The Piper

by Lynn Hightower

  Winston paced and moaned in the hallway, and Olivia used a washcloth of lukewarm water to cool her daughter’s skin. Teddy cried at every touch. She began to hold her head very still, and when Olivia asked her if her neck was hurting, Teddy whimpered and whispered yes.

  Olivia slid into a pair of jeans, bundled her daughter in a blanket, and half carried, half walked her to the car.

  Olivia wanted to take her to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, but Hugh’s insurance meant the ER at St Mary’s. An older hospital, on the other side of town.

  Olivia sat on a round stool in an empty ER cubicle, awaiting an audience with the doctor. She felt chilled and vaguely nauseous, fatigue, she knew, the effect of too bright lights, old green walls and a bit of shock. Her daughter was no more than six feet away in the next cubicle, and though Olivia could not make out the words, she could hear the animated rise and fall of her daughter’s voice as she chattered away to a nurse.

  When the curtain rings slid aside without warning, Olivia jumped a little, on the edge of her seat. The doctor at last. Olivia felt a sharp flutter in her stomach. Good God. Now she really was home again. The doctor wore dark blue scrubs, and a white coat with a nameplate that confirmed she was indeed Annabelle McClintock, MD.

  ‘I know you, don’t I?’ Annabelle said. She had the same sallow skin and sharp sideways look that Olivia had tried to forget.

  She was as thin as Olivia remembered, arms sinewy with stringy muscles, blonde hair cut short, beautiful, almost violet eyes. Edgy, as always, in constant motion, moving across the room now and straightening the instruments on the table, barely aware she was doing it, as ever OCD.

  Olivia gave her a sideways smile. If that was how Annabelle wanted to play it, that would be fine. She wondered if she could ask for another doctor.

  ‘Olivia. Oh, of course, it’s James now, and Teddy is your little girl? But she’s adorable.’

  ‘Thank you. No doubt you have several children of your own by now,’ Olivia said. Though she knew better.

  Annabelle lost her professional smile, and her handshake was only borderline cordial, fingers thin, limp, and waxy with clinical chill. ‘No, I went the professional route. Vince told me you’d moved back to town. We still talk, you know. We’re very close. Eight years of marriage doesn’t just go away overnight.’

  ‘About my daughter,’ Olivia said.

  ‘Right. About your daughter.’ Annabelle consulted her clipboard. ‘She’s fine.’

  Olivia noticed that Annabelle’s haircut was quite expensive, and she wore no rings, but the diamond studded earrings looked mighty fine. Olivia decided she’d rather have pearls.

  ‘I know you were worried about meningitis, but her white blood count is normal. She wasn’t happy about the IV, but she’s fully hydrated now, and her temp is ninety-seven point eight, just a little under normal.’

  ‘But that’s . . . that’s unbelievable. She was so sick.’

  Annabelle leaned against a waist high, stainless steel cabinet, and crossed one foot over the other. She had a professional comfort that Olivia envied. She was likely a very good doctor. One of the rare ones, who had graduated from medical school without any debt.

  ‘That’s kids for you. One minute they’re sick as a dog, the next they’re playing video games and demanding TV. My guess is a stomach virus. Well, school just started, makes perfect sense. We won’t need to admit her. If the fever comes back, let your pediatrician know because it might be good to dose her with some Tamiflu. The flu swab we took showed negative, though, so I think you’re off the hook on that. My guess is she’s through the worst. Keep her home from school tomorrow just to be on the safe side, and go slow on fluids until you’re sure she’ll keep them down. And I’d also—’

  The beeper on her side went off. She checked it absently, then frowned. ‘Can you hold here, just a minute? Someone will bring you some paperwork to sign, and then you can head out.’

  Olivia settled back on the stool, and allowed herself to stop worrying. Just a virus, a bad one, gone like magic the way things often went with kids. She missed Hugh, just a little bit. He was good with hospitals and paperwork, and arranging things. If Hugh were here all she’d have to do was worry and hold Teddy’s hand.

  Olivia frowned when she heard Annabelle’s voice – she had evidently been called next door to her daughter. Which meant Teddy was sick again. She’d let her guard down too soon. Olivia was up on her feet and around the corner, but Teddy did not look ill, just shy, and Annabelle McClintock was bent over her, talking in a low and urgent voice.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Olivia said.

  Annabelle looked at Olivia over one shoulder, and motioned to a nurse, who refused to meet Olivia’s eyes. ‘I want to finish my conversation with your daughter, Olivia. Can you wait for me in the hall?’

  ‘No, I can’t. I’m her mother, and I want to know what’s up.’

  Annabelle straightened. ‘Maybe you and I should talk in private then. Come with me.’

  Annabelle led her down the corridor, no hurried meeting in a curtained cubicle this time. She was led into a small and private office. This meeting would be held behind closed doors.

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’ Olivia said.

  Annabelle tilted her head to one side. ‘Nothing right now, as far as I know. Sit down, Olivia.’

  ‘What’s the problem here?’

  Annabelle pointed at the brown leatherette chair as she settled herself behind the desk. ‘Please.’

  Olivia sat because it was silly not to. She put her purse on the floor and waited while Annabelle fingered the stethoscope that hung round her neck. Olivia’s heart was thudding, and she felt very cold. Whatever this was, it could not be good.

  ‘Your daughter—’

  ‘Teddy.’

  ‘Teddy has been saying . . . she’s had a rather disturbing conversation with one of the nurses.’

  Olivia clamped her fingers around the edges of the chair. ‘Disturbing how?’

  ‘The nurse was asking if any of her friends at school had been sick. Your daughter said she hadn’t caught anything from anybody else, because somebody made her sick.’

  Olivia sat very still in her chair. ‘Somebody made her sick?’

  Annabelle picked up a pencil and rolled it on her hand. ‘That’s what she said. The nurse wrote it up.’ She flipped the paperwork in Teddy’s chart. ‘She said the somebody was mad, and wanted to hurt her because she told on them. And that she was going to get it because she told. According to the nurse, those were her exact words.’ Annabelle McClintock looked at Olivia. ‘Are you the somebody, Olivia? Was Teddy talking about you?’

  ‘No, of course not. That’s ridiculous.’

  ‘Who does she mean, then?’

  ‘I don’t know. Look, we just moved home, and her older cousins have been telling her ghost stories, and she’s been having nightmares. Her father and I got divorced a year ago – I think this is just some kind of adjustment thing.’

  ‘I see.’

  Olivia wondered what Annabelle thought she saw.

  ‘So lots of pressure for both of you.’ Annabelle rubbed a finger on the edge of the desk. ‘Here’s the thing. Your daughter asked the nurse if she could spend the night at the hospital. You understand we don’t hear that request from kids with IV needles in their arms. All they want is to go home with Mom and Dad. But not Teddy. Teddy said she was afraid to go home. Teddy wants to spend the night here. Can you explain that, Olivia?’

  Olivia shook her head. ‘Honestly no, I can’t explain it, it doesn’t make any sense. Unless it’s some extreme form of school phobia. We had that once before, when we moved, and we had to change schools.’

  ‘I’m at kind of a crossroads here, Olivia. I’m wondering if I should call Child Protective Services. Your daughter, is she prone to telling stories?’

  ‘You mean lies? Look, Teddy’s a very sweet little girl, who is having a hard time moving two thousand miles away from her father and changing s
chools for the third time in five years. But if you think she’s in danger, then go ahead and make that call. I’m sure that no one would think you were exercising a grudge because your ex husband and I are dating.’

  ‘So you and Vince are dating already. Really.’

  ‘We’re having dinner tomorrow night. My place this time.’

  ‘He’s going to make you cook? You should make him take you to the North Shore Brasserie.’

  ‘He did.’

  Annabelle went dark red. ‘Look, I’ve got the nurse to back me up. About what Teddy said.’

  ‘Then do what you have to do. But I’m taking Teddy home right now, and this conversation is over. And by the way, go fuck yourself. But I guess you’ll be used to that.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  Olivia did not run down the hall, but she walked very fast, unable to resist looking over her shoulder for a security guard coming her way. Teddy was alone in the cubicle, and Olivia breathed deeply, grateful for the organized neglect that was the average hospital norm. She scooped her daughter up and settled her on her hip, and carried her straight to the car. Teddy was too big to be carried, and she protested all the way.

  ‘That’s not the way home,’ Teddy said, fidgeting with the edge of her seatbelt and staring out the window. ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘I don’t know where we’re going. I’m just driving right now.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Because the doctor told me you were afraid to go home.’

  Olivia swallowed hard and kept her attention on the road. She could cry later, in private. It was not good for Teddy to see her rattled so hard. And in truth, for the first time in her life, she did not even want to look at her own little girl.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mommy. I’m sorry I told.’

  ‘Teddy, I’m not mad at you.’ A lie. She was mad. ‘It’s just – you have to understand.’

  ‘Understand what?’

  ‘Teddy, that doctor and that nurse. They thought I was the somebody that hurt you. Did you tell them that?’

  Teddy gasped, and put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, Mommy, no no no. I didn’t tell them that. It was Duncan Lee. It’s just I’m not supposed to say his name.’ The tears came, sliding silently down Teddy’s cheeks. ‘I didn’t say it was you.’

  ‘It’s okay, Kidlet. The main thing is for you to be better and to feel safe. Look, Teddy, we need to talk about Duncan Lee. Do you really think he made you sick or is this just one of your games?’

  Teddy put her hands over her face. ‘It’s not a game.’

  ‘You’re saying he’s real. He actually talks to you. Are you saying he’s in the house? Because I don’t see him.’

  ‘Of course you don’t see him, he only lets certain people know he’s around. It isn’t up to us, it’s up to him.’

  ‘Really? What does he look like?’

  Teddy rubbed her eyes. ‘It’s hard to explain. He looks like the dark.’

  ‘Like a shadow?’

  Teddy nodded. ‘Sometimes he stands over me, by my bed, and leans on me. And he’s behind me, in the house sometimes. He creeps up. He watches us a lot. He doesn’t like Winston. And he really doesn’t like you.’

  ‘Does he talk to you?’

  Teddy nodded.

  ‘In a regular voice?’

  ‘It’s just a voice, Mommy, like yours or mine, only he whispers a lot. Winston hears it too, it makes his tail go down.’ Teddy turned sideways toward her mother. ‘I know what we should do. Let’s tell them there’s not a somebody. Let’s tell them I made it all up. Let’s tell them I did it so I wouldn’t have to go to school. So we could go home and live with Daddy in California.’

  ‘Oh, God, Teddy.’

  ‘Please, Mommy. I didn’t mean to make you cry. Let’s just go home, okay? I want to see Winston. Please, Mommy, please.’

  ‘Teddy—’

  ‘I need to go home with you, Mommy. If I can have you and Winston, I’ll be okay. I’m so sorry I got you in trouble at the hospital. Please don’t be mad.’

  ‘I’m not mad.’

  ‘You seem mad.’

  ‘I’m upset. But the person I’m upset with is me.’

  ‘Why?’

  For dragging you two thousand miles away from your father, Olivia thought. For yet another move. ‘Teddy, did you make it all up or do you see a . . . a dark man in the house?’

  Teddy bit the knuckles of her fist. ‘Which one do you want me to say?’

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Olivia was on her way to the airport when her cell phone rang. Clients had been calling in like crazy all morning, and she’d left an annoyed Robbie Arliss to hold them off. Amelia was coming. Olivia had called her in the middle of the night and she’d promised to take the first flight out. Her plane was due to touch down in thirty minutes.

  Olivia knew better than to pick up the phone when she was driving, but she was idling at a traffic light on Kingston Pike, waiting to take the exit to 275, and it was McTavish on the caller ID.

  ‘Hey, babe, I hear it’s official that you and I are dating again. Oh, and I’m looking forward to that dinner at your place tomorrow night.’ McTavish sounded amused and Olivia was glad she was alone in the car with her blush.

  ‘I take it Annabelle called.’

  ‘In the middle of the night. To confirm. How’s Teddy? She okay?’

  ‘Yeah, whatever it was, she got over it.’ The physical part anyway, Olivia thought. ‘What did you say to Annabelle?’

  ‘What she already knows.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘That you’re a great mom. That Teddy probably has school phobia just like you said, and your brother just died so for God’s sake cut you some slack. And not to let her professional ethics be swayed by jealousy because I backed you up on our dinner plans tomorrow night. I’ll bring a bottle of wine. Seven, okay?’

  ‘I’d love to, but I can’t. I’ve got a friend flying in from California.’

  ‘What, some guy?’

  ‘No, a girlfriend, she’s also a PA, she was Teddy’s pediatrician when we were in LA. I can’t just run off and leave her.’

  ‘She coming to check Teddy out?’

  ‘Kind of.’

  ‘So you’re worried.’

  ‘Are you going to discuss this with Annabelle?’

  ‘I sure as hell am not. But that ain’t no reason to cancel dinner, we’ll just do it Sunday afternoon, after you girls have had a chance to catch up and stuff. I can meet your friend, you can cook the side dishes, and I’ll bring some ribs for the grill.’

  ‘That grill hasn’t been used in God knows how long.’

  ‘Then I better get there early to clean it out. Make sure the beer is cold. We’ll have a big family dinner, like your mom used to do, on Sunday afternoons.’

  ‘In that case you better bring Jamison. He was always there mooning after Emily.’

  ‘I thought she was mooning after him. But I’ll bring him and thanks for asking. He doesn’t get invited out a lot.’

  McGee-Tyson Airport was a hell of a relief after LAX. There was only one terminal and you could pretty much park next door, and it was free if you were in and out in half an hour. Olivia had visited Chris right after 9/11 and though the airport was swarming with National Guardsmen armed with machine guns like everywhere else, they had a tendency to smile and say hi.

  Olivia checked the monitor, laughed a little because Amelia’s flight was right on time and things were just simpler in Tennessee. She stood outside of security, next to the crashing fountain. Sun streamed through the glassed in walls, and she felt better already. Amelia was sensible, intelligent, confident and wise. She would figure out what was going on with Teddy, poke the notion that Teddy was being haunted by the mysterious Duncan Lee full of obvious holes, and make everything okay. There would no doubt be a handsome man helping her with her carry-on luggage, and she would have packed way too much stuff.

  But Amelia was frowning when she came down the steep sloping hall, oblivious to
the long looks she got from certain types of businessmen traveling on their own. When she saw Olivia she smiled, and her carry-on bag was bulging, as were her briefcase and her purse. Her hair was clipped in a knot of loose waves on her head, and she wore snug, worn Levi 501s and a black tee shirt that said Yeah, what? The black rimmed cat glasses hung from a chain around her neck.

  Amelia dropped all her bags to the floor and gave Olivia a big hug, and Olivia inhaled the familiar scent of Chance by Chanel and felt safe again.

  ‘Livie, God it’s good to see you.’

  ‘I can’t believe you actually came, Amelia. I know how impossible it is for you to get away. This means so much to Teddy and me.’

  Amelia looked over Olivia’s shoulder and out the windows. ‘This airport is surrounded by fields. Please God tell me there’s an actual town.’

  ‘Yes, Amel, there is an actual town.’

  ‘With shopping and everything?’

  ‘With shopping and everything.’ Olivia grabbed the handle to the rolling carry-on bag. It was hot pink with black trim. ‘Come on, baggage claim is downstairs.’

  ‘I didn’t check any luggage.’

  Olivia stopped. Turned to look at her friend. ‘Really? I thought . . . I thought you were going to stay a whole week.’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘I left in kind of a hurry, remember? To tell you the truth, Livie, if you hadn’t called me I was going to call you, and ask if I could come.’

  ‘What’s going on, Amelia?’

  ‘I think I did something bad. I need to talk to you about it, but not right in the middle of an airport, okay? Can we go somewhere and get coffee or do you need to get back to work?’