“Where were they?”
“Kristy was in Colorado. Tommy was in Maine.” She smiles a sadsmile. “Amy was in Florida.”
“Where in Florida?”
“Islamorada. It’s right under Key Largo. She owned a bookshop down there. Called it Henri’s Hideaway. There was a café and little reading nooks along the stacks, and hammocks out on a patio for people to relax and read.” Henri lets out what could barely pass as a chuckle before she coughs. “I was always supposed to go down there. I was going to help her run it and...” Her voice trails off and her eyes get a little glassier. “I kept putting it off. Putting off cleaning the house, getting it on the market.”
“Then the bug.”
A sad smile creeps across her face. “You know, at the end of July—when we finally realized just how bad it would be—I started death cleaning.”
“Death cleaning?”
“I didn’t want my kids to have to deal with all the shit Tommy Sr. and I had accumulated. So I started cleaning. But here I am. The house is ready and no one’s here to buy it.”
My heart breaks a little for Henri. I don’t know what to say to her.
“Maybe you should leave with us. We can go down and look for her together if the Reagan National rumors aren’t true.” It feels wrong lying to her, but she could help Jamie. She could stay with him if things don’t work out in Alexandria. And then again if they don’t work out at Reagan. It’s the first time I think of those two things as a one-two punch for Jamie. Losing me, then finding out the rumors about a European convoy have been exaggerated.
She laughs and we both look to see if Jamie wakes up, but hedoesn’t. “I don’t want to slow you down.”
“Not like we’d be in a rush.” But knowing Jamie, he wouldn’t mind at all.
“I also don’t think I have a thousand some-odd mile walk in me, kid. Sorry, but I’m hunkered down here pretty nicely.”
But I can still see that sadness in her eyes. It looks like shewouldmake the journey if she could. And I know I just met her—and I could be entirely wrong—but it sounds like she’s thought about it before.
“I hope she’s alive. But then I feel that guilt again. That I was being foolish before all this came and messed it up, thinking I had so much time. Mothers are supposed to be there for their daughters when they have a baby. And I’m not.”
“Maybe if there is help coming, they’ll be able to find your daughter and bring her up here.”
“Maybe. If you’re even heading for the airport, that is.”
I look up at her and she’s giving me a knowing look, like she’s accusing me of lying. “How did you know?”
She scoffs, and if I’m not mistaken, she seems to be happy to move on to another subject. “Honey, I raised three children and none of them were as bad at lying as you are. Every time Jamie said something about Reagan National, you had this little guilt face going. Tommy Jr. used to pull that shit when he snuck my smokes.”
I’m glad she kept this to herself until after Jamie was passed out.
“You’re farther out of the way than if you just went right through DC to the airport. And if you were hoping to be saved by the Spankin’-New EU, you’d have been there by now and not eating my food. Where are you really headed?”
“It’s a long story.”
“But you haven’t told him?” She points to Jamie. “Otherwise he’s the best damn liar I’ve ever seen.”
“No, he doesn’t know.”
She shakes her head at me. “He seems to trust you, to leave his whole life behind, so shouldn’t you tell him before he finds out and it kills him? Again, I’m speaking metaphorically here. ’Cause after that happens...” She shakes her head.
“What if the truth kills him anyway?”
She shrugs. “If you’re really in a lose-lose situation, you need to figure out which option you can’t live with.”
I look over at Jamie; he’s still snoring.
“Well, I’m off to bed,” she says, patting me on the leg and standing up. “Do you want me to make up the spare bedroom for you?”
I shake my head. “No, that’s all right. I’ll stay out here with him.”
