Flecks of Gold Read Online Free Page B

about my classes, but I didn’t want to talk about Kelson. By the time I finished, Mom was outraged at the amount of homework I was expected to do. I just laughed. It was nice to have someone on my side.
    I tried to tell Mom about Kelson at dinner, but I couldn’t form the words. Finally, I just asked her if she’d worked on a painting that day. I listened half-heartedly as she told me her plans to paint a desert landscape. Though I couldn’t seem to tell Mom about Kelson, I couldn’t get the thought of him out of my head. I yearned to see him while at the same time I dreaded it. I’d never felt this mixed up before.
    “Tell me about my dad,” I said suddenly. I had no idea what had prompted me. I’d never dared to ask Mom about him before, but I wanted to know what he’d been like. Had she felt the same fog in his presence that I felt around Kelson?
    Mom looked as surprised by my question as I was. She recovered, though, and smiled sadly. “Your dad looked a lot like you. He had dark, wavy hair that he wore to his ears. His eyes and skin were like yours, but his eyes had a little brown at the edges. We met in college. I was trying to lug a huge canvas back to my apartment, but I kept dropping it every few steps. He came to my rescue, helping me with the canvas all the way back to my place. We started talking, and he told me he’d been touring the campus to see if it was right for him. After meeting me, he decided it was. So he enrolled, and we started dating.
    “Your father was a wonderful man, though a little odd at times. It took awhile to get used to him, but he was very sweet. He constantly did things that made me feel special, and he was grateful for the simplest things. I guess his kindness rubbed off because he always made me feel like I was more somehow, like I was worth something.” Her face fell, and I guessed she was thinking of Joe.
    “Five months after we met, we were married and two months after that I got pregnant with you, only . . .” Her voice trailed off, and she looked so sad. I felt sorry that I was making her relive this, but I’d never really heard the whole story. I couldn’t help myself.
    “It sounded like you were both really happy. What happened?”
    “I don’t know.” She sighed and looked up from the table. “I’ve never understood what happened. Two and a half months after we got married, we were living in a basement apartment and going to school. The last day I saw him, it was morning, and I felt really queasy again, though at the time I didn’t know it was because I was pregnant with you. Your father tried to cheer me up by giving me a rose from the bush outside. He promised that he’d cater to my every whim when he got home from classes. Then he gave me a kiss and walked out the door.”
    Mom spoke in a daze. “That was the last time I ever saw him. When I got home that evening, he wasn’t there. I thought he’d decided to study on campus. After ten o’clock I knew something was wrong. It was too soon to call the police, but I didn’t sleep all night. I reported him missing as soon as I could, but the police never found him. I’ve always wondered if maybe something happened to him . . . but, no. He just left. A week later I found out I was pregnant.”
    Her eyes focused again, and she reached for my hand across the card table. “Darling, I want you to know that when I found out I was going to have you, I was so glad. Knowing you were coming, that I would have a bit of him with me still, it kept me going when I just wanted to roll over and quit. Your father may have left me, but he gave me one last gift. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
    I was crying, and Mom’s eyes looked suspiciously bright too. “Cuddle?” she asked, holding out her arms. She was sitting on a cheap folding chair that wobbled, and I eyed it dubiously. She grinned, and I decided to chance fate, sitting as delicately as possible in her lap as she hugged me. The chair