Seasons of the Fool

by Lynne Cantwell

  Julia raised her eyebrows at Gabby, who leaned forward and patted her wrist. “It’s going to be fine.”

  The words from her dream echoed in her head. Everything’s going to be fine now.

  A few minutes later, the two of them took a seat in the back of the courtroom. The judge called the session to order, and immediately, the prosecutor asked leave to approach the bench. As the judge held a short discussion with both the prosecutor and Lance’s lawyer, Andy came in. Gabby slid over to make room for him.

  He leaned toward Julia and crooked a finger at her. She leaned across Gabby’s lap as he said quietly, “I think you’re off the hook.”

  Just then, the judge banged his gavel. “Court is in recess for twenty minutes. Gentlemen, would you please join me in my chambers?”

  “All rise,” the bailiff said, and the judge swept out, with the prosecutor and Lance’s lawyer trailing behind him.

  The minutes ticked by. At about the twenty-minute mark, Lance’s lawyer called his client into the meeting. Julia glanced at Andy; he wore a pleased but serious expression as he nodded to himself.

  After nearly an hour, the bailiff told everyone to rise again. The judge, the lawyers, and Lance all took their respective seats, and the courtroom was again called to order.

  “Mr. Michaud,” the judge said, “I understand you are ready to change your plea?”

  Lance got to his feet again. “I am, Your Honor.” Julia thought he sounded grimly resigned.

  “All right, sir. On the first count of fraud, how do you plead?”

  “Guilty.”

  “On the second count of fraud, how do you plead?”

  “Guilty.”

  And so on, down the list. In all, Lance pleaded guilty to twenty of the thirty charges against him. In exchange for his plea, the remaining charges were dropped.

  “Thank you, Mr. Michaud,” the judge said. “Sentencing will begin tomorrow morning at nine a.m. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we will see you then.” He banged his gavel. “Court is adjourned.”

  “All rise!” the bailiff called, but he could hardly be heard over the spectators’ excited chatter. Julia stood and craned her neck to get a last look at her ex-husband. As someone snapped handcuffs on him, he sought her out. When their eyes met, she was transfixed by the hatred in his gaze. Then he was led away.

  Trembling, she wondered how she could have ever loved him.

  ~

  Over lunch, Andy told her how it had all gone down. “I had a chat with Maury after we adjourned,” he said. Maury was Lance’s lawyer. “The prosecution has been pressing Lance for a plea bargain all along, and Maury had advised Lance to take it. He had suspected something like this might come up, although the intimidation tactics were news to him. But that’s what finally tipped the scales for your ex-husband – the reality that his past might all come out in court. And in exchange, the prosecutor agreed not to charge him with witness tampering.”

  Julia had barely touched her salad. “So what does all that mean for me?”

  Andy shrugged. “The trial’s over. You don’t have to testify.”

  “You mean it’s really over?” she said. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that. Well, except for the sentencing phase. And our bill.” He grinned.

  She pondered the news for a moment. “I thought I’d be more relieved.”

  The lawyers laughed. “Give it time,” said Gabby. “It’ll sink in eventually.”

  ~

  After saying goodbye to her attorneys, she caught a taxi to the hospital where Ritchie had been admitted.

  She found Dave alone and dozing in the boy’s room. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he jerked awake. “Oh, gosh, I’m sorry,” she said, stepping back. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  He came to his feet. “Don’t be,” he said, and hugged her. “You just surprised me, that’s all. How’d it go?”

  “Lance took a plea bargain at the last minute. I didn’t have to testify at all.”

  “No kidding,” he said, leaning back to look at her.

  “No kidding,” she said, finally beginning to believe it. “So that’s one down. How’s Ritchie?”

  “They’re doing some final tests,” he said. “He should be back any time. Did you get lunch?”

  “Yeah, I had something with Andy and Gabby,” she said. “I expect it’ll end up on my final bill.”

  He shook his head. “Lawyers have quite a racket, don’t they? Eating on their clients’ dime.” He sat down again, and pulled her into his lap. “I talked to Elaine earlier.”

  “Oh?” She slid an arm around his shoulders.

  “Yeah. It’ll be a year before it’s final, because of the kids. But she’s drawing up the paperwork.” He took her hand. “I still have to talk to Nina about it.”

  Everything’s going to be fine. “Hey, don’t worry,” she said with a smile. “We’re on a roll. Maybe it’ll go better than you think.”

  ~

  A few days later, they all headed back to Michiana.

  Dave gave the kids the option of coming with him to see their mother, but neither of them had changed their minds. He understood completely. He wasn’t looking forward to it, either.

  Nina was sitting in the lounge when he arrived. She wore her own dressing gown, which didn’t surprise him; he knew Angie had been by the house in the interim to pick up some of her things.

  She stood as he approached. “Hello, Dave.”

  “How are you, Nina?” he said. Neither of them had moved to touch the other.

  “Better.” She nodded to herself. “Better than I’ve been in years.” She drew in a deep breath and said, “Please sit down. We need to have a talk.”

  He sat on a chair, resisting the urge to squirm on the hard Naugahyde-covered cushion. “I agree. Who’s going first?”

  “I will.” She faced him, her gaze clearer than it had been in a long, long time. “Dave, I want a divorce.”

  All the arguments he had prepared fled. “So do I,” was all he said.

  She nodded. “Then it’s settled. Do you want to initiate it, or should I?”

  “I’ve already talked to a lawyer,” he said. “She’s working up the papers.”

  She nodded again. “All right.”

  They looked at each other for a few moments. Finally, he said, “Can I ask you why?”

  She blinked back tears and cleared her throat. “That day at Mount Baldy,” she said, “I saw things the way they really are. I’m no mother to our children. Ritchie hates me.”

  “He’s just a kid,” Dave began, but she waved at him to stop.

  “No, Dave. He has good reason. I’ve been nothing but a disruptive force in his life. In all of your lives. And then I saw you with her.”

  “Nina,” he began.

  “No, let me finish.” She cleared her throat again. “I know it looked like I was in shock that day, while the rescuers were pulling Ritchie out of that hole.” She shuddered at the memory. “But I wasn’t. I was having a panic attack. Everything was falling apart around me – the kids hated me, I might have killed Ritchie, and she….” She paused, searching for the words. “She was there for you. For all of you. In a way I’ve never been able to be.” She shook her head sadly. “You and she have always belonged together. I’ve known it for a long time, but I was so damned adamant about holding on to you. I thought you and the kids were the only things that could save me.” She looked away for a moment. When her gaze returned to his, it was clear again. “What I’ve realized this week is that in order to heal myself, I need to let you go.”

  He nodded. “I’ve come to the same conclusion. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” she said. “How does that saying go? Today is the first day of the rest of your life?” She gave him a tremulous smile. “This will be a new beginning for all of us.”

  There didn’t seem to be anything more to say. “Take care of yourself,” he said, and rose.

  “I will,” she said. “Give my
love to the kids.”

  He turned away and didn’t look back.

  ~

  Elsie exhaled loudly. “There,” she said, jabbing at her weaving with a plump finger. “That big knot is finally sorted.” She turned to Thea, who was washing her hands at the kitchen sink, and gave her a sunny smile.

  “Really? Let me see.” Excitedly, Thea slipped her arm around Elsie’s shoulders and peered at the material on the loom. “Yes. Yes, I see.” She smiled broadly. “I think we might finally be home free, Else,” she said, and leaned down to kiss her. As she stood again, something caught her eye. “Wait. What’s that?”

  Elsie looked where Thea was pointing. “Oh, that’s nothing,” she said. “Just a tiny bump in the road.”

  ~

  “Hey, baby,” said a male voice behind Julia.

  She paused in the act of pulling up a dandelion from the grass. It couldn’t be.

  But it was. She straightened and tossed the weed into her plastic garbage bag before replying. “Hello, Jesse. What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Is that any way to greet an old friend?” he said with a wide grin, spreading his arms as if he expected a hug. When she stayed planted, he shook them once, as if she needed to take the hint.

  She crossed her arms. “How did you find me?”

  “I read the paper,” he said, finally dropping his arms. “You’re famous, you know, for taking down one of the biggest scam artists in history.”

  She sighed inwardly. It had been two weeks since Lance’s sentencing. Since then, some enterprising reporter had gotten the story behind the plea, worming it somehow out of the prosecutor’s office. Well, they got most of the story, anyway. Either Andy hadn’t shared everything he knew, or the leak in the prosecutor’s office hadn’t given away all of it. In any case, she had been besieged by reporters for a few days after the story broke. A few of them had even tracked her to Michiana. One network had parked a microwave truck right across from her cottage, and refused to move it until Mr. Starek called the cops. “The signal’s shit here anyway,” she heard one of the tech guys say to the other one as they were pulling away. “Too many trees.”

  She had refused every interview request. But still, there had been enough publicity about her location that Jesse’s story was plausible.

  “This is a pretty sweet little place,” he said, scanning the front of the cottage. “Mind if I go in?”

  She moved to block the sidewalk. “Yes. What do you want, anyway?”

  His expression turned hangdog. “I need a place to stay. Just for a couple of nights, ‘til I can get my head together.”

  He was still good-looking, she would grant him that. Tall and broad-shouldered, he wore his clothes with an unstudied grace. His blond ponytail had been shorn off at some point; while his hair wasn’t buzzcut short, it was acceptably short for a regular job. And he’d lost the beard, too; without it, he looked young and vulnerable.

  But she knew better. “So you got fired. Or your latest squeeze kicked you out. Or maybe both. Am I right?”

  “Aw, man, don’t be like this. Can we just….” He made as if to go around her to the door; again, she stepped into his path.

  “No, we can’t. You’re not coming in. How did you get here, anyway?”

  “I got a lift.” That self-effacing smile of his was back.

  “From who?”

  “Some dude who lives at the end of the block. Oh, hey, there he is!” He pointed at Dave, of all people, who was ambling down the street toward them.

  She couldn’t believe it. “Did you give him a lift to my house?” she yelled, hooking a thumb at Jesse.

  “No, I gave him a lift to my house. He said he had a friend in the neighborhood who he was supposed to….” Dave squinted at her unwanted guest. “Wait a minute. You’re that Jesse?”

  “Hey, would you look at that,” Jesse said with a laugh. “I’m famous, too!”

  “And not in a good way,” said Julia. “Get out.”

  “No, hey, come on, Julie….”

  She winced. “My name is Julia. Why are you still here?”

  “Listen, son.” Dave reached up to put a hand on the other man’s opposite shoulder. “Here’s what I’m going to need for you to do.” He turned and began walking toward the road, half-pulling Jesse along with him.

  Julia, curious, followed them. She stopped at her gate, but the men kept walking until they were in the middle of the street. Then Dave pulled Jesse around to face away from Ms. Thea’s and Ms. Elsie’s. “You’re going to walk to where I let you out. See that?” He pointed to his own house.

  “Uh-huh,” said Jesse.

  “Now, when you get there, I’m going to need for you to turn left.”

  “Okay.”

  “In about a block, you’ll get to Lake Shore Drive. That’s the road that parallels the beach.”

  “Right.”

  “I need for you to turn left there again, and keep walking.”

  Jesse looked at him. “Where will that get me?”

  Dave shrugged. “Michigan City, eventually. Or maybe some other poor schmuck will pick you up. But you are not, under any circumstances, going to come back here and bother either Julia or me again. Got it?”

  Jesse’s eyes widened. Then he started to laugh. “I get it now. You’re her latest boyfriend, huh? Man, you and I should get a beer sometime. I could tell you some stories about her and me.”

  Dave waited until he had stopped laughing. “Get moving,” he said, in a tone Julia had never heard him use before – not even with his kids.

  Jesse threw up his hands. “Okay, okay, I get the picture. I know when I’m not wanted.” He turned to look at Julia, who stood just inside the gate with her arms crossed. He glanced once more at Dave. Then he shrugged and headed down the road.

  Dave stayed put until he was sure Jesse had turned the corner and wasn’t coming back. Then he walked over to Julia. “Sorry,” he said. “If I’d known who he was, I never would have picked him up.”

  She sighed and uncrossed her arms. “It’s okay. You didn’t know.” She threw a disgusted glance in the direction Jesse had gone. “Man, the vermin all come out of the woodwork eventually, don’t they? First Ron, then Lance, and now Jesse.” She shook her head.

  “Thank you for not including me in your roster of cockroaches,” he said.

  “Never,” she said, and opened the gate for him.

  He didn’t move. “Are you sure you want me to come in?” he asked. All trace of humor had fled. “All I’ve done for the past year is bring trouble to your doorstep.”

  She regarded him fondly. “That’s not how I see it at all.”

  “Oh?”

  “Nope.” She smiled. “A whole lot of other men have brought trouble to my doorstep. You’re the only one who has brought me joy.”

  He smiled in relief and stepped through the gate.

  “Did the kids come with you?” she asked as they slipped their arms around each other.

  He shook his head. “They’re helping Angie pack Nina’s stuff to take to her house.”

  “Is it going to be a problem, having Nina living there? I know you relied on her for babysitting quite a bit.”

  “Nah, it’ll be fine. Angie’s willing to supervise their visitation with Nina. And Randi will be twelve in a couple of weeks. She’ll be old enough then to babysit Ritchie after school.”

  “She didn’t tell me her birthday was coming up,” Julia said. “I’ll have to get her something. What does she want?”

  “A new mom,” he said with a grin.

  She grinned back. “I can’t give her that until her next birthday. But you can tell her it’s coming for sure.” She pulled open the screen door. “Come on in.”

  ~~~~

  Our Tale Ends

  ~~~~

  “The Wheel has turned again,” Thea says, as she places the final cards on the kitchen table. “Judgment. And The World.”

  “No surprises,” Elsie says. “That awful ex-husband of Ju
lia’s is in prison, right where he should be, and she and Dave finally have their reward.” She is wearing a dress, the fabric covered in tiny lavender flowers. It goes well with Thea’s dress of deep green. “Are you ready?”

  “Just a minute, dear,” Thea says, scooping up the cards. “Don’t forget your hat.”

  “Oh, yes,” Elsie says, and snags it from its perch atop one of the loom’s uprights. The loom itself is empty; the weaving that has been in progress for so many years has already been wrapped in wedding paper and delivered to Julia’s cottage.

  Thea regards her with a fond gaze. Then she nods toward the loom. “Have you decided what our next project will be?”

  “I’m still thinking about it,” she says. “Maybe a baby blanket.”

  The ladies share a secret smile. Then, arm in arm, they walk out their door and promenade down the street, enjoying the air on this crisp evening in early September. The leaves around them shine red and gold in the fading light.

  The party is already in full swing when they arrive. The bride and groom have hired a four-piece band, and the musicians have just begun playing the song for their first dance.

  It’s a small party. The children are here, of course, both still dressed in the outfits they wore for the ceremony, although Ritchie has managed to get grass stains on his knees. Their mother, too, is here, accompanied by her sister. Nina looks calm, as if her spirit is finally at rest. She has begun cultivating a new relationship with Randi and Ritchie. They may never fully trust her, but they are coming to love her again.

  The far-flung cousins, Tim and Jen, would not have missed this for the world. They are here with their respective spouses in tow. Tim is even talking about moving back home, now that their mother has passed on. He has his eye on a cottage just a block from Dave and Julia’s. He expressed an interest in their grandparents’ cottage, but Julia told him she intends to keep using it as a writing retreat. And so she does. But she is also protecting the labyrinth, for she is certain her practical cousin would want it removed.

  Some of Dave’s fellow faculty members have come, as well as a few of Julia’s old friends from Evanston. Each group has formed its own tight circle. But the evening is still young, and they will be mixing with one another soon enough.