Laurie
When Akemi went into labor, her sisters gathered to keep her company and distract her throughout her early contractions.
They told stories about Akemi when she was little, walked back and forth in the backyard during sunset, and made her a light soup and herbal teas to keep her hydrated.
Finally, when her labor progressed and the midwife arrived, Akemi retreated to her room and shooed everyone away – including Lorenzo, who paced the back porch restlessly in the dark.
Halia and Oakley went home after that, but Laurie stayed. Anne had engaged Pete and Mia in a board game, so she went out to the lanai with a book. It was cozy there, with a drizzling rain screening off the house and a warm glow of light coming through the window from the living room. It was enough to read by, and she lost herself inThe Other Bennet Sister.
Sometime later, someone stepped into her peripheral vision, and she looked up.
“Zoe!” she said happily when she saw her niece.
Then she got a better look at her, and her heart sank a bit.
There were dark circles beneath Zoe’s eyes, and she looked tired in a way that went beyond the physical. Her dark purple hair dye had faded to a pinkish lavender, and her oversized black clothes turned her into a murky blob against the dark sky.
Come sit with me,Laurie told her.
Zoe sat down, and they both turned in their chairs to see each other better.
You OK?she asked.
Zoe just shrugged.
Guilt crept up on Laurie, obscuring her happy mood. Once, she had known Zoe better than anyone else in the family. Now, many years later, she was so removed from her niece that she hadn’t even realized how badly she was struggling.
Halia was already out of the house by the time Zoe was born, and Annie Oakley moved away when she was still just an infant. Akemi was there for a while, but she was always bouncing around the island with her friends – and then she graduated, and she was gone.
Laurie was there all through Zoe’s childhood. She lived at home for the four years that she was getting her undergraduate degree, which meant that she was with Zoe all the way through her first day of kindergarten.
They had spent countless hours together, reading books and building towers, coloring on the lanai or walking through the woods. Zoe signed before she could talk.
Laurie had moved away to pursue a graduate degree, but she and Zoe stayed close, even when she wasn’t living at home anymore. Even as a teenager, when she retreated from the whole family, Laurie was usually able to draw her out of her shell.
Then Laurie became a mother… and everything else, all of her other relationships and priorities and goals, had fallen to the wayside.
It was tempting to blame Chris; he had made it increasingly difficult for her to spend time with her family. But the truth was that she had entered into his net willingly. She had retreated from the world – and with it, the people she loved most.
Now, years later, she didn’t know how to bridge that gulf.
I know you’re busy,she signed hesitantly,but would you ever want to help at the book store?
Sure, Zoe replied.What do you need?
“Right now I’m working on cataloging everything,” she said and signed.
I can help.
I’ll pay you.
You don’t need to do that.
I will,Laurie insisted.
You can pay me in books, then.
She laughed.
