Gwendy's Magic Feather

25

GWENDY OPENS HER EYES to the dark silence of her bedroom, disoriented by the lack of daylight at the window, and momentarily forgets where she is. She hustles into the bathroom to pee and experiences a sharp spike of panic in her chest when she remembers dinner with her parents.

After stashing the button box inside a fireproof safe in the office she shares with Ryan, she spends the next five minutes searching for her keys. She finally finds them in the pocket of her jacket on the floor and rushes out the door, determined not to be late.

Driving faster than she should on the slick roads, she’s a block away from her parents’ house when she thinks about the box again. “It should be safe in the safe,” she says out loud and laughs.

The safe was originally her husband’s idea. Convinced that they both needed a place to store their valuables, he supervised the purchase and installation of the SentrySafe a few months after they moved into the condo. Of course, several years later, there was nothing inside the thing except for a handful of contracts, old insurance papers, an envelope containing a small amount of cash, and a signed Ted Williams baseball inside a plastic cube—and now the button box.

I can’t keep lugging it around with me everywhere I go, Gwendy thinks, turning onto Carbine Street. Can’t keep it in the condo either, not when Ryan gets back. She’d stored the button box in a safe deposit box at the Bank of Rhode Island during her four years at Brown, and that worked out just fine. Maybe she’d drop by Castle Rock Savings and Loan at the beginning of next week, see what they have available.

Gwendy spots her parents’ Cape Cod ahead in the distance and breaks into a smile. Her father has really outdone himself this year. Green and red and blue Christmas bulbs outline the gutters of the roof and spiral up and down the front porch railings. A huge inflatable Santa Claus, illuminated by a series of bright spotlights, dances in the breeze at the center of the front yard. An inflatable red-nosed reindeer grazes in the snow at Santa’s feet.

He did all this for Mom, Gwendy realizes, pulling into the driveway and parking behind her father’s truck. Still smiling, she gets out and walks to the door. She’s home again.