“I’ve never been in a movie,” he said.
People made that mistake all the time.
“But to answer your question, my family has had a cottage here ever since I was a kid, right behind us on that cul-de-sac.” He pointed behind him.
“I haven’t been back to it in a long time, but recently I’ve been thinking about an incident that happened here many years ago that might make a good episode on the show I produce.”
“True Life Stories,” she said.
“Right.”
“What is the incident?” She cocked her head, and he wondered if she was coquettish or merely curious.
“Well, a long time ago, a newborn baby was found on this beach,” he said, “right about where we’re sitting. A little closer down to the water.” Right where Zack was sitting, actually, he realized.
Grace leaned forward, eyes wide behind the glasses.
“You’re kidding?”
she said.
“How long ago?”
It was genuine curiosity, he thought now, and it was gratifying. He’d wondered if the story would capture the interest of the general public.
“Over twenty years ago,” he said.
“I was fourteen the summer it happened. My neighbor, a little girl who lived across the street from our cottage, found the baby early one morning.”
“Who’d left it there?” Grace asked.
“No one knew,” he said.
“They never found out. So I thought, even after all this time, it would be interesting to try to find out who that might have been. Who did it, what prompted her to do it, how has she lived with herself since then. That sort of thing. And I thought that her answers might lend some insight into the reasons for the rash of abandoned newborns we’re seeing these days.” “It must have been terrible for the little girl who found the baby,” Grace said.
“Oh, I don’t know. She was a pretty tough little kid,” he said. And a tough grownup as well.
“Her name is
Daria, and she was considered a hero. There were articles in all the papers about her. Were you living in the Outer Banks at that time?
Maybe you remember reading about it? “
“I was living in Charlottesville twenty years ago,” she said. She looked perplexed. “Why was the girl considered a hero if the baby died?” she asked.
“Oh, the baby didn’t die,” he said.
“That’s the exciting part of the story. She—the baby was a girl—would have certainly died if Daria hadn’t found her, but she survived, and Daria’s family adopted her.
She suffered some mild brain damage, but she’s beautiful and”-he searched for a word ” —charming. “
Grace looked astonished, and he knew the story was even more captivating than he had thought.
“So… where is… I guess the baby would be a young woman by now…”
Grace seemed to have trouble putting her thoughts into words.
“Where does she live?” she asked finally.
Rory turned and pointed behind them at the Sea Shanty. From where they sat, only the white widow’s walk was visible above the sea oats.
“Right there,” he said.
“She and Daria live together in that cottage.”
“Right there,” Grace repeated. She stared at the widow’s walk as if lost in a daydream.
Rory spotted Zack walking toward him across the beach.
“Here comes my son,” he said with some pride, and Grace slipped out of her daydream to turn toward the boy.
“Hey, Dad,” Zack said as he neared him.
“Can I have some money?”
Rory should have guessed Zack was not coming over to him for some father-son conversation.
“Zack, this is Grace,” he said.
“Grace, meet my son.”
“Hi, Zack,” Grace said.
“Hi,” Zack said without really looking at her. He was waiting for Rory to answer his request.
