Montana Love Letter

by Charlotte Carter

  “Several days? Does everyone have a generator?” She wondered what one would cost and if she’d have any idea how to run it.

  “Most do, particularly the businesses. I can remember some great parties at the Pine Tree Inn when the power was out.”

  Janelle could only wonder about what kind of parties he enjoyed.

  Apparently finished with their board game, Raeanne got up and brought Janelle a picture book to read.

  She glanced toward Adam, who appeared fascinated by the falling rain outside. This might be a good opportunity to try another one of Eileen’s ideas.

  “Sweetie, I’m busy making this wreath. Why don’t you ask Adam to read you the story?”

  Raeanne seemed happy with the idea. Adam wasn’t. The angry look he sent her was enough to singe the roots of her hair. She responded to his glowering with a friendly, innocent smile, which she was sure he didn’t appreciate.

  Still sitting on the floor, Hailey opened her mouth to say something, but when Janelle gave a quick shake of her head, she remained silent.

  Not waiting for a further invitation, Rae climbed up beside Adam in the big leather recliner. Despite his displeasure with Janelle, he made room for her daughter.

  A moment later, Kitty Cat sauntered into the room and jumped up in Raeanne’s lap, curling into a tiny, colorful ball of fur.

  “I don’t know, Rae,” Adam said. “I bet you know this story better than I do.”

  “I have something that will make reading the book more fun.” Janelle slipped a sheet of red cellophane from her craft box. According to Eileen, people with dyslexia were often bothered by black letters on a white background. They could see the letters with less strain when they read through colored cellophane. “You can pretend the princess lives in an exciting world where the sky is always red.”

  She opened the book, which was in Adam’s lap, and put the cellophane in place.

  “See how fun that looks?” Her throat tightened on the false sincerity and she mentally crossed her fingers. She so hoped this would help him decipher the letters and words more easily.

  Electricity from an internal storm seemed to shimmer through the air as he glared at her, then looked down at the page. “Yeah, right. Lots of fun.”

  Raeanne snuggled more closely against him.

  “Okay, Buttercup. Let’s see what kind of a story we’ve got here. What’s this?”

  “Princess,” Rae whispered.

  “That’s right. And she lives in a big ole castle.” He pointed again. “Who’s this?”

  “Prince.”

  Janelle backed slowly away. Adam wasn’t actually reading the book. Instead he was reading the pictures. But amazingly, Raeanne was speaking. She’d heard the book read so many times, she knew the characters and the story. Together they were making it work.

  Returning to her wreath making, Janelle kept an eye on Adam. He seemed to be puzzling over the words. Not saying them out loud but giving them a close examination. Maybe, just maybe...

  Hailey sat down at the kitchen table across from Janelle. Picking up a bundle of dried flowers, she studied them carefully. “My mother was usually the one who read books to me.”

  Janelle heard a hint of question in the child’s voice, and her expression held both worry and fear. “It’s a very special thing moms do, reading to their children.”

  “My dad does other things that are special.”

  “I know. I’ve seen what a good father he is. You’re very lucky to have him for your dad.” She wove a trio of purple wildflowers into the wreath’s backing, which she had made out of two wire coat hangers bent into a circle and covered with floral tape.

  “It was okay that he never read me a book when I was little. We used to build Lego sets together. He’s real good at that.”

  “I’m sure he is. That’s why he’s such a terrific mechanic.”

  “A long time ago he made me the swing set and playhouse. Once he made a tree house, but a storm blew the tree down.” She shrugged as though it didn’t matter.

  “I never had a tree house. Bet they’re fun.” Janelle was, however, increasingly confident that Hailey knew her father wasn’t able to read, at least not as well as he should. She might not be familiar with the term dyslexia, but she knew and was defending her dad. Protecting a secret she wasn’t supposed to know.

  “And they lived happily ever after in the land of the red sky!” Adam boomed the climax of the book, and Raeanne clapped.

  He eased himself out of the chair. “Hey, Peanut, come read Rae another book, would you?”

  Hailey gave Janelle a hard look, almost a warning, then went into the living room to find a new book.

  As casual as you please, Adam strolled into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and took out a can of soda. “What was that all about?” he asked with his back still turned to Janelle, his voice low and accusing.

  “I’d read somewhere that using colored cellophane could help a person read more easily.” She kept her voice equally low, almost intimate.

  “A dyslexic person.” He spit out the words in a harsh whisper.

  “Yes. Did it help any?”

  He slammed the refrigerator door and whirled toward her. A muscle flexed in his jaw. He popped the top on the can, drank a big gulp of the cola and set the can firmly on the table.

  “I don’t know.”

  She blinked. He didn’t know? How could he not tell one way or the other whether the cellophane had helped?

  “Sometimes colors other than red work better. Yellow. A pale blue.”

  They spoke in quiet voices barely above a whisper so they wouldn’t be overheard.

  “I don’t want any other colors.” He walked to the sink and looked outside. The worst of the storm had passed, leaving only a steady rainfall behind. “The letters didn’t jump around as much as they usually do.”

  Janelle wanted to leap up and click her heels together, but she restrained her excitement. “Then it helped.”

  “A little,” he said grudgingly.

  “There are other things you can try. There are even online classes with individual counseling and assistance. They don’t cost too much.”

  “I already told you to keep out of my business. I have no intention of sitting around the house all day staring at a computer screen.”

  “It only takes a half hour per day,” she countered.

  When he started to walk out of the kitchen, she stepped in front of him and placed her hand in the middle of his chest right over his heart. A pulse throbbed in his throat. He might not like it, would probably resent it, but she had to tell him about Hailey.

  “Your daughter knows you can’t read.”

  His eyes narrowed, the irises darkening until there was very little gray remaining. “You’re lying.”

  She grimaced at his accusation. It hurt that he’d think she would lie to him. “No, I’m not. Twice now, first when I asked her if you needed glasses and now when I cornered you into reading to Rae, she’s become very defensive. She’s trying to help you keep your secret. But she knows the truth.”

  His gaze left hers, ricocheting to Hailey in the living room. “She couldn’t know.”

  “She’s a very intelligent girl. Living with you, observing you every day of her life, she knows, all right. But she doesn’t understand why it’s a secret. Neither do I.”

  Janelle watched the stubborn jut of his chin and the defiant look in his eyes melt away. “I can’t tell her. She’ll think—”

  “She’ll be relieved to have it out in the open. I promise you, she won’t think badly of you, and there’s no reason for you to be ashamed. It’s a neurological problem and has nothing to do with your intelligence. She loves you very much. You’re her dad. There shouldn’t be any secrets between you.”

 
He leaned very close to her, close enough that she could feel his heat. And his anger. “I’m not going to tell Hailey, and neither are you.”

  With that he brushed past her and into the living room. “Hey, Hailey, why don’t we work on one of the gigantic jigsaw puzzles you’ve got? Seems like a perfect thing to do on a rainy afternoon. Remember how your mom loved to work on those things for hours and hours?”

  Hailey seemed thrilled with the idea. She raced off to her room and came running back with a five-hundred-piece puzzle that she dumped onto the dining table.

  Janelle was far less thrilled. Adam was still dodging his problem. Covering it up. If he continued to pretend that no one, including Hailey, knew he couldn’t read then he’d only be fooling himself.

  If he didn’t come clean soon, before his daughter was much older, Janelle feared he’d have a price to pay.

  * * *

  Adam didn’t have anywhere to hide.

  As he bent over the jigsaw puzzle trying to piece it together, he could still feel Janelle’s hand branding his chest with disapproval. Now he felt her eyes burrowing into his back, prodding him to come clean. To reveal to his own daughter that he couldn’t read the words in a picture book. To agree to Janelle’s idea of taking an online class so he’d no longer need to feel ashamed.

  Hailey kept behaving oddly, too. Quick glances toward him and then she’d look back at the puzzle just as fast, avoiding eye contact. She couldn’t know about his dyslexia. If she did, she would have said something. Wouldn’t she?

  Kids were like sponges. They sopped up information. But then they blurted out whatever they saw or heard. She wouldn’t keep his disability to herself, would she? If she’d overheard Adam and her mom talking about dyslexia, she would have said something. Asked questions.

  She sure asked questions about everything else under the sun.

  “Dad, that blue piece is part of the sky. Don’t put it in the middle of the tree.”

  “Oh.” He pulled back the piece. “It looked like it might fit.”

  “Not in the tree.” She selected another piece that fit perfectly and was the right color.

  Okay, so he wasn’t great at jigsaw puzzles. That was Lisa’s deal. But he could put together a model car or a full-size carburetor in minutes and didn’t need the directions. That ought to count for something.

  Even more important, he loved his daughter more than life itself. He didn’t want to disappoint her. If she found out he couldn’t read, it would shatter her opinion of him. Make her love him less.

  Unless she already knew the truth.

  He glanced over his shoulder toward Janelle, and a knot twisted in his gut. What if she was right?

  That night when he went to bed he couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking back to the story he’d read to Rae. Had that stupid sheet of cellophane made a difference? Or had he imagined the letters weren’t hopping around on the page as much as usual?

  That made no sense. Whatever he thought was happening, it had to have been an illusion. Maybe he’d realized Janelle was messing around with some gimmick she’d heard about. Maybe subconsciously he’d wanted the slick trick to work.

  But it couldn’t have been real.

  He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. The house was quiet. Hailey had been asleep for hours. Janelle and Rae were safely tucked away in the cottage.

  He could get a glass of milk in the kitchen. Stretch out the kinks in his neck. And then get to sleep so he wouldn’t be totally wiped out tomorrow.

  After the storm a cold front had moved through the area, so he pulled on his robe but didn’t bother to find his slippers. He padded barefoot into the kitchen and switched on the light over the counter.

  Janelle had left her box of craft supplies on the counter along with the wreath she was making. The pinecones she’d wired in among the dried flowers looked real nice. Not only was she a classy lady, but she was artistic, too.

  As he poured himself some milk, he noticed the sheets of cellophane laying on top of her supplies. A bunch of colors...red, pink, yellow, green. How weird was that? No way could any color help him to read.

  Still, he looked around the living room. Rae had left her stack of picture books on the coffee table. Usually Janelle was good about getting her daughter to pick up her stuff and take it back to the cottage when they turned in for the night.

  Maybe Janelle had been as upset as he was about the whole reading fiasco and had forgotten.

  Leaving the milk on the counter, he walked into the living room. He picked up the book he’d “read” to Raeanne. Each page had only a couple of lines of text. The pictures pretty well told the story on their own.

  Curious, and more than a little skeptical, he carried the book to the kitchen and put it on the counter under the light. He studied the first page of the story. The print was pretty big. Not like trying to read the fine print on an IRS form or credit-card bill. Or even an engine-

  repair manual.

  Apparently size didn’t matter. It took all the concentration he had to work out the words. Once. Upon. A. Time.

  Great, he was reading at the kindergarten level.

  Out of sheer spite, he grab a yellow sheet of cellophane and looked again. Not much help there. Green and blue didn’t do much either. Then he slapped the red sheet on the page.

  Once upon a time...

  But he’d already figured out that part. The fact that the letters stayed in place meant nothing.

  Except when he turned the page he read, “‘In the land of the...morn...ing sun...’”

  The phonics drills that the third-grade teacher had put him through crept back into his brain.

  Suddenly he felt dizzy and glanced away from the page. His knees went weak. He grabbed his glass of milk and downed it in one gulp.

  How was it possible?

  * * *

  Janelle made an appointment the following afternoon to go with Sharon Brevik to see the Jackson house. The trees still glistened with raindrops, but now the sky was a Wedgwood blue dotted by only a few lingering white, puffy clouds.

  When she’d gotten up this morning, Adam had eaten breakfast and was already at work in the garage. Avoiding her, very likely.

  Her interference, her pushing him about his dyslexia, had left her in an untenable position. She couldn’t continue to live in his cottage if he refused to speak to her in anything more than single syllables and unintelligible grunts.

  Pursing her lips, she admitted she’d ruined everything. The connection she’d felt with him. The spark of attraction that now they’d never have a chance to explore.

  Even worse, Raeanne had made such huge strides in regaining her speech, largely due to Adam’s influence. She worried that moving out now, combined with estrangement from Adam and his daughter, would set Raeanne’s progress back again. Another loss in her

  child’s life.

  Janelle’s fault. She should have left well enough alone. Despite his dyslexia, he was coping just fine with 99 percent of his life. Not everyone managed that well. That in itself was a very impressive accomplishment.

  She turned off the highway into the Lake Country Realty parking lot. Sharon was right there to meet her.

  “I’m ready to go if you are,” Sharon said.

  “I’m all set.” She locked her car door and climbed into Sharon’s car.

  “You left the girls at home today,” Sharon commented as she backed the car around and exited the gravel parking lot.

  “Adam is at the garage. He seems to be okay keeping an eye on them.”

  “From what I’ve heard, he’s doing great as a single father. Not that he wouldn’t rather get married again and share the parenting duties, I’m sure. I guess the right woman hasn’t come along yet.” She glanced at Janelle and raised a questioning brow.

&nb
sp; Janelle had no interest in satisfying Sharon’s curiosity one way or the other.

  “Tell me more about the Jackson house,” she asked instead.

  “Nice place and a good value. I think if they’d listed the property last spring or early summer they would have had a better chance of getting top dollar. This being so close to school starting and all, most folks are settled and not out house shopping.”

  Janelle wished she were already settled, but so far Adam had shot down every house she’d seriously considered buying. Perhaps now that he was upset with her, Adam wouldn’t go so far out of his way to say something negative about the Jackson house.

  The property was about a quarter mile west of the main part of Bear Lake and up on a hill with a distant view of the lake. It sat in the center of a partially wooded half-acre lot. Plenty of room to play along with adequate privacy, yet neighbors were within shouting distance. Overall, the house and grounds shouted upscale!

  “Oh, my. I don’t think this is in my price range.” Janelle had seen enough listings, online and in person, to know the Jackson house was on the high end of her budget, if not over the top.

  “Let’s not worry about that yet. The Jacksons are flexible and eager to sell. They don’t want to spend another winter here, and they love the idea that you attend their church.”

  The house itself was two stories with gray siding and dark green trim. The long porch across the front of the building looked like the place to watch the sunrise over the hills, and no doubt the back had a similar sunset view.

  Sharon pulled to a stop in front of a two-car attached garage. “Pretty impressive, isn’t it?”

  “Very.” Tempting, too, except without a full-time job, Janelle wasn’t sure she could meet the monthly payments.

  Ed and Doris Jackson met them at the door. They all exchanged hugs like longtime friends and Doris ushered them inside.

  Immediately Janelle noticed how the house had been well loved and cared for by the Jacksons. Family snapshots were scattered about on end tables where a few dings reminded visitors of the children who’d been raised here and were now out on their own.

  As she toured the house, Janelle noted that most of the rooms could use a new coat of paint, but basically the house was in very good condition. Her fingers itched to bake a cake or prepare a gourmet meal in the upgraded kitchen.