Page 133 of The Husband Hour
The Miley Cyrus song “Party in the U.S.A.” played in one of the nearby houses lining the boardwalk. A teenage couple with sun-bleached hair walked by holding hands. They looked like such babies, and yet they were no younger than she had been when she fell in love with Rory.
“Aunt Lauren, who was that man at the party?” Ethan asked.
She stopped walking. “Um, my friend? Matt?”
“No,” Ethan said. “The big, big tall one.”
Okay, Lauren thought. This was it. Sooner than expected. But it was here.
“That man,” Lauren said, “was your father’s older brother.”
His eyes widened. “Did you know my father?”
Lauren nodded. “I did. His name was Rory. He was…he was very special.”
Ethan seemed to consider this. “Did he like soccer?”
“Soccer? Yeah, he did. But his favorite sport was ice hockey. And he was one of the best players I’ve ever seen.”
Ethan just stared at her. She wasn’t sure if she should say more or if she was overwhelming him. She’d thought it would be difficult to start the conversation, but the reality was that it was hard to stop. It felt good to talk to him about Rory. It felt right. “You know what else he loved?” She looked up and pointed. “The stars.”
Ethan smiled. “Like me!”
“Yes,” she said. “Just like you.”
Then she gasped as she noticed three particularly bright stars that had been pointed out to her by a boy on a night just like this, only a lifetime ago.
She bent down next to Ethan. “Ethan, look. Those three lights are Vega, Deneb, and Altair. The Summer Triangle. Do you see?”
“Yeah,” he said. “A constellation!”
“Actually, it’s not a constellation. It’s a star pattern called an asterism. Your father taught me that.”
Ethan grabbed her hand and they continued on toward the Green Gable. When the house came into view, Lauren said, “We’re home.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
The invitation arrived at the Green Gable on a windy day in March.
It had a New York City return address.
Lauren knew what it was before she opened it. She left the rest of the mail, most of which was for her parents along with a few clothing-store-sale postcards for Stephanie, on the counter. She sat alone at the kitchen table with the envelope, looking out at the pool covered with its winter tarp and fighting her mixed feelings.
Matt had called her a few months earlier when the film was accepted in the Tribeca Film Festival. It was a big deal, because he’d missed the application for Sundance recutting the film to omit Stephanie and Ethan. He was upset about not making Sundance, but it was the first moment Lauren fully let herself believe that he had kept his word.
She still hadn’t left the island, not even to visit Matt, whom she thought about every day. Not even to visit Rory’s grave on the five-year anniversary of his death.
Instead, on that day, she had walked to the edge of the ocean, the sky as gray as slate, the air misty and freezing. She’d held Ethan’s hand, and together they tossed a few flowers into the sea.
“The waves are bringing them back,” he said.
“That’s okay,” she told him. “Let them rest here for a while.” Standing by the freezing water, she had thought that five years was a long time and yet, in the big picture of life, it was no time at all.
Lauren carefully tore open the envelope and pulled out a stiff white card.
You are cordially invited to the Tribeca Film Festival’s world-premiere screening of the documentary film American Hero: The Rory Kincaid Story. Please join director Matt Brio and producer Craig Mason at the City Cinema Paris Theatre in New York City on April 17 at 7 p.m. A panel discussion will follow.
“Can’t you just send me a digital copy of the film?” she had asked when he called. “I mean, even as just a professional courtesy.”
