The Girl Who Chased the Moon

they really were for generations.

Morgan’s face had raspberry-red splotches on it now. “No one is going to believe you. They’ll never believe Dulcie was an innocent party. And I will always maintain that she could have stopped him. She could have stopped him from stepping out onto that bandstand. She could have stopped him from killing himself. He did love her. He gave her that family heirloom.” He pointed to Emily’s wrist, to the charm bracelet. Emily automatically put her hand over it. “Our mother gave it to him to give to the woman he married, like it had been given to her on her wedding night. That he gave it to Dulcie had to mean something But if he had fallen for someone less selfish, and more sympathetic, he might be alive today. Our secret might still be a secret. The way it was always meant to be.”

“Emily knows the truth now,” Grandpa Vance said calmly. “That’s all that matters. I have no intention of telling anyone else.”

She didn’t know why it was so important for Morgan to have people believe his brother was tricked. Maybe it made dealing with the death of his brother easier. Or maybe it helped his family, knowing the town didn’t think Logan was troubled or manipulative. It could only help, she thought, that there wasn’t a stigma like that attached to their glowing. It probably made it easier for the town to accept what they’d seen, to sympathize. Emily realized that her mother had known this. That’s why she’d taken the blame. And it had been her first step into the life of someone different. “I won’t tell anyone, either,” she said.

Morgan turned to Win. “I’ll think about it,” Win said.

“You’ll think about it at home. You’re grounded.”

Morgan turned and walked to the front door. He held the screen door open for Win. But Win walked over to Vance. “I’d like to take your granddaughter on a date when my punishment is over, if I have your permission.” Win held out his hand.

“Win!” Morgan said.

Vance seemed as surprised as Morgan, but he slowly held out his hand and shook Win’s.

“Win! Now!”

Win turned, but not before he looked up at Emily, who was still on the staircase, and said, “I’ll see you soon?”

She nodded. He gave her a reassuring smile, then turned and left.

Morgan let the screen slap shut loudly behind them.

Emily and Vance didn’t move for a few moments, both of them staring at the door. Emily finally turned to her grandfather. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth from the beginning?”

“She made me swear not to tell anyone.” He looked tired. He walked to the staircase and sat on the stairs, sinking like an anchor. She was still standing, but he was so large that he was taller than she was, even when he sat. “Lily had a cousin who lived in San Diego. I arranged for Dulcie to live with her. To go to school there. I gave her a large chunk of cash, and she left the day before Logan’s funeral. She tried to make it work, but I don’t think she knew where she fit in after what happened. She quit school after a few months. A few months later she ran away. I got postcards for a couple of years. Then nothing.”

“Why didn’t you look for her?” Emily said.

He shrugged. “Because I knew she didn’t want to be found. She knew that if she contacted me, I would give her anything. But she didn’t want that anymore. A good, decent life for her was only possible if she left everything behind. The Coffeys, Mullaby… me.”

“She could have come back and told the truth!” Emily said. “And then everyone would have seen what a good person she became. She could have been redeemed.”

“I think she found redemption in other ways,” Grandpa Vance said, looking down at his clasped hands. “When she left, she told me that when she had children, she would never raise them the way I raised her. She said she would teach them responsibility. She said her children would be nothing like her. I like to think that at some point in her life she forgave me. But I deserve it if she didn’t.” He took a deep breath. “One thing is for sure, she did raise a remarkable daughter.”

Emily paused, then sat beside him on the steps. She put her hand on his. “So did you, Grandpa Vance,” she said.

And for the very first time, she thought maybe it was okay that they were the only two people here who knew that.

The point was, they knew.

VANCE DEBATED whether or not to go to breakfast that morning, but ultimately decided to go because he didn’t want to answer questions about his absence. No one had to know what had occurred that morning.

When he came in from breakfast a few hours later, he was exhausted, and not his normal exhaustion, the kind he felt minute by minute. The tension from the confrontation with Morgan had manifested itself into a feeling of having survived a collision. His neck muscles ached and his joints were stiff. He was more than ready to lie down and take a nap.

But instead of going straight to his room, he went to check the dryer.

He hadn’t meant to get so angry at Morgan. He didn’t often get angry at other people. There was no sense in it. The person you were angry at was rarely ever repentant. Now, getting angry with yourself had some merit. It showed you had sense enough to chastise the one person who had any hope of benefiting from it. And he was plenty angry with himself.

For many, many things.

For letting this go too far. For living too much in the past. For not being a better parent to Dulcie. For missing so much of Emily’s life already.

He walked to the laundry room and opened the dryer. He reached down, bending at the hip, and tried not to groan at the effort. He felt like such a small man, carrying around a body that was too big for him.

He reached in and expected to feel the smooth, cool curve of the dryer drum. Instead, his fingers brushed something slimy. Something that moved.

He jerked his hand away and stumbled back.

Out jumped a large frog.

He stared at it, frozen.

He watched it hop to the laundry room door, and for a moment he expected to see Lily’s shoes. His eyes actually traveled up, hoping she would appear, standing there, laughing, like she had last time.

But no one was there.

He looked back down and saw that the frog was gone. He quickly stepped out of the room, and when he crossed through the doorway, he felt like he’d walked through a fragrant breeze. His hair even moved. The sleeves of his shirt billowed.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Lily.

The air was sprinkled with her spirit. He stood still for a long time, not wanting to lose her. He took deep breaths, his heart aching as, with each breath, the scent faded.

And she was gone again.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the frog sitting at the kitchen door. It turned and wiggled through a tear in the screen. Vance automatically followed.

He opened the screen door to see the frog hop across the backyard. He walked after it, all the way to the back of the property. The frog stopped at the gazebo and stared at him.

Vance hesitated, then looked around. Emily had obviously been back here, trimming the boxwoods around the gazebo. He suddenly remembered that Dulcie had done that, too, after Lily had died. She’d tried so hard to keep things going on her own, and she’d only been twelve. He should have been there for her, he should have taken care of things, instead of throwing money at her. But he’d fallen apart, and everything around him had followed suit.

Lily wouldn’t have wanted things like this. Maybe that’s what she was trying to tell him. The last time she’d put a frog in the dryer was to tell him to stop dwelling on the way things used to be, to stop being afraid of change, of what came next.

He had to stop squandering what time he had left. He had a granddaughter to take care of.

He took a deep breath and nodded to the frog in agreement to a silent question. Okay. He would call his old