The Moonlight Man (16 page)

Authors: Paula Fox

BOOK: The Moonlight Man

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“Let go of my arm, Catherine. Oh, Lord! Look how he's made trouble between us! He always made trouble!”

She had not known she was as big as her mother, her arms as long, her own shoulders as broad and strong, until she became aware that she had gathered her mother up and was holding her as one would hold a child, a child who, if you let go for an instant, will run away and hide herself.

“There must have been an hour, a day, when you couldn't think about anything else,” she whispered fiercely against her mother's cheek, “when you loved him!”

“All right!” her mother cried, and shook herself free from Catherine's grasp and stood up, smoothing back her dark brown hair, her fingers quickly touching hairpins that kept it so neatly coiled at the nape of her neck. “All right,” she repeated quietly. “I did. And for more than an hour and a day.”

“Did?” Catherine asked.

“I'm going to start supper. We'll talk more laterâif that's what you're going to insist upon.”

Catherine nodded. She might insist but she didn't believe they would talk later about Harry Ames. She'd gotten what she wanted from herâfor now. Her mother was gazing at her with curiosity, as though she were unfamiliar to her.

“I'll unpack,” Catherine said.

“The tweed jacket is hanging in your closet,” her mother told her. “I'm dying to see it on you.” She didn't look as if a jacket was on her mind. She touched Catherine's shoe with the toe of her own. “Okay,” she said, and walked off toward the kitchen.

Catherine took her suitcase to her room. They didn't have air-conditioning, and the apartment was hot, airless. She put on the new jacket, anyhow, and wore it as she got out her old school atlas from beneath a pile of textbooks. She turned pages until she found a map of Italy. She found the places her father had spoken of that day they had gone to the fishing villageâArezzo, Perugia, Assisi. She leaned closer, looking for Sansepolcro. It was there, near Arezzo. She lifted up her hand from the page. Under it was the city of Rome.

She would go to Italy herself someday.

She began to unpack. She was not going to tell her mother everything. She wouldn't speak of her father's drinking. If her mother asked her, she would say, yes, he drank some. And she wouldn't tell anyone about Mrs. Conklin. But she knew she would have to speak of the three weeks she had spent at Dalraida when she was the only student left in a closed school.

She would do it the day before she left for Montreal. Of course, it would make trouble. Her mother would blame Madame Soule as well as her father. Catherine would have to try to persuade her that Catherine herself was as responsible as anyone else for what had happened. She had
chosen
to wait for him, after all.

But even if she told her more than she intended toâher mother had a way of getting things out of herâone thing she would not tell her was what Harry Ames had said to her at the Portland airport.

“See you,” she had said, as they paused near the electronic gate.

He leaned forward. He kissed her forehead. Then he bent his head so that his face was close to her ear.

“Not if I see you first,” he whispered.

About the Author

Paula Fox is a notable figure in contemporary American literature. She has earned wide acclaim for her children's books, as well as for her novels and memoirs for adults. Born in New York City on April 22, 1923, her early years were turbulent. She moved from upstate New York to Cuba to California, and from one school to another. An avid reader at a young age, her love of literature sustained her through the difficulties of an unsettled childhood. At first, Fox taught high school, writing only when occasion permitted. Soon, however, she was able to devote herself to writing full-time, but kept a foot in the classroom by teaching creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, and the State University of New York.

In her novels for young readers, Fox fearlessly tackles difficult topics such as death, race, and illness. She has received many distinguished literary awards including a Newbery Medal for
The Slave Dancer
(1974), a National Book Award for
A Place Apart
(1983), and a Newbery Honor for
One-Eyed Cat
(1984). Worldwide recognition for Fox's contribution to literature for children came with the presentation of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978.

Fox's novels for adults have also been highly praised. Her 2002 memoir,
Borrowed Finery
, received the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir, and in 2013 the
Paris Review
presented her with the Hadada Award, honoring her contribution to literature and the writing community. In 2011, Fox was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

Fox lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, the writer Martin Greenberg.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Connie Gabbert

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3743-3

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com