Memories Without Him novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Twenty Feet

In the car back to Brooklyn, Vincent held out his hand.

"The bracelet," he said.

I unclasped it and gave it to him.

He turned it over under the window light and ran his thumb along the inside of the band.

His thumb stopped.

"There's an engraving," he said. "V.A. to G.S."

I leaned over and looked.

The letters were tiny and cut deep, and I had not seen them when Aldo put it on me.

"It's not from my parents," I said.

"No."

"It's from you."

"I bought it for your twenty-first," Vincent said. "Last June. I sent it to you through Aldo with a card."

"I never got a card."

"He told me you sent it back unopened, with a note." He said it slowly. "The note said you wanted nothing more from me."

"I never wrote that, Vincent."

"I know."

"I didn't even get a package."

"I know," he said again, in a different voice.

He fastened the bracelet around my wrist himself, very carefully, and for once his fingers stayed a moment too long on the inside of my arm.

"Wear it," he said. "Don't say anything to Aldo about the engraving."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know yet why he lied about it," Vincent said, "and until I do, I don't want him knowing I noticed."

I looked at the pearl on my wrist.

I thought of Aldo kissing my forehead outside city hall.

My stomach turned over, and I pushed the thought down hard.

"He carried my mother," I said. "He drove me home in the snow."

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