I Can Make This Promise: Chapters 19–27

Dried chili peppers hang along the eaves, lavender sachets are laced with ribbons, jars filled with homemade jams line the shelves.

Prints of watercolor tulip fields are sheathed in plastic.

Huge windows line one wall, revealing the cheesemaking process, massive machines stirring and churning the creamy cheddar.

Amelia’s mom says, “Take your time, Edie. We’re not in any hurry. And, Amelia, you better quit that tone and apologize, young lady. Have some empathy for your friend.”

Adam cackles at his sister. Libby looks at me and smirks.

I just shove my hands into my pockets and cross my front yard with dread pooling in my stomach.

I'm working hard in my acting classes, and I also spend a lot of time reading scripts and monologues alone in my apartment.

I'm sorry if these anecdotes make you angry. I promise, I really am okay.

I scuff my shoe against the grass.

My eyes are red and puffy. I can taste salt on my lips, and wisps of hair are sticking to my sweaty forehead.

“This movie is going to be so cute!” Mom says gleefully as we stride past a cutout display of animated characters. They’re depicted in bright colors and bold, sweeping lines.

She looks sad as she says this. Distraught, even. “But you need to listen to me: a film like that won’t give you what you’re looking for.”

Mom’s face contorts with pain.

My grip tightens reflexively. I accidentally bend the card, forming a crease down the middle as I read and reread these three sentences.

I’ve always considered myself to be an optimistic person. But some days, I can’t make myself be happy and keep working hard, for a dream that might never materialize.

Now that I’ve gotten a taste of the world beyond our little corner of the Puget Sound, I can safely say that venturing out on your own is overrated.

It also includes a man, whom I’ve never told you about. And whom I still feel reluctant to tell you about, although it is impossible to deny his existence now.

“Please don’t apologize. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
“For last night,” I tell her sheepishly. “I’m sorry I said those things at the theater. I didn’t mean any of it.”

“Yes. Movies like that show Native people as something exotic and mythical, but there is no truth to them. That was not a real Native woman. Her outfit had no cultural significance. Everything about it was fake and Hollywoodized, for the sake of making a profit.”

“Your father should be a part of that conversation. But if you want, I can tell you a little more about me. And my childhood. And the reasons why I felt compelled to find her.”

A hummingbird flits into view with its bejeweled magenta-green chest, its whirring wings.

He was sullen and lonely and just generally angry at the world.

He’s in a white button-up and brown khakis, his eyes shielded behind aviator sunglasses.

“But, technically speaking, Suquamish villages were built on both sides of the Sound. So their reservation is across from us, but this whole region counts as our ancestral territory.”

“We’re Suquamish and Duwamish, actually. Just like Chief Seattle. He signed the Treaty of Point Elliott on behalf of both tribes.”

Serenity: hey! sorry service is really spotty and my phone is on the verge of death, your msgs are downloading, i can’t read them yet so idk what’s up with you, but i hope everything is okay, dad and i are still in the woods, but heading home soon, rly hope this text sends, miss u!

Our car is parked in the ship’s underbelly, and we are standing near the front of the boat, in the briny marine air.

There’s a slight jolt underfoot as we begin our forward momentum.

I was on a date with a bright, interesting young college student. A guy with goals and ambitions and intimidating textbooks. And who was I? The girl from the coffeeshop, with zero interest in pursuing a degree in higher education.

I was on a date with a bright, interesting young college student. A guy with goals and ambitions and intimidating textbooks. And who was I? The girl from the coffeeshop, with zero interest in pursuing a degree in higher education.

I told your father about all the questions and yearnings that had been growing within me for years.

I mean it. I have a surname and an address in Indianola. We can go this Saturday, if you have the day off from work.

Boulders line the beach in a gradient scale: the rocks along the bottom are coated in algae and barnacles, the middle rows are dark and slick with seawater, and those along the top are dry and streaked with bird poop.

Boulders line the beach in a gradient scale: the rocks along the bottom are coated in algae and barnacles, the middle rows are dark and slick with seawater, and those along the top are dry and streaked with bird poop.

I catch glimpses of modern-looking mansions tucked within the forest: the reflective glint of a window, the edge of a smooth wall.