wound, it mattered most to those people left with the scars.
“How has the move gone?” asked Dr. Wilcox.
“Good, good,” Nina said, worried she sounded like she was trying to reassure herself. “I mean, Maggie is taking it the hardest.”
Nina explained how Maggie had grown hostile when Simon became more than a friend.
“What about Connor? Does he get along with Simon?”
“Well, yes. Maybe because he’s older. But Connor had some difficulties with his father.”
“Difficulties?”
“Glen was something of a workaholic. My nickname for him was Glengarrity Glen Ross.”
“From the play,” Dr. Wilcox correctly noted.
“And movie about those crazed salespeople trying to save their jobs.”
“He was a salesman?”
“No, he worked at a bank. Not in a branch, in the main office. He was a senior financial advisor. Always busy with something. The first night after his dad went missing, Connor confided how he was sad they didn’t spend much time together.”
Dr. Wilcox took notes with her pencil.
“I tried to convince him that his father loved him very much and that they did do things together. Glen always went to Connor’s games, and they watched sports together on TV. But that wasn’t the same—it wasn’t what Connor wanted or needed, and Maggie had her own frustrations with her dad, mostly to do with his availability or lack thereof.
“When I tried to talk to Glen about his work habits, his obsession with his phone or email, he’d remind me that all the financial pressure was on him, and guiltily I’d let the behavior slide. I don’t think I realized the effect it had on Connor, but that night he told me he didn’t feel like he really knew his dad, which turned out to be true for all of us.”
Dr. Wilcox’s eyebrows rose slightly. “How so?”
“Maybe next session,” Nina said. She knew it would be too much information, and therapy was a process, after all.
“Fair enough.”
“Anyway, Connor wanted more from his father—more of a connection.”
“And you didn’t?”
Nina gazed up at the ceiling, trying to piece together her feelings.
“It wasn’t a perfect marriage by any stretch,” she explained, “but I guess it was enough for me. I had the kids, my friends, my life; in some ways it was easier not having Glen involved in everything. I could make decisions and not be second-guessed all the time. I got what I needed, Glen got what he wanted, but poor Connor felt like his father was uninterested in him, and that was hard to hear.”
“Connor never talked about it with you before?”
“No, he could be stoic and stubborn, like his dad, so I only learned all this after Glen was gone.”
Dr. Wilcox nodded in understanding. “Does Connor feel comfortable with Simon? Do they do things together?”
“Yes,” Nina said as a pang of bitterness toward Glen and his failings came over her. “It’s been sweet, actually. Simon is good with tools, more so than Glen, so he shows Connor how to do minor home repairs, that sort of thing. He’s also studied YouTube videos to learn how to throw a football, and now he helps Connor practice all the time. And, miracle of miracles, he’s gotten Connor interested in history. Simon’s a social studies teacher as well as the middle school’s robotics coach. He and Connor are building something robotic in the basement together. I’m just hoping it doesn’t have arms.”
“I see,” Dr. Wilcox said. “And how does Maggie feel about their closeness?”
“I don’t really know. She doesn’t talk about it with me. She’s angry, and I understand why. She thinks her father is coming back.”
“But you don’t.”
“No, I don’t,” Nina said. “I think he’s dead. I think he’s down in that lake somewhere.”
“Did the police explain why they couldn’t find his body?”
“They did,” said Nina. “Sometimes, depending on how a body settles—on its side, in a particular kind of growth, covered in some debris, or even trapped under a ledge—the sonar doesn’t work. I’m a bit of an expert on drowning now, as you can imagine.”
Dr. Wilcox’s mouth stretched into a slight grimace, indicating she could imagine quite well.
“Normally a body will sink to the bottom,” Nina continued. “But eventually it will surface as gas from decay forms in the tissues. Then wind drag, water density, even the topography can create movement underwater, so there was never any guarantee that Glen’s body would be found near his boat.”
“That must be hard for you—the uncertainty, I mean.”
“It’s hard for us all.”
“What does Simon say about it?”
“Simon’s fond of saying that if you’re depressed, you’re living in the past;