The Pirate Queen

by Patricia Hickman

  Saphora realized halfway to Wilmington that she had been driving to hospitals all day. Normally she would be enjoying the ride down the coast, the sudden appearance of a sea gull overhead. But all she could do was imagine what Jamie was going through. All Tobias had told Gwennie was that his mother had been in an accident. He was crying from the ER lobby. A nurse was there with him trying to help him locate his daddy. Finally, the nurse took the phone and gave Gwennie a few sketchy details, as much as she could say legally.

  “What exactly did Tobias tell you?” asked Saphora.

  “They were in Kinston.” Gwennie drove craning her neck and checking the tracking monitor. “What was Jamie doing up in Kinston anyway?”

  “I sent her there on an errand,” said Saphora. “It was a surprise for Tobias.”

  “They were at a baseball stadium,” said Gwennie. “I thought they had gone home to Wilmington.”

  “No.”

  “Isn’t that home for a minor league? Kinston?” asked Gwennie.

  “Yes, it’s how minors become majors, though. Tobias wanted to meet Sam the Hammer.”

  “Oh, Sam! That’s right. Daddy plays golf with that guy. He was cute, if I remember right,” said Gwennie.

  “Pitched bullets, according to Bender,” said Saphora.

  “I’ve heard of Sam the Hammer,” said Marcy.

  “The Cleveland Indians scouted him. Anyway, Tobias wanted to get his new baseball card before he was too famous to get,” said Saphora. “I called Sam on Bender’s phone. He invited Tobias up for batting practice. Jamie just could not stop talking about what a surprise it was going to be. Is that where they had the accident? Was Jamie driving?”

  “It wasn’t a car accident. But Tobias was crying so hard I couldn’t figure out what happened,” said Gwennie. She was quieter than usual. “The nurse said they needed a friend of the family to come as soon as possible. I’m afraid for him.”

  “Gwennie, is Jamie all right?” asked Saphora.

  “They wouldn’t let him in to see her. He wanted us to come and make them take him to her,” said Gwennie.

  “What about the boy’s daddy?” asked Marcy. “I didn’t understand that part.”

  “Tobias couldn’t get him on the phone,” said Gwennie.

  “That doesn’t sound right,” said Marcy.

  It took a couple of hours, but they finally made it to the hospital. New Hanover Regional Medical Center was in the middle of everything—Shipyard Boulevard, the canal, downtown Wilmington. Gwennie found parking, though, close to the trauma center. A nurse directed them to a waiting room.

  Tobias sat in a corner, his hands pressed between his knees. Next to him sat a social worker. When he saw Saphora he was on his feet and running. She knelt so that he easily collapsed against her. “Mom’s still not out of the emergency room,” he said.

  “Tobias, what’s going on?” asked Saphora.

  The social worker, a middle-aged female, spoke. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I need to ask who you are.”

  “I’m his mother’s good friend,” Saphora said without taking her eyes off Tobias. “Mrs. Saphora Warren. I can show you ID if you need it.”

  “That’s not necessary at the moment. However, I’m still trying to reach Tobias’s father,” said the social worker. “Mrs. Warren, can you sit with him?”

  “I’ll take responsibility for him while he waits for Mel,” said Saphora.

  “Tobias, you need to stay with Mrs. Warren until your father arrives, all right?” she said.

  Tobias nodded. His eyes were racing from Saphora to the ER check-in station.

  “Have you talked to your daddy at all?” asked Saphora.

  “No. But they told me he left a message at the nurse’s station. He’s coming.”

  “He’ll make it all right,” said Saphora. Mel was not around much in Oriental, but Jamie made him sound like a good dad.

  “He won’t,” said Tobias.

  “You’re just upset,” said Saphora.

  “You don’t know,” said Tobias. “He doesn’t know I know.”

  “What?”

  “He and mom separated. He thinks I don’t know. But I know.”

  Saphora had no idea and did not know what to say. Jamie had not divulged the news to her. “He’ll make things right, Tobias,” said Saphora. “This is different.”

  “How?”

  “Tobias?” Mel was being directed into the waiting area by a nurse.

  “Daddy,” Tobias said, his eyes sullen. He looked at Mel with a pained sense of helplessness. “They won’t let me see her.”

  “Saphora,” said Mel, acknowledging her.

  “Tobias has been so anxious to see you,” said Saphora.

  Mel took her aside. “I’d like to talk to you.”

  Gwennie said, “I’ll go for coffee. Marcy, go with me.”

  “Tobias, let the grownups talk,” said Mel.

  “He’s waited for you a long time, Mel,” said Saphora. She hoped he would at least offer some comfort, hold Tobias or something. But there he stood as if lost and not present.

  “I know,” he said, and then he turned and walked out as if he expected Saphora to follow. The sliding doors closed behind him.

  “I hate him,” said Tobias, quietly, but standing erect and not taking his eyes off the door between him and his daddy.

  “Don’t say that. I’ll talk to him,” said Saphora.

  “He won’t change,” said Tobias. “I heard my mom say that.”

  Gwennie and Marcy had stopped a few feet away. “Want to come with us, Tobias?”

  “Good idea. I’ll join you all in a few minutes,” said Saphora, rising and grateful to Gwennie for intervening.

  “You won’t get anywhere with him,” he said.

  She hated that Tobias knew more than a kid his age should know.

  He left to catch up with Gwennie and Marcy. He did not turn to look back at Mel but disappeared through the doors down the next hallway.

  Saphora met Mel out in the lobby near the nurse’s station. The trauma center was in an upheaval. A semi loaded with chemicals had overturned along U.S. 17. Cops hurriedly shuffled into the center. They were all over the place, talking into phones and passing along the facts of the accident. An ambulance parked outside along the curving entry was still flashing red echoes into the trauma ward.

  “Saphora, I can’t believe you’re here. You’ve meant so much to Jamie,” said Mel. He looked down for a second and then back at Saphora.

  “Mel, what’s going on?” she asked.

  “Jamie didn’t make it,” he said. That was when he broke down, sobbing.

  “I don’t believe it!” The words were coming at her too fast. She surely misunderstood him. She leaned back against the hospital wall, her hands covering her mouth.

  “It was some loose wire in the concrete, or some such thing. New construction. You know how things get neglected. There’s a lawsuit in it for Tobias, I’m sure.”

  “Mel, I don’t care about a lawsuit.”

  “I’m just so angry, is all.”

  “Why hasn’t Tobias been told? He thinks she’s in the ER getting patched up, good as new,” said Saphora.

  “They wanted me to tell him. But I can’t.”

  “You have to.”

  “Will you tell him?”

  “It’s not my place, Mel. You’re his father.” Saphora was seeing Mel for someone other than the man Jamie had painted.

  “Tobias and I, we’ve not done well together. He loves you. It’ll be easier if he hears it from you.”

  “It won’t be easy coming from anyone, Mel. This is the time for you to step up and be his father. I won’t tell him.”

  “I’m stepping out for a smoke. I got to clear my head.”

  “It can wait.”

  He left Saphora standing in the middle of the cops and the ambulance attendants. He turned and glanced through the plate glass door and then at the ground. It seemed he was well practiced at avoiding eye contact.
r />   Gwennie walked up empty-handed. “Mama, what’s going on? Why is Mr. Linker standing outside?”

  “Where’s Tobias?”

  “Marcy’s got him back at the drink machine,” said Gwennie. “There’s a waiting area there.”

  Saphora put her arms around Gwennie. She was crying as she said, “Jamie didn’t make it.”

  Gwennie responded at first with silent shock. Then her emotions gave way and she sobbed, holding on to her mother.

  “Mel won’t tell Tobias. His mother is down in the hospital morgue and no one will tell him,” said Saphora.

  “None of this makes sense,” said Gwennie through the tears.

  “I’m going to march out there and make that man do his duty, that’s what!” said Saphora.

  “Mama, what is wrong with Mel?” asked Gwennie. “Why won’t he talk to his own son?”

  Mel slumped against an outside pillar a few feet from the automatic doors. His eyes were closed. He blew out a white stream of smoke, coughed, and took another draw on his cigarette.

  The ambulance pulled away from the curb, the lights going off. The emergency room lobby was still as a funeral home, the activity of the highway accident having poured into other parts and places.

  “You tell Tobias, Mama. I’ll go with you,” said Gwennie.

  Marcy came through the door from the hallway holding Tobias’s hand. She saw the two of them crying. “Oh no,” said Marcy, taking two steps back. She closed her eyes. “God, give this woman some strength,” she whispered.

  Saphora had trouble focusing. She imagined Mel running in, realizing his mistake. She watched her imaginary Mel telling Tobias the truth about Jamie. She watched Tobias throw his arms around his father. The love between them was flooded with relief at the thought.

  “Mama?” Gwennie sounded concerned.

  “Miss Saphora, what’s going on?” asked Tobias. He juggled the canned drink back and forth nervously.

  Saphora opened her eyes and saw Mel walk away from the automatic doors. He put out his cigarette. He looked around as if he could not remember where he parked, shoved his hands into his pockets. He took off, slowly ambling down the sidewalk, eyes to the ground.

  “Tobias, let’s go back down the hallway to that waiting area,” said Saphora.

  Gwennie opened the door for her. Marcy was right behind her.

  “Where’s my dad?” asked Tobias.

  “He went to be with your mama,” said Saphora, lying.

  “Why didn’t he take me with him?” He looked as if he might bolt.

  Saphora sat on one of the plastic-covered padded bench seats. “Tobias, tell me what happened back at Kinston.”

  Tobias was more settled than before, maybe because his daddy was gone. Or Marcy had worked her comfort over him. “Mom took me to Kinston to meet Sam the Hammer. She said he’s friends with Dr. Warren.”

  Saphora hid the regret welling up in her throat.

  “We decided to walk around. They were building a new concession stand. Then I saw Sam the Hammer out pitching. I yelled out his name, you know, like we were friends and all. Mom said he had invited me to his pitching practice so it was okay. I turned away from her. It was just a second. She touched some pole holding up the overhang. They said the wiring wasn’t grounded.”

  “Who said that?”

  “A man. He looked like a janitor. He was so scared. There were men running everywhere. Sam, he came running up. But I didn’t care about him anymore. I just wanted Mom to get up. They wouldn’t let me touch her. The janitor put sawhorses all around her until the cops came.”

  “How awful,” said Gwennie, still struggling to keep her composure.

  Marcy was humming a hymn, her eyes closed.

  “They took us up in a helicopter,” said Tobias. “I nearly threw up. I always thought I’d want to go up in one, but I was sick. Mom was so white. She didn’t look like Mom. But the ambulance man and lady, they wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t let them.”

  “They worked hard to save her,” said Saphora.

  “But they didn’t, did they?” he asked, finally at the end of his words. The tears in his eyes were bigger than anything that ever fell from the sky. His head fell back. The first sob was slow in coming. Then he cried long and hard, like a baby animal lost in the woods.

  “I’m sorry,” said Saphora.

  “I want to go to her,” said Tobias. He pressed his face into her, crying.

  “I’ll work it out,” said Saphora. She and Marcy locked eyes, and she wished for once that she was anywhere but here.

  The next morning Saphora got Mel’s number from Tobias, who had slept on a hotel cot in their room—Jamie’s family would need to be called. After spending the night in a nearby La Quinta, Saphora rang Mel’s doorbell precisely at ten o’clock, the time he had asked her to drop by. He answered the door wearing a shirt not buttoned, his belt hanging open. He gave Saphora a set of keys to the house, explaining each one.

  “We thought we would make calls for your family, if that helps,” said Saphora. Jamie had mentioned a sister.

  “I called her sister, Dora.” There was a tone to his voice. Jamie had mentioned Dora was a welfare mother.

  Saphora thought Jamie’s mother and father were still living but Mel said no.

  Gwennie turned on her managerial magic. Marcy was right beside her with a pad and pen. Between the two of them, they sat in Jamie’s kitchen calling every relative from Myrtle Beach to Oregon.

  Jamie’s kitchen was just like her, small but inviting. Tobias’s red Pomeranian, Fang, kept running in and out of the kitchen, so Tobias threw the dog a ball. But Fang only lay down and whimpered. “He’s looking for Mom,” said Tobias.

  Jamie had put an oversized black dining room table right at the edge of the galley of cabinets. Even though there was a formal dining room, it seemed all of the household activity was done around that table. Jamie had organized Tobias’s life so that he could live as well as any boy. She had tacked a calendar to the wall scheduling his meds and activities. He had baseball practice on Saturdays. There was a photograph of the baseball team seated around the black table. They were eating cake. Tobias took trumpet lessons. Jamie apparently seated him at the table to practice while she cooked his supper because there was his little music stand and book. There was a math book and a book of kitchen science experiments. Saphora could visualize Jamie counting out his meds at that table.

  Mel crossed the kitchen, buttoning the peach-colored shirt. A van load of relatives pulled up, and he went out to meet them. From the look of things, they were Jamie’s family.

  Neighbors had brought over casseroles and honey-baked ham, filling up Jamie’s refrigerator. Saphora got out bread and sandwich meat to save the covered dishes for the evening meals.

  A woman pushed through the back kitchen door as if she had come through it a thousand times. “Are you Saphora?” she asked.

  “You must be Dora, Jamie’s sister,” said Saphora.

  “You women are awfully nice to call everyone,” she said. “I don’t have the energy.” Two thin teenage boys followed her into the kitchen. “This is Tom and his younger brother Stu. That wild animal coming through the door is Little Paul. Named after my ex.”

  “I’m making sandwiches,” said Saphora.

  “Good. My youngest, Mary, is driving me nuts. She’s a bottomless pit, that one,” said Dora.

  The only girl among the brothers was a pudgy kid, her blond hair cropped right beneath her ears. She said in a voice wise beyond her years, “You didn’t make breakfast, Mama.”

  “Now don’t start with me, you hear? I’m too worn out, kid.” Dora slid into the chair next to Gwennie. “Go and help your brothers unload the suitcases. I put your things in a grocery bag. Don’t scatter the stuff all over the yard neither.” She dragged a ponytail holder out of her yellow overprocessed hair and finger-styled the long, wavy strands back into the holder. “Mel, got an extra cigarette?” she asked.

  Mel left the kitchen to fet
ch a carton.

  “My mother’s car—we forgot it,” said Tobias.

  Saphora said to Tom, “Do you drive?”

  “Sure, ma’am. Been driving since I was fourteen,” said Tom.

  “He drove us here from Myrtle,” said Dora. “He does all the driving for me now.”

  “Jamie’s car is still in Kinston,” said Saphora.

  Tom and his brother Stu took on the job dutifully. Tobias followed them out the door. Saphora did not think it was a good idea for him to go along, considering he’d be revisiting the scene of the accident, but he insisted.

  “He’ll feel like he’s done something important,” said Marcy after the boys took off.

  “I usually stay overnight here in Jamie’s guest room,” said Dora.

  “You should,” said Saphora. “We’re just friends helping out.”

  “I saw a nice inn on the way over,” said Gwennie. “I’ll get us rooms.”

  “Just one night. Please call your brothers so they know we’re here,” said Saphora.

  Mel brought a pack of cigarettes to Dora and then left them to handle the chores. “I’m calling business friends to let them know what’s going on. I’ll be in the den if you need me,” he said to Saphora. He left her alone with Dora.

  Dora lowered her voice. “You know the two of them was separated, didn’t you?”

  “I just found that out,” said Saphora.

  “Mel, he never gave two cents for Tobias. He just thought adoption would give Jamie some purpose. He never liked staying around the house much.” She tamped another cigarette out of a red pack and mouthed, “He’s impotent.”

  “I don’t need to know,” said Saphora. She put out the paper plates. “Sandwiches are ready. Mary, Little Paul, come and eat.”

  “Tobias has AIDS,” said Mary.

  “Shush!” said Dora. “These kids have ears bigger than Texas and mouths to match.”

  “Mel will finally get to know Tobias,” said Marcy. “That’s the good that will come of all this.” She was trying to bring her usual cheer to an otherwise bleak situation.

  Mel was closing up his phone when he came into the kitchen. “Sandwiches, just in time. I’m starved. You’re a good woman, Saphora.” He picked up a ham and cheddar. “They need me to come and pick out a casket.” He surveyed all the females assembled in Jamie’s kitchen. “Who’s good at that?”