Where the Forest Meets the Stars

by Vanderah, Glendy

“What?”

  “Does it worry you that Ursa refers to herself in third person?”

  “It does. But I guess it’s how she’s handling it.”

  “I’m afraid making her talk before she was ready split her in two.”

  “That’s what the psychologist is for.”

  “I don’t like that woman.”

  “I think it’s mutual. Go to sleep.”

  Jo’s first rest in a regular bed since Kinney Cottage was more like a coma. The soap-scented steam of Gabe’s shower woke her. “You were exhausted,” he said.

  “I was. I like this room. I’m going to keep it.”

  “Should I check out?”

  “No. I wanted to pay the bill anyway.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I know, but I want to.”

  “All right, moneybags. Let’s have breakfast before I get on the road—your treat.”

  After breakfast they bought Ursa colored pencils and art paper and Jo purchased a new cell phone. Jo walked Gabe to the parking garage. He gave Jo his two room keys. And for the first time since they’d been together, they exchanged phone numbers. “I guess we’re a normal couple now,” Jo said.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.

  “Can I go so far as to say, I love you? I know it’s not the most romantic place to say it the first time—in front of a parking garage and all . . .”

  “I love you, too, Jo.” They pressed their bodies together, Jo’s crutches clattering to the ground. People stared as they walked by.

  Jo acutely felt his absence as she walked to the hospital. Ursa missed him, too.

  The sentry policeman was gone. Later that day, Jo heard Nathan Todd had been arrested. Ursa was moved to a regular room in the children’s hospital the next day. Jo was allowed to visit as much as she wanted except during her counseling sessions. Those hours gave Jo time out to have a meal or to buy something for Ursa to keep her mind occupied.

  Keeping Ursa engaged wasn’t easy. After several days, she was bored with books, drawing, and TV. Jo brought her an adult puzzle—a picture of a doe and fawn standing in a wooded scene that looked like Ursa’s beloved magic forest. They were working on putting the outer edge together when someone knocked on the half-open door. Lacey entered, two stuffed kittens in her hands. “Am I intruding?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Jo said.

  Lacey held up the beanbag kittens, one white and one gray. “I know they aren’t as good as the real thing, but these are supposed to be Juliet and Hamlet.”

  “Gabe told you their names?” Ursa said.

  “He told me all their names,” Lacey said. “You did a great job naming them.” When she held out the kittens, Ursa looked at Jo, apparently suspicious of Lacey’s intentions.

  “Go on, and you know what to say,” Jo said.

  Ursa took the kittens. “Thank you,” she said. She lifted the tabby cat, Caesar, off her pillow and laid the three kittens together. “I only need Olivia, Macbeth, and Othello now.”

  “You look like you’re feeling well,” Lacey said.

  “I am,” Ursa said. “Tomorrow or the next day they’ll let me go to Urbana with Jo. I’m going to live with her and Tabby.”

  “That sounds nice,” Lacey said.

  “But that’s more wishful thinking than reality,” Jo said.

  “It’s not!” Ursa said.

  “If it’s not, no one told me, love bug.”

  “Maybe they didn’t tell you yet, but I know it’s going to happen.”

  Jo got off the bed. “Have a seat,” she told Lacey, pulling out a chair.

  “I can’t stay,” Lacey said. “I wanted to see how Ursa is doing and talk with you for a few minutes. Would you mind a quick chat out in the waiting room?”

  “Of course not.” She told Ursa, “Find more edge pieces while I’m gone.”

  “Will you come back and help?” she asked.

  “I will, but I have to leave soon. Dr. Shaley will be here in thirty minutes.”

  “I don’t want to talk to her!”

  “Can we please not have this discussion every time?” Jo said.

  “She talks about stupid things!”

  “She’s trying to help you. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Jo was curious about what had caused Lacey’s transformation. Even her face looked different, calm and radiant, and her torn jeans and bright peasant blouse matched her mysteriously relaxed mood. They sat in a colorful room decorated to cheer sick children. “How are things going?” Lacey asked.

  “Depends on which things you mean.”

  “I hope you won’t be angry, but Gabe told me you might be charged with a child endangerment felony. He said the police told you not to travel outside of Illinois when you return home.”

  Jo was peeved, and a little surprised, he would talk about her situation with his sister.

  “He also said you’re unlikely to become Ursa’s foster parent, even though you’re obviously the one who should get her.”

  Maybe Lacey had an identical twin sister Gabe didn’t know about. Another family secret.

  “The social workers haven’t said anything to you?” Lacey asked.

  “They haven’t, and I take that to be a bad sign. But you saw how Ursa is counting on it.” She looked out the window at slices of blue sky enclosed in buildings. “Sometimes I think I’m doing the wrong thing sticking around here. Maybe I’m making everything worse for her.”

  “Then why do you?”

  “Because I care about what happens to her. I think I have a stabilizing effect on her, and she’s been to hell and back.”

  “I guess you two have that in common.”

  Jo wasn’t sure if she meant the cancer and her mother dying, the shooting, or both. If she meant the cancer, she had to have found out from Gabe.

  “So the reason I’m here . . . Gabe doesn’t know, by the way.”

  “What doesn’t he know?”

  “That I’m here. He also doesn’t know I talked to my husband about your situation. Troy is a family law attorney. He mostly handles divorces, but he occasionally does child custody and adoption cases. If you’ll let him, he wants to help you, and he’ll do it free of cost.”

  “I have money.”

  “We wouldn’t feel right about taking money from Gabe’s girlfriend.”

  “I’m his girlfriend now?” Jo said.

  Lacey knew the comment was sarcasm, but she smiled. “Didn’t you know?”

  “I guess I didn’t get the Nash family memo.”

  “Well, the rest of us have.”

  An apology. Subtle, but Jo still welcomed it. “I appreciate the thumbs-up.”

  “It was Gabe,” she said.

  “What was?”

  “Before I left for Saint Louis, he called a family meeting. When the time came, George Kinney knocked on the door. He’d been over at his property fixing the broken doors. He was as clueless as me about what was going on. Gabe just told him to be there.”

  Jo smiled. Wonder of wonders, Gabe had pulled a Katherine.

  Lacey studied her face. “You knew what he was going to do?”

  “I didn’t, but I can guess what he did when he got you together.”

  “He told us the whole thing! About how George and my mom’s affair began and how they and my father had agreed that Gabe should never know he was George’s son. Obviously, my mom and George knew all that. But they were shocked when he told them he’d seen them make love in the forest and found out he wasn’t Arthur’s son. He said that was why he’d started hating them. And then he said the most amazing thing.”

  “What?”

  “He told them he forgave them. He said now that he was in love with you, he understood everything they’d done. He said he would rather have died the night the guy pointed the gun at you than watch you die. He said love like that can’t be stopped by anything, and he was happy he was born of that kind of passion.”

  Jo didn’t care if Lacey saw h
er cry.

  “I know! All four of us were bawling our eyes out. It was the best fucking thing that ever happened in my family.” She opened her shoulder bag and took out two tissues, handing one to Jo. “George has felt little more than responsibility for his wife since she wrecked her body with booze,” she said, dabbing the remaining tissue under her eyes. “He and my mom are getting married. George asked Gabe and me if that was okay.”

  “Are you okay with it?”

  “I’m thrilled! We even had an engagement party. I stayed one more night, and we had the best time, grilling ribs and drinking beers. Gabe and I were up late talking, and we vented all the bullshit that’s been between us for years.”

  Jo found it difficult to believe they could get over that much so fast.

  “I’m sure he told you how I treated him when he was little,” she added, as if she’d read Jo’s thoughts.

  Jo wouldn’t betray anything Gabe had told her in confidence.

  Lacey understood her silence. “I guess he did,” she said. “I know it’s no excuse, but I got bad depression around the time Gabe was born. I felt fat and ugly, and I knew my writing was shit. And there was Gabe, this perfect, beautiful little boy. So damn smart, too. I was so fucking jealous of him.”

  “Did you know he was George’s baby?”

  “I’d suspected my mother was having an affair with George. And one night before Gabe was born, my father got really drunk and told me. He was crying—” She choked up and wiped new tears. “I blamed that poor kid for everything. For my mother not loving my father. For how crushed my father was. Even for my depression. And when my father couldn’t help adoring that perfect little kid, I totally lost it. I felt abandoned at a time when I really needed my father, when I gave up on writing.”

  Jo put her hand on Lacey’s hand. “I’m sorry. It was a worse situation than I imagined. Do you still suffer from depression?”

  She nodded. “But thank god for my husband. He’s always been there for me. Even when he should have dumped me.” Fresh tears arose.

  “It’s good that you and Gabe finally talked about all of this.”

  She nodded again, wiping her eyes with the soaked tissue.

  “Gabe never said anything. The other day when I asked how things were going, he texted back one word: Good .”

  “He has been good,” she said. “I haven’t seen him so happy since he was a young kid. Because of you. You made all of this happen.”

  “Technically, we have to say Ursa did.”

  “With her quarks?”

  “Gabe told you about that?”

  “He told me all about her. Please forgive me for calling the sheriff on that poor little girl.”

  “You were right to do it. I should have, but I was mired in irrational behavior.”

  “Because you love her. Let my husband help you.”

  “I guess I can use any help that’s offered. What should I do?”

  She pulled a phone from her purse and texted someone. When she finished, she said, “He’s out in the car. He’s coming up.”

  “Your husband?”

  “Yes, Troy Greenfield, your kickass lawyer.”

  37

  Troy, a genial, stocky man, had Jo tell the whole story right there in the hospital visitors’ lounge. He asked lots of questions and took copious notes.

  When she went back to her hotel, Jo wasn’t necessarily more hopeful about her chances of getting Ursa, but she felt better because she would have fewer regrets. She would know she’d done as much as she could.

  Lenora Rhodes and Dr. Shaley disappeared for several days. Now that Ursa was well enough to leave the hospital, they would decide where she would live. Three days after Lacey’s visit, Troy called Jo just before she left her hotel room. “I have good news and not-so-good news,” he said.

  Jo’s heart pounded wildly.

  “You aren’t going to be charged,” he said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “It took a while to make them say it definitively, but I pestered them into giving an answer. I told them we needed to know because we were going to hire John Davidson—a talented defense lawyer—if you were charged.”

  “Is that why they didn’t charge me? They were afraid of Davidson?”

  “In all honesty, I doubt that had much to do with it. I had a long talk with Detective Kellen last night, and it mostly boils down to his admiration for Gabe. If you were charged, Gabe was in the crosshairs as well—because Ursa had spent many days on his property. Both McNabb and Kellen hated to see Gabe punished.”

  “Am I imagining this sounds really chauvinistic?”

  “You aren’t, and I argued that point. That was when Kellen made it clear he’s always been on your side. He respects your drive to help a child you didn’t even know. And your case was strengthened by what that first deputy told you the night you called the sheriff. I asked them to question him—”

  “Kyle Dean?”

  “Yes, and he admitted he’d given you opinions about foster care, very personal opinions, that might have confused you. McNabb had been leaning toward charging you, but when he saw that the questionable behavior of one of his deputies would be a key factor in the trial, he backed off.”

  “Wow. Lacey is right—you are a kickass lawyer.”

  “Thank you,” he said, chuckling.

  Jo was relieved, but she couldn’t much appreciate Troy’s good news when his not-so-good news was about to slam her.

  “As for Ursa,” Troy said, “I’ve made no headway with the social workers, and I can’t apply law to their decision about her future. I’m sorry to tell you, I think they’ve chosen a foster family for her.”

  “I think they have, too.”

  “I’ll stay on it, Jo. Let’s not give up yet.”

  “Can you get me visiting rights or something like that?”

  “As a nonrelative, you have no legal right to visit her. You’d have to work that out with the social workers and the foster family. But I’ll look into it, okay?”

  “Okay. Thank you for everything you’ve done.” She could hardly see the end button on the phone through her tears.

  Lenora was in Ursa’s room when Jo got there. She took Jo into the hallway and broke the news. Ursa’s prospective foster parents would visit Ursa after lunch. She requested that Jo not be there when they met, and she also asked her to help Ursa accept that she soon would go home with them.

  “Did you even consider me?” Jo asked.

  “Joanna . . . how could we?”

  “Why not?”

  “We try to place children in two-parent homes—”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it. Ursa has clearly stated what she wants, and it’s not a mother and a father who are complete strangers. And you know, I have as many resources and qualifications as a married couple.”

  “It’s not only that you’re single. It’s everything else in addition to that.”

  “What?”

  “You’re in school. Your health status is uncertain. And we can’t ignore the child endangerment situation.”

  “They aren’t charging me.”

  “Charged or not, you displayed poor judgment.”

  “Now that you know what Ursa is like, do you think I could have done better? She was going to run if I got the police involved, and I knew she was safer with me than on the run.”

  “You know there was more to what you did than that.”

  “Like what?”

  “You were mothering her.”

  “And that eliminates me as a candidate to be foster parent?”

  “It’s why you did that worries us. You’d just lost your mother and had your reproductive organs removed.”

  “How did you know that?”

  “Ursa told us.”

  “You pumped a little kid for information about me? Did you ever think to ask me?”

  “We didn’t pump her. She told Dr. Shaley during their sessions.”

  “That’s worse! She used psychotherapy
to obtain information that would eliminate me!”

  “Please help Ursa accept this. It’s the best way to love her.”

  “I disagree, but I’ll try to convince her. I’m afraid she’s going to run and something awful will happen to her.”

  “Don’t worry, these kids settle down.”

  “These kids?” Jo didn’t trust her temper enough to stay in Lenora’s presence a second longer. She walked into Ursa’s room.

  “Why are you mad?” Ursa said.

  “I’m not.”

  Ursa stared her. “What did Lenora say?”

  Jo sat on the bed and told her. Ursa cried and protested. She was still crying when her doctor came in an hour later. Jo left the room so he could examine Ursa’s wound. When he came out, he said in a quiet voice, “Jo . . . I’m very sorry about what they decided. Most of us here believe they’ve made a mistake. We’ve seen how you are with her—the bond between you two.”

  Jo nodded.

  “I don’t even know if she would have recovered without you. When we were prepping her for surgery, she woke up. Despite incredible blood loss, she returned to consciousness to ask for you. I told her we had to fix her belly, and she said that was good because she’d come back from the stars to be with Jo, and Jo would be sad if she died.”

  He saw that he’d made her cry. “God, I’m sorry. Did I make it worse telling you that?”

  “No. Thank you. I appreciate your support.”

  An hour and a half later, Jo cleared out for the new foster parents as Ursa cried bitterly. Jo went to her hotel and called Gabe. He wanted to come to Saint Louis to support her, but he couldn’t leave his mother. Lacey was with her family, and George was in Urbana with his daughters. George had decided to tell them that Gabe was his son. He didn’t want any more secrets in his family.

  Jo didn’t return to the hospital that night. Maybe the foster parents would be there. She hoped they were. Spending lots of quality time with Ursa before the move was the only way to reduce her risk of running.

  When Jo arrived at the children’s hospital the next morning, Lenora was waiting for her, clearly angry. “Did you even try to help her accept it?” Lenora asked.

  “I did! Ask the nurses. I tried to reason with her for hours.”

  Lenora searched Jo’s eyes and saw she was telling the truth.