The Girl Who Chased the Moon Read Online Free Page A

mother.
    “We were in the same class in school. But we weren’t close.” Julia stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets. “She didn’t tell you anything?”
    “I knew she was born in North Carolina, but I didn’t know where. I didn’t even know I had a grandfather.” Julia’s eyebrows rose and Emily found herself rushing to explain. “She never said I didn’t have one, she just never talked about him and I always assumed it was because he had passed away. Mom didn’t like to talk about her past, and I respected that. She always said there was no use dwelling on the unfixable past when there was so much you could do to fix the future. She devoted all her time to her causes.”
    “Her causes?”
    “Amnesty International. Oxfam. Greenpeace. The Nature Conservancy. She traveled a lot when she was younger. After I was born, she settled down in Boston. She was very involved locally there.”
    “Well. That’s … not what I expected.”
    “Was she like that here? Was she involved in a lot of causes?”
    Julia quickly took her hands out of her pockets. “I should be going.”
    “Oh,” Emily said, confused. “Well, thank you for the cake.”
    “No problem. My restaurant is called J’s Barbecue, on Main Street. Come by anytime for the best cake in Mullaby. The barbecue is really good, too, but I can’t take credit for it. That’s where your grandfather is right now, by the way. He walks there every morning for breakfast.”
    Emily followed Julia to the front door. “Where is Main Street?”
    As they stepped onto the porch, Julia pointed. “At the end of Shelby Road here, turn left onto Dogwood. About a half-mile later, turn right. You can’t miss it.” Julia started toward the steps, but Emily stopped her.
    “Wait, Julia. I saw some sort of light in the backyard last night. Did you see it?”
    Julia turned. “You’ve seen the Mullaby lights already?”
    “What are the Mullaby lights?”
    Julia scratched her head and tucked her hair behind her ears, as if deciding what to say. “They’re white lights that sometimes dart through the woods and fields around here. Some say it’s a ghost that haunts the town. It’s just another town oddity,” she said, as if there were many. “Don’t pay any attention to it and it will go away.”
    Emily nodded.
    Julia turned to leave again, but stopped with her back to Emily. She finally turned back around and said, “Listen, I’ll be next door if you ever need me, at least for the next six months. This place takes some getting used to. Believe me, I know.”
    Emily smiled and she felt her shoulders lose some tension. “Thanks.”
    IT DIDN’T take Emily long to decide to walk to Main Street and greet her grandfather. She thought it would be nice to walk home with him, establish some sort of routine. He’d obviously lived alone for a long time, so maybe his hesitancy around her came from simply not knowing how to act. Don’t wait for the world to change, Emily , her mother used to say to her, sometimes in a frustrated voice. Change it yourself!
    Emily wondered if her mother had been disappointed in her. She didn’t have her mother’s passion, her courage, her drive. Emily was cautious, but her mother had never met a person she didn’t want to help. It had been an awkward dynamic. Emily had always been in awe of her mother, but it had been hard to get close to her. Dulcie had wanted to help, but never be helped.
    She found Main Street easily. Just like Julia said, there really was no missing it. Once she turned the corner off Dogwood, there was an enormous sign declaring that she was now on “Historic Main Street.” It was a long, beautiful street, different from the comfortable neighborhoods she’d walked through to get there. The street began with brick mansions in grand Federal style, sitting close to the sidewalk with almost no front yards to speak of. Across the street from the mansions was a park with a bandstand that had a lovely silver crescent-moon