by Shawn Inmon
Another pause, as the tape wound quietly on the microcassette in the answering machine. When Cyrus continued, he was quieter. “We’re going to stay here in Little Rock until ... well, until things get sorted out. I have a feeling we’ll be bringing Byron home with us when we come. Alice asked me to tell you ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you’ for bringing our boy back. I don’t have to tell you what it means to us.” A long beep signaled the end of the message.
Vivian pushed “Erase” on the recorder, picked up her glass of wine, and walked to Nathaniel’s bedroom—a typical four-year-old’s bedroom. There was a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe poster above his bed, edges curling. A toy box overflowed with Stretch Armstrong and G.I. Joes, an Etch-a-Sketch and Hot Wheels cars. A bookshelf filled with well-loved picture books.
“Not the bedroom of a new messiah. Just a boy,” Vivian said quietly, before crossing the room and pulling up the blankets Nathaniel had kicked off in his sleep. Standing once again in the doorway, looking at his small, sleeping form, she came to a decision.
“I’ll do whatever it takes, Nathaniel, so you can have a normal life. Whatever it takes.”
THE FOLLOWING WEEK was wonderfully normal for Victoria at Creech Coat and Uniform.
Mr. & Mrs. Creech and Byron stayed at the Children’s Hospital for the week while the doctors ran batteries of tests, looking for answers they would never find. The end result was the same—Byron was once again a healthy child, with a happy smile for everyone who came to visit him. The Creeches didn’t mind the delay, they were content to be a family and spend time together.
At the factory, life went on as it always did. Vivian kept her ear to the ground to see if there was any more talk of miracles and unexplained cures, but aside from some employees remarking how wonderful it was that Byron was on the mend, all was quiet. Nathaniel’s name never came up. Vivian stopped worrying about it for the moment and focused on smoothly running things until Mr. Creech returned.
When Cyrus did make it back, the middle of the next week, the first thing he did was make a quick trip around the manufacturing floor, theoretically checking materials, but really accepting well-wishes and congratulations. The second thing he did was summon Vivian to his office.
She sat down across from him, notebook in hand. Before he spoke, Cyrus raised his hand to indicate silence, walked over and closed the door. When he sat back down, he smiled broadly and said, “The doctors can’t explain it, but they’ve given Byron a clean bill of health. They may not understand it, but we do, don’t we?” His entire attitude spoke of a happy conspiracy between them.
Vivian shifted in her chair, took a deep breath, and tried to decide how to proceed.
Before she could, Cyrus said, “This is big. Really big. Bigger than any of us.” He stood and started to pace behind his desk. “Have you talked to your pastor about your boy, and what he can do?”
“We don’t attend church.”
Cyrus stopped in mid-step and turned toward her. “Really? Oh, I just assumed.”
“I understand. Here we are, right in the buckle of the Bible Belt, so pretty much everyone goes to church, or feels guilty about it, but we don’t. We had a bad experience.”
“At church? A bad experience?” He shook his head. “Well, we don’t have any of those here. Would you be willing to bring Nathaniel in to meet with Pastor Michaels at my church?”
“No.”
Cyrus stopped, as if the answer had been a foregone conclusion. “No?”
“That’s right. No. Look, Cyrus. It was against my better judgement that we went to Little Rock with you in the first place. I’m glad that something changed, and that Byron is going to be fine. I’m thrilled. But the most important thing to me is to protect Nathaniel. I can’t do that by traipsing him out to strangers like a trained monkey. If you really are grateful to us, please just forget we had anything to do with it.” She stood and closed her notepad. “Is there anything else you need from me?”
Cyrus appeared stunned at this sudden turn of events. Mouth slightly ajar, he shook his head.
“Thank you. I’ll be in my office if you need me. I put the production reports there in your inbox.”
Vivian let herself out, but as she walked down the hall toward her office, her hands were shaking.
Chapter Seven
That night, Vivian, Andi, and Nathaniel were settled in the living room. The adults were more or less watching an old black and white movie on TBS, and Nathaniel was staging a battle between his action figures and dozens of small green army men. The action figures were larger, but the army men had numbers on their side.
Andi had once been only a babysitter, but over the past few years, she had evolved into more of a member of the family. It wasn’t unusual for her to stay for dinner, and then to still stick around and watch television and visit with Vivian. For her part, Vivian was glad to have another adult to talk to. Nathaniel was a bright young boy, but he was still only four, and more concerned with his toys than anything else.
Andi was draped across the chair, not really watching the movie, but not wanting to go home to her boyfriend, either. With a sigh, she slipped her legs off the arm of the chair. “Guess I might as well head for home. The longer I stay here, the worse it’ll be when I get there.” She paused. “Of course, if I wait long enough, he’ll be drunk and passed out by the time I get there.”
Before she had a chance to even slip her shoes on, there was a knock on the door. Vivian and Andi exchanged a glance. Andi raised her eyebrows: Are you expecting company? Vivian shook her head slightly and went to the window. On the small porch, she saw Cyrus Creech and a man she didn’t know.
She turned to Andi. “It’s just Cyrus and some other man. Wonder what in the world he wants now. Stay with me for a minute, will you?”
“Sure.” Andi knelt down and began picking up scattered army men off the floor.
Vivian answered the door. “Hello, Cyrus, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”
Cyrus looked a little flustered, but said, “Hello, Vivian.” He gestured toward the man standing slightly behind him. “This is Pastor Michaels. I apologize for dropping in unannounced like this. I hope you don’t mind.”
Pastor Michaels was tall and thin, with round glasses, and a hawk’s beak nose.
Vivian cocked her head, but lacked the ability to be outright rude. She stepped back, opened the door, and said, “Please come in.” As the men came inside, she shook hands with Pastor Michaels.
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am.” He barely gave a glance to Vivian, though. His attention focused on Nathaniel, still scooping up army men. He kneeled down beside him and said, “Hello, young man. I’m Pastor Michaels, but I’d like it if you’d call me Jimmy.”
Nathaniel looked up from his clean up duties and glanced at Vivian, who gave him a slight nod.
“Yes, sir.” He met and held Michaels’ gaze steadily.
“You have very good manners. It’s nice to meet you, Nathaniel.” He stood and dusted off the knees of his slacks. He looked at Vivian and said, “I really do apologize for barging in like this, ma’am, but I needed to see this miraculous young man with my own eyes.” He glanced, sidelong at Cyrus, cleared his throat. “After what Cyrus told me, I couldn’t help myself. I was so excited, I called the Bishop of our entire region, Bishop McCallister. He and I prayed about it, and we were moved by God to come and talk to you.”
“Well,” Vivian said, looking sharply at Cyrus, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Cyrus looked at his shoes.
“And what is it, exactly, that you want to talk to me about? Something about my four-year-old son, I would guess?”
“Well, yes. Bishop McCallister wanted to know if you would drive with me to meet him in Dallas tomorrow. He’s really quite excited to meet Nathaniel.”
“Goodness,” Vivian said, slipping into her recently acquired southern accent, “Little Rock last week, Dallas this week. I’m becoming quite the world traveler.”
Nathaniel looked at his mother.
Vivian took a deep breath. Carefully, she said, “I can see how important this is to you. And I understand how special Nathaniel is. It’s hard for me, because I want to keep him all to myself, but I really do understand.” She nodded. “All right. If it’s that important to you, I won’t stand in the way.”
Reverend Michaels and Cyrus Creech beamed at her. Andi looked aghast.
“What time do you want to pick us up?”
“It’s quite a drive to Dallas, especially if we catch traffic. Would 9:00 a.m. be too early?”
Vivian looked beaten down, but resigned. “No, no, that’s fine. Shall I pack us a lunch?”
“Oh, no,” Michaels answered quickly. “The church will be proud to buy the two of you lunch. There’s a Cracker Barrel just outside of Dallas. We can stop there, have some of their wonderful cornbread, and meet with Bishop McCallister by 3:00. We’ll be back here before Nathaniel’s bedtime.”
“That’s fine, then,” Vivian said. “We’ll be ready to go.”
Pastor Michaels beamed at her again. It was obvious that this had gone much easier than he had anticipated.
“Well, we’ll get out of your hair, then,” Cyrus said.
“See you in the morning, Mrs. Hanrahan. And,” he paused and graced Vivian with his most sincere smile, the one that loosened up the tightest wallet when the collection plate was being passed, “thank you.” He finally noticed Andi sitting off to the side, jauntily tipped a finger against his forehead and said, “Ma’am.”
A moment later they were out the door. Nathaniel moved to the window and stood on his tiptoes so he could see out. They look happy. Thought Pastor Michaels was going to jump up and click his heels for a minute there. He watched them get in Cyrus’s Cadillac. The car started, the headlights turned on, and it pulled slowly away from the curb.
Vivian turned around to a glare from Andi. “I can’t believe you’re letting those Bible thumpers mess around with Nathaniel. What are you thinking?”
Vivian glanced at the clock. 8:30.
“I think I’ve got twelve hours to pack up anything we want to take with us and get out of here.”
Chapter Eight
“So,” Vivian said, turning to Andi with a quick smile, “whaddya say? Want to stay up all night and help me figure out how to fit my whole life into a Chevy Cavalier?”
“You’re leaving? Like, leaving leaving?”
“I would never let them get their claws into Nathaniel. I was just trying to get them out of here as fast as I could.”
“But, where will you go?”
“No idea. I was on my way somewhere when I broke down here. I would have moved on eventually, anyway. I’ve always known Tubal isn’t my ultimate destination.”
Andi looked thoughtful. She was twenty years old, a cute redhead who had been born in Tubal and had rarely been outside of Union County. The trip to Dallas had sounded like a major road trip. The idea of packing up everything Vivian owned and heading out for parts unknown, dazed her.
Vivian glanced around the living room, taking inventory of the couch, chair, and coffee table.
“I got all this stuff second-hand a few years ago, so it’s no big loss. Whatever we don’t take with us, you can have. I’ll give notice to our landlord while we’re on the road, and we’ve paid rent through the end of the month, so you’ll have plenty of time to move whatever you want out. You can even move in here for a few weeks if you want some time away from Carl.”
Vivian retrieved an empty box from the back porch and brought it to Nathaniel in his room. “We are going on an adventure tomorrow. We might not ever come back here, so I want you to pack whatever toys you love the most in this box, so we can take them with us. Understand?”
Nathaniel looked at the box, perhaps two feet square, then looked at all the toys scattered around his room. Not much room. But there are always more toys. He shrugged and said, “Okay, Mama,” and went to work.
Vivian watched him pick up one army man or Hot Wheels car, consider it carefully, then place it either in the box, or back on the floor.
“Half an hour, Nathaniel, then it’s off to bed with you, and whatever’s in the box goes with us, whatever isn’t, stays here.”
Nathaniel didn’t even hear her. In his mind, he was envisioning future battles that would be fought with the toys he brought, and he wanted to make sure he got the right ones. He picked up a kneeling army man with a bazooka on his shoulder and said, “We’ll definitely need you,” and dropped him in the box.
Vivian walked back into the living room carrying another empty box and a roll of box tape. Andi sat cross-legged on the couch, a thoughtful look on her face.
“What would you think if I said I wanted to come with you?”
That brought Vivian up short. “Huh? Your whole life’s here in Tubal.”
“My whole life?” Andi laughed and ticked items off on her left hand. “Carl. Not the best boyfriend in the world. He cares a lot more about SEC football, trucks, and going fishing than he does me, and I know he always will. Job. My job is working for you. When you go, so does the job. Parents? Mom’s dead, and Dad moved to Texas for work three years ago. I’m lucky if I get a phone call from him on my birthday.” She pushed down a third finger, then paused. “And you know what’s really sad? I’ve lived here my whole life, and I can’t even think of four things I’d be leaving behind.”
“Well, if you’re serious, you don’t have a lot of time to think about it. Nathaniel loves you, and it would be so much easier if he didn’t lose you right now, too. So, wow.” Vivian shook her head. “Crazy how things happen so fast. A few hours ago, we were eating Hamburger Helper and trying to decide what to watch on TV.”
Andi jumped off the couch. “So does that mean I can go with you guys? I’d miss you both way more than I’ll miss anything else in this town.”
“Yes, of course you can come with us, you’re family. But, there’s one other thing to think about. When we leave here, we leave everything behind. I don’t know if they will, but Creech and Michaels might come looking for us, and I don’t want to be found. That means no phone calls to old boyfriends, or anyone else. Is that too much for you?”
Andi was quiet for a moment, thinking. “I think Carl will miss me for about two days, then he’ll probably hook up with Missy over at the diner. I’ve seen the way he looks at her when we go in for lunch. Yeah, I get it. If I had those guys looking for me, I wouldn’t want to be found, either.”
Vivian opened her arms, and Andi jumped to her, squealing. “Oh, this will be so much fun! I’ve gotta go pack.”
“One suitcase,” Vivian said. “We’re not gonna have much room. The “Cadavalier” doesn’t have much trunk space. It’s a lot more reliable than that old Merc that got me this far, though.”
Andi nodded. “Got it. Can I borrow it to run home? I don’t want to walk through town carrying my suitcase.”
Vivian tossed her the keys. “See you soon.”
Andi bolted through the front door and ran down the sidewalk to the silver Cavalier parked on the street.
Vivian looked around the apartment. “What do I have room for?” In the end, she settled on photo albums, Nathaniel’s baby book, his box of toys, and one suitcase for each of them.
She looked at the small pile in front of the door and smiled. “Pathetic, really,” she said to herself. She peeked in at Nathaniel again, sleeping peacefully now. “And none of that stuff matters.”
Chapter Nine
By 5:00 a.m., the car was packed, and Vivian carried Nathaniel, wrapped in a blanket, to the backseat. She had left it empty, so he could stretch out and sleep on the trip. She made a pillow out of their coats and laid him down. Andi rode shotgun, and Vivian slid behind
the wheel. She started the car and took one last look at the little house.
“First house where I was ever on my own. First house with Nathaniel.”
Andi looked at her. “You okay?”
The mist of memory cleared from her eyes. “Yeah, let’s face it. It was kind of a shithole.” They laughed, she shifted the car into Drive and two minutes later, they were in the country. After a few miles, they hit a main highway and turned north. One tiny town after another appeared in the distance, then shrank into their rearview mirror.
“Still no idea where we’re going?”
“Not really. Wherever the wind blows us, I guess. Creech might remember that I was on my way to Louisiana when I broke down here, so that’s out. He knows I come from Minnesota, and I wouldn’t go back there anyway.”
Vivian had never told Andi why she had left Minnesota and she still didn’t.
“So, that leaves east or west. Any preference?” Vivian smiled and looked at Andi.
“In school, I saw this picture once, of an amazing lake. It’s got the clearest water you can imagine, so you can see more than a hundred feet down. I’ve always wanted to see it.”
“What was it called?”
“Crater Lake. I think it was in Oregon.” She pronounced it as Or-uh-gone, with the accent on the last syllable.
“Sounds like the closest thing we’ve got to a plan. What do you think, bug? How does Oregon sound?