by Arlene James
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer...”
Once sure that she had it down, she moved on to Psalm 33:22. “May Your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in You. May Your—”
Before she got through it the second time, the phone on her desk rang. Expecting it to be another switchboard mistake—they happened often at the end of the day—she answered ubiquitously.
“Medical office.”
“Eva?”
She sat stunned for several seconds. “R-Rick? How did you get this number?”
“I called the one you left with your son,” her ex answered smartly, “and someone there gave this one to me.”
She gripped the edge of her desk. “Has something happened to Ricky?”
“I wouldn’t know,” he snapped. “The little snot took off.”
“What?” She shot to her feet. “Where did he go?”
“I have no idea.”
He had no idea where their ten-year-old son had gone, and the very tenor of his voice told her that he had no intention of even looking for him!
“Who have you called, Rick?” she demanded.
“I called you, because you created this mess, so you are the one who is going to deal with it.”
“You were fine with it. You wanted him to stay with you.”
“That was before I knew what a demanding little brat he’s turned into. He’s pulled his last stunt with me, Eva. I’m done! You get back here and do something with him. I mean it. I’ve had it.”
“When did he leave?” she asked frantically.
“I don’t know. Sometime last night, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“I can’t watch him every moment.”
“Or at all apparently! What do the police say?”
For the first time, he sounded somewhat abashed. “I, uh, haven’t called them.”
“You haven’t even called the police?” she practically screamed. “He’s been gone for hours!”
“I thought he’d give up and come home by now,” he admitted grudgingly.
“Call them now!” she demanded, grabbing her handbag from a drawer and moving around her desk. “Then start calling his friends.”
“I don’t know any of his friends. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have any.”
“Of course, he—” She broke off. What was the point? “I’m on my way, but I’m at least nine hours from you, so call the police now, or so help me, Rick, when I get there—”
“All right, all right,” he growled. “Just get up here because he’s not staying.”
“No, he’s not,” she agreed, her anger giving way to panic. She broke the connection and tossed the phone at the desk, crying, “I was crazy to think he’d be okay with you.” Then she ran down the hall toward Brooks’s office.
He stepped out of an examination room just as she passed it, and she whirled to face him, dashing tears from her eyes with one hand. “Eva, what on earth is going on?” he asked. “I heard you shouting all the way down the hall.”
“I need my keys.”
He stepped up and ran his hands down her arms as she nervously shifted from foot to foot. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
“Brooks, I have to leave. I need the keys to my van. I’ve worked off the debt, haven’t I? It’s been weeks. Please. I have to go. Now!”
Taking her by the arm, he turned her and walked her swiftly into his office. “What’s going on?”
She shook her head, trembling head to toe. “There’s no time. I have to get back to Kansas City. I have to find...”
“Eva,” he urged, sliding his hands across her shoulder blades, “tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll help you.”
She gulped down the lump in her throat and wailed, “I have to find my son!”
Brooks reeled back, his eyes wide. “Son,” he parroted.
“He’s ten years old,” she sobbed, caving in on herself, “and I didn’t want him to watch me die the way I had to watch my mom, so I left him with his lousy father and went off on my own. I abandoned him!”
“You have a son,” Brooks said, as if she hadn’t been telling him that.
“He ran away sometime last night,” she howled, “and his rotten father didn’t even notice until sometime today. He says he won’t look for him and he won’t keep him any longer. He didn’t even call the police until I threatened him!”
Brooks frowned. “Well, then we have to go get him.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” she yelled, stomping her foot and sticking out her hand. “So cancel the surgery and give me my keys.”
“No,” he said calmly, sliding an arm around her and turning her toward the door, “and no.”
“What?” she asked, stumbling forward.
“I said, no, we’re not canceling the surgery and no, you cannot have the keys to your van.”
As he had all but shoved her through the door to his office at this point, she found herself standing in the hallway. “Brooks,” she pleaded, turning her head to look up at him, “you don’t understand. I have to go after my son.”
“You don’t understand,” he told her, walking her bodily toward the coat cubby. “I’m not letting you go alone.” Before she could fully digest that, he called out to his nurse. “Ruby! Bring me the new travel bag in the supply room.”
“Sure, boss.”
He pulled Eva’s coat from the hanger and bundled her into it then he reached for his own. Ruby arrived on the scene while he was buttoning up.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you. We’re leaving,” he said, tucking the thick, flat square bag under his arm.
“Oh. Okay.” Clearly surprised, Ruby asked, “How long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Shift or cancel everything you can for tomorrow and Saturday. I’ll call Murdock and Maryann Chatam from the car and ask if they can come up and cover me for next week. I’ve already blocked out Wednesday and Thursday, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Beyond that, we’ll see.”
“A-all right. Whatever you say.”
“I’ll keep you posted,” he promised, sliding an arm around Eva’s shoulders and calmly walking her toward the exit. “If you have questions, call me.”
“Will do,” Ruby said.
“I don’t know what to say,” Eva told him in a fractured voice as they stepped out into gray winter twilight and the door closed behind them.
“Then, don’t say anything.” He paused to gently turn up her face with a finger curled beneath her chin. Then he kissed her, his lips descending to press softly against hers.
Eva grabbed handfuls of his coat and hung on, pushing herself up into that kiss with everything that was in her heart, taking strength and hope and warmth from it. He wrapped one strong arm about her, anchoring her firmly to this world, to him, to the hope and faith he’d brought into it.
When he lifted his head, she tucked her face into the curve of his throat and whispered against his skin, “Brooks. Brooks.”
The verses she’d memorized earlier ran through her mind.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer...May Your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in You.
She had hope, such hope, and she would do her best to be patient, knowing that she wasn’t alone. Never again would she believe herself to be alone. Even when Brooks Leland became a fond memory from her past, she would not be alone.
“We’d better pack a couple of bags,” Brooks said, urging her forward.
They moved off swiftly, Eva feeling that she saw things clearly for the first time since her original diagnosis, perhaps for the first time ever.
Hope, she thought, was a beautiful thing. She would be foolish, though, to hope that she and Brooks could truly have more than friendship, something permanent and blessed by God. He loved a woman who had died long ago from a condition very similar to hers, a woman he hadn’t been able to cure. It was natural that he would seek to fulfill that old dream through Eva and that he would transfer some of those old feelings to her in the process, but she couldn’t expect those feelings to endure. In some ways, she felt as if she was taking advantage of Brooks, but for her son she would do what she must and try to make amends later.
Ricky needed her. She had to find him, and if possible, she had to stay alive. For him. She would think of Brooks later and herself not at all. That’s what she should have done from the beginning, but until she’d met Dr. Brooks Leland and the Chatams, she hadn’t even known how. As they sped toward Chatam House, she silently thanked God for stranding her in Buffalo Creek, Texas, and placing her in the care of the best-looking doctor in town and his trusting, praying friends.
She grabbed her clothes and the burner phone, explained everything to Magnolia, who promised to pray, and was waiting impatiently on the porch of Chatam House when Brooks returned seventeen-and-a-half minutes after he’d dropped her off, having changed his clothes, packed a bag and gassed up the car. As they drove north, Eva called Rick’s house and spoke to the housekeeper, Donita, who basically confirmed everything Ricky had told his mom and gave her the names and contact information of his friends. Next, she called Rick’s personal cell and made certain that he had spoken to the police, and then she called the police and spoke to the officer with whom Rick had filed the missing person’s report on their son. She relayed to him the names and contact information of Ricky’s friends and, when pressed for an address where she would be staying in the city, gave her Aunt Donna’s. Donna was her next call. Eva kept it brief, knowing that Ricky wouldn’t go to his great-aunt and that her own welcome would be none too warm. After that, she phoned every one of Ricky’s friends to ask if they’d seen him.
Each boy denied having seen or spoken to Ricky in at least a day. Some said it had been several days or even weeks since they’d had contact with him. A couple of the boys admitted that he’d talked about running away from his dad’s house, but none confessed to helping him. One mentioned another boy, Jared, but Eva didn’t know him, and neither did the boy who mentioned him. After that, all Eva could do was pray.
Brooks made his phone calls, too, and received several before the hour grew late. They made good time, listening to music and talking, mostly about Ricky. It helped Eva to talk about her boy. His dad had left them when he was only five, so for half of Ricky’s life, Rick had been a two-weekends-a-month dad.
“All fun and games,” Brooks guessed.
“Exactly,” Eva said. “He didn’t even pay his child support half the time, so while I was being the world’s best medical transcriptionist to keep us housed and fed, he was playing paintball, seeing matinees of all the best kid movies and keeping his new young wife happy. Tiffany never came along on visitation with Ricky and his dad, and I stupidly thought she was being thoughtful,” Eva went on, “but now I realize that I gave her too much credit. She just didn’t want anything to do with Ricky. I thought we were both giving them ‘guy time,’ because a boy needs his dad.”
“Mmm-hmm, but it’s not his dad who Ricky wants to live with, is it?” Brooks pointed out.
Eva smiled even as tears gathered in her eyes. Again. “Score one for the world’s best medical transcriptionist,” she quipped.
“Oh, I think the score is a lot higher than that,” Brooks drawled.
“I sure can’t claim to be the world’s best mom,” she admitted morosely. “What was I thinking?”
“You were thinking that you didn’t want him to carry the same pain through life that you have carried.”
“Yeah. I was thinking about me and my pain, and I just gave up.”
“We only know what we know at any given time, Eva,” he told her. “You know better now.”
“All I care about right now is finding him,” she whispered.
“We will,” he promised. “The world’s best medical transcriptionist’s son can’t be stupid. He’ll have a plan. He’ll be safe somewhere, and wherever that is, we’ll find him.”
She nodded and prayed he was right. Eventually, somehow, they got on the subject of her decision to leave Kansas City.
“After I got sick, I didn’t know what to do. Ricky was in school and didn’t see what was happening. That meant I was able to keep it from him. When I approached Rick about our son staying with him, he seemed great with it, and I thought Tiffany had matured enough to handle Ricky. He’s really a great kid. It seemed the best option for him. I thought he’d be happy there. I thought after he didn’t hear from me for a while, he’d be upset and maybe even hate me, but he’d transfer all his love and allegiance to his dad, and I was okay with that because Ricky would be happy. So I told Ricky I’d lost my job and had to find something else. I let the house go, paid off all the bills except the van, took what cash I had and tried to disappear.”
“And landed in Buffalo Creek.”
“You don’t know how thankful I am for that,” she exclaimed.
“Me, too,” he said, and she knew he meant it—but maybe not for the same reasons she did.
They drove late into the night. Brooks urged her to rest, but she couldn’t, really. He let her drive for a couple hours across Arkansas, where the highway stretched wide and long and dark. The hour had passed 2:00 a.m. when they reached the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri. The temperature hovered just above twenty degrees, made colder by a stiff breeze blowing down from the north. By the time they crossed the river, traveled west and finally pulled up in front of Rick’s Kansas home, the clock on the dashboard of the car read nine minutes until 3:00 o’clock in the morning.
Eva didn’t waste a moment pounding on the door and getting Rick and Donita out of bed. Tiffany didn’t bother to put in an appearance, but that didn’t surprise Eva. The frown that her ex-husband gave Brooks did.
“Who’s this?” he grumbled.
She hadn’t realized how petulant and immature Rick could look compared to Brooks. They both had dark hair and light eyes, but one was definitely all man and the other was...of the same gender. Even wearing the dark shadow of a heavy beard with jeans and a simple pullover, Brooks looked polished and substantial, while Rick looked like a poser, a wannabe. Brooks stepped forward and held out his hand, introducing himself and, as always, taking the high road.
“Brooks Leland.”
“Doctor Brooks Leland,” Eva hastened to add.
“Eva’s friend,” Brooks added, hesitating just long enough between the two words to give weight to the word friend. She’d have loved him for that if she hadn’t loved him already for everything he was and all he’d done. She wouldn’t even lie to herself about it anymore. She loved him, plain and simple.
Rick frowned all the more, but Brooks just smiled pleasantly and shook hands.
Donita showed Eva and Brooks to Ricky’s room, and they looked around until she found a notebook with Jared’s name and an email address jotted down on the cover. Brooks used his smart phone to send an email right then, asking for information about Ricky and telling Jared that Ricky’s mom was in town and where she could be found. Then nothing remained to be done except to throw herself on the uncertain mercy of her aunt. Even as tired and worried as she was, Eva couldn’t help dreading that particular homecoming.
All her worst memories awaited her in that mean little house where she had grown up. This, she knew, would be the real test of her newfound faith, but she’d told Ricky’s friends that was where she’d be. Besides, she didn’t know where else to go. Most of her friends had drifted away after her divorce, and working from home made it difficult to make more, though i
t had undoubtedly been best for Ricky. She couldn’t stay at Rick’s, and she wouldn’t ask Brooks to take her to a hotel, though he might well choose to find one for himself. In fact, she hoped he would. He needed to rest, and she didn’t want to subject him to Aunt Donna’s vitriol, but she didn’t know how to tell him that without sounding ungrateful and critical. In the end, she was too tired to do more than trudge up the overgrown walk to knock on the cracked and faded paint of what had once been a Chinese red front door.
Donna did not disappoint. She answered, fully dressed, with her usual sneering glance and a few clipped words but no greeting.
“Took you long enough.”
Welcome home, Eva thought glumly. How soon can I get out of here?
* * *
“I expected you more than an hour ago,” Eva’s aunt grumbled.
A small, bony sixty-something woman with short white hair like densely packed boar bristles and Eva’s green-hazel eyes, she turned abruptly from the door and paced into the small, dingy, cool living room. Eva sent Brooks an apologetic glance and followed. He went in behind her and pushed the door closed.
“Aunt Donna, this is Dr. Brooks Leland,” Eva said.
Aunt Donna turned, her wrinkled lips fashioned in a seemingly permanent frown. She raked Brooks with a scathing gaze.
“Got you a doctor this time, did you? Well, don’t think just because he’s got a fancy title you can bring your fornication into this house.”
Eva squeezed her eyes shut, sighing, “Aunt Donna.”
Brooks laid a restraining hand on her shoulder, snapping, “I beg your pardon. You insult not just your niece with that remark but me.”
“This is a Christian household,” Donna began.
“I am a Christian,” Brooks shot at her, “and Eva’s friend. Back home she has many Christian friends.”
Donna seemed momentarily disarmed, but then she lifted her chin, looking down her slender nose at her niece. “Got them fooled, do you? Well, I know what sort you’re drawn to. Look at that adulterer you married.”