Chapter 16
Diane stopped arranging everyone’s lives.
Mostly.
She still rearranged table flowers without permission.
Apparently recovery has limits.
At seventy, she started spending more time in Newport.
Not because Julian returned.
Because she learned travel works both directions.
Avice liked having her there.
Diane taught her cards.
Julian complained she taught cheating.
Diane called it strategy.
Normal.
One evening, I sat with my sister overlooking the water.
She said:
“I spent my whole life making people stay.”
“Yes.”
“You could disagree less enthusiastically.”
“No.”
She smiled.
Then:
“Maybe I should have learned to visit sooner.”
There.
The entire tragedy reduced to geography.
She feared distance because she treated love as fixed location.
A fake pregnancy seemed easier than a ninety-minute drive.
Absurd.
Human.
I asked whether she regretted Vanessa.
“Yes.”
“Everything?”
She thought.
“No.”
Interesting.
“I regret what I told her to do.”
Then:
“I don’t regret knowing why I did it.”
Good distinction.
Understanding motive should not become romanticizing it.
May you like
She had finally learned that.
I hoped I had too.
