Good-bye and Amen Read Online Free PDF Page A

moment she stood with Papa to walk down the aisle, Monica had to worry whether the best man would show up, or be able to stand up. I was amazed that Jimmy came at all, we hardly ever saw him in those years.
    Annie was to be the flower girl, but Adam was too little to be ring bearer and Mother announced that she was going to rent one. Monica drew the line at that, even trying as hard as she could to have this perfect mother/daughter experience. Sydney couldn’t understand it. She’d eloped, I’d eloped, this was her chance to have a picture-perfect wedding and Monica was standing in her way. “A cute little blond boy in a tiny blazer, with the ring sewn onto a little satin pillow,” Sydney kept saying. Monica announced that the ring bearer would be Norman’s son. It took a lot to stop Sydney in full spate, but that did it.
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    Amelia Crane Morriset Norman never talked about the first marriage. It was as if he’d ordered a dish he didn’t like at a restaurant. He’d sent it back to the kitchen and ordered something else, end of story.
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    Eleanor Applegate Monica barely knew those children when she married Norman. She was very starry-eyed about them, but their mother didn’t want them to have anything to do with Monica. She certainly wouldn’t let them be in the wedding, but we did keep Mother from renting any more children for the bridal party.
    Norman claimed that he woke up one morning and noticed that he had married the worst person in the world. He said she had a rage disorder. Her name was Rachel Cohen and she lives in Boston; I run into her from time to time. I was sympathetic to Norman; it’s no fun to live with a person who might explode at any moment, said the voice of experience, Child of Sydney. Apparently once Rachel threw his suits into the bathtub and set them on fire so he wouldn’t have anything to wear to work. That’s not normal. But I begin to think there may well have been two sides to that story.
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    Bobby Applegate There are always two sides in a marriage. Always. At least two.
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    Norman Faithful I remember two things clearly from the summer of 1971. One was, I had to buy a tuxedo for my wedding. I’d never owned one. The other was that Nickyand I took her father’s yacht out to Beal Island one day by ourselves. I usually get seasick, but that day I was golden. I had been out to the island the summer before, with Nicky’s parents. We’d had a picnic at March Cove. I remember I had hitchhiked up from Boston the day before and I was still stiff from sitting in this woman’s little sports car, way too small for a man my height, but it was a lucky break that she stopped for me, since she was going to Maine as well, even farther north than I was, and she brought me all the way into Dundee.
    That was the first time I ever saw the place. I remember Nicky and Mrs. Moss on the porch of Leeway waiting for me, and the smell of pine and musty books when you stepped inside. The whole weekend is etched, I knew then that my life was changing.
    Anyway this next summer, Nicky and I sailed to Beal by ourselves. She wanted to show me the old graveyard. There used to be a settlement out on the island, but these days, there are only hunting shacks. It’s not so easy to find the graveyard, you have to know where it is.
    It’s a beautiful spot on the crest of the island with views to the south past the outer islands to the Atlantic. We had our lunch and then we walked north on what must once have been the main road between farms or settlements. A grassy path wide enough for a wagon. Then the most amazing thing happened. I heard someone weeping, right near us. I said, “Nicky, stop. What’s that?” She couldn’t hear it at all. It sounded to me like a woman. We’d walk on, then I’d hear it again. I’d stop, and look, and there was nothing but these heartbroken pleading sobs coming from just out of my field