All the Colors of the Dark — Chapter 223

223

Saint met her at the main gate and leaned on the hood of the cruiser.

“Your father escaped from prison this morning,” Saint said.

Charlotte did not react at first.

She wore a summer dress, her thick blonde hair in a single Dutch braid that curled over one shoulder. Even then as the stragglers passed they shot looks at her like she was some kind of exotic pet, as likely to bare her teeth as she was to ignore you.

“There’s a chance he’ll come here, and if he does you need to tell me.

For him, you need to tell me. Cops around here…cops everywhere, they’ll shoot before they ask a single question.”

They drove through the town, left the car by the old railroad and walked into the woods together. Saint slowed by the spot, the memory stubborn.

“You ever know something, but sometimes you’re able to convince yourself it isn’t real?” Saint asked.

“Santa. I caught my grandmother eating the cookies when I was six.

Didn’t stop me believing entirely. I never told anyone that.”

“Because once you say it, it makes it real.” Saint fixed her eyes on the water as she spoke, not wanting to see the world around. “What I said before…Jimmy Walters…the man died when…”

“I know enough.”

“You rarely see all of someone. Not for a long time. And often, when you do, it’s too late. Jimmy was kind and decent. Until he wasn’t. The good parts, they still leave so much room for the bad….” She watched a heron so still, slowed her heart to the cicadas’ song. And then she felt Charlotte’s hand slip into her own and hold it tightly.

Saint kept her tears back. “I didn’t want to be your mother, when you said that. I know I don’t deserve to be, to anyone. I just wanted to be your friend. Because I never…since I was thirteen, I didn’t ever have another friend of my own.”

“You said before that he might come here.”

Saint nodded.

“He won’t. Not for me. I never come first,” Charlotte said.

“That’s not—”

“I remember the first time I met him I told him Grace was his rainbow connection. Dumb kid shit. But…but maybe you only get one, Saint.”

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