by Selena Kitt
“Here we go.” Donald muttered, sliding into the seat on Rob’s other side. “The stalling tactics.”
“No,” Leah breathed, the tears she’d been holding starting to fall, dropping onto her skirt, leaving fat, round wet circles on the black satin.
“I’m sorry,” Donald whispered. “I told you she’d try to pull this. It’s textbook. This is what they do.”
“Your honor, you seem to have overlooked the fact this baby is very sick.” The ghoul stood beside Frank, who clearly wasn’t making the argument to her liking. “She’s all the way on the other side of the state. She can’t travel. And it’s likely she’s ill because her mother was taking drugs while she was pregnant with the poor little thing.”
The ghoul glared at Leah and she felt the hair stand up on her arms and on the back of her neck, a low buzzing sound beginning in her head. It was just how she felt before she’d gone after the ghoul in the restaurant, and she told herself to sit there, just sit there and let the lawyers handle it, but her hands were clenched into fists at her side and her breathing was so shallow she was beginning to see spots floating in her vision.
“I don’t care if the baby is on the moon, Lady,” the judge exploded. “I want her brought here—today, before...” He checked his watch. “Before five p.m. If that baby isn’t in her mother’s arms before then, I’ll hold you in contempt.”
The crowd cheered and clapped, but the judge frowned and banged his gavel for quiet.
The ghoul wasn’t giving up. “Your honor, that’s just not possible. Her foster parents are in no condition to—”
“Lady, you are pushing my very last button...”
Leah looked over at Donald, who gave her a smile and a thumbs-up, making her heart soar. Clearly this wasn’t standard procedure, and she was encouraged by her lawyer’s response. She glanced down the row and saw Erica, sitting next to Clay. Leah wondered how she had managed to track Elizabeth—Rebecca—down, but she knew it must have something to do with the Mary Magdalenes. How had Donald known she was in the room? Leah hadn’t even known!
There was a woman on the other side of Clay, an attractive older blonde, and they were whispering together. Leah hadn’t seen her come in and wondered who she was. The ghoul was still trying, interrupting the judge with an excuse every time he told her to bring Grace to his courtroom, and everyone was waiting for him to snap. She glimpsed Rebecca, sitting a few rows over, and smiled to see her holding her baby in her arms.
Leah felt tears stinging her eyes at the sight, her arms aching like they had for weeks, to hold her own baby. Oh Grace, we’re so close, she thought. I’m almost there. Mommy’s here. I’m coming. Her body tingled all over with longing, a lump growing in her throat, and she could have sworn she heard Grace cry, like she always did. The little plaintive wail of her ghost baby. Where are you, Mama? Where are you?
Leah closed her eyes against it, now realizing her mistake during the questioning, telling Frank about the ghost-baby who followed her, who cried at night, who was just out of her reach, always, so glad it hadn’t ended up hurting her. Thank god for Rebecca.
Stop. Please stop.
But it wouldn’t stop. Grace kept crying. And crying. She knew her cry. Her baby was hungry. She would be sucking on her fists and turning her head from side to side, looking for her milk, but Leah didn’t have any more milk, they had taken that too.
She opened her eyes, looking over at Rebecca, expecting to see her baby boy crying, the sound morphing to Leah’s head into Grace’s hungry-cry, but he was sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arms. Confused, Leah looked again to her right, where the sound was actually coming from.
“Can you please take the baby from the courtroom?” Judge Solomon was still, still dealing with the ghoul—the man clearly had the patience of a saint.
“I’m sorry, Your Honor!” the older blonde stood and Leah saw the infant in her arms she hadn’t noticed before. Clay had been in the way. “It’s just that there’s been an emergency, and I had to talk to my son—”
“Oh, Lady, please, I don’t want to hear anymore.” Judge Solomon groaned, putting his head in his hands. “Can we please just—”
“Grace!” Leah leapt out of her seat, reaching for the baby, but Rob had her caught in the strong circle of his arms, whispering, it was okay, it was okay, it wasn’t Grace, she was okay…
“Grace!” Leah screamed, pointing at the baby in the blonde’s arms, knowing without a shadow of a doubt it was Grace, her Grace. The woman held the baby close to her, protecting her, turning instinctively away from Leah. “That’s Grace! That’s my baby!”
“Take her out of here!” Judge Solomon banged his gavel.
Donald Highbrow half-stood, asking, “Who, the baby or the mother, Your Honor?”
“Take them both!” the judge roared.
“Noooo!” Leah struggled in Rob’s arms, knowing he had misinterpreted her, believing she had mistaken the baby in the woman’s arms for a sighting of her ghost baby, but that was no ghost. That was Grace. “Rob! That’s our daughter! Let me go!”
He struggled, looking at Donald, asking, “A little help?”
Donald stood, taking Leah by her other arm, and both men carried her, feet off the ground, heading toward the door. The baby—Grace, Grace Grace!—was still crying against the blonde’s shoulder, who was standing at the end of the aisle looking bewildered, rocking the baby without thinking about it.
“Get her out of here! Quick!” the ghoul snapped, shoving Rob as they passed. He gave her a dark look, but the look on the judge’s face was darker.
“That’s my baby!” Leah screamed at the top of her lungs, but she couldn’t fight the men holding her. They were far too strong. “Her name is Grace Patricia Nolan! She has a strawberry birth mark on her belly, just above her navel. She has a teeny tiny baby toenail, so tiny you can barely see it! She—”
“Wait!” the blonde called, rushing to the front of the courtroom. “Wait!”
“Order!” The judge banged his gavel over and over. “Order in the courtroom! Order! Order!”
Leah stood between Rob and Donald, looking at the woman
“Ma’am, can I ask your name?”
“Me? My name is Gertrude Louise Webber.”
“Thank you.” The judge gave her a brief smile. “And is that your baby?”
Gertrude shook her head. “No, Your Honor.”
“Whose baby is it?”
“Mine!” Leah croaked, holding her arms out, oh they ached, like the empty dry socket of a tooth, like a phantom limb, like the rending, tearing pain of a missing womb.
“Oh for God’s sake!” The ghoul threw up her hands, waving Rob and Donald and Leah toward the door. “What does it matter? Now take her out of here and call an ambulance. They’re going to have to put her in restraints again like last time. I told you this would happen Your Honor. She’s insane. She—”
The gavel came down again, once, hard, like a gunshot, and they all froze. Judge Solomon had reached the end of his clearly very long fuse.
“Lady, I warned you. I am holding you in contempt.” The judge nodded toward the bailiff. “Please remove this ghoul from my courtroom.”
Again, the entire courtroom burst into applause and cheers as the bailiff grabbed the ghoul’s arm and she shrieked in protest, trying to shake him off, but he pushed her past where Leah stood, frozen between Donald and Robert, staring at the woman holding her baby.
“Now...” The judge looked between Leah and Gertrude. “Why do you think this is your baby, Leah?”
“Because she is,” Leah croaked, edging a little closer, so close, oh she was so close! “That’s Grace. Rob, that’s our baby!”
She looked over her shoulder at her husband, pleading at him with her eyes. Rob looked between Leah and the child, stunned, like he’d been hit hard on the head with something and wasn’t sure which way to stumble.
“Mrs. Webber.” The judge turned to the blonde, clearly hoping to get some more definitive ans
wers in her direction.
“She’s a foster child, Your Honor. But her name isn’t Grace. It’s Lily.”
The collective gasp that went through the courtroom made Leah shiver. The ghoul had changed her baby’s name to the fake one pregnant Leah had been given while she was imprisoned at Magdalene House.
“Does the child have a strawberry mark on her belly?” the judge inquired.
Gertrude nodded. “Yes, your honor.”
Another collective gasp.
“And the pinkie toe?” the judge asked, looking at Leah, his face almost as incredulous as her own.
“Barely there,” Gertrude replied, looking at Leah. “Is she really yours, honey? Is this your baby?”
Leah nodded, holding her arms out, the tears falling down her face in rivers. “Grace,” she whispered. “Grace.”
Gertrude looked back at the judge, hesitating.
He shook his head and Leah felt her stomach drop to her toes. “I have never, in all my years on this bench, seen anything like this fiasco today, and I’ve been sitting on this bench a long damned time.”
“Grace!” Leah croaked, sinking to her knees—they wouldn’t hold her anymore. “Oh God, please!”
The judge asked the woman holding the baby, “Who’s the social worker who placed this foster child with you?”
“That woman… the one who just… left.” Gertrude swallowed, nodding toward the door. “Joan Goulden.”
The whole room seemed to sigh and Leah dropped her head, sobbing, and she felt Rob’s hands on her shoulders and then he was kneeling behind her, holding her around the waist, whispering, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry...”
But it didn’t matter because the judge nodded to Gertrude, who took two, three, hesitant steps forward and dropped to her knees too, holding the still crying Grace out to her mother.
“Take her,” Gertrude urged.
And then Leah was holding her baby for the first time, all over again, her tears dropping on Grace’s sweet, fat cheeks just like they had on the day she was born.
“Grace,” Leah whispered, rocking her back and forth, the baby’s cries slowing and then stopping, her head cocked, eyes open, as if listening to her mother whisper her name over and over. “Grace, Grace, Grace...”
“She’s so beautiful,” Rob whispered, reaching around to let Grace grasp his index finger, and she did, hanging on tight. “Oh, Leah, she looks just like you.”
They were surrounded, everyone crowding around, kneeling down to see the baby, Erica and Clay and Patty, even Donald knelt down to get a good look at the baby who had been the spoils of his victory in the courtroom today. Rebecca came over, and she was followed by a few more curious bystanders, and before she knew it, Leah and Grace were completely surrounded by a circle of adoring admirers.
Leah felt them all around her, kneeling down to exclaim over Grace like they had knelt around the manger of baby Jesus, marveling in wonder at the world begun again in one perfect expression of God as they all looked into the eyes of one brand new human being.
When Judge Solomon slammed his gavel down again, it was only after he had taken off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his thumbs and blew his nose with a loud honk into his handkerchief. He sent everyone back to their seats, and he called Leah and Grace, and everyone who had come with her that day, to approach the bench.
“Young lady,” the judge began, shaking his gavel at Leah, but he was looking at Grace. “You have turned my courtroom upside down!”
“I’m sorry, Your Honor,” Leah apologized, but she was grinning from ear to ear, still holding the bottle Gertrude had handed over for her hungry little piglet.
“Judge,” Donald interrupted. “I’d like to file a motion to have Joan Golden’s license revoked.”
Judge Solomon smiled. “That would be delightful. I look forward to it. So I think we’re done with this case for the day?”
“Well there’s still the matter of the assault charge against Mrs. Nolan, filed by Joan Goulden,” Donald reminded him.
The judge rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Considering the Goulden woman’s actions today in my courtroom, I wouldn’t doubt Mrs. Nolan acted in self-defense. Is that your contention, Mrs. Nolan?”
Leah hesitated, glancing up at Donald, who gave her a nod. “Yes, Your Honor.”
“Good. Case dismissed.” The judge gave a satisfied nod, stamping something on the file on his desk and tossing it aside. “Now, I still don’t understand your relation to the Nolans, Mrs. Webber?”
“Well, I’m not.” Gertrude glanced over at her son. Clay was hanging back, holding Erica’s hand. “That’s my son, Clayton, right there. He’s dating Erica. She’s Robert Nolan’s daughter.”
Close enough, Leah thought. If they tried to explain it fully, they’d be there all day, and she was pretty sure the judge didn’t want that.
“And the Goulden woman placed the baby she was trying to hide with you?” The judge slapped his forehead with his palm. “Only stupid thieves get caught, right? That’s what they say!”
“Well to be fair,” Gertrude interjected. “Erica and Clay weren’t dating until recently. I don’t think the Goulden woman had any reason to suspect we would run into each other. And don’t they also say the best hiding place is in plain sight?”
“Do they?” The judge laughed. “I think it must have been divine intervention,” he countered, looking at Leah. “Sounds to me like someone up there likes you, Missus.”
“Well, we do go to the same church,” Clay interjected.
“Oh my God!” Gertrude exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand, eyes widening in horror. “I almost forgot! That’s why I came here to find Clay! He told me he was going to Erica’s and I heard on the radio about the fire at the warehouse and I rushed right over!”
“Warehouse?” the judge asked, confused.
“What?” Rob interjected. “What warehouse? My warehouse?”
Gertrude nodded at Robert Nolan, covering her mouth with her hand again before exclaiming, “I ran right over and Solie told me you were all here. I’m sorry to be one to tell you, but the fire department is there right now. I heard on my way over here, they suspect arson—Mary Magdalene’s was on fire too, last I heard.”
“What about Solie?” Leah gasped. “Was she okay?”
“The church too?” Erica exclaimed, looking at Clay, both of them wide-eyed.
“Yes!” Gertrude shook her head in disbelief. “The church too! Connie, our nanny, took the bigger kids to the park, but I had Lily with me, and when I heard it on the radio, I rushed right over. I’m so glad Father Patrick called me last night and told me he didn’t need me to come in today.”
Clay and Erica exchanged looks, but Leah didn’t understand what it was all about. She was more concerned about the Nolans’ housekeeper.
“What about Solie?” Leah asked again.
“Yes, yes, Solie was fine.” Gertie turned to Leah, looking down at Grace resting in her arms. “Shaken up, but she was okay. She said the fire was already out of control by the time she got there.”
“For pete’s sake!” Judge Solomon burst out. “You people wouldn’t have any luck if it wasn’t for bad luck, would you?”
Leah looked from Rob over to Erica and Clay holding hands, to her mother and back to Rob again in the stunned silence, and then down to the little baby in her arms, and she couldn’t help it—she burst out laughing.
The poor man had no idea!
“When it rains it pours, I guess!” the judge threw up his hands, and it just made Leah laugh even harder, and pretty soon, were all laughing, laughing and hugging and leaning on each other as they left Judge Solomon’s courtroom, headed back into God only knew what next.
But none of it mattered. Leah looked around at her crazy little family and down at the now sleeping baby filling her once empty arms and knew, in spite of everything, this was all that mattered—all that ever would matter. The wish she and Erica had made together on Christmas Eve,
two sister angels in the snow, had come true.
Grace had returned to them all.
Epilogue
Erica poked her head into Father Michael’s office—his makeshift office, a supply closet they’d cleared out in the girls’ school that still smelled a little like paste, construction paper and bleach. He looked up from where he’d been sitting at his little desk, head down, eyes closed, hands folded, the epitome of a man in prayer. He smiled at the sight of her, motioning her in.
“Am I interrupting?” Erica hesitated. “There are a million people crowded in the chapel. It’s almost time.”
“They can’t get the new church built soon enough.”