“You talk as if you could never be wrong,” she said. “You’ve been wrong about me. All these years, you’ve been wrong. You didn’t know I never wanted them. I never wanted them! I just wanted to play the piano. I was such a fool! I believed you when you told me I could have it all, my music, and you, and some beautiful life with everything I wanted—well, I can’t. It’s taken me long enough to realize it, hasn’t it? Or maybe I realized it years ago, but it was already too late. And now I’m stuck here in this disgusting town where everyone hates me, stuck just praying my awful heart out. And I would give my life for these ungrateful children, when I was tricked into the whole thing, this life, motherhood! I didn’t want them! I didn’t want them!”

“You—” John started to say, but a part of him had heard the small gasp from outside the kitchen door. Wilma looked back at the door. She had heard it, too. She pressed her fist to her mouth.

John’s shoes crunched on the glass as he crossed the room in three strides, walking through the open door between the kitchen and porch just in time to see the tail end of Jinny’s skirt and little shoes flying around the corner of the house. “Jinny!” he called, banging out the screen door and stumbling down the back stoop after her. He meant to catch her, but when he rounded the corner, he could not see where she had gone. He was out of shape, couldn’t run. He stood in the side yard, gripping his head in his hands. “Jinny! Come back!” he tried again, but there was no sign of her.

Chapter 23

HOME OF JACK AND MARY MICKELSON
505 Rapids Avenue, Pine Rapids
Monday, February 22, 1943

After school on Monday, a week after their La Crosse trip, a downhearted Elissa and her best friend, Muriel, were just about to trudge up to Elissa’s room with hot cocoa—they had much to discuss—when Elissa’s mother Mary looked up from the pie crust she was making and said, “Oh, Liss, you got a letter.”

For a moment, Elissa scarcely dared to hope.

But then her mother smiled. “I expect it’s something to do with that shopping trip to La Crosse you wanted to make.”

Elissa and Muriel looked at each other, squealed, dropped their cocoa mugs on the counter, and raced to the front hall. The letter was waiting on the sideboard.