Page 82 of Ebbing Tides
“Oh, not justanyMax,” Maxwell corrected. “This here is Maxwell Benjamin Tailor.”
My lungs stilled as the smile fell from her face, her knuckles blanching against the wheel. She blinked, her lips falling open to speak, only to shut once again.
Maxwell laid a hand against her arm. “Max is Lilly's son.”
Carol slowly shook her head, her brow pinching with confusion. “What? No … but she said …what? How?”
The wind picked up as Carol threw the driver's door open and climbed out of the car. She hurried around. I stood to my full height, and she looked me over, her eyes round and wide. Her dark brown hair whipped against her face as her hands covered her mouth to catch a gasping sob as it escaped her lips.
“Oh my God … can I give you a hug? Would that be okay?” she asked, taking a tentative step toward me.
I laughed, feeling like I'd entered a dream world as I slowly opened my arms. “Sure.”
She hurried forward, pressing her cheek against my chest. She was a smaller woman, but her hug filled me with a matronly warmth I wasn't sure I'd ever felt before in my life. I swallowed against another torrent, the damn emotions threatening to end me before I got a chance to know these people.
“She said you were dead,” she whispered, her body starting to tremble.
I frowned and looked down into the car, my eyes catching Maxwell's. He lifted his hand, closed his eyes, and shook his head.
The message was clear.
Let it rest. We'll talk about it another time.
Carol stood back, her hands reaching out to grip my arms. “Let me look at you. Are you healthy? Are you … are youokay? How have you … oh God, how old are you? You have to be, what, fifty? Oh Christ, that must mean … shit, I'm old.” She laughed as tears began to slowly trickle from her eyes.
“It's okay,” I told her. “I'm forty-eight, and I'm okay. Healthy. Well”—I lifted a hand, gesturing toward my ears—“deaf, but apart from that …”
“You'redeaf?!” She looked down at her father, all at once angry at him, as if he'd known, but hadn't told her. “I'm so sorry! Is this better?! Can you hear me?!”
I wasn't sure what it was about people, but despite having spoken to me for the past several minutes just fine, the moment they learned I was hard of hearing, the need to shout overcame them.
Still, I laughed, knowing she meant well. “I wear hearing aids; you don't need to yell.”
“Look at me, just making an ass of myself. I'm sorry. I—Jesus, this wind is wild today.”
The wind carried with it the scent of cigarettes, and instinctively, I turned and peeked over my shoulder. There, coming down the road toward the parking lot, was a silver SUV I'd begun to know well.
Melanie pulled into the parking lot, slipping into the space beside my truck. She climbed out and came to stand beside me.
“Hey,” she said, sounding a bit breathless. “I didn't hear from you, so I thought I'd—” She cut herself off, as if realizing just then that we weren't alone. “I'm sorry. I'm interrupting something. I can—”
“No, we were just about to leave,” Maxwell said from the passenger seat. “Come on, Carrie.”
Carol glanced at Melanie with a smile but looked back at me with desperation. “Please tell me we'll see you again.”
I nodded with reassurance. “You'll see me again.”
Reluctantly, she let go of my arms. Her hand rose for a moment, her face scrunching with uncertainty, but she laid her palm against my cheek, her thumb scraping against my beard as her eyes filled once again with tears.
“She stole all that time from us,” she whispered. “I'll never forgive her for that.”
Then she walked away, pushing her feet along with purpose, and climbed back into the car. Maxwell gave me a little wave and a smile, and I returned the gesture before closing his door for him.
“You know them?” Melanie asked quietly.
“I do now,” I replied, my voice choked.
Carol and Maxwell backed out of the space, then stopped as the car was put into drive. The two of them waved out the window, both smiling and elated. My presence, the proof of my existence, had put that light in their eyes. These people didn't know me. They didn't know what I'd done in my life, the things I'd done wrong, the people I had hurt … yet they looked at me with the type of unconditional love I had craved from my father since before I could remember.
