When She Was Gone

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When She Was Gone Page 20

by Gwendolen Gross


  His father leaned toward Linsey Hart’s stepfather in the way a friend might, their shoulders gossiping like birds on a wire. Jordan held them all with the music. The pianist was a lovely woman in her forties, and she seemed to love Jordan’s notes with her own. Jordan, rough at the edges to Geo, out of place in the ordinary world, fit when he was playing.

  And this was the right word for it, “playing,” the way children played, making patterns and designs. It was exactly the kind of work Geo needed to do.

  Geo took photographs of Jordan as he went door-to-door with invitations to the service, just as Mr. Leonard had asked him. Jordan handed out the little cards printed up at Kinko’s: Please honor the passing of Mr. Amadeus Leonard from this world by attending a service. Music and refreshments.

  Jordan told him it was supposed to be like a party, that Mr. Leonard had said, “I want them to eat.” As instructed, Jordan and Geo taped lollipops to each invitation. At some of the houses he’d just stuck them in the mailbox.

  They all knew the story now. She’d gone west with some guy, hoping to see her boyfriend when he got to California. Geo had read it, California, but by the time he tried to tell, she was found. This didn’t bother him as much as the fact that no one wanted the tracing he’d made of the note, so he felt compelled to keep it in his box of trimmed-up photo faces. He texted Timmy, but by the time Timmy read the text, Abigail was on her way. When Timmy’s plane landed, Geo got a text back, You got there first.

  People were strange with ideas—there was talk of a rape, but then he heard she wasn’t pressing charges against anyone—that nothing had happened except that she’d been dropped off partway to California, without money. Just a mistake. Just luck that she was unharmed. A youthful indiscretion. But it was no such thing; it was the desire to be missing, if only for a day or two—a need Geo recognized, to walk on the edge so someone would grab you back again before you fell.

  Geo stood on the sidewalk while Jordan took the invitation to the Sentrys’ house. Reeva’s daughter, Tina, had answered their door. She wore a miniskirt and she had Reeva’s eyes.

  “Hey,” she said to Jordan. “I know you.”

  “I work at Starbucks,” he said.

  “That’s all?” She was rubbing the door handle. It made Geo’s lungs hurt, the way she wound herself around.

  “This is for your parents,” Jordan said.

  “Ooo, a lollipop,” she said, still flirting.

  “I think you’ll be in school,” he said.

  “Who’s that?” asked Reeva, coming down the stairs. Jordan turned quickly and joined Geo out on the sidewalk.

  “No one,” said Reeva’s daughter, and her door closed behind them both.

  • • •

  They clapped between movements, which showed how little they knew of music. Geo knew you were supposed to wait. Still, Jordan smiled at the pianist, because it was sweet. Because it meant they wanted to appreciate Mr. Leonard now as they never had when he was living.

  Mr. Leonard had left his house to the Musical Society in town, stipulating that they should start a music school if they had the funds. There was even some money for the project.

  Linsey Hart’s mother, Abigail, was notably absent. Geo could tell her husband’s hand ached for hers, that he was pulled into the same longing Mr. Leonard was calling out, sweet longing. She was staying for a few more days at Cornell, everyone had seen them going, just the two of them in the wagon, riding low with a trunk in the back and a bike on the roof. Linsey held her arm out to test the current of the air, riding the wind like a child. Geo had been helping Jordan lug Mr. Leonard’s garbage out to the curb. Jordan was going to give Geo music lessons—maybe even teach him to write his own music for movies. He’d asked, and Jordan told him Mr. Leonard had said the symphony wasn’t for Linsey, but of course it was for her as well. And in the end, there was the music, calling out secrets and truths. There will always be sorrow, the composer told his students and his neighbors, and it is only a choice of sharing it this way, or letting it go.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to the exquisite queens of the written word Jen Carlson and Emilia Pisani, and to the good folk of S&S who work to make a beautiful book and bring it out into the world, including Jennifer Bergstrom, John Paul Jones, Chris Sergio, Stephanie DeLuca, and Sally Franklin.

  Thank you to my friends and writing students, including Cindy Starr, Lisa Roe, Suzanne Samuels, Maria Oskwarek, Joanne Nesi, Ardith Toomey, Lisa Summers, Phyllis Rosenthal, Annie Cami, Lisa Williamson, Kris Linton, Jane Paterson, and Sandy Desmond. Thank you to brilliant first reader Veera Hiranandani. Thanks to the folks at Saddle Ridge Riding Center, who fill our days with horsey happiness. Sammy gave me the original title. Thank you to the Gross, Rosenberg, Herman, Colao, and Rose clans and all their branches and twigs.

  And thank you to my family: Jacob, Carina, Josh, you bring me cosmic joy.

  GALLERY READERS GROUP GUIDE

  WHEN SHE

  WAS GONE

  GWENDOLEN GROSS

  INTRODUCTION

  When seventeen-year-old Linsey Hart goes missing just days before her scheduled departure for college, a typically quiet New Jersey neighborhood is left peeking out windows and into backyards for clues. There’s Linsey’s mother, Abigail, whose door-to-door searching makes her social outcast status painfully obvious; stay-at-home mom Reeva, whose primary concern is covering up the affair she’s been having with the Starbucks barista; Mr. Leonard, a reclusive retired piano teacher—and the last person to see Linsey alive; George, an eleven-year-old gifted loner who is determined to find out what happened to Linsey; and Timmy, Linsey’s ex-boyfriend, who is left grieving as he embarks on his own college career.

  With a sly humor and ultimate optimism, the stories of this small town converge in unexpected ways, painting a complex and illuminating portrait of a community moved by grief, devoured by suspicion, and consumed by secrecy.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. The neighborhood in the novel is one built on secrets; every character seems to have a secret to hide. How do the secrets the characters hold influence their relationships with others?

  2. Through her memories, we learn that the loss of their two-week-old son is what drives Abigail into depression and her and Joe apart. Though her interactions with Joe are limited, what information do you gather about him?

  3. Prior to her disappearance, how is Linsey viewed by those around her: Her mom? Her brothers? Reeva? Timmy? Which of these people do you think Linsey would feel viewed her in the way she wanted to be viewed?

  4. Reeva and Jordan’s affair is a source of excitement and guilt for Reeva. What first attracts her to Jordan, despite his disheveled appearance and home? How does her revelation about Jordan’s age cause her to see their tryst in a new light?

  5. We get a glimpse of the Group, Reeva’s gaggle of housewives who come together to discuss playdates and car pool logistics—or, really, to trade gossip and make passive-aggressive comments about one another. How would you describe the women in the group? Why do you think Reeva invites them into her home; why do you think she cares so much what they think?

  6. What did you learn about Charlie and Reeva on the day Charlie stays home from work? What do Reeva’s internal thoughts about Charlie reveal about their relationship and about herself?

  7. Compare and contrast Toby’s and Cody’s reactions to Linsey’s disappearance. Do you think one of them deals with his feelings better than the other?

  8. “In this town, people were very small about difference, about seeking otherness”. In this passage, Timmy reflects on how Geo is treated by the neighborhood as compared to how he might be treated in a larger-minded, more accepting place. Are there characters in the novel other than Geo who you feel are mistreated by the community because of their “otherness”?

  9. Geo references “Mending Wall,” a poem by Robert Frost, as he considers the two fences between his property and the Steins’. Read the poem, found at http://www.b
artleby.com/104/64.html, and consider its meaning. Do you see any connection between Frost’s poem and the neighborhood in the novel? Is there a particular line that resonates with you, or that you feel reflects a particular character?

  10. Abigail and Timmy avoid each other for days after Linsey’s disappearance. Why do you think that is; what do you think they were feeling that kept them from confronting each other? Guilt? Fear? A different emotion? Ultimately, what leads Timmy to finally walk up to Abigail’s doorstep and talk with her?

  11. When Abigail is finally reunited with her lost daughter, Linsey is described as “waiting for her mother the way she’d waited after kindergarten, holding herself together, waiting to be collected”. As Abigail rushes to “collect” her, what emotions do you think she is feeling? How do you suspect Linsey has changed from the beginning of her journey? How has Abigail changed?

  12. Jordan and Mr. Leonard’s unlikely friendship is based on their mutual love of music. Mr. Leonard offers Jordan his musical mentorship; what does Jordan offer him in return? How do the themes of music—listening and making—weigh in the novel?

  13. The novel both opens and closes with Mr. Leonard—opening on a chapter from his perspective, and closing at his memorial service. Why do you think the author chose Mr. Leonard as the character holding the novel together in this way?

  14. Throughout the novel, a narrator offers readers a detailed glimpse into each of the characters’ houses. What do you think their homes say about them? Was there a particular home that you felt reflected the character who lived within it the most?

  READING GROUP ENHANCERS

  1. Geo’s photographs of those around him gives him a view of the neighborhood others do not have; through photography and collage-making, he can decipher the “sameness and difference” others miss. Try to see things from Geo’s point of view: Before your book club discussion, ask each member to carry a camera with them for a day, taking pictures of the everyday places and people they might usually overlook. Then, at your discussion, consider the photographs: What do you see? Does anything in the pictures surprise you?

  2. As Reeva prepares her home for the Group to arrive, she recalls Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the tale of a woman who slowly goes mad while she’s locked in an upstairs bedroom by her husband. Find a copy of this short story, either online or in your local bookstore or library, and give it a read. Do you see any common themes in The Yellow Wallpaper and When She Was Gone? Does the narrator in the short story share any characteristics with the women narrators in the novel?

  3. Two coffee shops are mentioned in the novel: the notorious Starbucks where Jordan works, and the Daily Grind. Do you have a favorite coffee shop in your town? Consider holding your book club discussion there for a change of scenery.

  Gwendolen Gross is the author of multiple critically acclaimed novels. To learn more about Gwendolen and her books, visit her websites at www.gwendolengross.com and www.whenshewasgone.com or follow her on Twitter @GwendolenGross

  GWENDOLEN GROSS, the author of four prior novels, is a graduate of Oberlin College, has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and was a PEN West Emerging Writers Fellow. She lives with her family in New Jersey. Visit her on the web at:

  www.gwendolengross.com

  www.whenshewasgone.com

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  COVER DESIGN BY CHRISTOPHER SERGIO

  AUTHOR PHOTO BY CHIA MESSINA PHOTOGRAPHY

  Also by

  GWENDOLEN GROSS

  THE ORPHAN SISTER

  THE OTHER MOTHER

  GETTING OUT

  FIELD GUIDE

  We hope you enjoyed reading this Gallery Books eBook.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 by Gwendolen Gross

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  First Gallery Books trade paperback edition March 2013

  GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Gross, Gwendolen

  When she was gone / Gwendolen Gross.—1st Gallery Books trade paperback ed.

  p. cm.

  1. Missing persons—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3557.R568W48 2012

  813’.54—dc23

  2012022605

  ISBN 978-1-4516-8474-2

  ISBN 978-1-4516-8476-6 (ebook)

 

 

 


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