Twenty-eight
Lori awoke the next morning to a cool dawn and a
gentle poke to her shoulder. Her head still swam with confused memory of
the night's events, the thunder of the freight train, the storm and the
sound of Amy's hysterical screams. If nothing else, it had kept the
dream of the glass eye at bay.
Wendy and Leslie drew alongside her bed in their
pajamas and slippers. Leslie precariously balanced a tray loaded with
dishes of hot pancakes, eggs and bacon, and coffee. Wendy fluffed her
pillow and stuffed it behind her back.
Lori couldn't quite decipher the behavior of the
two. "What's this all about, may I ask?"
"Mother's day," Wendy said with a smile.
"Yeah, you get one every day from now on," Leslie
declared.
"For letting Gloria spend the night with us," Wendy
said gently.
It was a new Wendy who stood before her. Her world
had brightened a thousandfold. Seeing her this way made the nightmare of
the previous night worth suffering.
A blonde angel moved into view in the doorway.
Gloria Radcliff was about the same age and size as Wendy, but her voice
was huskier. There was a tone of maturity in her behavior that would take
Wendy another year to develop. She wore a lacy green dress and patent
leather shoes and looked more like a young woman than a mere girl.
Gloria blushed and dropped her eyes to the floor.
"It's all my fault."
"Where do you go to school, Gloria?"
Gloria cocked her head in a generally eastern
direction. "Woodworth Junior High over in Westborough."
Westborough was some sixty miles or so on the other
side of Clayton. "All these months and you've never been any further than
Westborough?"
Gloria shrugged. Sixty miles or six hundred. The
math of the situation meant nothing to her.
Lori looked between the three, amazed that the
children were awake so early. "What's with you three? What's going on?"
"Dad called back and woke us up," Gloria said.
Lori had phoned a frantic Benjamin Radcliff at two in
the morning and had left a message on his answering machine telling him
that Gloria was safe. They had all gone to bed shortly thereafter. Four
hours had passed, hardly enough for a good night's sleep for any of them.
"I told Dad that Mom was in the hospital," Gloria
continued, "so he's coming to pick me up. He said about eleven this
morning. I told Wendy we should probably wake you up before he got here,
but we didn't want you to be mad at us."
She refocused her attention on the breakfast on her
lap. "I'm guess I am famished. And maybe I won't get mad. Wendy, Leslie, go run my bath water. Go
easy on the bubbles."
The two fled to do her bidding.
Gloria stayed behind. "I'm sorry for all the trouble
I caused."
"You were with your father all of this time?"
Gloria grew agitated. "Oh, Mrs. Malcolm, I was
walking to school one day last summer and Dad came by in the car and asked
me if I wanted to live with him instead of Mom. He lied to me, though.
He said he called Mom and told her that it was okay. Dad always liked me
more, so I thought it was for real, and I liked it so much better with
him. He's always been so nice to me."
"I take it you got homesick this summer."
Gloria wept a few brief tears. "I missed Wendy and
Ronnie. They were the only real friends I ever had."
So the torment had been unnecessary all along, just
as she had tried to warn Karen over and over. She had told Karen a
thousand times to try to locate Ben, to let him know that his daughter was
missing.
Gloria lowered her head and squeezed loose another
tear or two. "I wanted to visit. Dad said it would cause too much
trouble. Mom would try to take me away and she scares me when she
gets mad. I wasn't even allowed to use the phone, but I did anyhow. I
called and Wendy answered and we figured we could skip school Friday so
that we could spend the weekend together. We didn't think anybody would
find out."
"You came here all by yourself?"
"I took the bus. It dropped me off in front of the
café. I thought Carol saw me for sure, but she didn't, so I hid in
Ronnie's old house until Wendy and Ronnie could sneak away like we
planned."
Lori patted the bed at her side. Gloria sat primly
on the edge, staring into her hands folded in her lap. "I'm going to have
a talk with Karen after you leave," Lori told her. "I'm certain your
mother is very sorry for the way she's behaved."
Gloria's eyes widened with concern. "She's going to
be okay, isn't she?"
Lori had no way of knowing. She should have known it
would be a bad idea to confront Karen with the daughter she had thought
dead for the past year. She had been too eager to show Karen how wrong
she had been. Karen had gone into hysterics. She had raged in a fit of
madness for the hour it took for the ambulance to arrive.
"I'll explain everything to your mother when she's
feeling better," Lori assured her. "Did you check on Ronnie this
morning?"
"I told him that I had to go back home, but he was
glad to see me."
"Does Carl Adler know what happened?"
Gloria weighed the question and gave a tentative
shake of her head. "I don't think so. I made Ronnie take all the
drawings down and promise not to let anyone see."
Was it possible that nobody but those directly
involved knew of the night's events? Lori doubted if Ronnie understood
that Karen had meant to kill him. Hopefully, unless Karen said something
at the hospital, the authorities would never know of the near
catastrophe. All wrongs had been set right. Karen did not need to be
punished any more than she had already punished herself.
"I promise that if you want to visit again, Karen
will be as sweet as pie to both you and your father," Lori said. "I'll
see to it myself."
Gloria smiled like the sun. "That would sure be
nice." She leaped to her feet, filled with renewed energy. Lori grabbed
her coffee to keep it from spilling. "Thanks for everything, Mrs.
Malcolm. I'm going to go outside and watch for Dad now."
Benjamin Radcliff made his appearance just before
noon. Wendy and Leslie followed Gloria to the car like mourners at a
funeral. Lori took note of how Gloria leaped into her father's arms and
gave him a fierce hug, all the proof she needed that the two were doing
well together. She could almost forgive Ben for having spirited Gloria
away from the world. Karen inflicted too much stress and suffering on
those closest to her. Gloria would have been the first casualty of a
custody battle between the two.
Lori went out to join them. Benjamin put Gloria down
and greeted her with a handshake. Lori remembered him as a passive
individual with a furtive expression that betrayed hidden pools of anger
and fear, but there were other things she had missed in the past. He was
taller than she remembered, virile-looking despite his receding hairline
and the harm Karen's disparaging remarks had done to his memory. His
handshake was sudden and firm.
"Gloria tells me how helpful and understanding you've
been," Ben said. His soft, apologetic voice was the same as she
remembered, almost as irritating as Karen's boisterousness and coarse
mannerisms. "I'm dreadfully sorry for the problems Gloria and I have
caused. I thought everyone understood how difficult Karen can be and
would guess what had happened to Gloria and not worry about her. I
couldn't afford a lawyer, and Karen would never discuss a separation or
divorce. She would have made our life a living hell."
"You've made it rough for all of us," Lori said.
"I only wish the girls had confided in you, Mrs.
Malcolm. I guess it was rather typical adolescent behavior at work." He
smiled at the two girls engaged in an animate, hush-hush conversation by
the car. "I wish they came with an instruction manual. They're difficult
at this age."
"We should be able to write our own by now," Lori
said.
Ben had never been a social individual by nature. He
climbed back into his car and gestured curtly for Gloria to join him.
Gloria closed the door behind her.
"We'll talk again soon," Ben said through his open
window. He waved a farewell at Wendy and Leslie whose tears were flowing
freely. The car rolled quietly away. It turned a corner at the end of
the block and disappeared from sight.
Wendy ran sobbing back into the house. Leslie
recovered far more quickly and wandered off to play in a thoughtful mood.
Lori stood at the curb for a time, trying to sort out what had been
resolved during the turmoil and what was left to be sorted out. She went
back inside the house, called the hospital in Clayton, and demanded to
speak with Carol Fisher. The nurse set the phone down without comment.
After several minutes, Lori wondered if she hadn't been disconnected.
"Hello?"
Lori wasn't certain of the identity of the soft,
hoarse voice. "Carol is that you?"
"Lori, it was Ruben!" Carol cried in a harsh
whisper. "My God! Don't let him hurt anyone!"
Lori's heart raced in her chest. "Did you tell the
sheriff?"
"No! I was so afraid!"
"Thank God. Carol, he's gone. He got what he came
for and he left. We'll never see him again."
Carol was silent for a time. Voices murmured in the
background. "Do you really think so?"
"I know so."
Carol sounded near tears. "The doctor's here. I
have to go."
The phone clicked and went dead. Lori put the
handset down with a trembling hand thinking that she finally had a secret
that even Carol would never know about. Her agreement with Ruben was a
burden she would have to carry alone for the rest of her life.
The phone rang even as she turned away from it. It
took two trembling hands to lift the handset again to her ear. "It's me,"
Trent said, his voice a low murmur. "Are you in the mood for company this
evening?"
Lori was speechless and too weary to take on another
challenge for the day. She hesitated a moment too long.
"I'll try again later," he said quietly.
"Wait."
She took a deep breath, clutching the phone with a
death grip. The opportunity was ill-timed, but she couldn’t let it slip
by. "Make it about seven."
She set the phone back in place wondering if she
dared let him into her life. It would never happen until she had
dispelled the mystery that clung to him like a shadow. Curiosity would be
a two-way street, though. He would have questions of his own to ask, and
Lori began counting the paltry few answers she had to give.
