Page 62 of The Curve
Epilogue
Charlotte
One year later
“Ow! I thought you’d be better at this,” Atticus says, wincing.
I hold his finger steady and work on getting the splinter out.
“You big baby. How’d you get this, anyway?”
He makes a face like I’m stabbing him in the heart. “I can’t remember. Who knows?”
The offending bit of wood slides out. “Ta da!” I say, holding it up for the room to see.
Sunday supper has become my favorite family gathering. Especially since Grandma Birdie has been teaching me her recipes. When you feed these people, you have a great audience. To the man, woman and child they like to eat.
While Mallory has lost ten pounds over the last year, I feel like I’ve gained the same amount. But Atticus says if I have it’s all gone to the right places. God bless his lying heart.
“Where are you and Tim going tonight?” I ask Mallory. “And who are you going to be with?”
It seems like she’s become a woman overnight. Fifteen looks so beautiful on my daughter. Even more than her natural good looks, I think it’s the happiness showing through. It’s changed everything. The bullying has stopped for the most part. And when it does happen, she handles it herself. Her popularity with the kids has given her what she needed, confidence.
She walks over to where I sit and plops on my lap. “Just to the movies. Paige and Carl are picking us up here in a few hours.” Then she gives me the look that says she’s about to ask a favor. “Do you think we could stay out till twelve tonight? The movie doesn’t end till after ten. We want to go to Whaleburgers after. Please.”
“Oh, how can you resist that sweet nightingale?” Grandpa says.
“Thank you, Grandpa.”
That still sounds strange to me, but both he and Grandma insisted we call them what everyone else does.
“Just be sure it doesn’t become twelve thirty.”
“Atticus, we’re about an hour away from dinner,” Lucinda says.
“Thanks, Mom. I need to show Charlotte something.”
I notice everyone’s acting a little strange. Brick and Bristol, Lucinda and Boone and even The Colonel. He’s remarkably still and unusually quiet as if he’s waiting for a promised treat.
They keep looking at me, then at Atticus, and finally at each other. There’s smiles all around as if they know something I don’t. And the second our eyes meet they look away. The only one acting normal is Mallory.
Grandpa Davis wears a wide smile and keeps watching me. His mouth takes the shape of an O and his bushy eyebrows rise.
“Grandpa!” Grandma Birdie scolds him. But for what exactly?
He quickly loses the overly excited expression and pretends to get busy picking a speck of lint off his jacket.
“Charlotte darlin’, would you like a tiny Jack Daniels?” Boone says chuckling.
“Absolutely not!”
“Save it till we get back. Come on,” Atticus says.
He takes my hand and I follow him to the French doors.
“Where are we going?”
“I want to make sure we’ve got the right spot for the Firefly Ball this weekend. The guys are gonna be setting up starting tomorrow.”
