“Ruth went to college with Ginnie Soong, and she asked her to come and take care of Jody. Ginnie’s a good nurse, and she’s been looking after him during the day for the last month. There seems to be no hope for his improvement, and it’s a dreadful time for all of them. I went up to Carmel Highlands last week to see Dora and Ruth. Dora is terribly worried because Ruth has given up completely. If only Jody could be helped, perhaps she’d want to live again.”
Kelsey still kept silent, trying to resist what she was hearing.
“Doesn’t any of this reach you?” Elaine asked.
“I don’t want it to reach me! I don’t like the way I am now, but I can’t bear any more, and there’s nothing I can do.” She heard the anguish in her own voice, and knew it was entirely for herself. She had nothing left of compassion for others. The last two years of trying had drained her.
Elaine went on in spite of Kelsey’s resistance. “Tyler means to put his son in a nursing home up near San Francisco, where he can live out his years—whatever they are. Ginnie doesn’t want this to happen, and she’s talked to me about it. So I thought of you.”
“But if the doctors are right, this may be the best solution, hard as it is.”
Elaine went calmly on. “Ginnie will be here any minute, and she wants to talk with you. I told her I’d arrange it. So you must at least see her. She’s an interesting person—Ginnie Soong. Her father owns a Chinese import company in San Francisco, and her mother helps in the shop and writes exquisite poetry on the side. As I said, Ginnie went to college near L.A. with Ruth Langford. She was her roommate, and even after Ruth married Tyler they kept in touch as good friends. Just before the accident, Ginnie had come to visit Ruth, and was in the Hammond home as a guest when it happened. I want you to listen to what she has to say. You can do that much, Kelsey.”
She couldn’t very well get up and walk out. “All right—I’ll listen, but that’s all. What about Mr. Hammond? How is he taking this?”
Elaine’s hesitation indicated uncertainty. “Badly. He’s a strange, gifted man—a brilliant man who never wears his feelings openly. I’ve never liked him very much, though I admire his work. He’s written, directed, and produced some very fine documentary films, two of which have won awards. He’s not working now, and I’m not sure he ever will again. Ginnie says he’s withdrawn into himself, and he’s holding everything back. Anger, grief, despair—he’s closed himself off. He’s lost both his wife and his son, and it would take someone pretty strong not to be destroyed. He is strong, but for now I think he’s given up as much as Ruth has.”
Kelsey knew very well that Elaine wasn’t thinking only of Tyler Hammond’s double tragedy. She was thinking of Kelsey’s own loss as well. It was easy to see the wheels turning and to guess what her aunt’s first purpose was going to be.
“There’s nothing you can do about Mark or Carl,” Elaine said. “That’s all over and past. But Ruth and Jody Hammond are now. Perhaps something can be salvaged if the boy can be helped.”
“Have you told these people anything about me?” Kelsey asked.
“Ginnie knows only that you’ve worked as a physical therapist.” Elaine broke off and stood up. “Here she is now.”
The young Chinese-American woman still wore her uniform, though without the cap of her nursing school. She came in briskly, and her dark eyes went at once to Kelsey, questioning, perhaps even challenging. Her black hair had been fluffed gently to frame a rounded face. Though she was small, she looked sturdy, and the hand she gave Kelsey offered a firm clasp. The effect she conveyed was one of pleasant, straightforward efficiency, so that it might be hard to refuse whatever this woman asked. Kelsey braced herself.
“How is everything up at the house?” Elaine asked.
Ginnie shook her head. “Not good. Tyler’s made his arrangements to send Jody away, and Ruth has agreed. I think he believes it will be better for her when the boy is out of the house. She’s seen him only a few times, when Tyler has carried her down to Jody’s room, and each time she’s been terribly ill afterward. She might feel better if only her mother or Tyler could get her to open up about what happened. She won’t talk to me either.”
“Ruth can’t accept her own condition,” Elaine said, “much less what the doctors say about Jody.”
“Why haven’t you accepted the doctors’ opinions?” Kelsey asked Ginnie directly.
The nurse didn’t hesitate. “Because I’m not sure they’re right. They aren’t God, you know. Coma isn’t something with exact boundaries—it’s a sort of catch-all word when there’s nothing else to use. Jody’s eyes are open, but they don’t track or follow anything. We simply can’t tell for sure if he sees us, or if he understands anything. Just the same, I’ve had a feeling now and then that I had some sort of eye contact with him—that it wasn’t just an empty look, but as though he saw me. I’ve tried all sorts of signals, of course, but there’s no response. He can’t blink as I’ve asked him to, or press my fingers, yet I still have a feeling that there’s something there—that maybe his mind isn’t a complete blank. If you could just come to see him, Mrs. Stewart—”
“What could I do that you can’t?”
“You’ve had more experience with such cases. Tyler Hammond won’t listen to me, but he might listen to you if you thought there was any hope at all. Mrs. Carey tells me you have healing hands—and that’s something I believe in because I’ve seen it happen.”
This was surprising, but Elaine nodded at her.
“Have you forgotten the time I did the rounds with you, Kelsey, in that nursing home where you were working with brain-damaged children? One of the nurses there used that phrase about you. She said the children responded to your touch and your voice.”
“That’s not very scientific,” Kelsey said.
“Science!” Ginnie exploded passionately. “This is a small boy who needs help! There can be more to healing than some doctors realize. The rotten part is that Tyler’s not going to give us a chance to find out.”
“Why not?” Kelsey asked.
“He blames Jody for what happened. He wants him out of his sight.”
A sudden stillness possessed Kelsey. A listening stillness.
Elaine said, “It’s true, and it’s dreadfully unfair. When Ruth was able to talk and give an account of what had happened out at Point Lobos, Tyler knew that Jody was to blame, and he made absolutely no allowances for a child’s silliness and lack of judgment.”
“Sometimes,” Ginnie added more softly, “I almost think Jody senses how his father feels. Though the doctors say his brain is too badly damaged for him to understand anything.”
“If he can understand anything at all, such treatment is terribly cruel!” Kelsey cried.
“Of course it’s cruel,” Elaine said. “That’s why the boy needs help. I know Tyler’s suffering, but Jody needs someone who can step in and do something before it’s too late.”
“There’ve been EEG tests and brain scans, of course?” Kelsey asked.
“Yes,” Ginnie said. “And the waves, or lack of some of them, tell a pretty grim story.”
“Just the same,” Kelsey spoke half to herself, “even the experts admit that no one knows for sure about the brain.” The stillness inside her was being replaced by something else. She knew what injustice and blame were like, and she was already disliking Tyler Hammond intensely. “There have been patients who came out of deep comas with their brains functioning enough so they could relearn some of what was lost. Sometimes they even repeated conversations they’d heard around their beds when they were supposedly unconscious.”
Ginnie sensed the change in Kelsey, and her eyes held a challenge. Yet Kelsey still hesitated, knowing that she was being manipulated, pressured—by both her aunt and Ginnie Soong. There was something here that she distrusted, that she couldn’t yet evaluate.
“When do you want Kelsey to come?” Elaine asked, settling the matter.
Ginnie’s smile had a triumphant edge to it. “Ho
w about tomorrow morning around eleven? By that time I’ll have Jody ready for the day.”
“Has his father authorized this?” Kelsey asked.
“I’ve taken care of that,” Elaine said quickly. “I talked to Tyler on the phone the day after you came, Kelsey, and I guess I made it pretty strong. I’m Dora’s friend as well as Ruth’s and he had to listen. So he will give you this one chance to see Jody before he sends him away.”
“You’d no right to do that!” Kelsey protested. “I don’t think I can change Mr. Hammond’s mind, and I’m not sure I ought to try.”
“Maybe you underestimate yourself,” Elaine said.
Ginnie spoke quickly, as though staying any longer might lose whatever ground she’d gained. “I’ve got to get back now. Dora Langford, Ruth’s mother, has been looking in on Jody, and I mustn’t leave him for too long. You will come, won’t you, Kelsey?”
It was easier to give in and do as they asked. Tomorrow would have to take care of itself.
“All right,” she said, “I’ll come. Just this one time.”
“Tyler won’t let you come for more,” Elaine said, but she had relaxed a little.
Ginnie left quickly, and again Kelsey sensed a curious triumph, however repressed, that seemed out of proportion to anything that a stranger, an outsider, might be expected to accomplish. A conflict was clearly building in the Hammond household that perhaps did not entirely concern Jody.
“I expect you’ll want to change your clothes,” Elaine suggested, cutting short any further discussion. “We’re going out to dinner tonight, and Denis is coming with us. He can fill you in a bit about his sister and this whole miserable situation.”
Kelsey gave up and went off to her room. The cottage was on two levels, and her upstairs windows looked out upon a fantastically gnarled oak tree that was nothing like the tall oaks back home. Its roots had pushed up the cement of the sidewalk, and its limbs looped upon themselves in strange contortions, like something out of Edgar Allan Poe. Hinged shutters had shaded the room from afternoon sun, and when she had folded them open to the breeze, she could glimpse the ocean only a few blocks away, though barely visible now, its color matching gray skies where only a hint of sunset remained.
She took a light cotton suit from the closet and put it on. Her dark hair complemented the wheat color, and with a quick brushing its feathers fell into shape. She used a mere touch of lipstick, and put on lapis earrings, delicate and dangly, that added a further hint of color. Somehow she looked less pale this evening than she had earlier. A touch of sun? Or a touch of interest in life?
Whether she had invited it or not, something of a mission had been forced upon her. She knew that she wanted to see Jody Hammond, who was being so unfairly blamed by his father, and perhaps by his mother, for the harm that had been done. She could probably make no difference in his condition, but she had to see for herself. A somewhat combative eagerness that was rather pleasant had begun to stir in Kelsey. She almost looked forward to meeting Tyler Hammond. Someone ought to take Jody’s side, and her hands weren’t tied as Ginnie’s must be.
She went downstairs with more of a lift to her step than she had felt for a long time.
III
The only meal the Manzanita Inn served to its guests was a continental breakfast, so Elaine, who liked to cook, often made her own meals in her kitchen at the cottage. She took guests of her own out to one of the many restaurants in the “village.” Since parking was difficult in Carmel, cars were a nuisance, and Carmelites usually walked. So Elaine, Kelsey, and Denis went on foot to the La Playa Hotel a few blocks away.
The great pink building made a right angle around lawns that sloped down the hillside and were trimmed with flower-beds in bright splashes of color. Inside, the lobby’s soft lighting and subdued Spanish touches were soothing to Kelsey’s senses. Tiles rimmed the steps of a curving staircase at one side, carriage lamps glowed here and there on the walls, and a wide stone fireplace with sofas grouped before it invited one to linger.
Elaine led the way through to a white dining room with a tiled floor where windows ranged around two sides, framed in white fretwork. The many well-spaced tables were set with lemon-yellow cloths and napkins. Beside a window, their table looked out on lighted lawns and walks, and a beautiful, lacy gazebo in which several people were having cocktails graced the lawn. Carmel, Kelsey was beginning to find, was full of such romantic touches. Again she felt a soothing sense of peace. Perhaps she could simply mark time until tomorrow and stay quiet.
Denis wore a light jacket over a beige pullover sweater, the top of his jacquard tie showing. Elaine, when she wasn’t wearing pants, liked the flowery prints of California, and her dress matched the flowerbed below their window. Since Carmel’s weather was often on the cool side, she wore a white cardigan. Earlier, Kelsey had seen mists on the Santa Lucia Mountains that made a backdrop for the town, and it was those mists and fog from the sea that kept the climate comfortable.
Her sense of peace, however, didn’t last long. When they’d ordered seafood dishes, Elaine went straight to the matter that most absorbed her.
“Kelsey has agreed to go to Tyler’s tomorrow and see Jody,” she told Denis. “Ginnie was able to persuade her, as I thought she might.”
Denis cocked one blond eyebrow at Kelsey. “With your aunt’s help, I’ll bet. Do you really want to put yourself through this, Kelsey?”
His tone was light, but she remembered his strange words earlier when they were on the beach. “Perhaps this is something I must do,” she responded, “whether I want to or not. Besides, it’s easier to go than to fight with Aunt Elaine.”
“Very wise,” Elaine said complacently. “Denis, tell Kelsey a little about your sister. She needs to be armed with a bit of background before she goes tomorrow.”
“Armed” seemed a militant word, and Kelsey waited for Denis’s response.
He buttered a piece of roll and sat staring at it absently as he spoke. “Kelsey’s not likely to see Ruth at all.”
“Probably not,” Elaine agreed. “Just the same, she needs to know something about the situation. You can tell her better than I can, Denis.”
He set down the bite of roll uneaten. “Ruth is younger than I am by a couple of years, and ten years younger than Tyler. Maybe around your age, Kelsey. She was always a sweet kid. There was so much gaiety about her—she loved everyone, trusted everyone. We could laugh at the same jokes, but she was never unkind. Tyler came along and swept her off her feet. I don’t know why beautiful, happy women are so often attracted to moody men who hold in their emotions—except when they explode.”
“While I don’t like Tyler very much,” Elaine said, “he can be pretty compelling, and there’s no denying his amazing talent. I suppose most men with a touch of genius are hard to live with.”
“I don’t know how she managed as well as she did,” Denis went on gloomily. “Sometimes she even coaxed him into laughing at her little jokes.”
“He obviously adored her—still does,” Elaine said. “That’s what’s so tragic when she’s changed so much.”
“Being paralyzed would change anyone,” Kelsey said mildly. “It takes time to get one’s courage back and accept a different sort of life.”
Elaine sighed. “I’m not sure Ruth can ever manage that. I hope you will meet her, Kelsey. I want to know what you think.”
“Look,” Kelsey said quickly, “I’m a physical therapist, not an analyst.”
“You’re a lot more than you realize, dear. Denis, do you think something could be arranged? I mean for Kelsey to see Ruth.”
Denis shook his head. “Tyler wouldn’t allow it—not as things are now. Ruth doesn’t want anyone to see her the way she is, and Tyler’s stiff with pride over what he regards as his private affairs. It’s hard even for me to get to see her—and I’m her brother.”
“Tell me how she has changed,” Kelsey said.
“There never used to be any hatred in her.” The pain Denis felt was
evident in his voice. “I hardly know her now. She’s even cross with Mother, who takes care of her with such devotion.”
“It’s probably temporary,” Kelsey said. “Most people fold up in despair at first when they’re hit by something so awful. It takes time to see everything in a new way.” She sounded so reasonable, she thought wryly. But her own sounder perspective had vanished in the last two years.
“I don’t know,” Denis said. “This is more like a violent change of character that’s out of all proportion, no matter what’s happening. Ruth always had so much courage. She was the leader when we were kids, even though I was older. Now Tyler has only to stand by her bed and stare at her and she falls apart. She knows how she must look to him, how useless she is as a wife.” His voice broke.
Elaine put a hand on his arm. “Let it go, Denis. I’m sorry I’ve opened all this up. I thought it might help if you could give Kelsey more of the picture since she’ll be seeing Jody. Let’s skip the people and talk about that fantastic house. Tell her about La Casa de la Sombra.”
Their young waiter—in Carmel, waiters were likely to be out-of-work actors, or part-time musicians—brought their appetizers and made sure all was well.
“The house, Denis,” Elaine prompted. “Tell Kelsey about the House of Shadow.”
This was something he could warm to. “It was built back in the early days, up in Carmel Highlands. There are lots of Carmels. That’s why the town is called Carmel-by-the-Sea—at least in print. Nobody says all that. In the beginning, when the Spanish moved in and called the river the Rio del Carmelo, to honor the Carmelite order, Carmel was just an unimportant country neighbor to the old capital of Monterey. But nothing in California matches Carmel for beauty, so artists and writers have always come here, along with the very, very rich.”
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