Page 28 of Surfside Sisters

“Good!,” Isabelle said, laughing.

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In March, right when the weather flirted with spring, Keely sat in her room at the dorm, hunched over her laptop, when her cell buzzed, interrupting her thoughts.

It was her mother. “Hi, Mom!”

“Keely, sweetheart, I need you to come home.” Her voice broke. “Something’s happened.” Her mother sounded shaky, unlike her usual take-charge self.

“What’s going on?”

“Keely, I hate to tell you this on the phone, but…” Her mother’s voice choked. “Keely, your father died.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, Keely. Your father…” Eloise choked on the words. “Your father died.”

For a moment Keely’s mind couldn’t decipher her mother’s words, but Keely’s heart thumpedhard. Her hands went numb. She dropped the phone.

Her mother’s voice floated up from the floor.

“Wait, Mom, wait!” She bent over, scrabbling with her hands to pick up the phone.

“Keely?”

“Mom? Did you say that Daddydied?” That couldn’t be right. Her father couldn’t be dead. He was young. Wasn’t he? How old was he? She couldn’t remember. Guilt fell over her like a gray veil, blanking out the world around her. She hadn’t emailed him as much as she meant to—she was so busy, and he was always there, reliable, on the island. Maybe she could—

“He had a heart attack.”

“But you’re a nurse! Didn’t you—”

“Of course I tried to save him. I gave him CPR, I did my best to revive him, and I called the ambulance and they came right away.”

Her mother continued to speak. Keely crumpled onto her chair, shaking. She couldn’t get her breath.

“Keely, honey, are you okay?”

“How can I be? I don’t believe this. Oh, Mom. Areyouall right?”

“I don’t know…I can’t think…” Her mother broke into wrenching sobs.

Her mother’s anguish made it real. Keely’s father had died. Keely wanted to throw back her head and howl with grief, with anger at the universe. But she knew her father would want her to be in control, to take care of her mother who had lost her husband, her companion, the love of her life. Keely couldn’t turn back time, but she could pull herself together and be there for her mother.

“When did this happen?”

“This morning. I’m still at the hospital.”

“Do you have someone with you?”

Keely’s mother laughed weakly. “Keely, I’m a nurse here. I have all my colleagues here.”

“But Brenda.” Brenda, Eloise’s best friend, lived on a small farm with her husband and their always-changing menagerie of rescued animals. “Can you call Brenda and have her help you?”

“Yes. I can do that. I will. But I need you to come home.”

“Of course, Mom. I’ll leave right now. I’ll be able to catch the seven o’clock fast ferry. If not that, the slow boat at eight.”

“Good. Let me know. I’ll meet you there.”

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