The Girl Who Chased the Moon

the-moon wallpaper took her aback for a moment. That’s when it all came rushing back to her, everything she’d seen last night.

He glowed.

Then, out of nowhere, the thought: He almost kissed me.

The pounding continued and Emily climbed out of bed. She’d slept in her clothes, so she immediately jogged to her bedroom door and down the stairs.

To her surprise, the first thing she noticed was that the front door was closed. Vance usually left it open when he went to breakfast. She’d just reached the bottom stair when the accordion door to Vance’s room swung open. Grandpa Vance walked out, comb marks still in his wet hair. He hadn’t left for breakfast yet. How early was it?

Vance didn’t notice her on the staircase as he walked to the front door and unlocked it.

“We need to talk,” Morgan Coffey said from the porch. His white linen suit was rumpled, like he’d been wearing it all night. His dark hair, normally gelled, was falling across his forehead. It made him look younger, more like Win.

“Morgan?” Vance said, obviously surprised. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Believe me, I would have been here earlier, but I had to wait until light.”

“Come in.” Vance stepped back and Morgan entered the foyer. “What’s wrong?”

Morgan noticed Emily right away and stiffened. His hatred rushed at her in one great wave. She actually took a step back up the staircase. “I take it your granddaughter hasn’t told you yet,” he said, nudging his chin at her. His stare was so hard that Vance put himself between them, as if protecting her. “Why did you let her come here in the first place, Vance? Hasn’t your family done enough to hurt mine?”

“What happened?” Vance demanded.

“It happened,” Morgan said. “Your granddaughter lured my son into the park last night. Just like last time.”

“Emily had nothing to do with it,” Win said from the porch. He opened the screen door and stepped inside. “I asked her to meet me there. And it was nothing like last time. Emily and I were the only two in the park.”

“I told you to stay at home,” Morgan said.

“This has to do with me. I am going to be here for it.”

Grandpa Vance looked confused. He turned to her. “Emily?”

“I thought I would show up and he would do something to humiliate me, to get back at my mom for what she did. I didn’t believe him when he said he glowed. I didn’t believe him when he said to meet him and he’d show me.”

“Child, why did you go if you thought he was going to humiliate you?” Vance asked incredulously.

“I thought it would help make up for-”

Vance held up one skillet-sized hand. “Stop, stop right there. You don’t have to make up for anything your mother did. Morgan, this ends now.”

“You’re letting her off the hook, just like you did your daughter.”

Grandpa Vance’s face tightened. He was angry. And an angry giant was a sight to behold. “I never made excuses for Dulcie, and I have always accepted blame for what happened, for not being able to control her. But listen to me well, my granddaughter is not Dulcie and I will not have her treated this way.”

Morgan cleared his throat. “I’d feel more comfortable if you sat down, Vance.”

Vance didn’t give an inch. “No one is ever comfortable around me. You, of all people, should know how that feels.”

“I want her to stay away from my son.”

“I’ve been watching your son in the woods behind my house for a while now. Emily staying away from him isn’t the problem,” Vance said pointedly.

Morgan shot an angry look at Win.

“You can’t make me stay away from her,” Win said.

“Did you learn nothing from your uncle?” Morgan asked him.

“Yes, I did. I learned from him that it takes courage to love someone your family doesn’t approve of.”

“You don’t seriously love this girl,” Morgan said with clear disbelief.

Emily couldn’t take her eyes off him. He loved her? But Win simply stared at his father, a power struggle going on.

“My brother committed suicide because of her family,” Morgan told Win. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“It was his decision,” Win said, and she was amazed by how composed he was. Morgan Coffey was a force to be reckoned with, but so was Win. She wondered if Morgan knew that, if he understood. So much that was incredible about Win seemed to be because of his father. “But I think ignoring what he sacrificed is stupid. He gave us an opportunity to live normal lives here.”

“My life has not been normal since it happened! Your mother has never forgiven me for not telling her.”

“And you want the same for me? I wanted to show her. I didn’t want it to be a secret. And the world didn’t end. She didn’t reject me, Dad. This isn’t you and Mom. This isn’t Dulcie and Logan. This is me and Emily. It’s an entirely different story.”

In the silence that followed, Vance said, “Let them live their lives without our baggage, Morgan.”

But Morgan wasn’t going to let it go. He pointed to Emily. “Your daughter lured my brother into that park that night! She tricked him! She ruined everything.”

“Lower your hand, Morgan,” Vance said. “I’ll say this only once more. My granddaughter is not Dulcie, and I will not tolerate you blaming her for her mother’s sins.”

“And what are you going to do about it?”

Vance took a single step toward him. “I’m going to tell the truth. You’ve made Logan and your family out to be the victims, and I let it happen because Dulcie wanted it that way. She left knowing she would be vilified. She left to make things easier on you, which was the first selfless thing she’d ever done.”

Emily, who had been staring at Win all this time, suddenly turned her head sharply. “What are you talking about, Grandpa Vance?”

“Let’s go, Win,” Morgan said quickly.

“No, I want to hear this.”

“Logan was troubled long before Dulcie came into his life,” Vance said. “He’d tried to commit suicide several times, something no one but his family knew. But Logan told Dulcie. He and your mother were in love. At least, your mother was in love with him. I’d never seen her like that before. All over town, she carved their initials onto every wooden surface she could find.”

“Wait, Mom carved those initials?” Emily asked. “Not Logan?”

He nodded. “She was smitten. She was usually such a forceful girl, always getting her way, but she was very deferential to Logan. He was very shy in public, but he could control her like no one else in private. Knowing how angry it would make her, he told Dulcie that they couldn’t be together because his family didn’t approve of her. He said his family had too many secrets and wouldn’t let him marry just anyone. But there was a solution, he told her. So Dulcie went along with inviting everyone in town to a so-called performance by her, aware that it was a ruse, an opportunity for Logan to come out at night in front of the whole town. But she thought it was simply going to be his symbolic declaration of love for her. Dulcie had no idea that the reason the Coffeys didn’t come out at night was because they glowed. She thought, as we all did, it was just one more thing they did to keep themselves elite, to keep themselves separate from the middle-class masses in town. In fact, I can still remember when several of the more important families in town wouldn’t come out at night just because the Coffeys didn’t.”

“She didn’t trick him?” Emily asked.

“If anything, he tricked her. Dulcie was as stunned as the rest of us. Logan reached out to her after it happened, but she didn’t want to talk to him. I don’t know if it was his plan all along to commit suicide after he exposed his family’s secret, or if he was just overcome with remorse afterward, possibly fueled by Dulcie’s rejection. Only his family knows that. I do know he wanted to reveal himself. He wanted people to know.”

Emily couldn’t help but think of the parallel to Win. His family had obviously been trying for acceptance for who