Light from a Distant Star by Mary Mcgarry Morris Read Free Book Online

got query letters out.”
    His nervous stammer infuriated Nellie. How could her mother do this to him?
    “That’s great, Ben. But how’s that going to take care of this? A shutoff notice. Six months, that’s how far behind we are.”
    “I’ll call Wally Miller. He practically runs the gas company.”
    In her mother’s silence, she felt her father squirming with regret. Henry drove a stick deeper into the dry rot on the step’s riser. He groaned.
    “There’s only one call I want you to make. Andy Cooper.” Her soft voice quivered, whether on the edge of tears, shame, or rage, Nellie couldn’t tell. “And I want you to tell him that you’ve made up your mind—”
    “But—”
    “And if you don’t, if you can’t do that for me and for your children, if you’re that self-centered, then you’re forcing my hand. And you know exactly what I mean. You do, don’t you?”
    T HEY RODE IN silence. Nellie’s chest hurt. It felt as if she’d been holding her breath this whole way. The last half mile to the spring led down a bumpy one-lane road so overgrown by poison sumac and blackberry bushes that when they parked, they could only get out one side of the car. The knob to the pump house door was missing, so Henry climbed through the window to let them in. It wasn’t the expedition her father had envisioned. With blackflies around his head and enthusiasm strained, he read the plaque above the dripping spigot.
    “This pump house is given to the citizens of Springvale in the communal spirit of good people looking out for one another. Gerald D. Humboldt.” He lowered his eyes and sighed.
    They filled their containers with the cool spring water. They were all quiet but her father was also remote. The dank dirt floor smelled like skunk and muddied their shoes, and when they came out to the car, the front tire was flat, which took awhile to change. When theygot home, it was too late to move the bikes out of the barn. Nellie ran upstairs to her sister’s room. Ruth was so annoyed. There she was, with the most amazing news, and she’d had to wait all this time.
    She had gone online at her friend Allie’s house and found her real father’s name. His telephone number was unlisted, but she finally had an address. In fact, she’d just written a letter. “Sounds ritzy, huh?” she said, reading the address as she wrote it on the envelope.
    “What if he comes here?” Nellie could just picture the horror of it, especially at this delicate time, her mother and Ruth swept off their feet by some wealthy, tanned guy with curly hair and a goofy smile in a Hawaiian shirt, and Benjamin’s devastation. And worse, what would happen to Henry and her?
    “I know,” Ruth said, grinning. “I was thinking the same thing.”

Chapter 4

    A PPARENTLY, THE CALL HAD BEEN MADE . T HE NEXT DAY HER father came home early from the store. Her mother rushed in moments later. Her last appointment, Lisa Small, a color and cut, had been late, so she’d had to leave her under the dryer. She was taking off her smock when Mr. Cooper knocked on the door. He was wearing a dark suit and white shirt but came in unloosening his tie. It had been in the eighties for the last two days. The Coopers’ whole house had air-conditioning, but the Pecks’ didn’t, just up in Ruth’s room.
    They were sitting at the kitchen table. There was a fizzy pop as her father opened a can of ginger ale for Mr. Cooper. Store brand, of course. Lately everything was generic. Not that it mattered to any of them, only Ruth, who said it was just the chintziest way to live.
    “Thank you, my friend,” Mr. Cooper said in that smooth way he had. Overbearing, her mother thought, but then her father would remind her of Andy’s difficult childhood, an abusive father and mentally ill mother, so there was a lot he’d had to overcome in order to be successful.
    Nellie had positioned herself in the living room near the kitchen door. So far, it hadn’t been a very good day. Bucky