GRANDFATHER gave her his charts and the books he had about Rarotonga and points along the way, and Ariane took them home and studied them when she was alone in her room at night. This meant that she was more often alone in her room at night, and this made her family suspicious. She had told them what she was doing; that is, she had told them what she considered a believable version of what she was doing: that she was working for John Leroy, helping with the household chores, the cooking, and such. None of them quite bought that.
Her mother suspected that she knew what was what. She suspected that Ariane was pregnant (again), but she avoided saying anything or asking anything. (Sometimes we see what we fear.)
Her father thought he might know the truth. He figured that her behavior probably had something to do with “the curse,” the pouting moodiness that seemed to come upon women, not regularly, as people claimed, but unpredictably, in response to a complex and unfathomable set of provocations, some of them utterly invisible. (Sometimes we see only our own confusion.)
Her big brothers had more to go on, so they were sure that they knew. They had snooped through her things, discovered the charts and the books, and come to the conclusion that she was planning to run away. They debated the ethics of revealing or concealing this information and decided to keep it on deposit, like money in the bank, against the day when it might do them some good. (Sometimes we see what we wish.)
Her younger brother, my friend Raskol, assumed that she was still working at Corinne’s, but he hadn’t spent a day at home in months, so he didn’t really know anything about her. He was running a boat yard on his own, working there all day and sleeping there at night. (Sometimes we can’t see past ourselves.)
I was away at college. I didn’t have a clue about the whole affair. (Sometimes we can’t see a blessed thing.)
[to be continued]
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