“What did he say?”
“He was with your son. He’s confirmed that. And Mr. Gill was wearing a shirt belonging to your husband.”
“Telly’s shirt?”
“One from work, I suspect. Your husband’s name embroidered on the pocket.”
“Where on earth would he get Telly’s shirt? Was he in my house? In my bedroom?”
“No, ma’am. He claims it was a gift from Rowan.”
“A gift. Huh.” I could hear Gloria blow out air.
“Mrs. Janes, the shirt supports Gill’s claim that there was interaction between him and your son.”
“And? What else does this filthy man say?”
“We’re still trying to get things straight.”
“What does that mean?”
“He indicated that some type of altercation took place, an argument. He said that afterward Rowan drifted off his own way.”
“Drifted off?” She sounded mad now. “Who says something like that? Kids don’t float away like balloons.”
“I understand your frustration.” I heard papers crumpling then. Maybe the man was messing up his desk even more. “I’m just relaying what he’s communicated to us so far. We know he’s spent time with your son. That’s evident.”
“So where is he? Where’s Rowan?”
“Well, we’re taking a three-pronged approach. One, we’re working to determine what happened when they were together. Two, we need to understand the circumstances as to why your son is no longer with Mr. Gill. And number three, as rapidly as possible, we are doing everything we can to locate Rowan.”
“This is just beyond me.” She blew out more air.
“Mrs. Janes?”
I listened but no sound.
“There’s something else.”
Nothing.
“Do you know your son’s blood type?”
And even more nothing.
“If you don’t know it, don’t worry. Most parents don’t remember. Why would they need to?” He coughed. “I’m sure we can track it down with a call to the hospital where he was born. That should be on his file.”
“His file.” Gloria was whispering. “Why?”
“There was blood on Howard Gill’s shirt. A substantial amount, I’m sorry to say.”
“Blood?”
“He hasn’t been able to tell us where it’s from.”
“What? Why can’t he just say?”
“We’re making every effort, Mrs. Janes,” he said, “but you have to understand. Mr. Gill is confused. He struggles with severe mood swings and has, ah, difficulty staying connected to reality.”
“I don’t care if he’s in a bad mood. Or he don’t like reality. Who does?”
The man sneezed. Two times like I did, but Gloria didn’t tell him to stop. Then he said, “Officers are taking him now to collect his clothes from the campsite at the old bridge.”
“Why would you want his clothes?” Her words were all wavy again.
“Potential evidence. And we’ll want to type the blood on the shirt. No stone unturned. Just in case.”
“In case.”
They got quiet. I tried to get closer to hear but then a horrible stink filled up my nose. It smelled like rotten eggs. When I looked up, there was Carl. He was walking down the hallway. My heart went wobbly.
Two policemen had their hands under his arms. His big coat was hanging off his shoulders, and I could see a blue shirt with Telly J. sewed over a pocket. Carl’s hands were pushed together tight because he was wearing handcuffs. I’d seen those before in cartoons. He waved his fingers at me and said, “Hello, Little Fawn.” He sad-smiled and I forgot for a second that he stole Rowan and I sad-smiled back.
Then he slowed down right in front of my orange plastic chair and said fast, “I’m sorry I hurt him. Stan was afraid. Urh. He was scared. He pushed me. And I wanted to keep him safe. That’s why I did it. To keep Magic Boy safe.” He patted brown marks on Telly’s shirt. Then he was crying and talking extra fast and wet. “But they took Girl. Took Girl away. Urh. Won’t tell me where, until I say. I don’t know what to say yet. I don’t know what they want. They got my Girl.”
One policeman shoved him hard, “Get moving, Gill,” and he scuffed his feet down the hallway. He went around the corner. He took most of his smell with him.
I felt shivery cold and my teeth clonked together. I sat on my hands and pulled my arms in close and stared at the plant without blinking. Around the leaves were tiny webs. White bugs crawled around like they had nowhere to go. I tried to follow the bugs as they climbed up and down and not think about Carl or Girl or what that man in the office was saying about blood and Carl’s shirt and Rowan being a balloon.
“I can’t talk about this anymore. I just can’t.” Gloria pulled open the door. She said, “Come on, Maisy. Let’s go.”
The man was behind her. All I could see was the question marks on his tie. It was not nice to wear it. It told me he didn’t know where Rowan was. He didn’t have no answers at all.
“We’re following up on every lead,” he said. Gloria dragged me down the hall. I hurried but my shoes were rubbing my heels. “We’re not slowing down. And we’ll continue questioning him until we get at the truth, Mrs. Janes. The truth. You have my guarantee.”
MAISY
“Where have you been?” Gloria jumped off the bench outside the police house. She was yelling at Telly’s truck as it got closer. Her arms were flapping. When he stopped, she yanked at the door. “I had to go through that alone, and we’ve been cooking out here for twenty-five minutes.”
“Well I’m here now, aren’t I?” He was wearing greasy overalls unzipped down to his middle. I could see his undershirt. “Better late than never.”
“Sometimes, Telly, never is better.”
Inside my head, I said a prayer. Dear Gloria, please be nice. Please be nice to Telly. I remembered what she told Mrs. Murtry. Telly was going to move back in and then Rowan would come home. She had a funny feeling. Gloria’s feeling was always right. Mostly always.
Gloria climbed up first. I got in next. She reached across me and pulled the door closed.
“You okay, Bids?” Telly said.
“I’m good,” I said.
“Well, let’s get you home.”
She tugged on his overalls. “Surely you can’t be working,” she said. “Stafford’s isn’t after me to come in. Not when my kid’s missing. And I doubt the garage is either.”
“I was at something else.”
“What then?”
He kept his mouth shut, not saying. Just hiding his teeth. All white and fancy.
“Ah,” Gloria said. “Looking after stuff for her, was it? That’s what you were doing instead of meeting me here. Your own son don’t even take priority.”
“He does,” Telly said. He slapped the steering wheel. He slapped it hard. “Do you think I didn’t want to be here? There was an accident out on Wendell’s Road. No one was getting through.”
“Like I believe that.”
“Don’t matter if you believe it, Glow. That’s the truth.” He slapped the wheel again. Even harder. “Just what do you expect from me?”
“Oh, just to be a husband and a father.”
“I’m trying. I really am.” He wiped his face. “I haven’t had a wink of sleep. Can’t barely eat.”
“Oh, Telly,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean it. I’m just exhausted. I know you are, too.”
Then she told everything the man had said in the room. She said they were going to keep pushing the disgusting bum. I didn’t know what that meant. Push him where? I tried not to hear. I let my arm hang outside the window. The wind went through my fingers. It made my hand flip-flop. I watched the fields going by. Some had corn and it was getting tall and green. The leaves made a shushing sound that I liked. Some other fields had fat cows and they pushed their wet noses against the wire fences. I think they were trying to get at the long grass in the gutters when there was lots of other grass all over the
place. Dumb cows.
“A lawyer, if you can imagine,” Gloria said. “And now he lives under a bridge in the woods. Who in the world would want that for themselves?” Her hands went into fists. “I’ll sue them, Telly. If they mess this up. The entire police department. Sue them for every cent they got.”
“We’ll do it together,” he said. “Take a stand. Just like we done before when that truck hit us. We stuck together, and got what we were owed. Remember?” Telly slowed down at the stop signs. He spat out his window. “Rowan belongs to both of us, you know.”
Gloria’s side was squished into mine. She was shaking bad. Even without taking my eyes off those cows, I could tell. Then I felt Telly’s fingers tickle my shoulder. He had his arm wormed around Gloria. He was hugging her. When I peeked, I saw she had her head on his shoulder. She let out a big sigh. “How do people get through this?” she said.
“One minute at a time, Glow. That’s all.” He kissed her hair. The brown part that was growing out was gone, and it was all yellow again.
Telly wasn’t mad no more. Gloria wasn’t neither.
He drove into the circle and I saw Shar out on her front step. She was home from visiting with her mom. She waved at me and I waved back.
Telly turned down our driveway. When the truck stopped Gloria said, “Come in, just come in.”
“I can’t. I mean. Not now. I got to get. I mean, I just can’t, Glow.”
“We got to talk,” she said. “Get this figured out right now. Today. This afternoon.”
“My things. Glow. I got to—”
I wasn’t trying to look, but I saw Gloria put her hand inside the unzipped part of Telly’s overalls.
“Glow. I—”
“Stay awhile,” she said. “Get used to being home again. You can take my mind off everything. I need that, Telly.” Her hand was on his private parts. I could just tell. She was rubbing up and down. Telly grabbed the wheel. His knuckles went white. He made a weird sound and I knew something shiny and red was springing out of Telly. I saw it when Chicken rubbed at himself with his paw. Whenever Gloria caught him doing that she said, “If only that dog had sense to polish something useful.” She’d yell at Chicken. But she wasn’t yelling at Telly now.
“Well. It won’t hurt no one,” he said in a soft way. “No one got to know.” He turned off the truck and dropped the keys on the floor. He leaped out and Gloria scooted her legs under the steering wheel and went fast behind him. They ran into the house. The screen door crashed back.
I got out my door and went around to close Telly’s door. Then I went up and sat on the step. Behind a piece of wood on the porch, I saw curly yellow hair. I reached and pulled out Jenny the Head. I couldn’t remember putting her there. I held her on my lap and patted her. She was so soft. I remembered how dirty she was when me and Rowan found her floating in the ditch. How Rowan cleaned her for me.
Shar came running down the driveway. Her T-shirt was coming up and I could see her bright middle. Her shoe slapped the ground because part of it was broken.
“I’m back!” she said, and her arms hopped up. “I got back this morning.” She sat on the step next to me. Shar was like Rowan. She never checked for nails.
“Your hair is nice,” I said. Shar had it cut so it looked like the top of a mushroom. “Did you have fun?” I asked. I put Jenny the Head back behind the wood.
“With my mom?”
“Yeah.”
“Of course I did. She lets me do whatever I want. Not like Aunt Erma.”
“Oh.”
“But Aunt Erma said some man tricked Rowan and he ran away. And that the police were all over everywhere. And Darrell was searching too, and you guys were on the TV. Is that true?”
I nodded.
“My best friend’s famous.” She put her arm around my shoulder. “So, when’s he coming back?”
“I don’t know. Soon.”
“Yeah. Probably soon.”
There was creaking behind me. I looked but Gloria’s special chair wasn’t rocking back and forth by itself.
“Do you hear that?” Shar said, and she laughed.
“What?”
“Your mom.”
It wasn’t Gloria’s chair, it was Gloria. Her bedroom window was open, and she was making sounds like when she tried exercises from a little book that fit in her hand. She bent over and up again and side to side. She counted to ten a bunch of times. Her head got red and her tongue stuck out. Then she smacked her middle and said, “What’s the point.” She threw the tiny book into the garbage.
Shar laughed again. “They’re up there making bacon.”
“What?”
“Belly bumping.”
“What?”
“Nugging.”
I shook my head.
“Never mind. You’re too young.”
Shar was ten.
“So?” I said.
I closed my eyes. Carl was behind my eyelids, smiling at me.
Sorry I hurt him, Little Fawn. Sorry I did that.
Did what?
Made him drift away.
Drift away where?
I wanted to keep Magic Boy safe.
I could see Rowan the balloon. He was the same color as our happy, happy front door. Carl grabbed the balloon with his big hands and it squeaked and he pushed and pushed. Then it burst.
My eyes sprung open. Gloria and Telly were in the hallway behind the screen.
“May as well take the last of them,” he said.
“Your guns?”
“Yeah. Seeing as I’m here.”
Then Gloria was roaring. I heard a smash. Maybe glass. Shar ducked her head down. Gloria screamed at Telly to get out of her house.
“Your house?” he yelled back. “It’s ours, I’ll have you know. Half of every cent is mine!”
“I’ll break your skinny neck! One snap, Telly!”
The screen door kicked open. It banged the side of Gloria’s special chair. Shar pushed in close to me. Telly was jumping into his overalls and yanking at the zipper, running for his truck. Gloria rushed behind him. I could see almost all of her. Her legs were naked and her hair was stuck out. She was tugging at the ropes on her bathrobe and screaming loud at Telly.
“Going back to that hussy! What about me, Telly? What about everything you said? About coming home?” Yank, yank went the bathrobe ropes.
“I never said nothing.”
“No? No?” Gloria sounded like she wasn’t sure no more. “What about your son? Your son?”
“Glow! Come on, now! Calm yourself down. I’m doing everything I can. Out there every day. Doing what they tell me—”
“It’s your fault. All your fault he went, you know.”
“Now, Glow. I don’t—”
“And she’s too stupid to see it. What a waste of space you are.”
Gloria went off the porch. She was in her bare feet. She picked up a rock and flung it right at Telly’s head. It just missed. Telly ran and ducked. Gloria’s bathrobe came undone and her stuff was hanging out. They were bouncing.
Telly jumped into his truck. “You’re freaking wacko!” he yelled out the window. “Freaking crazy.”
“Tell her Gloria says thanks.” Another rock went in the air. “Taking your lazy ass off my hands.” It smacked on the hood. Another one. The red light smashed open. “Lots of ’em way better than you.”
Inside the truck I saw his head swinging around. He was trying to find his keys. A rock banged off the roof. Then the truck roared and Telly took off.
“Wow,” Shar whispered. “Your mom really, really hates your dad.”
I nodded, but I knew what Shar said wasn’t true. Gloria didn’t hate Telly at all. She loved him more than anything else in the world.
* * *
—
Gloria came back on the step and said real soft, “You saw a little show, Sharlene. No need to spread it to the world. A lot going on is all.”
“I won’t, Mrs. Janes.”
“That’s a
good girl.”
Behind Gloria, Chicken yelped and shoved his snout at the screen. It stretched out where he poked.
“He got to pee,” Shar said.
When I opened the door he flew past us and rushed around to the side of the house. Me and Shar followed and caught him pawing at the ground right at the spot with the buried dead bird. I yanked his collar, but he wouldn’t budge. He just kept scraping his itchy sides on the cement part of the house. Bits of his fur came off and stuck to the broken plastic vent.
Gloria came around the corner. I was glad her bathrobe was knotted up again. All her private parts were hidden away.
“What’s he doing?”
Chicken was still pawing at the dead bird spot. He was barking. I could see feathers.
“Me and Rowan,” I whispered. I wish he was here. I wish he was here. I tried not to cry. “The bird hit the window.”
“Who cares about a bird,” she said. She was angry again.
Gloria grabbed Chicken’s collar hard. She dragged him over to the front step. Then she tied a rope around him so he couldn’t go nowhere.
“I can dig it up,” I said. “Make a new grave.”
“That you won’t. Disgusting. Would you dig up something half rotted, Shar?”
“No,” Shar said. “Of course not.”
“See? Even Shar’s not that dense.”
She told Shar to go home and me to wait with Chicken. Then she went behind the shed where Telly took a pile of big rocks when he dug up dirt for potatoes. She started carrying them over, one by one. They were dusty. Gloria wiped her hands on her bathrobe. I could see the smears down her front. She piled the rocks up real high. There was no way he was getting at the bird now.
“Common sense,” Gloria yelled at me when she was finished. “Who’d bury something dead right up against the house? All we need now is that dumb dog getting sick. Or even worse, rolling in rot and stinking up the whole place. Do you think, with everything going on, I got time to clean?”
Chicken pulled at the rope and made a low growl in his throat like he was angry too. Or maybe he wanted to chew the bird down because he was starved. Maybe Gloria forgot to feed him.
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