Finding North by Claudia Hall Christian Read Free Book Online Page B

trying to . . .
protect you, mitigate the damage.”
    “ Yes, I understand that,”
Rebecca said. “I don’t like it, but I do understand it.”
    “ I’m sorry to have caused
so much pain,” Alex said. “Pain seems to be the currency in which I
trade.”
    Rebecca smiled. She took
Máire from Alex.
    “ Yes, I can see you’re
suffering,” Rebecca said.
    Alex smiled. She stuck her
head into the living room and waved for Raz to come with her. He
looked up from Joey and smiled.
    “ Shall we?” Rebecca
asked.
    Raz got up and followed
Rebecca to the basement stairs. Alex quickly tidied the living
room. She grabbed the twins’ changing bag and the blanket from the
floor. She opened the chest near the end of the room and stuffed
the blanket inside.
    Closing the lid, she saw
her mother’s handbag. She’d never seen her mother without her
handbag tucked on her shoulder. Even when she was with Grace or
Paddie, Colin’s son, her mother’s handbag was never far from her.
The fact that this handbag was sitting next to an armchair in her
living room meant that, for the first time in Alex’s life, her
mother was not thinking of the next social event or photo op. Her
mother was truly present with the twins.
    “ Are you coming, Alex?”
Rebecca asked.
    Alex smiled and left the
living room.
    FFFFF
    Sunday
afternoon
    May 15 — 5:17 p.m.
MDT
    Denver,
Colorado
     
    “ Where did you get this?”
Alex asked.
    Rebecca sat with Máire on
her lap, and Raz held Joey. They sat on a loveseat near the gas
fireplace in Alex’s office. The babies had fallen sound asleep in
the warm safe room. Trailing an IV bag on a metal stand, Alex took
her antique map off the wall.
    “ I’m not sure,” Rebecca
said. “My father had one on the wall in his library.”
    “ Really?” Alex
asked.
    “ He was very interested in
cartography,” Rebecca smiled.
    “ Really?” Alex repeated.
She took the map from the false wall covering the gun safe and
looked at her mother.
    “ Yes, really,” Rebecca
said. “I think that’s why I never thought it was weird that you and
Max were so interested in maps. It wasn’t until you were in base
schooling that I realized it wasn’t quite normal for your
four-year-old children to draw a detailed map of the base.
Certainly, that’s what the principal thought.”
    Alex set the map on the
floor. She unhooked her IV bag from the stand and dropped it next
to the map. She sat down and turned the map over to get access to
the back. The cheap frame bent with pressure.
    “ I’ve never known anyone —
besides Alex and Max, of course — who draws maps,” Raz said. “Did
your father draw maps, too?”
    “ I think so, but I don’t
know,” Rebecca said. “I didn’t know him well, and I never spent any
real time with him. I was never alone with him, not once. Alex, do
you remember that caliper I gave you and Max when you
were . . . gosh, I think you were eleven? It
belonged to my father.”
    “ I have it this year,”
Alex said. She took her Spyderco folding knife from the band of her
pants and used it to flip back the inexpensive aluminum stays that
held the thin cardboard backing to the map.
    “ What does that mean?” Raz
laughed.
    “ There’s only one, so we
switch off having it,” Alex said.
    “ Since you were eleven?”
Raz asked.
    Rebecca shot Raz an amused
look, which Alex caught. She shook her head.
    “ We’ve each had it
thirteen times,” Alex said. “Next year, Max will have it one more
year than me.”
    “ Don’t forget — you’ll
have it again the following year,” Rebecca joked.
    “ Max is older, so he gets
to go first,” Alex said. “I have it in my safe with a bunch of
other precious things. I’ve used it a few times. It’s fun to feel
the history.”
    Alex turned her attention
to the map in her hands. She used her knife to lift up the thin
cardboard backing. Carefully, she peeled the cardboard from the
map.
    “ There’s nothing written
here,” Alex said. “There’s