He Bought My Nights in the Dark, and I Hated Him by Day novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Julaften
On Christmas Eve my mother set the table for four, the way she had every year since I was born.
The fourth place was Papa's, with his blue plate and the glass he used for aquavit.
Nobody sat in his chair.
There were steamed lamb ribs, boiled potatoes and lefse, and the little red candles in the window.
Liv called from the boat at six, on the satellite phone.
The wind roared in the background, and a crew shouted happy Christmases behind her.
She had barely a minute.
My mother held the phone in both hands and said, "Eat something. Wear your hat."
Then the line went to static, and she set it down very gently.
We sat.
She cut her lamb into small pieces and ate none of them, as she had at the lodge.
"I looked at the tide tables," she said. "There's a storm coming Saturday. A big one."
"The news says gusts to seventy."
"Your father always said you watch the weather in December, not the sky."
She turned her fork over.
"He would have been at the dock tonight," she said, "checking the lines, because he couldn't stand to sit still on a holiday."
"I know."
"And that man," she said.
I put my glass down.
She did not say his name.
She had never once said it at her own table.
"That man was nineteen miles from your father," she said. "He had a tug with two big diesels, and he went the other way."
"I know, Mama."
"There are men in this city who say he had no choice. I say a man always has a choice."
Her eyes were dry and hard.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Bought My Nights in the Dark, and I Hated Him by Day are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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