“Auggie,” I repeated. It was cute, but she was right, he’d never once mentioned it. I gave her a knowing look. “He’s very protective over his memory of her.”
She hummed. “Are you sure I can’t invite you in?”
I straightened, suddenly remembering my place in all this and who I was talking to. “No, that’s alright. Um, can I ask where he’s at?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, actually. All I know is he left town.”
I blinked, air lapsing in my lungs as I choked out, “Left town?”
“Yes, he?—”
“Left town where?”
“He didn’t offer that information and I’m not in the position to push him these days.” She paused, looking at my face. “He’s coming back, sweetie.”
My chest hollowed out, my brain not working, “Well, how do you know that?”
The silence in the air was heavy. It meant something, and between my freak out that Harper was gone and my own feelings about it, I realized I’d said something very insensitive.
I blinked up. Stepped forward. Covered my mouth. “Oh, Mrs. Harper. I didn’t—I didn’t mean it like that. Not at all—I’m so sorry.”
Another Harper smile graced her face and she shook her head like it was inconsequential. “I didn’t think you did…” Trailing off she looked like she might be done talking but after a second she added, “You know sweetie, my son’s been on the move for a long time. He’s never stayed in the same place for more than a couple of years at a time. Not since he left after Mar.”
“On the move?” I asked.
She nodded. “At first I thought he’d tire of it and come home. Then after so long, I thought he might never stop. And then he got here. Something here was more important than whatever he was running from.”
I must have just blinked at her, because she tried again. “What I’m saying is, I don’t think you have to worry about him leaving.”
My throat felt like a desert. I couldn’t even clear it. Looking at my hands, I realized they were starting to hurt with cold, but not as much as my heart hurt. Quietly, I whispered, “I didn’t know any of that.”
Every couple of years? Was he on the run? What was he doing? Was he still doing that now? Who was with him if he was moving around that much? Who did he have to lean on?
Who did he have now if his parents were here and I couldn’t reach him?
I felt weak all of a sudden, like all the strength had been sapped from my body all at once. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like standing anymore. Taking a shaky step back, I said. “Well, thank you anyway.”
“Wait! I wanted to thank you,” Mrs. Harper said, taking a step outside the door, and pulling her robe tighter around herself.
“Thank me?” I asked, confused and not trying all that hard to make sense of anything. “For what?”
“For stepping in during that meeting,” she said. “I guess even after all this time I’m not strong enough to stand up when I want to. I know you didn’t do it for me, but it meant a lot to me anyway, so thank you.”
“But I interrupted.”
“You may have, but I see it as the gift that it was. And once Auggie understands everything, I’m sure he will too.”
She was an optimist, I guess. From where I stood, it looked to be the opposite. It looked like Harper had seen what he’d needed to and decided that cutting me off would be the most merciful way to release me.
Suddenly, a thought hit me and I looked up at her again. She looked happy in a way. A far cry from her storming out of the shop crying all those weeks ago. “Forgive me if I’m overstepping, but… For a missing person, you have to prove sustained life after a certain amount of years. So?—”
I was surprised to see a smile cross her face, even though it was sad. Slowly, she began to shake her head. “My husband thinks that if we force closure, this pain will finally start to subside. I don’t agree.”
“So…” my head tilted as I took her into full view for I think the first time since I met her. “Soyou’vebeen keeping her alive.”
“No,” she huffed a laugh. “My daughter’snotdead. I know it in my heart. I simply have to prove it to the courts every year,” she laughed again, almost to herself than to me, adding, “And William, well. He shouldn’t have left it up to me if he didn’t want me to do what I thought was right.”
I laughed too, floored by her tenacity. And surprised by her courageousness.
