I found myself pausing before answering that question. Did I really want to say goodbye to Lafonda? Some part of me would always be connected to the past, but was that good for me? Was it good for my son or Ashland?
“Well?” The phone saved me from answering her very pointed question. “Wouldn’t you?”
“I better get that.”
She shot me a disapproving look as she tended to Chloe. I raced to the phone. “Hey, babe.” Ashland purred over the phone. He sounded tired, but I didn’t mention it.
“Hey, Ashland. How are you? How is father-son day going?”
“Just great. We’re about to head into the movie theater and then to lunch. If all goes as planned, your son and I will be home around four, and we are bringing you a surprise.”
Uh oh. I didn’t like the sound of that. “Surprise as in some kind of pet?”
“No. No pets, but you might want to dress up a little bit.”
I smiled into the phone and laughed at his attempt at being cryptic and mysterious. I kind of liked it, but it was also worrisome. “Okay. Do I need to make supper for this surprise?”
“No. AJ and I will bring some pizza home with us or order it when we are on the way. Some cold beer would be nice, though. Oh, and Rachel isn’t going to make it. She had an emergency with Jan and can’t come by today. I just happened to run into her while I was out. I told her I’d pass the info along.”
“Okay. Is everything okay with Jan? Should I call Rachel?”
We chatted a little more, and then I said goodbye and hung up the phone. Of course, I immediately called Rachel, but it went right to voicemail. I tried not to worry about Jan. Rachel would call me if she needed me. I hopped back onto the barstool, and a few minutes later Detra Ann declared me cured. I helped her clean up the mess as she wrangled all her things and Baby Chloe. Detra Ann hugged me and said again, “Please call Midas. It’s time for you to get some professionals in here.”
“I’ll think about it. How about that?”
“Well, I guess that will have to do. Call us if you need us. Take care of yourself, Carrie Jo.”
I watched as she loaded Chloe into her tan sedan and drove away. Loneliness washed over me, deep and unexpected. Why should I be lonely? I’d never been afraid of being alone. Must be lingering emotions, probably left over from my experience with Lafonda. I closed the front door and put my back to it.
Okay, I had the house to myself until four o’clock. Maybe, just maybe, that would give me enough time to find that door. I stared at the business card but had no real plans to do anything with it. I laid it on the foyer table and tapped my finger on my lip. I didn’t think it was necessary to bring in anyone else. Not now. We’d made it this far just fine, hadn’t we? I could do this. I would get to the bottom of this and quickly. Probably before Ashland even walked through the door.
Even as I thought it, I knew I was lying to myself.
Chapter Four—Carrie Jo
I went to the front door to welcome my “surprise,” feeling very frustrated. After hours of searching, talking to myself and wandering through the house, I’d experienced nothing else. It was as if the heavens were closed. I’d given up around two o’clock, tidied myself up and worked in my office until I heard Ashland pull up to the back of the house. But there was another car out front too, and I paused in the hallway wondering if I had dressed appropriately for the occasion. This was kind of nerve-racking after the day I’d had. Well, at least I didn’t have gum in my hair now. Slapping a smile on my face in an attempt to be excited about whatever surprise Ashland had arranged for me, I opened the door.
Nothing would have prepared me for what was on the other side. It was my brother, Chance, and his daughter, Lily. I barely knew either of them. Ashland was walking around the side of the house, coming up behind Chance with a big grin on his face and a sleeping Baby Boy in his arms. I wanted nothing more than to hold AJ in my arms, but I reminded myself to be polite.
“Oh, hi. Wow. This is a surprise.” I forced a bigger smile as I opened the door and welcomed my brother and his daughter into the house. Ashland continued to grin at me, but I did not say thank you or compliment him on this surprise. In fact, I was not happy about it at all. Not one little bit. The five of us stood in the hallway, Baby Boy still asleep on Ashland’s shoulder, and I held my hands out for him.
“No, I’ll get him tidied up. We will be right back,” he said, his smile disappearing as I shook my head. I didn’t want them to leave; for some reason, I wanted to keep my husband and son close.
Chance spoke first. “I guess you aren’t happy to see me. I don’t blame you. I haven’t been the best brother to you, Carrie Jo.”
Geesh, that was hurtful. “No, it’s not that. It’s just you were the last person I expected to see. Knowing Ashland, my surprise could have been anything from a kitten to a football Hall of Famer. I’m glad you are here, Chance. Where are my manners? Y’all come inside.”
“I ordered pizza. It’ll be here in a few minutes!” Ashland called as he walked slowly up the stairs with Baby Boy, who was waking up and not happy about it. It was still tense watching Ashland navigate those stairs.
“Great!” I called back. “Come on into the Blue Room. It’s more comfortable in there.” I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Lily, who seemed overwhelmed by being in a strange place the size of this house. “Nice to see you, Lily. Do you remember me?” The skinny child shoved her hands in her pockets and shook her head. She looked about ten or eleven and was dressed in nice blue jeans and a somewhat new t-shirt and tennis shoes. But she had that faraway look in her eyes, the kind kids had when they didn’t receive enough attention. “My name is Carrie Jo. Do you like puppies?”
“Do you have puppies?” she asked suspiciously, her voice breaking.
“Yes, but these aren’t your average puppies. They are kind of magic, and they are just in here.”
She smiled big and walked beside me excitedly. I noticed that Chance frowned at my word choice, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t sure what to expect from him—I’d reached out to him so many times, and he had all but hung up on me the last time we talked. I had the distinct feeling that he blamed our mother for what happened to him, for being left with our father, who had not been a nice man by all accounts. Well, life with Momma hadn’t been a bed of roses either. There were many bad years, but she’d changed radically when she re-entered my life. I missed her every day.
We walked into the Blue Room, and I immediately led Lily to the alcove where I kept an arrangement of porcelain puppies. “These are for looking at, Lily, not for touching. Okay? Some of these are very old, as old as this house.” She didn’t speak but nodded and immediately turned her attention to the collection. Most of these pieces weren’t really valuable, not like some of the other collections in the house, but they had sentimental value to me. And some of them were indeed very old.
I sat on the couch and invited Chance to sit with me. “This really is a surprise. When did you guys arrive in Mobile? Are you planning to stay long?” I tried not to stare at the man who had my father’s eyes and my mother’s curly hair. It was a surreal experience.
He shrugged indifferently. “We just arrived a few minutes ago. This was your husband’s idea, you know. He’s a nice man, but I’m not sure what he expects from me. Or us.”
“Ashland is a nice man, and I can assure you he doesn’t expect anything,” I snapped back at him. We sat there for a while, neither of us speaking or even looking at the other.
“I’m glad to see that you’ve come on so well, Carrie Jo. Momma must have been real proud of you.” And there was the jealousy, that accusatory tone of voice.
“Mama would have been proud of you too, Chance, if she had the opportunity to get to know you. I’m sure she would want to. And she wouldn’t want us squabbling. Is that why you came to Mobile? To talk about Momma?”
He glanced in Lily’s direction, and I couldn’t help but notice she was touching the porcelain dolls lightly
with her fingers. “Lily. You heard Carrie Jo. Look but don’t touch.” The girl drew her fingers back, and I saw her shoulders sag as she realized we had been watching her.
Chance didn’t answer me right away but then said slowly, “Like I said, I am not really sure why I’m here, Carrie Jo. Not sure at all. But since I am, I guess there’s no easy way to do this, so I’m just going to be honest with you.”
“I wish you would. Please tell me what’s on your mind.”
He looked at his daughter, who’d moved on from the porcelain collection and was now sitting on the settee in front of the open window that overlooked the herb garden. There wasn’t much to see right now, but she apparently appreciated the view because once she settled down, she didn’t move and didn’t turn her attention to us—although I had the distinct impression that she was listening to every word we were saying.
“I think my daughter is…she’s like you. I don’t really know how to help her, and my wife is…well, to put it bluntly, she is afraid of her.”
My heart sank at hearing such a confession. “Afraid of her own daughter? Why? Is there something I’m missing?” I tried not to stare at Lily, but I was curious now. This was a familiar story. My own mother had been afraid of me when I was Lily’s age.
“Like I said, she’s like you. She dreams, Carrie Jo. She knows things, things she shouldn’t know. I’m hoping you can help her make it go away.”
Make it go away? I wanted to immediately run over to Lily and pick her up and hold her. My son was a dreamer like me, but Ashland and I had done our very best to always be honest with him and not hide the fact that he was unusual. This child had not been raised in that kind of environment, and I felt deep sympathy for her.
“She’s not a monster, Chance. She just has an unusual ability. Some people can sing or paint or play a musical instrument. Lily is no different. If what you say is true, if she dreams like me, it’s not the end of the world. Surely your wife understands that. And you. You understand that, right?”
He rubbed his hands through his curly hair and looked me square in the eye. “I do not understand any of this. When Lily was younger, it was easy to dismiss her dreams. It was easy for May and me to just pretend that they were figments of her imagination. Kids do that, you know. They make stuff up. But then Lily began telling her teachers things, and she knew things about other kids and…”
The doorbell rang, and I wanted to punch the delivery guy. Chance was finally talking, and we were being interrupted. This was our relationship in a nutshell.
Feeling desperate, I said, “That has to be the pizza. I’m sorry. Hold that thought, okay? We have so much to talk about, Chance. I hope you guys stay. Why don’t you call May and tell her you’re going to stay a little while and spend some time with us? I’m sure we can help Lily.” I couldn’t help myself. I reached for his hand and squeezed it as I rose from the couch to answer the door. I pretended I didn’t notice that he didn’t squeeze back. The doorbell rang again, but I paused and waited for his answer. Hearing about Lily’s plight and feeling his discomfort with her broke my heart. Chance glanced over at Lily, who to my surprise was now asleep. Was she dreaming now?
“Just for a little while.”
“I better get the door.”
“I’ll come with you. Our bags are in the car.” As he walked beside me, I smiled at him. Chance was a good four inches taller than me, but we were similar in many ways. We both kind of loped rather than walked. We had Momma’s light olive skin, and there was a similar resonance to our voices. Was it possible that he and I were actually going to finally make a connection? I dug in my purse to grab my wallet and then opened the front door. Chance went out to retrieve their bags as I took care of the pizza guy. Feeling happy, I tipped him extra and brought the pizza inside.
I didn’t think much of it when Chance didn’t come back right away. I figured he was calling his wife. I set the table and even lit a candle but still nothing. By the time Ashland came downstairs with Baby Boy, who was wide awake now and ready to eat supper, I was concerned.
Ashland frowned at me. “What is it?”
“Could you look outside and see what’s going on? My brother went to get his bag but hasn’t come back. I’ll go check on Lily.”
“Okay,” he said as he kissed my forehead.
Lily was still there sleeping away. Should I wake her up for supper? I paused in the doorway as Ashland came back in the house. His face said it all.
Chance wasn’t coming back.
My brother was gone. He’d walked out on me and closed the door on having any relationship with me at all. Worse than that, he’d left Lily behind too. I wanted to scream, cry and bang my fists on the table, but it wouldn’t do any good. I’d lost my appetite, even though I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I left Ashland to feed the kids while I made as many phone calls as I could from the privacy of my office. I called hospitals, emergency centers, police stations. There was nothing to be done at this hour, and although the police officer I spoke to was polite, he couldn’t help me with my search until the mandatory forty-eight hours had passed. I did some internet research for May Jardine or Chance Jardine and found one phone number, but nobody answered.
At ten o’clock, Lily still hadn’t asked about her father and had barely spoken a word. Her shoulder-length curly hair dried quickly after her bath. The tendrils popped up around her face, and she looked even more fragile. How could anyone leave a child behind?
Wait a minute. Who was I to judge him? Momma did the same thing, didn’t she?
I settled Lily in the Devecheaux suite, even though she didn’t want to sleep upstairs, and I promised her we’d have some fun the next day. Still, she didn’t talk much, even when I smoothed the blanket around her and turned off the lamp.
“Lily, is there anything you want to tell me? Anything at all?” She sighed and pulled the quilt up around her neck. She turned over and shook her head. “Okay. Good night, Lily. I’m just down the hall if you need anything. Last door on the right.”
She didn’t move as I left the room and turned off the overhead light. There was no night light in this room, but I didn’t get the sense that she was afraid of the dark. Then again, I couldn’t read her at all.
Ashland put Baby Boy to bed and reported that our son had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He held me as we lay in the dark, but we didn’t talk. What was there to say? I fell asleep, but no dreams came to me. I was kind of glad because I wanted to keep my ears in this world in case Lily called me in the night. In the wee hours of the morning, I woke to find the lamp shining in my face and my niece staring at me. I gasped and sat up in surprise. “What is it, Lily?” Was she sleepwalking?
“The woman in my room won’t go away. Can I sleep with you?”
“Uh, sure. Okay,” I said, my heart beating fast and my pulse racing. What woman? I turned the light off and slung the covers back. Lily crawled in beside me; she’d claimed one of AJ’s teddy bears earlier this evening, and she clutched him too. She turned her back to me and got still as I stroked her hair. She smelled like strawberry shampoo.
“It’s alright, Lily. Everything is going to be alright.”
Soon we were both asleep. And we were dreaming. Together.
Chapter Five—Lafonda
The following day, I made it a point to introduce myself to Mama’s guest. She was a stranger to me; I had never seen the woman before. Yet here she was, enjoying breakfast on the porch of the ladies’ parlor as if she’d been living here at Seven Sisters all her life. When I walked onto the scene, she was staring off toward the dreary Rose Garden, her soft-boiled egg perched in a blue cup in front of her untouched. A morning breeze lifted the soft-looking curls that framed her face. She must have heard me coming because she shook herself from her reverie and greeted me like we were old friends.
“Good morning, Miss Delarosa.” She rose from Papa’s chair and walked toward me with her hand extended. She had a sweet, sympathetic smile on her face, a
nd despite my intentions to remain aloof and unfriendly toward this unwanted invader of my privacy, her expression disarmed me. Had it been so long since I had experienced even the most fleeting demonstration of thoughtfulness that I would clasp this stranger’s hand so easily? Yes, apparently so.
Along with her kind smile, the woman had thick, perfectly curled eyelashes that complemented her gray eyes. She was modestly dressed, although her moss green skirts were a little crumpled. Clearly, she either had not intended to spend the night at Seven Sisters or did not hang her gown properly. I also noted that she wore no jewelry except for silver earbobs that dangled elegantly from her petite ears. I accepted her hand but quickly took a seat on the other side of the table. I helped myself to the teapot and poured some of the tepid liquid into the only other available cup.
“Good morning. I’m sorry I do not know your name.”
“My friends call me Serena, but you may call me Miss Robineaux if you prefer. I will answer to either. Is your mother not well this morning?”
Her question brought back to remembrance last night’s strange events. This must be the woman who’d held the candle in the Blue Room, the woman who knew I was hiding there.
Be cautious, Lafonda.
“My mother is not well most mornings, Miss Robineaux. Forgive me for saying so, but I am surprised that Mama would invite a guest here since she barely…since she has been so distraught over the loss of my brother and sister-in-law. As you can see, we have no waitstaff except Lettie and nothing to offer travelers.”
A melancholy smile appeared and disappeared as she answered me. “I think you have quite a lot to offer a weary traveler, Miss Delarosa. This is a lovely home and has a soothing presence, but I am not here for my own benefit. I am sure that after all the suffering you have endured, you may find this difficult to believe, but I am here to help your mother find peace. And you, if you would allow me to.”
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