BooksBarbecue
Back All the Water in the World
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. PART I
  4. Eve
  5. 1
  6. Maddy
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. Eve
  12. 6
  13. Maddy
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. Eve
  19. 11
  20. Maddy
  21. 12
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. PART II
  26. Eve
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. 18
  30. 19
  31. Maddy
  32. 20
  33. 21
  34. Eve
  35. 22
  36. 23
  37. Maddy
  38. 24
  39. 25
  40. Eve
  41. 26
  42. 27
  43. PART III
  44. Eve
  45. 28
  46. 29
  47. 30
  48. 31
  49. 32
  50. 33
  51. 34
  52. 35
  53. 36
  54. 37
  55. 38
  56. 39
  57. Coda
  58. 40
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Reading Group Guide
  61. About the Author
  62. Copyright

You don’t know me. My name is Maddy. I got your email address online. I hope you don’t mind me writing out of the blue like this. I will get straight to the point. You were at George Washington University in 1994. Did you know a girl named Eve Wakefield? If you and Eve were an item at that time, you probably know what I am going to say. You might want to sit down. She is my mother. I am sixteen years and two months old. I know this might come as a big shock. Have no fear. I don’t want anything from you except to introduce myself and hopefully for you to do the same. I was going to wait until I was eighteen to look for you, but due to various circumstances which I will not go into, I am doing it now. I sincerely hope this is not too much of a shock and that you will write back. Thank you for reading this, if you have read to the end of it.

Madeleine Rose Wakefield

(Maddy)

P.S. I haven’t told Mom I am doing this.

P.P.S. If you don’t reply, I might turn up on your doorstep.

P.P.P.S. Just kidding!

8

Until this happened I had hardly set foot in a hospital. Now, like it or not, the hospital was my place. The gift store at the entrance was my place. The receptionist who called me “honey lamb” belonged to me, and so did the lady with her glasses on a chain rattling her cart past the outpatient desk, and so did the cleaner in his two-toned blue shirt, kneeling on a pad to wipe the baseboards. I was drawn to the people who weren’t in charge of life-or-death affairs, only these everyday tasks they were touchingly intent on doing no matter what.

We sat on the orange seats in the waiting room.

“Okay, Maddy?”

“Okay.”

“We’ll get through it.”

“Yup.”

“In a week or two you’ll be a shiny new penny.”

I held my mother’s arm and laid my cheek on her shoulder as if I were a little kid in need of a nap. This made her draw me close and kiss the top of my head, which I wanted her to do because I was feeling bad about not telling her I was looking for Antonio. I especially felt bad when we were together just the two of us, with time to kill and plenty of silence.