Page 22 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
When she returned, she stood with her hands on her hips. “Would you look at that? You hear about these Hollywood types being awful, but he really was lovely.”
“Maybe he was acting,” Sheila said with a half-smile.
She cleared her plate and walked down the hallway. Patty followed.
“He’sveryhandsome in person,” Patty went on. “Maybe not as good-looking as your Idris Elba, but you have to admit, he’s handsome.”
Sheila picked up her purse. “Why do you keep bringing up Idris Elba? I think you have a crush on him, not me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! He’s much too young for me. He’s your age, I think.Fifty!”She scoffed and opened the door. “Fifty is a great age, though. You’re going to love it.”
Except it wasn’t going that well so far. Sheila wouldn’t get her hopes up. “We’ll see. I’m going to go home and sort out a few things with the house, but I’ll be back soon. I’ll talk to Eliza about the website. I think she can help, and I’ll get right to work.”
Patty nodded. “I believe you. Who knows? Maybe Russell can help us too.”
She winked and Sheila decided to ignore that entirely. “Can I get a ride to the ferry now? Please? Or am I going to have to hitchhike?”
“All right! You can’t rush someone of my vintage. I’m going.” She led the way to the car and once they were on the road, she spoke again. “Why do you hate your birthday so much? Is it because of your mom?”
She kept her eyes on the window, watching the trees as they passed. When she was newly married, Patty never mentioned Sheila’s mom. It took years for Patty to even whisper her name, worried it would upset her.
Sheila was, thankfully, beyond that. Her mother’s absence in her childhood used to smolder inside of her like a tree struck by lightning. Anything could spark a flame.
But once she had her own children, once she saw how easy it was for her tonotrepeat her mother’s mistakes, her perspective changed. She saw her mother as the lost child she was, a woman who swooped in occasionally to relay the new injustices she’d suffered and to complain about her grandkids’ loud voices hurting her ears.
“Not exactly,” Sheila said. “She didn’t leave on my birthday. It was two weeks before.”
“Oh.” Patty was quiet, then added, “We still have birthdays to make up for, then. I’m going to make you that cake. Maybe I’ll make two.”
Sheila smiled. “Just as long as you don’t try to invite your crush over.”
“Reggie?” Patty asked. “Cat’s out of the bag on that one.”
“Not him. I meant Idris Elba.”
They both erupted into laughter, and Sheila was glad her joke did the trick. She didn’t want to talk about that birthday anymore. There was no point.
Shedidhave a cake that year, though. Her dad had made it himself. Chocolate, dry and burnt at the edges, smothered in store-bought chocolate. She’d loved it.
He had to do so much after their mom left. He wasn’t perfect, but he tried. There was no resentment in her anymore. She could feel in her bones how much he’d loved them all, how he did what he thought was right…
Sheila looked through the window, trying to think of something else. Anything else. She didn’t want her mind to drift back to that day. She’d gotten so good at not thinking about it, not even remembering it was real.
Until recently. Maybe that was when the frenzy had really started.
Once she was on the ferry back to the mainland, alone with her thoughts, Sheila was too tired to avoid it any longer. She let the memory wash over her, like the tide in the moonlight, pulling her into the darkness.
August 8th, 1982
Sheila’s mom left them that day. It was a week and a half before Sheila’s ninth birthday.
Sheila was the eldest, and she fully embraced her role as the new primary caregiver of her sisters. “Mom is just visiting her great aunt,” she confidently told her two younger sisters. “She’ll be back soon.”
It was a lie, of course, but one she wanted to believe. There was no great aunt. Sheila had read about a needy aunt in a book at school, and it seemed as possible as anything else.
Her dad offered no explanations because he had none. He sent them to his sister’s house while he worked, riding out on his fishing boat every morning, and relied on precocious Sheila to fill in the gaps.
She was proud to help. It felt like her duty, as well as tending to the cleaning and getting her sisters ready for bed every night.
