My daughter sputters on the other end of the phone, like she doesn’t know what to say. It makes me smile. I’ve never baffled anyone before. No one thought I was unpredictable. Because I never was. I’m enjoying it. “Your daddy get the car at the airport?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“I guess he found the ticket to get out. I left it right on the dash with one hundred dollars in cash in an envelope. Wrote ticket to get out of the parking lot on the envelope.”
“Mom, where did you get the money to leave one hundred dollars for parking? How did you pay for a plane ticket? Where are you staying?”
“Hotel I found on the Internet. It’s a nice place with a pool and a breakfast buffet,” I tell her. “Not cheap, but the view’s worth every penny.” I pause to take a sip of coffee, thinking I might just have another cup before I head out for the day. I’ve never had time to drink two cups of coffee in one sitting. “Don’t you worry about me. I have money of my own,” I tell her. “Been saving my whole life. Well, since I was twelve or so. From eggs I sold. Jams and jellies. Stuff I returned. A penny pinched here or there. Money your father gave me to buy stuff that didn’t need buyin’. Got my own bank account with just my name on it. And a credit card of my own. Mrs. Brodie, she’s the one who told me a woman needs her own money.”
“I don’t understand,” Abby says. She almost sounds like she’s going to cry.
I hold the cell phone tight in my hand. I’m glad I’m here. This is the best place I’ve ever been in my life, but I don’t want to hurt Abby. I don’t want to hurt my kids. “I’m going to live on my pin money,” I say. “I got a lot of pin money.”
Again, she’s quiet longer than I expect her to be. But I wait.
“You mean . . . you’ve been saving money for fifty-some years, in anticipation of running away from home?”
“I didn’t run away from home. That makes it sound like I’m coming back. I’m not coming back. My time there is done. I’m done.”
“Mom . . .” Now I can hear that she’s crying, but not loud, sobby crying. The quiet kind. The deep kind. “I don’t understand,” she whispers.
“Can’t say I do, either,” I tell her, sighing. “But when I do . . . I’ll tell you.” I feel a strange calm come over me, calm like I’ve never felt before. And I feel a connection to my girl that I never felt before, either. “That be okay?” I ask. “If I tell you once I figure it out?”
“Yeah.” She sniffs. “Of course.”
I nod. “Good.” I take a breath. It never occurred to me I might be able to have a better relationship with my Abby away from Brodie Island than on it, but all of a sudden I feel the possibility. “You talk to your sister? I tried to call her. Just goes to voice mail. I didn’t leave a message. She won’t listen to it.”
Abby laughs. Which makes me smile.
“She’s in Paris,” she tells me. “She says she’s getting married.”
“Married!” That’s as surprising as my flying off to Arizona. “To who?”
“Some guy she met at The Gull the week Mom Brodie died. His name’s Bartholomew. He took her to Paris.”
“He a nice man?”
“I don’t know, but . . . Celeste seems happy. I told her about the money. Apparently she knew she’d been cut out of the will, but she didn’t seem that upset.”
“She still want money from you and Joseph?” I ask.
“Of course.”
We both laugh. Then I sigh again. I feel like we have a lot to say to each other, but we can’t just pour it out in one sitting. It’s going to take time. “I have to go, but if it’s okay, I might call you tonight. I need to talk to you about you and Drum and Sarah moving to Brodie Island. I’ve been thinking on it a while. Mrs. Brodie and I talked about it, and she thought it was a good idea, too.”
“Mom—”
“I said I don’t have time to talk about it now,” I interrupt. “I just want you to start thinking about it. Because . . . you and I both know it’s where you belong. ’Specially now that I’m gone. It’s where you’ve always belonged, Abby.”
She’s crying again, and I feel bad again. But Abby’s strong. She’ll be okay. I know she will.
“I have to go,” I say gently. “But I’ll call you. And you can call me. At this number. Only . . . don’t give this number to your daddy. I’ll call him. I’ll explain everything to him. I’m just . . . I’m not ready. I’ve still got things to work out in my own mind.”
“You’re really not coming home?” Abby whispers.
“No.” Now I’m tearing up. I didn’t even know I had tears. “But maybe you could come here to visit. You and Drum and Sarah and Reed. Maybe Joseph and Celeste and her husband might want to come too, sometime. It’s so beautiful.” I press my lips together and gaze out at the red cliffs again. “I’d like it if you come to see me, Abby. Will you come? Not now. I need to be by myself now. Never been alone. But maybe . . . maybe in a few months?”
“I’ll come.”
We’re both quiet. And then I say, “I always loved you. You know that, right?”
“I know,” she whispers.
When we hang up, I get to my feet and adjust the sparkly palm tree brooch on my sweater. Once it suits me, I reach for Joe’s John Deere ball cap on the bed and head out to see my red cliffs up close.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
WHAT MAKES A FAMILY
Colleen Faulkner
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Colleen Faulkner’s What Makes a Family!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How did Mom Brodie’s impending death affect Birdie, Abby, Celeste, and Sarah? How did it affect Joe and Joseph?
2. Do you think it was a good idea for Abby to bring Sarah to Brodie Island? Why did Abby bring her? What did Sarah’s character add to the dynamics of the family?
3. Though Mom Brodie wasn’t born a Brodie, she became the family matriarch. How did the Brodies operate as a matriarchal family? In what ways were the Brodies different from families that are patriarchal?
4. How well do you think Abby dealt with Celeste? Do you have someone in your family or know someone like Celeste? How do you deal with him/her? How does she/he affect you negatively? Positively?
5. Do you think Mom Brodie loved Birdie? Why do you think she always had Birdie call her Mrs. Brodie? Who was Birdie to Mom Brodie? Do you think Birdie saw her relationship with Mrs. Brodie accurately?
6. Do you think Birdie and Joe could have had a better marriage? Who was responsible for the poor state of their marriage? How did bringing Joseph into the house affect the marriage? Why do you think Birdie accepted Joseph to raise?
7. Why do you think Birdie had such a difficult time being a mother and loving her children? Why was Abby able to be a better mother than her own?
8. What do you think about Mom Brodie’s decision to leave her old life behind when she married Big Joe Brodie? Do you think she was wrong to keep her past from her family? In what ways did she keep her past with her?
9. Why do you think Abby and Drum had such a good marriage when Abby’s parents didn’t? Do we base our adult relationships on the ones we saw as children? Do you think Abby and Drum moved to Brodie Island? Why or why not?
10. Were you surprised by what Birdie did at the end of the book? Why or why not? Do you think she ever changed her mind? Was it strength or weakness that made her do it? Who influenced Birdie’s decision to make the change so late in her life? Do you think she’ll ever find happiness?
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