Through the Storm (Bellingwood Book 8)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  "I'm not going to fight with you about this right now. We will discuss it, but later, when you aren't high and I'm not furious. I'm going downstairs and when I get back, I expect that the mess out here will be cleaned up and things in the kitchen put away. This isn't over. You can't get away with disrespecting me and my home."

  Polly went back through the media room and, calling Obiwan, went down the steps with him following her. Andrew was at his desk under the stairway when she emerged from her back door.

  "Hey Andrew. I'm sorry about that," she said.

  "Jessie got weird when I went upstairs. I told her you didn't smoke and wouldn't want her to be doing that in your house. I was going to go get Rebecca so we could play games, but I didn't want her to see Jessie like that. She was mean."

  "I know and I'm sorry."

  "I don't like that Troy guy. He's creepy. He was drinking beer and told me that if I was going to hang around, I had to get him more out of the refrigerator. That's when I came downstairs."

  "That was the right thing to do. I've sent him back over to his rooms and told him that he had to leave by Monday. We aren't going to have that going on here. Especially when you're around. You are too important to me." She ruffled his hair.

  "Do you want me to take Obiwan out for a walk? I was going to do that when I went to get Rebecca."

  "Why don't both of you take him for a walk. I'll bet she wouldn't mind getting out for a while."

  "Cool! Then can we go into the conference room and draw on the big table?"

  "Absolutely." Polly bent over and hugged him in his chair. "Thanks for being such a good kid. You know I love you, right?"

  "Yeah." He pushed his chair back, obviously a little embarrassed, then took the leash that Polly handed to him and followed her into the kitchen.

  "Rebecca and I are taking Obiwan for a walk, Mom. Then we'll be in the conference room."

  "Sounds good," Sylvie said. When he was out of the room, she took Polly's hand. "What happened up there?"

  "Jessie was stupid and those two punks living in the top floor of the addition were hanging out with her, drinking and smoking."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Well, they've gone back to their rooms and I've told them to be out of here by Monday. Jessie stomped off to her room, telling me that I was just like her mom. I told her to clean the place up and we would have the discussion later. I needed to calm down. My first reaction was to boot her to the curb."

  "That wouldn't do anyone any good."

  "I know. That's why I walked away. But when I realized that she put Andrew in harm's way, I could hardly see straight, I was so angry."

  "And that's why I love you. You are fierce when you're protecting people you care about. I didn't have any authority up there, but I knew that once you got in the building it would be just fine. I'm sorry I interrupted your afternoon, though."

  "Oh Sylvie, it's just been another one of those days and I'm guessing this is only the beginning of the insanity. Once it starts for me, it doesn't stop for a couple of weeks. All I can do is take a deep breath and hold on for the ride."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Each website supplied a little different information, but Polly finally decided she needed to give Jessie another hour or so before the girl would come down off that high. If Jessie was smart, she'd put the time to good use. What in the world was she thinking, smoking pot in front of Andrew? Polly was just thankful that Rebecca hadn't been upstairs. That little girl worshiped Jessie and right now, she didn't need anything else falling apart in her life.

  Polly took a stack of papers out of her top desk drawer and looked through them once again. One day she would sign these in order to become Rebecca's guardian and then to fully adopt her. The papers were a reminder that death hovered and change was coming to Sycamore House.

  Sarah Heater's cancer was still progressing. The doctors had hoped for remission, but it wasn't going to happen. There was one more experimental therapy they wanted to try, but after that, Sarah had made the decision to stop everything to have a full life without things battering her down every time she got her strength back. She would die on her own terms. That conversation was one Polly never wanted to repeat again in her life.

  Sylvie had taken Rebecca and Andrew to a movie in Ames and Polly sat with Sarah in her room while the two of them held each other and sobbed their way through difficult decisions. Actually, none of the decisions were all that difficult. It was just nearly impossible to say the words out loud. Yes, Sarah could stay at Sycamore House and Polly would make sure her life was comfortable and happy and her death would be as painless as possible. And yes, Polly wanted nothing more than to raise Rebecca as her own daughter. Adoption papers were drawn up, but Polly couldn't sign them right now. She promised Sarah that when nothing more could be done, she would sign them and make Rebecca part of her family. The lawyer agreed that it was abnormal, but no one was ready to separate Rebecca from her mother. The knowledge that she still had a daughter to raise had given Sarah a great deal of strength. She was determined to spend as much time as possible with Rebecca.

  Polly knew the day that Sarah had told Rebecca what was going to happen. The little girl refused to look Polly in the eyes. She'd stayed away from Andrew, Polly and Henry for the entire weekend, her anger readily apparent on her face. Whenever she emerged from their room to get food from the kitchen, she stomped past the three of them, daring them to speak to her. Andrew had been confused until Polly explained what happened. Even then, he couldn't understand why his best friend was angry with him.

  It had been Jessie who ended up breaking the impasse. She'd been sitting at the big table in the downstairs kitchen, playing a guitar Eliseo had uncovered. Rebecca had come in for something to drink and was drawn to the music, so she sat down across the table and before long, her tears began to flow. The two girls had talked and talked. Neither of them told anyone else what they'd discussed, but the next morning, Rebecca came into Polly's office when it was time to go to school and gave her a hug, holding on for a few extra seconds.

  For that alone, Polly was willing to give Jessie some leeway today. She slid the papers back into her desk drawer when Obiwan came running in to see her. "Hey bud, are your friends here, too?" Polly asked.

  "He knew where you were." Andrew was panting and red-faced and Rebecca came running in right behind him, her hair a mess.

  "What were you three doing out there?" Polly asked.

  "We ran around Sycamore House three times," Andrew said. "Every time we got close to him, he took off again. What did you feed him this morning?"

  Polly grinned at the two kids. "Nothing special. The poor dog probably had a lot of extra energy from being inside too long today."

  "You don't suppose …" Andrew asked, looking pointedly upstairs.

  "No," she said. "That wouldn't affect him. He'd be sick, not running you two around."

  "What?" Rebecca asked.

  Andrew looked at her, then at Polly and then back at Rebecca. "Nothing. I just wondered if ..."

  "He was afraid Obiwan might have gotten into something."

  "Oh. Do you want us to take him upstairs?" Rebecca asked.

  "No, you two go on into the conference room. You know where to find blank paper."

  "Maybe Jessie will come in when she gets back from work," Rebecca said. "I haven't seen her for a couple of days."

  Andrew looked at Polly again. She shrugged. "Maybe."

  Why wasn't Jessie at work? Man, she did not want to have this conversation with the girl. For the most part, they had an easygoing relationship. It wasn't like she was difficult to live with. She worked or spent time in her room on her phone. What had happened?

  Jeff Lyndsay came in the front door and waved at Polly through her office window.

  "What are you doing down here today?" He glanced into the conference room. "Everything okay?"

  "A little trouble upstairs. I'm kicking your rockers out of here by Monday morning, just so you know.
If they give us any trouble, I'm calling Ken Wallers."

  He pushed her door shut and sat down. "So, everything isn't okay. What happened?"

  "I walked into my apartment and found them upstairs with Jessie, smoking and drinking. When I told them to leave, that Troy character got belligerent and aggressive."

  "Okay." Jeff licked his lips and breathed through his teeth. "Well, that's not good. I'm sorry."

  "It was worse because Andrew had been up there, too. Troy got a little pushy and Andrew was smart enough to just leave. Sylvie called me while I was at Joss's house."

  "Stupid kids. They will spoil everything they put their hands on." Jeff clenched his teeth again and slammed his fist on the arm of the chair. "Damned entitled brats. Why do they think they have a right to anything?"

  "Money and power. It's always about one or the other."

  "I'll take care of it later today. I'm sorry you had to deal with that in your own home. What are you going to do about Jessie?"

  Polly looked at the time. "I'm about to figure that out. Hopefully she has cleaned up the mess and can have a conversation with me. Otherwise, I'll wait until she's ready."

  "You aren't kicking her out?"

  "Not yet. I know this is a biggie, but it's really the first screwup she's had. Coming from what she lived with, I'm surprised there haven't been more in the last few months. We'll see what this is about."

  "You're calmer about it than I would be."

  Polly chuckled. "I wasn't when I stormed out of there, but you know what? There are bigger things to deal with than a little pot and some beer." She nodded to the conference room. "I started thinking about what Rebecca is going to face and then about the family who will find out someone they love has been killed and it just isn't that big of a deal."

  He perked up, and tilted his head at her. "Someone was killed? Are you telling me ..."

  "Shaddup," Polly said. "Yes, that's what I'm telling you. I haven't told Sylvie either. We were out looking at some old rusted out cars that Nate and Henry want to restore and I went poking around."

  "Of course you did." Jeff shut his eyes and shook his head back and forth. "It's never going to end, is it?"

  "I'd like to say no, but that would be foolish of me."

  He leaned forward, propped his elbow on the table and rubbed his forehead. Then, he started to chuckle. "At least I have a theme for this year's Halloween party."

  "We're having a party this year? More than just the haunted hallway for trick or treaters?"

  "Halloween is on a Friday night, so we can have more fun. Trick or treating will end by seven and then we're going to have a dance starting around nine. We talked about doing more of those after last year's hoe-down and just haven't had an open night. I've already hired the band so you can't talk me out of it. But, I think a great theme might be "Polly's Ghosts."

  "You wouldn't."

  "I'm going to have to do something that has to do with your predilection for finding dead bodies. Everyone knows about it. We might as well own it and just put it out there."

  Polly shuddered. "That sounds awful."

  "But you aren't going to give me any trouble about it?"

  "Like I could stop you."

  "Uh huh. Okay, I need to get busy. I'll take care of your punks upstairs and let you know when they're gone."

  "Don't put them up at Sycamore Inn either. They can just get the heck out of town."

  He put his hand on the door handle. "I know, I know. We don't need that kind of trouble around here."

  Polly got up and waved at the kids as she left the office. She didn't want to go upstairs and face Jessie, but the problem wouldn't solve itself. When she got to the top of the steps, she could still smell it. They were going to have to open every window in the place just to clean it out.

  Bracing herself, Polly opened the door and was pleasantly surprised to find that the living room was back to normal. She heard sounds coming from the kitchen. Obiwan took off at a trot and she followed him.

  "Jessie?" she said to the girl's back.

  Jessie turned around from the sink, her hands covered in suds.

  "I'm sorry, Polly. I don't know what I was thinking. It just got out of control. They wanted a place to hang out and before I knew it ..." She flung the suds off her hands into the sink and bent over, her shoulders shaking. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

  "I don't know about fault. But it is your responsibility. Thank you for cleaning things up. We need to open all of the windows and air the place out. I'll start in Henry's office. You get these and then open up your room and the middle room. There are two fans in the back closet. You should pull those out, too."

  Polly walked across the media room and started opening windows, welcoming the fresh, crisp air. She was going to need a sweatshirt before the afternoon was over.

  She opened the windows in her bedroom and in all of the bathrooms, hoping most of the smell would clear out before Henry got home. It was one thing to tell him what had happened, but having him experience it wasn't something she wanted to deal with.

  When they both came back into the living room, Polly pointed to a chair and said, "We still need to talk about this."

  Jessie nodded, "I know. This has been a horrible day and it really is all my fault."

  "Do you want to tell me why you aren't at work? I thought you had a full shift."

  "They fired me." Tears filled her eyes.

  Polly rubbed her temples with the thumb and middle finger of her right hand. "What happened?"

  Tears turned to sobs and Polly waited. These weren't tears of sorrow, they were guilt and shame. Whatever had happened was of the girl's own doing. So ... she sat back and waited for the drama to end.

  When the crying jag slowed, Polly asked again. "What happened?"

  "It's not all my fault. Everyone else gets away with it. But not me. I don't know why I'm the one who got fired."

  "What's not your fault?"

  "Well, it's not like they don't throw out a lot of food and pop anyway."

  "What did you do?"

  "I didn't do anything," Jessie's left nostril went up in the beginning of a sneer.

  "Okay, then why did they fire you?"

  "I just didn't charge everybody for refills on pop. And some of that pizza had been sitting in the warmer for a long time anyway."

  "So, you made a decision to give things away."

  "Well, it's no big deal."

  "Who says it isn't a big deal?"

  "It's just not. They throw food away after shifts all the time. So what if someone takes some?"

  "I see. So you're the authority on whether things should be free or not? It's your store and you are responsible for the sales numbers?"

  "Whatever."

  "Don't get snotty with me. I didn't just get fired from a job."

  "Everybody else does it. They didn't fire Kirsten. She does it more than me."

  Polly shook her head. "I don't get it. Why do you think that because someone else does something wrong, you should be allowed to do the same thing? It's wrong."

  Jessie dropped her head. "The kids yelled at me and made fun of me when I didn't."

  "You could have dealt with that any number of ways, but you chose to let them steal from the store and now you want to tell me that it's no big deal. Jessie, you don't have the right to make that decision. It means you aren't trustworthy. If you make the easy decision now, what will you do when something really difficult comes up?"

  "I don't know." Jessie's shoulders drooped and her lower lip started to quiver again.

  "Oh, for Pete's sake, don't cry again. You have to figure this out. Now you don't have a job and you can't even use this job as a reference for your next one because you were irresponsible."

  "I made a mistake."

  "How long has this mistake been going on? It couldn't have happened just once."

  "No. It didn't. It's been a while."

  "Did they warn you?"

  "Brian might have said something
once, but it wasn't like he told me that I couldn't ever give food away."

  "You're trying to place the blame for your actions on him? It's his fault?"

  "No. It's my fault."

  A shiver went down Polly's back when the fan blew at her. Even though it had been warm yesterday, it was too chilly today for open windows. The world was upside down.

  "What did you say when you left there this morning."

  "Nothing. He handed me my check when I walked in and told me I was fired. I just came back here."

  "Then what happened? How did those guys get up here?"

  "We were sitting outside. I was pissed about the job and Troy asked if I'd ever smoked a joint. I used to back in Colorado. It's no big deal. When we got cold, he invited me back to his room, but I didn't think that was a good idea so we came up here. I didn't know his buddy was bringing beer. It wasn't even lunch time yet. Then the next thing I knew we were smoking and they were drinking and then Andrew came up."

  "So ... one mistake just led to another and another. What did you think I was going to say?"

  Jessie looked down. "I thought you'd be gone all day. You said you were going to look at cars. I hoped they'd be gone before you got home and I could clean up."

  "Seriously." Polly looked around. "And how exactly did you plan to get rid of the smell so I wouldn't notice."

  "Just like this." Jessie met Polly's eyes. "Are you going to tell Henry?"

  "Uhhh. Yeah. This is his house, too and he's going to know that something happened here. The smell won't be gone by the time he gets home. I don't lie to him." Polly said.

  "Is he going to kick me out?"

  Polly thought about that. This would make him as angry as she was, but he wouldn't do anything other than what she'd already decided. "Always remember that Henry and I are a team. We're responsible for all of this together. So no, that's not in the plan. One mistake ... well, several mistakes all in one day ... don't equate to you having to leave. I hope this behavior won't continue. If it does, you and I will be having a different conversation."

  "It won't. I promise. What about Rebecca? Does she have to know that I screwed up?"