'Once Upon a Day' by Lisa Tucker

Terri Schlichenmeyer

04/30/06 May 02, 2006 02:10 am

— Remember how rotten your parents were?
No dessert until you cleaned your plate. Strict lights-out on a school night. No play until homework was done. It was enough to make you grumble.
You might have hated early curfews, incessant groundings, or any of the rules your parents deemed necessary for raising a decent kid, but by enforcing those edicts, they thought they were doing their best for you.
Dorothea O’Brien actually thought her father did a wonderful job raising her and her brother, Jimmy. In the new novel “Once Upon a Day” by Lisa Tucker, Dorothea discovers that her father, Charles, did more than keep her safe during her childhood. He kept her from learning the truth about her past.
It had been over a year since the accident that killed Stephen Spaulding’s family, and Spaulding could still hardly bear to think about them. In his grief, Stephen bought a taxi cab because, while he didn’t need the money, he recognized that he did need a distraction, something to get him out of the apartment now and then.
Now, he nearly couldn’t believe his eyes. Here it was, a summer day in St. Louis, not anywhere near Halloween, and the fare he just picked up looked like she stepped out of an Annette Funicello movie. Stranger still, she didn’t seem to know anything about pop culture, TV, computers or slang, and she obviously had no street smarts. Where had this girl been all her life?
Dorothea O’Brien told Stephen that she was looking for her brother, Jimmy, who had run away from The Sanctuary, the secluded New Mexico home they shared with their father, Charles. Life was dangerous, Charles had always said, and he’d sheltered his children from everything, including the sun (which causes skin cancer) and swings (which could wrap around their necks), pets (which could attack) and paints (toxic). Unfortunately, Charles couldn’t protect Jimmy from the “real” world and Dorothea had bravely set out to find her brother. She needed to bring Jimmy back to The Sanctuary because Charles was very ill.
Meanwhile, Lucy Dobbins had a hole in her heart where her two children had once been. Nineteen years ago, Lucy’s film-director husband took their son and daughter and disappeared. Though she had moved on with her life, Lucy still looked for her missing babies. Unlike her ex-husband’s movies, she wondered she would ever see a happy ending.
In a world where we’re inundated with information and cultural references, it was nice to meet characters like those that author Lisa Tucker creates. Dorothea is innocent and wide-eyed, and while I found her a little hard to believe, she was also quite refreshing. Stephen is a wonderful Knight-in-Shining-Armor kind of guy and I loved seeing him come out of his grief.
Charles, on the other hand? Ugh. Someone call the authorities.
Put the kids to bed. Tell them it’s lights-out, and claim your place on the sofa with this very good novel. “Once Upon a Day” is a great way to end yours.