Chapters (37)
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- BEFORE
- AFTER
- ONE THOUGHTS ON SUN HATS
- TWO TIME FOR CAKE
- THREE TWELVE MONTHS
- FOUR PSYCHIC KARAOKE
- FIVE A SECOND SLEEPING BAG
- SIX SIX MONTHS
- SEVEN THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE PANCAKE
- EIGHT SIX MONTHS
- NINE FOLLOW THE MUSIC
- TEN THE STARS ARE BRIGHTER IN THE DESERT
- ELEVEN SIX MONTHS
- TWELVE EVERY STAR HAS A SONG
- THIRTEEN PSYCHIC KARAOKE
- FOURTEEN ONE MONTH
- FIFTEEN A WELL-TRAVELED HAT
- SIXTEEN JOEL VS. THE VOLCANO
- SEVENTEEN TWO WEEKS
- EIGHTEEN HOUSE OF MEMORIES
- NINETEEN IF TREES COULD TALK
- TWENTY THREE DAYS
- TWENTY-ONE SEARCH PARTY
- TWENTY-TWO NOT THE SAME ZADIE
- TWENTY-THREE WAVES OF SMOKE
- TWENTY-FOUR THE DAY OF
- TWENTY-FIVE THE SKY IS FULL OF BIRDS
- TWENTY-SIX NEST
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- EPILOGUE
- TWENTY-EIGHT A SONG ABOUT A BIRD
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Ruth Emmie Lang
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
Myron stepped to the side, cast his line out, and the three of them stood there quietly, listening to the gentle gurgling of the creek and waiting patiently for a tug on the other end of their lines. Zadie finally started to understand the appeal of fishing. It was an excuse to do absolutely nothing besides stare out at a body of water, which was, if she really thought about it, exactly what she did at the beach. “Do your kids like to fish?”
“Not even a little.” Myron chuckled. “I was hoping at least one of them would be into it, but Rowan feels bad for the fish, Hazel thinks they’re slimy and refuses to touch them, and the one time I took Juniper out, she spent the whole day looking for turtles. I guess none of them got the fishing gene.”
“Our mom used to make us go camping.”
“I take it you weren’t so keen on it?”
“I would come down with a lot of mysterious last-minute illnesses.”
“Ah, yes. Hazel once told me she thought she had scurvy the night before a recital.”
“Oh, I had that once before a spelling bee.”
“Must have been going around.” Myron chuckled again. “Was it just you girls and your mom?”
“Yeah. Our dads were never really part of the picture. Mom didn’t really trust a lot of other people.”
“I get that.” Myron’s smile slipped a little. “It can be hard, though. Doing it on your own.”
Zadie realized with a tinge of shame that she hadn’t given it much thought. Until the year before her disappearance, her mom had always seemed so unflappable, so independent. But it couldn’t have been easy, taking care of two girls with only the money she earned at the dairy farm. And still she somehow found the energy to make them dinner, brush the knots out of their hair, and bend over their math homework with them until one or both of them fell asleep at the kitchen table. That Nora would never have left her children, Zadie thought. Maybe that Nora was still out there somewhere.
“Yeah. It was hard for her.” Zadie turned her attention back to her line, half hoping they didn’t catch anything and they could just continue to stand there, watching the water.