In All Deep Places

by Susan Meissner

  She did look like Belinda.

  My mom turned the box to look at the lady. “Well, how about that?” she said. “That’s an amazing resemblance.”

  “Looks just like her, doesn’t she?” Kieran said softly to the air on his left.

  I raised my eyebrows, as did Norah. I quickly stepped into the vacant spot where an imaginary friend was surely standing.

  “She sure does,” I said to Kieran.

  My mother looked up at him. “I had never noticed that before,” she said. “She does look like their mother.”

  Then the moment thankfully passed.

  “Ethan, I need help putting the leaf in,” I said.

  “I can help you,” Norah said, and before I could say anything else, she walked past me into the dining room. I followed.

  I silently removed the vase of fake tulips in the center of the table and placed it on the china hutch.

  “You pull that side,” I said to Norah.

  She pulled one end of the table, and I pulled the other. When enough space had been created, I stopped, picked up the leaf and gently laid it across the frame.

  We pushed the table back together until it clicked into place.

  I looked up at Norah at the other end of the table. I was about to thank her for helping when she beat me to it.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. It was obvious her gratitude had nothing to with the dining-room table.

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  Her gray eyes held my gaze, and I thought that in them I could see she had decided to trust me after all.

  Eleven

  The first week of my summer vacation solidified a routine that had begun to fall into place from the first day. I was usually up by nine and at the paper by ten. When I came home for lunch at noon, my mother’s bike and Ethan’s old bike would usually be gone, and sometimes Ethan’s new bike would be gone, too. Norah and Kieran went to Goose Pond every day to swim. Sometimes Ethan went with them. My mom had told them that first Sunday they’d joined us for supper that they could borrow her bike and Ethan’s old bike anytime they pleased. They didn’t have to ask, and they didn’t have to leave a note.

  I got off at two o’clock on most days, and sometimes I would join them at the pond. On more than one occasion Matt and Derek and some of his other friends were already there when I arrived. I didn’t like the thought of Norah being ogled by Matt and Derek, and I was surprised that I also didn’t like the thought of Norah being befriended by some of the girls in our circle of friends. The only exception was Patti Carmichael, a classmate who lived at the far end of my street and whose father pastored the little Bible church on the north end of town. Patti was safe enough. Besides, I knew that the two girls were probably so different—at least they seemed different enough to me—that they would not get terribly close and somehow crowd me out. And I liked that. It also annoyed me that I liked that.

  I knew it was normal for a guy my age to be attracted to a girl, but it was a strange, new feeling for me. And it wasn’t happening the way I thought it would. I’d always envisioned being suddenly and unexplainably attracted to one of the girls in my class at school. I’d figured it would have to happen suddenly and without warning because I had known most of the girls in my class since grade school.

  But then along came Norah. Someone I didn’t really know, but sort of did. Technically, I had known her since she was six. Sort of. She lived next door to me. Sort of. She had been inside my tree house, which no other friend but Matt had done before. She needed me. Sort of. I felt drawn to her. Sort of.

  It was all very weird.

  The thing that was the strangest was the assignment she had proposed and I’d accepted. It was like I was suddenly a private detective with a job to do. It gave me a heady feeling of responsibility, and it surprised me how much I wanted to come through for her, especially since when she had first mentioned it, I’d thought it was the craziest idea in the world.

  The second week of summer vacation I attempted to ferret out the information Norah needed, beginning my secret investigation with Lucie, the office manager. I was typing up the traffic-court report for the week. I turned to her. “Say, Lucie, what happens if you go to a foreign county and get a speeding ticket?”

  She was filling her stapler. She slipped a row of staples into the runner and closed the lid.

  “Well, why would you have a car in another country?”

  “If you were living there you might. Or if you lived in Texas or California, you could drive to Mexico, you know.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess it’s the same as here. You pay the fine and promise to be a better driver.”

  I hesitated a moment. “What if you did something worse than speeding? Like robbed a bank or tried to kill someone?”

  Lucie turned to me. “What brings all this up?”

  I continued to type. “Just wondering.”

  “Well, I’m sure no matter what country you’re in, robbing banks and killing people are both against the law.”

  “So you’d get arrested.”

  “Well, I’m sure you would.”

  “And get put in one of their jails.”

  “Certainly.”

  “And there’d be a trial?”

  “Well, I would hope so.”

  “Would you get a lawyer?”

  “I guess if you could afford one, you would.”

  “What if you didn’t have any money?”

  “I would guess you’d be looking at a nice long stay in a foreign country.” Lucie placed the stapler back on her desk.

  I pretended to be musing on another question.

  “What if the police only thought you robbed the bank or tried to kill someone, but you really didn’t do it, it was really someone else?”

  “That’s precisely why I go to Florida for my vacations!” she said, putting the box of staples away.

  “But what could you do?”

  She thought for a moment. “Well, I guess that’s what the embassy is for. I suppose you could contact the American embassy to see if they could help you.”

  “But what if no one will let you use the phone?”

  “Then you better hope you have someone on the outside looking out for you,” she said gravely.

  The phone rang then, and the conversation was over.

  I was pretty sure of at least one thing. I would need to tell my dad. There was no way I could call the American embassy in Mexico without my dad finding out. I wasn’t even sure I would know what to say.

  I finished the report, put it in the proofreading basket, and got ready to leave.

  It was hard trying to find a way to talk to Norah secretly. Kieran was always with her. And we hadn’t been alone at the pond for a while, now that school was out and the temperature was steadily rising every day. When I got home that day after talking with Lucie, I waited until Norah and Kieran were outside in Nell’s driveway shooting hoops. I stepped outside and stood at the edge of my own driveway, watching and waiting for an invitation to play with them. I knew Kieran would offer. Within seconds, he did.

  “It’s me and Norah against you!” Kieran said joyfully, then he turned aside and whispered something to no one.

  I cast a glance at Norah but her face was expressionless.

  “Okay, let’s see what you got,” I said.

  Kieran dribbled up the driveway past my outstretched arms and lobbed a shot over my head. The ball hit the warped and peeling backboard at an odd angle and went sailing across the driveway onto Nell’s lawn.

  “I’ll get it.” He dashed off after the ball.

  I turned quickly to Norah and gave her the “meet you in the tree house” sign. She nodded

  “Ten tonight,” she whispered.

  I nodded back as Kieran came racing back with the ball.

  That night when I met Norah in the tree house she did not warm up at all to my idea that we involve my dad.

  “Not yet,” she said. “I’ll try to call the American em
bassy. I’ll find a way.”

  “But you don’t even know where in Mexico it is. Or the telephone number.”

  “I’ll call Information. They have the number for everything.”

  “But where will you call from?”

  She hesitated. “I’ll just use Grandma’s phone when she’s sleeping.”

  “But what happens when she gets the bill? Norah, she’ll have a cow!”

  She looked away and shrugged. “So, she’ll have a cow.”

  I was afraid for her. Nell’s anger wasn’t a pretty sight.

  “Let me tell my dad. I think he’ll be able to help you.”

  “But why would he?” she said, turning to look at me.

  I blinked back his surprise. Norah was apparently not used to the kindness of adults.

  “Because you need it.”

  Several seconds of silence passed between us.

  “Let me try calling the embassy first. I’ll let you know what happens.”

  On the following Monday afternoon, the beginning of my third week of summer vacation, Ethan and I arrived at the swimming hole at two-thirty. Ethan had arranged to meet his friend Ryan there, and the moment they arrived, he dashed off to the jumping rock with his friend.

  Norah was sitting on a towel reading. Kieran was far out in the pond, paddling to the other end with a Styrofoam cooler top as a flotation device. His legs, kicking, produced mini-volcanoes of water. Only one other family was at the pond, and it looked like they were getting ready to leave. I decided to play lifeguard and put my towel down not too far away from Norah’s where I could see Kieran, Ethan, and Ryan with no trouble.

  Norah looked up when I sat down.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hi.”

  She looked past her book to her brother out at the other end of the pond. He was now swimming toward Ethan and Ryan, apparently happy to have other boys to jump off the rock with.

  “So, you guys are still coming here every day?” I said. I knew they were.

  “Yeah, I can’t keep Kieran away. He loves to swim. He wants to swim in the Olympics someday.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Kind of a big wish, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Well, at least he doesn’t want to grow up to be a whale anymore.”

  “Yeah.”

  “My dad finally got a job at the paint factory,” she said after a pause.

  “That’s great.” I supposed it was good news. It was hard to tell what Norah thought of it. I imagined it meant they were staying.

  “Yeah.”

  I had not been able to ask her about calling the embassy, but now that we were alone, I wanted to know if she had found out anything.

  “So did you call?” I asked.

  She nodded. “They took information from me. And they asked how old I was. I told them I was seventeen.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think they’d take me seriously if they knew I was thirteen.”

  “What did they say?”

  “Some lady said she would look into it and call me back,” Norah said, looking out over the water.

  “You gave her Nell’s number?”

  “Of course.”

  “But what if Nell answers the phone when that lady calls back?”

  “Well, the lady will ask for Norah Janvik. That’s me. Grandma will tell me I have a call.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I’ll find out what the lady has to tell me.”

  “What if she tells you it’s true, that your mom is in jail because they think she helped kill a cop?”

  Norah raised her chin, her face resolute. “My mother didn’t kill anybody. I’ll have to find a way to help her. And I will, too. If I have to go to Mexico myself.”

  She paused for a moment.

  “I’m hot,” she said simply. She put her book down and stood up, then walked gracefully into the water. She strode forward until she was in waist-deep and then plunged into its depths and swam away from me.

  Three days later, at a little before ten in the morning, I went out to the garage to get my bike and go to the newspaper office. I had just grabbed the handlebars when Norah ran in, stopping short when she saw me.

  “Hey,” I said.

  Norah looked scared and breathless.

  “Can I use your mom’s bike?” she said, all six words seeming to run together.

  “Sure, no need to ask,” I said, a little curious about her expression.

  She looked past my mother’s bike to the place where Ethan’s old bike usually sat. I followed her gaze. There was no bike.

  She rushed over to the other bike and grabbed its handlebars.

  “Something wrong?” I asked.

  “No—no.” Barefoot, she was struggling to get the kickstand up.

  I stepped over and kicked it up for her. “Did Kieran go somewhere without asking?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know!” she said quickly, climbing onto the bike. Then she stopped and turned to me. “I think he might have gone to the swimming hole alone.”

  The town’s worst fear was that one day a child would find his or her way down to the swimming hole when no one else was there and drown. “By himself?” I asked.

  “Well, that’s what ‘alone’ means, doesn’t it?” she said sharply, but her eyes were growing clouded with fear.

  “I’m coming with you.” I got onto my own bike. I thought Norah might protest but she didn’t.

  We took off.

  I had never ridden to the swimming hole as fast as I did then. To an onlooker it would have appeared the two of us were racing. And in a way, we were. We were just not racing each other.

  We arrived at Goose Pond, breathless and sweaty. There were no cars there, and the beach was empty, as it usually was at ten in the morning. The only thing visible in the pea-gravel parking lot was Ethan’s old bike.

  “Kieran!” Norah began to yell, even before she was fully stopped. “Kieran!”

  We dashed off the bikes, letting them fall to the gravel, and sprinted across the grass to the sandy beach, looking across the sapphire-blue water. Its surface was serene and peaceful—and that fact alone sent a cold arrow of fear into my gut.

  “Kieran! Kieran!” Norah wailed, stepping out into the calm water.

  I kicked off my sandals and joined her, my heart pounding in my chest. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. On his far right a tiny head broke the surface of the water by the rocks. It bobbed up and down. Then it arose from the water, and I could see it was attached to a living torso. Arms came up out of the water and touched the rock.

  Kieran.

  “Norah!” I said and pointed to the rocks.

  She turned toward my voice and then followed my pointed finger. She saw her little brother hoist himself onto the first rock ledge and then slide off into the water again. He was playing some sort of game.

  Norah strode right into the water, fully clothed, taking the biggest steps she could. Then she dove in, swimming hard toward her brother. I headed in to follow her.

  She reached Kieran first and had already begun to scold him, when I arrived slightly out of breath.

  “I told you we weren’t going today!” she yelled. “Get up on this rock!”

  Kieran climbed out of the water and sat on the first ledge. Norah climbed up next to him. I climbed out onto the next one, a couple feet away.

  “But I wanted to go swimming!” Kieran said.

  “And I said not today!” Norah yelled.

  “But I don’t need you to take me! I can swim fine,” he replied angrily. “I can swim better than you!”

  “But you’re not allowed to go swimming by yourself!”

  “But I wasn’t by myself. Tommy came with me.”

  Norah’s next reprimand froze in her mouth. I was aware that my own mouth had dropped open a little.

  “Oh, God,” Norah whispered.

  Oh, God, indeed, I thought.
r />   Kieran waited for his sister to respond but she did not. The look on his face said, I win!

  Finally she found her voice. She quietly but authoritatively told her brother to please swim back to the beach and she would meet him there in a minute. Feeling thoroughly vindicated, he slipped into the water and began heading back.

  I waited for Norah to say something. When she didn’t, I did.

  “Norah, you gotta tell somebody.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “But he could have drowned.”

  “But he didn’t!”

  “But he could have! He could’ve slipped on the rocks, hit his head, and drowned! He could have—”

  “Stop it.”

  “Well, if you aren’t going to, then I will.” I started to ease my way back into the water. Norah sprang across the ledge to me and grabbed my arm.

  “Don’t! Please don’t tell anybody!” Her deep-gray eyes were wild.

  I was certain something had to be horribly out of place for a seven-year-old to believe in imaginary people. A four-year-old, maybe. But Kieran was closer to being eight. It was far too peculiar. This was not like pretending. This was not like playing a game where you’re a cop and your friend is a robber. When I had played pretending games as a kid I’d always known it was just pretend. I had known what was real and what wasn’t.

  “He can’t keep this up, Norah. It’s not right. And you’re not helping him by keeping it a secret.”

  “I know, I know, it’s just… it’s just I think I may need help with him. Maybe you can help me, Luke. He likes you. He talks about you all the time. You’re like his hero.”

  This was news.

  “What?” I said.

  “He will listen to you. You can figure out a way to let him know he can’t come here with just Tommy. And I think maybe you’d be the best one to convince him Tommy isn’t real. He would believe you, Luke. He would listen to you!”

  “No way,” I said, shaking his head.

  “Please, Luke!” she begged. “Please! What if they send him away? I promised my mother I’d look after him! I promised her I wouldn’t let anything happen to him! Please! When she comes back for us, he has to be here!”