She recognized it. It was the lap blanket Grandma Nancy wore in her wedding photo, the one that Maddie’s great-great-grandmother, Gladys Nightingale, Spotted Fawn, had woven by hand. The blanket Grandma kept on the living room chair. And that Owen knocked onto the floor.
Rafe unwrapped the blanket. Inside was the portrait of Isaac Thurston. Joe must have been too preoccupied to realize it.
Maddie cried. “It’s your great-great-grandfather, honey.” She studied the careful brushstrokes, the way her mother had depicted his dark eyes in a way that showed deep character. She sighed. “What about the other things that were on the mantel? Are they okay?”
He sat down. “I don’t know. Why don’t you call Joe?”
She asked if he’d do it for her.
Pulling out his phone, he stood up, scrolled to Joe’s number, touched it, and started to pace—one of his few Owen tricks, which, come to think of it, her father did as well.
“Joe?” Rafe asked. “Yeah, sorry to bother you.”
Maddie listened to the silence, followed by her son asking about the items that had been on the mantel.
He waited for a response, then said, “Uh-huh. No, that’s fine. I was just checking. Thanks.” He hung up and looked at his mother.
“They burned,” she said.
He shook his head. “Don’t know. They aren’t there.”
She frowned. “Seriously?”
“Yup. Joe said he knew exactly what I meant. But he didn’t see them. Not on the mantel. Or anywhere else. Sorry, Mom.”
“It’s okay, honey,” she said as she reached out and touched his hand. “They were only things.” She hoped he couldn’t tell that her throat was constricting. She set the painting down beside her on the bed, happy that at least this had been retrieved. “Now let’s get you some food. Rex turned what we bought into a feast.”
Rafe helped her off the bed and followed her into the kitchen. She heated up the leftovers; in less than half an hour, he had devoured them. Which was when Rex reappeared.
“Hey, man,” Rafe said to him. “Great place you have here.”
“Thanks. Did your mother tell you that my father won the land in the fishing derby in the fifties?”
He plunked her keys down on the counter and helped himself to a beer. Maddie was back in the chair by then, watching the interaction.
Rafe said that was really cool, which launched a conversation about the derby and how it had changed and grown over the years, and how chances were the organizers could no longer afford to donate a chunk of land, what with the increased value of real estate.
Then Rex explained that his father had preserved the land and its habitat long before many people on the mainland recognized that it was important to live together as one with the earth. Then Rafe asked if he was Wampanoag, but he said no, which then led to a discussion about growing up an islander where lots of their friends and neighbors were Indigenous, so the rest of them adopted many of their ways, not because it was expected but because they made sense. And they were cool.
“No kidding,” Rafe exclaimed. “Joe believes that the trees and the plants—like wildlife—are living, breathing things and deserve respect. I’ve always felt that way. It’s been hard for me to understand that not everybody does. It came natural to me. Now I know why.”
As Maddie listened to the banter, she cautioned herself not to feel guilty that Rafe hadn’t known about his heritage. Though it hadn’t been her fault, at some point in time, when she’d looked in the mirror, she should have noticed that her face was different from the faces of her friends in Green Hills; she should have been smart enough to make the connection to her time spent on the island.
But Maddie hadn’t noticed. And though she still was angry with her father, she knew she ought to call and at least let him know what was going on. So as the man talk continued, she slipped out of the living room.
* * *
It took several rings before her father answered. Maybe he was watching reruns ofJeopardy!
“How are you doing?” he asked. “And please tell me the truth.” Wherever he was, there was a lot of background noise—sounds of people talking and things clattering.
“Where are you?” Maddie asked, sitting back on the bed, toying with the corner of the frame of her grandfather’s portrait. “It’s awfully noisy.”
“Sorry, I’m in a restaurant. I’ll go outside.”
While she waited, she reminded herself that he only knew about her broken foot. Unless Rafe had updated him. She decided not to ask.
He returned in a couple of minutes. “Quiet now?” he asked.
