Page 16 of The Night the Lights Went Out
MERILEE
The digital clock on the coffeemaker blinked as Merilee helped herself to another cup. A storm had blown in again the night before, shutting off the power for several hours. She frowned at the flashing numbers. It was one of those stupid things she didn’t know how to fix because Michael had always had the job to go around resetting clocks after an outage. It wasn’t that she was incapable of doing it, or too stupid or too lazy to learn how. It was that it was one more thing on the list of what made her miss the partnership of marriage. The unspokenI’ll make the coffee if you’ll fix the clock. Neither task was insurmountable on its own, but a day full of tasks that all fell on her now was simply exhausting.
The rumbling thunder had chased both children into her bed—thunder had never scared them into her bed before the divorce—and after a couple of hours of trying to sleep with various small elbows and knees poking her in the ribs and back, she’d come downstairs and sat on the front porch to watch the rain and think about the story Sugar had told her.
The old woman had left shortly afterward, looking up at the heavy clouds as a reason to leave right away. Merilee had offered to drive her, but Sugar had shaken her head and walked out the front door, her eyes the color of the ocean after a storm, as if the memories were stirred-up sediment.
Merilee’s first thought had been to bleach the table, as if she could still see the dying man and the blood that had soaked into the ancient wood. But then she remembered that no matter how vivid the pictures in her mind, it had been eighty-two years ago. A long time, just not long enough to forget.
“Mom?”
Merilee turned to see Lily holding her laptop, wearing theFrozennightgown she’d received from Merilee’s parents the previous Christmas. It had been too small then and now hit her midcalf. It wasn’t even a movie that Lily particularly liked. But she wore it because it made her feel as if the grandparents she rarely saw were part of her life.
Merilee kissed the top of her head, loving the way she smelled, wondering when that would change. “What are you doing up so early?”
Lily placed the laptop on the table. “Bailey sent me the link to that blog I was telling you about. I think you need to read it.”
“When did this happen? Didn’t I tell you I wanted to read it first?”
Lily nodded, keeping her eyes down. “I know, but when I called Bailey to ask her about our math test on Monday, she said I needed to look at the blogright now. So I did. And it’s really bad and you need to read it. There’s something in it about you. And the latest post is about Dad.”
“Wait,” Merilee said, wishing the caffeine would hurry up and reach her brain. “When was this?”
“Around midnight. I was worrying about the test and Bailey said she never turns off her phone, so I called her.”
Merilee took a big swallow of coffee, not caring that she was scalding her tongue and the roof of her mouth. There were so many questions and things she knew she should be discussing with her daughter, but if some anonymous person was writing bad things about her and Michael, she needed to see it.
She sat down and opened the laptop. “Please pull it up, Lily. We’ll talk about rules and consequences as soon as I’m done reading.”
Lily did as she was told while Merilee downed the rest of her coffee.
“Read the last two first, and then read this one. It was posted yesterday.”
In ten minutes she’d read the first two blog posts, wincing at the mention of the divorcée, who was undoubtedly her, gratefully accepting the second mug of coffee from Lily without looking up from the screen.
“This is horrifying,” Merilee said when she got to the end of the second one. “I feel as if I’m on a reality show with strangers watching me.”
“It’s not really talking badly about you, Mom. ‘Unaffected’ just means that you’re not fake or insincere. I think it might actually be a compliment.”
Merilee wanted to argue but knew Lily was right. She wanted to point out that it also said that the school year is long and a lot could happen, but she didn’t want to add any more worry to Lily’s full plate of things to needle over.
“You might need something stronger than coffee before you read the last one,” Lily said quietly.
Merilee looked at her daughter over the rim of her mug. “It’s only seven thirty in the morning. And how would you know about that anyway?”
“I watched part ofThe Godfather, remember?” She didn’t smile.
Merilee’s heart sank a little further. “Yeah. I remember.” With a quick shake of her head, she returned to the computer and began to read.
THE PLAYING FIELDS BLOG
Observations of Suburban Life from Sweet Apple, Georgia
Written by: Your Neighbor
Installment #3: Roundabouts: They’re Not Rocket Science
I hope you all take the time to read our weekly local paper, theSweet Apple Herald, which is conveniently delivered to our driveways (or sometimes they miss and it lands in the middle of the road or beneath a bush, where it’s hidden until the next windy day, when all the pages are displayed on your front lawn, but I digress).
