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you this," Cooper started.
Levi sighed. "Then I promise she won't find out I know."
"Okay." They took another dozen steps before Cooper
went on. "I told you when Meg got sick, didn't I?"
"I think so." Levi racked his brain. "It was in her
sophomore year, wasn't it?" He had a vague memory that
she'd been diagnosed as bipolar, gone on meds, and met and
married Philip.
"Yeah. Once they got her meds right, she and Philip got
married well, they eloped, which believe me my mom never
forgave Meg for she was really looking forward to planning a
big wedding and Meg was talking about going back to
school."
Nodding, Levi said, "That was when she got pregnant." He
specifically remembered how thrilled Mrs. Dixon had been
about the impending arrival of her first grandchild.
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"And when she went off her meds. They told her she
shouldn't take them while she was pregnant." Cooper
grimaced. "By the time Ashley was born, Meg was totally out
of her head. Then she just took off."
"Where is she now?" Levi asked, almost afraid of the
answer.
"We don't know," Cooper said. "No one's heard from her in
almost two years."
"God."
"Yeah. My parents have hired private investigators and
everything, but so far no luck. Personally ... I think she might
be dead."
Levi didn't even know what to say to that. "How come you
never told me?"
Cooper shrugged. "My mom didn't want me spreading it
around. She's embarrassed, which is stupid, but she's also
really upset about it, and I didn't want to make things worse
for her. Plus it's not like there's anything you could do, you
know?"
"No, but still. I don't know." The end of Levi's nose was
starting to feel numb. "Look, let's go get coffee or something,
this is ridiculous."
"It's more ridiculous than you know," Cooper told him, and
they both laughed as they turned off the track and headed up
the hill toward the shops on Park Street.
* * * *
The next evening when Levi got home from work, there
was a small, formal-looking envelope in his mail slot along
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with the bills and junk mail. He took all of it into the
apartment and dropped the rest of it onto the small table
where he always piled way too much stuff. Then he carefully
pried open the seal.
Inside the envelope was a little handmade card. It was
made from green construction paper and crayon scribbles. He
opened it and inside was an adult's handwriting. "Thank you
for bringing Hershey back." And then, in a larger, crooked
script, "Love, Ashley." The smaller writing must be Philip's.
It was almost six o'clock; Levi had had a hard time getting
out of the office. Before he could talk himself out of it, he
flipped open his cell phone, found Philip's number, and dialed.
"Hello," Philip answered after the third ring.
"Hi. It's Levi." Now that he had Philip on the phone, he
wasn't sure what to say to him. "Um. Could I talk to Ashley
for a second? I wanted to thank her for the card."
"Of course." There was a moment's silence, then Ashley's
little voice saying hello. She didn't have even a hint of a
British accent, Levi realized.
"Hi," he said. "It's Levi. I wanted to say thank you for the
card you sent me."
"Daddy wrote it," Ashley said.
"But you signed your name." Levi was already out of
things to say. "Um, anyway. Thank you."
"Will you put it on your fridge?" Ashley asked.
"What?"
"On your fridge. With a magnet. To save it." It sounded
like she thought it was a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
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"Oh. Sure." Levi only had a couple of magnets on his
refrigerator, and they were all the flat, rectangular kind with
ads on them. "I will. I'll save it."
"Okay." Philip murmured something in the background and
Ashley said, "My daddy wants to talk to you. Bye!"
"Bye."
"Hello, Levi," Philip said. "I hoped you might have a
moment to talk?"
"Sure. What about?" His heart was beating quicker than
usual, and his hands were starting to feel kind of sweaty.
"About the other night."
"Oh. That."
"I'm very sorry," Philip said. "I know I was giving you
mixed signals, and that certainly wasn't my intention. The
truth is ... the truth is, my wife left us some time ago, and I
don't know if she's ever coming back. That makes things
complicated, as I'm sure you can imagine."
"You're straight," Levi said, because that was the easiest,
shortest explanation.
Philip snorted. "No, actually, I'm not. I don't even know
that I'm bisexual. When Meg and I met, I'd never dated a
woman. But we grew very close very quickly. We had sex
once one night, when we were both very drunk and she got
pregnant."
"Does Ashley know that?" Levi asked. He could picture her
sitting right there, listening to everything Philip said.
"Not all of it," Philip said. "Don't worry; she's in the other
room doing her homework. But she knows that most people
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are neither completely straight nor gay as much as she
understand the concepts at her age, at least."
"So ... I guess I don't know what you're trying to tell me."
Philip sighed. "I don't suppose I know, myself. I think I
just wanted you to know. To understand. I didn't want you to
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