“She did?” Cassie glanced at him in surprise.
“She was always afraid you girls would fall.”
“She never said anything.”
“What do you mean, she talked about it all the time.”
An anxious thrumming started up in her belly. How was it that her dad recalled this and she didn’t? She should remember something as encompassing as her mother’s fear. She remembered the swing itself in rich detail—the warm grain against her bottom, legs pumping so hard her feet flew higher than her head. Her dancing impatience when it was Shelly’s turn.
But her mother fretting over the danger? That was lost. A bit of her past that had vanished without her even knowing.
Her father smiled an inward sort of smile. “Boy, did I catch hell for that swing. Too high, too close to the road. They’re goingto kill themselves.” Without changing his voice, he’d channeled her mother—her expression, her inflection. Her mom, in flesh and blood, came rushing back, and Cassie nearly staggered with the pain. Her mother, living inside her dad all this time. Her own memory was so incomplete, huge chunks of her mom she’d never known or didn’t remember. But her dad, with his dwindling faculties, had stored it all away. Memories he could still retrieve when the clouds parted. At least for now.
Cassie took his hand as they made their way back to the pavement. His skin was papery, the veins gnarled and blue. Her mother hadn’t lived long enough to age this way. Her mind had betrayed her, but she’d died with her skin unblemished.
“What else do you remember?” Cassie said.
Her dad shrugged, impatient that he was being pressed to recall. “Let’s take a look at the Kingsley property.”
“How about we stick to the road?” The woods, with rocks and roots and lumpy ground, presented all kinds of hazards. Anyone could trip, especially an eighty-five-year-old just coming off an ankle injury. But her dad struck out across the road with the obstinate look she knew so well. “We said we were going to walk in the woods.”
She’d never agreed to that but it didn’t matter, he was headed there now. Her dad hadn’t seen the Kingsley property since the bulldozing began. And even though she’d known what was coming, the first time she saw it she’d felt a woozy shock that trees that had stood so long had surrendered so easily. For a moment it had given her pause about selling to Weber, handing over the house and field as fodder for development. She still hadn’t told Glenn about her plan. Her stomach dipped unhappily at the thought of that conversation. She needed to talk to him, but it never seemed to be the right time.
No. Her dad definitely did not need to see the Kingsley property. He would never agree to sell, and she still couldsee no other way forward. But he was already huffing up the embankment, stabbing at the soft spring dirt with his cane.
“You’re out of breath,” she admonished him. “Slow down.” She should have brought a bottle of water.
“I’m fine.” But he’d lost his burst of momentum and was having trouble gaining the top of the gentle slope. He was so damn stubborn, why couldn’t they have stayed on the road. She should have brought Andrew along. He could get her dad to do anything.
Her father stopped at the top of the rise to catch his breath. “Is this the property they sold?”
She looked at him in surprise. A few minutes ago he’d been so clear-eyed. “Yes, the Kingsley property.”
“I know that, but they sold it?” He mopped his face, which was perspiring heavily.
“It sold a few months ago.” She wondered if he even remembered about the development. Maybe he just wanted to walk in the woods.
They came to a deer path, which was easier going, but her dad still seemed uncomfortable.
“You okay?” He didn’t look good. His face was pasty and he still hadn’t caught his breath.
He rubbed fitfully at his shoulder. “Must have slept wrong last night, that’s all.”
“Your shoulder hurts?”
“When you get to my age everything hurts.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“What are you,” he grumbled, “my doctor?”
Nothing about this felt right. His shortness of breath and now this pain in his shoulder. She felt a rising unease. “You know what, we’re going home.”
To her surprise, he agreed. “Maybe I’ll lie down for a few minutes.”
A terrifying thought dawned on her. Could he be having a heart attack? She tried anxiously to remember the symptoms. Not always a crushing pain, that much she knew. Sweating, shortness of breath. Pain in the neck or shoulder.
She felt his arm. Clammy skin. That was a sign too.
