My Stepbrother's Regret novel · Chapter 22 of 32

Chapter 22: The Man from Tulsa

I didn't remember the schoolteacher's last name.

I'd been fourteen.

He'd been "that nice man."

But I remembered the cardinals.

I remembered he went to a Methodist church with a red door.

My mother had made us go twice, in our good clothes, to sit behind him.

There were a lot of Methodist churches in Tulsa.

Only one had a red door and was four blocks from a street of little brick houses with bird feeders.

I called the church office on Friday morning from the Metra platform.

I told the woman who answered that I was looking for a retired teacher who'd lost his house ten years ago.

I said I owed him an apology.

She was quiet for a long time.

"I'll pass your number along," she said. "I won't promise he calls."

He called in forty minutes.

His voice was older and thinner than I remembered.

"I know who you are," he said. "You were the girl with the milk."

Roarke and I flew to Tulsa on Saturday morning.

I'd told Lonnie I was going to the dentist. He'd laughed and said to get my teeth whitened on him.

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