Susan said nothing, only continued to stare down at her hands, fingers twisting in her lap.
“Can Kong go to New York? I can’t leave him.”
“Mason, my man.” Harry snatched the puppy up from where it waggled. “This here is one urban-canine-to-be. Of course he’s going.”
“I know this is uprooting everyone, and it’s my doing.”
“No, Susie. I think they would have run us to ground sooner or later anyway. We didn’t take enough precautions. Now we will. New place, new start.” Seth grinned at Naomi. “New look.”
“When?” Naomi asked.
“The house goes on the market tomorrow, and the agent is champing at the bit. One way or the other, we move over your spring break. It’s a four-bedroom, so, Mason, you’ll have your own room. How about that?”
“Me and Kong!”
“You and Kong.”
“Can we have bunk beds?”
“Bunk beds it is. Naomi? You okay with this?”
“I’m fine with it. You can have friends over again. You’ll have to make some new ones, but you can have parties again. You couldn’t have your annual Christmas party this year or go out on New Year’s like you always do.”
Harry gave the wiggling dog to Seth. “Do you hear everything?”
“Mostly, I do. And Mama won’t go to the prison from New York. I know you’ve only been a few times since . . . since you signed those papers, but when you did you came back sad. New York’s farther away. The farther away, the better.”
“I’m trying, Naomi.”
“Mama, you’re doing so much better. Just like you said.” Out of love, and out of duty, Naomi got up to squeeze into the chair with her mother, wrapped around her. “This will be even better. I just know it.”
“New York, here we come?” Seth said.
“New York, here we come!” Mason shook his fists in the air. “Can we go to see the Knicks? Can we?”
“Nick who?” Seth said, and made Mason laugh and laugh.
The house sold within two weeks, and for ten thousand over asking price. They stayed busy packing up. And Naomi heard how Seth paid the movers extra to come at night, take things off in small trucks, a bit at a time.
In March, when spring break came with sweeping winds and some spitting snow, they left Georgetown in the middle of the night, like thieves.
She watched the house recede through the windows, felt a hard tug. But then she faced forward, flipped her fingers through the hair Seth had dubbed “Naomi: The Short and Sassy.”
A new look, she thought, a new place, a new start.
She wouldn’t look back.
Four
New York, 2002
At sixteen Naomi Carson lived a life Naomi Bowes could never have imagined. She had a pretty room in a lovely old brownstone in a city full of color and movement. Seth and Harry spoiled her with a generous allowance, shopping trips, tickets to concerts, and most of all with trust that gave her freedom.
She did her best to earn the indulgences. She studied hard, got exceptional gradeswith an eye focused on Providence College in Rhode Island and a degree in photography.
They’d given her a little point-and-shoot Fuji for her first Christmas in New York, and her love affair began. Her interest blossomed, her skill improvedand netted her a serious Nikon for her sixteenth birthday.
With it, she’d joined the yearbook committee and newspaper at her high school as official photographer, and racked up experience and an impressive portfolio she hoped to use to get into the college of her choice.
She’d worked hard to lose her accent, wanting more than anything to be just like the other girls, to have nothing left of those first twelve years. Hints of it could slip through, but by the time she’d started high school, the slips were rare.
She had friends, dated now and again, though unlike most of her contemporaries she didn’t want a steady boyfriend. Too much drama, from what she’d observed.
And while she liked kissingif the boy was any good at itshe wasn’t ready to be touched. Thought maybe she never would be.
She had let Mark Ryder touch her breastshe’d finally grown some, but accepted that they were never going to amount to much. She’d wanted to see what it felt like, but instead of making her excited, it just made her nervous and uncomfortable.
Mark hadn’t been happy that was all she let him doand not much of that. Naomi figured that was his damage and ignored him when he accused her of being a tease, being frigid, being a freak.
At sixteen she hit five-tenmost of it legand was willow slim and pretty enough that boys wanted to touch her breasts. She’d let her hair grow to shoulder length, mostly so she could tie it back when she took pictures.