Castles in the Sand

by Sally John

“Yep. I’m going to give my brother-in-law heart failure yet.” She turned and resumed pulling the suitcase alongside the beach house. It clickety-clacked over the uneven concrete.

  Susan called to the dog and followed, carrying a large shoulder bag. Although Natalie’s opinions drove Drake up a wall, for Susan they often shed light into tunnels of confusion.

  They rounded the corner of the house and stepped onto the cobblestone patio, which served as the beachside front yard. A low picket fence separated the patio from a broad public walkway. Beyond that was the sand and then, a mere stone’s throw away, the Pacific.

  Natalie paused again, this time gazing at the house. She snorted. “This place always cracks me up. I mean, look at it. A squished red chili pepper of a cottage still holding its own against progress. It probably looked exactly the same in 1940.”

  Susan couldn’t help but smile. The place was an anomaly in a neighborhood of large million-dollar-plus homes. A three-story white stucco towered over one side of it. At the other, three stories of phenomenal engineering rose with curved glass instead of corners.

  The humble abode appealed to both women. Natalie and her husband, Rex, had been renting it for themselves every August for some years now. They treated Drake and Susan to a week at it every spring after Easter.

  A feeling of peace washed over Susan, the first since Kenzie left two months, three weeks, and five days ago. Except for one brief, explosive phone conversation on the fourth of January—Day Three of that first heartsick week—Susan had not talked with her daughter. Kenzie called for the sole purpose to let Susan know she was okay and with friends. She offered no address, no phone number. Her stinging blast against her father and against her mother for siding with him still echoed in Susan’s ears.

  Guilt avalanched her now like a load of rock crashing all around her from an upended dump truck. She sat down on the suitcase.

  “Hey, Suze,” Natalie said. “You okay?”

  “No.”

  “You will be. Come on. Let’s get you settled.”

  While Natalie put away groceries in the kitchen, Susan took the suitcase into a bedroom and thought again at how odd the situation was, her being there without her husband.

  Drake’s prediction had not come true. Kenzie did not “come to her senses” and return home.

  On Day Two after hearing the news, Susan thought she would drown in her despair. Natalie called. Aunt Nattie, as Kenzie referred to her, wanted to speak with her favorite niece and hear all about Europe. The story poured from Susan.

  Drake was not a happy camper. His sister-in-law always told his brother everything, and Rex withheld little from their sons, Eric and Adam, who in turn had friends in the youth group at church. Word would get out.

  On Day Six, a Sunday, Susan’s capacity for “gutting it out” peaked. That morning Drake calmly declared he would remain mum on the subject; he had no idea how to spin the news to his congregants. Unable to mask her pain, Susan skipped church and spent the entire day in bed. Drake comforted her as best he could.

  On Monday though, Day Seven, he reached the end of his own rope. He announced a moratorium on the topic—even with his wife.

  A curtain dropped between them.

  Adept at hiding real emotions, Susan got by…for a while…up until last week.

  She was in a large outlet store on some errand and inadvertently walked through the baby department. Whatever the thin thread was that held her together unraveled right then and there. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, spinning her in a circle.

  She found her way to a pay phone and called Natalie, who immediately picked her up.

  That night her sister-in-law and brother-in-law convinced Drake that Susan needed a break, at least a week’s worth. Drake said a retreat for five days was acceptable, perhaps even a good idea. An entire week was out of the question. Had she forgotten? There was the Hathaway wedding rehearsal Friday night and then the wedding Saturday afternoon. Not to mention Sunday church. He needed her on Sundays. She was his anchor on Sundays.

  Susan acquiesced. She liked the Hathaways immensely. Her work as coordinator of their daughter’s wedding had been a joy and not nearly the stress of many she did. It had probably been what held her together the past couple months.

  The vacation rental was located less than an hour’s drive from home, but Drake said he simply could not get away. It was the Easter season. His flock needed him and counted on his availability until his official vacation date after the holiday, three weeks from now. He promised to make excuses for her at meetings she normally attended. He would forward wedding-related calls to his capable director of women’s ministries.

  So many lives disrupted. All because of her.

  The guilt alone might very well suffocate her before she’d even unzipped her bags.

  Two

  She didn’t suffocate. Instead, Natalie handed her a cup of tea and she settled into an overstuffed chair. The front end of the house combined kitchen and living room. Two large windows faced the ocean; the dining table sat in front of one, and two comfy chairs and an ottoman were by the other.

  While Natalie finished putting away groceries, Susan studied the familiar surroundings and sipped chamomile from a delicate bone china cup.

  “Nothing about this place ever changes, does it? We’ve used these pretty cups and teapot for seven years. And, as usual, the white canister is full of all kinds of tea.” She toed off her loafers and tucked her legs beneath herself. Pugsy jumped up and snuggled beside her.

  Natalie plopped down in the other chair, water bottle in hand, and stretched her legs across the ottoman. “Yep. It probably looks exactly the same as it did the day Faith Fontaine moved into it. Except for the furniture. That couch can’t possibly be forty years old. Though it does remind me of my grandmother’s when I was a kid. All puffy and flowery.”

  “Don’t you wish Rex would tell us who inherited the house from her?” Her brother-in-law had been the attorney for the deceased owner and handled her will.

  “He said he’d have to shoot me if he told me.”

  “It’s almost as if a thoughtful woman is still around in charge of all the little touches. Like the fresh lavender potpourri and candles. The herbs and spices in the cupboard. Rental property managers don’t stock kitchens, do they? And the bone china cups. I think there was one with wisteria on it. I don’t see it now. This yellow rose pattern is new, though, and it’s from England just like the others.”

  “How on earth do you notice such things? Or why?”

  Susan shrugged. She noticed details. And chattering like a chimp about them postponed the inevitable.

  Natalie shifted in her chair. “I think this was a good idea for you to come, even if only for five days. A little time away will make a huge difference.”

  Susan glanced around the room. The place was full of cozy paraphernalia. Knickknacks and books, afghans and pillows, paintings and wall hangings. It was a grandmother’s home. If welcome could be a physical sensation, the air was thick with it.

  Maybe it was thick enough to choke the life right out of her guilt?

  Natalie went on. “You can sit back and hopefully come to terms with Kenzie’s news. Get used to the idea that my favorite niece is going to make me a great-aunt.” She winked. “Grandma Susan.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  “Suze, what can you do to change the situation? Not one thing. Kenzie is pregnant with or without a ring on her finger. At least she’s not fifteen. At least she’s not an alcoholic or a drug addict.”

  “As far as we know, anyway. She’s looked the part for years with all that black clothing, all those earrings up and down her ears. The tattoo.”

  “A tiny rose out of sight on her hip. Come on. Those things are just Kenzie expressing herself.”

  Susan couldn’t connect self-mutilation with positive self-expression, but she said nothing. That wasn’t the point now. Her hands shook and the teacup clattered against the saucer as she set it on
the end table. “I sent her away on a cold rainy night without so much as a hug.”

  “Drake’s responsible for that, not you.”

  “I could have done something. I could have at least given her a ride. That wouldn’t have exactly been interfering with the process. I mean, we think this is the best way to love her. To let her suffer the consequences of her choices. It’s just that the memory of that night unnerves—Sorry. You’ve heard all this.”

  “Once or twice.” Natalie smiled briefly. “Have you heard it though, Suze? You keep saying ‘we think.’ We? What do you think?”

  “That we have to present a united front.”

  “Okay, scratch that question. Tell me what you feel. What is your heart saying?”

  There it was. The inevitable. The place she didn’t want to go. “I don’t know.”

  Natalie cricked her neck, moving her head in a half shake, and raised her brows. It was a gesture of disbelief or disgust. Susan never was sure which. Natalie easily spoke her mind, but Susan still thought she held back a lot.

  “Susan, I love you. Drake is a brilliant teacher and full of good practical advice. You are the epitome of a helpmate. But I swear, I am not tracking with you here on this Kenzie business. Do you want my opinion?”

  “All right.” Her sister-in-law would give it anyway.

  “Call Aidan’s folks. If he’s committed to the relationship like Kenzie said he is, then she’s probably still with him and they might know where that is.”

  “Drake doesn’t think we should.”

  “But you looked up their phone number.”

  “I can’t go behind his back and undermine the process of letting her suffer the consequences.”

  “But you looked up their phone number.”

  A tightness in her chest nearly cut off her voice. “I feel like I’m dying. I have to know if she’s all right.”

  Natalie gave a tiny smile. “Ah. There’s your heart, Suze. Go with it.”

  Behind the house, Susan waved goodbye as Natalie drove down the one-way street no wider than an alley. Half a block away, she turned a corner and three-story town houses whisked her from view.

  Now what?

  Now do what you came to do, she admonished herself. Which was…what?

  Drake recommended a mini-retreat. To him that meant prayer and Bible study and reaching Spirit-led conclusions within five days. She agreed. She should gather her notebook and Bibles—three translations, one paraphrase—and concordance and commentary and pen and get to work. Expect God to show up.

  A bird-of-paradise plant caught her attention. It was at least four feet wide and just as tall. Five flowers bloomed among the mass of long slender green leaves. Orange petals sprouted upward like plumage, braced underneath by indigo petals that jutted sideways like beaks. No question why they were nicknamed “birds.” How did so much life thrive from a mere crack in the concrete?

  “Susan?”

  She turned and saw the neighbor in his patch of backyard on the other side of a low wall. Probably in his mid-fifties, Julian lived in the towering three-story.

  “Hi.” She smiled and stepped over to meet him at the wall.

  “I heard you were coming.” He kept tabs on the house for the property manager and knew when to expect guests. “A little early this year, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” She shook his outstretched hand.

  “Welcome.”

  “Thank you.”

  A feeling of peace washed through her as if it flowed from Julian’s fingertips to hers and on up her arm until it filled her. And then she remembered. It was his usual effect.

  Julian was unlike anyone she knew. He spoke with a Scottish accent in a deep mellow timbre. His rectangular wire glasses often deflected light, masking brown eyes she had found a little too intense on occasion. As far as she knew, his entire wardrobe consisted of shorts, jeans, T-shirts, and sandals. Though casual in appearance, his tight brown curls were always neatly trimmed.

  “Is Drake around?” he asked.

  “No. Not yet. Not until…” She fluttered her hand, wondering how to explain. “Um, later. Our usual time. Monday after Easter. Three weeks.”

  “Ah. Pugsy with you?” Only Julian would remember the dog’s name.

  “Yes. He’s keeping me company. Of course, he’s already tired out and sleeping away the afternoon. We’re just here for a few days, until Friday, a little private sabbatical before a big wedding at the church and Easter functions. So what’s new at the beach?”

  They chatted about the neighborhood and a recent storm that left sand displaced and strewn with seaweed all the way up to the retaining wall.

  “Well,” he said, “be sure to let me know if there’s anything you need.” His crow’s-feet crinkled, and he turned to go.

  “Julian!”

  He faced her again.

  “There is, um, one thing. I might…I might need to use a phone.” It was an amenity the beach house did not offer.

  “You’re welcome to use mine anytime.”

  “I don’t have a cellular. There just never seemed to be a reason for me to get one. I mean, I’m usually at home or at the church. People can reach me fairly easily. Drake, on the other hand, can’t possibly survive without his, so he couldn’t loan it to me. I could use the pay phone at the 7-Eleven.” She paused to take a breath and recognized her chimp routine again.

  “No problem.”

  Her lower lip trembled. She bit it.

  “Susan, I don’t mean to pry, but are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” She cringed. She truly did hate that perky tone, the gushy soft rah-rah twist she employed in almost every conversation.

  In truth she wanted to pour out the story to Julian’s sympathetic ear. But how could she? Drake thought it best they not share the news with anyone. It was a private matter, not yet settled. It wasn’t ready for public viewing. He said he would tell people in his own way in his own time. The situation had to be presented with dignity. A repentant Kenzie, wedding invitations in hand, wouldn’t hurt matters.

  As far as they knew, word had not gotten out. Absolutely no one knew about Kenzie besides Natalie and Rex.

  It couldn’t be helped.

  But then neither could it be helped that she was not fine. Two months and three weeks and five days were too long to pretend her world was hunky-dory. To pretend it had not, in fact, swiveled right off its axis and spun out of orbit, leaving her with a sense that she was free-falling.

  Julian slid his thumbs into his jeans pockets. “One time Faith Fontaine and I stood back here, almost in this very same spot. She could tell I was agitated, though she didn’t pry. And I didn’t want to talk. After all, it wasn’t any of her business. She didn’t know I was fiddling with a bullet in my pocket, thinking about going inside and playing Russian roulette until I lost.”

  Susan gawked at him. “My goodness. What happened?”

  “I didn’t play.” He smiled. “I don’t know exactly what happened. I’m sure she was praying. Suddenly I realized I had two choices: Russian roulette or tell her my life was a mess. Obviously I chose the second option. She didn’t have any startling revelations of how to fix it. It was just in the telling that my weight lessened. Considerably.”

  “Well.” She fingered a piece of paper in her skirt pocket and attempted a smile. “I don’t have a bullet. Only a phone number.”

  Julian leaned forward.

  Without the perky tone, her voice was so soft it was nearly inaudible.

  “My life is a mess. No, it’s not that bad. Comparatively speaking, it’s really all right. Probably average. I mean, we hear so many heartrending stories at the church and—”

  “Susan, I forgot to mention the one conversational rule.”

  She waited.

  “You can only talk about your own mess. Other people’s heartrending stories don’t count.”

  She felt awash in safety. “Kenzie, our daughter, is…pregnant.” Intense heat obliterated the safe feeling, bu
t she continued. “She’s not married, though she says the young man is committed. And…and…”

  He nodded. “That tends to create a mess.”

  “Yes. I’m having a hard time with it. I just need to get used to the idea. And to…well, Drake and I believe Kenzie should suffer the consequences. She does not want to get married. Drake says that is unacceptable.”

  “If she married, things would be different? Acceptable?”

  “Y-yes.”

  Why? He didn’t ask it, but she heard it.

  Poof. A flash of white lit up a dark corner of her mind and the answer came. Because if she married, then the matter of her having a baby within a few months wouldn’t matter as much. People would not see us as parental failures.

  Susan’s entire body felt smothered with heat. She and Drake had not voiced the explanation, but there it was.

  “Kenzie has only called once since she told us on New Year’s Day. She didn’t leave a number. I don’t know who her local friends are anymore…So I want to call the boy’s parents to find out what they know.”

  “Of course you do.” Pure compassion. Understanding. Nonjudgmental. “How about right now?”

  She stared at him.

  He nodded. “And if you talk to an answering machine, leave my number.” He gestured toward his house. “The back door’s open.”

  Three

  In her rush to answer the ringing telephone, Pepper Carlucci smashed a toe against a pint-sized pickup truck and wondered, not for the first time, why it was at the age of forty-five she had yet another toddler in the house?

  “Ow.” She punched the phone’s “on” button. “Ow, ow. Excuse me. Hello?”

  “Uh, hello. This…this is…”

  Before the woman finished the sentence, Pepper intuited who she was. Susan Starr. Kenzie’s mother. The other grandma. For more than two months Pepper had both dreaded and hoped that she would call.

  “Susan Starr.”

  “Yes, hello.” She tilted the phone away from her mouth and inhaled deeply. Sinking onto the couch, she blew out the breath, pulled her foot up on the cushion, and repositioned the phone. “This is Pepper Carlucci. Aidan’s mom.” She rubbed her big toe.