Something About Sophie (29 page)
Read Something About Sophie Online
Authors: Mary Kay McComas
She heard Drew's chuckle and was again startled to think that every time she believed she could not love her father more, she did.
“Also, while Sophie has been blessed with an easy ability to forgive, I would advise you not to use the word
sorry
when you apologize. She's had several very peculiar reactions to it lately. Although, if I'm not mistaken, it might not be necessary to use any words at all because I'm certain I heard the step, sixth from the bottom, creak in the hall a few minutes ago and”âSophie heard a kitchen chair move across the floorâ“I'm fairly certain she's been listening.”
Drew was at the bottom of the steps before Tom Shepard finished speaking.
Being embarrassed at having been caught eavesdropping was nothing compared to watching the joy in his eyes turn a little amused and hungry as he drank her in head to toe and back again.
In the six feet between them, regret and forgiveness bounced freely back and forth between leaps of faith and bounding love, soaring hopes and the mounting fervor of promises that were just as binding unsaid as said.
And then they smiled, as friends . . . and more.
“I'm redeeming my rain check.” He held up the invisible chit for her to see. “You owe me a date.”
                  |  |
Meet Mary Kay McComas
M
ARY
K
AY
M
C
C
OMAS
started her writing career twenty-five years ago. To date she's written twenty-one short contemporary romances and five novellas;
Something About Sophie
is her third novel. She was born in Spokane, Washington, and now lives in a small town in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, three dogs, a cat, and her four children nearby.
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Author Note
A
SK
A
NY
A
UTHOR
and they'll tell you that the question they are most frequently asked is: Where do you get your ideas?
In fact, it is asked so frequently that Google has more than twenty-six pages (at which point I stopped counting) dedicated to explanations as wide and varied as the authors who attempt them.
Luckily for you, I agree with most of these explanations. Ideas come from everywhere and nowhere, from personal encounters to dreams toâas Stephen King suggests in his wonderful book
On Writing
âsimply asking “what if.”
On rare occasions, ideas arrive in a short summary with a beginning, middle, and an end that the writer must flesh out, warp, and manipulate into a storyâa story with substance, with conflict and resolution, and vivid images that will, hopefully, resonate with the people who read it. But more often ideas come as a kernel or two that must be ground into flour between a rock and the top of your head. Long story short, so to speak: they don't come easy.
The idea for
Something About Sophie
was of the former breed. A fully developed concept that I kneaded like clay, then pressed and squeezed into a story of my own. And this is how it came about . . .
I live in the country. It takes seven hours straight to mow my entire lawn, front and back. I don't have a gardener or even a lawn service, and before my kids were old enough to take their turns, I did it.
It is a wonderfully mindless job. Going around and around and around I pondered many a seed of a story that gradually grew and produced fruit in the form of one of the many short contemporary romances I wrote for the Loveswept line at Bantam Books. (Note from my agent: many of Mary Kay's romances are available as e-books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)
For seven hours a week it was just me, my lawn tractor, and my choice for album-of-the-day played full blast (so I could hear it over the mower, of course) over and over so I could belt out the songs with unabashed off-key enthusiasm.
*
I did a lot of mowing with MotownâThe Supremes of the sixties before Diana went solo, a little Marvin Gaye and
Greatest Hits
by Mary Wells (who didn't record enough, if you ask me). And of course, The Four Seasonsâwho better to scream out those high notes with than Frankie Valli? I was soulful with the amazing Aretha Franklin. I was killer with
Thriller
. And who doesn't love Bonnie Raitt, Cher, Bette Midler, George Strait, and Fleetwood Mac? And Dan Fogelberg? Billy Joel is my favorite piano man and little Dolly Parton's big voice was on repeat. Plus, here it is in black and white: I love ABBA and the Bee Geesâmy children accept this about me.
In the summer of 1994, a year after the release of Garth Brooks's fifth studio album,
In Pieces
, I was all about “Standing Outside the Fire,” “Callin' Baton Rouge,” and “American Honky-Tonk Bar Association.” I mangled them all. “The Night I Called the Old Man Out,” “One Night a Day,” “Kickin' and Screamin'.” The whole album is lawn mower legend.
Except for “The Night Will Only Know.”
“The Night Will Only Know” is not the sort of song you sing along withânot happy or upbeat or even brokenhearted sad. It's disturbing. And haunting. I listened.
It tells the story of two people who are having an affair and accidentally witness the attack and murder of a woman. The next day the woman's death is reported as a suicide, which always confuses me since it's hard to hide an attack, but it adds to the evil in the story. The thing is, the couple didn't step in to help her and didn't step up to tell the truth later because to do so would bring to light the sin
they
committed that night. They chose to save their secret. But wait, it gets worse. Not only is the night privy to their deception and a daily reminder of their cowardice and failure, but it also keeps the secrets of the murder that took place, why it happened . . . and who got away with it. Is that twisted or what? It's so wrong and so morally depravedâand so
human
in that heroes are heroes because the rest of us are notâbecause looking away is not uncommon and because we all might be tempted do the same thing, only hoping we'd be different.
Of course, this isn't the sort of fare a writer of short contemporary romances would cook up for inspiration. But it is certainly a scenario to be dumped into the cauldron of ideas on the back burner, stewed for eighteen years, and eventually ladled out as my version of southern small-town gumbo . . .
Something About Sophie
.
I hope you enjoy Sophie's story. I hope it does justice to the thought-provoking song written by Stephanie Davis, Jenny Yates, and Garth Brooks that so stirred me.
With
Sophie
following
What Happened to Hannah
and set in the same rural Virginia town, I see a trilogy in my future with
Don't Ask Alice
. Please watch for it.
âMary Kay McComas
*
Portable MP3 players appeared in 1999 so, yes, the tapes and CDs mentioned played repeatedly, unshuffled, at least seven times before I put the mower away. I
really
love the music I love.
Â
Discussion Topics for Book Clubs
1. Â Was there a specific theme (or themes) that the author emphasized throughout the novel? What do you think she was trying to get across to the reader?
2. Â Did you feel sympathy for Elizabeth? Truthfully, what would you have done in her place that fateful night?
3. Â How many times did Sophie's view of and feelings for her birth mother change? How do you think she felt about her when the story ended?
4. Â
Something About Sophie
is a dark tale. Talk about the lighter parts. Was there a good balance?
5. Â The real cause of Arthur's death was never brought to light. Might there have been other crimes left in the dark? Knowing what you know of Elizabeth, could Lonora have been her first victim?
6. Â Does Elizabeth deserve absolution from her children? Did it seem unnatural that Sophie was so quick to forgive?
7. Â Do you have a favorite scene? What about it appeals to you? If you could rewrite any part of the story what would it be and how would you write it?
