Part 33 (1/2)
A man in a baseball hat and gold-rimmed sungla.s.ses sat on a bench forty yards away at the end of the block. The man stared straight ahead, but he could have been looking at him a second before.
A moment later the man turned and, yes, his gaze was drilling Cameron from behind his sungla.s.ses. He was sure of it.
As Cameron started to trot toward him, the man stood. It was him. The figure from the park. No question. Same height. Same build. Same gait.
Cameron broke into a sprint as the man ambled down a side street, then ducked behind the Grand Palace Hotel.
Cameron rounded the corner of the building. ”Hey!”
The alley was empty except for an old Pepsi can rocking back and forth in the slight breeze.
The man had vanished.
CHAPTER 36.
You can't hide from me, so why hide it from yourself? Whether you admit it to me or not, you and the Book of Days have a deep connection.” Tricia thrust her shovel into the soil and heaved another pile of dirt out of the trench she was digging. Why did she love the man so much? He drove her nuts at times. Most of the time.
”Are you positive you don't want a hand with that?” Taylor said from the cast-iron bench he sat on in their backyard.
”One hundred percent.”
”Building a pond is a great idea.”
”Don't try to change the subject.” She pointed her forefinger at him. ”You know something.”
”So what if I do? I don't see how that obligates me to tell you.”
”What makes you come to the conclusion I'm talking about me?”
Taylor blinked and turned away.
”You have a newly found niece. And a young man she likes. And he likes her. And they're looking for this book which is probably a fake. But it really doesn't matter because you're not going to lift even your pinky to help them.” Tricia scooped out another shovelful of dirt and tossed it at Taylor's feet. ”And it's wrapped up in something you've carried around in the dark ever since Annie died, and it's time you lay the burden down and forgive yourself for whatever it is you think you did.”
”Are you finished?”
”I'm just getting started, Taylor.”
”Great.”
”You lose Annie when you're young, Cameron loses his wife when he's young-don't you think that's an interesting coincidence? Have you considered for more than a pa.s.sing moment that G.o.d might have something to do with putting you two together? That maybe He's asking you to give Cameron a little help?”
”I wouldn't be much help.”
Tricia shoved her shovel into the sod and trudged over and sat next to her husband.
”We both see it, so I might as well come out and say it-Cameron is headed down the same path you've been on for too many years. Holding on to the past with a grip even death would have trouble releasing, unable to get past the tragedy of losing someone he loved.
”Helping him find this book of his would go a long way toward getting him to open up to you, and then maybe you can talk some sense into him that you haven't been able to talk into yourself.”
Taylor sighed. ”There are some things you can't forgive yourself for. Things you shouldn't forgive yourself for.” He rose from the bench, grabbed Tricia's shovel, and started digging.
”It's amazing to meet someone greater than G.o.d.”
Taylor frowned. ”What's that supposed to mean?”
”He's willing to forgive everything you've ever done, or ever will do, but since your wisdom is much greater than His, you know you shouldn't accept that kind of love.”
”And if I forgive myself?”
”It would give you the ability to forgive others.”
”Who haven't I forgiven, Tricia?”
She s.h.i.+fted on the bench, took off her work gloves, and tossed them onto the gra.s.s. ”Your best friend.”
”I don't have a-”
”Jason. You need to forgive Jason too.”
”You're not going to start talking about that again, are you?”
”It would set you free.”
”That's what you've told me.”
Tricia took off her sungla.s.ses. ”It's true.”
”The past is the past is the past. I'm not going back there.”
”If you've forgotten the past, why do you have a vacation home there?”
Taylor dropped the shovel onto the dark soil and strode over to the edge of their property, hands on the cedar fence, face turned to the sky.
Tricia let him have a few minutes of solitude before strolling over to him. ”h.e.l.lo, my name is Tricia. What's yours?”
”I'm guessing there's a point to this.”
”You're not you.”
”Uh, I think I am.” Taylor whapped his stomach with his palm. ”Yep, still me.”
”Do you remember when you and Annie and Susan and I were all around thirteen years old and you blindfolded us and took us down to Munson's Bridge and had us get out on the edge? You were so excited. It was only twenty-five feet up, but it felt like two hundred. You jumped first and watched as each of us jumped, but only if we wanted to. And of course we all wanted to, and when we'd all leaped, you gathered us on the sh.o.r.e?”
Tricia waited till Taylor looked right at her. ”Do you remember what you said?”
He didn't answer.