‘Well, Adam’s right. We need to get home and get this little one into bed. Thank you all for standing by us.’
They all took their leave with repeated thanks and congratulations and kisses. Adam and Hannah crossed the short distance to their house, Hannah carrying Sydney, and they went inside and closed the door. Their world felt safe and sensible again. Everyone went to bed early, and peace reigned in the two houses.
Hannah was awakened from a restless sleep the next morning by the sound of a car pulling out of Chet and Rayanne’s driveway. Jamie, she thought, taking Greta to the airport. She glanced out the window. It was too early to tell if the day had not fully dawned or if it was going to be overcast. She thought about getting up, even though there was still no sound from Sydney. And then, even as she considered arising, she fell back to sleep.
She awoke again to Adam nuzzling her neck, and she rolled into his arms and into lovemaking in their delicious, familiar way. Before long, they were asleep again, and only awoke when Sydney toddled into the room and climbed up into the bed with them.
‘What time is it?’ Hannah asked, as she absently wrapped one of Sydney’s soft blonde curls around her finger.
‘It’s after nine,’ said Adam.
‘We really slept,’ Hannah observed.
‘We needed it.’
‘Let’s go out to breakfast,’ said Hannah. ‘Somewhere where nobody knows us.’
‘You’re on,’ said Adam. ‘But we’ll bring two cars. I want to go to work.’
‘I think I’ll play hooky one more day,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m so beat. And I want to spend the time with Sydney. And go see Lisa this afternoon.’
They murmured agreement, and Hannah thought how lovely it was to have their normal life back. Of course, things weren’t normal for Lisa. She was still in the county jail, and might be facing consequences for that larceny conviction at medical school. But considering what they might have been facing, it seemed slight.
They drove out of Nashville, halfway to Shelbyville, and had breakfast at a cafe that served sausage, biscuits and eggs all day. The cafe was in a ranch-style log house, and the owner’s grandchildren were playing on the porch. Sydney entered cheerfully into the game while Hannah and Adam finished their coffee and watched them right outside their window table.
Adam and Hannah kissed before getting into their separate cars and then Adam kissed the top of Sydney’s head. ‘Come home early,’ Hannah said. ‘I’ll make something you like for dinner.’
‘What?’ he asked.
‘I’ll figure something out.’
‘I know you will.’ He smiled and got into his car, and waved as he pulled away. Hannah buckled Sydney into her car seat and headed for home.
The phone rang right after lunch, and it was Lisa. ‘Do you believe that crappy jury convicted me?’ she protested.
‘Darling, all things considered, we were lucky,’ said Hannah, pained by her daughter’s attitude. ‘You should be grateful.’
‘That’s easy for you to say,’ Lisa sniffed. ‘I’m stuck here for two months and God only knows what will happen to my scholarships.’
‘We’ll figure it out,’ said Hannah soothingly. ‘Don’t worry. I’m sure we can reason with them about your scholarships. Right now, I’m just so relieved.’
‘Mother, I don’t understand what you’re so happy about. Here I was, accused of some crime that was really just an accident. And now I have to spend two more months in this place!’
Hannah tried to see it from Lisa’s point of view. She told herself that she too would be upset if she faced jail time for something she didn’t do. But in light of what the outcome could have been, it was difficult to feel unhappy. She changed the subject. ‘I was thinking of coming to see you today. Can I bring you anything?’
‘A file in a cake,’ said Lisa, only half joking.
‘It won’t be long and you’ll be home.’
‘Yes. But with a record. This is ruining my life. I wish I’d never gotten involved with that idiot.’
‘Troy.’
‘Yes, Troy. What a mistake.’
Hannah thought back to Adam scouring Lisa’s hard drive. Looking for the search that wasn’t there. She pictured Troy’s sister, watching her almost pityingly after the trial. Then she shook her head. ‘It’s all over now,’ said Hannah. ‘Let’s think positive. Sydney sends kisses.’
‘Great,’ said Lisa.
‘See you later,’ said Hannah, but before the words were out, Lisa had hung up.
For a few moments, Hannah sat, staring at the phone. Then she sighed and put it back in her pocket. She scooped up Sydney, took her outside to water the flowers and then she watched Sydney play with the water from the hose until it was time for her nap. After Sydney was settled in her bed, Hannah went back to the living room to read. The thought of the drive to the county jail was unappealing, but once Adam got home she was determined to go and see her daughter.
A knocking at the back door roused her, and she went to see who it was.
Jamie stood on the doorstep.
Hannah smiled at him, puzzled. ‘Jamie. How are you?’
Jamie met her eyes briefly and looked away. ‘I’m OK.’
‘I heard you leaving the house this morning,’ said Hannah. ‘Did Greta get her flight all right?’
‘Yes. Just fine,’ he said. ‘Thanks.’
‘Your folks?’ Hannah asked, frowning.
‘They’re fine. Can I come in, Mrs Wickes? I need to talk to you.’
‘Sure,’ said Hannah. ‘Come on in.’
Jamie came into the kitchen. He was a slim young man, tall with broad shoulders. Today he was wearing a neat oxford-cloth shirt and jeans. There was nothing hip-hop about Jamie. His hair was a little bit spiky, in his one concession to fashion. He turned to Hannah. ‘Is Mr Wickes here?’ he asked.
‘No, he’s at work. Did you need to talk to him?’
Jamie frowned. ‘It might be better if it was just you and me.’
‘OK,’ said Hannah, feeling a little puzzled by his troubled air. ‘Come on in the living room,’ she said, leading the way through the house. ‘Have a seat.’
‘Where’s Sydney?’
‘Taking a nap,’ said Hannah.
‘She’s a nice little girl,’ said Jamie, nodding. ‘Greta was crazy about her.’
‘You think you two will …’ Hannah let it go, seeing the look in his eyes.
‘Maybe … someday,’ he said, frowning. ‘Look, I need to just … say this before I lose my … nerve.’
Hannah pulled back from him. ‘Say what? You seem so … worried.’
‘Worried. That’s a good word for it. I am worried. I didn’t even tell my mother I was coming over here because I didn’t want to discuss this with her. Or my dad.’
‘Well,’ said Hannah carefully, ‘if you’re concerned about something, you might as well just … say so.’
Jamie nodded but still he hesitated.
‘Jamie?’
‘Right. OK. You remember how Lisa and I used to be friends when we were … younger.’
‘Sure,’ said Hannah. ‘You two were inseparable as children. And you stayed friends for a long while there.’
Jamie frowned, his gaze faraway. ‘Did she ever tell you,’ he asked, ‘why we stopped being friends?’
Hannah shook her head. She was not going to repeat Lisa’s assertions that Jamie was too stupid to be friends with. Hannah always suspected that Lisa was just covering up her hurt feelings when Jamie got involved with sports and NASCAR. She thought that maybe he had come to find it embarrassing to be known as the friend of someone younger, even if she was in the same grade. Lisa was plain and brainy and uncool in the eyes of the older boys. ‘I thought you two just grew apart,’ said Hannah. ‘You were a little older than her. It was just one of those things,’ she said.
Jamie frowned. ‘No, it wasn’t,’ he said.
‘It wasn’t?’ said Hannah, taken aback.
‘It was something v
ery specific,’ he said.
‘OK,’ said Hannah. Part of her wanted to say, do we have to deconstruct this long-gone friendship right now? I am so weary from all that has happened. Is this really the time and place? But she stayed silent.
Jamie glanced at her, and then looked away. He was kneading his hands together absently, rubbing the backs of his hands with his long fingers. ‘I have a very important reason for bringing this up. I wouldn’t be troubling you with it otherwise. You’ll understand when I tell you.’
‘OK,’ Hannah said again, nodding. She was overcome with a feeling that she was going to regret listening to Jamie’s explanation. She wanted to stop him but couldn’t think of a good reason to do so.
Jamie took a deep breath. ‘I’ve tried not to think much about this over the years. It was too upsetting. But I was following the trial, particularly when Lisa took the stand and talked about Troy Petty. About being disgusted, finding him … you know … with Sydney.’
Hannah watched his face, wondering what in the world he was getting at. ‘Well, unfortunately there are men like that,’ she said. ‘Pedophiles.’
Jamie looked up at her, anguish in his eyes. ‘I would never mention this to you, but there’s an innocent life involved here.’
‘Jamie, I don’t know what you’re getting at but I’ve got to tell you,’ Hannah snapped, ‘this is all becoming too weird …’
‘All right. All right,’ he said. ‘Look. Something happened when my father’s sister and her family came to visit. I was about … I had just turned seventeen that summer.’
Hannah dimly recalled the visit. Chet’s sister lived in Arizona, and came only rarely to Tennessee. ‘I remember that,’ she said.
‘My cousins, Shane and Alberta, were just toddlers. And my mother asked me to mind them so they could go and visit some great-aunt of theirs near Chattanooga. Well, she gave me my choice of minding them or going to Chattanooga, so the choice was easy. I said I would do it. We had that little kiddy pool set up. And the swings. I figured, how bad could it be?’
Hannah nodded, remembering that time.
‘Well, Lisa came over. You know how we always were. Back and forth through the hedge,’ he said, and there was a catch in his voice. ‘Even then, she was like my best friend.’
‘I know,’ said Hannah, and she heard the note of warning in her own voice.
Jamie heaved a sigh and looked down at his own, interlaced fingers.
‘So,’ Hannah prodded him.
‘So, she came over, and we were playing in that little pool with them, and drinking Cokes. You know, just whiling away the afternoon. And I said I had better take them in and find them some dry clothes. Lisa said she’d help me, and she followed me into the house. I was rummaging around in their suitcases for some dry clothes while Lisa peeled off their little swimsuits.’
‘She wasn’t used to small children,’ said Hannah.
Jamie ignored the interruption. ‘I finally found a pair of shorts and a T-shirt for each of them, and I looked up, saying eureka or something like that, and Lisa had her arms around them. She was kissing them and such …’
‘Affectionately,’ said Hannah, supplying the word.
‘And then I realized that she had taken off the top of her suit.’
‘Jamie, look, if you’re about to tell me that you and Lisa … I always assumed that maybe you two experimented a little bit. I don’t find that shocking.’
Jamie looked at her darkly and Hannah retreated into silence. ‘This is about the children. Lisa was nuzzling them and she said to me, “They’re so cute.” I was a little … surprised, but I agreed with her that they were cute. And then she said, “Take your suit off.”’
Hannah said nothing. The silence in the room was deafening.
Jamie shook his head. ‘I didn’t get it at first. I was so shocked to see Lisa like that. Without her top. I won’t lie to you. I’d often imagined it but I never really held out much hope that anything would happen between us. Anything sexual, I mean. I was a jock, but really, I was too … timid. Still, I knew that the kids shouldn’t see her like that. I thought maybe she was trying to say to me that she wanted to, you know, mess around. Obviously I was in favor of it, but not in front of the kids. “Lisa,” I said, “not right now. I mean, later, yes, when we’re alone …”
‘She wasn’t even looking at me. Her eyes were glittering and she was staring at them. They were like cherubs. I mean, the picture of innocence. And she said, “Come on, Jamie. Let’s play with them. Let’s take them into the bedroom. I want to watch you do it with Alberta. Wouldn’t you like to do that?”’
‘You just wait a minute,’ said Hannah jumping up from the sofa. ‘Why are you saying this? Take that back. That is just sick. That’s the product of a teenage boy’s sick mind.’
Jamie did not take offense. He scarcely moved. ‘I could hardly believe it myself,’ he said. ‘But there was no mistaking what she said. Her tone of voice.’
‘Tone of voice,’ Hannah scoffed. ‘You’re making this up.’
Jamie refused to be interrupted. ‘When I didn’t respond, she started fondling Shane. I felt like I was frozen, watching it.’
‘You are lying,’ Hannah thundered. ‘That is just shameful. Get out of my house. That’s your own filthy mind. Get out of here.’
Jamie stood up and his chin was trembling. ‘I took him away from her and told her to put on her top and get out of the house. I told her not to come over again while my cousins were visiting. She said I was a prude and a jerk and that she didn’t want anything more to do with me, period. She said she would never come back. And she didn’t.’
‘What is the matter with you?’ said Hannah. ‘I can’t believe you would make up this story about Lisa, after all these years. Are you crazy?’
‘I heard what she said about Troy Petty when she was testifying. She claimed that he was getting ready to assault Sydney. But the things she said? Those were the very same suggestions she made about my cousins years earlier.’
‘That’s not true,’ Hannah protested. ‘Your mother would have said something to me years ago.’
‘I never told her,’ he said.
‘Why wouldn’t you tell her?’ Hannah demanded.
‘I was ashamed!’ he cried. ‘How was I going to say that to my mother? Besides, I didn’t want Lisa to get in trouble. I … I cared about her. Despite that, I still cared about her. She stayed away from me after that but I wouldn’t have done anything to hurt her. Now I wonder if I made the right decision.’
‘This is vicious of you. Just vicious, Jamie. Why are you saying these things now, when the trial is over? Are you still so angry that she rebuffed you all those years ago?’
Jamie shook his head wearily. ‘I didn’t want to say this to you. That was the last thing I wanted to do. Believe me. But when I heard her testimony, her acting so … indignant, I knew she was lying. I suspect it was the other way around. She suggested it, and Troy was shocked and threw her out. I had to say something to you. Sydney can’t protect herself from Lisa. You have to do it.’
‘Get out of here. I don’t want to hear another word!’
‘I’m going. I’m so sorry. Sorry I had to tell you.’
Hannah sat back down on the sofa, her heart pounding. She refused to look at him.
‘I’m only telling you this for Sydney’s sake, Mrs Wickes. You have to know this about Lisa, because Sydney needs to be protected.’
She did not answer him or meet his gaze.
In a few minutes, she heard the back door open and then close behind him.
TWENTY
The house was quiet when Adam returned. He came in the back door and called out, ‘Anybody home?’
Hannah sat in the living room, in the exact spot where she had been sitting when Jamie left her. She heard Adam’s call but did not answer. She could hear Sydney crooning quietly in her bedroom. Her nap was long over, and she had played quietly for a while with her toys. Now she was restive and looking for s
ome attention, but Hannah did not attend to her. Adam walked into the living room and saw her. He heard Sydney calling out from her room.
‘What are you doing sitting in here in the dark?’ he asked.
Hannah looked up at him. ‘Will you take care of Sydney? I can’t.’
‘What’s the matter, darling? Are you all right?’
‘Will you?’ she asked.
‘Of course,’ he said. He hesitated a moment, frowning at her, and then he went down the hall, calling out to Sydney. Hannah heard their happy cries of greeting, and then Sydney came barreling into the living room and climbed up on Hannah’s lap while Adam banged around in the kitchen. He came in and offered Sydney a sippy cup. Sydney took it eagerly and began to drink.
Adam sat down beside Hannah and peered at her. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked. ‘I’m sorry if I’m late. But you still have time to get over to the county jail before visitors’ hours are over.’
Hannah shook her head numbly.
‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Adam, switching on the television to a cartoon channel. Sydney was instantly absorbed. ‘You watch for a while. I’m going to talk to Mom-mom in the other room.’
He guided Hannah off the couch and led her into their bedroom. He left the door ajar so that they could see Sydney, and indicated that Hannah should sit on the loveseat in the bedroom alcove. Then he sat down beside her, and slung his arm over the cushion behind her. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘What’s the matter?’
Hannah shook her head. ‘I don’t even want to say it.’
Adam frowned. ‘Honey, what happened between our breakfast and now?’
I See You Page 16
