Revisit The Past

It was nice that the house sat on a stretch of private beach so Jamie could run around and play. And the fresh air would do all of us good, including Cara, who might come to stay with us. The only downside was the distance to the market, but both Carole and Valerie could drive. When I called Cara to invite her to come over, she had some good news of her own—her body was responding to treatment. It seemed as if our luck had finally turned. Even the air smelled sweeter. Not having to worry about Cara gave me a chance to deal with some issues of my own. On a cool Wednesday evening, Valerie went upstairs to tuck in Jamie, who preferred her repertoire of bedtime stories to mine. I sat on the back porch with Carole, sipping jasmine tea, enjoying the sea breeze. ‘I’ve read that article about you,’ she began. ‘It’s such a shock.’ ‘I know. Took me a while, too, to process the news that I was adopted.’ ‘I heard that Conor, the boy from the Murray family, has returned to Lisbern.’ Something in he