Walking on Water: A Novel by Richard Paul Evans Read Free Book Online Page A

my father’s chess set, a heavy walnut inlaid board with carved wooden chessmen with felted bottoms.
    “You brought my set,” he said.
    “The other one was too flimsy.”
    “Are you saying that’s why you lost?”
    “No, I take credit for that,” I said. “Are you going to tell me about your dream?”
    “It was about your mother,” he said. “And McKale.”
    This piqued my interest even more. “Tell me about it.”
    “We were in this garden. It was big. Miles and miles of the most beautiful flowers and plants. It reminded me of the arboretum, but with more flowers. Thousands of them.”
    “Where McKale and I were married,” I said.
    “Right,” he said. “It rained.”
    “It typhooned,” I said.
    He nodded. “We got wet. Anyway, in my dream, the girls were in this garden sitting on the bank of a brook. As I walked up to them they both looked up at me.” My father paused, and his voice took on a faraway tone. “Shewas so beautiful. They both were. It was as if light was coming from their skin.” He looked into my eyes. “It seemed so real.”
    “Did they say anything?”
    “Your mother asked why I was there. She said I wasn’t expected yet. Then—” He stopped abruptly.
    “Then what?”
    “Nothing,” he said. “It was just a dream.”
    I looked at him curiously, wondering what he was holding back.
    “Get out the chessboard,” he said. “Time to take you to the woodshed.”
    “Really, you’re trash-talking?”
    I set up the chessboard on his table and pushed it toward him.
    “You go first,” he said.
    “You’re a gentleman,” I said. I moved a pawn.
    “You always move the same piece,” he said.
    “It works for me.”
    “What do you mean by works ? You always lose.”
    “ Always is a bit strong.”
    “When was the last time you won?”
    “Never.”
    “Exactly.”
    “You should let me win sometime,” I said.
    “Then it wouldn’t be winning.”
    After a few moves I said, “There were more offerings on the porch last night. They were from Pam and Margie.”
    He just nodded.
    “Margie’s gift was in the bushes. I think Pam threw it there.”
    “Pam’s a determined woman,” my father said. “She calls too frequently.”
    “How many women do you have chasing you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I’ll bring their gifts tomorrow if you want. I’m sure there will be more by then.”
    “More baked goods?”
    “Probably.”
    “You can have them.”
    “You liked the muffins,” I said, looking at the empty basket.
    “The nurses ate them,” he said. “Have you heard from Nicole?”
    “Not this morning. We had dinner last night.”
    He moved his knight. “Is she coming by today?”
    “I think so. That’s why she’s here.”
    “She’s a good girl.”
    “That’s what you said yesterday.”
    “Probably still true.” My father suddenly went quiet as he studied the board. We played for nearly five minutes without talking. Then he asked, “What’s going to happen with her?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You and her.”
    “I don’t know. She asked me about Falene last night.”
    He looked up at me with concern. “What did she say?”
    “She asked if I had found her. I told her I had, but I hadn’t talked to her yet.”
    He went back to the board, taking my queen with his knight. “You need to be more careful,” he said.
    “Are you still talking about the game?”
    “Yes. If you want advice about women, you could do better than me.”
    “So the dream you had. Did it make you wonder?”
    “About what?”
    “If some part of it was real.”
    I expected my father to dismiss the idea, but he didn’t. “I think there might be more to heaven and earth than is dreamt of in my philosophy.”
    “You’re softening about religion?”
    “Religion? No. But God, that’s a different matter. Never confuse the clock with the time.”
    “But you’ve changed your mind about God?”
    “Maybe getting closer to the finish line does that to a man.”
    “What’s with