A Town of Empty Rooms (42 page)

There was a burning in Serena's lungs, but it was not simply loneliness. It did not have to be just that. It was also this: It was freedom. It was freedom to feel, to be, to love.

“Serena,” said Betty, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We haven't heard from you yet. Go on up.”

Serena sat, frozen for a moment. The stiff velvet of the pew pressed
against her back. Then, slowly, she stood up and made her way to the podium. She looked at the eleven people. They had all clustered in the first couple of rows; they wanted to be near each other.

She did not know what was going to happen next. But neither did anyone; they were all linked, inextricably, by this, this endless and eternal not knowing, as they walked across this small, lighted room and out the door to their lives.

“I'm not sure what I want to say,” she said.

“Just something,” said Betty.

There was a beauty to their faces as they patiently waited to hear something about her. The congregants looked at her, waiting.

And then she spoke.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank a few people who helped me in the journey writing this book. First, with endless gratitude, to my parents, Meri and David Bender, for their love and support and openness, and to my sisters, Suzanne and Aimee Bender, for their love and wisdom and good pep talks at crucial times. Also to my cousins, Natalie Plachte and Michelle Plachte-Zuieback, for their warmth and support. To my agents Eric Simonoff and Claudia Ballard for their belief in this book and for patiently shepherding it to a good home; and to my editor Dan Smetanka and the crew at Counterpoint Press for wonderful, uplifting enthusiasm and care in bringing this book to publication.

A big thank you to my friends who listened, read, and helped along the way: Margaret Mittelbach, Jenny Schaffer, Jennie Litt, Katherine Wessling, Timothy Bush, Hope Edelman, Irene Connelly, Paul Lis-icky, Deborah Lott, Eric Wilson, Rebecca Larner, Sandy Brown, and to my mother-in-law, Frances Silverglate, for careful and helpful reading. To everyone at UNCW, and especially Rebecca Lee, Dana Sachs, Nina de Gramont, David Gessner, Virginia Holman, Wendy Brenner, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Clyde Edgerton, Sarah Messer, Sheri Malman, and Emily Smith, for friendship and support at crucial moments. And thank you to Tom Grimes, Edith Pearlman, and Craig Nova for their generosity.

And, finally, to my son, Jonah, and my daughter, Maia, two beautiful gifts, whose presence enriches and instructs me every day. And, of course, to Robert, for the theory of the saint, the general, and the soldier, for being my partner in the factory of odd thoughts, and for, really, everything and more.

Copyright © 2013 Karen E. Bender

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

eISBN : 978-1-619-02145-7

1. Marriage — Fiction. 2. Families — Religious aspects — Fiction. 3. Belonging
(Social psychology) — Fiction. I. Title.
PS3552.E53849T69 2013
813'.54 — dc23

 

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