Chapter 1
Galveston Island, Texas
August, 1972
My sister, Tess, had been living in Galveston for the last four years, and in that time, I had lived there twice and visited a lot. It was a lovely island community on the Gulf shore of Texas. It was only a few hours from the small town in Louisiana where we grew up.
I lived with her during the summer of '68 when she first moved there. And then two years later, after I finished college, I moved to Galveston again and stayed for a year. This time, I was with my boyfriend, Albert.
That hadn't ended well. I left Galveston after we broke up, which was a little over a year ago. Since then, I had been back at home in Starks where I worked as a teacher.
I was just about to go into my second year of teaching first grade. It was late August, and we were about to start back to school.
I was currently in Galveston, though. I had been there for over a week. I didn't want to leave, so I was pushing it on getting back to Starks. I had a teachers' meeting tomorrow morning, so I had no choice but to head back home tonight. I needed to go back, anyway, so that I could prepare for the school year and get my lesson plans ready.
I would leave Galveston tonight, but I was extremely reluctant about it. Not only was I in love with this city, but my big sister, Tess, was about to have a baby any day. That was why I had pushed back my trip as much as possible. Tess and Billy were having a baby, and it was due four days ago.
I had come to town to throw her a baby shower, which happened last weekend. I planned on her having the baby on time or a little early, but it turned out that due dates were just a guess, and there we were with me pushing it till the last minute to get back for school.
I had really hoped to be there when my niece or nephew was born. That's not to say that I couldn't still make that happen once I went back home. I knew I would leave at the drop of a hat and drive back to Galveston once he or she was born. That was what my parents were planning on doing. But I had my head wrapped around meeting the munchkin while I was there for the week, and it felt weird going home before it happened.
At the moment, I was sitting at a table at Carson's Diner with my very pregnant sister. This restaurant was at the end of a city block that felt like home to me—Bank Street between 23rd and 24th. The apartment Tess and I rented was on the corner of 23rd and Bank, and the diner was across Bank and on the corner of 24th. In between those places were familiar businesses and buildings, including the hardware store and Bank Street Boxing.
Tess and Billy had gotten married and stayed in that apartment for a few years after I moved out. They had only recently moved into their own home which was still on Bank Street but five blocks down, on the corner of 17th.
They still came down to this part of Bank Street all the time after they moved, though. Billy was a professional boxer who trained in the building next door to the diner and across the street from the hardware store where Tess used to work.
Billy was a champion boxer with multiple titles, so he was at the gym full-time, and Tess went to see him there a few times throughout any given week. She continued to come even after she got pregnant and quit working at the hardware store.
We knew all of the business owners and neighbors, so even though they had moved out of the apartment, this block was still home to Tess and Billy. It felt a bit like home to me, too, though I technically hadn't lived there since the summer of '68.
I took comfort in all of the familiar sights and sounds of the diner on the corner. It was predictably busy in there, and today's lunch crowd was no different than usual. The diner was more than half-full with only a few open tables or booths. My order was predictable also—a club sandwich with potato chips. Betty was still working there as a waitress and she knew I liked extra bacon instead of ham. They always made it right at Carson's. We had already ordered, but the food hadn't arrived at our table yet. Somebody had put money in the jukebox, and a song by Elvis was playing in the background.
"There's Ms. Nancy," Tess said, looking over my shoulder toward the door. I turned to look that way. "She doesn't see us," Tess added.
I caught a glimpse of Nancy King coming in the door before I turned back around. I really didn't know her that well. I knew her son, Daniel, really well, but I hadn't spent much time with his mom. She was the type of person who was so predictably happy and put-together that it was intimidating. She was pretty and young-looking for having two grown children. She was married to a successful businessowner with a perfect family—two kids, a boy and a girl. She was one of those people who just managed to do it all. I liked her, don't get me wrong. She had been nothing but nice to me. It's just that I was a little intimidated by her.
"Daniel just got out of the Army," Tess said.
I nodded. "I heard Billy talking about it the other day."
My heart ached when she mentioned Daniel King. He was such a sweet guy who had been thrown into a world of war and violence in Vietnam.
"What are you thinking about?" Tess asked, seeing me get lost in thought.
"Daniel," I said. "I hope he's okay. I hope he's not hurt or anything."
"He did get hurt," Tess said. "That was part of him getting that award."
"What award?"
"I don't know. Some big deal. I think it was a Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor. I haven't seen Ms. Nancy in a little while. Billy was telling me about it."
"I knew he'd be a hero," I said. "I'm so happy he's okay."
"Then why do you sound so sad about it?" she asked.
She was right. I did sound sad. "I don't know. I was just thinking, and I feel sad about him. Regret, I guess. I talked to him a lot at first, but I should have been there for him more in the last couple of years. He probably had it hard over there, and I'm sure he needed a lot more support than I gave him. It's just that I had finished college, and I was looking for a job, and I had moved… and… Albert and everything."
"Was that when you quit talking to Daniel?" Tess asked. "I didn't even know you talked to him for that long."
I nodded. "Yeah. We kept in touch for two years when he first left."
"Doing what?" she asked. "Writing letters? Talking on the phone?"
"Writing letters," I said. "He wrote me twice a week like clockwork, but I missed sometimes. They're real regimented over there. I think he had certain days and times when he sat down and did correspondence."
"Two letters a week? I had no idea you guys talked that much," Tess said, looking at me like she was genuinely curious. "I thought you were dating someone in Lake Charles before Albert."
"I was. Daniel and I are just friends. The guys I dated in college didn't even care about Daniel. They didn't even know about him. It was just letters. And it's not like we talked about getting married or me waiting for him or anything."
"Yeah, but twice a week is a lot. I had no idea. When did you stop?"
"Two years ago, when I moved into that house with Albert. You know how jealous Albert was. He saw my mail and he didn't want Daniel sending me stuff, even if he was just my friend. He made me tell him to stop writing."