by Sam Logue
“That was foolish. She’s not as sweet as you believe. I sent her a few moments. I felt when she received them. She had to have been reading – killing – to get the first one.”
“Katie already told me about that. She never finished reading. She didn’t kill anyone. We don’t keep secrets between us.”
“I never asked to turn out this way. It’s how I was born.”
He wouldn’t acknowledge her.
“Julian?” She reached up and turned his face toward her. “If she says something to anyone, the other members of the club will want to kill me,” she pleaded.
He moved out of her reach. “All I know is you tried to take my daughter. That’s not something I can ever forgive you for doing.” Julian started toward the door.
His mother shouted his name and followed him. She tried to hold on to his sleeve. “You’re my son.” She met his eyes and touched his arm, but he shrugged her off.
Julian didn’t glance back at her. He walked down the front steps and sat in his car in her driveway.
Chapter Thirty
The day Paul disappeared
Before Julian had gone to the park with Agostina, his mother asked him to find a small child who was alone in the playground and lead them into the woods.
Julian found a bespectacled boy in a blue ski parka pushing a slightly larger boy who looked just like him on the swings. The boys couldn’t have been much older than him. He waited until the boy in the blue parka took a break from pushing the other boy and had wandered away a little.
“Hey, what’s your name?” Julian asked as he approached him.
“Paul.” The boy in the parka pointed at Julian’s baseball cap. “Cool hat.”
“Thanks. So, do you want to see some trees that look like monsters? Because I’m going to check them out. Want to come?”
“Where are they?”
Julian glanced around the playground for a parent who might be Paul’s, like Elvina had instructed him to do, but he didn’t see one. “I’ll show you.”
“I have to tell my brother first.”
“You don’t have to do that. It’s okay. We’ll be right back.”
Paul started to smile then frowned. “But my mum doesn’t like me going alone.”
“Where is she?”
Paul peered around him. “I don’t see her.”
“Well, then, she won’t know. How old are you anyway?”
“Nine,” Paul said. “She doesn’t ever let me do anything I want.”
Julian crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head. “That sucks. You should just do what you want. Listening to your mum isn’t cool. I’m ten, and I do what I want.”
Paul dashed to the swings and spoke with his brother. Just when Julian started to think Paul wouldn’t be back, he returned. “I’m ready to go see the tree beasts now.”
Guilt twisted like hard, sharp metal in Julian’s gut as the boy held his hand. But he worried what his mother would do to him if he disobeyed her. Growing up, he’d seen her do some pretty terrible things. Julian tried to emotionally detach himself from Paul. He pointed at the boy Paul had been talking with. “Are you guys twins or something?”
“Yeah. That’s Nat.” Paul reached into his pocket and showed him a rose. “My mum gave it to me.”
“It’s pretty.”
Paul glanced back at the playground as they walked farther into the woods, until when Julian peeked behind them he couldn’t see the swings or the tall plastic slide that looked like a giant dog’s red tongue, and the voices and laughter of the other children playing grew fainter.
Paul held the rose and kicked the light snow on the ground. It went up in the air and scattered like dust. He turned to Julian. “When I kick it, it goes away.”
“That’s because it’s snow.” Julian began to smile but then his mother appeared by a tall snow-brushed pine tree in front of them, in a white coat and hat that covered her ears, with her hands in red gloves clasped together.
Paul pointed at her. “A lady’s there.” He sounded more curious than afraid. And right away Julian liked that about him, liked the boy’s big heart. He was the opposite of Julian, who had closed himself off from the world.
“That’s my mum,” Julian said.
“What’s she doing here?”
“She must need me to come home for something. Come on. I’ll ask her.” Julian pulled Paul toward his mother.
She half hugged Julian and held out her hand. He didn’t let go of Paul. She narrowed her eyes at Julian. “Do you want me to love you?” She tilted her head toward Paul. “Then …”
Julian didn’t move and she reached for his face, but he pulled away and her black-stone ring scratched him. He touched his cheek and there was a spot of blood on his hand.
Paul gazed up at Julian’s mother and back at him. “I think my mum misses me.”
“You’ll see her soon,” she said.
Paul turned to Julian, his eyes bright with tears. “Can we go back?”
She reached for the white-and-red rose in Paul’s hand. “What a pretty flower.” She tried to take it, but Paul moved his hand away.
Paul started to run and Julian let go of his hand. The boy stumbled and landed face down and whimpered. Julian waited for Paul’s glasses to fall off his face but they didn’t. A card had come out of his pocket. Paul got up and reached down for the card with his small hand. Julian’s mother towered over Paul from behind and covered his mouth. She was able to pull him to her chest and hold on to him with her arm. He tried to scream, but his attempts were muffled behind her unyielding fingers.
She looked straight at Julian. “I’ll love you if you keep quiet and go back to your nanny. But I will only love you then.”
Julian moved forward, as though to follow her. Why should he not? She was his mother, after all. “Mum, where are you going to take us?” But she was taking Paul, not him, and he sensed it.
Paul’s eyeglasses fell from his face as she walked backward and pulled him deeper into the woods with her, the woods with bare trees with skeletal branches. Julian accidently smashed the boy’s glasses beneath his sneakers. His mother stopped for a moment and locked her foot around Paul’s ankle. She took something from her pocket and stuck it into his arm.
Agostina called Julian’s name from far away. He watched his mother’s figure, graceful even at that moment, leading a sleepy-looking Paul toward the road where Julian could see her car, with Paul’s small hand clenched in hers and the rose still in his other hand. Her footprints were filled in with freshly falling snow, but Paul’s weren’t, as though something wanted them to be found.
“Make sure he’ll be okay, Mum,” Julian whispered, before he hurried back to the playground.
****
The Present
Julian had seen it all and could not edit any of it out. He recalled something his mother had once told him when she’d brought him to the park weeks before the abduction and had sat with him at a picnic table. She’d said, “They’ll never understand me, and they’ll never understand us.” Julian had always assumed “they” was the outside world.
It was a fact that his mother had led Paul away and Paul had never returned. Julian didn’t know what had happened to Katie’s brother but he had imagined his fate wasn’t good. As a boy it had seemed acceptable to lie to the police because Julian wanted his mother to love him, but now his youthful wish felt foul. Katie and Molly were who he loved now, and he knew they loved him back. His mind wandered over the years of his life until today, and he thought about all the things he couldn’t change. But he could still change one thing. He could change what Katie’s family didn’t know.
He started the car and drove home.
Katie was waiting for Julian in the hall when he stepped inside the house. He considered that she might kick him out, but he didn’t wait for her to speak. He just asked her how Molly was then took her by the hand and gently directed her into the living room. He turned on the small lamp on the end-table.
“Molly’s still asleep upstairs,” Katie said, sitting down next to him on the couch. Her eyes widened. “What’s going on?”
He touched her hand and when she didn’t pull away, he held his there. “It’s my fault you and your family went through all that.”
She pulled her hand out from under his and started to get up then sat down again and said in a guarded tone, “Go on.”
“The truth is that I had buried what I saw my mother do back then.”
“I’ve thought a lot about this while you were gone. And while I’m not sure if I can ever forgive you – yet – I do know that it’s your mother’s fault. You were just a little kid back then too.”
Relief filled Julian’s heavy heart. “Oh, God, I love you so much,” he said, and began to touch her face.
She wouldn’t let him caress her. “Let me finish. We have to do something. Now.”
“Have her arrested?”
Katie shook her head. She got up from the couch and walked in small circles around the room. She paused and stared at him with a spark of determination in her eyes. “There’s only one way. She challenged me to beat her. Let her read me.”
Julian stood up. “What? When?”
“When we were up at your country house, when I went into the barn with Neil, I saw an image, but it wasn’t a moment that belonged to me.” Katie held his stare. “Your mum’s such a skilled Reader that she sent me her moment.”
Julian tried to take her hand in his. “What was it?”
Katie touched his neck and lightly pushed on his chest until he had no choice but to back off.
‘Good luck.’
“She wished you good luck?”
“No, like telling someone ‘good luck’ before you fight them. Then when I couldn’t run after Molly in the stationery store, I think I saw another one of her moments. I think she can send moments to me when I’m not reading.”
“I don’t know much about it but that doesn’t sound possible.”
“Yeah, well, somehow she’s found a way to do it, Julian.”
He sat on the couch and held his hands tightly to his face until all he saw was darkness then slices of lamplight through the spaces between his fingers. Julian breathed out. “How do you know it was her?”
Katie joined him on the couch. “I recognised her ring in the first moment she sent me, the one in the barn. The jewel on her ring looks like the one on my necklace.” She held it up to the light for him to see.
Julian took his hands away from his face. “She does have a ring like that.” He still remembered the day he gave Katie the necklace and how her honey eyes had brightened when she’d taken it out of the box. The gold in her eyes was faded now. “We can call the police. They’ll take her in.” He started to put his hands to his face again.
Katie caught his hands and held them firmly. “Let’s have your mother try to read me, and she’ll turn into a tree beast. We have to find a way for her to read me.”
Julian looked at Katie’s face and her eyes were bright. “All right, so she’ll turn into a tree beast. After everything that’s happened, I guess I can believe that. But what happens to you?”
She rubbed her hands over his. “We’ll find out.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” Julian pulled her onto his lap and brushed his lips tenderly against hers.
“I would do anything to keep Molly safe.”
“So would I.”
A lock of Katie’s dark hair fell down from her loose ponytail and tickled his face. He tucked the silky piece of hair behind her ear.
“You know, I kind of like that I’m finally taking control of my life,” she whispered, soft and moist, against his lips.
Julian kissed her and then carefully asked, “What should we do next?”
“We’ll have to trick your mum.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Julian left the house and got into his car. He drove back to his mother’s place and used the golden knocker. She appeared at the door, not smiling, and opened her mouth as though she were going to speak, but he cut her off.
“I’ve decided I’m going to help you one last time.”
His mother smiled and indicated for him to step inside. She shut the front door and attempted to embrace him. “And how do you plan to do that?”
He slipped out of her arms and suggested they move out of the hall and into the living room.
She rested against the wall, to the left of the hall mirror, and crossed her arms. “I’m fine right here.” She waited for him to speak.
Speaking the plan aloud felt wicked, but Julian managed to say, “I’m giving Katie’s niece Abigail to you.”
She stepped away from the wall and put her hands at her sides. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Her brother’s wife left him for another man a while ago, and he’s stuck with their kid. That’s a lot to manage. The way I see things, we’ll be easing his burden a little. He’s young enough that he can always have another child.” Julian thought she would tell him to get out of the house, and as she stared at him, he listened to the wind getting louder outside.
“Katie’s brother isn’t just going to let you take his child,” she said after a while.
“I’ve thought about that. Abby and Molly are friends, so I’ll tell Molly to invite her to our house for a sleepover. I’ll wait until everyone’s asleep then I’ll sneak Abby out and bring her to a motel. You’ll have to read her there.”
“How will you get her to come with you? Why a motel?”
“I’ll tell her something bad happened to her dad and that I have to take her back home. I don’t want it to happen in my house, so we’ll go to a motel.”
“Which one?”
“The Thorn in Side,” he said. “The rooms are all accessed from the outside, so it will be easy to sneak her in.”
“I think you should bring her here, to my house.”
“What if a neighbour sees? What if the police are watching the house? I know Abby’s not your blood, but she’s young and I’ll be taking care of everything. The police will be searching for your car. Where is it?”
“In the garage, next to your father’s car.”
“Take dad’s old car when you head out.”
She raised her slender eyebrow. “You know, you seem a little eager.” She touched Julian’s wrist with her icy fingers. “I can’t help but wonder, what’s in this for you?”
He moved back. “After it’s over I want you to leave the island for good. You’ll have to stay away from all of us, including Molly.”
She frowned. “I won’t do that.”
Julian squared his shoulders. “You’ll leave. That’s final. You can never contact us again. It’s not like you’re going to have a choice. They’ll be looking for you because of Molly’s accident.”
“These are Katie’s terms or yours?”
“I haven’t said anything to her about this.” Momentarily, Julian’s heart soared with the hope that she would turn herself in and choose him and jail with rehabilitation, over reading.
She grudgingly held up her hands and nodded.
“I want to hear you say it,” Julian said.
“I agree to stay the hell away from your family,” she hissed. “Happy now?”
“And you’ll also stay away from me.”
She took a step toward him and there were tears in her eyes. “Is that really what you want?”
Julian had a hard time looking straight at her. For so many years, he had wanted nothing more than for her to appreciate him, and a small, still loyal part of him wanted to tell her no, it wasn’t what he wanted. “It is. Let’s get this over with. I’ll get everything in place then call you. Would you mind if I took the cloth from the basement with me? I’ll need to set up the motel room the way you like it.”
“You’re being very considerate.” His mum continued to watch his every move. “All right, you can take it.”
Julian waited for her to fetch it.
; “Feel free to go downstairs and get it yourself,” she said. “The room’s unlocked. I was in the middle of sterilizing it and changing the old devil’s breath branch for a fresh one when you arrived.”
Julian headed to the basement door and started down the creaky stairs, brushing soft, sticky cobwebs from his hair and eyes as he descended farther into the poorly lit lower ground floor and walked into the wine cellar. The yellow cloth was folded next to a little branch with white and yellow flowers on the tall stand. He returned upstairs to see her going into the kitchen. She came back with a used shopping bag.
“Here, to hold the cloth,” she said, passing him the bag. “Aren’t you a bit curious?”
“About what?” He took the bag from her.
“About how I got Molly to come out of the shop.”
His interest would surely please her, and being polite toward her would support Katie’s plan, so he tried not to sound angry, although rage shook his veins. “How did you do it?”
“I sent the doctor to follow you, and he knocked on the shop window. He told me Molly smiled at him. Haven’t you taught her it’s best not to talk to strangers?”
Ignoring her, Julian said, “Don’t forget to ring the doctor after I’ve given you the room number so he can come and do his thing.”
“I’ll be waiting for your call.”
****
The doctor was locking up the Blackthorn drugstore for the night. A small wooden sign hanging at the other side of the glass door said ‘Closed’.
“Doctor?” Julian said.
The doctor’s shoulders trembled under the shape of his jacket. He slowly turned around, a key clenched in his fist. Julian instinctively ducked. The doctor was older than when Julian had last seen him, and he had a few wisps of white hair left and was very hunched over. The silver knob atop what Julian had remembered as his magnificent cane was tarnished, and the cane that Julian had viewed as a sign of power he felt now was a sign of weakness. The doctor carried the same black bag, but it was worn and cracked.
“Will you come with us? We need your help with something,” Katie said.