One Among Us

by Paige Dearth

  Mrs. Frey entered the bathroom and closed the door. She shone the flashlight around the tiny room. There was a tub with a cheap shower curtain that looked as though it were made of plastic wrap. The toilet was old, and inside the bowl were years upon years of rust stains. There was no sink. A small mirror hung crookedly above the toilet. She thought of all the extravagant things in her own home, and a stab of guilt jolted up her spine. Shaking it off, she walked back into the only other room of the apartment.

  “Thank you for coming all this way,” Maggie began. “I know what Colby told you I needed, and it’s true. We need advice on how to cope with everything that’s happening right now. But there’s something else I was hoping you could do.”

  “Sure, let’s hear it,” Mr. Frey said, willing to do just about anything after seeing the dismal circumstances in which these young people were living.

  Maggie gestured toward the mattress and began to walk over. Mr. and Mrs. Frey followed.

  “Hey,” Maggie whispered to Seth. “Do you think you can sit up? There are some people here who might be able to help us.”

  Seth nodded. Up until this point, neither of the Freys realized that the child was lying under the pile of blankets and towels on top of the mattress. Seth put his arms around Maggie’s neck, and she hoisted him up as Juju propped a pillow and old clothing behind him.

  The Freys literally had to refrain from moaning aloud. The child was so thin. His bones were protruding, and they could see the purple blotches on his neck and wrists.

  Mrs. Frey took a long, silent breath, filling her lungs with the stale air of the room.

  “Hello,” she said leaning down to look at Seth.

  “Hi,” Seth said shyly.

  The Freys had read all about AIDS. They knew it wasn’t transmittable by shaking hands or hugging, yet they both refrained from getting too close to the child. Mrs. Frey watched as Maggie fussed over the boy, holding his hand and rubbing his arm as she spoke.

  Maggie began, “So, you see, I’ve read that you’ve become very involved with helping people find their lost kids. We were thinking,” she paused and looked at Seth, “that maybe you could help us find his parents. You know, through all of the organizations you work with.”

  “I don’t know if it’ll work, but we’re sure willing to try to help. That is what we do. We try to bring families back together. We hope to be reunited with our own child someday. How about you, Jane? Do you want to find your parents?” Mr. Frey asked.

  “Now isn’t the time. I work for dangerous people and well…it’s just not the right time,” Maggie said, sadness clouding her eyes. Maggie knew that in a matter of weeks, she could lose Seth to his disease. She found herself thinking of her own parents and brother more and more. “But we thought maybe if he could be reunited with his parents, it could bring…closure for him.” Maggie whispered closure as if it were a very bad word.

  “Of course, Jane. We completely understand,” Mrs. Frey confirmed. “We’re going to be staying in Philadelphia for a couple of weeks to see how we might be able to help all of you get through this,” she vowed.

  Maggie smiled. The couple watched the young woman. She was magnificent. Maggie radiated an inner and outer beauty that was almost blinding. While they were talking, Seth had fallen back into a slumber. He didn’t have the strength to stay awake for more than ten minutes at a time. The Freys stayed awhile longer, getting to know Maggie and Juju. They found the two girls interesting and funny. Jane Doe seemed well educated even though she dressed like a streetwalker. She spoke eloquently and didn’t use slang, unlike the Asian girl, who referred to herself as Cujo Doe.

  An hour after they arrived, Mr. Frey stood to leave and pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket. He handed the envelope containing one hundred dollars to Maggie.

  “Just a little money so you can buy Baby Doe things he might need to keep him comfortable,” Mr. Frey said.

  Maggie blushed deeply. She knew that they lived in a shit hole, and Seth didn’t have even the smallest of luxuries to keep him comfortable. Grateful for the gesture, Maggie took the envelope and laid it on the floor next to the mattress.

  Leaning over Seth, Maggie said, “The Freys are leaving. Do you want to say good-bye?”

  Seth’s eyelids fluttered a couple of times, and after a moment, he nodded. Maggie turned and looked at the couple. She pointed her chin toward the mattress.

  “It was nice to meet you, Baby Doe,” Mr. Frey said, his voice cracking. He was nervous and felt inadequately prepared to address the sick child. Seth smiled in response.

  Mrs. Frey walked over to the mattress and looked down on the thin frame that lay beneath the tattered blankets and towels. Get a fucking grip, she told herself. This is a dying child. Give him human contact. She hurriedly sat on the edge of the mattress before she changed her mind.

  “It was very nice to meet you. We’re going to come back and visit you again. Would that be all right?” Mrs. Frey asked.

  Seth smiled weakly and nodded.

  Mrs. Frey involuntarily reached out and grabbed Seth’s hand. “We will help you in any way we can, Baby Doe,” she said.

  She looked down at the boy’s hand resting in her own. She almost got up, but looked down again, just to be sure she wasn’t imagining things. On the inside of the child’s wrist were two perfectly round birth marks that overlapped and looked like the number eight. She pulled the boy’s wrist closer. Then she looked at her husband with unadulterated terror. Mr. Frey was swiftly at her side and looking down at Seth’s wrist. Oh dear God, was all he could think.

  Chapter One Hundred Thirty

  “Stefano?” Mrs. Frey said softly.

  Nothing.

  “Seth?” Mrs. Frey tried.

  Seth’s eyes popped open. How does she know my name? he wondered. He was sure that Maggie had said that the people visiting couldn’t know their real names.

  Mr. Frey looked at Maggie, who just stared at Seth and Mrs. Frey. She was confused. Then Mr. Frey explained, “Our boy, you know his name is Stefano. We used to call him Stef for short. He was only four when he was kidnapped. When you asked him what his name was, he would say ‘Seth’ because he couldn’t pronounce ‘Stef.’”

  Maggie felt as if the bones had been ripped out of her legs. Juju rushed up behind her and steadied her. With Maggie rendered speechless, Juju took over. “Are you sayin’ you think Seth is your kid?”

  Mrs. Frey nodded as she looked into the eyes of the child she once held. In his eyes, she could see the past. Stefano had the exact same eye color as she did, and if she blocked out all the illness, she could see the eyes of her four-year-old boy. Mr. Frey was pacing the small room and raking his fingers through his thick head of hair.

  Maggie forced herself to live in the moment. They had found Seth’s parents. It was everything she’d hoped for and more. They were a nice couple who had dedicated their lives to helping others after Seth had disappeared. But she didn’t expect to feel a tinge of nervousness at the thought of losing Seth to his parents. What if they took him from her now? What if she didn’t get to spend their last days together? Panic rose and fell in her chest; it rose and fell again, a vicious cycle that was making her feel light-headed. Find your voice…find your voice, she willed herself, until a low gurgle started to make its way out of her mouth.

  “How do you know it’s Stefano?” Maggie finally managed.

  “Because of the birthmark on his wrist,” Mrs. Frey said unnervingly, lifting Seth’s wrist.

  There was a long stretch of silence, which none of them knew how to fill. The Freys had so many questions for Maggie. They wanted to know everything their son had been through and how the two knew each other. After a strained moment, Mrs. Frey spoke.

  “Can we take him to the hotel with us?” Internally, Mrs. Frey was screaming, this is my kid, and he’s coming home with me!

  Before Maggie could answer, and to be clear, the answer was no—she didn’t even know these people and wasn’t about to send Seth
with them—Seth lifted his head off the pillow. His bottom lip was quivering.

  “I want to stay with you, Aggie,” he said in a trembling voice.

  Maggie rushed over to him and gathered him up in her arms. She rocked him back and forth. “Everything is going to fine, Seth. I don’t want you to worry. You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying right here with me and Juju,” she said and thought, Oops, I just said Juju’s name…tough shit.

  Maggie looked from Mr. Frey to Mrs. Frey, and reluctantly, they both nodded. Then Mrs. Frey stood and walked toward the door of the apartment. Maggie followed the couple out into the hallway.

  Mrs. Frey looked at her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Will you tell us your name?”

  “Maggie. Seth has been with me since he was four years old. I love him. He’s like my own child, but I want him to know who his parents are before…before it’s too late. I don’t want to fight with you over him. You have to understand there isn’t much time left, and I don’t want to spend it fighting. All I care about is that Seth lives his days out peacefully and surrounded by love,” Maggie stated.

  Mrs. Frey looked disheveled and battered. Maggie felt sorry for her and put her hand on the older woman’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out. Together, we can do this,” Maggie said with the wisdom of a fifty-year-old.

  Mrs. Frey reached over and hugged Maggie close. “This is a lot for the mind to process. I’m so happy to finally have found him, and yet I know there’s so little time left to love him.”

  Maggie nodded. She completely understood. Then she gave Mr. Frey a hug. “Come back tomorrow night, OK?”

  The couple turned to leave when all they wanted to do was go back, grab their boy, and take him somewhere he could be cared for properly. As they walked down the hall toward the stairs, Mr. Frey turned. “We’re thankful he’s had you. We hope to better understand what his life has been.”

  Maggie nodded. “I’ll tell you everything there is to know.”

  When Maggie was back in the apartment, Seth was awake and more aware than he’d been in a long time. “Were they really my mom and dad?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure. I think they were. I mean, their story sounded real and all,” Maggie rambled.

  “Aggie, I wanna know them, but…but, you won’t let them take me away from you, right?” Seth asked.

  “Right, sweetie. I need you to focus on feeling better. You’re not going anywhere without me,” Maggie said, forcing a smile.

  A few hours later, sometime during the early morning, Maggie and Juju fell asleep. They had stayed up for hours thinking through their options. If the Freys really were Seth’s parents, they could easily take him home. Maggie had imagined finding Seth’s parents and being happy to meet them, but then they’d go on their merry way, realizing that Seth belonged to her. She had raised him for most of his life, longer than his parents had been with him.

  During the same hours, Mr. and Mrs. Frey lay awake in their hotel room discussing what they’d do. They wanted their boy back home with them. They loved him and had missed so much of his life. They could provide him with all the things he needed. They would get the best AIDS doctor on earth to review Seth’s case and treat him. Maybe they could reverse the disease. Their hopes and thoughts about being reunited with their child were endless.

  But shortly before the Freys fell asleep, Mrs. Frey told her husband, “We need to put our son’s needs before our own. If we can do that, then surely we’ll do all the right things for him.”

  But could the Freys actually put Seth’s needs ahead of their own need to reunite with their son?

  Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One

  Maggie rushed into the lap dance room with Colby the next evening. She looked sleep-deprived and unkempt.

  “What happened?” Colby whispered.

  “The Freys say they’re Seth’s parents,” Maggie told him.

  “What do you mean? Why do they think that?” Colby asked, wondering if the Freys were lunatics.

  “Seth has a birthmark on his wrist. Mrs. Frey recognized it and said she thinks Seth is her son.”

  Maggie went on to explain about Seth’s name. Colby listened and wondered if it could possibly be true. What were the odds that he’d brought these people to their son, he wondered. However, as he listened to Maggie go over what had happened in her apartment, it all lined up and began to make sense.

  “Maggie, you need to stay calm. These people have been searching for their child since the day he went missing. If they really are Seth’s parents, then he and the Freys both have a right to know.”

  Maggie looked at Colby as if he’d just betrayed her. “But they can take him from me,” she whined. “I…I don’t want to lose him. Not now. He’s sick, Colby. You know this. He’s sick and he needs me,” she argued.

  “Yes, he does need you. But he also deserves to know that his parents love him and that they never stopped searching for him. It’s not about what the Freys need or even what you need. It’s only about what Seth needs. He’s a very sick boy, and this may be the greatest gift you can give him,” Colby said.

  Maggie slouched in the seat next to Colby. Of course, he was right. She knew this without a doubt. But her heart felt as though it was being ripped from her chest.

  “I’ll tell you what. I’m going to drive over to their hotel now and talk to them before they go to your apartment tonight. Anyway, you can’t just turn the boy over to them without knowing for sure that he’s their son. That’ll give you some time to wrap your mind around all of this. OK?” Colby said, lifting her chin from her chest and kissing her on the forehead.

  “Yeah, OK,” Maggie replied meekly.

  At midnight, the Freys knocked on the apartment door. Maggie opened the door apprehensively, gave a small smile, and stepped aside for them to enter. Mrs. Frey rushed over to the mattress where Seth was sitting up.

  “Well, you look like you feel a little better today,” Mrs. Frey commented.

  Seth smiled. He watched the Freys closely, waiting for a connection to them, a memory, to sense something familiar about them. Then Mrs. Frey said something.

  “I don’t know if you remember, but when you were little, you always wanted me to tickle the palms of your hands,” Mrs. Frey said and demonstrated by etching small circles on his palm.

  Bingo! Seth felt as though he was sucked back in time. He remembered. He used to love the feeling of his mother tickling the palms of his hands. His eyes brightened, and he looked to Maggie.

  “I remember,” he said, smiling from Maggie to Juju.

  Maggie’s heart melted. Seth’s eyes had lit up with life. It was as if he was suddenly well again.

  “That’s wonderful, sweetie,” Maggie said with sincerity as she moved closer to the boy.

  Mrs. Frey felt hopeful and looked at her husband, who smiled at her with tears glistening in his eyes.

  “Well, we talked to a man who’s going to help us have blood tests done,” Mrs. Frey explained.

  “Why do we need blood tests?” Seth asked.

  “Just to make sure that you are our son,” Mr. Frey explained.

  Seth shrugged. “OK, I guess so.”

  “Good,” Mrs. Frey said. Then she looked over at Maggie. “We realize how overwhelming this may be for you. We owe it to everyone involved to be sure.”

  Maggie nodded and tried to push down the anxiety attack that wanted to overrun her body. Juju put her arm around Maggie’s shoulder, and the Freys watched. They had questions they wanted answered.

  “Maggie, we were wondering if you might be able to meet us somewhere tomorrow. Outside of the apartment, I mean. We’d just like to talk with you privately,” Mr. Frey said.

  Seth watched closely. “You should go, Aggie. You always tell me that when someone is sad, we need to do everything we can to help them. Mr. and Mrs. Frey look sad,” he said.

  Maggie giggled. “Oh, really?” She tousled his hair. Then she looked up at the Freys. “OK, tomorrow will be fine. Let’s me
et at the Melrose Diner. I can get there by eleven tomorrow morning.”

  The next morning as Maggie was getting ready to meet the Freys, Juju whispered that she wanted to tag along. Juju was worried about her friend, and she knew how troubled Maggie was over the thought of Seth going somewhere else to live.

  “Juju, I’d love for us to go together, but someone has to stay here with Seth. We can’t leave him alone. He can’t even make it to the bathroom by himself. I’ll feel better if I know you’re here with him. Besides, the school nurse is stopping in to check on him, and she’s going to take blood. I talked to her this morning,” Maggie explained.

  “OK, fine. But I want it on the record that I don’t like this shit one fuckin’ bit,” Juju said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Maggie laughed. “You are one tough-ass bitch.”

  “You ain’t seen tough yet, sister. Everybody better back the fuck off and quit being so pushy,” Juju said. Then she got serious. “I can’t bear to lose him either. I’ve grown to love the smacked ass. I mean, he’s like a brother to me.”

  Juju walked slowly toward Maggie, who opened her arms and pulled Juju into her. The two young women stood in the bathroom, their official meeting spot, where Seth couldn’t hear them, and held each other for several moments. Finally, Maggie pulled away.

  “OK, no more of this shit. We need to keep it together. We’ve been through a lot, and Seth is counting on us to do what’s right. Whatever we do from this moment forward is for him,” Maggie stated.

  The Freys were seated across from Maggie at the Melrose Diner. After they’d ordered, Maggie got right to the point.

  “So you want information?”

  “Yes, we want to know what happened to our…Seth. After he was taken…what happened to him?” Mrs. Frey asked.

  Maggie explained how she woke up after being kidnapped and saw Seth in the back of the van next to her. She explained the years they spent in the prison and the house where Cali and Max died. She talked about Thelma and all of the horrible things she’d done to Seth and finished with how she, Seth, and Juju had come to live together.