I poked my head out the back door and Drew was pounding a hammer into a slab of wood against the window frame.
“What’s going on?” I called out over the sound of the wind.
“Hurricane changed course again. It’s heading this way.”
“Are you serious?” Oh, crap! So it wasn’t a storm anymore? They’d talked about it on the news the night before, but it was supposedly going to change course and go somewhere else. It had hit a few other islands, but all we’d gotten was rain. Last night before we went to bed, the weatherman said it had been downgraded into a tropical storm. Had it regrouped itself overnight? Darn! One week left here and I had to experience a hurricane.
“Do you need help?”
He paused for a second and then said, “Yeah, I’ve got most of the windows but the three side ones. Know how to use a hammer?”
“Of course.” I was lying but I couldn’t just stand there and leave him out in the wind and rain doing all the work. Especially after my “I am woman, hear me roar” speech the other night. I’d better put up or shut up.
Besides, I thought, as I climbed the wobbly stepladder, I was no longer fat Amelia Wilson. I was athletic Amelia Wilson, who knew her way around a hammer. God, help me, please.
“You all right?” he yelled. The wind was picking up, and the rain was blowing into my eyes.
“Yup,” I yelled back. I couldn’t really see what I was doing but I decided to try anyway. I held the board against the window and placed the nail against it. As I raised the hammer, a wind gust whooshed against me. I felt the stepladder wobble and next thing I knew I was on the ground. I had landed in a patch of grass, flat on my butt, which hurt like hell. My hand was throbbing because I’d tried to break the fall. Drew came running.
“You okay?”
I nodded. My hand felt like it was broken and some bone in my behind was pounding. I bit my lip and held back the urge to cry. He helped me up, and my butt hurt even more when I stood. “I’m fine,” I said.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” The rain was coming down in sheets now and we were both soaked. The wind was so fierce I could hardly keep my eyes open.
“Go inside,” he said. “I’ll be done in a few minutes.”
I limped in the back door, flexing my wrist back and forth. I didn’t think it was broken, but it really hurt. Oh, me and my bravado.
Ten minutes later, Drew was inside, wet as a dog.
“Your hand okay?”
I nodded. I’d taken some Tylenol and the pain had decreased to a dull throb. But the weather had gotten worse. The wind had gotten stronger and I thought I heard a thud, like a tree falling outside. I didn’t even want to ask.
“It’s bad out there,” he said, changing into dry clothes.
“What do people do during a hurricane?”
“Wait it out. The power’s gonna go out pretty soon. I have lamps and a few candles in the kitchen. We’ll save the generator for the days ahead. I need to go check on Mom.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard.
He looked at me and tied up his shoelaces. “She’s by herself up there, Amelia.”
“She’s not by herself. The maid’s with her. The driver’s with her.”
“That old man can’t do anything…”
“What…What about me? You’re leaving me here all by myself?”
He stopped and sighed. “I’ll be back as soon as I check things out up there. You’ll be fine.”
“No, I won’t be fine, Drew!” I sounded hysterical but I didn’t care. “I’m freaking scared. I’ve never been in a hurricane before and I’m not staying here all alone!”
He looked at me as if he’d never seen me before, and that’s when something occurred to me. He didn’t know. He had no idea. He just didn’t know what he was supposed to do. It’s like he was stuck in between being his own man and Vanessa’s son. He looked torn and confused.
“Drew, I’m going to be your wife,” I said in a voice I usually reserved for my thickest-headed students. “You can’t just leave me and go to her, okay?”
He looked stunned, the same way Vanessa had looked when I told her that she needed to butt out of our business. They had no idea how codependent they were on each other.
“Can’t one of your brothers-in-law go over there? They’re only a few minutes away from her house.”
He hesitated. “I guess they could. I’ll call.”
But the phone rang before he could pick it up. It was Vanessa calling to see if we were okay.
“We’re fine,” I told her. She sounded oddly calm. “How are you holding up?” I asked her.
“Oh, I’m fine. My friend James is here. He even helped the gardener board up the windows last night.”
Mr. James was there? She sure moved fast. “That’s good news, Vanessa. We were worried about you….”
“That’s why I called, sweetheart,” she said. “There’s no need to worry about me.”
“Do you need to speak to Drew?”
“No, tell him I’m fine. I’ll see him tomorrow.”
I looked at Drew, who stood there expectantly, waiting for the phone.
“Oh, and Amelia, don’t worry about this storm. I’ve been through hundreds of these. It’s just a little wind and rain.”
“Thanks, Vanessa,” I said and hung up. She acted like we had not even had our heated discussion. Did she forget or was Mr. James that good?
“She didn’t want to talk to me?” Drew looked hurt.
“No, I think Mr. James is over there.” I searched his face for his reaction. I could tell he was disappointed. But I was ecstatic! Thank you, Mr. James!
Then the wind howled and the house went black. I ran to Drew. “Calm down,” he laughed.
We lit a few lamps and candles all over the house and sat on the couch, listening to the wind and the rain outside.
“I didn’t mean to yell earlier. About your mom.”
He shrugged. “It’s okay. I wish you’d said something earlier. I didn’t know it bothered you that much.”
Was he that dense?
“After my dad died, my mom had a really hard time. I was the only person she could lean on. My sisters were busy with their families, and they never really got along with her.” That didn’t surprise me.
“I understand,” I said. “But you can’t always be there for her forever. You have to live your own life, Drew.” As I said those words I felt that I was speaking them to myself. We were the same, Drew and me. We were both being pulled in all directions by possessive, manipulative mothers who forced us into thinking we owed them so much.
“I can’t turn my back on her.”
“I’m not asking you to. Just don’t forget I need you, too.”
“Okay. Oh, and since we’re talking…Why don’t you tell me exactly what happened during that weekend with Whitney?”
I told him everything.
“You need some new girlfriends,” he said.
“Yeah? Like Shauna maybe?”
He shook his head. “I was wondering when you’d bring that up.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you guys had been involved?”
“There’s nothing to tell. That was a long time ago.”
“Really? I find it hard to believe that there’s nothing to tell. I mean, Shauna’s a smart, gorgeous sister…”
“And so are you…. We dated for three months, then it just didn’t work out. I was too busy working. And Shauna’s a handful.”
“That’s all there is to it?”
“That’s all there is to it, Amelia.”
Okay. I would accept that. “And since we’re in confession mode, Drew, I need to ask you something.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
I told him that I’d found the passports while I was looking for drawer space for my new clothes. He tensed when I mentioned the name Steve Harrison.
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he said.
“I want t
o know…What’s the story behind all that?”
He stood up and for a second I thought he’d end the conversation and run off to Vanessa in the middle of the storm. Instead, he went to one of his bookshelves and rifled through a stack of books and pulled out a yellowing newspaper.
“Here.” He handed it to me.
It was an Atlanta Journal Constitution from seven years ago. The headline read: DOT-COM ENTREPRENEUR FLEES COUNTRY WITH $32 MILLION. I looked at his face and it was passive. “Read it,” he said.
The story wasn’t very long. It said that Drew and his partners had sold their company to GE for sixty million dollars and that there’d been a dispute among the five partners about how the money would be divvied up. Before the lawsuit was settled, Drew left the United States, moving thirty-two million dollars into overseas accounts that his partners couldn’t touch. He was considered a fugitive by the FBI and the authorities in the state of Georgia.
I took several deep breaths as I read the story. This couldn’t be true. There was something missing. That still did not explain who Steve Harrison was.
“Is all of this true?” I asked.
He looked at me seriously. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know, Drew. Why don’t you tell me your side of it?”
“I started that company, Amelia. On my own. Those guys…my partners came in after I’d built it into something worth selling. What I did was stupid, I know. I’d just lost my father and I just wanted to be away from the States. So I took what I thought rightfully belonged to me and I left.”
I tried to streamline my thoughts. So the story was true. He had stolen—or taken—the money. Except that he was saying that it was his to begin with.
“Who is Steve Harrison?” I asked, trying to put all the pieces together.
He sat down again. “When you came down to visit me that first time…I…knew I wanted to marry you to be with you forever. But I couldn’t travel to the States using my own documents. I’d get arrested the minute I hit U.S. soil. So I had the passport made up so I could come and visit you.”
I stood and scratched my head. He’d broken the law. For me. “What if you’d gotten caught?”
He shrugged. “It was worth it.”
“Drew, I’m so…I can’t believe all of this.”
“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“Does Vanessa know?”
“Yes.”
“Who else knows?”
“Rumors have been going around on the island, but only a few of my associates know the whole story. We look out for each other.”
“So where’s the money?” I had to ask.
“It’s being put to good use,” he said. “It’s helping people.”
I sat down again. Who did he think he was? Robin Hood?
“I’ll understand if you…if this changes things for you.” He let his arms drop by his side and a space formed between us on the couch.
Was he a criminal? I believed him; his version fit in more with the Drew Anderson I knew. But according to the FBI, he was a fugitive. He could never visit the States without worrying about getting caught and probably sent off to prison. Was there a way to make this right? And could I be with someone who had something so big hanging over his head? Did that make me an accessory?
We didn’t talk much more; we just let the howling wind punctuate the silence and we watched the candles flicker. Eventually, he fell asleep, but I stayed awake listening to the wind and thinking how at that point I didn’t care about what happened eleven years ago. I didn’t want to go back home, even with the scary hurricane tearing up the world outside, even with Drew not being the perfect man that I thought he was.
Chapter 31
Hurricane Erica left a few twisted trees and torn-off roofs in her wake, but no lives were lost. The day had risen with clear skies and sparkling seas; it was like the hurricane had not even been here at all.
I was awakened by voices outside. It was nearly six A.M. I looked out the window and Drew was in an animated conversation with his two lawyers, Phillip and Jason. What were they doing here so early? And on the day after a hurricane? I had to find out.
“Hi, guys,” I said, from the back porch. All three seemed surprised by the interruption.
“Why are you up so early?” Drew asked.
“I heard you guys talking. What’s going on?”
Jason spoke up. “We just wanted to make sure everything was fine up here.” There was something so smarmy about that guy. I wondered if he was tied to that whole embezzling mess. What was a rich white guy doing living down here anyway?
“I’ll be in in just a second,” Drew said, dismissing me with his expression.
Fine. I went inside and began to make breakfast. Something else is going on, I thought. Has to be. Those guys are really upset about something. A minute later, Drew came in from outside.
“Where are your friends?”
“They left.”
We ate breakfast silently at first. I tried to find the right words. “I believe you, Drew,” I said.
“I’m glad you do,” he said.
“Those guys, Jason and Phillip, do they know? Is something else going on?”
“They know. They’re my lawyers, Amelia. And, no, nothing else is going on. We shouldn’t talk about this anymore.”
I wasn’t all the way convinced, but I’d accept this for now. “How can you make this right, Drew?”
“Turn myself in. Have a trial and convince a jury that I didn’t do anything wrong.”
The way he said it made it sound impossible. “Don’t you want it to go away sometimes?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think about it often. I’m happy here; I don’t want to live anywhere else. And I didn’t do anything wrong, Amelia.”
“I know,” I said. “But they think you did.”
“They’re wrong. And I don’t care what they think.”
“Can they come and arrest you here?”
“No, they don’t have jurisdiction, and there’s no way our government would extradite me.”
Of course. He was their great hope. Then I thought, he bought this place. This entire country was his because he could afford it. Thirty-two million U.S. dollars was a gold mine here. No wonder he was being groomed for greatness. He’d bought his way in on his father’s reputation and his thirty-two million dollars. But this is what politicians do, a voice in my head said. It had nothing to do with Drew as a person. Or did it? Could I separate him from the practical, scheming politician who I was beginning to see emerge? I didn’t ask any more questions. I pretended that everything was back to normal.
We went outside to survey the damage and it seemed that the entire island had undergone a cleansing. Even with all the debris laying about there was purity in the air and crispness to the colors under the blazing sun. Our jacaranda tree would have to be cut down; it leaned dangerously to the side as if straining to hear some conversation with the earth, and some of its branches were touching the ground. I couldn’t even see the hammock. I wanted to cry when I saw its forlorn, twisted trunk.
From the front porch the calm ocean glistened blue, miles and miles away in the distance, and seagulls swooped overhead. A wren landed on a calabash tree and twittered. Once again, I felt that I was in the Dominica of Wide Sargasso Sea. This place was insanely beautiful and I couldn’t imagine going back to cold, gray, old Boston.
Drew came up behind me with the dog. “Wanna go walk with us?”
My hand was still achy and my butt still hurt from my fall, but I was curious to see how the rest of Castle Comfort had fared in the storm. Sonny ran ahead of us, sniffing the ground. Branches were strewn across the narrow road and some of the trees listed dangerously as if they would break at the slightest breeze. We’d been so lucky. My favorite tree was gone, but at least the house had been spared.
Jimmy Wilkes and his parents were clearing branches from their huge front yard. Drew waved and Jimmy came running toward us. He went straig
ht for Sonny, who promptly began to lick his face.
“Sonny, your breath stinks!” Jimmy said.
“Hi, Jimmy,” I said, making the first move.
“Were you scared last night?” He stared hard at me as if he dared me to tell the truth. But I was not competing for a medal of courage with a seven-year-old.
“A little bit,” I said. “Were you?”
“Nope,” he said. “I’m not a girl.”
“Boys get scared, too,” I said. Sheesh! What were his parents teaching him?
“Not during hurricanes.”
Fine. Whatever, Jimmy.
“When are you leaving?” he asked.
“Soon. But I’m coming back,” I said.
His face fell. That kid just hated me and I didn’t know why.
“Jimmy, we gotta go. See you later, man,” Drew said.
“All right, man,” Jimmy said, sounding as grown up as a 7-year-old could.
“Why does he hate me?” I groaned.
“He doesn’t hate you. I think he has a big crush on you. That’s just his way of showing it.”
“Uh-huh. Whatever.”
I could hear the river raging louder than usual, and I wanted to see it. When we crossed the grove of guava trees that led to it we stopped as the ground began to sag under our feet. I could feel water seeping into my sneakers. Silly me had decided not to wear socks. “It’s too dangerous,” Drew said. “We shouldn’t go any farther.”
“Why not?” I was disappointed. I’d never seen an overflowing river up close.
“Don’t even think about the waterfall,” he said, a warning look in his eyes. I pouted dramatically.
“You think this is really cool, don’t you?”
I didn’t sense where he was going so I glibly said, “Yeah. No one got hurt, right?”
He shook his head. “Do you know how much money this storm is going to cost the government? Power lines are down all across the country. People lost their homes. And a lot of animals died. That’s people’s livelihood.”
Oh, shoot! I remembered the family of goats that lived up in the hills. Did they make it out alive? “Drew…I…” What I should have said was that I hadn’t thought of it that way, but saying that would make me sound even more pathetically naïve and selfish.
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