Flint walked onto the front porch to gaze at the stars and clear his head. He didn't want Robin to go. If he let himself, he might beg her to stay. But if he did that, he would undermine everything he'd built up these past three years.
Again, Flint wished he could nail down exactly what bothered him about her. He felt a vague sense of threat that grew stronger the closer they became.
It might be simply that Robin was the wrong woman for him and the children. Eventually, he hoped he’d adjust to the fact that he saw her eyes every time he looked at Brick, and her sweetness in Aaron, and her feisty temperament in Caitlin.
"Not many stars visible tonight, but you seem to find them fascinating," said a dry voice from the sidewalk.
With a start, Flint realized one of his neighbors was walking her pet poodle. He'd seen the woman before, an older Chinese lady, but didn't know her name.
"Just thinking," he said.
"Nanny trouble?" asked the woman.
"Excuse me?" Now what gave her that idea?
"You have many nanny troubles, I think." The woman extended her hand. "I am May Sung. You have beautiful children."
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Flint Harris," he said. "Thank you."
"They look like their mother."
Flint digested that observation for a moment. "You knew Kathy?"
"I'm sorry. I am confused. I believed Robin was their mother." May continued to regard Flint, not at all concerned about the unwritten social code that barred strangers from probing into their neighbors' lives. "You have trouble with her?"
"She's leaving," Flint said. "She got a better job."
"Taking care of your family is not a job to her." May clucked at her poodle to still its fidgeting. "You should ask her to stay."
"I don't mean to be rude, but when did this become your business?" Flint snapped.
The woman shrugged. "I have lived too many years not to say what I think. What you fear most rises from within yourself. Your chance may not come again."
"Thanks for the advice." Flint hoped he’d managed to disguise his irony.
His neighbor tugged the leash and went on her way. Mist, closing in from the ocean, hid her from sight before she'd gone more than half a dozen steps.
Damn it, since he met Robin, his well-ordered world was falling apart. The children had turned down their favorite bedtime ritual, Maureen was acting emotional, and now a mysterious Chinese lady had meddled in his business.
Matters would soon return to normal, Flint thought, and wished he found that prospect appealing.
Chapter Sixteen
"We need a plan." Caitlin had called this meeting of the triplets in her bedroom after their father walked out the door that morning. Robin was busy writing a list of instructions for her still-unknown replacement about the vegetable garden, the week's meals and several other items that Caitlin had suggested.
"Let's run away from home," Brick said.
"Robin would make us go back." Aaron picked up a take-apart plastic skeleton and held it on his lap like a doll. "Besides, I'd miss Daddy."
"We could live in a boxcar, like the Boxcar Children," Brick suggested.
"Yeah, and we could fly to the moon like Dr. Dolittle, too," snapped Caitlin. "Get real."
"We're just kids," said Aaron. "We can't run away on our own."
"I know who might help." Caitlin couldn't believe this brilliant idea hadn't occurred to her sooner. "Grandma Gigi."
Brick's face lit up. "And she lives at the beach. Cool!"
"How do we get there?" asked Aaron.
"On the bus." Caitlin didn't like sneaking out on Robin, though. "We should leave a note and tell her we’re safe."
"But that only means we were safe when we wrote it," Brick pointed out.
Caitlin hated to admit it, but he was right. Robin would worry, and their father would be furious. “We can text her…no, we have to leave our cell phones off or they’ll trace us.”
"Let’s leave clues," Aaron suggested. "Like in a mystery. So they can figure out where we went, but not right away."
Caitlin gazed at her brother in surprise. "That's a good idea."
"Of course it's a good idea," Aaron said.
They didn't have much time. In the other room, Robin was talking on the phone to someone about her new job, but sooner or later she’d check on them. Caitlin got out a lined sheet of paper and the three of them gathered around.
"What kind of clues?" she said.
"Let’s draw a picture of the beach," Brick said.
"Too obvious."
"We can write meaningless capital letters, doubled up, like TT and SS, and we could sneak a GG in there for Grandma Gigi," offered Aaron. "That would be a good clue."
Caitlin thought of another problem. "Does anybody remember exactly where Grandma Gigi lives?"
"That's easy," said Brick. "Over the fortune-telling shop. It's near the end of Beachside Avenue."
Caitlin gave him a brisk nod, pretending not to be impressed. Her brothers were getting smarter, now that they'd reached eight years old.
She started the letter: "Dear Robin and Flint. We ran away to a safe place. Here is the first clue— TT. SS. GG.”
“Tell them it’s in code,” Aaron said,
She did, adding, "We are riding on a Magic Vehicle, like in the books. That's the second clue. "
"That's the Magic School Bus," Aaron pointed out. "We're not taking a school bus."
"It's a bus, isn’t it?" Caitlin chewed the back of the pen before adding, "When we get there, we will find more magic stuff. That's the third clue.”
Brick took the pen and added, “Don't be mad. We just want Robin to stay."
They all signed it. Brick suggested pricking their fingers and writing their names in blood, but the other two nixed that idea.
Then they dug around in their drawers to find bus fare. Their money jars hadn't yet recovered from the pizza incident, but they scraped up about ten dollars, which Caitlin figured was enough.
From the kitchen, she heard Robin call, "Are you guys still breathing in there?"
"We're fine!" Caitlin responded.
"Ready to ride your bikes?" came the response.
"We're going out right now," Caitlin called. "See you in a while!"
"I'll be out in a few minutes." Robin sounded distracted.
"Perfect," muttered Brick. "We'll be long gone before she catches on."
Caitlin had to argue Aaron out of taking the bikes and leaving them at the end of the block. "We don't want them stolen," she scolded. "Come on. We better move fast."
As they went out through the garage, she wished she had a bus schedule. They'd have to set out on foot and hope for the best.
*
Robin preferred to keep a close eye on the kids when they were outside, but this morning things kept popping up. The dentist's office called with a reminder of checkups the next day, and she had to leave a note for Flint. Then he got a business call at home by mistake and, since she hadn’t been authorized to give out his cell number, she had to call and leave word on his voice mail.
After that the secretary at A Learning Place phoned to say they would be closing at one o'clock today, so Robin needed to come by before then to get her key. There were so many things to do, and none of it blocked out the awareness that today was her last one as the children's caretaker.
En route to the front door, Robin paused to scoop a book of Aaron's and a pair of Brick's socks off the floor. The children scattered their possessions throughout the house in ways that weren't even logical. How had the book ended up here? Why were Brick's socks in the living room?
As she carried the items to the boys' bedroom, Robin's throat clogged. It was going to take all her strength to walk out of here this afternoon.
Her mind in turmoil, Robin went onto the porch and surveyed the street. There was no sign of the children.
That wasn't unusual, since they were allowed to venture onto surrounding residential streets. Robin decided to
straighten out the gardening tools in the garage until the youngsters showed up. She’d like to leave the place in apple-pie order.
At first glance, the garage struck her as unusually cluttered. The reason hit Robin when she saw the bicycles. Hadn’t the triplets gone riding?
Maybe they’d trotted across the street to play. But the Andrews family usually opened their garage door when the grandchildren were on the premises, and today it was shut.
Robin went to double-check their rooms. On Caitlin's bed, she spotted a note.
As she read it, Robin smiled. Their intent was unmistakable.
Then she stopped smiling She didn't like the idea of eight-year-old kids, even very bright ones, running around Beachside unsupervised. Flint would like it even less.
She went to her room for her purse, leaving the note onto the kitchen table. If she were lucky, maybe she'd catch the runaways at the bus stop.
*
"I’m tired of waiting." Brick swung his legs on the bench. "We've been here forever."
"Almost ten minutes," Aaron corrected. He was the only one of the three who wore a watch.
Caitlin glanced across Beachside Avenue toward the side street that led to their house. "Robin could be along any time now."
"If she figures out the note," Brick said.
"She'll figure it out." Aaron drummed his fingers on the bench. "We shouldn't have left so many clues."
Caitlin wrinkled her nose at the exhaust fumes from the traffic. She couldn't believe the number of cars and trucks stinking up the air.
"Let’s go look in that store." Brick indicated a hobby shop in a strip mall half a block away. Model airplanes were suspended in the window.
"No," Caitlin said. "Would you stop fidgeting?"
"Isn’t that Robin's car?" asked Aaron.
They followed his gaze to the side street. There, halted at a red light, sat a familiar green compact.
"That's her," Brick agreed.
"There's too much glare on the windshield." Caitlin knew she was grasping at straws. "You can't possibly see her."
"But she can see us," Aaron pointed out.
A loud wheeze blotted out the traffic noises as a bus halted in front of them, blocking their view of Robin's car.
"Come on," Caitlin said.
"Seriously?" Aaron remained sitting until she grabbed his arm and yanked him up.
"We might as well go." Brick gave them both a grin. "She won't be able to stop us until we get to the beach. Once we're there, maybe we can stay a while."
"All right." Aaron stopped resisting and followed his siblings up the steps.
Caitlin paid their money, which left a pitifully small amount. The bus was full of beachgoers, picnic baskets and surfboards, and she and her brothers had to sit separately.
The door groaned shut and the bus cranked into motion. The great adventure had begun. Caitlin only hoped it wouldn't end with the three of them being grounded for the rest of the summer.
*
Robin gritted her teeth in frustration as the bus pulled away and she saw that the children had left with it. She'd had them in her sights and that darn red light had held her back. Now she’d have to follow to the end of the line.
She appreciated their desire to hang onto her, and their resourcefulness in picking Gigi's, but it changed nothing. She hoped they wouldn't pull any stunts like this on Maureen.
Thinking about Maureen reminded Robin that the older woman was also visiting Gigi. Since séances were usually held at night, it was odd that Frederick had specified this morning. He must have some reason, Robin supposed. Or was this another trick of her mother’s?
Maureen had seemed convinced that attending today's séance would relieve her mind, no matter how it turned out. Sometimes, Robin remembered reading, people needed rituals in order to resolve their feelings of grief and loss. There was no ceremony to acknowledge a broken heart. That might have helped Maureen forty years ago.
If the séance filled that need, Gigi's meddling would prove worthwhile. Meanwhile, Robin needed to round up the kids and get to A Learning Place, located nearly half an hour’s drive inland, in time to claim her key.
*
The city planning director, Everett Zane, ushered Flint into his office and introduced a tall African-American woman, Shirley Greene, from his staff.
"Shirley will be in charge of implementing your recommendations," said Everett, a short, round-faced man who looked almost comical beside his statuesque coworker.
"I've read your report," explained Shirley in a throaty voice, "but it always helps to discuss things in person."
"Absolutely." The city council was scheduled to vote on Flint’s recommendations next week. With all the protests, they might simply table it for further study. However, the planning staff was gearing up, in case they went ahead.
He led the two planners to a topographic wall map of the city. The ocean slashed across at an angle, from upper left to lower right, forming the southwest border of Beachside. The city stretched from flat beach to the higher ground where Flint lived to Beach Heights, a region of ancient sea cliffs that offered spectacular views.
"The biggest problems will come along the beach," Flint explained. "In an earthquake, sandy soil magnifies the shaking. If the tremor is severe, you can get a condition called liquefaction, in which the soil turns into a form of quicksand."
"Isn’t that just a theory, Dr. Harris?" Shirley asked.
"No, it's been demonstrated. It started to happen during the Long Beach quake of 1933," Flint said. "Fortunately, the shaking stopped before it got too bad."
"How long are we talking before the next big one?" Everett asked. "A decade? Two decades?"
"I wish I knew," Flint said. "California has hundreds of small quakes every year. It's not unlikely we'll get one in the five-point-zero to five-point-five range during the next couple of years."
"Excuse me, Dr. Harris, but I'm from Milwaukee," the assistant explained. "That sounds like a pretty big earthquake to me."
"In parts of the world where people live in mud huts on ungraded slopes, yes," Flint said. "That's why soil preparation and building standards are vital. Around here, we've had earthquake standards for nearly eighty years, but we're learning more all the time. Some of the structures, especially facades and signs, met building standards a decade or so ago, but we now understand they could pose a serious hazard."
"Sounds like there's a real urgency to your recommendations," said Ms. Greene.
“That’s right.”
Flint hoped the council would agree. He didn't like to think about the facade on that Gigi’s store, or about whoever might be walking in front of it. It was exactly the kind of peril he hoped to eliminate.
"Let's get down to the details, shall we?" he said, and the two planners nodded.
*
Robin got caught in a traffic jam near the beach. In this hot August weather, half the population of Orange County must have headed for the ocean.
By the time she reached the bus, the passengers had departed and it was reloading. A quick check of the area showed no sign of the triplets.
Robin spent the next ten minutes searching for a parking space. That task accomplished, she wedged herself out in the six inches between her car and a van that had parked over the line. Banging her hip, she fought down the urge to curse.
Anxiety shortened Robin's temper. Although the children planned to visit Gigi, they might easily get lost. Bright as they were, the kids tended to overestimate their abilities.
She hurried through the parking lot, dodging teenagers on roller blades and beachgoers carrying sun umbrellas. On the boardwalk, she couldn't see more than a few feet ahead because of the crowd.
Today, the block to Gigi's shop felt more like a mile. Robin kept scanning the beach in case the kids had wandered out that way, but the sand swarmed with sunbathers. She'd forgotten what August could be like, especially since temperatures in the high nineties had been predicted for today.
When she reached the fortune-telling shop, Robin jerked on the door so hard she nearly dislocated her shoulder. It was locked.
She muttered under her breath as she noticed the Gone to Commune With Spirits sign. Gigi must be upstairs holding the séance. But what about the triplets?
If they'd arrived to find the store locked, they wouldn't have waited around. But where could they have gone? Robin sought clues in the bright kaleidoscope of swimsuits and towels dotting the beach. No eight-year-olds in street clothes.
"Going to the séance?" Julius Caesar appeared out of the mass of people moving along the sidewalk. He had traded his toga for a shabby centurion's costume. The cloth was shredded, the fake body armor broken and the plastic helmet missing its plume. Catching her gaze, the man said, "I decided to honor Frederick with a full-dress uniform."
"Have you seen three children?" she asked. "Two boys and a girl, eight years old?"
The old man shrugged. "Might be heading for the mime show. Down that way." He pointed farther along the boardwalk.
"Thanks." Robin took off at a rapid pace.
She spotted Caitlin first, brown hair floating in the sunlight. She stood between her brothers in a bunch of children, watching two mimes juggle beach balls.
Coming up behind them, Robin waited until the show ended. There was no harm in letting them watch, now that she had an eye on them.
"I guess we'd better..." Brick swung around and bumped right into her. "Oops."
"She's been standing there for five minutes," Caitlin said.
"Hi." Aaron gave Robin a relieved smile. "I'm glad you're here."
Robin felt her annoyance dissolve as she surveyed the children. As long as they were safe, she couldn't stay angry at them. But she did have to pick up that key.
"You're coming with me to my school," she said. "I need to go over there, and I can show you my classroom."
"Can't we stop and say hello to Grandma Gigi?" Caitlin queried as the four of them started back. "We don't know when we'll see her again."
"It's nice to have a grandmother," Aaron said. "We’d like to keep her."
"Family is important," Brick noted.
Robin thought at first they might be parroting lines they'd heard, but they appeared sincere. All three children had grown attached to Gigi. She wondered if Flint realized how painful it would be to cut the children off from their newfound family, if that’s what he intended to do
Yours, Mine and Ours Page 18