time Frank reached the gates of the soon-to-be-commemorated
“Hey there, Mr. Hemsky,” Zeke said. He and his daughter waited close to the fence along with some of the old men who frequented the cafeteria. “Pretty exciting, isn’t it?”
“It is. The whole town must be here.”
“Just about. Everyone loved Vera.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
Frank started to push his way through the crowd, but Zeke called after him, “Be sure to come by afterwards. You look in need of some coffee.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks.” He continued to elbow his way through until someone held him up.
“Frank, I’ve been looking all over for you,” JJ said.
“Well, you found me. Who’s watching the motel?”
“It doesn’t matter. Everyone’s here. So when are you leaving? I was thinking maybe we could—”
“I’ll check out today. I have to get back to
“You’re right. Maybe you’ll come back to our little town again someday.”
“Maybe. Thanks for everything.”
Frank left JJ standing amongst the horde of Vera’s admirers, his invitation left unsaid. Next time. He didn’t want to think about the next time. Everything in Little Mesa was a scar, reminding him of Vera and Anna. Coming back would only mean reopening those scars.
Mrs. McAllister waved to him and he made his way over. “I wondered if you would show up,” she said. “Is this part of your research on Vera?”
“You could say that.”
“I hope you’ve found everything you were looking for.”
Frank thought back to his encounter at
“Excellent. It was so unfortunate for her daughter last night. I hoped to see the poor girl to offer my sympathy. Have you seen her around by any chance?”
“No, I haven’t seen her since last night.”
“Oh well. I’m sure she’ll turn up.”
“I hope so.”
“It was good to see you again, Mr. Hemsky.”
“You too, Mrs. McAllister.”
Near the gates, Rusty Wheeler leaned against the wall, looking on the verge of tears. Frank wondered if it had something to do with Vera. He decided to make his way over and held out a hand for Rusty to shake. “I’m going to leave after this is over. Just wanted to thank you again for your help with the car. It meant a lot.”
“It’s no problem.” Rusty’s voice was little more than a whisper, so that Frank could hardly hear him over the crowd.
“Is something wrong?”
“My son. He’s been wounded.”
“Oh shit, I’m sorry.”
“They say it isn’t too serious. Fragments from one of those roadside bombs tore up his leg. They told me he’ll still be able to use it, but he isn’t going to run like he used to.” Tears came to Rusty’s eyes that he wiped away with an angry swipe of his hand. “He used to run so fast. He could get down the field before anyone. Now—”
Frank put a hand on Rusty’s shoulder. “At least he’s not too badly hurt.”
“I know. I shouldn’t complain because some people have it a lot worse. But I can’t help wishing it would’ve been someone else and not him. You think that’s wrong?”
“It’s understandable. You’re his father.”
“Yeah. After this I got to fly out to DC. He’ll be at the hospital there for a little while.” A smile came slowly to Rusty’s face. “Then I guess he can help me at the shop. Might be nice to have another pair of hands around.”
“I’m sure it will be.”
Rusty motioned to the gate. “I thought this would help take my mind off things. I bet Vera is looking down on us right now with a big smile on her face.”
“No doubt about it.” Frank shook Rusty’s hand again. “Good luck with your son. I’m sure he’s going to pull through.”
He didn’t want to leave Rusty Wheeler alone to wallow in his misery, but he had to find Esther. While he doubted Anna would leave behind a forwarding address for her aunt, he wanted to make sure. He didn’t want to leave Little Mesa thinking he’d left a possibility unexplored.
Esther wasn’t anywhere in the crowd that he could see. As Vera’s only family member in the area, he hoped to find her waiting with the other VIPs at the gate. When he didn’t see her there, he took out his cell phone and dialed Esther’s house. The telephone continued to ring until he heard a recording from the phone company. He tried Perfect Memories with a similar result. Maybe Esther had gone out to find Anna.
Someone tugged on his arm and he turned around to see the woman whose family he and Anna had watched the fireworks with. She had a pair of boys with her, one around Anna’s age and the other a few years younger. “You’re a friend of Anna’s, aren’t you?” the woman said.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think she would miss this. Is she still at the hospital with Mr. Barton?”
“I’m not sure. We got separated.”
“That’s too bad. My husband was worried about her. He said she didn’t look well this morning.”
“This morning?”
“He said she came by the truck stop at three or maybe four to buy some coffee. I guess she didn’t like the hospital’s.”
“I guess not.”
“If you see her, tell her we’re going to see Mr. Barton this afternoon. He was my most loyal customer. I’m not sure what I’ll do now.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage somehow. Excuse me.” Frank disappeared into the crush of people, his mind reeling. The truck stop. He imagined her traveling through the desert in the cab of a tractor-trailer. After shifting gears, the driver’s hand reached over to touch Anna’s thigh. The rest he didn’t want to think about. Why had she left him to go with a complete stranger who might rape and murder her?
A microphone screeched with feedback and then a man’s voice said, “Welcome everyone. We’re all here for the dedication of
The mayor pulled a cord that dropped to reveal the park’s name in bold white letters on the arch over the gate. As the crowd cheered, Frank felt a surge of nausea. The words ‘Vera Swinton Memorial’ on the arch somehow made it official, like a tombstone. There could be no way of denying her death now.
“Everyone is welcome to go inside. We have a big treating waiting for you,” Mayor Marshall said. The gates swung open and the crowd began to file inside.
As Frank moved along with the river of humanity along the paths, he thought back to his first time in the park with Anna. The ghost of Vera had haunted them both that day, but this time he felt something else. The people flooding the park demonstrated how many people loved Vera as much as he did. He felt the same connection to them as when he shot pictures.
They all loved Vera. Vera, the woman who drove here all the way from
Frank came to the center of the park with the rose bushes scattered around another red tarp. The mayor and other VIPs waited there for the crowd to finish gawking at the beauty of the park. After everyone settled down, the mayor tapped the microphone and said, “We’re all here to honor the memory of Vera Swinton, who led the effort to clean up this place when it was nothing more than an empty lot and unofficial city dump.”
“In the history of Little Mesa, the name of Vera Swinton is second only to my great-great-grandfather’s. She gave so much to the people of this town and asked for nothing in return. Fifteen years ago, when my wife—God rest her soul—was too sick from chemotherapy to even move, Vera came over every night to cook dinner and keep me company.” The mayor stopped to brush away tears that Frank believed were genuine. “No matter how bad things got for Louise, Vera never gave up. She said, ‘We only lose when we give up hope.’ She never lost that hope, even when I did. I don’t know what I’d have done without her.”
The crowd was silent as the mayor stopped to compose himself by wiping his eyes with a handkerchief. “I’m sure we all have a story about how she touched our lives. She was a living, breathing angel.”
Frank joined in the applause at this statement. He knew Vera was not perfect, but she was the closest to an angel he’d ever seen. He could see her with wings and a golden halo, but she wasn’t the kind to sit on a cloud strumming a harp. Vera was a guardian angel; she was Little Mesa’s guardian angel.
The mayor signaled for quiet and then said, “We debated for months on the proper way to honor Vera’s memory. A statue or a plaque just didn’t seem right. We decided on something else instead. Her good works helped us see our town and ourselves in a better light, so this seemed a fitting tribute.”
Two men rolled back the red tarp revealing a rectangular pool of water. The pool was only a foot deep with tiles of turquoise and aquamarine forming the image of a phoenix. The mythical bird that rose from the ashes. The crowd applauded again and Frank saw people openly weeping all around him. Even JJ, who didn’t know Vera, had tears in his eyes.
Later, when the crowd settled down and began to disperse, Frank went up to the pool and saw the plaque installed at its base. ‘Dedicated to the memory of Vera Swinton. [Some famous quote here.]’ Frank ran his fingers along the raised letters of her name. “I’m sorry, Vera.”
He looked into the pool and saw his face hovering there, alone. Vera was gone. Anna was gone. He had no one left. He’d lost every woman who ever loved him.
The face looking back at him in the water looked so tired, so old. No wonder Anna had left him; he would only slow her down in
He stood up with a grunt at the pain in his back. He limped back to the Rio Rancho, feeling ready to collapse onto the bed after the busy morning, but he didn’t want to sleep in the same bed where he’d made love to Anna. Where she’d left him. Instead, he packed his suitcase and took it out to the car along with his camera bag.
“Checking out?” JJ said when Frank entered the office.
“Yep. Time to get back to work.”
“Make sure to tell your friends about us. I’ll give them a special discount for being Frank Hemsky’s friends.”
“I’ll be sure to do that.” He shook hands with JJ across the counter and then cleared his throat. “If I come back here, maybe we can have dinner or something.”
“That would be wonderful.” Then Frank nodded and went out to his car. He pulled onto
She sat on the front porch with a bottle of wine. “I thought you were going to leave without saying goodbye,” she said. “Here, I saved you a drink.”
“No thanks, I have to drive.”
“I guess you do. Time to go back to the big city.”
“Did you see Anna this morning?”
“She came in and took some things from her room around three. I don’t know how long she thinks she can live on just one suitcase. The girl never could plan ahead.”
“You saw her leaving and didn’t stop her?”
“I couldn’t stop her. I never could.” Esther shook her head. “For ten years I tried to stop her. It didn’t make a difference. She has too much of Vera in her.”
“You could have done something.”
“Like what? Knock her over the head and tie her up?”
“Aren’t you worried about her? She’s out there on the road, alone with some stranger doing God knows what. She could wind up hurt or worse. And you didn’t do anything.”
“What about you? What did you do?”
“I was asleep.”
“I’ll bet. All worn out from fucking.”
Frank wondered how Esther knew, but figured she was probably guessing. He took a business card from his wallet and gave it to her. “If she calls, that’s my number in LA and my cell phone number.”
“I’ll be sure to give you a ring.”
“I guess I should get going now.”
“Sure, you go on.” Esther took a drink straight from the wine bottle. “You know, twenty-five years I hoped you would come back. Every morning for that first year after you left I looked in the mirror and tried to make myself beautiful for you. Like Vera, but I never could.”
“I was never as beautiful as Vera. Or even Alice and Susan. I was just always the plain one. The one with braces and zits and wearing frumpy sweaters so no one could see I didn’t have any breasts. I was a goddamned virgin until my honeymoon.” After another pull from the bottle, Esther continued, “You know the only reason I married George? Because he was like you. He was taller and heavier, but his voice. When I closed my eyes, it was like you were talking to me.”
“Esther, I—”
“Then, you show up after twenty-five years and I think my time has finally come. But no. You fall in love with Anna. Anna! Why, Frank? Why her? Because she’s prettier than me? Because she’s Vera’s daughter?”
“That’s not what happened. I love Anna because of who she is, not because of her looks or her mother.”
Esther finished the bottle of wine and then threw it at Frank’s head. The bottle whistled past his ear and shattered on the sidewalk. Then Esther put her face in her hands and sobbed while Frank stood on the front steps, unsure of where to go.
He thought back twenty-five years and saw Esther with her pigtails, pimples, and braces standing by the bedroom door as he and Vera lay there naked. That was the first and only time he noticed her, but how many times had she noticed him? He thought of that shy, lonely girl in her room, imagining him as her Prince Charming while he traveled the world without ever once thinking of her. The woman sobbing on the porch was the result of twenty-five years of disappointment.
All those years of heartbreak had turned her into a bitter, jealous woman. No wonder she resented Vera and Anna so much. Despite that, she had taken care of Anna for ten years, living in her sister’s shadow the entire time. In the end, no one would give her a park, but maybe she deserved one.
He went over to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Esther, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Would it matter if you did?”
He tried to think of a convincing lie, but then said, “Probably not.”
She lifted her head and wiped her eyes. “Look at me, I’m a mess, sitting here acting like a stupid kid with a crush. I should clean up and open the store.”
“Maybe you should take a day off.”
“Why? What else do I have?” Esther stood up and slammed the screen door. “Goodbye Frank. I’ll let you know if Anna calls. Or maybe you two’ll run into each other.”
Then she slammed the inner door, leaving Frank alone on the porch. He waited a moment before descending the steps and going back to his car. He took a last look at the house, but he couldn’t see Esther through the curtains. He drove back to
0 comments:
Post a Comment