27 November 2005 JUST LIKE THAT by Marsha Qualey, Dial, May 2005, ISBN: 0-8037-2840-9

From the Associated Press, November 26, 2005:

"CEDAR GROVE, Wis. - The deaths of two children and a man who broke through frozen ponds in southeastern Wisconsin have led officials to warn of the dangers of skating or driving on early winter's thin ice."

Just like that, the horror of the headlines plunged me right back into the tense, cold memory of Marsha Qualey's JUST LIKE THAT, a story of broken hearts and frozen secrets:

"Snowmobiles and ATVs were illegal in the city parks, but that didn't ever stop people from tearing down streets and over the lakes when there was fresh snow. A sinewy cloud of breath shot out of my mouth as I swore at the disturbance. I stood up, ready to stalk away so I could be alone with my bad mood. A four-wheeler raced past me toward the lake. Its bright headlight cut a swath out of the darkness. There were two people on the vehicle. More happy lovers, no doubt. I'd ventured out tonight to purge my head of thoughts of romance and look what I'd run into. The ATV sped over a snowbank at the edge of the ice and rode the air for a few feet. When it landed, the passenger tumbled off. The driver immediately cut the engine. A girl laughed and shouted, 'I love you Derek!' I sat back down. The movement must have caught her eye because she called out, 'Friend or foe?' They laughed at her wit in a merry tenor-soprano duet. Before I could answer 'Foe,' they sped off again. Then they made a sharp turn and came toward me, angling away at the last minute and stopping with a spray of snow that missed me by inches. 'It's our one-year anniversary!' the girl said. 'Here's a present in reverse! Find someone and have fun!' An unwrapped condom landed on my lap."

In dealing with the thoughts surrounding her having broken up with her longtime boyfriend, eighteen year-old high schooler and aspiring artist Hanna Martin impulsively takes a chilly midnight stroll and finds herself on a bench at the edge of frozen Lake Calhoun. And so Hanna is in no mood for the young couple's antics. She ignores her impulse, and neglects to warn the young lovers that a pair of skiiers had just come off the ice and had made totally sure that Hanna had no intention to go out on the lake, which the skiiers found insufficently frozen to be safe. Little does Hanna Martin realize, stuck in her own thoughts, that she will be the last person to see the ATV couple alive. The girl's frozen body is found the next morning at the edge of the lake, to where she had dragged herself before succumbing. The boy's body is later recovered out in the middle of the lake.

Just like that, they're gone. In coping with her role in the tragedy, about which she says nothing to family or friends, Hanna repeatedly returns to the pond, where she keeps spotting a young man who clearly must have a connection to the young couple. First, she draws him. Then she tracks him down and meets him. The young man, Will Walker, turns out to be the one to have discovered the girl's body. And the secrets surrounding Will--beginning with the fact that his father is the local Congressman--caused the young man to anonymously notify police about his discovery.

Through her getting to know and becoming involved with Will while sharing with him her feelings surrounding the dead teenagers, Hanna Martin will find herself immersed in his family's multiplicity of secrets and will become estranged from her longtime friends.

As Will tells her, "My family's close. We don't let a lot of outsiders in, not like we used to, but anyone who gets near us tends to get sucked in pretty good."

Just like that, Hanna Martin's entire life is scrambled. And there is little that Hanna can do to move on until she overcomes that belief that she has sole responsibility for what happened at the lake.

Marsha Qualey's JUST LIKE THAT is a bone-achingly cold, honest, and memorable tale of life after tragedy.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com