Clock Dance

A delightful dance through the time Willa has spent on earth – from the 11-year-old in 1967 asking Pop when Mom is coming home, full circle to the 61-year-old in 2017, acting as surrogate grandma to Cheryl, nine, a carbon copy old-headon-young-shoulders. Willa associates grilled cheese sandwiches with Mom’s disappearances, because it is all her father can cook. Sister Elaine wants drive-thru takeaway, but the car has gone. “This was bad. Mom didn’t just walk to friend Mimi’s, she’d gone who-knows-where.” In 1977 at 21, Willa marries college senior Derek, against the wishes of mum Alice, who doesn’t want Willa to give up life and have babies. In 1997, at 41, with sons Sean and Ian, Derek dies in a roadrage accident. We love Willa and her long-suffering kindness. When Willa agrees to look after the daughter of Sean’s ex-girlfriend Denise, she finds the caring community that has eclipsed her – and herself. Remarried to Peter, she is an Arizonian golf widow. In a street in Baltimore, where windows advertise “Private detective” and a biker carries shooting victim Denise back home, Willa whispers, “I haven’t felt useful in forever.”