Journals of the Secret Keeper Read Online Free

until I graduated from high
school with honors and a scholarship," she finished.
Andrik didn't believe her. It was too
farfetched, but he didn't say so. He just asked
another question, "Why didn't you just come back
home, Willetta?"
"I didn't want to. I wasn't raped by your
average student. He was popular. I was nobody. I
was scared and without a voice. Mama Jean would
have made everything worse. She wouldn't have
rested until the boy was brought to justice. I just
wanted to forget about it and move on."
Willetta rinsed and dried Mama Jean's plate
and poured the dish water out of the bowl. She
neatly folded the dish towel and draped it over the
middle of the two sinks. She turned to face Andrik
again. He was no longer posing. His avid interest
was apparent. Willetta left the sink to sit down with
him at the table.
"Would you like something to drink," she
asked.
"No," he said distractedly, "That shouldn't
have stopped you from coming home. You could
have just kept the truth about what happened to
yourself."
"Well, when I found out I had no real
relatives, I decided to immediately start being
responsible for myself. I have never liked
Mississippi and after that it represented everything
sad and wrong in my life."
"Well how do you feel now, being back here
and everything," he asked.
"It does feel like I have been in a long sleep
and am waking up back in the same place where I
left off eleven years ago. It feels weird, like none of
the past eleven years actually happened."
Andrik leaned back in his seat. She'd just
expressed how he felt when he was forced to come
home to attend to his father's estate. The death of
his father had wrought many changes in Andrik's
life. Coming home had brought him face to face
with his own painful past. Mama Jean wanted him
to help Willetta, but the truth was that the both of
them were really in the same situation.
Andrik remained silent for a moment more.
He didn't feel inclined to comment on her last
statement. Somehow, he knew whatever he said
would reveal his own emotional dilemma. He did
not want Willetta to know how similar their plights
were. He would let her sound off of him, but he
was a professional and he could deal with his own
problems.
Andrik looked at the brass candelabrums on
the kitchen table and realized for the first time that
the only lighting in the house was candles. One
heavy eyebrow went up, as he asked, "What's up
with the candles?"
"You should know since you are such an
expert on Mama Jean. She loves candles. We
never used lights at night. It was always candles by
nightfall," Willetta said.
Andrik watched Willetta through the dim
lights of the candle. She was open and honest. It
had been a long time since he had met a woman
who would speak openly about being raped. She
seemed unaware of her beauty as well. She was not
self-centered and therefore, could not be selfish. He
suddenly realized that he may have misjudged her
entirely. Her experience and her resultant actions
were understandable. He wondered why Mama
Jean had not told him that she wasn't Willetta's real
grandmother. How much did Mama Jean know
about Willetta's rape? How much did she know
about what Willetta knew? Andrik knew he would
probably never know the answers, because Mama
Jean was too fragile to answer such questions and
she wasn't going to last much longer either.
CHAPTER 5
Willetta and Andrik stood on the rickety
porch and listened to the night sounds. The white
moon sat still in its place and the rest of the big
black sky was splayed with stars. Andrik and
Willetta were alone except for the night creatures
and a sleeping old Mama Jean. The silence
surrounding them was oddly gentle and comforting
though shared between strangers.
"I guess I should get on back down the
road," Andrik said. "It looks like you have
everything under control."
Willetta remained silent. Her experience
had been that when one shared their past with
another, the confidence was returned unless there
was something