Chapters (46)
- Cover
- Other Titles
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Friday
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- Saturday
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- Sunday
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- Monday
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The thing that Kate doesn’t understand is how she can remember the name of Martha Jane’s youngest sister and the sheen of the styling product in Colin’s hair, and yet at this moment she cannot for the life of her remember the name of the beautiful girl who is sitting next to her in the passenger seat as they drive down the highway. She knows the girl is her granddaughter, of course, but she’s not sure which of her daughters is the girl’s mother – the one who stayed, obviously, not the one who left, but which name goes with which daughter? Kate was there for the granddaughter’s birth – it was Halloween, she is sure because she can remember having to drive through a crowd of children who had come to do that thing they do on Halloween where they ask for candy, little ghosts and clowns and kitty cats peering in the windows of the car while her labouring daughter screamed in the back seat. They used to have so many children in their neighbourhood, hundreds of them, so many that they would run out of candy and have to turn off the lights so no one would know they were home. Now they are lucky if they have two or three children come around. All the children have grown up and left their parents behind to grow old in the houses they grew up in.
But this girl, this daughter of Kate’s daughter (the one who stayed), this girl who was born on Halloween – and her name will come to Kate, these things, the really important ones, they never disappear for long – is sitting beside Kate and they are driving somewhere, but at this point she can’t remember where. She knows that they have recently talked to someone. A gas station attendant? A store clerk? Someone who asked them that very thing, in fact, and at the time Kate knew where they were going. The girl did most of the talking anyway. Kate just smiled and nodded and handed over the book with her picture in it.
Of course. They are in that south country. They must be on their way to pick up a package at Ryden’s, or to get pizza at Sven and Ole’s in the town with two words in the name. They can’t be going to the place where you make bets – the girl is too young for that – but they are there to have fun, or they are there to do something important. Kate shifts slightly in her seat, causing a sudden pain to sear through her gut. She cries out, gripping the steering wheel tighter.
“Nana, are you okay?” the girl asks.