He started to clean up his paint and brush. “I never imagined that it would come out of the blue like this. I never thought…but Clementine,” he said, gazing at me, “if this is someone who can answer all my questions, then I have to meet them. I have to know the truth.”
I sighed. “What if you find out something that you don’t want to know?”
He paused. “The truth is worth hearing even if it’s painful, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “Some things might be better off staying buried.”
He shook his head. “Never. Listen, my head is spinning. There are a thousand things for me to figure out and think of. Someone might know the truth about me. If they tell me something about myself, it might jog my memory.”
I should tell him. I should. I’d give him the memory spell now.
“John, there’s something…”
“Yes,” he exclaimed. “You wanted to say.”
And then I saw it—hope and sunshine radiating in his eyes and glowing on his face. As soon as I handed over the memory spell, he’d know the truth—the ugly truth of who he was, what he’d done.
It might break him. It might ruin our relationship. I had accepted his past and what he’d done to me. This man wasn’t the same Rufus. But how would he take it?
It would crush him.
I decided then and there to keep my mouth quiet—at least until he met whoever it was that supposedly knew his secret.
I waved my hand. “It’s nothing that can’t wait. I know you’ve got a lot of energy to burn off. We’ll discuss it tomorrow. When are you meeting the person?”
“Willard still has to work it all out.” He took my hand. “Will you come with me? When I meet them?”
I smiled. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for all the world.”
Chapter 11
Rufus picked me up bright and early the next morning for apple picking. He was buzzing, and I knew it was because of the future meetup, though he didn’t say so.
Dooley’s front patch of grass was already packed with trucks and minivans by the time we arrived.
“Apparently the entire town has come out for this,” Rufus said.
“They have,” I agreed.
“Don’t you worry, Clem,” Lady said from my lap. “We’ll beat ’em fair and square.”
I spotted a swarm of people hovering near the front of the apple trees. “We might need a bigger group. Let me call Malene.”
“You want to join my team, don’t you?” Malene said instead ofhello.
“Are you here? At Dooley’s?”
“Did the sun rise today? Of course I’m here.”
“We’re parking now.”
“Me and the girls are wearing our Silver Sneakers T-shirts. You can’t miss us. We bedazzled them last night.”
Sure enough, planted around an apple tree stood Malene and the gang. They were so bedazzled that their shirts blinded me.
“Wow,” I said. “You sure did bedazzle them. I think you’ve gone and burned out my retinas.”
“Ha, you’re funny, chicken. Park and come on over. Oh, and try to ignore Crystal Darsey. She’s here with Sykes Laffoon, her uncle, if you believe that, telling everybody that you cheated her out of work.”
