The Lighthouse Chapter 6

Chapter SIX:

Kelli Thompson eyed the phone like it could grow spiky needles and stab her. Robin would not give up, Kelli knew that. She’d worked with the girl on a school dance once, and when the gym flooded, it was Robin who’d called an emergency meeting and figured out a new plan. Everyone had loved Robin, and she’d led effortlessly.

The phone stopped ringing, and relief flowed through Kelli. She had a new aerobics routine to choreograph, and she should definitely get out to the garden today to make sure Julian could take Parker out there on the weekend and get something planted for the edible neighborhood they participated in with the other people on the block.

Kelli didn’t possess a green thumb, and most plants died when she simply looked at them. She chalked it up to the sea water she carried in her blood, though she hadn’t been back to Bell Island in Five Island Cove since Parker was a baby.

Not even for her father’s own funeral.

The phone rang again, and Kelli figured she better just talk to Robin. Get it over with. “Hello?” she asked, as if she didn’t know who would be on the other end of the line.

“Kelli,” Robin said brightly. “You never called back.” The woman had guts, that was for sure.

“Sorry, my son needed me,” she said. She couldn’t exactly remember what had happened the other day when Robin had called. She’d left the phone in the kitchen and stumbled down the hall to her bedroom, where she closed the door and collapsed onto the bed. The panic that washed over her didn’t allow her to know how much time passed or what she’d been thinking or anything.

Parker had found her there, asked if he could have some graham crackers, and left her alone again.

Even now, talking to Robin again, her skin broke out in a clammy sweat.

“I know you don’t want to come to Joel’s funeral,” Robin said. “But Kristen just found something really damaging, and she needs us. She needs you.”

Kelli sighed, because while she knew Robin wouldn’t give up, she hadn’t expected her to play dirty. “When’s the funeral?” she asked.

“Next Saturday,” she said. “You’re in Jersey, right? It’s an in and out trip. Here and back. You could fly in that morning and leave on Sunday morning. It would be enough. Kristen just wants to see you.”

Kelli could picture Kristen perfectly in her mind. She had dark auburn hair that had likely gone gray by now, as it had started to lose its color the last time she’d seen her. But her dark, green-hazel eyes would be the same. She’d look at Kelli and know instantly what she needed, whether that was a hug or a chocolate chip cookie or simply someone to sit with.

She’d been there for Kelli through her parents’ divorce, and she’d been there when Kelli’s father had lost his business and humiliated the whole family when the allegations of fraud came up.

“I have to talk to my boss,” Kelli said, continuing to hedge. She did have to talk to Kevin, but she could get the time off. She was teaching aerobics and yoga at a gym, not teaching anyone how to do brain surgery. She could get another instructor to cover for her with a few texts. “And Julian. Parker’s in school, and I take him and pick him up every day.”

“So you’ll stay longer than the weekend?” The hope in Robin’s voice could’ve filled buckets and buckets.

“I don’t know,” Kelli said, thinking now of her mother. The last time she’d been home was just after Parker had been born, and the boy was eight years old now and in third grade. Her mother had come to New Jersey a few times, and she sent cards for everyone’s birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s and Father’s Day, all of it.

Guilt pulled against her stomach until Kelli could barely stand under the weight of it. “I have to go,” she said, her voice right on the edge of breaking. “I’m teaching aerobics in a few minutes.”

“Okay,” Robin said. “Please let me know, Kel.”

“I will.” She hung up quickly and took a deep breath through her nose. She would not panic again. She had techniques to help her through desperate moments like this, and she stared at the notebook in front of her that she’d been using to choreograph. One item. Think about that one thing.

She did, breathing in and out until she felt like she wouldn’t fall completely to pieces. Her hand shook slightly as she lifted her pencil again and made another note. She tapped play on her phone, and the music blared out of the Bluetooth speaker. She rewound it and did small movements for the items she’d already put in the dance.

When she finished the new routine, her mind immediately flew right back to Five Island Cove. It seemed that Kelli couldn’t ignore the pull to return, and she supposed it was time anyway.

She’d seen the Seafaring Girls a few years ago, and she’d enjoyed that. They’d gathered just across the river and enjoyed a weekend in the city together, and Kelli wished Robin had been calling to ask her availability for another get-together like that.

Cinching everything tight, she dialed her mother to tell her the good news. She’d probably cry, and that would only add to the mountain of guilt Kelli had swallowed and was currently trying to figure out how to live with.