Page 107 of Floodgates

“And what happened to him?”

“He killed himself because Breckin wouldn’t come out to, like, the whole town.”

“Oh yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It was really sad. I guess he thought Breckin was going to take him to college with him, but that wasn’t going to happen if Breckin wanted my folks to pay for it.”

“Go on.”

“But my folks didn’t know that Breckin borrowed money from my grandparents against his trust fund. Plus he had a couple of scholarships for track.”

“So he had the means to go to school when he disappeared.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think he had the means when he told Turi he wasn’t going to take him with him?”

“No. I think he was still working it out when he told Turi he couldn’t go. That was before the graduation ceremony. At that point, I think he was still thinking all he had was our parents, so what they said went.”

“It’s too bad he didn’t wait to talk to Turi until he actually knew something.”

“Yeah. I think so too. But I also think, maybe either way, Turi wasn’t going to get taken along with him, you know?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because when Breckin used to talk about college with me, he never talked about taking Turi along, and I used to ask him, ‘What about Turi?’”

“Why?”

“I caught them a million times, kissing, all hot and heavy, and it looked like love to me, so when Breckin started talking about California, I was like, what about Turi?”

“And what did he say?”

“He said Turi would be okay with him or without him,” she explained. “He told me they weren’t serious, so I never figured they were.”

“Turi must have thought so.”

“Yeah, he did, poor guy. The note he left was just heartbreaking. Lucien—he was another friend of Breckin’s that used to hang out with him and Turi—he was given the note by Turi’s folks, and then he gave it to Breckin.”

“What did Breckin do?”

“He left the next day. No word, no nothing.”

“So it’s been eighteen years since you guys have seen him?”

“Yeah. He didn’t want to see any of us. But, I mean, he called, told us he was okay. He e-mailed my parents, and then a couple years ago, he and I started corresponding, and then he and Brian. So we’ve been in touch.”

It had been an interesting bit of news when she and Brian had shared it with me in the car the day before. What struck me as odd was that Breckin had never said a word to me about any member of his family beyond telling me that they were not close.

“So you and Breckin have been in touch for a while now, as you said.”

“Yes, but he never mentioned either Celia or you, so this all just came as a bit of a shock.”

“I bet.”

“And like I said, I was so surprised when I saw you,” she said, smiling at me. “Yesterday when you came downstairs and took off your scarf and hat and your sunglasses, I said to my mom after, ‘Doesn’t he look a lot like Turi Carrera?’ My mom was amazed at the resemblance too. I bet if Lucien saw you, he’d be blown away.”

Funny that Lucien had not mentioned it. I was betting that maybe the similarities were superficial—maybe the same brown eyes, brown hair, tanned skin.