Chapter 12: Family Night

We ran up the path with our coats buttoned wrong.

I had sweater fluff in my hair and my slacks on inside out, and Ray's collar was folded under on one side.

Nobody looked at either of us.

Every eye on the lawn was fixed on the water.

Floodlights had been rigged along the pier, and the whole bay glowed white as a stage.

A ferry was nosing up to the dock, with its engine rumbling and its deck crowded with dark shapes.

The contestants stood in a line along the planks, with their families.

I saw the judge hugging a grandson.

I saw my roommate holding a framed photo of her old bus route that someone had mailed her, laughing and crying at once.

Ray stood beside me with his arms hanging.

He was staring at the ferry.

"Ray?" I said.

"Yes."

"You look sick."

"I don't have anyone coming," he said. "I told Renata. I told her no family."

"Then why do you look like that?"

He didn't answer.

The ferry's ramp came down with a clang.

The first passenger down it was a girl in a long grey coat with a dark-blond ponytail and a small gold stud in her nose.

"Britta," I whispered.

She ran.

She ran down the whole length of the pier with her bag banging against her hip.

She flung both arms around my neck so hard we nearly went over.

"Mom," she said, into my hair. "Oh, Mom. You're so thin. You smell like campfire."

"I smell like a lake."

"You smell like a lake and campfire."

She held me at arm's length, and her eyes were red.

"I should have called more. I should have known."

"You couldn't have."

"I'm going to pull Dad's hair out in the town square."

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