by Lynne Hinton
Alex had pestered Malene all morning after Oris brought him home. He wanted her to call Roger and make him go up to the apartment and check on Trina. He got worried as soon as his great-grandfather told him that she had walked home from the party. Oris said he wasn’t calling Roger, that if Alex wanted to check on the girl he would have to get his grandmother to make the call. Malene made him wait until after church before she would let him talk to his grandfather about Trina. She tried to convince him that she was sure the girl was fine. If she wasn’t, they would have heard something. Alex had heard everyone’s excuses and had waited until four o’clock. Roger finally had to do what Alex wanted.
“Granddad woke her up,” Alex chimed in. He glanced over at Roger with a big grin.
Roger closed his eyes and shook his head, a sign not to say anymore about the visit.
Malene noticed the exchange between the two. She studied them, watching them for what they might share, but she didn’t ask anything else. She didn’t mind the fact that her grandson shared secrets with her ex-husband. She actually sort of enjoyed the idea.
“She’s okay then?” was what Malene asked.
“Yep,” Roger answered. “Did you get everything unpacked from last night?” It was obvious that he wanted to change the subject. He glanced around the kitchen. He didn’t notice any of the boxes or coolers that she’d had with her when he dropped her off after the party.
“Oh yeah, she’s just fine,” Alex added, emphasizing the word “fine.” He grinned and then, unable to help himself, laughed out loud.
Roger stared at the boy. He cleared his throat. He wasn’t so sure Malene should hear how the young woman had answered her door. He worried that she might keep Alex away if she knew.
Malene waited before answering the question. She kept watching the two of them. “I did it after service, while you were gone to Socorro. We’ll just have leftovers for supper, if that’s all right.” She kept her eyes on Alex. “You okay eating another burger tonight?” she asked her grandson.
“Sure, Grandma, they were excellent. Papa’s beans and cornbread were good too.”
“Yeah, all that got eaten before I had any,” Roger noted.
“Probably me,” Alex confessed. “I think I ate two bowls and four pieces of bread.”
“And a hamburger?” Malene asked, surprised to hear the boy had eaten that much at the party.
“Yep,” he answered. “And two pieces of cake. A growing boy needs his food.” Alex wheeled around the table and moved right beside Malene. “Thank you again for the party. It was awesome.” He leaned up and Malene bent down so that he could kiss her on the cheek. Then he backed up his chair. “Now I’m going to go to my room to check out my gifts again. I don’t even remember everything I got.” He waved at his grandparents and headed down the hall.
“You were right, he sure got a lot of stuff,” Roger commented. “He’ll be busy for the rest of the year with all those games and things.”
“Some of the people just gave him money,” Malene noted. “I think he must have gotten two hundred dollars.”
“This town loves that boy,” Roger said. He stood at the doorway for a minute. “I don’t know what would become of us if something happened.” He shook his head, deciding not to consider such a thing. “So what did you think of Father George’s performance today?” Roger asked Malene, changing the subject. He moved over and sat down at the table and stretched his legs out.
She scratched her forehead. “He seemed a little nervous, got lost in the order of service a couple of times, forgot to pray at the end, but I guess he’ll do okay.” She stood at the counter. She was slicing tomatoes. Her back was to Roger, but she knew he was watching her.
“What was he talking to Miss Snow about before service?” Roger wanted to know. He had noticed the priest spending a lot of time with the president of the Altar Guild. They both seemed upset about something.
“The wine was gone. He thought it was somewhere else in the church, but she told him where it was kept, and they apparently looked everywhere for it. They were both surprised that it was missing.”
“Don’t they keep extra?” Roger asked.
Malene kept her back to the table. She nodded. “Yes, but all three bottles were gone. He finally thought there was a bottle in the rectory. That’s what they ended up using, I think.”
Roger considered this bit of news. “Anything else missing? Was there a breakin?” He was the sheriff after all.
Malene turned to face her ex-husband. “I didn’t overhear that much of the conversation. But maybe you should check it out yourself. You didn’t go over there early to make sure Father George was all right today, did you?” She recalled that she had asked him to look in on the pastor before Mass.
“I called him. He seemed a little hungover, but other than that he was fine. Didn’t mention anything about missing wine,” Roger replied. “Maybe he hadn’t noticed yet.” He thought for a minute. “Hey, you don’t think Father Joseph took a couple of bottles when he headed out?” He smiled at the thought of the exiting priest stealing the wine from the church he had served.
Malene turned back to her kitchen work. “I doubt that,” she answered. “But Miss Snow did seem a little suspicious.” She smiled.
Roger laughed. “Well, maybe I should ride out there this evening, see about changing the locks on the door, talk to him about security issues.” He placed his hands on the table. There was a pause. “He seems awful young, doesn’t he?”
“We’re just old, Roger,” Malene responded.
“I suppose that’s true.”
“But really, how old do you think he is?” Roger asked.
“Twenty-four, twenty-five, I’m not sure,” she responded. “I know he was in seminary about five years, and he’s been out just a couple of months. I know that this is his first call.”
“Well, that much you can tell,” Roger noted. “Shouldn’t these young men work with another priest before they’re given their own church?”
Malene shrugged. “I guess they need all the help they can get,” she answered. “The Catholic Church is running low on priests.”
Roger nodded. “I hope he can make it here. We’re not known for our generous hospitality to new folks.”
“What’s that mean?” Malene asked, turning to look at her ex-husband.
“Oh, you know, we gave Christine a hard time the other day, but she wasn’t far off the mark about this little community. Pie Town is kind of a rough place, especially on folks who weren’t born and raised here, people without family ties here. We’re not all that friendly to strangers.”
“You think that? Really?” Malene sounded surprised. “I thought we were a very welcoming place.”
“Are we talking about the same town?” Roger asked.
“If we’re talking about this one we are,” came the reply.
“What about the Peterson sisters?” Roger asked, referring to the proprietors of the bakery. “They finally got tired of everybody being so haughty toward them and moved over to Quemoda.”
Malene hadn’t heard this theory. “I thought they left because they could make more money over there,” she said.
“They left because they couldn’t get anyone to buy their pies!” Roger replied.
“I never thought about it.” Malene took a sip of her drink. “Guess I’m not much of a pie person.”
“What about that young couple who moved here a few years ago, tried to farm? The wife was starting a preschool.”
“Well, nobody liked them because they were uppity, thought we didn’t know anything about growing crops and raising children. She kept wanting to hold classes on breast-feeding and how to sterilize bottles and toys.” She rolled her eyes. “Ridiculous.”
Roger shook his head. “And then there was the guy trying to start a tractor business and that couple wanting to open a furniture store.” He leaned back, stretching his arms above his head. “They all left within a couple of years of getting here. Let’s face
it, Malene, our record on hospitality ain’t too great.”
“Well, Father George is the new priest. We’ll do right by him, I’m sure.”
Roger shrugged. “I hope so. And I hope we’ll treat the girl okay too, but I got my doubts.”
Just then the phone rang. Malene lifted her hands to show that she was too messy to pick up the receiver. “Can you get that?” she asked Roger.
He got up from the table and picked up the phone on the third ring.
“Hello,” he answered. There was nothing. “Hello,” he called out again. And that was when he heard her voice.
“Daddy?”
“Angel?” Roger responded. He glanced over at Malene, who had turned quickly to him.
“Um, hey,” Angel answered. “What are you doing there?” she asked.
“Having supper,” Roger replied. “You okay?” he asked. He could feel his ex-wife’s eyes on him.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I called to wish Alex a happy birthday,” the young woman explained. She hesitated. “You having the party later today?”
“Yesterday,” he answered. “Over at the school. It was real nice.” He kept watching Malene to see if she wanted the phone.
“Oh God, that’s right, it was yesterday,” she said, and then she mumbled something Roger couldn’t make out.
“You play ball?” she asked, clear enough for her dad to understand her.
“Alex hit a home run,” he replied. He heard a sigh or an exhale, he wasn’t sure. “You okay, Angel?” he asked again.
“Me? Oh sure,” she replied.
Roger thought she sounded drunk or high. Her words were a bit slurred, but it was also a bad connection. He figured she must be on a cell phone. Her voice kept coming in and out. “Are you still in Taos?” he asked, hoping to find out she was settled, had made herself a home.
“Nah, I left there almost a year ago. I’m in Denver now.”
“Denver,” he repeated. He blew out a breath. “I didn’t think Colorado worked out too well for you last time,” he commented. Suddenly the thought of his daughter being arrested and serving jail time flashed across his mind. Unlike in New Mexico, his status as an officer of the law had done nothing to help Angel get out of a jail sentence in the neighboring state.
“That was a long time ago, Dad,” she said. “I’m, you know, doing fine.” That was all she said.
“You want to speak to your mother?” Roger asked. He watched as Malene picked up a dish towel and started to dry her hands. She was reaching for the phone.
“Nah, I can’t really talk long. I’m borrowing a friend’s phone. Can I speak to Alex?” she asked.
Roger slid the receiver away from his mouth. “She wants to speak to Alex,” he explained to Malene, knowing the request would not be easy to hear.
Malene quickly understood that her daughter didn’t want to talk to her. She thought about taking the phone anyway. Angel had called her house, after all. But then she thought better of it. They would probably only argue. She turned away from Roger and headed down the hall.
Roger could hear her tell Alex that he had a phone call. He heard the sounds of the boy’s chair moving in his direction. “Well, it’s good to hear your voice, Angel,” he said as a way to say good-bye. And then he handed the phone to Alex.
Malene walked around her grandson and back to the counter to finish slicing the tomatoes. Roger and Malene didn’t look at each other as they listened to the side of the conversation they could hear.
“Hello,” Alex called out and then waited.
“Mom!” he exclaimed. “I knew you’d call.”
There was a pause as he listened to what she said. His eyes lit up, and he had a huge grin on his face.
“No, it’s okay. I understand,” he said to her.
Both Malene and Roger knew Angel was apologizing about why she hadn’t come home and why she hadn’t sent a gift or a card and why she was a day late. They were used to these conversations, used to her always having to explain herself, the boy always excusing her. Malene stared down at her task at hand, while Roger moved back to the table, took his seat, and watched Alex as he talked on the phone.
“Yeah, and I got a guitar from Grandma and Granddad, a computer game from Papa Oris. I got lots of books and cards and a couple of nice shirts.” He stopped. He nodded his head. “Yeah, okay, it’s okay.” He waited. “I’ll talk to you again sometime,” he called out. And then, “Good-bye to you too. I love you, Mom.”
He handed the receiver to Roger. “She couldn’t talk because her friend told her to hang up.”
Roger stood up and took the receiver from Alex and then placed it back on the holder attached to the wall.
“That was nice of her to call, wasn’t it?” The boy smiled.
Roger and Malene both looked at their grandson and then at each other. They were thinking the same thing. Alex was so pure, so innocent, unable to be or stay angry at anybody, even his mother who abandoned him. They both took in a breath and nodded to the boy.
“It was very nice of her to call.” Roger spoke for the two of them.
Malene turned back to finish slicing the tomatoes. She had nothing to add.
Part III
Chapter Eighteen
I cannot help myself, I am sad for the boy. I see the way he lingers in his glances across the faces of those he loves, across the landscape of the mountain and the silent distant plains. I hear the shallow way he breathes. I watch how he struggles to pretend nothing has changed, everything is fine, and he is not weakened. But I feel his strength ebb, his sleep deepen. I know because of my own steps of sickness that carried me up to the portals of heaven. He knows too, but he fights it. “I have so much to do,” he tells me. I smile and nod. “So did I,” I explain.
“Is that why you’re here?” he asked, surprising me, since I am always near. “Is that why you’ve been here? To carry me?”
I shake my head, but I am not completely truthful. I have come for him, but not just in death. I came for his birth too. I try to rationalize, but he only smiles. “It’s okay,” he finally says. “I’m just glad it’s you.”
He closes his eyes to sleep, to dream, to plan. I rest upon the delicate air between us. I float above but not beyond his call. His breath is tight and labored and shallow, his face flushed, his head bathed in sweat, and I fear he could slip away even now. I hesitate. I am not sure what I am to do.
It’s not as if there were no warnings about this relationship. I was told how difficult this pairing would be, but I could see no other way. As soon as I knew, as soon as his comings and goings were revealed, it had to be. I was his. He was mine. I promised that I could conquer any temptation to change the course of life. His life. I promised them I would not interfere. I would let the days unfold in the right timing, the right way. But now I understand the counsel.
Now, the cautious undertaking, the lack of assurance, the slow, endless making of a decision, the hesitant way I was granted my wish, I understand. And before I can listen to what my thoughts, and their counsel, are reminding me of, I leave the room to find help. I decide. The time cannot be now.
Chapter Nineteen
I don’t understand how you knew something was wrong,” Malene said to her father as he drove the Buick, following close behind the ambulance.
“I can’t explain it,” he said, watching the road, driving faster than he should have been. He shook his head. “It was a dream. Woke me up and I just knew.”
Malene looked away from Oris and stared out the windshield. “Mom,” she said, her voice hardly above a whisper.
Oris didn’t respond. He kept watching the road ahead of him and the ambulance, trying to keep up. “Put your seat belt on,” he said.
Malene buckled the belt around her. “It looks like pneumonia again.” She rested her elbow on the armrest and dropped her head in her hand. “His little lungs are so scarred. I just don’t know.” She shook her head. “This came on so fast. He was doing great at his birthday party. He’s fe
lt good for this whole week. I saw no signs that he was getting sick. I even thought his legs were getting stronger and that he was so much better. He was planning to start back to school with everybody else. We were going shopping to buy some new clothes with his birthday money. How did this happen? How did I miss it?”
“He’ll be fine,” Oris assured his daughter. He reached over and patted her on the leg. “He’s a fighter, and he knows this battlefield as well as he knows the roads of Pie Town. He’ll be fine,” Oris repeated, trying to convince himself as much as Malene. “Alice wouldn’t have come to me and told me if she wasn’t planning to save him,” he added.
“But that’s what has me worried,” Malene said. “She’s never been to you before. She’s never been to anyone but Alex before now. Something’s different this time because she did come to you.”
Oris didn’t comment. He found the fact that his dead wife had visited him to be disconcerting as well, and it wasn’t because he was disbelieving or afraid of visits from people who had moved beyond. He was afraid for the same reason his daughter was. Alice had never visited anyone but the little boy. Her coming to him instead was unexpected and seemed to render troublesome news. She had practically pushed her husband out of bed.
Both father and daughter knew that since he had been able to talk Alex claimed to have an angel watching over him. It was one of the first words he said, “Lady,” pointing to the empty air above him. They thought he was talking about a nurse or his female doctor of whom he was especially fond. They waved it off and thought nothing of it. When he could put together sentences and make sense in a conversation, he had told Malene about the woman who came to him. He had explained that she was not a nurse or hospital worker, she was real and yet unseen by everyone but him.
He rarely spoke of her, but there had been enough times that Malene had finally pieced it together. She figured out who his lady was. Alex was being visited by Alice, his great-grandmother, her mother. For years she didn’t speak of it to anyone, not even Roger. And then she had finally confided in her father one evening after he confronted Malene about Alex having a make-believe playmate. He was not sure it was normal for a child to be so sure of the presence of an invisible being.