“Wow. Those are some heavy-duty revelations, sweetie.”
“No joke.”
“How can I help?”
“I’m not sure. Probably just listen to me while I try to sort it all out.”
“Can I hold you in my arms?”
Ellis’s stomach somersaulted. “Sure. That would be nice.”
“So when do you think you’ll get here?”
“I need to take care of three yards tomorrow, and I’ve got four on Friday. I’ll call my Saturday and Sunday jobs to push them off ’til next week. Friday night traffic will be a mess, so it’ll be at least eight o’clock before Sam and I pull in day after tomorrow.”
“Just be careful on the road. I’ll wait until late Friday afternoon to tell Nat you’re coming up. She can help me decorate your cake.”
“Let me talk to her a minute.”
“She’s already in bed. It’s almost eleven.”
“Oh, right. I lost track of time. Do something for me, will you?”
“What?”
“When she gets up in the morning, tell her I said she’s really weird.”
Ellis checked her email inbox before heading to bed. She had one new message. It was from Nicolas. Like hers to him, it was brief.
“Gretchen, I’m glad to hear you know the truth about the family. Anika and I have discussed how it was handled, and we both feel that our parents made serious mistakes in not telling all of us exactly what the circumstances were all along. Anika and I hold no animosity toward you. You weren’t responsible for their decisions. We always thought of you as our sister, even though we had different fathers. Perhaps it’s not too late for us to move past all this, especially since our parents are gone. If you would like to correspond with Anika, here is her email address and her snail mail, as well. My wife and I have two children now. My job keeps me busy, so I don’t have much free time, but I’ll try to answer quickly if you decide to write again. I hope you are well and happy. Your brother, Nicolas.”
He included their sister’s contact information at the end of the message.
Ellis reread the words on the screen. At least he’d left the door open. Yes, it was twenty years late, but she had hope of building bridges to her siblings. Of more immediate concern, though, was getting organized for her trip to Clarkesville for the weekend.
Chapter 10
“I don’t care who’s at the door. Even if it’s Publisher’s Clearinghouse with a check for ten million dollars, tell them to go away. Better yet, pretend you don’t hear them knocking and stay here with me.” Ellis teased the nipple of Mary’s breast in an effort to convince her of the urgency of her plea.
Mary gently moved Ellis back so that her lips couldn’t reach their target. “I’d rather do exactly that, but it doesn’t sound like whoever’s out there is going away.” She tugged her bathrobe around her and wrapped a towel around her bone-dry hair to add credence to her alibi of being in the shower.
Ellis watched Mary exit the room, then lay back on the pillow and reminisced about the wild, yet tender, reunion she and Mary had enjoyed last night after polishing off most of her birthday cake. That morning, Natalie went with her Aunt Gloria and her three girl cousins to pick blueberries and would spend the night at Gloria and Adam’s house. As soon as Gloria’s vehicle left the yard, Ellis and Mary hastened back to bed and hoped to spend the rest of the day and all of the coming night there.
They’d already been distracted a half-dozen times or more by the ringing of Mary’s cell phone. Then the landline had rung that many times or more. Now someone was pounding on Mary’s front door. Ellis gave in to remorseful thoughts about the boatload of annoyances that came with Mary living where she knew everyone and their uncle. Her slide into the gloom was interrupted by Mary racing back into the room.
“Get up! Get dressed! Get out of here! There’s been an accident.”
Ellis sprang to her feet and threw on her jeans and T-shirt. “Natalie? Gloria? Your mom?”
Mary tossed the robe aside and labored to untangle the knots she’d made of her clothing. “No, Nathan. His brother Mark has been trying to call me for the past hour. He’s waiting at the door. He’ll take me to the hospital in Demorest to see Nathan.”
“I’ll go with you.” Ellis jammed her feet into her sneakers.
Mary zipped and buttoned her slacks. “Better not. Mark says it’s really bad. Nathan’s whole family will be there by now. I don’t want to have to explain who you are.”
Ellis let the bite of the words go without remark. “What about Natalie? Do you want me to try to find Gloria and the kids?”
“You could try her cell phone, but if they’re out behind a mountain somewhere picking berries, she won’t have a signal.”
“Should I stay here and keep calling ’til I reach your sister?”
Mary grabbed her phone, keys, and wallet. “That’s a good idea. Don’t tell Natalie anything. Whatever this is, I need to be the one to tell her about it. I’ll call you on your cell just as soon as I find out what’s happened.” She bolted through the bedroom door, but was back in a second. She hastily kissed Ellis’s cheek. “I’m sorry, babe, but I need to do this.”
“I understand.” Ellis said the words, even though she didn’t mean them. No matter, because Mary hadn’t heard them.
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
Ellis’s phone rang less than a half-hour later. The moment she heard Mary’s tear-choked voice, she knew nothing would ever be the same again.
Ellis steadied herself. “Tell me what happened.”
Mary sniffed back her tears. “Nathan’s dead.”
Wracking sobs filled Ellis’s ear. She waited for Mary to continue.
“We don’t know all the details yet, but Nathan was called out to help with a problem on a power line. The cable company was stringing new wires and messed up somehow. Mark knows the cable installer and called him a possum-eating moron. They told us Nathan was dead before he hit the ground.”
“He died from a fall?”
“No, he was electrocuted. Mark says the cable guy’s version is pure crap. Nathan was too smart to do any of the stupid things the cable guy says happened.” Mary sobbed for several seconds. “Like it matters. He’s dead, and no matter whose fault it is, he’s gone, and my baby will never see her daddy again.”
Ellis listened to the heartbreak on the far end of the connection. When she thought Mary might be able to hear her question, she asked, “Do we know if anyone has located Gloria and Natalie yet?”
“I don’t think so. Mark and his dad left here a few minutes ago to go tell Nathan’s grandparents. I’m too upset to do anything.”
“I’ll go to Naomi’s and tell her. She and I can tag team on the phone until we find Gloria. One of them should go to your mother’s to tell her.”
“Okay.” More gut-wrenching cries escaped Mary. “But remember, I need to be the one to tell Nat.”
“I know. I’ll be sure your sisters understand that, too.” Ellis waited for a hint more composure from Mary. “As soon as I’ve talked to Naomi, I’ll come and get you. If Mark left, you don’t have a way home.”
“I forgot all about that. Do you know how to get here?”
“Naomi can tell me. I’ll see you as soon as I can get there.”
“Hurry, Ellis.”
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
Less than an hour later, Ellis arrived at the Habersham County Medical Center. The facility was bordering on dilapidated and had none of the bustle that had marked the one Mary had taken her to on that Saturday afternoon seven months earlier. If it hadn’t been for the bright red illuminated cross over the emergency entrance, she might have sped right by it on Highway 441.
Once inside, it was a simple matter to find Mary. She was the despondent, crushed, nearly-incoherent woman whimpering in the far corner of the sparse waiting room. Ellis silently cursed every employee in the hospital for not ministering to this creature in such obvious need. She hurried to Mary’s side. “I got here as fast as
I could.”
Mary looked up at Ellis as though the words were gibberish. “What?”
“Let’s get you home.” She helped Mary to her feet. “Gloria and Naomi are on their way, so we don’t want to keep them waiting.”
“Nat?”
“She doesn’t know what’s happened, but she’s asking lots of questions about why everyone’s trying not to cry.”
“What am I going to tell her?”
“The truth, love. The sad, awful, unchangeable truth.”
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
“I don’t believe you!” Natalie screamed. “I don’t believe you! You’re mean and horrible, and I hate you!” She pounded her fists on her mother’s chest. “My daddy is not dead. You’re just saying that so we don’t have to live here in Clarkesville. You never wanted to come here, and now you’re telling lies so that you can take me away from him.”
It took all of Saturday afternoon and most of Saturday evening to calm Natalie to the point that she stopped shouting epithets at Mary. Wisely, Gloria asked her pediatrician for a mild sedative they could give the child. Even after she fell into her intermittent, drug-assisted slumber, Natalie alternately clung to her mother’s neck and rallied enough to rant and rail and tell her she hated her.
Bad as things were on Saturday, Sunday was worse. Natalie’s anger and disbelief were replaced with sullen unresponsiveness. She showed an occasional flicker of interest in Sam and Swiffer, but humans were all beyond worthless, and she’d have none of their succor, pandering, or feeble attempts at compassion.
Mark dropped by late Sunday evening to tell Mary that the Kimbroughs had arranged for Nathan’s funeral to be held Tuesday morning at Hill’s Crossing Baptist Church.
“We still think of you and Nat as family,” Mark said to Mary, tears brimming in his eyes. “We hope you’ll sit with us up front for the service.”
Ellis watched from the adjoining room as the former in-laws embraced and cried shared tears.
Mary drew back from Mark and managed to choke out a question. “How’s your mama holding up?”
“About like you’d expect. Daddy’s been a rock for us all.” Mark hugged Mary again. “You let me know if you need me for anything, hear?”
“I will. Thanks. And give my love to your mama and daddy.” Mary rested her hand on Mark’s back as she accompanied him to the door. “I’ll see you at the church on Tuesday.”
Ellis caught a glimpse of the sun, still sitting above the horizon as Mark stepped outside. Bad things should only happen on ugly, dreary days, Ellis decided. How could any of them ever again feel good on a sunny summer day?
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
“Thank God you’re here, Ellis. I couldn’t have gotten through this weekend without you.” Mary, fully-clothed, lay in Ellis’s arms, trembling. “I still can’t believe he’s dead.”
“I know what you mean. I only met Nathan a couple of times, but I liked him. He was a great guy.” She rubbed Mary’s back reassuringly. “A great dad.”
Mary started to cry again. “My poor baby. She’s going to have to grow up without her father.” Sobs shook her body. “It was hard enough trying to raise her with Nathan’s help. Now what am I going to do?”
“Let’s not think about that right now. We need to focus on getting through the next few days. We can’t afford to look further than tomorrow or the next day.” Ellis wrapped her arms more tightly around Mary’s shivering form. Hard to believe anyone could feel chilled on a night when the thermometer still read eighty-eight degrees at nine o’clock.
Mary struggled to hold back another flood of tears. “I mean it, Ellis. There’s no way I could have survived yesterday and today if you hadn’t been right here with me. Thanks for agreeing to stay through Tuesday. Nat and I really need you.”
“I’m happy to do what I can, but I’m worried my being here will ultimately make things worse for you—because of your family, I mean.”
“Screw ’em,” Mary said. “The only reason I moved up here was so that Nathan and I would have an easier time sharing custody of Nat. Now that he’s gone…” Her voice faded. “Gone, Ellis. Nathan is gone. Gone forever.” There was no stopping the tears. “Promise me you’ll stay with me, Ellis. Promise.”
Ellis stroked Mary’s tangled hair. “I’m here, babe. I’ll always be here.”
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
Ellis knocked off at noon on the last Saturday in August and headed north. As she pulled into Mary’s yard in the heat of the day, she spied Mary in the garden beside the house. Ellis and Sam ambled across the lawn. Mary was trimming spent blooms off her marigolds. “Want some help?” Ellis asked.
“Thanks, but no. I need to do something I feel competent at. Heaven knows I’m a failure as a mother these days.”
Ellis heard the frustration in Mary’s voice. “When I was here last weekend, Natalie seemed like her old self.”
“That’s exactly the problem. One minute she’s my happy-go-lucky kid, driving me batty with her endless interruptions, and the next, she’s so withdrawn and unreachable I worry that she’s never going to talk to me or anyone else again.”
“It’s been a tough summer for both of you. Maybe she needs a little more time.”
“Tough summer is an understatement. Most of my relatives and many of my friends gnaw on me every day about how I need to start bringing Nat to church so that she can get over her father’s death.” The hitch in Mary’s voice prompted Ellis to step into the garden and kneel beside her. “Don’t you dare say anything sweet to me, Gretchen VanStantvoordt. I’ve gone two whole days without crying, and I don’t want you ruining that for me by reminding me how patient and supportive you’ve been.”
“I promised I’d always be here for you.”
“You did, and you have. You’ve been up here every weekend since Nathan died. I know you’re short-changing your clients to spend time with Nat and me. I don’t tell you often enough how much it means to me.” Mary took off her glove and touched Ellis’s face lightly. “You’ve been a godsend.”
Ellis rubbed a clod of dirt between her fingers. “I wish I could do more.” She let the dirt sift through her fingers. “Did you take Natalie to therapy this week?”
Mary rammed her garden shears into the ground. “Yeah, for all the good it’s doing. On the drive home, she told me I should stop wasting my money.”
“That sounds like your daughter.”
“Doesn’t it? She said she was tired of having pretend conversations using dolls as her family members.”
“Does the therapist ever tell you what she makes of whatever Natalie says in those conversations?”
“Only that she’s a typical little girl who misses her dad and wishes that grown-ups would stop telling her how she should feel.”
“So will you keep taking her to the therapist?”
“Probably not. School will be back in session next week. I don’t want to embarrass her by pulling her out of classes to go see—as she calls her—the lady with all the goofy dolls who always asks the same dumb questions. It looks to me like Nat’s having more good days than bad ones, so maybe the worst is over, although you couldn’t tell it by her behavior today.”
Ellis stood and shook the kinks out of her legs. “What set it off?”
“She wanted to go to Wal-Mart, but I told her I needed to work in the garden this morning and that we’d go this afternoon.”
“Why did that upset her?”
“Her comment as she stormed into her room was that she and Daddy always went to Wal-Mart Saturday morning.”
Ellis pulled Mary to her feet. “Funny that she went all summer without that being an issue.”
“Probably because all the other Saturday mornings, she and I went to Wal-Mart. It was something to do while we waited for you to get here Saturday afternoons.”
Ellis stepped back onto the lawn. “Do you think it would help if I talked to her?”
“Feel free to try, but be sure to have your protective shields in place.” Mary d
usted her hands on her pants as she joined Ellis. “And I really do need to run to Wal-Mart for some mulch and fertilizer. I should have gone this morning, and we could have avoided this whole drama.”
“If the horse doesn’t stop running, he might win the race. If you’d gone, something else might have triggered a memory for her. There’s no way to know.” Ellis looked toward the house. “I’ll see if I can talk her into going on a Wal-Mart run with me.” She crossed her fingers. “Make a list of what you need.”
Mary blew Ellis a kiss and went back to her garden.
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
“C’mon, Natalie. You know I don’t know my way around up here.” Ellis poked her gently in the ribs. “I need you to come with me and tell me which roads to turn on.”
“Don’t want to. I’d rather stay home.”
“I tell you what. If you’ll come with me so that I can pick up the stuff your mom wants me to get for her garden, I’ll buy you the new Taylor Swift CD.”
“I’ve already got the songs on here.” Natalie shook her iPod in Ellis’s general direction.
“Okay, then you can pick something else. If you stay in your room much longer, you’re going to turn into a piece of furniture.”
“So?”
“So then I’ll have to rub you down with lemon oil and use Swiffer to dust you.”
Natalie almost smiled. Ellis pressed on. “And depending on which piece of furniture you turn into, I might have to have parts of you reupholstered or have casters put on your feet.”
“Or buy me a headboard,” Natalie offered, spreading her arms wide as she sat on her bed, which was pushed up against the wall.
“Yeah, and get you some fitted sheets and a matching bedspread.”
Natalie was quiet for a moment. “I guess I could ride along.”
Ellis tugged on Natalie’s honey blonde hair. “I’d like that, kiddo.”
Detours Page 17