by Score, Lucy
Watching his steady recovery had made her take stock of her own health. Especially after noticing she was more winded at the top of a hill than Aldo with his freaking bionic leg.
She could totally do this. Be healthy, be strong. There was time now to focus on what her future could be. More salads, some running, maybe even some weight lifting, and when Luke came home he would find a ripped woman with goals and plans.
The tree was marginally closer now even though she felt like she had been running forever. It must be an optical illusion.
Her breath was coming in shorter bursts now and her legs felt heavier. Oh my God. She was running downhill. She was going to have to run uphill on the way back.
Finally, the tree loomed in front of her. She stopped a few yards shy of its trunk and bent down pretending to tie her shoe while she desperately tried to catch her breath.
“Let’s go, Harp!” Aldo’s shout carried down the hill to her.
“Please don’t throw up. Please don’t throw up,” she chanted as she headed back up at a much slower pace.
She yelped when a stabbing pain shot through her side.
Clutching at her ribs, she finally stumbled back to the start and collapsed next to Aldo. “That wasn’t so bad,” she gasped.
He chuckled. “You sound like a pack-a-day smoker, Harp.”
“I think I have appendicitis. It hurts like a bitch.”
“Welcome to your first side stitch.”
“Side stitch?”
“Come on. Help me up and I’ll tell you all the things you did wrong.”
“Like saying I wanted to learn to run?”
They worked through Aldo’s exercises and ended with a leisurely walk to the lakefront.
“So how are you doing?”
“Good enough that I’m moving back to my place this weekend. The doc cleared it.”
“Aren’t you going to miss your mom?” Harper teased.
“Me moving out is the only way we’ll both live.”
“Are you sleeping better? Is the pain still keeping you up?”
He shrugged and the pause was so long Harper thought he wasn’t going to answer her.
“Sometimes it’s like my mind can’t tell the difference between what’s happening and what’s happened. It’s like this blur between history and present, and sometimes the only thing that clears it is pain,” Aldo said.
“Maybe that’s why you push your therapy so hard?”
“Maybe that’s why I push everything so hard.”
***
Summer was in full swing in Benevolence. Harper’s weekends were filled with cookouts and dog walks and running, which was getting marginally less painful. After she hit her first full mile, Aldo bought her a sleeve for her cellphone and downloaded a 5k training program on it for her.
She still wasn’t getting the blissful happy brain from running yet, but the relief she felt when each run was over was enough to keep her lacing up her running shoes almost every day.
Her latest project was sprucing up the outside of Luke’s house. She had repainted the banister and railing on the wraparound porch and was slowly adding flowers around the existing greenery.
Today she was going to tackle the overgrown groundcover on the side of the house that was starting to climb up the siding.
She dressed in gym shorts and one of Luke’s old paint-splattered tshirts, grabbed a baseball hat, and went to work.
The groundcover proved a formidable opponent with deep roots and long runners, but Harper enjoyed the physical labor.
The summer sun teased a trickle of sweat down her back and Harper sat back on her heels to take a water break. She had cleared more than half of the long bed already. If she could keep on pace, tomorrow she could mulch.
She wondered if Luke would be proud of the care she was taking with his home. She wanted him to come home to a smoothly running office and household.
At work she had finished converting all their client and jobs data to a new system that integrated with their accounting software, cutting the paperwork down for everyone. She also convinced Frank and Charlie to host a monthly staff meeting where everyone from foremen to high school interns participated in discussing project updates and roadblocks.
At home, the porch was painted and offset by colorful planters overflowing with summer flowers. With Claire and Sophie’s help, the vegetable garden in the back yard was really taking shape. Inside, the staircase had shed its skin of dingy age and now shone like new.
Last week, she had cleaned all of the windows inside and out. She had nearly given James a heart attack when he came over to mow the lawn and caught her on the extension ladder she found in the garage, busily wiping away the winter’s grime from the second floor glass.
He proceeded to show her that replacement windows hinged open inside for easy, ladder-free cleaning and then buried the ladder in the back of the garage under a canoe and several bags of potting soil.
“You’re not a klutz,” Luke had once told her. “But you invite trouble.” He must have relayed that message to his brother.
The only windows still to clean were the basement level. Harper swiped her fingers through the grime on the glass closest to her. It looked like several years’ worth of dirt. On the other side of the glass, was a plastic tote at window level that she could just make out.
Harper frowned. She didn’t remember any window height shelving on this wall in the basement.
Unless …
She found a window to Luke’s secret room.
She hastily wiped away more grime and peered through the glass. The room was empty except for a set of metal shelves with boxes and totes.
Harper sat back on her heels. Whatever Luke had in that room under lock and key was important. Maybe a better woman would have let it go and respected his space and secrets, but a better woman wasn’t here. Harper was.
The basement window wouldn’t open from the outside, so she hurried inside to examine the lock on the door.
Where would Luke keep the key? Harper paced the floor.
She went back upstairs to the table in the foyer and grabbed both of his key rings from the drawer. There were about a dozen keys between the ring with his truck and house keys and the one for work. None of them were labeled Secret Basement Room.
Back downstairs, she took her time fitting each one into the lock. But none of them opened the door. On tiptoe, she felt along the top of the doorframe, but came up empty. She checked his truck in the console and glove box and found nothing.
She returned to the kitchen, spinning the key ring on her finger. Where would he keep a key to something he didn’t want easy access? God, she hoped he hadn’t buried it somewhere.
She might need some backup brainpower. Harper grabbed her cellphone and dialed Hannah’s number.
“Hey, H! What’s up?” Her friend’s chirpy voice always made Harper smile.
“I’m about to go all out crazy person here and I either need talked down or walk-through.”
“Okay, shoot. What’s the sitch?”
Harper quickly filled Hannah in on the situation. “So first of all, am I nuts for desperately needing to know what’s inside? And secondly, how far can I go to get inside without being a completely crazy?”
Hannah snickered. “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to want to know what’s behind door number one. But I wouldn’t go clawing through the drywall if I were you. I’d try to find a minimally invasive way to get in there. Depending on what’s in those boxes, you might not want him to know you know.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not dead bodies or used sex toys.”
“Maybe he’s just a hoarder and it’s every report card he ever got?” Hannah offered.
“I know it’s something big. Something that he doesn’t want to deal with. He built literal walls around it and locked it all away.”
“So maybe he’s not hiding something per se, but keeping it separate.”
“That’s what I’m thinking, too,”
Harper agreed.
“Maybe it’s mountains of cash?”
Harper snorted. “He already has mountains of that. So I already tried all the keys on his key rings and didn’t hit the jackpot.”
“Well if it’s something he doesn’t want to deal with, he wouldn’t put it on something he uses every day, right?”
“No, he’d put it somewhere he doesn’t run across it all the time. Have I told you lately how super smart you are, Hanns?”
“No, but all is forgiven if you tell me what you find!”
“You got it. I’m going to go dig through places Luke doesn’t go in the house.”
“It’s going to be really disappointing if it’s just a bunch of old office paperwork.”
“No kidding.”
They hung up and Harper drummed her fingers on the counter. Where would it be? Someplace close, but not visible.
She perked up. On a hunch, she hustled up the stairs to the second floor. A walk-through of the three empty bedrooms revealed nothing new. There wasn’t a stitch of furniture in them.
Harper stood in the doorway of the master bedroom and let her eyes roam the room. The dresser was used nearly every day, as was the closet. The table under the window housed Luke’s electronics when they weren’t in use, and its narrow drawers were practically empty.
She turned and faced the bed. The drawer of her nightstand had slowly filled with books and magazines and a box of tissues. But his? She couldn’t remember Luke ever opening his.
Harper slid the drawer open. It appeared to be empty at first, but at the very back something caught her eye. A single silver key.
She snatched it out of the drawer and held it up. Could this be it?
Harper ran down two flights to the basement and slid the key into the lock. The knob turned easily in her hand and she pushed it open.
The room was long and skinny with two shelving systems pushed up against the wall. The boxes and totes were all unlabeled and looked as if they had been untouched for years. Her fingers itched to dig in, but where to start? She decided to be methodical and go from left to right, starting with the far shelf.
She pulled the first box off the top shelf and sat down on the floor with it. It held a few photo albums. The first one was labeled “Karen” in a scrawling cursive. Harper flipped through, watching a cherub-faced toddler turn into a gangly softball player who morphed into a pretty teenager. Class pictures from kindergarten through senior year were interspersed.
Was this the girl Luke had lost?
Harper dug out the next one, a skinny worn leather album. This was labeled in a girlish script “Luke & Karen.” Harper felt her heart stutter. She took a deep breath and opened it to the first page.
Luke,
This is the story of us. I wanted to give this to you before we head off in different directions so you’d always have a reminder of how much I love you. Someday maybe our grandchildren will page through this album to see where it all began.
Love, Karen
Harper turned the page. It was a photo of a very boyish Luke in a tux. His hair was longer, and the grin on his face made her smile. He had an arm around a tall, slim brunette in an emerald green formal dress. Karen. They were wearing crowns.
Homecoming king and queen.
They were a picture perfect couple, grinning like there wasn’t a care in the world. On the next page was a picture of Luke in his football uniform, his helmet under his arm. A careless grin on his face as he shared a laugh with high school football Aldo.
Harper smiled. The friendship and loyalty there ran deep.
There was a newspaper clipping with a picture of Luke throwing the game-winning touchdown and then a picture of Karen in full cheerleader gear cheering from the sidelines. Her blue eyes were focused on the field.
Another picture of Karen and Luke sharing an embrace after a game. Karen had Luke’s jacket draped over her shoulders.
Captain of the football team and head cheerleader.
They must have been like high school royalty. Harper sighed. Luke looked so young and so free. There was a lightness about him in the pictures that was so rarely present in him now. She loved seeing him like this. Energetic. Happy. Ready to take on the world.
There were more pictures. Prom, camping trips, cookouts, senior pictures. Karen with the Garrisons. Luke with Karen and her mother. They all looked so happy.
In the last picture, Luke and Karen stood front and center in their caps and gowns at graduation. They had eyes only for each other. Bright smiles at the future ahead of them.
Harper closed the album and held it to her chest. What she would have given to grow up like that. To be young and in love and excited about the future.
What happened to them? Where did it go wrong?
The next album was a heavy ivory book with gold lettering.
The Garrisons
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Harper opened the heavy ivory album to a breathtaking picture of Karen in a confection of a gown. Off the shoulder sleeves in lace reached her forearms with sheer material covering the gown’s modest scoop neck. Her dark russet hair was pinned back in a classic twist with a long veil tucked under it. She carried lilies.
Harper brought a hand to her mouth.
Luke grinned at Claire as she pinned his boutonniere in place.
Another of Karen with Sophie and three other women in deep purple gowns, laughing as a flower girl twirled.
Luke at the altar, with Aldo by his side, his eyes focused calm and steadfast at the back of the church. Karen walking down the aisle, escorted by her mother. The ceremony. The kiss. The happy exit.
Harper put the album down gently. They were married. He had never mentioned it.
She wanted to rest. To process. But there was so much more. Another album. A honeymoon, a first home. Luke in his Guard uniform. His first deployment. His homecoming. Job sites, parties, holidays. Luke’s second deployment. And then nothing.
At the very bottom of the box were two wedding rings and a small diamond engagement ring. She gently ran her fingers over the gold before tucking them back in the box. Harper carefully replaced the albums and returned the box to its spot on the shelf.
She continued on. The totes were full of women’s clothing. An entire wardrobe, neatly boxed away.
One box was entirely filled with papers. A marriage certificate. Newspaper clippings of their engagement and wedding announcements. Clips of articles written about Luke’s unit. Letters. Cards. An entire relationship fit neatly in a box.
Harper looked up from the floor and rolled her shoulders. It was dark now. Hours had passed since Harper opened this world of boxes.
She should stop. But she still didn’t have answers. What had happened to Karen? There was only one box left.
At the very top of the box was an opened letter from Karen to Luke while he was stationed in Germany.
Well, my dear,
You’re going to be coming home to a very different life next month. Thanks to your leave two months ago it looks like we’ll be a family of three! I wanted to call and tell you, to hear your reaction. But this is how my mother told my father she was expecting me so I thought it was a worthy family tradition to continue. You, my dear Lucas Garrison, will be a daddy in October. I guess we’d better start working on emptying out the guest-storage-catch-all room to make room for our little boy or girl. I haven’t told anyone yet. It’ll be our little secret until you’re home and we can tell the families together. You’re going to be an amazing father.
Love,
Karen
Harper clutched the letter to her chest. Luke was a father? How could that be? There were no pictures, he never mentioned a son or a daughter.
She slipped the letter back into the envelope and continued digging.
She found two tiny onesies neatly tucked away in flattened gift bags. One proudly proclaimed, “The Spoiling Begins.” The other, “I Have the World’s Best Grandma.” It must have been how Karen planned to tell
the families.
They were new, the tags still on them. Never gifted, never worn.
Harper’s heart started to thud. At the bottom of the box, she found a series of newspaper clippings from a few years ago.
Local woman killed in accident on way to meet soldier husband
Her hands shook as she read.
BENEVOLENCE, MD — Local resident Karen Garrison was killed when her vehicle crossed the centerline and was struck head-on. Garrison was on her way to meet her soldier husband, Lucas Garrison, whose Guard unit was returning from a yearlong deployment to Germany.
Harper felt sick to her stomach. No wonder.
No wonder.
She scanned the rest of the article. Karen was killed on impact on her way to meet the rest of the Garrisons to welcome Luke home.
Hot tears streaked their way down her cheeks.
Luke felt responsible, she was sure of it. Karen was going to meet him.
The police weren’t sure why her car crossed the centerline. There was a picture taken by the newspaper of the crash site. A welcome home banner lay crumpled just beyond the wreckage.
She pulled the rest of the articles and read them all, including Karen’s obituary.
But through it all, there was no mention of the baby.
Had Luke kept that from everyone? To protect them from further loss? Had he held it close, holding the guilt, the agonizing loss to his heart? Locked up?
Gently, Harper replaced all the items in the box and put it back on the shelf.
She stood, aching from hours of sitting on the concrete floor. She stepped out and closed the door, but didn’t lock it.
She was sharing her home, her life, with another woman. One who didn’t deserve to be locked away anymore.
Harper climbed the stairs to the first floor, mechanically turning on lights as she made her way back to the kitchen. The dogs, who had been napping in the dining room, thundered after her. Hungry and restless. She let them out first and then fed them their dinner. While they ate, Harper stared out into the darkness.
She reached for her cellphone and, ignoring the handful of texts and voicemails, dialed Sophie’s number.