Page 64 of Key West Homecoming

“She had very little patience for people who took themselves too seriously, although she could be remarkably patient with ordinary foolishness.”

“That sounds like her.”

Edmund smiled.

“She also had one of the most naturally thoughtful minds I ever knew. She never went to college, and I think part of her always regretted that. She didn’t talk about it often, but I knew.”

Emma hadn’t known.

The realization no longer surprised her as much as it might have yesterday. She was beginning to understand that there were entire parts of Gloria’s life she had never thought to ask about.

“We read together most evenings,” Edmund continued. “Sometimes I chose the book and sometimes she did. She read everything I gave her and usually had more interesting things to say about it than my students did.”

“What did she like?”

“Anne Tyler. Louise Erdrich. Willa Cather most of all. She read O Pioneers! three times while we were together.”

Emma looked at him.

“She’d read a passage and look at me over the top of the book and say, ‘This woman knew things.’”

A memory came back so clearly that she could see Gloria sitting on the cottage porch with a paperback open in her lap. Emma might have been eight or nine. She had come through the screen door carrying a glass of lemonade, and Gloria had looked up from the page.

This woman knew things.

Emma hadn’t remembered the book or even wondered who the woman was. She had remembered the words.

“She used to say that to me.”

Edmund’s expression softened.

“Did she?”

“When I was little. She’d sit on the porch and read while I was outside. I never knew what she was reading, but I remember her saying exactly that.”

Edmund looked close to tears. “I’m glad you remember.”

“So am I.”

Emma took a sip of the coffee she’d forgotten about.

“She read to me at the cottage too,” she said. “When I was little. I’m happy to know she did that with you, too.”

“We read to each other. It started because my eyes bothered me one evening, so Gloria took the book out of my hands and finished the chapter. After that, we took turns. Eventually it became what we did.”

Emma pictured them together without meaning to. Gloria in a chair with a book open, Edmund nearby listening. It was a life Emma had never seen, but for the first time she could imagine it.

For a while, neither of them spoke. Emma turned the coffee cup between her hands.

“There’s something I need to ask you.”

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you contact me sooner?”

Edmund lowered his eyes to his coffee.

“I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but I didn’t know you existed until the other day. I didn’t know any of this, and you said in your letter that you had something Gloria wanted me to have.”