Enter, Night by Michael Rowe Read Free Book Online Page A

blessed silence, Christina watched as
the light advanced. She’d forgotten how clear that light was, especially
in the fall. The mist on the lake was burning off as the sun climbed
higher. On the other side of the lake, she could make out a scattering
of white buildings underlined by a dirt road at the foot of the sloping,
mountainous hills stretching against the blue sky. Alone in the booth at
the diner with her thoughts, accountable to no one, and with nothing
around her at that moment that had any bearing on her life, she gazed
out the window as the sunlight touched the burnished leaves of the line
of maple trees framing the motel where her daughter slept.
    When she was sure she could see the beauty, she allowed herself to
feel hope.
    Christina felt a sudden crashing wave of terrible longing for Jack,
one that stunned her once again with its ferocity. Tears blurred her vision,
but this time she didn’t wipe them away. She rode the pain like a wave,
not fighting it, cresting with it instead, allowed it to deposit her, gently
and safely, in a rational place.
    She paid her bill and left the diner to wake up Morgan and Jeremy.
They still had a four- to five-hour drive ahead of them to Parr’s Landing
and whatever waited for them there.
    They were on the road within an hour and a half. Morgan and Jeremy
were awake, showered, and packed up by the time she got back to the
motel. Christina was surprised but pleased. Getting Morgan ready in
the morning had been an ordeal more or less from the day she’d turned
thirteen. The waitress at the diner smiled at her when the three of them
trooped over and sat down at the booth she’d left twenty minutes before.
    Christina said, “A couple more hungry customers for you before we
get back on the road this morning.”
    “Couldn’t get enough of our good country cooking, eh?” The waitress
beamed at Morgan and Jeremy. “Is this your hubby and your little girl?
She looks just like her handsome daddy. You want some hot chocolate,
honey?”
    Christina felt Morgan flinch beside her. She opened her mouth to
tell the waitress that Jeremy wasn’t her father but her uncle, but before
she could say a word, Morgan smiled at the waitress and politely replied,
“Just some orange juice, please.”
    When the waitress returned to the kitchen with their order, Christina
turned to Morgan and said, “That was very nice of you, sweetheart. It
was very considerate.”
    Morgan shrugged. “It’s not her fault. She didn’t know. And I
do
look
like daddy and so does Uncle Jeremy, so she wasn’t all wrong.”
    Jeremy said, “Your father had all the looks in the family. Ask your
mother. He was so handsome when he was your age that everyone was in
love with him. Your mom was the only girl in Parr’s Landing who’d ever
caught his eye. It was like
Romeo and Juliet
with those two.”
    “
Romeo and Juliet
was a tragedy,” Morgan said. The previous year,
her class at Jarvis Collegiate had studied Shakespeare’s play in English
Lit. The teacher, Mr. Niven, had run the Franco Zeffirelli version of the
film on the reel-to-reel projector in the classroom and Morgan had fallen
in love with Leonard Whiting. “Mom and Dad weren’t a tragedy. They ran
off and got married. They had me. They got out of Parr’s Landing. Romeo
and Juliet never got out of Verona.”
    “You’re right, they did get out of Parr’s Landing.” Jeremy’s eyes met
Christina’s over the table. “They did. They got away and they met their
destiny. And the best part of their destiny was having you.” He reached
over and put his hand over Morgan’s. “I’m so very, very glad they did.”
    Morgan allowed Jeremy to hold her hand for a brief moment, and
then pulled it gently away as though to avoid hurting his feelings. Her
love for her uncle was unquestioned. The question for Morgan seemed
to be how much of that love she could show without feeling disloyal to
her father, at least for