Bad Apple 1: Sweet Cider

by Barbara Morgenroth

  Whatever was driving him on, insisted that he make as many changes as quickly as possible. It was his vision, his ear, his band. I was going to try to do whatever he wanted.

  Of course, I had never met anyone like Truly. I had heard of people who were that single-minded, I had read about them but one wasn’t likely to meet them in Acre. If anyone had that much determination, they wouldn’t be in Acre, they would have moved on.

  As the evening progressed, I began to understand why his mother might have thought of him as a strange child. He wasn’t lost in the music, he was found in it.

  I had seen Toby and Joe laying around the living room watching television for hours on end. They didn’t want to read, they didn’t want to know anything different, they didn’t want to do anything. There was no curiosity in the family. Janie was stuck on sorrow.

  That I had once made the mistake of mentioning music in front of them was more like a threat to their way of life than a praiseworthy activity. After that one time, I practiced either at Paul’s or Maude’s.

  That night, I could see I hadn’t practiced nearly enough.

  As we finished another Allman Brothers song, something I had never heard before and was so unlike my conception of them, I fell in love with it immediately, the lights came on in the barn across the driveway.

  “My mother checks on the horses before she goes to sleep. It’s a hint for us to quit for the night,” Truly said.

  I put my fiddle in its case. “Are you going to be gone all day tomorrow?”

  “Unfortunately, most of the day. I was lucky Professor Laszlo took me on last year so...”

  “You shouldn’t miss your session. I’m sure your mother will keep me plenty busy. We can work tomorrow night again.”

  “Will your stepmother notice your absence?”

  “No. I don’t expect any of them will. We’ll come up with some explanations for Maude to give them. Schoolwork or detention.”

  Truly laughed. “Maybe we could say you’ve been sent to juvy for a couple months. That would be a good reason you’re not around.”

  “Yeah. They understand jail. I could steal a car. That would probably raise their opinion of me.”

  He was going to say something when Emily entered the garage. “That’s enough for one day. Come with me, Neal. Goodnight, Tru.”

  I closed the fiddle case and picked it up. “See you tomorrow.”

  He nodded.

  ***

  After getting into bed, I read for about an hour then shut off the light and stared at the window with the moon barely shining in. This was the guest room down at the end of the hallway. Emily explained that the attic had been finished some years back for her daughter, Sydney, out of necessity because Truly had driven her to distraction by playing music past midnight. He had gotten better about sleeping once they doubled up on the music lessons and the band had begun performing.

  He sounded like the exact opposite of me. He had been a high maintenance kid and I was absolutely no maintenance. I didn’t ask for anything, I didn’t expect anything. I was never stupid enough to think I needed anything. I found being self-sufficient was the best plan for my continued well-being.

  Then, in one day, I found myself dependent on these strangers. I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was with this situation although it was immensely preferable to staying with the Kents. My life had changed. I was praying it would stay changed because I was terrified there was some kind of legal reason I’d have to go back.

  I didn’t trust the law. Although I thought Steve Lambert was a good and kind man.

  Judges were cuckoo and social workers, I thought, were out of touch with reality. This was hardly the first time I had considered what kind of laws could keep me on the mountain in Acre or what might happen to me if things went wrong. I’d been reading about the system for a couple years and had found a few forums on the internet where kids talked about their experiences with social services. The government liked to keep families together. No matter how painful and inappropriate it might be.

  That was the last thing I wanted, to ever go back. But I didn’t want to go into the system either. Foster care seemed like a game of chance at the county fair, all objects weighted in favor of the house. You never knew where you’d wind up. The family could be lovely or they could be as crazy as the Kents, taking kids in for the money.

  The future I had been keeping at bay, crashed over me like a storm-driven wave. Every terrible news item I had ever seen or read seemed my possibility. And why not, the terrible had already happened to me. The unspeakable sure had happened to Paul.

  I reached to the nightstand and felt for his cell phone. I picked it up and pressed #2 on the speed dial. He picked it up on the second ring.

  “Can’t sleep?”

  “Sing me something.”

  “Okay.

  “The bed is too small for my tiredness

  “Give me a hillside with trees.

  “Tuck a cloud up under my chin.

  “Lord, blow the moon out, please.

  “Sing me to sleep in a cradle of dreams

  “So that I may slumber in peace.

  “Tuck a cloud down under my feet.

  “Lord, blow the moon out, please.”

  Chapter 13

  Emily was cleaning up in the kitchen when I came downstairs the next morning.

  “Hi. Sorry I’m late. It took a long time to get to sleep.”

  “It’s takes a while to get used to a new place, I see that with the horses all the time. What would you like for breakfast?”

  “Just tell me where everything is, I’ll get it. I don’t want you to go to any trouble for me.”

  “The first day you’re a guest, the second day you’re part of the family and expected to do chores like everyone else.”

  “Okay, that’s a deal. Where’s Tru?”

  “He left early.” She put juice on the table. “There’s some oatmeal, how does that sound?”

  “That’s fine.”

  “What would you like to do today?”

  Since I wasn’t sure anyone had ever said that to me before, I didn’t have a clue in the world what the answer was.

  “I have to do the barn chores but after that we can do anything.”

  “I’ll help with the barn.”

  “Are you sure?” Emily put a bowl of hot oatmeal in front of me.

  “I just move slower than everyone else but I still work.”

  “We’ll do the barn and then we’ll go shopping.”

  “Groceries, okay.”

  “No, I meant clothes for the show.”

  “For me?” I stopped with the spoon halfway to my mouth.

  “You need something to perform in.”

  “Tru and I talked about it. He thought he had some old black jeans that would fit.”

  Emily laughed. “I know just the place to go. It’s a bit of a drive but we’ll find you a dress or a nice skirt and blouse.”

  “Something long?”

  “Of course. I think I have a pair of boots that would fit you. Would that be good?”

  “With heels?”

  “No, riding boots. I always used to wear field boots that go to the knee with a long skirt. It’s very stylish. Sydney does it, too.”

  “Can’t...don’t you have some old thing in the back of your closet that would fit me?”

  “Yes, but all my clothes have horses or hounds on them. If it’s a question of the money, you’ll be getting paid for this concert and you’ll be solvent.”

  “I don’t know about dressing up.”

  I had been hoping since the performance was scheduled for the evening, I would be in the shadows and maybe find a way to stand behind Truly. What I wore in that case wouldn’t matter.

  Now that I was confronted with the reality of being on stage, I started to think trying to hide wasn’t fair to him or the band. They thought, however right or wrong the idea was, I was their singer. Wasn’t the lead singer supposed to be out front?

&
nbsp; That’s how it always looked on television.

  “Don’t try so hard to be inconspicuous. It’s not working anyway.”

  ***

  After doing the barn chores, we cleaned up and headed down the road to Schuilplaats. It was originally a Dutch settlement, but over a hundred years ago, it had been transformed from a farming community to resort town. In the summer, it drew tourists and vacationers because of the beneficial waters, the lake, trails and all the other warm weather activities. In the winter, there was skiing, skating, snowshoeing and snow machining. There were excellent restaurants and boutiques catering to the outsiders. The selection wasn’t the same as going to New York City but it was the best we were going to get without making the excursion an all day affair.

  Emily made the trip pass quickly by filling me in on the family, telling me all about Sydney and her ponies and that she was attending college in Virginia with a horse in training. I had seen some of the photos of a young Sydney with too-cute ponies in the barn’s tack room, along with many ribbons from horse shows. They all worked for what they had and that was something I admired about them.

  As we drove into the town, I could see Schuilplaats was a modernized Victorian village. It had the old architecture and style of a turn of the century village, but everything was manicured and freshly painted. Many little stores lined the main street, most of them designed to appeal to the tourists. An entire block was devoted to antique shops, each one specializing in a certain category. One sold only lamps, another sold vintage clothing, another sold paper goods, the one on the corner sold used books.

  I’ll have to tell Paul about this, I thought without remembering that he was gone.

  “Paul, my friend who died, would have loved this.”

  “Did he like antiques?” Emily asked as she found a parking space.

  “Very much. He went to auctions all the time. My Aunt Maude was supposed to go with him this last weekend.”

  “I’m very sorry for your loss.”

  “He got me the fiddle and taught me what he knew about music.”

  “That was very generous of him.” Emily stopped the car.

  “He could be that.” I got out onto the sidewalk.

  “Come on. We have an appointment,” Emily said.

  “Where?”

  “To have your hair done.”

  I stopped mid-stride.

  She must have seen the look of shock, the balky horse expression, on my face. “I thought it would be a nice surprise for you.”

  “It is a surprise,” I admitted. Maude had been trimming my hair for years. Just blunted off, no style.

  “Let’s sit over here on the bench for a moment.”

  I walked over and sat next to her.

  “I don’t have the kind of life where I get dressed up very often. We rarely go out to dinner, if we do it’s pizza palace not at the royal palace. But, Sydney and I do attend horse shows and we have our riding clothes. We polish our boots, we clean our saddles, the horses are spotless. We wear our best jackets, breeches, gloves. It’s a performance and we want to look our best.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re going to perform this weekend. People are expecting something from you. It’s not only about entertaining them, it says something to the audience and yourself about the level of commitment you have to the music. If you just roll out of bed, wearing torn jeans, not bothering to comb your hair, that makes one statement. If you have given attention to your appearance, people are going to think you care about what you’re doing. You’re not doing this for you, you’re doing it for them and you want to look nice in order to give them a good experience.”

  Was this how she treated a balky horse? If so, I imagined those horses would wind up doing anything for her.

  “Okay.”

  “It’ll grow back,” she said as we both stood. “I can’t convince Truly of that, though. He’s had long hair since his Lambert and Sells days.”

  “The colonists had ponytails, though, didn’t they?”

  She opened the door to the salon. “That’s what he says. But that’s almost six years ago.”

  I stepped inside. “Does Professor Laszlo have long hair?”

  “Good question. Ernst’s hair is longer than Steve’s but much shorter than Truly’s. If he would adopt that length, it would be fine with me.”

  “What does Steve think?”

  “It doesn’t bother him, he thinks it’s a phase.”

  At that moment, I was ushered into the back to get into a smock and get my hair washed. All I could think about was this family who wasn’t either screaming at each or crying over something that happened thirty years ago. They were opening their house to me, trying to help me. What was a little hair. Emily was probably right anyway.

  An hour later with new short hair, cut to my shoulders, we were in a boutique trying on dresses I would never have dreamed I could wear. We settled on a dark blue long full skirt stunning in its simplicity, with a fitted long jacket that matched the skirt’s flare below the waist. Underneath the jacket, I would wear a pleated tuxedo shirt. Since we were performing outside, it was likely to be chilly in the evening so the jacket would come in handy. If I was too warm, I could always take it off.

  Over lunch, I had a sudden panic attack. “We can return the clothing, can’t we?”

  Emily looked at me in surprise. “Why would you want to?”

  “What if this isn’t the look Truly wants for his band? He’s been so kind and I didn’t even consult him. It’s a costume, right? Isn’t it like Lambert and Sells in colonial era outfits? Maybe he wants something else.”

  “You in a Revolutionary War costume?” Emily speared a cherry tomato in her salad.

  “I’m serious.”

  “Too serious.”

  I put my hamburger on the plate. “We could call him. Will the phone work all the way to Ithaca?” I started digging through my bag for his phone.

  Emily put her hand on my arm. “Yes, the phone will work, but he’s busy with things more important than your outfit. He’ll like it, you’ll get plenty of use out of it. Then I’ll borrow it, refuse to give it back to you, and then Sydney will take it down to Virginia and we’ll never see it again.”

  “You think so?”

  Emily nodded. “Truly was right about you.”

  “What a pain in the neck I am?”

  “No. Just the opposite.”

  Chapter 14

  We arrived at home, put our purchases away and then sat down in the den, which was the Lambert version of the one-room schoolhouse. All the books being used and that had been used were on shelves. At one end of the room was an old oak library table, a style I recognized from an auction Maude and I had attended with Paul.

  “I was able to get quite a bit of information from the school’s website but you need to tell me what you were taking and how far you progressed this semester.”

  As I looked through the books Truly had used, I explained to Emily that I was taking extra credits and didn’t feel particularly challenged by the work so far.

  I could see that without other students, many of whom didn’t want to be there, the coursework was open to exploration and discovery. It was an exciting prospect to be free to study on my own, learn about the people and events I found interesting without waiting for twenty-nine other students.

  “How long do you think I’ll be able to stay here?”

  “Don’t you want to go back home? Even to Aunt Maude?”

  “No. Besides, as long as Joe’s there, and he finds out I told, he’ll kill me this time.”

  “Excuse me?”

  I knew right then I had made an awful mistake. She didn’t know. I had been keeping the secrets for so long that once I stopped keeping them, I really stopped.

  “Neal. What’s this about?”

  “I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”

  “Who is Joe?”

  “My stepbrother. I’m not sure how much I should say.”

  “You told
Steve.”

  “Yes.”

  “You told Truly.”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t believe this! Someone wants to kill you, you’re hiding here and they didn’t think it was important for me to know?”

  “Ongoing investigation?”

  “There is so much wrong with this I don’t know where to start!”

  “Mom,” Truly said stepping into the room. “What’s going on?”

  “My fault,” I said. “She didn’t know about Joe.”

  “Someone’s trying to kill her.”

  “Not right at the moment. He tried once, years ago.”

  “He pushed me under a tractor that was harrowing a field.”

  “That’s what happened to your leg?”

  I nodded. “Didn’t you tell her anything,” I asked Truly in amazement.

  “That’s your story to tell,” he shot back.

  I shook my head. “I give you permission to tell everyone. You can write songs about it for all I care.”

  “Thank you, maybe I’ll take you up on that offer.”

  “The private is always public for performers.”

  “That includes you now.”

  “What’s all the ruckus?” Steve asked as he entered the den. “I could hear you all the way out in the yard.”

  “Someone’s trying to kill her,” Emily said.

  Steve glanced to me before he said anything.

  “I was led to believe it was just an incredibly dysfunctional family situation. You two,” Emily said pointed at the men in her family, “knew and kept it from me.”

  “It’s part of an ongoing investigation,” Steve said.

  “At least you have your stories straight.”

  Steve turned to us. “Why don’t you go rehearse for a while and I’ll bring Mom up to speed.”

  I followed Truly out of the den. “Like I want to sing with you tonight.”

  “That’s funny. I feel the same way about you.”