“I love you, Jamie,” I said again, but this time she wasn’t frightened. Instead our eyes
met across the table, and I watched as hers began to shine. She sighed and looked away,
running her hand through her hair, then turned to me again. I kissed her hand, smiling in
return.
“I love you, too,” she finally whispered.
They were the words I’d been praying to hear.
I don’t know if Jamie told Hegbert about her feelings for me, but I somehow doubted
it because his routine hadn’t changed at all. It was his habit to leave the house whenever I
came over after school, and this continued. I would knock at the door and listen as
Hegbert explained to Jamie that he would be leaving and would be back in a couple of
hours. “Okay, Daddy,” I always heard her say, then I would wait for Hegbert to open the
door. Once he let me in, he would open the hallway closet and silently pull out his coat
and hat, buttoning the coat up all the way before he left the house. His coat was old-
fashioned, black and long, like a trench coat without zippers, the kind that was fashionable
earlier this century. He seldom spoke directly to me, even after he learned that Jamie and
I’d begun to read the Bible together.
Though he still didn’t like me in the house if he wasn’t there, he nonetheless allowed
me to come in. I knew that part of the reason had to do with the fact that he didn’t want
Jamie to get chilled by sitting on the porch, and the only other alternative was to wait at
the house while I was there. But I think Hegbert needed some time alone, too, and that
was the real reason for the change. He didn’t talk to me about the rules of the house—I
could see them in his eyes the first time he’d said I could stay. I was allowed to stay in the
living room, that was all.
Jamie was still moving around fairly well, though the winter was miserable. A cold
streak blew in during the last part of January that lasted nine days, followed by three
straight days of drenching rain. Jamie had no interest in leaving the house in such weather,
though after Hegbert had gone she and I might stand on the porch for just a couple of
minutes to breathe the fresh sea air. Whenever we did this, I found myself worrying about
her.
While we read the Bible, people would knock at the door at least three times every
day. People were always dropping by, some with food, others just to say hello. Even Eric
and Margaret came over, and though Jamie wasn’t allowed to let them in, she did so
anyway, and we sat in the living room and talked a little, both of them unable to meet her
gaze.
They were both nervous, and it took them a couple of minutes to finally get to the
point. Eric had come to apologize, he said, and he said that he couldn’t imagine why all
this had happened to her of all people. He also had something for her, and he set an
envelope on the table, his hand shaking. His voice was choked up as he spoke, the words
ringing with the most heartfelt emotion I’d ever heard him express.
“You’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met,” he said to Jamie, his voice
cracking, “and even though I took it for granted and wasn’t always nice to you, I wanted