by John Moore
After Tom and I helped Rose clean the kitchen, I set up my laptop on the kitchen table to check my blog. The posts about ACC were waning. Most bloggers posted stories about missing girls and unidentified remains. As I was reading the posts, Piper walked in the kitchen and sat next to me.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“My blog site. It’s called Alex’s Daily Planet,” I said.
“Like Superman, Louis Lane, and Lex Luther?” she asked.
“You’ve read the graphic novels?” I asked, adopting the politically correct name for comic books.
“No, saw the movie,” Piper said. “So, why are all of these people posting stories of missing girls?”
“People come here to talk about what’s on their mind. My blog focuses on two types of serial killers: corporate killers who make products that kill people, and street killers, like the ones who kill strangers to fulfill some bizarre need,” I said. “The bloggers’ discussions have led to lost girls—young women who have disappeared all over the world. Their relatives are worried that their missing daughters or sisters are dead, the victims of serial killers.”
“That’s cool,” Piper said as she started reading the posts. “Look at all of these posts from LA. There are a lot of missing girls. You should link your blog to more social media sites if you really want to reach younger people.”
“I’m not great on the computer,” I said.
“Let me do it then,” Piper said as he took command of the keyboard.
I watched in awe as she created a Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and at least ten other social media accounts on sites I’d never knew existed. Her fingers danced across the keyboard, like a piano virtuosos at Carnegie Hall. She had mad computer skills. Time flew by as she and I worked together reading the posts and adding comments of our own. Soon the hour grew late.
“Constance, it’s time for bed,” Rose yelled from the family room.
“I hate that name,” she muttered. “My name is Piper. Why can’t she call me by my name?”
“Sometimes people get stuck in their ways,” I said. “She means well. Rose is right though; it’s time to get some sleep. I’m dead tired.”
“Alexandra, what’s going to happen to me?” Piper asked.
I heard the fear in her voice and put my hand over hers. “I’m not sure, but don’t worry. You’ll be fine. We can talk more about it in the morning.”
I had no idea how to answer her question. From the short time I’d been around Tom’s parents, it was clear to me they shouldn’t take her in, for her sake as well as theirs. None of us knew where her mother was living, or even if she were still living. Ethan didn’t know he had a daughter till her mother shipped Piper to him a year ago. Tom knew nothing about Piper’s mother. We were going to have to ask Piper about the woman. Surely that would make her worry that we were hoping to get rid of her. I knew what it was like to feel all alone. When my parents died, I had no living relatives. The feeling of being abandoned in this huge world scared the hell out of me. And I was a thirty-year-old woman with a job, able to support myself. Piper was just a child. What must she be thinking? But this was not the time to talk about it, and anyway, Tom and his parents would be the ones making the decisions.
Though I guessed I could help Tom with his part of it, we were too tired to talk about Piper’s situation that night. We agreed we needed to sleep. But as I drifted off, she was on my mind—her dancing fingers, candy-colored hair, sad eyes. I had no answers. I hoped the situation would be clearer tomorrow.
I was awakened by the smell of brewing coffee. I made my way to the kitchen. Rose sat at the kitchen table sobbing. I sat next to her and put my arm around her.
As soon as she felt my touch, her tears started flowing ferociously. I placed her head on my shoulder and patted her back. I felt awkward, not knowing her at all, but she needed to cry. She’d lost her eldest son. There were no words I could say to comfort her. No parent should have to bury their child.
When she stopped crying, I said, “I’m so very, very sorry, Rose. But I believe this life is not all there is. We are all a part of this universe and we never really leave. My mother looks down on me and helps me through hard times. Ethan lives in you, and Ethan lives in Piper.”
“Poor little Constance,” she said. “What can we do with her?”
Tom walked in. Shortly after, James joined us. As we drank our morning coffee, Tom told us that he planned to go to Chicago to wind down his brother’s affairs. That certainly was the logical next step. But the big subject wasn’t being addressed, and we all knew it. As we sat there looking at each other, James spoke.
“I’ll contact the state today and look into a foster home for Constance. Rose and I can’t take care of her. She can stay in the foster home until her mother turns up.”
No one said a word. We all just sat there looking at each other. I waited for someone to say something, anything. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I looked at Tom and said, “We are not putting that child in a foster home. I know I’m not a member of this family, but I can’t sit by and watch her be discarded. I can see your parents can’t care for her. Leaving her with them would not be the right thing to do. Tom, she needs to come back to New Orleans with us.”
“How are we going to take care of her?” Tom asked. “My job requires me to be away from home several nights a month. She has to be enrolled in school. Taking care of a fourteen-year-old is not easy. That decision has many long-term consequences.”
“I didn’t say it would be easy. I said it was the right thing to do. My job doesn’t require a nine-to-five commitment. I have the freedom to work from home. I don’t have to travel either. I can take care of her. She can sleep on my couch until I can find a larger place,” I said.
They all looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. She wasn’t my child or even related to me. Yet I was going to take care of her? I guess if I were in their shoes, I’d wonder about my decision too.
“But, Alexandra, you don’t . . .” Tom tried to say.
I cut him off in mid-sentence. “I don’t what? I don’t know what it’s like to be all alone in this world? I don’t know how a teenager feels losing her parents? I don’t know how to fend for myself? Tom Sanders, she is coming home with me! Now book your flight to Chicago. You have business to complete. We are done with this discussion. And, by the way . . . her name is Piper!”
They all rocked back in their chairs. They looked at me in amazement. Tom knew not to question my resolve. He knew when I’d made my mind up there was no changing it. His parents had never seen anyone go from sweet to bitch at the speed of light. Once their brains absorbed what had just happened, Rose looked grateful, and James looked impressed. I knew I’d made the right decision.
“Now, I’m going to book Piper and my flights to New Orleans. We are leaving tomorrow,” I said as I walked out of the kitchen.
I ran into Piper, who’d been standing out of sight listening to the entire conversation. Little tears stained her cheeks. I grabbed her and drew her close to me. She put her arms around me and whispered, “Thank you for not throwing me away.”
“Don’t worry, Piper,” I said. “No one is going to throw you away. We’ll figure this out together. You’ll love New Orleans. We’ll find the right school for you.” I stroked her hair, lifting one of the pink sections between my fingers. “And New Orleans will definitely love you.”
She smiled back at me. Her smile was tentative but a smile all the same. The first big one she’d had since I met her. Now we had to find a way to make sure it wasn’t the last.
I ambled to the bedroom to get my computer to book the flights to New Orleans. Tom entered the room before my computer had time to boot. A silent moment passed between us as our eyes met.
“Alexandra, I am sorry if I upset you a few minutes ago.”
“I don’t understa
nd why your parents would even consider putting Piper in foster care,” I said. “She needs to be living with her family, not strangers.”
Tom’s face saddened. He slumped onto the bed and asked me to sit beside him.
“What I’m about to say is very hard for me,” he said. “My parents are good people. But they are not affectionate people. Kind, I guess, but not warm, not the kind of parents who love to be with their kids. They met in the mid-1960s at an anti-war demonstration. They have committed themselves to causes all of their lives. When Ethan and I were children, they didn’t have any time for us. They both had jobs. In their free time, they joined causes that kept them completely occupied. They didn’t attend any of our school or sporting events. They never told Ethan or me they loved us, though I’m sure they must have. They were just emotionally unavailable.”
“Oh, Tom, that’s so sad.”
“I guess Ethan and I adopted their ways,” Tom said as he lightly caressed my face with the back of his fingers. “I don’t want to live my life like theirs. I want to make my career dreams come true, and I want to have love in my life. It is hard for me to express love. Alexandra, you are the first person I’ve been able to open myself to. It will take time, but I can learn to show the love that’s inside me. We should and will take care of Piper. She needs us.”
I placed a kiss lightly on his lips. “Tom, I am so proud of you. Tomorrow morning tell Piper how you feel.”
Chapter Six:
Constance
Tom and I both had a restless night’s sleep. Taking in Piper was going to change my life, and the reality of our decision consumed my thoughts. I barely knew how to care for myself. Me, Alexandra Lee, with a teenager to raise. What had I done to myself? She wasn’t related to me, and I knew only fragmented details about her life. Most of her life she lived with her mother whom Tom nor I knew nothing about except her name, Sandy Rawlins. We needed to know so much more.
“Good morning, pretty girl,” Tom said, the warmth in his voice liberating me from my thoughts. “How’d you sleep?”
“Not very well. How about you?”
“I tossed and turned, worrying about having my conversation with Constance today,” he said. I loved that he admitted he was having difficulty exposing his vulnerability. It made me so much more hopeful about the future.
“Tom, that’s good that you’re thinking about what you intend to say to her, but, here’s a hint, her name is Piper. If you want to get off on the right foot, call her by the name she likes: Piper.”
“See what I mean? How am I going to be able to get this right? I don’t know anything about raising a kid,” Tom said. I put a hand on his back. “What’s worse is she’s an orphan, or she might as well be. Her mother’s abandoned her and her father’s dead. If she were a dolphin calf, I’d know what to do, but not a teenage girl.”
“Calm down, Tom,” I said. “In some ways she is like an abandoned animal in the wild. She needs much of the same treatment. She needs food, shelter, someone to protect her as she learns how to take care of herself. Most of all she needs love. You can do that. Can’t you?”
Wow, where did that come from? Maybe deep inside me I had a nurturing instinct. Maybe it was my mother and Sarah speaking through me. Either way it felt natural, and I liked it.
We put on our clothes and joined Tom’s parents in the kitchen. I would have walked through a pit of poisonous snakes for a cup of strong coffee, but nothing doing. Tom’s parents sat at their kitchen table drinking green tea. I’d never had a cup of green tea in my life. What the hell, I thought. When in Rome . . . Rose poured me a cup. She offered me stevia to sweeten it with. Funny, I was working on a PR campaign for stevia but had never tried it. I added it to my green tea, and to my amazement, I loved it. I wasn’t ready to give up coffee, but I liked the green tea with stevia.
“Where’s Constance? I mean Piper?” Tom asked, catching himself.
“She went for a walk,” James said. “Said she’d be back in an hour. First time she’s been out of bed before noon since she arrived.”
“Don’t be hard on her, James. She’s only been here two days,” Rose chastised.
Tom smiled at his mother. She knew how to gently call his dad down when necessary. “Alexandra and I are definitely taking Piper to New Orleans to live with us. We are going to get legal custody of her and raise her as if she were our child.”
“Do you two live together now?” Rose asked as only a mother could.
“Why, no. We haven’t really talked about it,” Tom said. He blushed a bright Alabama Crimson Tide red and said, “I guess we’ll have to move in together. What do you think, Alexandra?”
I was way ahead of Tom. Our future living arrangements were responsible for most of my last night’s wakefulness.
“We can look for a larger place to live when we return to New Orleans. We have to provide a proper home for Piper,” I said. “My rented condo is nice, but it’s too small.”
I wanted to move anyway. The place reeked of memories. El Serpiente was killed, and Sophia was stabbed there. That condo was a crime scene for a month. Good luck to the landlord trying to rent it again, I thought morbidly. Oh well, maybe some New Orleans Anne Rice vampire fans would think it had an atmosphere.
Maybe it was finally time for me to buy a house. I still had money left from the inheritance I received from Sarah. I donated the house she left me to the battered women’s shelter, so I felt certain she would approve of me using the rest of the money to buy a house, especially now that I would be taking care of a child. She would like that.
Buying a house, moving Tom in. Taking on the responsibility of raising a teenager. Holy shit, was my life about to change.
I was getting freaked out when I heard, from behind us, “What’s the meeting about?”
“Come in and sit down, Constance,” Rose said. “Tom and Alexandra would like to speak with you.”
Piper shifted her “what now” eyes to me. Her expression reminded me of the look on my face when my eighth-grade guidance counselor marched me to the principal’s office for writing the article about the school cafeteria out-of-date food. They messed up, but I got in trouble. The episode taught me a valuable lesson: Fair rarely plays a starring role in life’s struggles.
Piper sat next to me, much like a tiger cub would move close to its mother for protection when threatened. I gave her a reassuring nod, and all eyes turned to Tom.
“Piper, I don’t know the details, but I’m sure your life has been difficult. Certainly, it’s been horrible lately. We as a family believe better times are ahead. We have decided you will come to New Orleans with Alexandra and me to live,” he said.
Piper’s face flushed red. She squared her shoulders toward Tom and said in a combative tone, “You decided! No one talked to me. Don’t I have a say in my life? New Orleans? What’s in New Orleans?” Piper asked.
Tom was taken aback by her aggressive demeanor. He didn’t react right away though, but gave himself a moment to calm down and add more compassion to his tone. “Alexandra and I live in New Orleans and we love it. It is a great city. The people are friendly, the food is fantastic, and the music . . . Most of all, we can give you a stable home there.”
Piper recognized the conciliatory inflection in his voice. She crunched her dainty face, squinting her crystal-blue eyes, and asked, “Don’t hurricanes go there? Aren’t there alligators everywhere?”
We all chuckled a bit. I tried to hide my ear-to-ear smile with my hands, but it was impossible.
Tom thought for a moment before he answered. “Yes, New Orleans does experience an occasional hurricane. But Katrina, which I’m sure you’ve heard all about, was not the typical storm. The city is much more prepared now for hurricanes anyway. As far as alligators, yes, there are some, but they live in the swamps well outside of the city. New Orleans is much like Chicago or any other city. Native wildlife larger than b
ugs or rodents have long since fled to the surrounding forests, as they have in every region where humans have built large cities. They don’t want to be around us either. New Orleans is a unique city, and you are sure to fall in love with its amazing culture and music. The food is incredible, and the people are warm and friendly.”
Piper furrowed her brow, trying to make sense of Tom’s words, her eyes a bit glazed over, evidencing her state of overwhelm.
“Where did you go to school in Chicago?” I asked.
“My father sent me to an all-girls’ school in the city near his office. It really sucked. The girls were mean. I didn’t have any friends. Most of the girls had gone to school together all of their lives. They were rich, snobby bitches. Dad chose it because it was ‘the place’ to send your daughters. Besides, it was convenient for him since it was close to his office. He dropped me off on his way to work, and our au pair picked me up after school. Dad didn’t get home till late at night,” Piper said.
“You had an au pair?” Rose queried.
“Sure did. Her name was Sandra. She was from Geneva, Switzerland. I think my dad knew her before I went to live with him. She took care of the house and ran errands for him.”
Tom glanced at me with a knowing expression, one eyebrow raised.
“Young girl from Switzerland. Sounds about right,” Tom mocked.
I stomped his foot. He quickly shifted his eyes to me, mouthing, “What did I do?”
Sometimes I wondered about him. He was a smart guy, very loving and sensitive, but he could still say the dumbest things. Poor Piper’s father had just been killed, and Tom was implying that the au pair was his mistress. She may have been, but this was not the time or place to discuss it. Piper was scared, and she had only known us for one day and we were about to cart her off to a strange city to live. This was the time to show compassion.
