Page 42 of Second Start: Family
Or was it like that? Had she known, even for a second what was happening? Had it hurt? Had she felt something wrong in her head? Had she known she was dying, leaving them? Had she tried not to, or had she gone willingly?
If he’d been there, he’d know.
He wouldn’t have all this wondering. He wouldn’t have just the memory of her at the sink, not turning around as he followed his father out to work.
And then the memory of her lying in the casket. With an unbridgeable chasm between them.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The work wrapped up Sunday with an impromptu potluck dinner, provided by nearby families — those with students in school and those without — who’d heard about the work going on.
Some dropped off their dish and left, knowing Vicky would get the empty back to them. Others stuck around to help by serving, cleaning up, and socializing.
“This is wonderful. Thank you all so much,” Vicky said. “You’ve all knocked about a mile off the wish-list for Mason School.”
“Except the bus,” someone called out, drawing universal groans.
Vicky grimaced briefly. “That is a problem. The bus fund isn’t much more than zero. But with all you did today, we can shift the little that was earmarked for this to the bus fund. And at least once the kids get here—”
“If they get here,” came another voice.
“—they’ll be warm.”
“What about a fundraiser for a new bus?” Bexley asked. “We can plan something—”
“Like what?” Vicky asked.
“I don’t know. Something with — no, wait, Idoknow. A Halloween festival. We can do it right here at the school. Draw in lots of people from all over.”
“She’s great at that,” Kiernan said proudly.
She grinned at him but didn’t slow her planning. “The weekend before Halloween. We’ve got people from, what?, four counties? who’ve been working today. We should be able to draw customers from the same areas. Oh — and we’ll turn the bus into a haunted bus, an extra attraction, while also showing everybody how badly a new bus is needed.”
“New bus would cost a da— darned lot more than any Halloween festival can raise,” Buck Felton said.
Kiernan turned toward the other man, but Bexley put a hand on his arm.
She’d have needed an extra hand, though, to quiet the support that came from elsewhere.
“Bexley can doanything,” Molly declared.
“She’ll have the best Halloween festival ever,” Lizzie added with a glare at the man.
“Attagirls,” Kiernan murmured.
Bexley calmed her supporters with a gesture and said, “Our Halloween festival will certainly raise more than the bus fund has now.”
Nobody could argue with that.
Dave Currick spoke up, “And maybe we don’t need enough for a new bus. Eric and I have a connection in the regional lawyer’s association whose brother has a used car lot. We can lean on him for a deal and see what he could do for a used bus.”
“Leaning on him would be a pleasure. He owes me one, anyway,” Eric said.
“Not much time until Halloween,” Cambria pointed out.
“That just means we have to get busy right away,” Bexley said. She turned to Dave. “That brother with the used car lot … Does he have junkers, too?”
“Boy, does he. Why?”
