After the disastrous ending to the date on Friday, Daisy spent most of the weekend feeling sorry for herself. Helena called on Saturday to apologize again for making her go out the night before, but they ended up talking about how much she liked Bennett. Helena and Bennett were going out again the following weekend and Helena knew better than to ask Daisy on another double date.
Grover didn’t call on Sunday; she had hoped he would. She didn’t want to call him because he had acted so strangely the last time they talked—she figured it would be better to wait for him to call her. She had other friends, of course, but Helena and Grover were the ones she cared about the most.
That left work. She had plenty of work to do--she had articles to work on besides the women’s history series--and normally enjoyed working, but her heart wasn’t in it on Sunday. Around mid-afternoon she closed her laptop and went out for a walk. She had no particular destination in mind; she wanted only to get out of her apartment and clear her head.
It was a perfect day. The sky was a brilliant blue, the few clouds were high and puffy. The temperature was just right and a slight breeze rustled the leaves that were growing in the late spring sunshine. It was a good day to leaves one’s cares behind, but Daisy couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that she was missing something. Missing out on something in life that she should have.
She was meandering along a path in Rock Creek Park when her cell phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, she wondered why Mark John was calling her on the weekend.
“Hi, Mark John,” she answered.
“Hi, Daisy. What’s wrong?” Was it that obvious?
“Nothing, I’m fine.”
“I’m wondering if I can drop by your apartment and pick up that diary you’ve been reading.”
“Uh, sure,” Daisy stammered. She had wanted to finish reading it before returning it to Mark John.
It was as if he could read her mind. “Aren’t you done with it?” he asked.
“No, but that’s all right. It’s your diary. I can bring it into the office tomorrow morning if you’d like, then you don’t have to make a special trip to pick it up.”
“Nah, I don’t mind coming to get it. Brian’s on my case about it, as if he doesn’t have enough to keep him occupied. I guess I need to read it, that is, unless you can tell me what it says,” he added.
Daisy gave him a brief summary of the entries she had read so far. “Doesn’t sound like anything Brian would find particularly fascinating. I don’t know what his problem is,” he scoffed. “I swear, he won’t leave me alone.”
“Don’t be so hard on him,” Daisy said. “I think he misses his sister and you’re the only connection he has to her. Not to mention the death of his friend and losing his job.” Daisy didn’t add that Brian might also be suffering from the guilt that comes of killing two people.
Mark John was silent for a long moment, then he spoke. “That’s all true, but he has to move on. Just as I’m trying to do.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll be by in about an hour.”
Daisy turned around and hurried back to her apartment. She wanted to read as much as she could of Trudy’s diary before Mark John came to pick it up. Trudy had somehow wriggled her way into Daisy’s heart and mind and Daisy wanted to assure herself that Trudy and Thomas lived happily ever after.
She pulled on the gloves, snatched up the diary, and started to read even before she was seated on the couch.