Page 85 of Roads Behind Us
“Athena does. She can give you directions.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Thank you, Bea. Thanks for lookin’ out for my family.”
Smiling, I patted Stu’s bare foot sticking out of his blanket. At least one good thing had come from all this pain and confusion. I wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking Merv and I were friends now, but maybe we understood each other a little better.
Back on the porch, I waved my arm, dangling my keys in my other hand. “C’mon, Athena.”
She climbed into my truck and snapped her seatbelt in place, and as I shut her door and walked around to my side, I felt her sadness and hopelessness like it was a heavy mist surrounding us.
“Where would you like to go?”
“The cemetery.”
“Okay. Can you show me where it is?”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s on the other side of town, out past the Duck & Bowl.”
“What is a Duck & Bowl?”
“It’s a bowlin’ alley with ducks,” she said, like that made it all make sense.
“Oh. Sure. ’Course it is.”
As I drove, Athena was quiet. Unnervingly so, but I knew, like me, she’d talk when she was ready.
“I’m here,” I said quietly, “if you wanna talk.”
She nodded as she stared, unseeing, out her window, and we made our way through her hometown.
Wisper, Wyoming was a cute little place. Every time I’d driven through, it felt almost like I’d stepped back in time. There were maybe only five or six stoplights lining the main drag, and lots of quaint avenues and lanes lined with big trees, old cottages, and newer log cabin-style homes. The streets seemed familiar with names like Lincoln, Washington, and Main, and people walked and strolled down every one of them, despite the growing cold in the air.
We drove by a busy diner, where a line formed at the door and wound halfway down the block. We passed the library and a charming bookshop, Your Local Bookie, which I knew was owned and run by Rye’s girlfriend, Aubrey. And we passed Devo’s community center, Ace’s House, a big, brick, three-story building set in the middle of town.
The afternoon was sunny but crisp, and everywhere I looked, I saw happiness and the world passing us by.
Athena led where she wanted to go, and when we passed through the cemetery’s gates, the snow-capped mountains loomed around us like wardens sent to protect all the secrets buried beneath the ground.
“Park right here.”
Pulling to the side of the gravel lane, I listened to the gravel pop and crackle beneath my tires as I slowed, and Athena pushed open her door with great effort when I parked.
Sadness slowed her movements and made them heavy, and I watched as it crossed over her face. I wouldn’t cry for her. Not in front of her, but holding back tears was proving to be harder than I’d imagined it would, and the lump in the back of my throat was making it hard for me to swallow.
I never went to the cemetery back home, not since my dad’s funeral. I had to pass it nearly every day on my way to work or the grocery store, but I’d always forced my eyes to stay on the road. I hadn’t thought there could be anything good to come from looking back.
I followed Athena silently as she walked along the edge of the cemetery until she cut across the still-green grass and stood in front of a large headstone lying flat in the ground.
“Here they are.” She sat next to it and looked back at me, reaching to touch the rectangular stone with the soft tips of her fingers. “C’mon. I wanna introduce you.”
“Oh. Um. Okay.”
“Granny brings me out here sometimes. And sometimes Aunt Abey takes me for milkshakes after school. We stop at the Dairy Dream on our way here. I guess she knows sometimes a girl needs her mama.
“I know it’s dumb, but sometimes I feel jealous of my brother, ’cause he gets to be with Mama every day.”
When I sat next to her, Athena brushed dried, fallen leaves off the stone. “This is my mama, Candy Adela Lee.” Beneath Candy’s name, I saw Duo’s: Baxton Brennen Lee II. “And this is my little brother. Daddy was gonna call him?—”
