The Foster Girls

by Lin Stepp

  Scott was moving into his action mode now.

  “Who’s at your house in case Sarah calls or in case anyone finds her?” Scott asked.

  “Mary’s there.” Ellen’s voice was weary. “We thought of that. She’s there with Chelsey.”

  “I’ll keep checking over at the farmhouse,” Scott said. “I know every inch of that house. She might try to come back there, knowing Vivian is gone.”

  Ellen gave Scott a tortured look then. “Chelsey told us that Sarah didn’t want to go to California. She didn’t want Vivian to go to California, either. She said Vivian was sad there. And that she had been happy here. Sarah told Chelsey that when she was gone you and Vivian would be happy again.”

  “Great. That makes me feel like a monumental heel,” Scott muttered.

  He shook his head as if to free those negative thoughts. “We’ll find her, Ellen. She can’t have gone far. We’ll find her.”

  “Do you think I should call Vivian?”

  “Let’s wait a while. Maybe we won’t need to.” He dreaded the thought. “Sarah is only a little kid. From my experience they don’t go far.”

  “Vivian did once,” Ellen remembered, a pained expression on her face.

  “Yeah, but she was ten then. Also, I don’t think Sarah knows enough about the area to go very far without help.”

  “That’s the part that scares me.” Ellen’s worried eyes looked up at him. “Without help.”

  Scott scowled. “There’s enough to worry about without borrowing trouble. Go back and search your own property a second time. Talk to Chelsey again, see if she can remember anything else that might help us. A lot of times, little kids don’t realize they know important things. Call me on my cell right away if you find out anything.”

  Ellen got up and started back down the road.

  “And don’t worry, Ellen,” Scott called after her. “We’ll find her.”

  Scott thought of those words again after night had fallen heavily over the valley and there was still no sign of Sarah Taylor. Not a footprint. Or a scrap of clothing. Not a single clue to go on.

  He sat on the front steps of the old farmhouse now, trying to think what else to do. The sheriff, the ranger, and the locals had called off their search effort now until dawn tomorrow. They assumed the child would find shelter somewhere for the night and sleep. Tomorrow they would begin to search again.

  Scott had called Vivian about an hour ago. He thought she should know at this point that Sarah was missing. He also hoped she might think of some clue that might help them find her. But she only thought of all the places to look they’d already searched not once, but several times.

  Vivian had been calmer than Scott had expected, but he could hear the pain underlying her voice. “I’ll make arrangements and be on the first flight I can get,” she told Scott calmly. “Tad will help me with the travel plans. I don’t blame you and Ellen for not calling me sooner, Scott. It is my responsibility that this has happened. Alice and Ellen warned me Sarah could get caught in the middle of this and get hurt. I was naïve. I thought I could keep her from finding out.”

  Scott hated hearing Vivian take all the blame for this on herself.

  “Look, I’m partially to blame for this, too.” He needed to say it. “And the rest is just an accident. No one knew Sarah was listening.”

  “She’s very sensitive and intuitive,” Vivian said flatly. “I knew that. She’d already been sensing I was upset about something. I should have seen this coming.”

  Scott heard a despairing sigh over the line.

  “I think you were right, Scott,” Vivian confessed to him. “Going to be with a seasoned set of parents would be best for Sarah. Look what I’ve caused with my love and involvement. I must not be ready to take care of a child. All I’ve brought her is hurt and pain. And I’ve brought it to you and me as well.”

  A short silence followed and then sniffling sounds. “I love you so much, Scott. I should have listened to you. It looks like you knew all along what was best for Sarah - more than I did. And now, look what I’ve caused. I’ve hurt you and I’ve hurt Sarah. I feel so wretched, Scott. I haven’t slept in days. I think about you all the time. About how you feel and how you smell. About how I feel when you touch me.”

  She sighed deeply. “And I don’t know if you’ll ever forgive me now, Scott. Or if Sarah will ever forgive me, either. I’ve just made a mess of everything.”

  Scott listened to Vivian start to sob softly now.

  “Vivian,” he said to her after a moment. “Don’t tear yourself apart over this. We’ll find the child. And we’ll work this out between us. I love you, too. I haven’t slept well either. I think about you and want you, too. You come home so I can hold you. So I can be with you. We’ll see this through together. That’s what people do that love each other.”

  “Okay.” Her voice was soft. “And I’ll try to listen to you more in the future. I need you in my life, Scott. I don’t want to live without you.”

  A painful place in Scott’s heart healed over a little at those words. And he found himself softening, opening up again.

  “I don’t want to live without you, either, Vivian,” he told her softly, and heard her sigh.

  “Call me when you get your travel arrangements made.” He gave her his cell phone number. “I’m over here at the farmhouse. I think someone needs to spend the night at Gramma’s place in case Sarah decides to come here. She might do that now that heavy dark has fallen.”

  “Poor little thing,” Vivian muttered. “She’s too little to be out at night alone. I’m scared for her. Pray that we find her, Scott.”

  “I’ll be praying,” Scott assured her. “And Reverend James has got half the church praying, too. He said to tell you God would watch after her until we could find her.”

  After he hung up the phone, Scott sat looking out into the dark hoping that was true. A five-year-old didn’t know much about staying safe out of doors at night. He looked up at the shadow of the mountain and hoped that Sarah hadn’t headed that way. It would be harder to find her in the mountains, and it was more dangerous there.

  Despite all this tragedy over Sarah, Scott’s heart was soothed at Vivian’s words. She’d told him she loved him. And she’d told him she wanted him and needed him. She’d conceded to his way of thinking about Sarah, too, and that was good. Or at least, Scott thought it was. Just now with all this anguish in his heart and mind over the child, Scott didn’t know what was right any more. That talk with Nancy just before all this happened hadn’t helped much. Scott didn’t like the niggling thought Nancy had planted in the back of his mind that he might be jealous of Sarah. She was just a kid, after all. The love Vivian felt for him was bigger and different than what she would feel for a kid like Sarah or for any other child. He knew that.

  Scott kicked a rock on the steps in frustration. Fritzi got up from her spot on the porch to come and nuzzle his hand.

  “Where is she, girl?” Scott asked the dog. “Why haven’t we been able to find that child?” Fritzi looked up at him questioningly.

  He looked up toward the shadows of the mountain, shaking his head. “Somewhere out there in the dark is a little child all alone and scared.”

  Then Scott did the only thing he knew to do. He put his head into his hands and offered up prayers. God knew where Sarah was, even if they didn’t, and Scott prayed that she would be kept safe until they could find her.

  At the end of his prayer, he added a postscript, “Let me know in some way if I’ve been wrong about the child, Lord. About what is best for her.”

  Unable to just sit and wait, even in the dark, Scott started another search around the farmhouse grounds, with Fritzi following along behind.

  As he headed out of the barn and back toward one of the sheds, his cell phone rang.

  “Scott here,” he answered.

  “Scott, it’s Vivian. Tad has a flight booked for me and we’re on the road to the airport now. It will be almost morning before I can get
there, but I’ll pick up my car at the airport when I arrive and be there as soon as I can. Will you still be at the farm?”

  “I will,” he replied. “I’m outside going over the grounds again right now. I might walk over and look some more around Ellen and Quint’s, too.”

  “I thought of something,” Vivian said then. “You said that Ellen told you that Sarah took her fairy stuff with her. That means she’s probably wearing it. She couldn’t get those wings and skirt into a backpack. That means she’s probably Ophelia Odelia right now. It’s probably helping her to cope. I used to do that to escape when I was unhappy.”

  “So how does knowing that help us?” Scott frowned. “Other than to know she’s probably decked out in yellow wings, a yellow tutu, and a tiara.”

  “She might go to one of Ophelia’s places,” Vivian explained to him. “Most of them are places around the houses where you’ve already looked, but one isn’t. It scares me to think of it, but she might have gone to Ophelia’s tree, the old hollowed out tree off the trail above Slippery Rock Falls. Do you know the one? It has a big hole at the base large enough to climb inside of. When I first met Sarah she had this thing about Ophelia Odelia’s real home being inside a hollowed out tree. She had known of one near her old home in Gatlinburg. I told her I knew of one here in the valley, too. And she pestered me until I took her up there one day. You said for me to tell you if I thought of anything that might help.”

  “That’s almost two miles from here, Vivian. Do you really think she’d go up there again alone?” Scott looked up toward the mountain as he considered it.

  “One of the places fairies live is in hollowed out trees,” Vivian said thoughtfully. “And Sarah said Ophelia Odelia especially liked to live inside an old tree trunk.”

  “Well, I’ll get a big flashlight and check it out.” Scott sighed in resignation. “At least it will give me something to do.”

  Scott had grown up in these mountains, so following a trail up the back of Cove Mountain in the dark didn’t spook him as it might some people. He’d camped in these hills many times and hiked this old trail up to the cascades and to Slippery Rock Falls a multitude of times, as well. Scott knew it wasn’t likely he’d find Sarah up here. The ranger’s search team had gone all over this area earlier in the day, searching and calling for the child. They’d not found a footprint or a trace that she’d been in the area.

  Still, it was comforting to Scott to be out of doors and walking. It helped dissipate some of the built-up stress.

  It took Scott about an hour to hike up above the falls. He’d enjoyed the sounds of night frogs and crickets, and, now, he could hear a hoot owl out enjoying his nocturnal pleasures. His flashlight picked up the main trail ahead of him easily, and he found himself swinging his light around in an arc, looking for the remains of an old rock wall that would help him know he was close to the cut off trail to the hollowed-out oak.

  He found the intersection just past the wall. After a short walk down the less maintained side trail, Scott spotted the big oak. Nearing it, he shone his light down toward its base and caught his breath. There was a clump huddled up inside the tree with a chunk of yellow crinoline skirt sticking out from it.

  “Sarah?” he asked in a hushed voice.

  A small voice replied. “Sarah is gone. There are only fairies here.”

  Relief swept through Scott like a storm, making his knees weak. He knelt down closer to the hole in the old tree.

  “Well, actually I’m looking for Ophelia Odelia,” he said, humoring her.

  “Why?” came the little voice again, quieter now. “You hate her and Sarah, too.”

  Scott’s heart turned over in his chest. “No, that’s not true,” he claimed. “I’ve been looking for her all day and even now at night when most people would be scared to be out. Aren’t you scared up here alone?”

  “Yes,” came Sarah’s whimper. “Especially when I heard the owl. I was afraid he would carry me off or eat me. Owls do that to fairies, you know.”

  She was plucky, Scott thought.

  “Do you think I could take you home?” Scott asked her.

  “No. I don’t have a home.” Sarah answered on a sob. “My mother’s dead, and you hate me. And even if Vivian could keep me she’ll be sad if she does because you won’t like her anymore. So I’m staying here forever and ever.”

  Scott propped the flashlight against a rock so that it illuminated the inside of the tree a little more and also freed up his hands. He reached into the tree to turn Sarah around so he could see her better. Her soiled and tear-stained face looked out at him, and something ripped inside Scott’s heart.

  “I could never hate you, Sarah,” Scott whispered softly.

  “But you don’t love me and want me.” Sarah’s lip formed a sad pout.

  “I’m working on it,” he told her honestly. “I didn’t think before that it would be the best thing, but I think I might be changing my mind now.”

  “Why didn’t you want me before?” Sarah asked him with the open candor characteristic of a child.

  “Because I don’t know much about being a father.” Scott pushed Sarah’s hair back from her face tenderly. “I thought I was going to have enough trouble learning to be a husband.”

  “Vivian thinks you would be a good father.” Sarah looked at him with wide, honest eyes, chinking a little more into Scott’s heart with her words. “I do, too. But Vivian said you only want your own babies. And not girls who are already five.”

  She sniffled again. And Scott thought he was about ready to cry himself.

  “Sometimes people are wrong about things.” Scott stroked her hair. “Maybe I need a little girl, too. And maybe she could help me with the babies later on if there were some.”

  “Maybe,” Sarah said quietly.

  She reached out a small hand to wrap it around his. “Maybe if I love you enough you’ll start to love me back,” she told him softly.

  That was when Scott broke and reached into the tree trunk to pull Sarah out and wrap her up in his arms.

  “I think that’s already happening,” he confessed to her, pressing her up against his chest. “I’ve been worried sick about you, Sarah. I’m so glad to have found you. You could have been hurt out here by yourself. Don’t ever run off like this again.”

  Scott felt a little hand steal up to his face in the dark. “I love you, Scott. Please don’t be mad at me. And if you want me to, I’ll go to those other people’s house to stay. If you will just be happy and not hate me.”

  Scott felt his own tears sliding down his face then. “I don’t think that will be necessary, Sarah. I think you’re supposed to stay with Vivian and me. At least we’ll try it out and see how it works for all of us. What do you think?”

  “I would like that. Do you think Vivian will like that, too? Or will she still be sad? I don’t like her to cry, Scott.”

  “I think Vivian will like it, too,” Scott said, hoisting Sarah up into his arms and draping her little backpack over his shoulder. “And I don’t think Vivian will be sad anymore, either, Sarah, but she might cry because she’s happy. Girls do that sometimes, you know.”

  “Is that why you’re crying?” Sarah asked him, putting her hand on his face.

  “Yeah, well, sometimes guys cry when they’re happy, too.”

  “Oh,” said Sarah. “All right.”

  Scott picked up the flashlight, and started his way back down the trail.

  “Is Vivian still in California?” Sarah asked.

  “No, she’s on her way home now.” Scott wiped a smudge of dirt off her cheek. “We’ll go back, call a few people to tell them you’re all right, and then take a nap until she comes in. How does that sound?”

  “Good,” Sarah agreed, sleepily. “Will the farmhouse be my new home now?”

  “Yeah,” replied Scott, pulling her more closely into his arms. “Wherever Vivian and I are that’s where you’ll be, Sarah Louise.”

  “Even on your honeymoon?”

&nb
sp; “No, not there,” Scott said firmly. “There are times when newly married people need to be alone and private. That’s definitely one of them.”

  Sarah yawned. “Well, Ophelia and I will stay with Chelsey when you need married times. Ellen won’t mind.”

  Scott grinned at that. “No, I don’t suppose she will.”

  Back at the farmhouse, Scott made a few necessary calls to let everyone know Sarah was safe. Ellen wanted to come and get her right away, but Scott insisted that he wanted Sarah to stay there with him until Vivian came home.

  “Vivian will want to see her,” Scott explained to Ellen. “Besides, Sarah and I have some family matters to talk over with Vivian.”

  He paused then at a comment Sarah made in the background. “Oh, by the way,” he added to Ellen. “Sarah wants to know if she can stay with you and Quint for a while when Vivian and I go on our honeymoon later on. I explained to her that honeymoons were a grown-up thing only, and it was her idea then that she could stay with you.”

  “Yeah. Good plan.” Ellen answered with a laugh. Scott could almost imagine the conversation she and Quint would have over that one after she hung up.

  When he had finished talking to Ellen, Scott got Sarah to drink a glass of milk and eat a snack. Then, somehow, he got her washed up and into a clean shirt and panties from her backpack before she crashed into an exhausted sleep.

  “Will you stay with me, Scott?” she whispered, just before she drifted off to sleep on Vivian’s bed. “The owl might come back looking for Ophelia.”

  “I’ll keep a watch,” he told her, smiling. He lay down beside her on the bed, draped an old quilt over his legs, and soon fell asleep himself.