With more vigor than is actually required, I grind beans for the french press, and set water to boil in the kettle. While I wait for it, I lean on the counter and think about the tasks of the day. I was in too much of a state last night to get any more work done, so today I’ll hole up in the bedroom I’ve slept in the past two nights, which I think must have been Maya’s at one time, and continue my research into Meadow’s life.
“Norah, please join us,” Maya calls over her shoulder. “It’s beautiful out here this morning.”
When my coffee is finished, I carry it out to the patio a little shyly. It’s not like I’ve been included in much of anything, and it’s a relief to be around people close to my age. I think the guy, who introduces himself as Ayaz, is a little older, but not as old as Meadow and Augustus and all the people I’ve been surrounded with.
It’s nothing. We just drink coffee in the sunshine, commenting on the edge of pink in the smoke-tinged air and the high level of the surf and what to make for breakfast.
It’s nothing and it’s everything, because it’s the first time I’ve really been able to breathe for nearly two weeks.
So it seems like the least I can do is make breakfast. It’s simple enough, scrambled eggs with cheese and toast, but we all devour it hungrily. We’re finishing up, swinging our legs from the barstools, when Meadow shows up. At the first sight of her, I know something is not quite right—she’s slightly unkempt, her hair left out of a braid to tumble over her arms and shoulders, her face showing every single minute of her life on earth, her jeans damp on the hems. She’s always a bit bohemian, but this morning she looks like she slept in her clothes.
She’s brought Maya flowers and some kind of tea and hurries away in only a couple of minutes, looking ravaged and a little broken.
“Is she okay?” I ask as Maya comes back in the room.
“I don’t know. She didn’t look particularly good, did she?”
I shake my head, looking the direction she went. “No.”
“She’s trying to keep it together for everybody else, but probably out of all of us, she’s the one who will miss him the most.” She looks at me. “No offense.”
“Yeah.” I carry my dishes to the sink and rinse them before putting them in the dishwasher. “I’m going to work in my room for the day if that’s okay.”
“You don’t have to go up there. Take my dad’s office. It’s a lot more comfortable. I have to go to the doctor in a little bit, so I won’t be around to bother you.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I shower in the main bathroom on the second floor, which I’ve never used. It boasts handmade tiles, and from the shower, a person can look through a window out over the Pacific, which feels deliciously decadent.
In Augustus’s office, I open the blinds to let the light in. It’s always been so dark in here, with heavy cherry furnishings and a Turkish carpet in hues of red and blue. Just opening the blinds changes the entire aspect. Light splashes over the bookcases and the desk, and as much as I admire all the cherrywood, if this were my room, I’d paint everything white, bring in some area rugs in beachy shades, exchange the old leather couch for something midcentury in turquoise or yellow.
Comforted by my flight of fantasy, I open Augustus’s computer and pause. What am I looking for? What detail is going to unlock Meadow’s life? What brought her here?
Obviously, she was looking to start a new life after the birth of her daughter, and I have to admire her for taking a chance and striking out in the world, leaving a strangling little town without opportunities to start fresh.
But it feels like I’m missing something. What happened to her stepdad? Did she just run away? It’s possible he’d talk to me if I can track him down.
A good place to start. I run his name, Gary Sullivan, but the first time, there are hundreds of results. I narrow it to Thunder Bluff, and the marriage notice from the local paper shows up.
So does an obituary, which kills my idea for getting him to talk. He’s been dead a long time, about thirty-five years, since 1987. It’s short and sweet, just the notice of his death, nothing more.
Flipping back through my notes, I look for the dates Meadow started working at the Buccaneer. I don’t have the exact date, but I flip back farther in my notebook and find the date of her marriage to Augustus, which is 1991, four years later. Augustus and Meadow had two rounds of their affair—the first one that she broke off when she found out he was married to Shanti, and the second when he left Shanti （and Maya） for Meadow. When did she first arrive in the area?