“I wasn’t very good and was arrested for shoplifting, and taken to Juvenile Hall. When I appeared before the judge and told him why I took the clothes, he shipped me off to the last place.”
At this point, my grandmother was laughing so hard she got choked. I got up and got her a glass of water. I was laughing too, although this was the first time I could see any humor in that period of my life. After we both wiped our eyes, she told me to continue.
“Grandmother, this has made me remember something that I had forgotten. Before ending up with the Kitcheners, I seem to remember a long series of living here one or two days and then there for a few days. It seems like there were long trips during the night several times.
“I remember being wrapped up in blankets and riding in a truck with someone holding me in her lap. I’m sorry. That’s about all I can remember. But John can help me remember more, I know he can.”
“Some other time. Right now, we need to get some sleep. Tomorrow, we’re going to figure out what to do about Julia.”
I laughed, “I knew you’d kick ass when you got here.”
She joined in my laughter.
As I was getting into bed, I noticed it was four thirty in the morning and I felt bad for keeping my grandmother up.
We slept until noon that same day and I would have slept later but Rosa shook me awake.
“John wants us all in the living room, Brandy. He’s got word about Julia and it doesn’t sound good.”
When I got into the living room, my grandmother was telling John to hold the news until we all had our coffee and some breakfast. When the food came, we all ate like we hadn’t eaten in weeks. I noticed that my grandmother had on a silk robe and something lacy underneath. I thought she was so classy.
After breakfast, John pushed the cart out in the hall out of the way and came back in and said, “Julia is in a psychiatric hospital. After you left there, Vicky, she started having the nightmares and woke up screaming sometimes several times a night. As always, every time she started telling her parents what the dreams were about, they would shush her.
“According to agent Carr, they had been handling it this way ever since she went to work there as their housekeeper about six months ago. Last night Julia woke up screaming and no one could quiet her down. She continued to scream when the ambulance took her to the hospital. They had to give her sedatives and she finally quieted down and slept.
“But now, she’s in a regressed state and is talking like a little girl. She doesn’t know who her parents are and her psychiatrist suggested that you see her, Vicky.
“Agent Carr is on her way up here right now to go back with you and your grandmother. I will be staying here with Rosa to protect her. I’ve got to tell you, her so called parents aren’t going to be happy to see you again.”
“Well, that’s just too fucking bad.”
“Judith!!”
“I’m sorry grandmother but I’m so angry. They’re the ones who made her sick, not me. When do we leave, John?”
“Just as soon as you get dressed, packed, and I get you to the airport. You will be flown out of here on the FBI jet. Agent Carr is sitting in it waiting for you.”
My grandmother jumped up, “I can be ready in fifteen minutes.”
“Me too,” I said.
“John, you and Rosa keep the room. Stay here if you want. We’ll need it when we come back with Julia.”
No one said anything. I think everyone was in a state of shock that grandmother thought she could accomplish that so fast.
CHAPTER 15
If I hadn’t been so worried about Julia, I would have been excited about flying in a private jet. Tracy Carr met us at the door and acted like she was overjoyed to meet my grandmother.
“I’ve kept up with this case so long that I feel like I already know you,” she told my grandmother. “I’m so fortunate to be part of it, and I feel like there’s going to be happy endings for most of you. I can’t wait to put Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds behind bars, especially for the way they have treated Julia.”
I could tell that grandmother was being polite and not paying much attention to Tracy, but when Tracy said Reynolds, my grandmother’s head jerked like someone had slapped her.
“Are you talking about Carl and Catherine Reynolds?”
“Well, yes, that is their first names. Do you know them?”
I almost laughed out loud when grandmother snorted. She was the last person I would have expected to snort.
“Yes, you could say I know them. He and my husband used to be business partners until my husband found out that he was stealing money from the company. I told my husband at the time that he should press charges and have him put in jail, but Phillip always had a tender heart, which was one reason I married him.”
Grandmother’s eyes narrowed as she stared out the window. “I’m so looking forward to seeing them again. Catherine was a sorority sister when we were both at the University of Texas. While she and Carl were dating, he totally dominated her, and we all tried to talk her out of marrying him.
“I used to feel sorry for her when they used to come over to our house. He had taken all the starch out of her. By now she must be like a wet dish rag.”
“He controls everything and everyone. Did Vicky tell you about him trying to buy her off and then threatened her when she couldn’t be bought off?”
When grandmother nodded, she continued, “Well, that’s an example of his controlling behavior. He’s really the one who tried to shush Julia when she tried to tell them about the nightmares. I heard him tell his wife not to coddle Julia, and she would eventually outgrow these nightmares.”
“He’s both cruel and stupid,” I said. “I’ve had these dreams ever since I can remember, and they just get worse and more detailed, especially since coming to New Orleans. I’ll bet when Julia met me, it triggered more dream details, and she couldn’t control it anymore. I think a part of Julia knew that they were lying to her when they told her she wasn’t adopted, and now she can’t lie to herself anymore.”
“Why, Judith, what you just said sounds so insightful!”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about this since I discovered Julia. I’m so worried about her, Mimi.”
She got tears in her eyes, “You remembered! That’s what both of you always called me ever since you could both talk.”
I hugged her and I could feel myself getting choked up too. Just then the pilot came on and told us we would soon be landing at JAX and to fasten our seat belts.
Jacksonville airport wasn’t very large so it didn’t take us long to get our luggage and get a cab. We were soon on J. Turner Butler Blvd. heading toward the beach.
After awhile Tracy spoke up “Ocean Sands Psychiatric Hospital is right on the beach. It’s the best. Mr. Reynolds wouldn’t settle for anything less, of course. Her psychiatrist is Dr. Stevens, but her patients call her doctor Anna. She’s a very charming lady but she couldn’t share much with me. My cover hasn’t been blown with the Reynolds. They think I’m the concerned cook,” she laughed.
“I’ll see Dr. Anna as soon as we get there,” Mimi stated.
Tracy and I exchanged looks and we both grinned at each other. I was glad that both were on my side.
Tracy told the cab driver to stop at the Hampton Inn on J. Turner Butler Blvd. so we could drop off our luggage and get checked in before going to the hospital, but Mimi vetoed it.
“You just keep going,” she told the driver, “We’ll find a place to stay after we’ve seen the doctor and Julia.”
When we pulled onto the hospital grounds, we noticed that there were small buildings that looked like cottages on three sides of the hospital.
“Are those guest bungalows?” Mimi asked and Tracy said she didn’t know.
It turned out that they were guest bungalows and we were soon checked in by a nervous little man behind the desk in an office right next to the lobby of the hospital. The cottage we were in was so cute that I thought I would like to live ther
e.
It had two bedrooms and two baths, a living room with a fireplace, and a full sized kitchen that was fully stocked with drinks and snacks. I was looking at the fireplace and thinking it was chilly enough for a small fire and then it dawned on me that this was Thanksgiving Day. They were having the buffet at the club and then next week Ben would be back onshore.
My grandmother brought me back to reality when she said, “Well, I don’t need to freshen up, do you?”
When I shook my head, no, she said, “Good. We can shower when we get home tonight. I’m glad I didn’t let Tracy check us into a hotel. This is so much better. We can walk over and not have to worry about a car or cab. Let’s go”
The bungalow had a cute little porch and I noticed white wicker furniture and a swing. I thought about Dave and Jesse. As we walked past the other cottages, I noticed that each one was painted a different pastel color but all were trimmed in white. Ours was lime green.
I was afraid we would run into Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds and when we opened the door to the lobby, there they were. He was reading the Wall Street Journal and she was reading a Cosmopolitan magazine. I was surprised that Mimi didn’t see them. She told me she was going into the gift shop over there to see if she could find a little something for Julia and asked me if I wanted to come. I told her I’d wait for her here and she walked off. Mr. Reynolds looked up and saw me.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he yelled, “it’s because of you that my baby is here. What did you do, fill her head with a bunch of lies? I warned you.” He said as he moved toward me.
“Back off Charles, you arrogant son-of-a-bitch,” Mimi said as she hurried out of the gift shop.
When he saw her, Mr. Reynolds’ face drained of all color, but he recovered quickly, “Well, if it’s not Vera. You’re just as beautiful as ever. What are you doing here? Do you have a relative here? And how did you know Vicky?”
“You know her name is Judith as well as you know her twin sister, Julia, is here as a patient.”
Then Mimi noticed Mrs. Reynolds who was looking like a frightened and trapped animal, “Hello Catherine. I just can’t imagine how much hell you’ve had to endure living with this bastard. But I don’t feel sorry for you at all. You have known all these years, the hell you’ve put me through, and you knew who you had, that you were calling your daughter. What happened? You weren’t able to have kids yourself? You would have had to be in your fifties for her to be your daughter. We used to be friends.”
During all this, Mrs. Reynolds didn’t say anything, but just sat shaking her head. Then she got all teary.
“I swear to you Vera, I didn’t know they were yours. I didn’t even know Julia was a twin until I met Vicky and since then, I’ve been too scared to say anything.”
With this, she began to weep uncontrollably. I almost felt sorry for her.
“I’m not listening to any of this,” Mr. Reynolds said as he started out the door.
When he opened the door, Tracy was standing there. “What are you doing here again? You’re just the cook. You don’t need to be here”
She was wearing jeans and a blazer. When she reached inside her jacket, I thought she was reaching for a gun and I did see a holster under there, but instead, she pulled out her badge, flipped it open and said, “Tracy Carr, FBI.”
He tried to push past her but she just held her hand up against his forehead. Two other agents came through the door and she said, while they were cuffing him, “Take him downtown and book him”
Everyone had been so focused on Mr. Reynolds that no one noticed what his wife was doing until we heard a loud bang and turned around to see that she was lying on the floor. She had apparently fainted.
Mimi looked disgusted and said’ “Looks like the Southern Bell has the vapors.”
This was a real stress breaker. Mimi, Tracy and I started laughing, but then Tracy went over to ring the bell for some help. I had been wondering all this time why there was no reception desk, but now I noticed the button when Tracy hit it.
When my grandmother told the nurse who came out that she wanted to see Dr. Anna, the nurse pulled out a small walkie talkie and paged her.
The nurse picked up Mrs. Reynolds and laid her out her on the sofa. As she was seeing to her, a woman came out who turned out to be Dr. Anna. I don’t know what I would have expected Dr. Anna to look like, but this wasn’t it.
She looked more like a grandmother than my own Mimi. She was slightly overweight. Her hair was completely gray and she wore it in a knot on top of her head as if she didn’t want to be bothered with it. She was wearing an old gray cardigan sweater with a white blouse underneath and a darker gray a-lined skirt. She had on what looked like support hose and orthopedic shoes. As soon as she introduced herself, I knew Julia was in good hands.
Her eyes went straight to mine. “You’re the twin. I think you can help her. Tracy has told me some but I’d like you to give me as much background as possible. You’re the grandmother?” When Mimi nodded she continued, “I think we’re going to delay your visit for awhile.”
I expected my grandmother to argue, but she seemed to totally trust this woman, “I’d like to talk to you right now anyway. I think I can also clear up some things.”
“Great,” said Dr. Anna, “Then it’s settled.”
We were led into a very plush office and she got her nurse to bring Mimi a cup of coffee and got her settled.
As we started down the hall, Dr. Anna said, “Right now, Julia is curled up in a ball, sitting in the corner of her room. If anyone comes near her, she screams. We’ve had to sedate her twice, which I don’t like to do. I’m hoping she’ll let you approach her.”
She took a ring of keys out of her skirt pocket and unlocked one of the doors.
Julia was sitting on the floor in the corner of a beautiful room that looked more like a bedroom in an expensive house. I was surprised. I guess I expected it to look like a cell. It had a full sized bed instead of the twin cot I had expected to see. It was decorated with all shades of whites and off whites. But they had used so many different textures it was perfect and reminded me of Julia, the artist.
We stood just inside the door and the doctor said, “Julia, I brought a visitor to see you.”
When she didn’t say anything, Dr. Anna motioned for me to speak. All I said was, “I’ve missed you Julia.”
She raised her head and reached her arms out to me. Dr. Anna gave me a little push on the back and I went over and knelt on the floor. She hugged me so tight, I could hardly breathe. We were both crying and when I looked up the doctor had tears in her eyes.
“I needed you, Vicky, but you didn’t call, or even write. Then for some reason, my dad got really mean and wouldn’t let me call you either. I started having horrible dreams after you left. Well, actually I’ve been having bad dreams for years but they got worse after you left. Now I know I’m just crazy.”
“You’re not crazy,” Dr. Anna said from the doorway.
Julia looked at her like she was confused, “But… then why am I here?”
“You’re here to get some help. Vicky came back when she heard you needed some help. She’s going to help me, help you.”
Julia sighed, “I feel so confused. Can Vicky stay here with me tonight?”
“Vicky is staying in one of the bungalows with her grandmother, but she’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
“Ok. Doctor, I don’t want to see my parents, if that’s all right. And I’m sorry I pretended that I didn’t know them.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dr. Anna said, “You don’t have to see anyone you don’t want to see. But right now you need to get some rest. You might be more comfortable on the bed, but it’s up to you. Vicky will be back tomorrow.”
Julia and I hugged and I led her to the bed where she stretched out. I took off her shoes and pulled the covers over her.
As we made our way down the hall, the doctor said, “You’re going to be good for her. I want you to spend as
much time as possible with her. Look how much progress she made in just the amount of time you were with her. I think it’s a miracle. And I do believe in miracles.”
I said that I did too and thought about all the miracles that had happened just in the last few weeks. I was lucky to be alive. Anyone could have met me at that bus station, but instead I was met by Dave. He lived on the edge of the law but I found a friend there and made some money.
The biggest miracles of all were meeting my sister and grandmother. If I hadn’t been with Jesse on that particular day and hadn’t happened to see that painting, or if Jesse hadn’t found that unicorn in that shop, I would probably be in some home by now or a teen jail. The more I thought about it the more I became convinced that everything happens for a reason.
When Dr. Anna and I got back to her office, we found my grandmother stretched out on a recliner fast asleep. Of course she’s tired, I thought, she’s had very little rest in the last couple of days.
“Would you like something to drink?” Dr. Anna whispered.
“I’d like some more of that good coffee,” my grandmother said as she stretched and brought her chair back upright.
Dr. Anna laughed and I thought she was pretty. “Why don’t we all have coffee, unless you’d rather have a soda, Judith?”
I told her I also wanted coffee with milk and sugar. She went over to her desk and picked up the phone and placed our order. “Now, Mrs. McCain…” Dr. Anna started.
“Please, just call me Vera.”
“Vera, Judith and I just witnessed a small miracle. Julia recognized Judith, whom she called Vicky, right away. She talked to her and chastised her for not calling. She said she faked not knowing her parents. I believe that, right now, a part of her knows they are not her parents. Before we left, she also left the safety of her corner and got on the bed. It’s a big first step.”
“Could you try hypnosis? It helped me remember a lot.”
“She’s too fragile for that right now. It could send her over the edge and we might lose her for good. I don’t like hypnosis anyway. My belief is that the subconscious lets us remember when we’re ready. You were ready to remember, Judith.”
Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 01 - Blood on White Wicker Page 11
