“It looks pretty chaotic over there right now, Bill. I’ll see what I can do. But we may not know anything for a day or two.” He could only imagine what Maddie’s kids were going through, but the only one he’d met was Deanna and he barely knew her, so he couldn’t call to offer comfort or share information he didn’t have anyway.
Ben had stayed home from work and was glued to the TV. He didn’t call Milagra, since he didn’t think she’d know about it. She lived in a bubble. He and Deanna talked all night but knew nothing.
William’s friend in the State Department called him at 5 P.M. Eastern time, and said they’d had no casualty list yet.
For three days, William, Deanna, Ben, and Penny sat at their respective television sets with their phones right next to them, waiting for news, and there was none. And then a list of victims was issued, and Maddie wasn’t on it. But the injured weren’t included, and all four of them realized that she could have been unconscious in a hospital with no papers on her. They might not even know she was American.
William finally couldn’t stand it, he booked a seat on a flight to London and from there to Islamabad the next day. He was going over to comb the hospitals himself and see if he could find her. If she was alive and not too badly injured, she would have found a way to contact them by then, and she hadn’t. He called and told Penny what he was doing and packed a small bag. He was just leaving his house at six the next morning when his cellphone rang. A raspy voice he didn’t recognize said “hello” in a croak. He couldn’t understand who it was at first. And then he knew. It was Maddie. She was alive. He burst into tears.
“Oh my God…thank God…are you okay?”
“Yes…I’m okay. They airlifted me to Mumbai. I couldn’t call you. I’m fine. I’m at Lilavati Hospital. They’re very good. They’ve been wonderful. I have a bruised leg and a burned arm and a lot of plaster dust in my lungs and that’s it. The U.S. Army is flying me to a base in Germany tonight. They’ll take a look at me and then I’ll come home. Please tell my kids I’m okay. I called you first. I don’t want to scare them.” He was sure they were already scared by now. They all were.
“Oh God, Maddie…I love you so much. I was so afraid you were dead. I saw it on TV right after it happened. I haven’t moved for four days. I was flying over this morning to see if I could find you myself.” He was sobbing, and so was she.
“I love you too. When it happened I thought of my kids and then I thought of you. I didn’t want to do this to you. I’m so sorry.” They told her she had to get off then. The military medics had come for her to fly her out. “I’ll call you from Germany.”
“I love you,” he said again. He called Penny as soon as he hung up, and she burst into tears too.
“Shit, I thought we’d lost her this time. She loves doing this stuff. She’s gotten hurt before. But she’s never been MIA for this long. She always finds a way to call.”
“She wants me to tell her kids she’s okay. Do you think I should call them, or should you?”
“I don’t think they’d care if Donald Duck called them at this point. You should call. You talked to her.” She gave him Ben’s number and Deanna’s. “Don’t call Milagra, she probably doesn’t know about it. She never reads the papers, she has no TV, and she almost never leaves the house. Maybe Ben should call her if she’ll answer, or drive up to see her.”
“I’ll leave it up to him.”
He called Ben first, cut right through the awkwardness, and got straight to the point.
The minute Ben answered, he told him what he needed to know. “Ben, my name is William Smith, I’m a friend of your mother’s. She’s okay. I just talked to her. They airlifted her to Mumbai, and they’re flying her to an American base in Germany now, and after they check her out, they’ll send her home. She said she has a bruised leg, some burns on her arm, and a lot of plaster dust in her lungs. She couldn’t call until now, but she’s fine.” He didn’t even realize he was crying as he told her son the news, and Ben sobbed into the phone.
“Oh my God…thank you…oh, thank God. I thought she was dead when we didn’t hear from her. I called The New York Times and they hadn’t heard anything either. I don’t know who you are, but I’m so damn happy to hear from you.” He laughed through his tears.
“Do you want to call your sister Milagra?”
“I don’t think she knows, but I’ll drive up and tell her just in case. I didn’t want to scare her till we knew something.”
“I was going to call Deanna, would you rather do it?”
“No, that’s okay. If you talked to Mom, she’ll want to hear it from you. I can’t thank you enough. I hope I meet you one day. This is the best call of my life.” She was injured, but not severely, and she was alive. They had all thought she was dead.
“Take care, Ben,” William said, wishing he could hug him. And then he called Deanna. She knew who he was immediately, and she burst into tears as soon as he told her that her mother wasn’t severely injured, and she was alive and on her way to Germany. He told her he had just spoken to Ben.
“Why didn’t she call us herself?”
“I don’t know. They were rushing her off the phone so they could take her to the plane. I guess she didn’t have time. She asked me to call you.” He was more careful with Deanna than he had been with Ben, in case she had issues with him. “I’m so grateful she’s okay,” Deanna said to him. She was still crying, and there was no question in her mind now. Her mother must be in love with him if she called him first. But she didn’t care, as long as Maddie was coming home. “Thank you again,” she said, and they hung up.
He waited by the phone for the rest of the day, and at midnight in California she called him from Germany. The flight had been delayed. She sounded exhausted and she was coughing. She had just arrived and they hadn’t examined her yet.
“Baby, can you get some sleep?” He was so worried about her. But she was in an American military hospital now, and in good hands.
“I slept on the plane, but it was pretty noisy. They airlifted six of us out, all from the hotel.” He hadn’t slept in days himself, worried sick about her. “We had to wait for the others to be released from the hospital in Mumbai.”
“I talked to Ben and Deanna. Ben is going to drive up and tell Milagra in person.”
“Good. She’ll be scared. She hates it when anyone gets hurt.”
“So do I,” he said gently. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again.” He meant it, but he knew he’d have to if this was part of her job. People got killed that way. And she almost had.
“I’ll be home soon. I love you,” she said again. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
She called him again at three o’clock that afternoon. It was midnight in Germany.
“They said I’m okay and I can go home. I have bronchitis from the plaster, second-degree burns on my arm. And I bruised the leg pretty badly and I think I sprained the ankle I broke a few months ago, but it’s not a big deal.” It was all a big deal to him. “I fell down the stairs getting out of the hotel. People were pushing, and there were flames everywhere and walls collapsing.”
“You’re lucky you weren’t trampled.”
“So many people got hurt. Old people, little kids…” Her voice trailed off. “I land at McGuire Air Force Base, near Trenton, New Jersey, at six o’clock tomorrow night. Please ask Penny to send a car for me.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said, with no intention of sending a car for her. He was going to meet her himself. He called the airline as soon as he hung up and booked a seat on the red-eye to New York that night. Then he packed, called Penny, and told her when Maddie would be arriving.
“I’ll pick her up,” he told Penny.
“When are you arriving?” she asked him.
“Six tomorrow morning on the red-eye. I’ll stay at a hotel.”
“No
, you won’t. Come to the house. I’ll sleep here tonight. I can sleep upstairs. I’ll be at the house whenever you get here.”
“Thanks, Penny.”
He left his house two hours after Maddie had called him, drove to San Francisco, and was at the airport in time for his flight. He slept for most of the flight and looked exhausted when Penny opened the door to him at seven in the morning.
“She put us through the wringer this time,” Penny said when she let him in. “She’s done it before, but she scared us all with this one.” It had been a long wait to hear from her in Mumbai.
He took a car and driver to meet her, and he was waiting quietly with the families of the other wounded Americans on the plane. She came off in a wheelchair, holding a pair of crutches. Her hair was tangled, and she was wearing army fatigues they had given her. Her own clothes had been burned, and what she had with her had gone down with the hotel. She still had her one camera on a strap around her neck.
They rolled her toward him, and she spotted him as he stood with tears rolling down his cheeks. She was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. She thanked the private who had been assigned to her from Germany, and there were medics and a doctor on the flight. Some of the others had been more severely injured. She had been lucky. And as he held her in his arms, William knew he had been too.
Penny was waiting for them at the firehouse when they arrived. Maddie hobbled in on her crutches, and William helped her up the stairs, gently took her clothes off and helped her into the shower, and then carried her to the bed.
“I was so afraid I would never see you again,” she admitted to him with tears in her eyes.
“So was I.” He settled her against the pillows and she called her children. She had the landline number at Milagra’s house. She said Ben had been there with her all day after he heard the news that Maddie was alive. And he had met Bert. Now Maddie had someone for them to meet too. William had earned it.
Deanna cried like a child when she heard her mother’s voice.
“Can I come see you tomorrow, Mom?”
“Of course. I’m not going anywhere for a while.”
“Is William with you?”
“Yes, he is. He’s a good guy, Dee.”
“I know he is. He was really nice when he called us. I’m sorry I was a bitch about him.” It was always her first reaction, it was stronger than she was and impossible for her to resist. “I think I was just surprised. If he makes you happy, then I’m happy for you.”
“He does.” He walked back into the room when she said it. He had a tray of food for her. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you.”
She called Ben then, and he cried too. After she hung up, she and William talked for a long time. He didn’t tell her what she had to do or couldn’t do or what he didn’t want her to do. She was a grown woman with a mind of her own. But she realized when she looked at him, and after talking to her children, that her days in war zones, taking dangerous assignments, were over. She had too many reasons to live now. And she had plenty of other work that wasn’t dangerous.
“I won’t do it again,” she said softly, and he heard her.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He lay down next to her and kissed her. She curled up in his arms then. She had thought she would never see him, or her children, or her grandchildren, or her house again. And she realized as she drifted off to sleep and he held her how incredibly lucky she was.
Chapter 18
Maddie was planning to spend a month in New York, recovering from the explosion. Peter Hamilton called her from Mumbai the day after she got home. He’d filed their story with all her photographs, and had included an addendum about the bombing. She told him she had photographs of it and would have Penny send them to the Times. The article would be even more powerful now.
Within days, her sprained ankle was healing quickly, her bruised leg felt better. The burns on her arms would take longer, and the bronchitis was already clearing up. She postponed her trip to New Delhi until November, and assured Vogue she’d be up to shooting their cover in September, a month after the bombing. William suggested they go to Big Sur for a couple of weeks after the Vogue shoot and she liked the idea. It was peaceful and restful there, and she and William could be alone. The week after Maddie arrived from Germany, Theo was due for his holiday with his father. William discussed it with her, and Maddie suggested he come directly to New York. There would be lots for him to do, and William didn’t want to leave her, nor miss the time with Theo. He had Prudence put him on a plane to New York. Penny gave them a list of things for Theo to do with his father, and they would have dinner with Maddie at the firehouse at night.
“Are you sure you’re up to having a child here?” William was worried about her. She was still shaken by what she’d been through.
“I’d love it. I’m not going anywhere and it will be fun to have him stay with us.” She was going to be home anyway for the next few weeks and she didn’t want William to miss out. The best plan was to have Theo come to New York, and then they could all be together.
Theo went crazy when he arrived and saw the firehouse. William showed him how to slide down the pole. Maddie liked having them with her while she recovered. Having a child there put life in the house. He and William ran around New York all day and came home to her at night and told her everything they’d done.
By the second week she was home, she was up and around, able to walk on the sprained ankle and bruised leg without crutches. Ben and his family flew in to see her and stayed at a hotel in SoHo, and Milagra and Bert came from Mendocino and stayed with her for the weekend. Penny organized a big family dinner in the studio and had it catered for all eight adults, including William, and the five grandchildren and Theo. Fourteen of them at a dinner, celebrating the fact that Maddie had survived. She introduced William and Theo to everyone. She told them all that she had given up the high-risk assignments and wouldn’t be doing them again. The time had come.
“Thank you,” Deanna whispered to William after she said it.
“It was her decision.” He gave her the credit for it, but he had been part of the reason she had come to that conclusion, and so were they.
Deanna invited Theo to the Berkshires for a weekend to be with Kendra, his new best friend after the dinner.
A new time had come for all of them. Milagra was home for the first time in years, and everyone loved Bert. Milagra took him all over New York, and he was awestruck. Ben and Laura promised to come to Big Sur when William and Maddie were there. Deanna invited her mother and William to the Berkshires when Maddie fully recovered, and was visiting her mother every day. And Maddie told them she’d be spending time in Big Sur when she had a lull between shoots. William had become part of the family when he called to tell them their mother was alive. New bonds had formed and William was a warm addition to the group. He and Ben talked for hours, and hugged the moment they met, remembering William’s call.
William came to sit quietly in Maddie’s bedroom after he’d put Theo to bed in the room upstairs, and everyone had left. It had been a special evening, and they had plans for the weekend. Maddie looked tired but happy as she lay on her bed.
“You have great kids,” William complimented her as he lay next to her. Her living through the hotel bombing had brought them all closer. “Thank you for letting Theo be here.” It was an exciting visit for him, and he loved Deanna’s girls.
“He fits right in.” She smiled at William. And so did he. Even Deanna had hugged William warmly that night.
“I can’t wait to get you to Big Sur after the Vogue shoot,” he said and she agreed. She was recovering rapidly, but still tired from the trauma of what she’d been through.
By the time Theo left after his three weeks with his father, Maddie was on her feet again at full speed, and ready for the Vogue shoot. They were sorry to see Theo leave and he wanted to know
how soon he could come back, and if they could spend Christmas in New York with Maddie and her family. Ben and Laura had promised to come for Christmas this year too. There was much to celebrate and share.
Penny had been booking shoots for October and November, after Maddie took two weeks off in Big Sur after shooting the Vogue cover. They were fully booked for the fall. And Maddie had informed her agent that she was giving up the high-risk assignments, which even he thought was smart, and long overdue. She didn’t need them, even if she used to like them. It was time to let them go.
Once Theo left after Labor Day to go back to school, they settled into a routine. Life was getting back to normal, and William was working on his book upstairs. It was obvious to everyone that they were going to live together, alternating between Big Sur and New York, which was what William and Maddie had agreed to when they discussed it.
They were both surprised at how well living together worked for them. It already felt familiar and not like something new. They knew when to spend time together and when to leave each other alone. When she was busy getting ready for the Vogue shoot, he was in the room he used on the fourth floor, editing his book. It was almost as if they had lived there forever. It felt that way now. And they seemed to have found the perfect rhythm, in harmony with each other.
He had been upstairs working on his book one evening, and he came downstairs to find Maddie, to see if she wanted something to eat. He couldn’t find her in her bedroom or her office. He heard noises in the studio and stuck his head in to see what she was up to. The Vogue shoot was in two days and she wanted everything to be perfect. She attended to every detail herself. He gasped when he saw her. She was perched at the top of a ladder adjusting a light that was at the wrong angle for the shot she wanted to start with. It had been bugging her all day.
She glanced over and saw him and looked sheepish as he crossed the studio in long strides to stand next to her and hold the ladder.
“I thought we had an agreement. You’re not supposed to be up there.”
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