“Don’t even say it,” Carol snapped. “There’s no way.”
The thought had crossed Carol’s mind too but she wouldn’t let it go there. It was simply not possible that Faith would have taken her own life.
Silence filled the kitchen. Slowly, Carol pulled herself to a standing position, holding the counter for support. She stood there for a long minute, staring at the floor.
“I think I need to go lie down,” she finally said softly. “I have a pounding headache.”
“Of course, honey. Come on, I’ll help you there.”
Jim steered her to the bedroom, getting two aspirin from the bottle in the bathroom cupboard and filling Carol’s bedside glass with water. He closed the curtains.
It felt good, childlike, to have someone tuck you in, and Carol accepted it gratefully. She smiled at Jim and watched as he pulled the door with a soft click. After popping the aspirin in her mouth and washing it down with a long drink, she curled into a fetal position and shut her eyes.
Two hours later Carol awoke, her headache somewhat better, and she came into the kitchen, where Jim was still seated at the table, peering through his reading glasses at his laptop. He looked up with a solemn expression.
“What? Did you learn something new?” she asked, and her stomach clenched.
“Honey, sit down,” he said softly.
“I don’t want to sit down. What did you learn?”
Jim sighed. “I think it’s best if you sit down.”
Warily, she lowered herself into a chair opposite of Jim and looked at him. “What?”
“Channel 9 doesn’t have anything new except that there will be a vigil tomorrow at elevenAMat a park near the station,” he said. “But theFree Presshas some new information. They said the medical examiner confirmed her death, and also that their sources tell them it was no accident. Carol, I hate to say this but she was found murdered in her car not far from the station. Sounds like strangulation.”
The words would not penetrate Carol’s brain properly. It wasas if there was a wall preventing them from going in. She shook her head and said firmly, “No. That’s not true.”
“Honey…” he replied softly, reaching for her hand again. She snatched it away.
“Don’t say things like that out loud, Jim.Their sources.What does that even mean? I don’t believe theFree Press.I won’t believe anything until Channel 9 tells me.”
“Well, let’s watch the five o’clock news in a bit,” Jim said, glancing at the clock. “In the meantime, do you want to see what the other members of the Fair-Weather Friends Fan Club are saying? Don’t they have a Facebook page?”
Carol had sort of forgotten about the Facebook page. It wasn’t something she went to often, but maybe the solidarity would be good.
Jim spun his laptop around and pushed it across the table and Carol found the page. Across the top someone had already changed the group’s cover photo to “RIP Faith,” with a photo of her smiling surrounded by flowers. It looked like one of those photoshop or AI-generated pictures a person can make quickly. The tributes were pouring in.
“I will miss her for the rest of my life.”
“She was the kindest person. I met her at the state fair once and she told me I looked young for my age. I will never forget it.”
“I used the umbrella she gave me every time it rained and I always thought of her.”
“Faith, we love you! Who will give us the earring forecast now?”
Carol noticed that one woman named Chloe was encouraging the whole Facebook group to attend the station’s vigil the nextday and to wear their “Fair-Weather earrings” as well as bright yellow shirts in a sign of unity and love for Faith. Carol decided to see if she had enough energy to attend.
As they waited for the five o’clock news to start, Carol felt compelled to add a comment of her own to the Facebook page:
You were like a dear friend, Faith, and we looked forward to your forecasts every night. We miss you already. Your loyal fans, Carol and Jim.
At 4:58, Carol and Jim moved to their easy chairs in the den and turned on Channel 9. Jim reached for her hand and Carol took it gratefully. The music started and the graphics began. The camera went to the weekend anchor, Stella, who looked red-eyed and somber.
“Good evening. We begin with tragic news about one of our own…”
Stella said police confirmed that Faith had been found in her car, parked in a remote area not far from the Channel 9 studio. Her body showed signs of trauma, and police were treating her death as a homicide.
