She wished she had eaten that sandwich. She tried massaging her neck again. She needed nourishment badly, something cold and sweet to drink. She was feeling very much like she was going to faint.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Addie! Addie!” A tall, brown headed boy was coming toward Vicki, calling that name.
“What are you doing here?” He asked her. “I keep finding you in the most unexpected places. Hey! What’s wrong?”
“I’m lost,” Vicki whimpered. “I can’t find my school! And I want to go home to my father and my little brother, Nicki.” She was trying hard to hold back the tears.
“Addie!” Donnie exclaimed as he took her by both arms.
“My name is Vicki – Vicki Dane, and I want to go home. Please, Mister, will you take me home?” she begged as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Oh, my Lord!” Donnie exclaimed. “It’s happened! Come on, get in the truck,” he said as he was leading her toward the Johnson’s Furniture Store truck parked at the curb just ahead of them. “I’ve got to pick up one of those mirrors at Stonegate before I can go to school, then I’ll get you home somehow.”
Vicki willingly let him lead her to the truck. Her fears relieved. The man had said he would take her home. She hoped father would tell her she had done the right thing. She let the man help her into the strange truck. He seemed in a hurry. When he got in on the driver’s side, she asked, “You’re taking me home now?”
“I think it would be best to call your mother at the first phone I see and have her pick you up. I would take you into the store and have her picked you up there, but it would call for too much explaining to Uncle Nate.”
“Oh, but you can’t call my mother, Mister. She’s dead. She gave us our baby, Nicki, to take care of, then she had to go to Heaven.”
“Oh. Well don’t you worry. I’ll see that you get home. I’d take you right now, but it seems when Miss Willy says jump around here, everybody asks how high, and when she want something, it’s always yesterday,” he complained as he drove the truck at a speed that Vicki thought frightening.
She looked at the man as he drove, and he kept looking at her rather strangely. It seemed she should know him, but she couldn’t remember. Everything was confused in her thinking. He was looking at her again and shaking his head.
“There’s a gas station,” he said. “I’ll stop there and call… Well, I have to make a phone call.” He drove the truck up to the phone booth and stopped. He turned to her. “Now, look. I’m going to phone your house. I’ll be right back. You stay here.” Then he got out and slammed the truck door.
The noise seemed to explode in Vicki’s head. She grabbed the sides of her head with both hands and closed her eyes as her whole body shivered.
My head hurts, Addie thought. I really ought to tell mama. She opened her eyes and stared in shock. “Where am I?” she exclaimed aloud. She saw Donnie Whitefield in a phone booth through the windshield, and realized that she was in the Johnsons Furniture Store truck again. “What on earth am I doing here? How did I get here?” she asked of no one and nothing in particular. Shouldn’t she be on her way to school? Shouldn’t they both? She looked at her wrist to check the time. Her watch! She didn’t have her watch! She never went anywhere without her watch. Had she lost it? What was happening to her? Something was very much wrong.
Donnie yanked open the truck door. “There’s no one at your house,” he said as he jumped in and started the motor in a hurry. “I’ll have to take you with me to Stonegate,” he said as he changed gears and the truck began to move backward.
“Donnie! What am I doing here? Why am I in this truck with you?”
The truck stopped immediately. Donnie looked at Addie with relief. “Addie!” he yelled, his face breaking into a broad grin. Then he reached over and took her face in his hands and kissed her gently on the lips.
Releasing the surprised Addie, he said, “A few minutes ago, I told myself that I was going to do that if you were Addie Martin again. Boy! Am I glad you’re back. That was spooky, I mean real spooky.” Then he was all business as he maneuvered the big truck forward and into the oncoming traffic.
“What are you talking about?”
Donnie looked at her. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“What am I doing in this truck?” she demanded.
“Addie, I found you leaning against the side of the store as I was about to leave to pick up one of those mirrors we left out at Stonegate on Saturday. But you were not Addie.” He looked at her again as he drove. “You were Vicki Dane.” She gasped and stared at him in disbelief. “You didn’t know me, Addie, and you said your name was Vicki Dane. Do you know how you got there?”
“All the way downtown? Was I on my bike? How else could I have gotten there?”
“There was no bike around, and you were very flushed and out of breath. If I had to guess, I’d say you ran all the way. You said you were lost, and you asked me to take you home – in a voice not like yours. You were very frightened – almost in tears.” He reached over and ran his hand caressingly down the side of her face. “I was trying to call your mother. Addie, somebody has to get help for you from somewhere.”
Addie had listened in silence. Now she buried her face in her hands for a few moments. When she looked up, she said, “I’m scared, Donnie. I’m so scared. The last thing I remember was trying to get ready for school and knowing that something was terribly wrong with me. I had a funny feeling about going to sleep last night. I think I knew that something was going to happen. You see, I took a nap yesterday afternoon, and she took over. Addie gasped. “Oh, my!” she exclaimed, as she remembered what she had done.
“What is it?”
“She took me at my word!” She said. “Last night I gave Vicki permission to take over my mind and my body – to go ahead and do what she has to do in hopes that she will one day leave me, and I can be just me.”
“Addie! You didn’t!”
“I did, Donnie,” she said in desperation. “What else am I supposed to do? What else can I do – just wait until she takes over my life completely? Do I wait until one day there is no longer me, just Vicki Dane? I couldn’t live with the waiting, the suspense, any longer. She has caused so much trouble for me and my parents. I had to do it.”
“Don’t talk like that,” he said sternly. “She’s not going to have you. Surely, there’s help for you somewhere.”
“Oh, Donnie.” she said hopelessly, “my mother has an appointment with Brother Morris, our pastor, for this afternoon, but what can he do – order Vicki to leave me?”
“No. But he should know where to send you for help.”
“I don’t think anybody can help me. I think this is between Vicki and me, and you can see I don’t have any control over what she does anymore. I have to give her free reign to do what she has to do until she is through with me. I firmly believe that. It scares the daylights out of me, but I have to do it. It’s the only hope I have of maybe one day being able to live a normal life as Addie Martin,” she said hopefully, looking off in the distance.
Donnie reached over and put his hand on top of hers where they lay in her lap. “Well, I just hope it works, Addie.”
“Thanks, Donnie, and thank you for picking me up.”
“I’m glad I’m the one who found you. You know, I’ve never been to church much, but somehow, I feel like some higher power made sure that I was there when you needed me. And you don’t owe me any thanks. That’s what friends are for.”
Addie looked at him, and tears began to well up in her eyes. What did I ever do to deserve him for a friend? she wondered. It didn’t matter now that none of the girls wanted to be her friend. She had him, and she couldn’t believe her luck.
They were turning into Stone Drive, and Donnie said, “When I get that lousy mirror picked up, I’m going to take you home – school or no school. Uncle Nate will just have to write me an excuse for missing English as well as P.E.”
“Oh, no, Donnie,�
�� she protested. “That might get you in trouble with your aunt and uncle.”
“What else can we do? I don’t think you should go to school, do you? I could take you back to the store with me if I thought your dad would be there, but he wasn’t there when I left, and I can’t take that chance,” he added.
The gates opened for them as they approached, and they drove up to the mansion where they could see the large, brown cardboard box leaning against the wall beside the door. “That’s the mirror. This won’t take long.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Addie confessed, “but I wouldn’t cause you any trouble for anything.”
“I can’t afford any,” he said. “Gramps finally got Aunt Mel to agree to let my mother come here for a while. I want to do everything I can to make it easy for her, and so they’ll let us stay as long as necessary for mom. I’ll have to do as Aunt Mel says in everything.”
He stopped the truck in front of the marble steps and got out, slamming the truck door.
Addie shivered, and just sat there looking at the big wood door with its brass knocker and the glass panels that bordered it.
“I can’t go in this way,” Vicki murmured quietly. “Somebody might see me, and grandmother wouldn’t like that. I’ll have to sneak around the house to the side door that father and I always use, she thought as she quietly opened the truck door and got out, leaving the door open. She hurried softly past the tall shrubbery to the corner of the house. She looked up ahead for the small porch with the glass door to the dining room. Yes, there it was. She went on around the corner of the building, staying close to the shrubbery. Then she heard someone calling that name ‘Addie’ again.
She’d better hide. They might find her. That would never do. Grandmother Victoria didn’t want anyone to know that they came to visit her. She was always careful, and she expected father and her to be careful too. Hurriedly, she darted behind some wet evergreen bushes growing close to the building.
“Addie! Addie! Where are you?” Donnie called when he saw the truck door open and no Addie. “Come on, Addie!” I gotta go!” he called from the side of the truck that faced the mansion. He waited a few moments, but he neither heard nor saw her as he looked around. Where did she go? He was only inside the truck securing the mirror for a few minutes. She didn’t have time to go very far. He looked around both sides of the building, calling as he went in both directions. There was no Addie to be seen anywhere, and no answer to his calling.
Impatient and confused, he stood at the side of the truck looking at the front door. Was it possible that she could have gone inside? Wouldn’t he have heard the door open or close? From inside the truck, he guessed not. But, if she did go inside, and that seemed the only logical explanation, then she must be Vicki again. As Vicki, she knew the place, but Addie would never do that. What was he to do?
He stood there rubbing the back of his neck, pondering his options. If she was in there, and that was the only place she could have gone in such a short time, she was Vicki, and she didn’t know him – wouldn’t remember that she had asked him to take her home, because she would be in a different state of mind. Only Ben or Della could claim her. At least she would be safe until he could get to a phone. Hurriedly, he jumped in the truck and headed back down the hill.
Vicki had stayed in her hiding place, careful not to move or make a sound. She had thought that man would never quit searching for that ‘Addie’ person. Then finally, she heard the truck start up and head back down the drive. She listened until there was the sound of the big, iron gates closing. It must be safe now, she thought, so she parted the wet bushes and stepped out.
She looked around carefully to be sure no one was about, then walked quietly to the small porch and the door that opened into the dining room where there was a narrow, enclosed stairway between the dining room and the butler’s pantry. That was the way to grandmother’s bedroom on the next floor. Her door was just across the big hall from the door out of the stairway.
She crept cautiously up the three steps to the porch, crossing it, and tried the glass doorknob. It would not turn. She tried again. The door was locked. It wasn’t supposed to be. Grandmother said it would always be open for them. How could she get to grandmother’s room if the door was locked? She tried it again with all her strength, but it would not turn.
What should she do now? Grandmother must be expecting her. Perhaps she had not had it unlocked for the day yet. It was early. She had never visited grandmother this early in the day before. She would wait. She would sit down beside the door so no one inside would see her if they passed the door.
She waited an awfully long time. Her clothes had gotten damp by the wet bushes and she was feeling a little chilled. Mother wouldn’t like that. She listened for someone to unlock the door, but no one did. Then she wondered if grandmother could be waiting for her in the gardener’s cottage like she had when they first came here, before she had to stay in the bed all the time. Maybe she had gotten well, and didn’t have to stay in bed. She would go down to the cottage. She hoped grandmother wouldn’t be angry with her for making her wait.
Quietly, she left the porch, then ran down the stone walk, down the stone steps on the hillside, and through the overgrown walkway to the gardener’s cottage. She tried the brass doorknob. It wouldn’t turn. That couldn’t be, she thought. If grandmother was waiting for her inside, why had she locked the door? The servants. That was it. She was afraid one of them might come in while they were there. She would go around to the back door. She didn’t want grandmother to have to get up from the sofa, where she rested, to wait for them, to unlock the door.
But she found the back door locked also. This was really confusing. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do now. She put her face to the door and called softly, “Grandmother! Grandmother! It’s Vicki!” But there was no answer. She waited, then called again a little louder. Still no answer. She didn’t understand this at all, and she didn’t understand why she was visiting Grandmother Victoria without father. She had never been here by herself before.
Could father be waiting for her in the car? She really didn’t want to leave the small porch to go back out into the gray misty air, but she’d better go look. She went to the small iron gate a short way from the cottage. Strange, it wasn’t locked as she expected it to be, so there was no reason to get the key from its hiding place. She pushed the gate open just enough to get through it, and walked through the ankle high, wet grass until she could see the spot beside the fence where father always parked the car. It wasn’t there. Well, she guessed she would just have to wait for father to come for her, but she didn’t like this at all. Surely, he’d be here soon.
She returned to the back porch of the cottage and sat down beside the door. At least she was out of the mist. She was feeling more damp and chilled. She would probably get another earache, and mother would be very unhappy about it. She hoped father came soon.
It seemed to Vicki that she had waited a very long time, and she was awfully chilled and hungry, when she heard a car go down the driveway. She wondered who was in the car, and if they would be coming back. She waited and listened for the car to come back.
It was another awfully long time, after she heard the gates clang shut until she heard the car coming back up the drive.
She ran up the hill to see who was in the car. She hid behind a big tree and watched as the black car went around the side of the building toward the back. A lady in a black raincoat and hat was driving the car. It was a strange looking car.
Vicki watched from her hiding place as the lady parked the car close to the back of the house and got out. She opened the trunk of the car and began taking bags of groceries into the house.
While the lady was inside, Vicki ran to the corner of the building, wondering if there was some way she could get inside without the lady seeing her. Grandmother wouldn’t want her to be seen by anyone unless it was Gussie, her new housekeeper. Grandmother said Gussie could be trusted.
She wondered if the lady taking in the groceries was Gussie? And when she heard a door close behind the lady, she looked around the corner of the building to see where the door was. It was then that she saw the open garage door facing the driveway. The lady must be going to put the car back in the garage when she had all the groceries taken in, Vicki reasoned. If she did, then she would sneak in through that back door.
When the lady came back to the car, she picked up one small bag from the trunk, shut the trunk door, got into the car, and started the motor.
Vicki hurried around the corner and stayed close to the building until she reached the door to a large screened-in porch. She went in quietly. It was a screened-in kitchen. Strange, she thought but hurried through the door to a large, gleaming kitchen like she had never seen before. She rushed through it to the butler’s pantry and the stairway. The door that enclosed the stairs was gone! What happened to the door? She wondered. Looking up, she could see clear to the next floor. Usually the door there was kept shut also, making the narrow stairs dark. She didn’t understand, but she liked it better without doors. Now, they wouldn’t have to make sure they always closed them as grandmother had warned them to do.
But she must hurry to grandmother’s room. Two steps from the top of the stairs she stepped over the step that creaked. She could see grandmother’s door just across the wide hall that turned left to the winding, grand stairway that led down to the big foyer. Then it went right to the big window at the far end of the hall. Vicki crossed the hall quietly, and took hold of the ornate, brass doorknob of grandmother’s room. It did not turn.
She tried twisting both ways. The door would not open. She was completely bewildered. Why was everything locked? Grandmother’s door was never locked. Did she have the wrong door? They always walked straight across the hall. She backed away and looked. There were five big doors on that wall, and grandmother’s was the third from the left of the big stairway. She was sure of it. She tried the doorknob again, but it would not open. And someone was coming up the big, marble stairway!
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 20