The Richest Woman in Town Claimed Me as Her Lost Daughter on Stage, Then I Read the Date on Her Lab Report novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Morning Edition
The Marietta Times landed on our porch at seven on Sunday morning with a thump I felt in my teeth.
I carried it into the kitchen in my socks and unfolded it on the yellow table.
THE DATE, said the headline.
It was the same size type as THE MIRACLE OF MARIETTA.
Under it was a photograph of Ray Chalmers kneeling on the Armory stage in a tuxedo.
He had a red pocketknife in one hand and a bronze plaque leaning on his shoulder.
A smaller picture ran beside it, a close-up of a lab seal under a thumb.
The thumb bent back at the first joint.
"They held the front page till eleven," Lindsey said, reading over my shoulder with toast in her hand.
"The editor told Dad's friend it's the first time since the 2008 flood."
Under the photograph ran a box in bold.
A CORRECTION, it said.
Our October 13 account of the Founders' Day breakfast omitted the date on the lab seal, which was cropped from our photograph.
We regret the omission.
"It's a correction on the front page," my mother said, setting down her coffee. "Above the fold. In a box."
"He must be dying," said Lindsey.
"I hope it's slow." My mother turned the page. "What about her?"
Lindsey found the paragraph and read it out in a flat voice.
"Reached by telephone at 12:40 a.m., Barbara Chalmers said she is resigning as chair of the Hospital Foundation, effective immediately, 'with regret.'"
"With regret," said my mother.
"She said that about the Buick, too," I said.
The first casserole arrived at ten.
I opened the door to the president of the Women's Club, in her camel coat.
She held a nine-by-thirteen Pyrex in front of her in both oven mitts.
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