“What did I say?” Nora said to Pete. “Didn’t I say you’d like Rachel?”
Rachel looked from Nora to Pete, blushing furiously. “You said that about me?”
“I did,” confirmed Nora.
“Well,” said Rachel, averting her gaze from Peter and giving Nora a smile. “I suppose you should give me some background on Pete then … while he calls to tell your boyfriend you’re conscious.”
Nora nodded, smiling, fingertips gently brushing her friend’s bandaged hand. “All you need to know is that he’s a huge fan of the opera.…”
POSTSCRIPT
Erie, Pennsylvania, is home to more than ten thousand refugees, fully 10 percent of its population. They have come from Bhutan, Bosnia, Somalia, the Congo, Iraq, Sudan, and, yes, Syria. My students and I have had the honor of getting to meet some of them and to record their stories through Gannon’s refugee oral history project. The people we have met, and the experiences we have heard about, and the lives that have been built here—out of grief, out of nothing but sheer will—bear no relationship to the discourse wielded like a blunt instrument in this most recent presidential campaign. Erie was a stop on that campaign’s bitter trail, and along with so many, including the feisty Benedictine sisters, we brought our signs to protest. Ultimately we snuck in to listen firsthand. The candidate told a poisonous tale in which refugees—all refugees—were compared to a frozen, half-dead snake. The heroine in the tale took in and nursed that snake back to life. The snake then bit her and killed her.
I was grieved not so much by the tale itself but by the wild applause with which it—and the message that America needs to be purged—was met.
There are many organizations that serve refugees in our communities. I hope that you will consider becoming involved. Donations are one thing, but how much better to tutor, to mentor, to share meals, to learn someone else’s story and find in it the human connections that bind us to each other? In the years that come, we will need to care for each other more, be gentler, more patient, more alert to infringements on our human rights—the better to weather the storm together.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees: www.unhcr.org/en-us
Office of Refugee Resettlement: www.acf.hhs.gov/orr
Catholic Charities: www.cccas.org/refugee-resettlement/
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, my daughters suffered the brunt of my wild-eyed, still-in-her-jammies, what-day-is-it attempt to write another book. I thank Matt Baugh, Mariana Syrotiak, and Brian Kimberling for reading early versions, but above all Laurie Hitt for reading it with ferocity and marking it all up.
I grew up in a Wagner-free household. My grandmother adored Italian opera, and my mother passed that on to me. Wagner, linked forever with Nazism, was persona non grata.
Geoff Grundy changed that. He gave me his CD of Nina Stemme and Plácido Domingo in Tristan and Isolde. I hadn’t needed another reason to fall in love with him, but it sealed the deal. I remember sitting on a plane, my earbuds a-swell with it—and weeping, to the alarm of my seatmate. I am, for this and for so much else, in his debt.
ALSO BY CAROLYN BAUGH
Quicksand
The View from Garden City
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CAROLYN BAUGH holds a master’s and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in Arabic and Islamic studies. She is currently the associate professor of history at Gannon University, where she is the director of the women’s studies program. In addition to Quicksand and Shoreline, she is the author of The View from Garden City. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue
Preliminary Evening
First Day
Second Day
Third Day
Epilogue
Postscript
Acknowledgments
Also by Carolyn Baugh
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
SHORELINE
Copyright © 2017 by Carolyn Baugh
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Daniel Cullen
Cover photograph © Bigstock
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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Forge® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7984-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-7051-2 (ebook)
eISBN 9781466870512
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First Edition: July 2017
Shoreline Page 31
