The Mill River Redemption

by Darcie Chan

  Emily rolled her eyes. Unlike Rose, she rarely went to football games and never went to school dances afterward. The music was always so loud, and even if she had known how to dance, she didn’t have a boyfriend to dance with.

  “Why can’t you get a ride with one of the other cheerleaders? They’ll all be going, too.”

  “I’m always bumming rides,” Rose complained. She was adjusting her red, white, and blue uniform with the school’s Minutemen logo. “It gets old after a while. Can you just come with me, this once? You can bring a book or your sketchpad or something and hang out in an empty classroom. You don’t have to dance. We can meet up when it’s over.”

  Emily sighed. Trying to deny her sister was always a losing battle.

  She ended up bringing her homework for English class. After the football game, as Rose disappeared into the darkened gymnasium, Emily slipped into an unlocked classroom. To her surprise, she was able to block out most of the pulsing rock music coming from the gym and focus on her reading.

  When the music stopped, Emily looked at the clock on the wall and gathered up her things. It was almost eleven. Sure enough, the other students were filing out of the gym. She watched for Rose, waiting until the last of the kids cleared out, but her sister wasn’t among them.

  She joined the other students walking toward the parking lot. Her mother’s old station wagon was in the same space where they’d left it before the game. Emily leaned against the back end, assuming that Rose would soon show up, but after another fifteen minutes had passed, the wagon was the only car left in the lot.

  Emily placed her books on the hood of the car and walked back to the school. Already, the lights inside were turned off and the outer doors were locked. The chaperones at the dance must have made sure before they’d gone home that nobody was left in the school. But, if Rose wasn’t inside, where was she?

  A fluttering, panicky feeling started to build in her stomach.

  Maybe she left with some friends. Of course, after Rose had made such a big deal about driving to the game herself, that was unlikely. Maybe she really did get locked inside the building. Trying to ignore the chilly autumn air, Emily started to walk the perimeter of the high school, looking in through the main glass doors and tugging on the handles in the hope of finding one that was still open.

  The back of the school faced the football field. As she rounded the building’s corner, a movement near the bleachers in the distance caught her eye. Someone had stepped out from behind them just for a moment. At about that time, she heard an angry female voice, followed by a scream that was cut short.

  Rose.

  Emily ran toward the bleachers. The sounds of struggle became audible—the scraping of shoes on the ground intermingled with deep laughter and muffled screams.

  There were two tall, well-built young men. One of them was trying to keep Rose’s arms pinned behind her and a hand over her mouth, but she was twisting and kicking with all her strength to break free from his grasp. The other man was reaching under her cheerleading uniform as he laughed. Neither one of them heard Emily approach.

  “That’s my sister! Get your hands off her!” Emily screamed as loud as she could. The men whirled around in surprise. For a moment, no one spoke.

  “Well, would you look at that,” one of the men finally said. “Now we don’t have to share.”

  “And she’s a redhead,” the other man replied. He leered at Emily and started toward her.

  I’ll never outrun him, Emily thought, and even if she ran, there was no one around. Besides, she wouldn’t, couldn’t leave Rose. She felt her legs start to shake. For a split second, her eyes locked with her sister’s, but it was long enough. A great wave of energy seemed to flow from Rose’s green eyes into her blue ones, infusing her with newfound courage. Her trembling subsided.

  “You get your hands off my sister!” she screamed again. She didn’t run or even flinch. She glowered at the man advancing on her and pointed in the direction of the school parking lot. “Our mother is waiting in the car over there, and her best friend is married to the chief of police. If we’re not down there in thirty seconds, and maybe even if we are, you’re gonna have every cop in Rutland County after you. I’d start running now, if I were you.”

  The man advancing on her stopped cold and looked over his shoulder at his companion. At exactly that moment, Rose managed to bite down on her captor’s hand.

  “Ow! Goddamnit, she bit me,” he said. He released Rose roughly, shoving her to the ground, so that he could cradle his bleeding hand.

  “Aw, fuck this,” the other one said. Together, the men took off into the trees behind the athletic field.

  “Rose!” Emily rushed to her sister and helped her up. “Are you hurt? Did they—”

  “No, they didn’t. I’m fine,” Rose said.

  “We’ve got to get to the car, in case they come back. Where’s your purse?” Her sister seemed rooted to one spot, so Emily searched around the bleachers until she found Rose’s purse on the ground. Quickly, she returned to her sister. “C’mon.”

  “Oh, God, Em.” Rose took a step forward and stumbled as she started to cry uncontrollably. Emily wrapped her arm around her sister’s waist for support. Rose smelled like sweat, their mother’s expensive perfume, and booze.

  When they reached the car, Emily pulled the keys out of the purse and helped Rose into the passenger’s seat.

  “You’re fourteen. You can’t drive,” Rose objected when she realized what Emily was doing.

  “I can tell that you’ve been drinking, and you’re still messed up from what those guys did,” she replied. “And I can drive. I’ve practiced on the back roads with Mom. Better to drive sober without a license than drive drunk and kill someone. Unless you’d prefer to call Mom to come get us.”

  Rose sat back in the seat. Emily took her silence for acquiescence and started the engine.

  “I thought you were going to the dance. How did you end up outside, behind the bleachers?” Emily asked. “Did you know those guys?”

  Rose rubbed her eyes and fished around in her purse for a tissue. “One of them, the one I bit, I met at the game. He came up and flirted a little afterward, and I snuck him into the dance. We went outside to hang for a little while ’cause he had some stuff to drink. I didn’t know he had someone else waiting up at the field.”

  Emily gritted her teeth. Now was not the time to criticize Rose’s lack of good judgment. “You need to report this. Those guys need to go to jail.”

  “Are you kidding? Mom’ll never let me out of the house again if she finds out about this. Or you, either. You’ve gotta swear, Em. You can’t say anything about tonight to anyone.”

  Emily sighed. She had a viselike grip on the steering wheel as she drove out of the school parking lot. The terror she had suppressed earlier finally began to ripple through her body, and she focused on her sister to keep from losing it before they got home. “Rosie, are you sure you’re okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

  “I’m fine,” Rose said again, although she sounded as if she was trying to convince herself of that. “Another five minutes, if you hadn’t come …” She turned to Emily. Her heavy eye makeup was smudged and running down her face. “Th-thank you.”

  “I guess we’re even now,” Emily said in a shaky voice. She half smiled at Rose even as her lip trembled. “And I didn’t even have an umbrella.”

  CHAPTER 23

  ROSE UNFOLDED AND REFOLDED THE SEVERAL SHEETS OF paper in her hand. There was a printout of Alex’s spreadsheet, her own handwritten list of objects in their house, and a copy of Emily’s list, which Alex had gotten from her sister. Many items in each column were highlighted in yellow. She’d tried to indicate the books and objects that might have a greater probability of being clues, but now, looking at the number of yellow marks, she realized that she really hadn’t made much progress at all. The headache she had from staring at the pages for so long wasn’t helping, either.

  It was incred
ibly frustrating, not being able to discern what her mother might have left as her clue. And, even though Alex was eager to help, he lacked the in-depth understanding of his late grandmother, and knowledge of Rose’s own time growing up in Mill River, that would certainly be needed to figure out her mother’s idiotic scheme. She hated to admit it, but her sister was right. Their only option, if they wanted to get out of Mill River anytime soon, was to sit down to discuss and think through the lists together.

  Rose took a deep breath. She would have given almost anything for some vodka in her orange juice at breakfast, but the wine she’d had the previous night had been the last of the alcohol in her house. A trip to the liquor store was definitely in order. It was just as well for now, though. If she had to interact with Emily, she would make sure she was stone-cold sober. The last thing she wanted to do was give her sister’s criticism any validity.

  Rose grabbed her purse and keys. “Alex, I’m going out for a bit. Stay in the house,” she called up the stairs.

  “Sure, Mom,” he answered from his room. “I’m just reading, anyway.”

  Typical, she thought. She stepped outside and saw Emily’s junk car parked down the street, which meant that her sister was home.

  Rose was already on the sidewalk before she noticed that there was something different about her own vehicle. Yesterday, her black BMW had been spotless. Now, the finish was mottled, covered in small, black-and-white lumps and splotches. She rushed over to get a closer look. There must be hundreds of them, she thought. Her beautiful, newly washed car was covered in bird crap. It was as if a whole flock had roosted on it.

  She was thinking about how to get back to the car wash without being seen driving such a horrendous mess when she noticed the birdseed. There wasn’t much of it, just some sunflower-seed shells and a few smaller, uneaten kernels remaining among the droppings on the hood. Rose backed up, feeling an ugly rage beginning to work its way up her body. She ran to Emily’s front door and pounded on it.

  Emily’s dog started barking immediately. By the time her sister had restrained the beast and come to the door, Rose was trembling so much that she had difficulty articulating her words.

  “I left my house intending to come over here and ask you whether you’d like to work through these,” Rose said as she held up the stack of papers. “But now, I’m here to tell you to stay the hell away from my car.”

  Emily’s eyes opened wide, but Rose knew her well enough to see that it was an expression of mock surprise. “Good morning to you, too,” Emily said, meeting her angry stare calmly. She held a cup of tea in one hand, and she casually sipped from it before continuing. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about with your car. What, did someone slash a tire or something?”

  Rose felt her nostrils flare. “You covered it in bird shit. Don’t you know that chemicals in bird shit can damage the finish on a car?”

  Emily shushed the dog, who was whining and trying to get past her out the door. “Oh please, Rose, no one can force birds to poop in any particular place.” Emily smiled. “If you’re serious about going over the lists, though, you’re welcome to come in.”

  “You can play Little Miss Innocent all you want, but I know your face and I know when you’re lying. I’m going to have my car washed—AGAIN—and if there’s any damage to the clear coat, you’re going to pay to have it redone.”

  “Like hell I am.”

  “And I may just file a police report while I’m out,” Rose said.

  “Go ahead,” Emily said. “You have no way of proving anything.”

  Rose clenched her teeth and nearly raised her hand. Even though she knew her sister was right, it was all she could do to keep herself from slapping the smug expression off Emily’s face.

  “As for the lists,” Emily went on, “none of the books or other stuff in your house or mine jump out at me as being things Mom would’ve left as clues. I assume you haven’t recognized anything obvious, either. Since Mom’s letter said that her safe-deposit-box key is also hidden somewhere on our properties, I’m going to forget about finding her clues and focus on searching for the key itself. If you want a quick end to our situation, I suggest you do the same.” With that, Emily grabbed her dog by the collar, pulled him backward into the house, and slammed the door.

  Rose screamed in frustration at the closed door before she got herself under control. She turned around and marched down the steps to the sidewalk, where Daisy Delaine was walking along the edge of the street on the other side of Emily’s car, staring at her. A little gray dog strained at the end of the leash in Daisy’s hand.

  “G-good morning, Miss Rose,” Daisy stammered with a shy smile.

  “The hell it is,” Rose snapped. With one hand in her purse fishing for her keys, she nearly ran to her car. She paused at the driver’s side door and had just pulled her keys from her purse to unlock it when she realized she’d stepped on something. Expecting to find that she’d tread on a big wad of chewing gum, she looked down and gasped. What was beneath her left foot and smeared up over the edge of her beautiful new Jimmy Choo cork sandal was far more disgusting.

  “You should clean up after your dog, do you hear me?” Rose yelled at Daisy’s back. She saw the short little woman startle at her words, but she didn’t bother to watch the rest of Daisy’s reaction. Fighting a worsening headache and a strong urge to vomit, she carefully slipped her left foot out of the sandal and, holding it outstretched in front of her, walked with one bare foot back into her house.

  EMILY, WHO WAS SPYING ON ROSE THROUGH THE WINDOW, BURST out laughing when she saw her remove one of her sandals and carry it inside.

  “All right, Puppy-G, let’s get to work,” she said to Gus, who was sitting at the window beside her. While Emily had already searched through every closet, drawer, and cupboard without finding any sort of key, there were still many other places where it could be hidden. With Gus trailing behind her, she went from room to room, feeling along the top of each window frame and doorjamb. She got a flashlight and peered behind and under every piece of furniture. She even felt around inside heating vents and along the pipes under the sinks.

  Still without success after hours of searching, Emily’s next step was to scour the garage in the same meticulous manner. That was a far dirtier and more unpleasant task but yielded the same results. When she finished in the garage, she went inside to the kitchen, wiped her grimy, sweaty face with a paper towel, and poured herself a glass of iced tea.

  Emily took the copy of her mother’s letter from its usual place on the dining room table and went out to the front porch to reread it for what seemed like the millionth time. Once seated in a folding chair, though, she found herself staring across to her mother’s barren house. Her gaze fixed on the concrete stoop at the end of the walkway. She had sat there once, with Andy. They’d brought a blanket out of the house and wrapped themselves in it, intending to watch a late-night meteor shower. The shooting stars had gone unnoticed, though. All she could remember was Andy sitting next to her, kissing her passionately …

  “Hi, Aunt Emily.”

  Her nephew’s voice startled her, and she looked up to see Alex standing at the base of her porch steps.

  “Hey!” She folded the letter and stuffed it into her pocket. “I was wondering when I’d see you again. You been all right?”

  “Yeah,” he said. He looked back at his house. “Mom’s sleeping again, so I thought I’d come out for a while.”

  “I’m glad you did.” Alex’s dejected expression turned into a smile. “Your book list was a huge help,” she continued. “It was so detailed and complete, and it convinced your mom and me that we don’t have time to look for the clues. It’ll be better to just focus on the key itself, and maybe now, with both of us looking for it, we’ll find it faster.”

  “I can help look, too, can’t I?”

  “Of course!” she said, and Alex’s face brightened further. “In fact, I think your mom would appreciate your help. It’s a lot of work searc
hing a house for something so small. It took me all day.”

  “You already searched your whole house?”

  “Yep. I looked in the house and the garage, but I didn’t find any key. I guess now I’ll have to check the roof and the yard.”

  “It might not be in either of those places,” Alex said. “It could be somewhere in our house.”

  “That’s true,” Emily said. “But, I’ve got to be thorough. If I check the last places over here without finding it, we’ll know it’s over at your house.”

  Alex nodded. “What was that paper you were holding a few minutes ago?”

  “The letter your grandma left me and your mom,” Emily said. “I was going to read it again in case there’s something in it, maybe a hint of some kind that I didn’t catch earlier. Your grandma was always extremely careful about everything she did and said.”

  “Mom let me read her copy of the letter, so I know it by heart,” Alex said.

  “Really? The whole thing?”

  “Yes,” Alex said. “I have an eidetic memory. After I read something, it just sticks in my brain.”

  “Are you serious?” Emily was surprised by her nephew’s admission, and she was curious as to what he really could do. She pulled the letter out of her pocket and unfolded it. “Okay, let’s see,” she challenged him with a playful smile. “Tell me what it says.”

  Alex smiled in return, but then his expression became solemn. He recited her mother’s letter word for word.

  Rose had been telling the truth about Alex’s brilliance.

  “Wow, Alex,” she said. “That’s … you’re … just amazing. I’ve never met anyone who can remember things like that. Can you do that with everything you read?”

  “Pretty much,” he said. “That’s why I don’t have to read anything more than once. And, if I want to reread something I really like, I don’t have to pick up the book again. I can just do it in my head.”

  “So, it’s sort of like you have a built-in library in there,” Emily said, tapping her temple with one finger.