The Way Home

The Way Home by Dallas Schulze Page A

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Authors: Dallas Schulze
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the movies with a boy. He was home today and she suddenly didn’t want him to see her drive up with Ty. She smiled up at him. “Thank you for the sundae.”
    “You’re welcome. Thank you for the company.” The warmth of his smile made her heart bump in her chest.
    “You’re welcome.” She hesitated a moment longer, reluctant to leave. But unless she wanted to change her mind and let him drive her home, there was no excuse to linger. “Goodbye, then.”
    “I’ll see you around.” Ty was still smiling as she turned away.
    Meg held both the smile and the words close to her heart as she stopped at Lewison’s General Store and bought a spool of quilting thread for her mother. As she walked home, she replayed every moment of their time together, feeling as if she were walking on air.
    She wasn’t silly enough to read anything in to him buying her a sundae. She didn’t need her mother to remind her of the gap that lay between her and Ty McKendrick.
    But didn’t it almost seem like fate, the way their lives had touched over the years? the dreamy romantic Meg whispered.
    Certainly not, the more-practical Meg responded. Living in a small town, it was surprising their paths hadn’t crossed more often than they had.
    But in the movies, unlikelier romances found happy endings.
    The movies had nothing to do with real life. And thinking about things like fate and happy endings was only going to lead to someone’s heart getting bruised. And she knew just whose heart it would be.
    * * *
    But later in the afternoon, when she was waiting to get her ticket for the matinee at the Criterion, she felt someone tap her shoulder. Surprised, she turned and suddenly felt almost dizzy when she saw Ty smiling down at her.
    “Looks like we both decided to catch the picture. Must be fate that we’d bump into each other again like this. We’ll have to sit together now.”
    “Yes.” She couldn’t seem to get out more than that one breathless syllable as she gave a quarter to the woman at the ticket window and took her ticket. She watched as Ty paid for his ticket, feeling her heart beating much too quickly.
    Fate, he’d said. Was it possible? Even just the smallest bit possible?
    Despite her determined practicality, Meg felt hope flutter delicate, foolish wings inside her.

     

CHAPTER 4
     
     
    Ty glanced sideways at Meg, watching her face in the flickering light from the screen. They’d sat through the newsreel and chapter five of a serial that had ended with the hero’s car plunging off a cliff, apparently sentencing him to a fiery death. Since there were at least five more chapters remaining in the thrill-packed series, Ty suspected that the resourceful hero had somehow managed to exit the car before it plummeted into the gorge.
    The movie that followed was a melodrama, and by halfway through it, Ty had already decided that the cad of a husband was going to be forced to repent his callous behavior when he discovered that his wife might be dying of some unnamed but fatal illness. He wondered if he was the only one to notice that she showed no symptoms other than a tendency to occasionally place a graceful hand to her forehead and sigh.
    Certainly the thinness of the plot didn’t seem to bother Meg. She gave the screen her full attention, hardly remembering to dip her hand into the box of popcorn he’d insisted on buying for her. She was completely absorbed, her expression reflecting the emotions being played out on the flickering filmstrip. As far as Ty was concerned, watching her face was far more entertaining than the histrionics on the screen.
    “It was so sad, the way she died.” Meg dried her eyes with the handkerchief Ty had thoughtfully provided during the movie’s final scene.
    “I don’t see why she forgave her husband.”
    “Because she loved him and she didn’t want him to feel guilty after she’d died.”
    “Considering the way he treated her, I think a little guilt would have done him a world of good.”

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