Close Your Eyes. Amanda Eyre Ward

      

      CLOSE YOUR EYES

       Amanda Eyre Ward

      A sister is . . . a golden thread to the meaning of life.

      – Isadora James

       This book is for my sister, Sarah, with love.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Epigraph

       Prologue

       Book One

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

       Chapter 14

       Chapter 15

       Book Two

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       Book Three

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Book Four

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Book Five

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Epilogue

       Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Also by Amanda Eyre Ward

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       Prologue

      AUGUST 1986

      I can remember the taste of ocean, and the dark smell of impending rain. Our parents had given us reluctant permission to spend the night in the tree house. From our perch, high in an oak tree, we could see a faraway sliver of Long Island Sound. I can almost see myself – the way I looked, before: a sweet girl, just eight. I was sturdy, like my father, with his dark hair and olive skin. My mother brushed my hair into pigtails, and I wore sun-dresses with bare feet, so I could climb.

      My brother, Alex, had stolen a can of Tab from the pantry. We drank from plastic teacups, remnants of my girlhood set. Clouds moved over the moon. My L. L. Bean sleeping bag was too warm, and in the middle of the night, I slipped one leg outside the heavy fabric and touched my brother’s foot with my own.

      The tree house was a small structure shaped like a pirate ship. My mother used to laugh and say it had taken longer for my father to build the damn thing than it had for her to grow and deliver a baby, but by the time I was two and could climb the ladder to the top, it was finished.

      We had a large, grassy yard; from the tree house, you could barely see the peeling paint on our back door. No matter what happened inside, as it turned out, you wouldn’t hear a sound.

      That night, our parents had given a small party. Alex and I often hid during their gatherings, and watched the adults drink wine and act strange. My father grilled elaborate Egyptian dishes on the Weber – rice-stuffed pigeon, rabbit with mint – and my mother sat with her friends at the picnic table and smoked cigarettes furtively, the embers lending her face an angelic glow. The guests that night were Phil Salinas, an investment banker; Jessica Salinas, his newest wife; Adam Schwickrath, an orthopedic surgeon; and Donna Halsey, my piano teacher.

      My father teased my mother about Adam Schwickrath. He was the man she should have married, my father said, his words edged with bitterness. Dr. Schwickrath was wealthy and well dressed, usually wearing khakis and a button-down shirt. Some evenings he and my mother would talk to each other in soft tones, my mother laughing and lifting her head to expose her throat.

      Dr. Schwickrath had given my mother a wrapped package that night, though her birthday had been weeks before. ‘Better late than never,’ he’d said, almost bashfully. As my mother opened the box and took out a pair of high-heeled shoes, I’d looked at my father, who was staring, his jaw set. He had written my mother a birthday poem, made her a pan of walnut brownies. ‘I just thought of you when I saw them, Jordan,’ said Mr. Schwickrath.

      ‘Are they the right size?’ asked my father.

      My mother had peered at the strappy shoes. They were a silvery color, more expensive than anything we could afford, I knew. ‘Adam, how did you know I was a size seven? They’re beautiful!’ my mother had said. She held a shoe to the light, admiring. But her hand fell when she saw my father’s face. ‘Oh, never mind!’ she said brightly, dropping the shoes back in their box and placing it on a chair. ‘Let’s have some appetizers, why don’t we?’

      Alex and I snacked on corn chips, answering stupid questions about soccer, long division, and what we wanted to be when we grew up. Alex, who was ten, wanted to be a fighter pilot and I, a ballerina. At long last, our parents said we could take our leave.

      We climbed the ladder quietly and lit the candle we’d taken from the sideboard. The caramel light made the tree house seem otherworldly. It may have taken him a while, but my father had built our hideout with care, lining up each board, framing windows.

      My father loved to tinker in his basement workshop. My mother earned the money to pay for our real house, but my father took