Termination Dust

by Alana Terry

Kimmie shook her head, feeling just as ashamed as her brother would be if he understood this conversation. “No sentences. Not yet,” she added as a hopeful aside.

  Tabitha reached for a brochure. “And who’s his pediatrician? You’re taking him to someone in town, I assume?”

  Kimmie felt far too intimidated and bewildered to admit that Pip had never seen a healthcare provider until his trip to the emergency room last night. “There’s a naturopath in Eagle River,” she answered, careful to word her statement in a way that was not technically a lie.

  “Well,” Tabitha went on, “I’m sure I have no idea if a naturopath utilizes the same developmental screening methods as a real doctor, but it’s clear to me that this child is lacking in his development and could benefit from speech intervention services.”

  She reached into a drawer and pulled out a brochure. “In all honesty, I was surprised when you told me he wasn’t receiving any therapy already. They’ll do free home visits through the state for all income brackets,” she added, carefully eyeing Kimmie.

  She took the brochure with a humble, “Thanks,” and was relieved when a nurse popped in.

  “The test came back positive,” he announced.

  Tabitha nodded at him with a smug look then handed Kimmie a prescription form covered in scribbles. “Take this to the pharmacy. Expect it to take them ten or fifteen minutes to get everything ready. Follow the directions on the bottle, and you really should make that call for speech services. Most experts say that intervention before the age of two is most ideal. After that the window of opportunity shrinks exponentially as a child ages.”

  Shutting her ears to Tabitha’s ominous prognosis, Kimmie sighed with relief when the PA stepped out.

  Kimmie ran her hand across Pip’s forehead. “You doing all right, Buster?” She searched his face for clues that might indicate how much, if any, of the conversation with Tabitha he’d understood. Kimmie knew there was far more to her brother than the PA gave him credit for, but she also knew that Tabitha was probably right about some things. If Kimmie had known Pip could get free speech therapy through the state, she would have convinced her mom to make it happen. Instead of a home visit, maybe the specialist could have worked with Pip at the daycare. How much farther along might he be if Chuck hadn’t kept them slaves in his trailer, unable to reach out to anybody on the outside for help?

  She shouldn’t have wasted precious minutes in the waiting room, staring at Taylor, acting like a starstruck schoolgirl. She should have been telling the trooper more about Chuck, helping with the investigation by brainstorming where in the world her stepdad might be hiding out. At least she’d be seeing Taylor again tonight. This time, instead of acting like a stupefied idiot, Kimmie would do everything she could to help him with the case. She would make sure that Chuck was never free to hurt her or her brother again.

  CHAPTER 35

  Leading Pip back toward the lobby, Kimmie heard her sister’s abrasive giggle even before she stepped into the waiting room. What was Meg doing? Didn’t she know how rude it was to talk that loudly on the phone in a public area?

  Except that Meg wasn’t on the phone.

  Her sister stood and smiled brilliantly when Kimmie stepped forward. “So,” Meg said, drumming her perfectly shaped, long fingernails on Taylor’s shoulder, “you’re back. Did the doctor give you the answers you wanted?”

  Kimmie fought back an unjustified wave of jealousy when she saw her sister with Taylor. “Pip’s got strep.” She shot a haughty glance at Meg.

  “Poor little guy.” Taylor reached out and ran his fingers gently through Pip’s hair.

  “Well, you ready to go?” Meg adjusted the strap of her handbag and glanced at the clock hanging above the pharmacy window.

  “No,” Kimmie answered, “I’ve got to wait for Pip’s medicine.”

  Meg sat back down next to Taylor and bumped her shoulder against his. “I guess it’s a busy day at the pharmacy then, isn’t it?”

  “I’m waiting to get a prescription filled too,” he explained. He patted the empty chair next to him. “Have a seat.”

  Kimmie held up the piece of paper Tabitha had given her. “I think I need to drop this off first.” She would never admit it in front of her sister, but she was glad someone was here who knew how to use a pharmacy. She found herself wondering what kind of medicine someone as strong and apparently healthy as Taylor needed and fought down another surge of jealousy as she realized that her sister was so nosy that it was probably the very first question she’d asked him.

  Taylor showed her where to drop off Pip’s prescription, and then she sat down next to him, waiting. Hadn’t Meg said she wanted to make phone calls from the car?

  “So,” her sister crowed in her obnoxious, singsong voice that was far too loud, “Taylor and I have been talking all about the East Coast.”

  “Oh yeah?” Kimmie asked. “You have family there or something?”

  Meg let out a giggle. “That’s where he’s from, silly.” At least she didn’t revert back to her favorite childhood taunt by adding don’t you remember, but her tone and the expression on her face said the exact same thing.

  “I worked on a police force in Massachusetts, but the suburbs felt claustrophobic.”

  “That’s why you moved to Alaska?” Kimmie asked.

  Meg nudged him again. “That wasn’t the only reason.” She batted her eyes as if fleas were threatening to land on her eyeballs.

  Taylor looked pensive. “Well, that was one of the reasons.”

  Kimmie waited for more, hating to imagine there were things about Taylor’s life her sister knew that she didn’t. She might have asked him for further details, but a woman in a lab coat called his name, and he stood up to walk to the counter.

  “What kind of medicine do you think he’s on?” Meg whispered as soon as his back was turned.

  Meg wasn’t talking nearly as quietly as she probably thought, but as humiliating as her question was, Kimmie was simultaneously grateful to learn that Taylor hadn’t told her sister everything.

  Holding a paper bag with a receipt stapled to the top, Taylor gave a little wave. “It was nice running into you,” he said, and this time Kimmie was certain all his attention was focused on Meg. It was just like her sister to monopolize the spotlight, just like she always had.

  Meg wiggled her fingers in a playful goodbye, but Kimmie grimaced at the sound of her sister’s fake fingernails clanking against each other.

  She watched Taylor step toward the exit, still wondering what he had in his paper bag. “See you tonight,” she mumbled.

  As soon as he was out of the lobby, Meg elbowed her in the side. “You’re lucky I’m married, or I would totally be all over that.”

  Kimmie rolled her eyes. With as shamelessly as Meg acted, nobody would suspect she was married if it weren’t for that huge rock on her left hand.

  “You really should try to find out what kind of pills he’s on,” Meg whispered.

  Kimmie crossed her arms and waited for Pip’s medicine.

  CHAPTER 36

  “Oh my goodness,” Meg squealed as she slid her trim and athletic frame behind the steering wheel. “I still can’t get over how cute that trooper is. Did you see those shoulders of his? And he knows how to dress the part, too. Alaska casual looks really good on a man that sculpted.”

  Kimmie buckled Pip in the back and wondered if now was the right time to remind Meg about her husband in Anchorage.

  Sitting down in the passenger side, Kimmie sighed. The PA, unfriendly as she’d been, had ordered antibiotics that should help Pip feel better by the end of the day. He needed one dose now and another at bedtime, but since Kimmie didn’t want to do anything to upset his stomach, she decided to wait until he’d had some breakfast.

  Meg made a quick stop to Puck’s grocery store, and while Kimmie was waiting for her sister, she turned around to glance at Pip. “You hanging in there, Buster?”

  Pip refu
sed to look at her. What was wrong? Did he miss Mom? Was he mad at her for not paying attention to him now that Meg was here hogging all the conversation? She still had that brochure from the PA, along with Tabitha’s stinging words. Shrinking window of opportunity.

  She shouldn’t feel guilty. It wasn’t like Chuck was a reasonable kind of father who would permit his son to get regular therapy, especially since he assumed Pip was stupid and wasn’t worth teaching anyway. The problem was that Kimmie hadn’t even tried. She should have at least done what she could to change Chuck’s mind. She should have died trying. Now even if Pip started receiving intervention services once they got settled in Anchorage, he might never catch up to where he would have been. She thought back over every interaction with her stepfather, every terrible hungover morning and late drunken evening. There must have been some point in time when she could have brought it up.

  Either that or she could have convinced Mom to leave him. Meg managed to change Mom’s mind, however surprising it was to think about. Strange that Kimmie and her sister had talked about naturopaths and the immune system and Meg’s obsession over Taylor, but they hadn’t even talked about what evidence Meg had to show the troopers that Mom was planning to leave.

  The evidence that proved Chuck’s guilt.

  She hated thinking about him, hated the way that even his memory made her skittish. She locked the car doors then felt like a baby. Did she really think Chuck would come here and hurt her or Pip in broad daylight in the middle of a grocery store parking lot?

  The truth was she did.

  And she was scared.

  She turned around in her seat. “You’re being such a good traveling buddy.” Pip looked tired, and she hoped that after he got a little bit of breakfast and his first dose of medicine he’d nap for most of the trip. He had a lot of sleep to catch up on. She also hoped Meg wasn’t going to spend the entire drive to Anchorage lecturing her on the deplorable evils of antibiotics, but it would be just like her. Meg, who never had a kid because she refused to ruin her figure.

  Meg came back to the car carrying groceries loose in her arms.

  “Did they run out of bags?” Kimmie asked.

  Her sister shook her head. “No, but I never use plastic, and I didn’t bring my cloth shopping bag in with me.”

  Kimmie didn’t respond.

  “I got him some yogurt,” Meg said. “Does he like yogurt?”

  Kimmie found herself wishing that Meg would ask Pip herself but instead just answered, “He likes it.” She took the container from her sister and popped open the door of the backseat. “You hungry, buddy?”

  Pip reached out for the yogurt, a good sign.

  “Got a spoon?” Kimmie asked.

  “I knew I forgot something,” Meg exclaimed. “I’ll go back in. I need a drink too.”

  While she waited, Kimmie pulled the antibiotics out of the paper bag she’d gotten at the pharmacy. “All right, Buster. Let’s get you healthy again.” She shook the bottle, and Pip eyed her warily as she filled the syringe with the chalky white liquid.

  Kimmie studied her brother strapped into his toddler seat and decided she’d need to better angle herself. She stepped out of her seat then opened the back door of the car, trying to find the position that would get her closest to her brother while still offering the most protection from his feet and fists if he refused the medicine.

  “This is going to make you feel lots better.” She heard the trepidation in her own voice and prayed Pip wouldn’t throw a fit. She glanced up at his tight lips and knew she was in for a battle.

  “Please, Pip, just take this little bit for me, okay?” Her voice turned whiney, but not even her pleading could convince her brother to open his mouth for the syringe.

  She lowered herself closer, getting kneed in the chest a few times until she managed to use her body weight to pin his legs against the seat. He gave a loud shriek in protest.

  “Please, just take the medicine,” she begged.

  A woman walked by, and Kimmie wished the car door was shut. The last thing she needed was for some stranger to assume she was abusing her brother and call the troopers. Trying to shush his shouts, she reached out with one hand to try to keep Pip’s arms from flailing and held the syringe with her other. Pip’s limbs were secured, but he squirmed so much it took all her focus just to keep him pinned down without hurting him.

  She wanted to yell even louder than he was, but that would only intensify Pip’s reaction. He thrashed his head from side to side, colliding with Kimmie’s nose.

  “Ouch!” she roared. Tears of frustration threatened to spill out of her eyes. “Just take the stupid medicine.” She shoved the syringe into his clamped lips, unsure how much of the liquid was actually going in his mouth and how much had sprayed out over them both. She was breathing heavily when she released his arms and legs. The woman who’d passed her earlier was standing on the sidewalk glaring at them. Kimmie lowered her gaze. She wanted to find a way to explain, to let this stranger know she would never intentionally hurt her brother. But he needed the medicine if he was going to get better, even if his screams made it sound like she was trying to murder him.

  She pictured herself forced to repeat the same routine twice a day for a whole week. Why couldn’t Pip understand she was trying to help? Kimmie smoothed her hair into place, gave the nosy woman what she hoped was a friendly wave, and got back into her seat.

  Meg arrived back at the car, bouncy and breathless. “Got the spoon.” She tossed it to the backseat, and Kimmie had to turn around one more time to help Pip open his yogurt container and eat his breakfast. “Does he like that flavor?” Meg asked.

  “Yeah. Thank you.”

  “Well, I figured that since he’s going on antibiotics” — she spoke the word as if it were a medieval curse — “we may as well try to build up his digestive tract with as many probiotics as possible. I got him a kombucha too. Does he drink those?”

  “I’ve never heard of it.”

  Meg shrugged. “Well, it’s super good for you. But you might want to check. It could be slightly alcoholic. Hmm. Didn’t think about that. I guess maybe you shouldn’t give it to him after all. Do you drink coffee?” She handed Kimmie a steaming Kaladi Brothers cup, which she grabbed gratefully.

  “Here’s some creamers.” Meg tossed a few packets into Kimmie’s lap. “I have no idea how you take it.” She spoke the words spitefully, as if it were Kimmie’s fault Meg was never around.

  They pulled out of the driveway, and Meg checked the time. “Hmm. I think I probably better cancel that hair appointment after all. Siri, call Denise.”

  Kimmie crossed her arms while Meg held a conversation with her cell phone and then with her stylist. Wasn’t Meg going to take care of that at the clinic? Oh, well. Ninety percent of what Meg did Kimmie would never understand. Like how she could stand to live with a man whose only ambition was to sell houses and have the most bleached blond hair and darkest tan in Anchorage.

  Or how she’d finally convinced Mom to find the courage to leave Chuck.

  Once they got back on the Glenn, Kimmie turned around in her seat, checking every so often until Pip fell asleep. After his eyes closed, she waited a little longer just to be sure then faced her sister.

  “All right,” she said. “I want to hear about Mom, and I want you to tell me everything.”

  CHAPTER 37

  For a woman who had always exuded confidence and haughtiness, Meg seemed the slightest bit uncertain. “Are you sure you want to get into all this now?”

  Kimmie crossed her arms. “I’m sure.”

  “Really? Because I know you had a hard night last night, and you probably still need to catch up on your rest. Why don’t you take a nap first or something?”

  “I just had all that coffee. Now tell me. You and Mom made plans for her to escape. That’s what you told Taylor.”

  “Who?”

  Kimmie rolled her eyes. Really? For as long as Meg
had been flirting with the trooper after setting him up on a forced date, she had already forgotten his name?

  Typical.

  “Taylor,” she repeated with emphasis. “The trooper.”

  Meg grinned. “Oh, yeah. Him. I still think you need to find out what meds he’s taking before you let things get too serious. But he’s crazy hot. I’ll admit that. I could totally see the two of you together.”

  Then why in the world did you have your paws all over him? Kimmie wanted to yell, but she held her tongue. She wasn’t charging into this conversation to get news about Taylor. She needed to hear about Mom.

  Now.

  “What happened? What haven’t you told me?”

  Meg took in a deep breath. “Well, I can tell you, but I still think you should rest a little bit and we can talk when you’re feeling a little better. I could wake you up once we get to Eureka …”

  “Just get it over with,” Kimmie snapped.

  “Fine.” Meg was clearly annoyed and saw no need to hide it. “Mom called me a couple weeks ago. Asked if I knew of any good lawyers, someone who could help her fight for custody of Pip. I told her Dwayne’s got connections. We could figure something out.”

  “How did she even get in touch with you?” Kimmie asked.

  “On her cell. The one I got her last Christmas.”

  “Mom had a cell?” For a minute, Kimmie wondered if they’d stopped talking about the same person.

  “Yeah. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you.”

  Apparently, there were plenty of things Mom hadn’t told her. Kimmie found herself yet again facing pangs of jealousy when she thought about her sister and the secret conversations she had with their mom.

  “I thought you two were still fighting over Chuck.”

  Meg waved her hand in the air dismissively. Kimmie wished she’d keep it on the wheel. “What, that? Water under the bridge. We talked once or twice a week. Even more once I got her that phone.”

  None of it made sense. “When did she find a way to call you? Where did she go to get reception?”