Secrets of the Weeping Willow

by Kathleen Anastasia

  His remark made her turn to glare at Leo, who shrugged his shoulders in mock apology as a slight grin played on his face. Elizabeth knew he was enjoying the adventure and danger of the moment. She reevaluated her first impression of Jeff, whom she originally thought was dashing and debonair when she first met him that morning. Standing just over six feet, he had looked casual and comfortable in tailored clothing that portrayed wealth and well grooming. His hair left slightly longer, looking good rather than bad with his chiseled features. Elizabeth warmed up quickly to his friendly personality and quick wit; a twinkle had danced mischievously in his dark brown eyes. Which, if Elizabeth thought about it, should have been her first clue that the plane ride would be anything but ordinary.

  So, by the time they landed, Elizabeth had fallen to the tarmac, brushing away the cold heavy snow so she could kiss it with joy, thanking God she was alive. The act had sent a burst of laughter through both Leo and Jeff.

  Now, she found herself cringing at the sight she must be making, glaring up at them. “Funny. Funny. I’m glad to see that I can be a form of amusement to you guys.”

  Leo smiled, his hand reaching down for Elizabeth’s arm. “I’m sorry, honey. But you have to admit it is funny.”

  “Yeah, well. You failed to mention to me last night that your friend flew an old tin box with wings.”

  Jeff stepped forward with her remark, a bit of laughter danced in his eyes. “Hey now. I take offense to your reference to my 1937 Lockleed. My little lady is a classic, a true gem of aviation history.”

  Elizabeth felt a bit guilty with the remark after he had gone out of his way to fly them to New York,. She cleared her throat to apologize, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to criticize your plane. I’m just not used to flying in something.... so small. And hitting such bad weather to top it all off.”

  Jeff laughed as he picked up her small overnight bag. “Don’t worry, little filly. No need for apology,” he said as he rubbed the wing of the plane with his free hand, caressing it with affection as he continued. “She can be a bit rough around the edges, but she has a lot of heart and class.”

  Inwardly, Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the remark as she thought of men and their toys and wondering how she could delicately decline a ride back to New Orleans in his little gem without hurting Jeff’s feelings. The thought of flying once more in his tin box with wings made her cringe as she followed behind them into the small airport just outside the city. Brushing snow from her knees, she pulled the collar of her winter coat closer to her neck to prevent the biting cold from chilling her further.

  Her thoughts were already on what needed to be done, and what could possibly be waiting for her in the safety deposit box. She looked at her watch, gauging how long it would take to get done what she needed to do and still stop Aurora from doing something reckless to prove her point.

  She remembered her troubling conversation that morning with Aurora on the phone, becoming increasingly more worried, the more she thought about it. The phone conversation had begun pleasantly enough, with Elizabeth reassuring Aurora that she was just fine. Too rapidly going downhill when Aurora then tried to convince Elizabeth that the man Elizabeth was talking about was not the same man she had been seeing. Both of them convinced that what they knew was right.

  In frustration, Elizabeth had lashed out at Aurora calling her naive and stupid for believing Roger’s lies and for not being able to see past Roger’s slick looks and smooth words. Aurora had grown cold on the phone at Elizabeth’s accusation, as she had asked Elizabeth how she could possibly know this if she had never met her Roger.

  The conversation replayed in Elizabeth mind as she became increasingly worried that she may have only made things worse and Aurora would try to prove her wrong. The thought of Aurora doing something stupid to prove Roger’s innocence filled her with dread and helplessness.

  Elizabeth sighed, knowing she had to move forward and attempt to put these thoughts in the back of her mind. If she was going to recover what her mother had locked up in the safety box against Roger. This was the only way she was going to truly secure her safely and everyone she cared for.

  Elizabeth climbed absently into the deep blue Jeep Cherokee rental. As Leo thanked Jeff for the lift, he promised to call him when they needed to go back to New Orleans. Elizabeth inwardly moaned at the remark, silently cursing Leo for making the statement. Shivering, Elizabeth lifted her bright red yarn gloved hands up to her face, covering her mouth and nose. She blew her own breath into the pocket her hands had created to warm her nose, which had grown cold from the blowing snow, her body tense, not only from the cold but also, from what she was about to find. It was all happening so quickly and she wasn’t quite sure how ready she really was.

  The Jeep was quiet except for the sound of the heater blowing out lukewarm heat and the tires dredging through the slush on the road, the sound peaceful in a strange bizarre way. Elizabeth wondered how she could have missed this nightmarish cold. She rested her head back, turning it towards the white landscape gliding past, thinking how peaceful and pure it all looked.

  A flash of memory struck her, she attempted to remember how old she had been, maybe ten or eleven. She had been standing outside a brick building as a freezing wind had wrapped around the corner like an angry finger seeping between the seams of her coat. She could remember wondering what was taking her mother so long, and why she brought her to this cold place, the snow foreign and evil. Having only lived in the south as far as she could remember, her body had shivered, as she waited for her mother to return, hoping it would be without Roger. Once more, hoping for her mother to see his evil. The snow had blinded her as it whipped at her face preventing her from watching the front of the building as she had been instructed to do.

  Elizabeth felt her heart jump with the return of the memory; her old emotions filled her with anxiety, as if she was once more waiting for her mother, the landscape she and Leo passed, a blur in front of her.

  Elizabeth closed her eyes to let the memory envelope her completely, taking her on it’s magical seductive ride until she felt like she was her younger self once more watching the building to give the proper signal, her hands had twisted at her inability to see the building properly, startled when her mother and Roger had walked out. Her momentary happiness at seeing her mother dampened by her expression as she grabbed Elizabeth’s arm in passing, dragging her along, wondering what she had done wrong to make her mother so angry. Elizabeth heard her mother hiss angrily at Roger, asking him what the hell he was doing, that it wasn’t part of the original plan. Her heart had hammered violently in her chest, as she became afraid with her mother’s words, wondering what had happened. Roger laughed, cold, sadistically as he told her even the best-laid plans must change.

  The memory faded as quickly as it came, and was then quickly followed by another memory. This time she was older, twelve or thirteen, the age unclear, she could just remember that her memory of her childhood was gone and the confusion she had felt. She had been so full of questions with little answers; the loss had torn her up inside.

  She and Rita, who Elizabeth had believed to be her mother, had just arrived in Ann Arbor right after she had lost her memory. It snowed shortly after their arrival and the snow had sent a shiver down her spine with an unexplainable fear. She could remember telling Rita that she was afraid of the brilliant white but was unsure why.

  Rita had given her a small smile and had instead shown her the beauty of snow, changing her very concept to one of wonder and magic. So, instead of fear, she had felt as though she had walked into the middle of a miracle, finding the flakes that where individually so different, glorious. Until, she found herself laughing in glee as she ran out into it, opening her arms wide to rotate in a circle with her mouth open wide to catch all the cold flakes. Rita had laughed next to her, begging her to come back inside before she caught her death of cold. The cold had surprisingly been insignificant,
almost cleansing.

  Elizabeth had quickly discovered that when she played out in it, her tormented mind was relieved for a time, the world quiet, silencing her thoughts of why, she could remember how to dress, eat, read and write yet still she could not remember who she was. So engrossed in her thoughts, Elizabeth was startled when Leo called her name, turning her head towards him in question, “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

  “I was wondering what you were thinking? You look as though your mind is a thousand miles away.”

  “It was. You know it’s amazing to me. Now that my memory has returned, all of these random thoughts that just keep popping up. And they’re so vivid, it’s almost like they just happened. I wonder if it is like that for everyone that gets their memory back?”

  “I’m sure it’s different for everyone. Do you want to talk about what you’re remembering?”

  Elizabeth smiled sadly as she looked back out the window, still wanting to hold those memories which she just recently retrieved close to her heart. She was not yet ready to reveal what she had remembered. Looking back over, “How about later?” Then feeling the need to reassure him, she continued rapidly, “Not that I don’t trust you-because, I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have taken this trip with you. It’s just... it’s just that they are random thoughts. I need to sort them out first.”

  Leo chuckled, “That’s fine. Have you talked to Aurora or your mother-Rita since.... you know.”

  “My memory returned?”

  “Yes.” Leo said as he looked back over. The same time the car caught a slick spot and did a fishtail.

  Elizabeth’s breath caught in panic, her foot instinctively pressing down on an imaginary break petal. “Leo, watch the road please. I want to get where we are going. I don’t want to feel like I’m with your kamikaze pilot friend again. One heart attack for one day is enough.” Letting her breath out slowly, when the car regained its traction to continue on more smoothly. “And no, I haven’t talked to Rita. That is one thing I need to do in person. And yes, I have talked to Aurora. That is another story.”

  “Long or short?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Aurora’s story. Long or short?”

  “Long. Short. Does it matter?” Elizabeth asked in frustration. She found herself growing agitated then unable to suppress her frustration from her earlier conversation with Aurora. She turned in her seat to face Leo. “Do you want to know what Aurora believes?” Pausing only a moment before she started again, not giving Leo a chance to answer. “She believes that we have it all wrong. Aurora has it in her brain that Roger isn’t who we say he is, that because I haven’t met him, that he is most likely a different Roger than my Roger. That she...” Elizabeth paused in her rant to gather her thoughts, “Leo I’m afraid. I’m so very afraid, that she will do something stupid like go back to New Orleans to talk to Roger. She doesn’t realize whom she is dealing with. As a matter of fact, he has her convinced that he is the saint and you are the bad guy.”

  “Do you still believe that?” Leo asked hesitantly.

  “No. No. I never really did believe that. I was just mad.” Elizabeth said apologetically.

  “Do you want me to send one of my thugs over to her house. I can do that, you know. Stop her from doing something foolish.” Leo said with a bit of humor.

  Horrified, Elizabeth didn’t know what to say, at first. Then seeing Leo’s lips curl up in a slight smile, she hit him on the shoulder. “Very funny.”

  “Well, it seemed like you needed something to distract you and remind you that there is nothing you can do about it here.”

  “I know. I just don’t want Aurora to become a pawn in Roger’s game.”

  “Why do you think she will?”

  “It’s a feeling I have.” Elizabeth said simply, as she started to trust her instincts once more.

  The gypsy had seen this gift in Elizabeth. An ability to sense other’s auras which let Elizabeth know when people are not what they say. Now with her memory back, she is realizing she always had this ability to see what others couldn’t.

  When she was very young she didn’t know how to interpret these flashes of unease, flashes of sensations she would get from certain individuals. Some sensations had filled her with warmth that wrapped around her like a soft blanket, while others filled her with dread and unease, often times leaving her sick.

  This was what happened to her when her mother had introduced Elizabeth to Roger. She had sensed his violence, the evil that radiated from him, filling her with such terror she had doubled over as a cramp coursed through her. She begged her mother to run from his evil. Her mother, instead, had laughed nervously as she apologized to Roger, telling him that her daughter had a very active imagination and was a bit dramatic. Later that night, she was scolding Elizabeth for trying to ruin her life and take away her opportunity for happiness, begging Elizabeth to give him time, that she would grow to like him also and that there was no way in the world Roger could take her away from her. Elizabeth now saw the irony of her mother’s statement.

  This ability; this gift, was forgotten for a while. Taken with her memory loss, it was buried as deep as her mother’s secrets. Suppressed all those years, until she had arrived in New Orleans. Then, all that she had buried so deep cracked through her subconscious. The gift returned first, giving her the ability to sense Roger’s evil, she had forgotten this, fighting it when the gypsy tried to remind her of her gift.

  When she had been a child, she did not have the proper ability to express herself and the evil she had seen surrounding Roger. Instead, she lashed out at her mother for not trusting her, acting like a resentful daughter afraid of her mother’s affection towards another.

  Now as an adult she could finally understand, or believed she was able to understand, the gift she had been born with. She was determined to get to the bottom of what was hidden. She needed to protect the rest of the people she loved from his viciousness. Her hand subconsciously fingered the sunflower charm her mother had given her those many years ago.

  As another possible problem filled her, she knew that just a key and a name would not get her into the safety deposit box her mother had rented. She needed the account number also, her mother had to have given it to her at one time or another, she just needed to remember.

  Frustrated for not thinking of this before they had left New Orleans, she gritted her teeth as she blew out a breath of agitation. Wishing she had thought of this before they had left, then maybe she could have had Sara come back out to Leo’s and place her back into her dreamlike state to remember it.

  Leo’s voice startled her back once more, “Something wrong, Elizabeth?”

  “I’m thinking that we forgot something very important about this whole trip.”

  “What is that?”

  “The account number to get into the safety deposit box, unless you know another way to get into it, legally? Because I’m pretty sure a name and a key won’t get us very far.”

  “No, I don’t. I didn’t ask you about it, because I thought maybe you already had the number.”

  “No. I just wasn’t thinking very clear.”

  “Well, we can figure this out. Your mother had to have given you some sort of clue.

  How about the letter you found in the box? Did the letter give you any hints to what it might be?”

  “I’m not sure. Damn it, I wish Roger wouldn’t have gotten it, then I could go back over it for any sort of clue.” Elizabeth said, as she leaned back against the headrest, closing her eyes as she fingered the key and charm once more, racking her brain for any sort of clue.

  “There has to be something. Your mother, from what I can gather, was extremely cautious and smart, so let’s go over this together. There has to be something we are missing, some way she gave you the account number without giving it away if the box fell into the wrong hands.”

 
“I know...but what?”

  “Ok. Let’s go step by step through what you remember in the letter. How did she start it off.”?

  “It started off with her telling me about her childhood.”

  “Could she have put a clue in that story? Was there any reference to numbers in anyway?”

  “No. Wait let me think for a minute.” Elizabeth said as she went over what she could remember about her mother’s own disturbed upbringing, her heart caught at what her mother must have went through. But absolutely no reference to a number came to mind only heartache and betrayal. “No. There wasn’t.” Elizabeth said with a catch in her throat, feeling comforted when Leo reached over to take her hand.

  “We will find a way.” Leo said as he stroked her thigh in reassurance.

  Elizabeth smiled sadly, pulling Leo’s hand up to her lips, kissing the warm flesh affectionately. “You’re right. There has to be something in the letter that only I would understand. So let me go over what I can remember. After she described her childhood, she then wrote about my father.”

  “How did she describe him?”

  “She described him as a very kind and generous man, who taught her the meaning of love.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes. He was also very wealthy and....” Elizabeth paused in mid sentence as she remembered her mother mentioning a charm. She chuckled in excitement as she turned back to Leo. “By golly, George, I think I have it.”

  Leo pulled the car over into a gas station as he turned to face her. “Good. What did it say exactly?”