Taken in My Sleep by My Stepfather David and His Friends novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Quiet One

Zelda's POV

Garson's boat shop sat at the end of a gravel road on the east shore, with a tin roof and a sign that had lost its second O.

Inside it smelled of cold motor oil and cedar.

Three snowmobiles stood in a row under a work light.

A wooden skiff lay upside down on sawhorses, half sanded, with the tools beside it laid out in order.

He was standing at the bench with his back to the door.

"You came," he said.

"Ellis gave me the message."

"Is he all right?"

"He's asleep. He said it was her decision, three times."

Garson nodded slowly, and his shoulders came down a little.

I shut the door and turned the bolt.

He heard it, and turned around.

He had a scar through his left eyebrow and eyes the color of lake ice.

He looked at me steadily, the way he always did.

"You said you were ready to talk," I said.

"I am."

"Then talk."

He wiped his hands on a rag.

It took him a long time.

"I closed the road myself," he said. "You know that. You never asked why."

"Why?"

"If you'd found the road open on Wednesday, you'd have walked out and married him."

"You don't know that."

"I do." He didn't smile. "You'd have said yes to the first person who asked you to be reasonable."

I opened my mouth, and shut it.

He was right.

"I'm not a talker," Garson said. "I was one, once, in the service. I gave men advice. Some of them took it, and it was the wrong advice, and they didn't come back."

His voice stayed level.

"Since then I say what I know. Most of the time I don't know much."

"What do you know about me?"

"That you laugh when you're scared."

My throat tightened.

"That you pick at the cuticle on your left thumb when somebody lies to you."

I looked down.

I was doing it.

"That on Thursday, on the ice, I was the first person who ever got to you in time."

"You were."

"I'd like to be again," he said. "I'd like that to be my whole job."

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