The Nearly Girl

by Lisa de Nikolits

“I think we should have an impromptu session,” Dr. Carroll said. “David is going to feel grief as well as triumph. There was a lot of betrayal.”

  “I’ll get food and coffees for everyone,” Whitney said and they gathered around a large table in the back of the coffee shop.

  “I can’t believe it,” David said, shaking his head. “What an idiot I am.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Mike said. “They hid the whole thing extremely well. I just thought it was strange how Nick kept looking over at that one area and that’s why I asked you for the floor plan.”

  “Nick was the one who showed me the building in the first place,” David said. “He must have known about the hidden basement all the time but he didn’t show me. Of course, I should have studied the floor plan myself more carefully. Nick and Jeff were cooking meth this whole time and then when Cathy joined, she found out. She went back late one night to get some files and she found them. Of course she thought this was great, megabucks rolling in, and they had to cut her in as well as John and my nephew. And now they are all going to jail. I’m not bailing Cathy out, that’s for sure. It explains why they were acting so strangely towards me. It would have suited them if I’d had a nervous breakdown and left the business. I’m so relieved I wasn’t imagining things. They were trying to get rid of me by stripping the business financially. Jeff and Nick needed me in the beginning to lease the building but now I was in their way. Cathy would have stayed on as their landlord and they could have increased production.”

  “What are you going to do now?” Persephone said.

  “The cops have seized the lab so my business has gone bust. I’ll have to let my clients know. I’ve got a paid-off house and I am glad I was only renting that building because it’s now damaged by the chemicals from the lab. The owner’s none too happy, I’ll tell you that much, but Cathy and the others are liable for damages. The cops have cleared me of everything. I’m not destitute or anything, but I’ve got no idea what to do with the rest of my life.”

  “Let’s do some brainstorming for David,” Mike said, grinning. “Do you have any family in other parts of the country?”

  “Yeah, mostly in Halifax. But I don’t want to go back there.”

  “How about some interim travel? Is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

  David shook his head. “I think what I’d like most is to start my business again. Find a new carpenter and new premises. I really like what I do, designing office furniture. I just wanted to stop worrying so much. I’m not going to leave the group just because we solved this, because even though it explains a lot, there are still a bunch of things I’d like to work on.”

  “Fantastic!” Doctor Carroll was beaming. “Well, then, I will be heading out. It’s been a great day for D.T.O.T. and a great day for teamwork and friendship. See you next week and remember—” He paused and waited.

  “D.T.O.T. until the cows come home!” the group called out after him and laughed.

  “I’d better get back to work before they fire me,” Joanne commented. “Whitney, I’ll see you later?”

  Whitney nodded.

  “Amelia, do you want a ride?” Mike asked but she shook her head. She planned on going back to the hospital to check on Ethel. They were hoping that she would soon be released.

  “And I’m going back to hole up in the safety of my home,” Persephone said and she was seconded by Angelina.

  “Angelina,” Mike said, “this whole thing for David would never have worked without your Best Business supplies. You did a good thing. Doc had to tell the cops about the sting, because they wanted to know who we were and why we were there. The cops seemed a bit nervous of us, like we were all mental patients. It was funny.”

  “I’m glad my rubbish was of use for once,” Angelina said and she looked old and tired. She got up and hooked her purse over her shoulder. “See you next week.” She reached the doorway of the café and then suddenly whipped around and faced them. “KEEP ON ROCKING IN THE FREE WORLD!” she yelled with a giant smile. Then she hobbled to her car, and drove out of the parking lot with her face inches away from the steering wheel.

  “She’s such an awesome nutter,” Mike said, following Amelia out of the coffee shop. “Amelia, c’mon let me give you a ride wherever you’re going.”

  “No, I’m good, thanks.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I’ve broken up with Jane,” Mike said. “Have a little faith, okay?”

  “Faith needs to be earned, not begged, borrowed or stolen,” Amelia said, and with that, she marched away.

  14. DR. CARROLL

  “IT WAS APPARENTLY CRAZY THERE, NANA,” Amelia said, sitting on her gran’s bed. “They arrested David’s wife, her brother, her brother’s son, the sales guy, and the carpenter.”

  “This Dr. Carroll certainly is unorthodox but he is effective,” Ethel said, yawning.

  “How are you feeling, Nana? Tell me the truth.”

  “A bit sore but fine, dear. Honestly. And now, be honest with me about you and Mike. What’s going on there?”

  “Nothing until he breaks up with Jane. I don’t think he ever will. Would you like any orange juice or anything?”

  “Just water would be lovely, dear. Thank you.”

  Amelia got a glass of water and then she added some water to Ethel’s flowers as well. She kissed her gran and left.

  After everything that had happened, she needed a brisk walk to clear her head. Before she knew it, she found herself on the road where she had shouted at the old man, asking him for directions to the hospital. She wondered if Dr. Carroll lived nearby since he had driven past her, but he could have been in the area for any number of reasons. She noticed a bus stop in the distance and she headed over. The sky was a greenish black and it was threatening hail. While Amelia had no qualms about walking in the rain, she was none too happy to be hailed on. She rushed inside the bus shelter just as the downpour of ice pellets started and she huddled into the furthermost corner, wondering how long the storm would last.

  It soon began to ease off to a steady downpour, the hail spent. Amelia was about to leave when to her surprise, she saw Dr. Carroll’s car pull into a driveway across the street. It was an unremarkable driveway adjoining an equally unremarkable bungalow with a lawn that needed mowing. Dr. Carroll parked under the garage awning and then he ran around to the front of the house, with a newspaper held overhead. He unlocked the front door and let himself in.

  A light came on in the living room and Amelia saw Dr. Carroll draw the curtains closed. A lovely light emanated from the windows, and Amelia envied Dr. Carroll’s warm glowy life in his house that was a sanctuary at the end of a long and, no doubt, typically chaotic day.

  Amelia wanted to be home too, safe from the hope and worries of Mike. Although, she thought, hope was foolish and worries would follow her to her dreams. But she was tired and it would be lovely, nonetheless, to be home and be able to rest. She looked across the street at Dr. Carroll’s house and she wondered if he had a family and if they had dinner together at a big shiny table. And did they watch TV together afterwards? Or did he help his children with their homework, if indeed he had children? Maybe he didn’t even have a wife. If he did, did he tell her about his day, as much as he could, within the confines of patient confidentiality?

  The rain eased to a mild drizzle and though a half an hour had passed, the bus had failed to come. Amelia couldn’t help herself. She had to know more about Dr. Carroll’s life after work. Going home to rest would have to wait.

  She scuttled across the street and walked casually up the neighbour’s driveway, hidden from Dr. Carroll’s house by a tall hedge. When she came to the end of the driveway, she spied a convenient gap in the hedge. She crawled through it and made a quick dash to a large bush in the centre of Dr. Carroll’s back lawn. Feeling utterly creepy but unable to stop herself, she rushed toward the house and crouched next
to a window. She lifted her head carefully and peered into the window through a small, triangulated opening where the curtain had failed to close properly.

  She had a full view of the dining room.

  There, seated for dinner, was Doctor Carroll, with his family.And a perfect family it was, too. Mother, daughter, son.

  There was mother, at the head of the table. She was young, with long dark curly hair and a pale oval face, the beauty of a pre-Raphaelite Madonna, with a slightly too-long nose and full lips.

  The daughter was about twelve and although she felt guilty for the thought, Amelia sympathized with the girl for having inherited more of her father’s looks than her mother’s. The girl had short curly ginger hair that was more like a granny’s permanent wave than the hair of a young girl. She had a little potato for a nose and a strong overbite that almost hid her thin lower lip. She was densely freckled and pale eyebrows were etched above her small, light brown eyes.

  The son was around eight or so and he, like his mother, was a vision of loveliness. He had dark curly hair, enormous soulful eyes and he, in contrast to his sister, was petite, with fragile sloping shoulders and tiny delicate hands.

  Dr. Carroll was sitting at the other end of the table and although Amelia couldn’t see his face, she could tell by his hands movements that he was chatting vivaciously, waving his cutlery this way and that, and taking several large gulps from his water glass.

  Amelia was curious to see if his family found him as amusing as he clearly found himself, and it was then that she felt the first frisson of shock. She realized what was horribly wrong. None of the family members showed any expression at all. None of them was eating. And neither were they looking at Dr. Carroll nor at one another. They were, the three of them, perfectly still and they gazed vacuously into space, without moving at all.

  Amelia watched Dr. Carroll finish his meal. He wasn’t in a hurry. Then he got up and moved clockwise to his daughter and he neatly cut her food up into bite-sized pieces. And then, without missing a beat of his clearly hilarious and engaging conversation, he fed small forkfuls to her until the food on her plate was gone.

  Then he moved around to his wife, and he did the same with her, only this time, he draped his arm around her shoulder and he nuzzled her hair from time to time and he even planted a kiss on her cheek. When she was finished eating, he took her hand in his and rested his head on her shoulder for a long moment, and then he went around to his son and fed him in the same manner.

  Neither mother, nor daughter, nor son moved the entire time except to chew slowly. After they had eaten, Dr. Carroll removed the dishes from the table and he returned with dessert, feeding it to them in the same painstaking, chatty and happy manner. After dessert, he disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a cup of coffee and a platter of cheese.

  Amelia was pressed up against the glass, a witness to the entire tableau.

  She watched Dr. Carroll finish his coffee and eat his cheese, and then he stood up and tenderly helped his wife to her feet. He led her down a hallway, coming back a few minutes later, and then led the daughter away, returning to do the same with his son.

  Thinking that she had seen enough for the moment, and worried that he would catch sight of her face through the tiny gap of the curtain, Amelia decided that it was time for her to leave. She took a deep breath and made a dash for the bush in the centre of the lawn. She ran back through the hedge and rushed down the neighbour’s driveway. The night was still cloudy and dark and she was certain that no one had seen her but she was too unnerved to wait for the bus in such close proximity to Dr. Carroll’s home so she ran back to the hospital.

  Once she was there, she phoned her mother. “I’m going to stay with Nana for the night,” she said. Her mother sounded more annoyed at having been disturbed than pleased by Amelia’s rare effort to let her know of her plans. “That’s fine,” Megan said and she hung up the phone.

  Amelia was shivering, not from the cold, which she did not feel, but from what she had seen. She climbed under the tangle of wires and got into bed with Ethel who mumbled something in her sleep. Amelia lay as still as she could, hoping that none of the nurses would catch her and make her leave.

  Amelia would have told Ethel what she had seen but the following day, Ethel took a turn for the worse.

  “Is it because I slept with her in her bed?” Amelia asked the doctor, sick with worry.

  “Not in the least. Don’t worry. Bowel surgeries do this regularly — have setbacks — but that’s all it is, a setback. We’re going to up her antibiotics and keep a careful eye on her.”

  Amelia sat next to Ethel, worrying about her, and worrying about what she had seen and wondering what to do. It wasn’t as if she could go the police. She was, to all intents and purposes, a psychiatric patient and who’d believe some cockamamie story about her therapist holding his family as drugged hostages?

  She couldn’t tell her mother. Megan wouldn’t believe her. She’d think that this was the latest Amelia-oddity and dismiss it. Amelia decided to go and visit Henry. She kissed Ethel and left the hospital.

  It took her nearly an hour to get there but she finally had the mansion in sight and, with a feeling of relief, she opened the gate. But she knew, even as she walked up the pathway, that all was not well with Henry and her heart sank. She could feel it, even though the outward appearance of the house was unchanged. She knocked at the door repeatedly, knowing there would be no reply and she eventually let herself in.

  The house was as silent as a tomb and the curtains were drawn. It was hard for Amelia to see anything until she switched on the hallway light. She headed for the living room, which was Henry’s main work area, and she turned on the lights, and instantly saw the reason for the decline in Henry’s mental health.

  It was as Megan had predicted. Henry had finished his latest body of work.

  The pages had been removed from the walls and, in his routine way, were neatly stacked in the middle of the polished floor. Amelia half-expected to see Henry asleep in front of the fireplace but the lumpy floral-patterned king size mattress was empty.

  Amelia checked the kitchen and found no sign of her father there either.

  She began to worry, even though this was not her first encounter with Henry when he was unwell. She ran up the stairs and found him lying on the floor of his boyhood bedroom, staring up at his model airplanes. His hands were behind his head and his eyes were half-closed.

  “Dad?” She lay down next to him. “You finished your work I see. When?”

  Henry opened his mouth but it was clear that it was hard for him to speak and he shook his head.

  “I know, Dad,” Amelia said gently. “But it’s okay. The voices will come back. They don’t have anything to say right now, but they’ll be back.”

  Henry turned to look at her and his eyes welled with tears.

  “No,” he said, and his voice was hoarse and unused. “They’re gone.”

  “Oh, Dad,” she said. “We’ve been through this before. They always come back.”

  “This time is different,” her father insisted.

  “You’ve said that every time before too,” Amelia reminded him, and Henry did not reply.

  “Oh, Dad.” She took his bony hand in hers and they lay there, looking up at the model planes.

  “I think you need some soup,” Amelia said but Henry shook his head.

  “Fine,” she said, “but I’m having some. I’ve come all this way to see you, so I’m going down to kitchen and I’ll come back after I’ve eaten.”

  She got up and paused in the doorway. “Are you happy with your work?” she asked and Henry shook his head slowly.

  “Don’t know,” he said. “No. Maybe. Can’t remember any of it.”

  Amelia went downstairs and she opened the kitchen cupboard. She decided on cream of tomato. She emptied the can into the pot and added
milk, thinking not about her father and his funk but about Dr. Carroll and his family. She had just turned off the stove when Henry appeared, looking unshaven and gloomy.

  “Which one did you choose?”

  “Tomato.” She handed him a spoon and took the pot to the marble island and they stood there, eating in silence. Amelia was relieved to see Henry eating and as she watched, life seemed to flow back into his emaciated body.

  “Dad,” she said. “My therapist is holding his family drugged and hostage.”

  “We are all prisoners in familial relationships,” Henry said, rapidly spooning soup into his mouth and spilling droplets on his T-shirt.

  “I’m not being metaphorical, Dad. I’m being serious and literal.”

  Amelia told Henry what she had seen. “And I don’t know what to do,” she concluded. “Nana’s sick and Mom won’t believe me, or she won’t care.”

  “Ethel’s sick?” Henry dropped his spoon into the remainder of the soup and Amelia realized that Megan hadn’t told him what was going on.

  “She’s in hospital. They operated on her colon. I’m sorry Dad. I thought Mom told you. She said she would.”

  “She could have tried to phone,” Henry admitted. “I did hear the phone ringing but I was busy. She should have come and fetched me.”

  Henry raced towards the front door, his dressing gown flying out behind him like a cape.

  “Dad! Wait! Put some proper clothes on,” Amelia shouted after him, and he stopped and looked down at his boxer shorts and his food-stained T-shirt.

  “Right.” He raced upstairs, threw on some clean clothes, and then he flew back down. He ushered Amelia out of the house, then he locked the front door and shot out to the street.

  “I generally refuse to indulge in such monetary obscenities as a cab ride,” he said, “but this is an emergency. Where are the cabs, for god’s sake?” He peered up and down the quiet street.

  “I’ll phone for one, Dad, hang on.”

  It cost a small fortune and it took a while to get to the hospital. Henry gnawed on his knuckles the entire way. When they got there, he paid quickly and leapt out.