The Accident Read Free Page A

take cereal,” she said, and sat at the table.
    At our house, breakfast wasn’t a sit-down family meal like dinner. Actually, dinner often wasn’t, either, especially when I got held up at a construction site, or Sheila was at work, or heading off to her class. But we at least tried to make that a family event. Breakfast was a lost cause, however. I had my toast and coffee standing, usually flattening the morning Register on the countertop and scanning the headlines as I turned the pages. Sheila was spooning in fruit and yogurt at the same time as Kelly shoveled in her Cheerios, trying to get them into herself before any of them had a chance to get soggy.
    Between spoonfuls she asked, “Why would anyone go to school at night when they’re grown up and don’t have to go?”
    “When I finish this course,” Sheila told her, “I’ll be able to help your father more, and that helps the family, and that helps you.”
    “How does that help me?” she wanted to know.
    I stepped in. “Because if my company is run well, it makes more money, and that helps you.”
    “So you can buy me more stuff?”
    “Not necessarily.”
    Kelly took a gulp of orange juice. “I’d never go to school at night. Or summer. You’d have to kill me to get me to go to summer school.”
    “If you get really good marks, that won’t happen,” I said, a hint of warning in my voice. We’d already had a call from her teacher that she wasn’t completing all her homework.
    Kelly had nothing to say to that and concentrated on her cereal. On the way out the door, she gave her mother a hug, but all I got was a wave. Sheila caught me noticing the perceived slight and said, “It’s because you’re a meanie.”
    I called the house from work mid-morning.
    “Hey,” Sheila said.
    “You’re home. I didn’t know whether I’d catch you or not.”
    “Still here. What’s up?”
    “Sally’s dad.”
    “What?”
    “She was calling home from the office and when he didn’t answer she took off. I just called to see how he was and he’s gone.”
    “He’s dead?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Oh jeez. How old was he?”
    “Seventy-nine, I think. He was in his late fifties when he had Sally.” Sheila knew the history. The man had married a woman twenty years younger than he was, and still managed to outlive her. She’d died of an aneurysm a decade ago.
    “What happened to him?”
    “Don’t know. I mean, he had diabetes, he’d been having heart trouble. Could have been a heart attack.”
    “We need to do something for her.”
    “I offered to drop by but she said she’s got a lot to deal with right now. Funeral’ll probably be in a couple of days. We can talk about it when you get back from Bridgeport.” Where Sheila took her class.
    “We’ll do something. We’ve always been there for her.” I could almost picture Sheila shaking her head. “Look,” she said, “I’m heading out. I’ll leave you and Kelly lasagna, okay? Joan’s expecting her after school today and—”
    “I got it. Thanks.”
    “For what?”
    “Not giving up. Not letting things get you down.”
    “Just doing the best I can,” she said.
    “I love you. I know I can be a pain in the ass, but I love you.”
    “Ditto.”
    It was after ten. Sheila should have been home by now.
    I tried her cell for the second time in ten minutes. After six rings it went to voicemail. “Hi. This is Sheila. I’m either on the phone, away from it, or too scared to answer because I’m in traffic, so please leave a message.” Then the beep.
    “Hey, me again,” I said. “You’re freaking me out. Call me.”
    I put the cordless receiver back onto its stand and leaned up against the kitchen counter, folded my arms. As she’d promised, Sheila had left twoservings of lasagna in the fridge, for Kelly and me, each hermetically sealed under plastic wrap. I’d heated Kelly’s in the microwave when we got home, and she’d come back looking for seconds, but I couldn’t find a baking dish with any