The Man She Married
Page 33
Chief Knight upholds the law.
We laughed and sang drunkenly all the way to the police station in the back of Chief Knight’s car.
We were released an hour later on an unsuspecting public. Chick went home to Braxton and her six quirky kids. I went home to my and Zack’s home beside a garden and an orchard, and Justine rode back home with her father.
But our out-of-control wild and crazy behavior was not quite finished!
On the first warm, sunny day, Chick, Justine, and I (still pre-pregnancy!) went out to The Rocks over the lake. Braxton and the kids were there. Zack, my dad, and his hunting friends were there, too, as were Jed, Rosie, who had done our nails last night, and my mother, who brought Dell. The chief was there with Annabelle and five of Justine’s siblings and their kids. I had held four of them shortly after they were born in the pool (no slide!) in the living room, so we have a special connection.
The three of us were in bathing suits. Chick’s suit was black and said HOT MAMA. Justine’s was a red bikini “to turn Jed on,” and I was in my black one-piece with the gold fringe. We climbed up the hill to The Rocks, then we climbed out on The Rocks.
I looked all the way down, down, down to the lake.
Oh no.
Oh, heck.
Why was I doing this? This was unnecessary.
Chick leaned over, her toes clinging to the ledge, and said, “Did this rock get higher? It feels like we’re way higher up than we were when we jumped as kids.”
Justine said, “We’ve lost our bleeping minds. What were we thinking?”
“Whose idea was this? This is stupid,” I muttered.
Our families hooted at us, cheered. There was a cooler down there that held peppermint ice cream and pickles to eat in celebration of our bravery. I wanted to be down there now.
“We can’t back out now,” I said.
Justine held out her hands. I grabbed one, Chick grabbed the other. We used to do this all the time when we were younger, and daring and free, wild and adventurous.
“One,” I said.
“Two,” Justine said.
“Oh, just go!” Chick said.
We all jumped.
* * *
Justine and Jed finally got together. Justine said the switch came after I was attacked by Ronnie. She flew to the hospital and met Jed there.
Once Jed and Justine heard the whole story and ascertained that I was okay, that Zack was okay, they left around eleven that night. Jed asked Justine to go to dinner. Justine suggested her place. My gracious! All that pent-up passion!
“It was hours before we limped out of bed, hours,” she told me. “I told him about Natalie Chick. He didn’t think . . . he doesn’t think . . .” She gasped on a cry. “He doesn’t think I’m a bad woman. He thinks I made the right choice, but he said he knew it hurt me a lot and still does.”
Jed said that after Justine graduated from college he started to see her differently but was too shy to make a move, especially as she was soon dating the Needle Penis Husband and he thought she was in love with him, especially after they got married. Gee-whiz. Can’t blame the guy for thinking that. As he told me, “How could I tell her I loved her when she was engaged? How could I tell her when she was married? Then she divorced, and I was involved with someone else. We missed our time, and I hid how I felt about her. Plus, as you know, I am somewhat shy when it comes to Justine.”
Fortunately, they’re now on the same clock.
Jed is a judge in our county, and they, too, have moved to Lake Joseph.
Three months ago, Justine received a message on her Facebook page. Justine had no interest in being on Facebook. None. But she signed up years ago in case Natalie Chick wanted to contact her. As she said, “This is how kids talk to each other. If she wants to talk to me, this is the way she’ll do it.” She was right.
The message was from Natalie Chick. Justine’s daughter’s real name is McKayla Gilroy.
“Hello. I know this is, like, weird,” McKayla wrote, “but I didn’t really think about being adopted until recently. My parents and I don’t talk about it much. But I wanted to get my blood tested because I’m studying biology and genetics and I wanted to find out what countries my ancestors were from and who you are. Anyhow, my parents told me your name again and that I’m your biological daughter. If you don’t want to talk to me I totally understand and it’s cool. But if you do, I would like to talk to you. Just to say hi.”
Needless to say, Justine absolutely wanted to “just say hi.” She flew out to North Dakota to have lunch with McKayla and her parents that very weekend in their home. Justine was so nervous, and tearful, and told us she didn’t want to appear nervous, or tearful, because she was afraid that McKayla would be scared or think she was “creepy or obsessive or overly emotional. A loon. A maniac. A mother mess.”
It went well. Remarkably well. McKayla looks exactly like Justine, we saw that through the photos Justine took. The resemblance is uncanny. Thick black hair, gold eyes. She is the same height as Justine.
Justine told us, “The parents I chose for her were perfect. She adores them, and they adore her. They gave her the perfect life, and I love them for it.”
The family showed Justine all the scrapbooks. In an incredibly generous gesture, McKayla’s parents and McKayla made Justine her own huge scrapbook with copies of McKayla’s photos in it from when she was a baby on up.
Justine said she “cried and cried. I was a mother mess.”
Later Chick and I cried, with Justine, when we looked through that scrapbook together.
Last weekend McKayla flew out and met Taye, too, who was thrilled that McKayla had contacted them. Taye told me, “I have had a hole in my heart since we gave her up, Natalie. I have never felt completely right without that girl in my life. And now”—he did not bother to contain his tears—“she’s here. She’s back with us.”
Taye’s wife, Lauren, welcomed McKayla with open arms, as did Taye and Lauren’s six kids. It was cool to have an older sister! Lauren told Justine and me, “I always felt like Taye was hiding something, that he was sad about something, and I would ask him about it and he would brush it off, say it was nothing, blame work, blame other worries, but I knew. I simply knew something else was wrong.”
I was familiar with that feeling.
Taye and Justine are open about their daughter in town, and she has been embraced, of course.
Justine now has Jed and she has McKayla and she is at peace.
Chick, however, still continues to lose half her mind every day. Ellie is a “mad scientist” and caused an explosion in chemistry class. Her fellow students found it extremely exciting. Hudson, “not the brightest kid in the herd here, he has a hard time remembering where the plates are located in the cupboard,” has had success with his worm-selling business. Joshua continues to sing, “on full throttle, it blows my ears out,” in his pink pants. Ally the ballerina tripped over her own feet again and broke her arm. Chick is insisting that she, “Big Foot,” try swimming. The twins escaped from prekindergarten and the police were called. Chief Knight found them playing in a nearby field with a mouse.
Chick’s life is filled with love and chaos and a husband who carves wooden animals when he gets upset when they have fights.
She and Justine are excited to be Aunt Chick and Aunt Justine to baby Scott.
The Moonshine and Milky Way Maverick Girls were together again, in Lake Joseph, where our friendship and our pickle and peppermint ice-cream tradition began.
People hide things. My mother hid her past. Justine and Taye hid the daughter they gave up as a baby. Jed hid that he’d fallen in love with Justine. My husband hid that he’d killed a man and changed his identity. I hid that I knew my husband was lying until I figured out why, and I hid my FOA issues as best I could.
Relationships are complicated. People are complicated.
Love is complicated.
But after being in a coma, I know one thing for sure: I will take this crazy li
fe any minute, any day, and be grateful for it.
* * *
Zack and I went fishing on the Deschutes one Saturday, my stomach growing each day. I could barely fit in my waders. It was almost dusk, and we were in our drift boat, our lines in the water.
The river had a few fading golden sparkles on it from the sun. The sky above the ridge was turning azure blue, lavender, and dusty rose. A hawk soared overhead. We were near the spot where we’d met. Zack pointed it out. “That’s it, honey.”
I leaned over and gave him a kiss, both of us careful not to drop our poles. “I remember what you said to me once, Zack.”
“When?”
“Let’s see if you can remember when. I’ll say it exactly as you said it to me.” I grinned at my man. “ ‘When you’re on the Deschutes, you can believe there are billions of stars and galaxies. You used to say it made you feel tiny, Natalie, but you have never been tiny to me. You’ve always been my whole life. My whole life. You are all the stars up in the sky for me.’”
“I said that to you when . . . when . . .” Zack’s jaw dropped. “Oh, honey, you’re kidding me . . . the whole time?”
I love that man. With all that I am, with all that I will ever be, I love Zack.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE MAN SHE MARRIED
Cathy Lamb
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s
reading of Cathy Lamb’s The Man She Married.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What was your overall impression of The Man She Married? Between Natalie, Zack, Scott, Jocelyn, Justine, Chick, Frog Lady, Architect, Soldier, and Grandma Dixie, who was your favorite character? Why?
2. Natalie Fox Shelton said, “I have worked hard so that I will never be poor again, because being poor makes me feel unsafe. I have tried hard to be a normal woman and to fit in because I spent a lot of years not feeling as if I fit in and not feeling equal to others or loved. Those are safe neuroses. I am working on them.” How would you describe Natalie Shelton? Could you relate to her life, her work, her childhood, her problems, and her beliefs about herself and/or her relationships?
3. Zack Shelton killed a man in self-defense and in defense of another. He evaded the law. He changed his name and lied to his wife about his past and who he was. His lies came back to haunt him, and Natalie was almost killed—twice. If you were married to Zack, would you stay married to him when you found out the truth? Was he right to run? Was he right to lie to Natalie?
4. Discuss this scene with Grandma Dixie and Natalie in the afterlife:
“I’d like you to stay and play poker, kid, have a beer, but you have to go back.”
“What?”
“Your dad needs you. Zack needs you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Go back, Natalie.” She hugs me again, cheek to cheek, then lets me go and says, “Go back now.”
“Go back where, Grandma Dixie?”
“I mean, get out of here, quick as a hot cat. It’s not your time.”
“Not my time?” And then I get it. I know where I am. Oh, hell. Not that I am in hell, but hell. I do not want to be here, that’s for sure.
“Fight, baby. Fight for your life. I love you.”
* * *
There were two scenes of the afterlife in this novel. Did you find those scenes authentic given the storyline? Do you believe in an afterlife? Why or why not?
5. Natalie has two best friends, Justine Knight and Chick Thornton-LaSalle. Together they’re the Moonshine and Milky Way Maverick Girls. What did the friendships say about Natalie? Of the three, who would you most like to be friends with, and why? Is there one you relate to more than the others?
6. From a scene with Justine Knight: “Do you think my daughter likes the woods? Do you think she likes sunsets like I do? Do you think she wants to be an accountant? Do you think she’s healthy? Do you think she’s happy? Do you think she has an ache inside of her for me and she doesn’t even know why? Do you think she’s lonely for me? Is there something in her soul that says she was rejected, and hurt, and betrayed? Will I ever meet her? When she’s eighteen, do you think I should contact her parents and ask if I can contact her?” Did Justine do the right thing in giving up her daughter for adoption? Should she have kept the baby?
7. Describe Jocelyn Miller Fox Andretti Moscovitz Chavez Smith. Does she remind you of anyone you know? Jocelyn was a lousy mother but, in the end, without hesitation, she came to her daughter’s rescue when she was being attacked by Ronnie. How does that balance the scales for Jocelyn’s and Natalie’s relationship in the future? Or does it?
8. Were there any scenes that made you laugh? Cry? What were the themes of this story? What was it really about?