September Song

by Jeanie Freeman-Harper

  “Why has he not told you, if you are , indeed the messenger?”

  “He must find a way to connect with you himself, so you can believe without doubt. When the time is right, he will come to you and you will know the truth.”

  Emma peered intently into the Piano Man’s eyes. “Who are you really?”

  “Who and what I am doesn't matter. Think of me as your guardian angel if you like. It’s as good a gig as singing Sinatra badly.”

  Emma gave him a small breathless laugh.

  “And Emma, don't marry anyone unless he…”

  “...rings my bell?”

  “Yes... and for the whole world to hear.”

  “A wise person told me that recently.”

  Piano Man raised his eyebrows and grinned. “ I am certain you already know your bell ringer?”

  Tears welled in her eyes and blurred her sight “Yes, I do, but it may be too late. I’ve pushed him aside for years. After I saw how foolish I’d been, he seemed remote...now that he needs someone more than ever.”

  Piano Man rose from the chair and smiled down at her. “You have the power within you. Use it,” he whispered, and then he disappeared down an alleyway and was gone from her sight.

  Emma felt an emptiness immediately after a sense of serenity, somehow knowing that all the uncertainties of the past would soon come to an end. Yet who was the man, really? She somehow knew that she would never see him again, that he had done what he was sent to do and had moved on

  The drive back to Grace's townhouse was quiet, and then just before they arrived, Emma dug in her heels and spoke frankly: “Mother, do you know how much I've always wanted to please you?”

  “I think I’m beginning to see that.”

  “Everything I’ve done in my life has been for the sole purpose of making you proud of me. Now I just have to be proud have of myself. Do you know what I mean?”

  “I believe I do know. I saw your face last night at the party. I could see the anguish beneath the brave smile. Strange how I never saw it until last night, isn’t it? I’ve given it thought, and I give you my blessing...whatever you decide to do with the rest of your life.”

  “I do appreciate that, Mother, but I am not asking for you to bless my decisions...but to try to understand. There is a difference.”

  “I am giving it for my sake. Do you understand?

  “Yes.”

  “And I have to learn to let go... so people can live their own lives.”

  “Including Dad?”

  “Including your father. It's time to set him free, church doctrine aside.”

  Mother and daughter looked at each other and smiled, and the weight of a lifetime vanished.

  The time had come to set things right all the way around, and as much as Emma dreaded it, she could no longer delay. That evening, Emma walked two blocks down to Benjamin's condo. He answered the doorbell with a half shaved face, a towel around his shoulders.

  “Well, this is a surprise. I was just getting ready for our dinner date. Come in while I finish getting ready.”

  “No, I guess I can say what I have to say right here. Forgive me for not coming in. I won't be going to dinner with you tonight... or any other night, Ben. I am sorry if I led you on...or if I simply didn’t speak up sooner...but I just cant do this.”

  She took his hand and placed the engagement ring in it and closed his fingers around it. “Why don't you hold onto this and have it restyled for the right woman when she comes along. As much as I love it, the ring doesn't belong on my hand. Save it for someone who...well...who rings your bell.”

  Ben’s face went bright red beneath the shaving cream.“What are you doing? Who do you think you are? After all I have gone through to have you, you are jilting me?”

  “Yes, that’s right. I’m jilting you, but you may tell people you dumped me ...if it salvages your pride.”

  Ben wiped his face vigorously with his towel. “You can forget about the alliance with Metro Gallery. I’ll see that you never show your work there again or any other place in this city!”

  “I understand. I will find a place of my own ...just not here. You may be surprised to know Boston is not the center of my universe...and neither are you any more.”

  “Where would you have been without Boston and me and all that money you made. It was my doing.”

  “I will be happy to share part of my earnings with you...whatever is reasonable.”

  “Oh... so now you want to pay me off?”

  “Yes, that’s right. Consider it just another one of your smart business deals...payment for services rendered.”

  “Keep it! Do you think I need your money?”

  “Goodbye Benjamin. I never meant for things to get to this point. I just haven't been thinking clearly.”

  Ben threw his arms into the air. “And you are now?”

  “Oh yes...for the first time in my life.”

  Emma walked away, leaving her wannabe husband standing at the door, stunned beyond belief.

  That night Emma slept better than she had in a long time. At first she thought Ethan had not come through to her. But deep into the night came a dream of drowning. She was back in the lake and reaching for that ladder on the side of the boat. She saw herself in the way of a separate entity somewhere above. She could see herself struggling at the side of the catamaran and going under the water. She felt eyes watching. She saw hands lifting the ladder...feminine hands with nicely manicure nails .

  Amy. My God.

  Then she saw herself with Amy at Ruby’s Diner. She heard herself tell Amy of her plans to go home to curl up by the fireplace. And then she saw Amy unlocking the house while Emma was upstairs, using Tommy’s realtor key, pulling the lever that closed off all ventilation. Emma felt that same deadly fogginess again, as if the gas was reentering her bloodstream.

  Emma awoke with a start, and gratefully slept dreamless, until the old familiar dream of Moon Lake replayed one last time. Yet now, all the pieces were there, and it was so real that it was as if time had wound itself backwards, bringing her back with a clarity that had once been blocked by a traumatized mind.

  She saw herself running toward the boat. She saw Ethan’s dog Mutt barking and looking down into the water from the pier. She was again running barefoot through the grass, hair blowing behind her, calling Ethan’s name. She looked down, and there was her love lying in shallow water. She saw herself pulling, dragging his body, hovering over him on the bank, willing him to take her breath and make it his own. She could see a face turned toward her from the trees. She saw it clearly for the first time:

  Tommy. Come back. Help him!

  Then Ethan appeared to her. He was seventeen and just as he was in life: golden and strong.

  “Don’t leave me again !” she cried.

  “I never chose to leave you the first time,” came the soft reply. “ I am always with you... forever.”

  Ethan faded away as a vapor dissipating into the air, but the dream continued. She saw herself screaming and calling for help, and there was Mutt, running up and down the bank, barking frantically. “Go to the house, Mutt! Go get help… go on boy!”

  Just before help arrived, she saw herself lift Ethan’s lifeless hand to take it to her lips. She opened his tightly clenched fist and five links from a silver necklace fell to the ground. Without thought, she stuffed it into the pocket of her shorts, not knowing why and what she had done, except that he had held it in his hand. Then she heard the ambulance coming down Lakeside with its siren growing louder. She saw her father pulling her away from Ethan’s body, and she was screaming and calling Ethan’s name, over and over. Then blackness, nothingness.

  She saw herself awakening in a ward inside the hospital, and she knew not how long she had been there. She saw herself sobbing into her pillow. No more, no more.

  She willed the nightmare to end.

  Wake up Emma. Wake up and go back.

  She awakened with the rising sun and the sound of mourning doves calling th
rough the open window. It was as if she had awakened a different person, whole and sound. She knew she had gone all the way through to the very end. Only one thought remained: the missing links. She had the missing links somewhere, pieces of the puzzle that would bring the terrible crime to light. The question was, who had taken her clothing from the hospital that day?

  19: Avenging Angel

  “Mother, please wake up. It’s important.” Grace fumbled for the lamp switch and squinted sleepily at her daughter beside her on her bed. “Emma, please. It’s the middle of the night.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Emma. “...but we have to talk. I have a question to ask, and it’s going to sound strange.”

  “Well...go ahead. Nothing surprises me when it comes to you. What is it?"

  “I'd like to ask you something. Think back. Remember when they took me to the hospital, the day I found Ethan.”

  “I remember. You were screaming, incoherent, and then blacking out on us. They had to bring a second ambulance for you. That was the beginning of your amnesia.”

  “I can recall everything now. But there is one thing I can’t know. Only you would know.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  ‘Those white shorts I had on that day...when you took them home to wash them...did you find anything in one of the pockets. Can you remember?”

  Grace rubbed her eyes, propped herself up on her pillow and thought for a moment.

  “Now that you mention it, there were several links to a piece of jewelry...a bracelet ...or maybe a necklace. It was damaged, as if it had been broken off the chain. I forgot to ask you about it... what with all the confusion and worry… and your therapy every day. I put it away somewhere, I believe.”

  “Can you remember where?”

  “Well, let's see...oh I do remember. I put it in my sewing basket...in a side pocket where I keep extra buttons. It was cheap looking to me. I remember wondering why you had it . It couldn’t have been of much value. It meant something to you, I suppose.”

  “It’s more valuable than you know. It’s the final piece of a puzzle. The last time you needed a button, did you look there? Did you see it?”

  “Emma, do I seem like the kind of woman who sews on buttons? I own a sewing basket because it was a wedding present from your Grandmother Donovan. I don't remember ever using it, except to store trinkets.”

  “May I look in it?”

  “Help yourself. As far as I know, it’s still on the shelf in my closet.”

  “You have been a huge help!” Emma hugged her mother who groaned, pulled the cover over her head and went back to sleep.

  Later that morning, back in Cobblers Cove, the lights came on early at the St. Claire house. Brad had arrived to help Lucas unload the cattle trailer from auction when Emma called.

  “I have it Dad. I have the piece that goes to Tommy’s necklace. That day...when he died, it fell out of Brad’s hand, and I held onto it, because I thought it was his. I was out of it. You know I was. I have it back in my possession. There's more. Last night, I recalled everything...right up to being able to identify Tommy’s face just before he fled the scene. That makes me something close to an eye-witness, doesn't it? Now, at last, I can help bring this to a close when I get home. Tommy killed Ethan...just as you suspected. I hope I’ll be able to talk to Brad now. I want him to know.”

  “You did good, Emma. As for Brad...he's here today, but he’s already gone out back. I can try to get him to call you back. He's not in a very receptive mood. You know the rumor is, you’ve accepted Ben's engagement ring. I’m not sure Brad has the heart to talk to you. Besides that, he was brought in for questioning yesterday. ”

  “If you see him, will you tell him something for me?”

  “Don’t you think it best that you come home and tell him yourself?”

  “I’ll be home in the next few days...and Daddy?”

  “Yes, Emmie?”

  “I love you.”

  She could hear the soft, happy chuckle on the other end . “I suspected it all along. I love you too. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you have finally found some peace, and we can get this all behind us.”

  “Not quite yet. That will have to wait until the day Tommy Walker pays for his crime. Amy is the one who tried to scare me off when I first came back home. More than that, she almost did me in. She knows, Dad. She knows everything. She was clever enough to tell the partial truth about the matching hearts, so as not to appear guilty of hiding anything she knew. She made up the part about Tommy losing the necklace at the gym."

  “I never trusted either one of them,”Lucas replied. “We'll talk about it when you come home. Let me know about your flight out. I need to call Georgia with the good news. See you soon.”

  Georgia Abernathy was not nearly as happy and relieved as Lucas had thought she would be. Then he reminded himself that he was dealing with a damaged human being and a hermit whose outlook toward life was skewed, if not borderline psychotic. He decided to use patience and gentle persuasion:

  “You can’t give up now, Georgia. We’ve come too far. Emma is an eye witness to Tommy leaving the scene. She has total recall now...plus having the fitting piece to Tommy’s necklace.”

  “It’s still not enough, Lucas. They will never charge him, much less convict him.”

  “ How so?”

  “Thomas Walker Sr. will buy his boy the best lawyer in Texas. They’ll twist the evidence and ridicule Emma publicly…and she’s taken enough from all of us in this town as it is. So has Brad. Now the whole town is carrying the gossip that the Walkers propagated, and some of them want Brad arrested...just on hearsay, mind you. You just don’t get it, Lucas. Tommy will walk away a free man... after drowning my son and making my grandson ‘s life miserable. God knows what future violence he may be capable when he gets away with murder.”

  Lucas took a long deep breath. “Have it your way, Georgia. But Emma and I will, at least, try to see justice served.”

  “Justice will be served, Lucas. On that you can rely.”

  After hanging up the phone, Georgia Abernathy walked through her house as if sleepwalking. She dressed, washed her breakfast dishes , made her bed—all the countless mundane things she did every morning of her pointless little life. Yet it was not just any morning. She glanced at the hall clock. It was 9:30 AM. It was the dawn of retribution. She walked into her bedroom, opened her dresser drawer and reached for the 357 Magnum revolver that had belonged to her late husband. The weapon had never been used but had been kept for protection, due to several break-ins in the neighborhood. Next to it was a box of shells, which Georgia loaded into all six chambers.

  Then she went out to the Mercury parked in the garage and placed the weapon in the passenger seat. She paused for a brief moment and listened to the music coming from the house next door, watched leaves falling from the old oak tree in her front yard. She memorized every little detail, just as it had been for the last forty years. Everything in that moment was in sharp focus, as if she saw clearly for the first and last time. It was just another ordinary day in an ordinary small Texas town. Or so it seemed.

  Georgia cranked up and eased out of the garage. The old car had been driven more in the last week than it had been driven in the last seventeen years. Only now had she found purpose to a lonely and reclusive life.

  She drove down Main Street and surprised folks who waved a she passed by. She noticed no one. And someone said “There's Mrs Abernathy, out and about. Wonders never cease. She’s getting better.” And that same person would say, later, “I knew something was not right when I saw her.” Such is human nature.

  She turned onto Lakeside Road, passing the Caldwell Ranch and then the St. Claire Place, where Lucas was chatting with Brad on the porch. The men waved, just as Georgia passed Moon Lake and the very spot where she had lost her son.

  “Where do you think she’s going, Lucas?” Brad asked. “ There’s no one living down at that end...just a few real estate offices selling
lake side properties.”

  It hit Lucas like a kick in the head. He thought of Georgia’s last words just before she hung up the phone: “Justice will be served,” she had said. Lucas swore under his breath and grabbed his boots from the back porch, hopping on first one leg and then the other as he put them on ,in a rush headlong out the door and into the pickup, with Brad right behind him.

  Lucas peeled out, with tires screaming and sped down the road behind the Mercury, accelerating until his Dodge truck was on its tail. He knew Georgia saw him behind her, and although he had concern for her part in an unsafe race, he knew in his heart he had no choice. He knew her mission. And so the two vehicles snaked round the winding curves of Lakeside at a high speed, until Brad gave Lucas a startled look. “Hey, man. What are you doing?”

  Lucas answered through clenched teeth, and the intensity in his face told Brad all he wanted to know: “You’re about to find out,” he replied.

  Georgia figured she had timed it perfectly. She had just enough time before Lucas pulled up. She roared up to the office with the sign “Walker Realty” above the door. Through the front picture window, she saw Tommy leaning back in his chair with feet on the desk, hands intertwined behind his head, eyes closed. He did not look ready for business and looked unshaven, as if he had spent the night in the office. Georgia smiled, thinking that things must be going badly for Tommy at home.

  When she rushed through the door, Tommy opened bloodshot eyes, and in a split second, knew he was meeting with Destiny. Georgia raised the Magnum and aimed for his forehead. When she spoke, she was stunned by the sinister serenity in her voice. It was as if it were not her voice at all:

  “This is what it feels like to be taken by surprise, Tommy... the way you took my son. Only difference is, I am facing you and looking you in the eyes.”

  Tommy dove under his desk at the exact moment Georgia pulled off the first shot which tore through the wall above him, creating a hole the size of his head.