“Sure.”
“I’m really glad you and my sister are in my life again.”
“Can I hug you while you’re out of character?”
“Okay. But hurry before the real me comes back.”
She hugged him and kissed his cheek. Sixteen years since he’d let her. She was having a record day for kisses.
Jasper leaned his head out the front door. “Raven wants to say something to all of us.”
“Coming,” Ellis said.
“She must have decided what she’s doing with the baby,” River said.
“I suppose so.”
“I want her to keep it,” he said.
“I hope you haven’t told her that.”
“I haven’t. I know it’s her decision. But I don’t want my first niece or nephew living with some stranger.”
“We need to support whatever she’s decided.”
“Yeah, I will.”
They went inside. Raven was standing between the Christmas tree and fireplace. Everyone was seated on chairs and the couch facing her. Ryan moved over so Ellis could sit between him and Keith.
Raven said, “Having all the people I love in one room is the best thing that’s ever happened in my life.” She went silent, wiped her eyes. “Sorry . . . pregnancy hormones,” she said, and everyone laughed.
“I have two things I want to say.” She looked at Reece. “I want to say them now because Reece can only be here for a few days. He has two jobs, and one of his bosses said he’d be fired if he doesn’t get back on the twenty-sixth.”
“The day after Christmas?” Jasper said.
River said, “That sucks.”
“First is something that Jackie says will be difficult for him.”
Ellis wondered about the playful way they were looking at each other.
“I’ve decided I want to be called by my legal name, Viola Abbey Bauhammer, from now on.”
Ellis hadn’t expected that. Keith clasped her hand.
Raven—Viola—continued. “I honestly don’t like what the name Bauhammer stands for in the world—because of my grandfather—but I hope the rest of us Bauhammers can change that.”
“We will,” Jasper said.
Jonah’s eyes shined.
Viola looked at Ellis. “It will be hard for me to get used to Viola,” she said. “But I want to—to honor my mother.”
Ellis and her daughter locked gazes, a powerful exchange that seemed to transcend their sixteen years apart. As if Viola had always been right there with her.
“My mother has been dedicated to the conservation of plants since she majored in botany in college,” Viola said. “She named me for the genus of violets, one of her favorite spring flowers. Jackie wants to be an ecologist—maybe even a botanist—and he says the name Viola is as cool as Raven.”
“Can I still call you Bird Girl?” Reece asked.
“You’d better,” she said, eliciting laughter around the room.
“The other thing I wanted to talk about is my house in Washington. I now own it. I also own the cabin in Montana where I spent my summers. All of you are welcome to use my houses. I know these places brought pain to many of you, and now I hope they’ll bring you joy.”
“Thank you,” Jonah said. “That’s a beautiful idea.”
Again, Viola looked at Reece. “But if you want to stay in my house in Washington, you’ll have to arrange it with Reece.”
“With me? Why?” Reece said.
“Because I’m hiring you to be the caretaker of the house.” She lifted an envelope off the fireplace mantel and handed it to him. “Your payment for the first year is in this envelope.”
“A year?” he said.
“Yes, open it.”
Reece slid a check out of the envelope. “No way. I can’t take this.”
“You aren’t taking it,” she said. “You’re working for it.”
“Doing what?”
“I’ve decided to stay in Florida for a while, and I need someone to take care of the house. I trust you, and you’re really good at fixing things. You’re the perfect person.”
“Live there?” he said.
“Live there, but only until you get into college to study writing like you always wanted. I know you want to go to the school in Seattle where Huck goes. When that happens, you can drive down to the house once a month to check on it. You can use Audrey’s truck to do that, by the way. It will basically be yours.”
Reece gaped at her.
“Have you ever seen him speechless?” she asked Jackie.
“Never,” he said.
“Raven . . . ,” Reece said.
“Viola,” she corrected.
“This is way too much money for a year of doing what you said.”
“It’s what I think the job is worth. It’ll cover tuition and dorm for a year at the University of Washington.”
“You can’t just give me this much money.”
“Yes I can. I’m ridiculously rich, and rich people do things like this.”
Everyone laughed.
“It’s true, Reece,” Jonah said. “Some of my wealthy clients have done much stranger things with their money.”
“Like what?”
“Like bequeath a million to maintain their pets’ graves to the end of time.”
“Wow,” Reece said.
“I think Viola’s use of money is a bit more practical than that, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Do you want me to hire someone else?” she asked.
“No. Get over here.” Reece engulfed Viola in his arms.
“Woo-hoo!” Huck cheered, jumping up with his arms in the air. “Party at Reece’s house!”
“No parties!” Viola said.
Jackie and Huck laughed and grabbed Reece. Their mother was next. Jonah embraced Viola and spoke quietly to her.
“That’s quite a girl you’ve got there,” Ryan said.
“I know,” Ellis said, wiping her eyes.
She realized Max didn’t know what was going on. She took out her pad of paper and wrote a summary of everything Viola had said.
She’s a blessing, Max wrote.
Ellis nodded.
She didn’t say anything about the baby.
Maybe still undecided.
That baby’s coming any minute. She better decide.
All true, but Ellis didn’t want to push the teens. It was a life-changing decision. They had to be certain.
The party in the living room lasted another hour. Jonah and Ryan left first. They looked like they very much wanted to be alone. Ellis had never seen Jonah so happy and relaxed.
Not wanting to disturb the lovers, the five boys and Viola got a card game going in the main house. Max headed home, and Rose went to bed. Ellis and Keith made love in their porch bed, then fell asleep to the murmur of the young people’s laughter. The happy sounds of her family and friends were every bit as satisfying as listening to owls and tree ducks.
On Christmas Eve morning, Viola and Jackie were up earliest. They ate and went for a walk. The others who’d stayed up late to play cards didn’t rise until around noon.
Keith and Rose took charge of lunch while Ellis showed newcomers Ryan, Huck, and Reece around the nursery. Afterward, everyone played Frisbee, football, and a long tournament at the horseshoe pits Max and Keith had built over the summer. River had been playing for months and was the ringer of the group, even better than Max.
The sunset was covered by clouds. Darkness and a scent of imminent rain enveloped the Wild Wood. Ellis hadn’t seen Viola or Jackie all day. She asked if anyone else had. Rose said her son had come into the kitchen to get food and drinks at around one o’clock. He said he and Viola were having a picnic, but Viola wasn’t with him.
Ellis and Keith went out front to talk privately. “Are you thinking what I am?” Keith asked.
“Yes. No way would she miss being with friends and family on Christmas Eve. Especially Reece, when he has to leave soon.”
>
“He doesn’t have to leave for those jobs now,” Keith said.
“He’s leaving. He told me he won’t leave his employers shorthanded over the holidays.”
“Good guy,” Keith said.
“He is, and Viola adores him. She wouldn’t miss this time with him.”
Keith looked out at the back acres. “So she’s somewhere out there having the baby?”
“Sounds like her, doesn’t it?” Ellis said.
“I’m afraid so.”
Jonah and Ryan were coming down the path from the barn house. “No one has seen Viola all day,” Ellis said. “Jackie came to the kitchen to get lunch without her and disappeared.”
“Oh boy,” Ryan said.
“You think she’s in labor?” Jonah asked.
Ellis nodded.
“Poor Jackie,” Ryan said. “I wouldn’t want to deliver a baby at night in the woods.”
“And it’s starting to rain,” Keith said.
“Good thing it’s warm,” Ryan said.
“It feels warm to us because we’re from New York,” Jonah said. “It’s midsixties, and it will feel colder if she’s wet.”
“We’d better hand out flashlights and start searching,” Keith said.
“She won’t want that,” Ellis said.
“I think we should talk to Rose and see what she thinks,” Jonah said. “She knows Jackie better than we do.”
Rose was in the kitchen with Huck and Reece.
“I see by all your faces you’ve come to the same conclusion I have,” she said.
“Yes,” Jonah said, “and we’re trying to decide whether to go look for them.”
“She’s having the baby?” Reece said.
Huck turned off all the burners on the stove. “We have to find them. No way can we let Jackie do that alone in the dark.”
Jasper and River had come in from the living room. “Viola won’t like that,” River said.
“I don’t care,” Huck said. “We can’t let her call the shots just because a mentally ill person made her afraid of hospitals. If something bad happens, my brother will never forgive himself. Raven . . . Viola . . . should never have asked this of him.”
“I agree,” Reece said. “That woman, Audrey, used to force Viola to make promises that were horrible for her. We can’t let her get in the habit of doing that to people.”
His words hit Ellis viscerally. He was right. Her daughter was manipulating Jackie the way her abductor had controlled her. Jackie was only seventeen. To ask him to do this alone was absurd.
“Okay, we’re decided,” Jonah said. “Let’s find flashlights. Ryan, get your bag.”
Maxine came into the kitchen with a stack of waterproof tarps, blankets, and towels. She urgently nodded at the door to say they should get going.
“Apparently Max figured out she’s having the baby long ahead of us,” Keith said.
While Ryan ran for his medical bag, they searched the house for flashlights. Viola’s was gone from her bed stand, and Max had one from her truck. That left only three for nine people.
They were in the living room deciding how to search the property when the back door opened.
“She’s home!” Jonah said.
“No,” Jackie said breathlessly, striding into the room. He was wet and had clearly been running fast. He looked desperate.
“What happened?” Reece asked.
Jackie tried to talk while he caught his breath. “The baby . . . it’s coming. It’s too dark to see anything . . . and now . . . it’s raining. She’s in so much pain . . . I’m kind of freaking out.”
“Oh, Jackie!” his mother said.
“Has her water broken?” Ryan asked.
“Yes. Not long ago. She’s been in labor all day.”
“Where is she? How far?” Ellis asked.
“She’s in that little circle you keep mowed to have picnics. At the edge between the big field and woods.”
Where Ellis had massaged her the day before.
“You’re a doctor,” Jackie said to Ryan. “You would be able to see if everything is going right, wouldn’t you?”
“I can do my best,” Ryan said.
“Will you go look at her?” Jackie asked. “She won’t come to the house. She wants to see the stars.”
“Of course I’ll go,” Ryan said.
Jackie pointed at the blankets and tarps Max was holding. “Those are a good idea. She’s soaked, and I’m afraid she’s getting too cold.”
“Let’s go,” Ellis said.
“I have to run ahead. I need to get back to her,” Jackie said before he jogged out of the room.
Ellis led the group. Max took up the rear to illuminate the trail from behind. The ones who didn’t have flashlights carried supplies.
The rain changed from a mist to a steady drizzle. No one spoke. A great horned owl softly hooted from the northern woods.
“Be careful of the roots,” Ellis said as they entered the forest trail.
Ahead, she heard Jackie’s voice. When they arrived at the edge of the field, Viola was on her hands and knees, wearing only a man’s shirt, having a strong contraction.
Ellis knelt at her side. “I’m here, sweetheart.”
“Mom!” she gasped. “It hurts! I didn’t think it would hurt this much.”
“Let Rose and me help.” She beckoned Jackie’s mother to sit on her other side. They rubbed her lower back. “How does that feel?”
She squeezed her eyes and groaned. She couldn’t answer. Her contractions were almost continuous. But she was unusually quiet.
Max was trying to get the rest of the group to take the edges of a tarp she’d opened. Keith understood. The blanket Viola was on was soaked and muddy. “Hold the tarp up, and we’ll make a clean, dry place for her,” Keith said.
River, Jasper, Huck, and Reece each took a corner of the tarp to make a canopy while Max and Keith spread another tarp and two blankets beneath it. “Will she let us move her?” Keith asked Jackie.
“I don’t know.”
Max heard none of that. She went to Viola, put her hands on her cheeks, and looked closely into her eyes. She gestured at the dry blanket. Viola gave no answer, and Max didn’t wait for one. She wrapped her arms around Viola’s chest, lifted her fully off the ground, and carefully set her down on the clean blanket without getting her muddy boots on it. She stripped off Viola’s soaked shirt and gently dressed her in a clean, dry flannel. Viola seemed in too much misery to notice.
Ellis, Jackie, and Rose took off their shoes and moved to the dry blanket. Jonah joined them.
“Will she let me examine her?” Ryan asked Ellis.
“Ryan is going to make sure everything is okay,” Ellis told Viola. “Jackie will feel better.”
She nodded slightly.
They positioned her on her back to make it easier for Ryan to see. He took off his shoes and sat next to Jackie. Before he did anything, he said to Jackie, “You’re doing a great job. Tell me where she is.”
“She’s fully dilated, and she has the urge to push.”
“Did you discuss pain help?” he asked.
“Yes. She doesn’t want it.”
“Then I won’t give her anything unless she asks.” He listened to Viola’s chest with his stethoscope, then to the baby’s heartbeat. “Mama and baby sound perfect,” he said.
Ellis felt like she could breathe again.
Ryan used his flashlight to see the baby’s progress as Viola bore down with another contraction. “Jackie, do you see? That’s the baby’s head.”
Jackie looked as dazed as any new father.
“Everything looks good,” Ryan said. “She just needs to push.”
Viola continued to be quiet through the pushing.
“You can scream all you want, Viola,” Ryan said.
“She doesn’t,” Jackie said. “This is how she’s been.”
“We don’t care if you sound like a squealing warthog,” River said.
“And we promise n
ot to take videos,” Reece said.
“Shut . . . up!” Viola said, almost laughing through the contraction.
The four young men holding the tarp snickered.
Ellis and Rose helped Viola into a squat. But that meant they couldn’t see what was happening with the baby.
“I need to see the stars,” Viola said. “Move that blanket or whatever it is.”
“It’s raining,” Ellis said. “There won’t be stars.”
“Actually, there are,” River said.
They pulled the tarp back a little. The sky was clearing to the east, though rain still pattered on the tarp. A gibbous waxing moon was rising above the trees. Fleeting billows of clouds drifted like gray smoke over the lopsided orb of moonlight. Bright stars shined here and there as the clouds moved over them.
Jackie kissed Viola’s cheek. “Look. Isn’t that beautiful?”
“Yes. Yes . . .” She wept, staring at the moon and clouds as she pushed. She kept her eyes on the dreamlike scene. It helped calm her. Ellis felt her focus, get control of the pain.
Rain beat a soft rhythm on the tarp. No one spoke. Everyone sensed silence was best for her.
Viola bore down again and again in her quiet way. The rain patter gradually diminished. The moon rose above the trees, silvering the dry grasses and wildflowers of the dormant winter field.
A flock of black-bellied tree ducks called as they flew over the eastern fields. Their nocturnal whistles were one of the loveliest sounds of that land, like children of Pan playing ethereal music on instruments fashioned from marsh reeds.
Viola closed her eyes, surely listening to the birds, as she pushed her baby closer to the earth.
“Jackie,” Ryan said softly. He shined his light beneath Viola. “Get ready.”
Jackie prepared to take the baby into his hands. With two last grueling pushes, the baby slid onto his palms.
“Go to it,” Ryan said. He handed him a small towel and the bulb suction.
“Is she okay?” Viola said. “Jackie . . . ?”
Jackie laid the infant on the blanket and gently wiped its face. He expertly suctioned the nose. The baby made a soft cry.
Ellis could feel collective relief in the group.
“It’s a girl,” Jackie said in a shaking voice. “She’s getting pink. She looks good.”
Keith propped Viola up with folded blankets so she could see the baby. The tarp came down. River, Jasper, Huck, and Reece leaned down to look.
The Light Through the Leaves Page 40
