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

now. Christina observed their interaction and saw
that Jeremy understood. She sent a silent prayer of thanksgiving for
Jeremy’s presence to whichever divinity took under its wing the families
of fatherless girls and husbandless wives.
    When the food arrived, Morgan took a bite of her toast and asked
Jeremy, “Isn’t it weird having a town named after you? I mean, I’m going
to see my name everywhere, aren’t I? That’s going to be weird. Wasn’t it
weird for you and Daddy?”
    “It
was
weird,” Jeremy admitted. “But you get used to it. Your dad
and I never thought twice about it. You won’t either, after a while. And the
town wasn’t named after
us,
it was named after our great-grandfather—
your great great-grandfather. He founded the town in the late nineteenth
century. That was a long time ago, and nobody thinks about it anymore.
We’re just like anybody else.”
    “Then why did you leave? Why did you move to the city? If it’s so
great, why didn’t you stay?”
    Jeremy glanced around the diner, which was slowly filling with
people. He lowered his voice slightly. “Morgan, you know why I had to
leave. There were . . . problems. I know you know what those problems
were. Your dad and mom and I have told you about them. We don’t need
to discuss it again here, do we?”
    Morgan looked chastened. “I’m sorry, Uncle Jeremy,” she said. “I
didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
    “It’s fine, Morgan. But we have to remember that we’re not in the
city anymore. Things are a lot different out here. There are things we can
talk about in public and things we can’t talk about.”
    Time to nip this one in the bud,
Christina thought. “Sweetheart, I
know you’re nervous about today. I know you’re nervous about meeting
your grandma for the first time, especially after everything we’ve told
you about her. Try to remember that the bad things we told you about
happened a long time ago. Your dad and I were very young and your
grandma and grandpa were very mad at us for running away together
and having you.”
    “They didn’t want you to have me?”
    “Morgan, we’ve talked about this before. They didn’t think it was
right for us to have you since we weren’t married.”
    “But you
did
get married. You
are
married.”
    “They wanted your daddy to stay in Parr’s Landing, go to university,
and take over the mine. When the mine shut down, they blamed him for
not being there to help save it. They were mad at both of us, honey. But
they weren’t mad at you.”
    “I don’t think we should go there. I think we should go home.”
    “That’s all in the past,” Christina said, ignoring Morgan’s last
comment. “Your grandma Parr was very nice to invite us to come and
stay with her for a while.” Christina saw Jeremy wince. She pursed her
lips to signal to him to keep quiet. “We need to get back on our feet.”
    “Why couldn’t we get back on our feet in Toronto?” Morgan’s bottom
lip began to tremble. “Why did we have to come here? Daddy didn’t want
us to come back here. He
hated
it here. He told me so. And now you’re
making us move here. It’s not fair.”
    “I know, Morgan. But we have to make the best of it when there’s no
alternative. And believe me, there’s no alternative. It’ll be what we make
of it.”
    “It’ll be fine,” Jeremy said. “It’s a beautiful part of the country,
Morgan. And your grandma’s house is very old and very big. There are
wonderful log beams on the ceiling and lots of paintings on the walls. It’s
on the top of a hill with a great view of the town and the river below it.”
    She brightened. “So, are we rich? I’d like to be rich.”
    Christina and Jack had never been the beneficiaries of any part of
the Parr fortune after they’d left the Landing together, so there had been
no reason to inculcate Morgan with any illusions of wealth. As a result, it
had simply never occurred to Morgan that her