Morning Glory Circle

by Pamela Grandstaff

  Scott came out of his office flourishing a paper towel over his arm as he offered her a plastic bottle of root beer.

  “I trust the vintage will be to Madam’s liking,” he said.

  “Mmm, my favorite.”

  “I also asked them to leave off the onions and garlic, as a courtesy.”

  “Fine Italian cuisine from ‘Casa P and J’ I see.”

  “Only the best for you, my dear.”

  “You know,” Maggie said, “this wasn’t exactly how I pictured this romantic evening in my mind. The setting, for one thing, doesn’t really put me in the mood.”

  “What do you mean? We’ve had a couple of really hot moments in this station,” Scott said. “What about the time I almost arrested you and threatened to lock myself up with you in the cell all night?”

  “I will never forget that, it’s true.”

  “Did you bring your toothbrush?”

  “It’s in my purse, but if you think I’m staying here…”

  “Not to worry, I have plans for that later.”

  After the pizza dinner, Scott turned up the radio for some romantic dancing. The trouble was neither of them could dance. They twirled and bobbed around the break room, giggling, until Scott’s romantic dip ended up with both of them laughing in a heap on the floor.

  “We can have romance anywhere,” Scott said, “as long as you and I are together.”

  “Listen to you, getting all squishy,” Maggie said. “It’s almost sickening.”

  “I would love to get all squishy with you,” he said, and kissed her in a way that proved it.

  “I seem to remember that couch in your office being sturdy,” Maggie said, when they finally came up for air.

  “If it isn’t, the desk is,” Scott replied.

  Scott jumped up and helped Maggie up, and embraced her with a long, lingering kiss.

  Maggie’s cell phone rang.

  “Ignore it,” Scott said forcefully. “That is a command from the Chief of Police.”

  “There’s too much going on for me to ignore it,” Maggie said. “You know that.”

  Maggie opened her phone and said, “Hello, this better be good.”

  Scott watched her, praying it was nothing, and that they could get back to what they were doing.

  “I’ll be right there,” Maggie said, and closed her phone.

  “Nooooooo,” he whined.

  “Sam’s left Hannah,” she told him.

  “No way.”

  “That’s what I think too,” Maggie said. “But she’s beside herself and insists that he has. I have to go out there.”

  “Then take the Explorer,” he said. “Unless you want me to come too.”

  “No, it better be just me, I think,” Maggie said. “I will take you up on the offer of your vehicle, though.”

  “I’m running a tab for you, but eventually you will have to make all this up to me.”

  “It’s a deal,” she said. “This is probably how it will always be, though; someone calls or pounds on the door, and then you or I go running.”

  “As long as you know that when you call, I will always come running,” he said, hugging her tightly, and breathing in the scent of her hair.

  “I am so glad of that,” she said.

  “I love you,” he said. “You do know that.”

  “I love you too,” she said quietly, so quietly he thought he might have imagined he heard it, and then she left.

  Caroline flopped down next to Drew on the bed in the master suite at the lodge, and he put down the book he was reading.

  “I don’t understand this book at all,” he said. “Something about the heart diamond sutra and how everything is an illusion.”

  “When you’re ready the information will be clear to you,” Caroline said. “My legs feel like limp spaghetti.”

  “They don’t do anything for themselves, I’ve noticed,” he said. “If they drop something, by accident, say, they just keep on walking.”

  “They’re holy men,” Caroline said. “They raise the consciousness of the whole planet just by using their energies for that purpose. They can’t be bothered by lower plane, corporal issues like cleaning and cooking and picking up things.”

  “Look at you, though, you just came back from South America for a rest, and you’re exhausted. You can’t keep this up, and I have to go back to Rose Hill in the morning. I have my own work to do.”

  “Please, can’t you just stay here another day? I’ll have the routine down by tomorrow night.”

  “I can’t stay, I have appointments. And look here, it’s too much for even two people to do. You need someone to buy groceries, someone to cook, someone to clean up after each meal, someone to pick up after them and do the laundry.”

  “But who?”

  “Aren’t there other people who volunteer like you do who could come and help you?”

  “No one who’s currently speaking to me,” she said.

  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “It seems unreasonable for this group to just descend upon you and expect to have all their needs tended to with no compensation.”

  “You don’t understand,” she said. “It’s a privilege to enable them to spend all their time meditating.”

  “So you’ll get huge karmic points in the next life or something?”

  “I don’t do it for a reward; I do it because I am meant to do it. They came to me for a reason, and although I don’t know what that is yet, eventually it will become clear. I keep waiting for the universe to guide me, to show me what to do, or to bring help, but my guides are silent.”

  “Your guides?”

  “It’s all this sex we’ve been having. I’ve lowered my vibration to the point that I am all down in my body, in my second chakra, and my crown chakra is blocking out the messages from my higher self.”

  “You’re what is what?”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” she said. “You’re fixed earth and I’m mutable air.”

  “I think you’re so tired you’re babbling. Why don’t you get some sleep?”

  “That’s just like a five,” she said, as her eyes closed. “You observe and judge, but you don’t want to feel anything.”

  “Just rest now,” he said. “You aren’t making any sense.”

  “Maybe Mercury is retrograde,” he thought she said, but he could hardly hear her.

  Drew turned off the lights and covered her with a blanket.

  “Sweet dreams, Caroline,” he said.

  “Namaste,” she said, and within minutes she was snoring.

  Hannah was not crying when Maggie arrived at the farm, but she was still very upset.

  “Tell me what happened,” Maggie insisted, coaxing her to sit down at the kitchen table. “Can I fix you something to eat or drink?”

  “I’m not hungry,” Hannah said, miserably.

  Maggie knew it was bad if Hannah couldn’t eat her way through it.

  Hannah told her what had been going on, and gave her a blow-by-blow account of all the fights, leading up to Sam’s strangely calm exit this evening.

  “Isn’t it possible it was work related?”

  “I guess,” Hannah sniffed. “Although the timing is way too convenient.”

  “Maybe taking a break isn’t such a bad idea. You two weren’t resolving anything together, so maybe some time apart would be a good thing.”

  “I’m glad he’s gone, in a way,” Hannah said. “It just makes me so mad that he doesn’t have the will to stay here and fight this out with me.”

  “He’s probably had enough fighting for one lifetime,” Maggie said.

  “He’s never going to get better,” Hannah said. “He worked hard with his counselor for a long time, and got to the point where he seems recovered, but he is never going to be like I want him to be. I just have to quit wanting too much.”

  “Didn’t you know all this when you married him?”

  “That’s not fair, Maggie. I was in love with him. Love’s
blind.”

  “And balding,” Maggie said.

  “And gets migraines,” Hannah said, smiling.

  “And can’t dance,” Maggie said.

  “I just want, when something bad happens to me, to know I can call him, and he’ll be there for me,” Hannah said. “He doesn’t have to be able to run to me on two legs, and physically protect me. I just want him to be strong for me, emotionally, and let it be about me, and what I’m feeling.”

  “And you told him that.”

  “Twenty times at least. He can’t get past blaming himself and then pushing me away.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m sorry too. I’m sorry for myself and sorry for him. Hell, I’m sorry for everyone tonight.”

  “Are you sure you couldn’t eat something?”

  “Maybe a little something,” Hannah said. “I think there’s some cake left in that tin over there.”

  Maggie fixed Hannah a generous slice of cake and a glass of ice cold milk.

  “What were you doing when I called?” Hannah asked her.

  “Nothing important,” Maggie said.

  Ava had introduced Charlotte and Timmy to the new baby when they got home from school, and they were both entranced. She told them that he was lost, and they were going to keep him until they figured out what happened to his parents.

  “He looks just like you, Timmy,” Charlotte said.

  “What’s his name, Mommy?” Timmy asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ava said. “What shall we call him until we know?”

  “Tickle Bug,” Timmy laughed.

  “No,” Charlotte said. “He should have a proper name.”

  “I was thinking maybe we could call him Fitz,” Ava said, “after your Papaw Fitz.”

  “Papaw will like that,” Charlotte said. “Can we take Fitz to see Papaw?”

  “He has a little cold right now, so he needs to rest where it’s quiet. We’ll take him this weekend to see Papaw Fitz.”

  “There will be a big Fitz and a little Fitz,” Timmy said.

  Ava had enlisted Gail Goodwin, one of the women who worked as a housekeeper at the bed and breakfast, to go up in the attic and bring down the Moses basket she had used for both Charlotte and Timmy when they were babies. Gail lined it with soft blankets, swaddled the baby, laid him in it, and then sat the basket on the couch where Ava could watch over him. Delia was taking care of the guests, and was on hand to change his diapers when needed, or to give him a bottle. When Ava finally sent Delia home, saying she’d be fine until morning, it was midnight, and her children were tucked up in bed.

  When the phone rang, she was ready.

  “Hey sweetheart, did you go to the bank today?”

  “No, Brian,” Ava said. “I was busy rescuing the baby you abandoned in the trailer park.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about this beautiful little redheaded boy that some old woman was looking after, who left on a bus this morning without your son.”

  “How about that,” Brian said. “It sounds to me like he found a soft place to fall, though. Takes after his old man, I guess.”

  “I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t care,” Ava said.

  “He’s alright, isn’t he? You were a lousy wife, Ava, and I can tell you’re still a relentless nag, but everyone knows you’re a great mother. Stop bitching at me and let’s get back to the money issue. I really need to get out of Dodge pretty soon.”

  “I have a new demand.”

  “You’ve got that backwards,” Brian said. “I make the demands here.”

  “No, I’ve been considering my position, and I think I won’t give you any money. I think you should come home. I’ll have the police waiting for you when you get here.”

  “You bitch.”

  “And relentless nag, don’t forget.”

  “What’s this demand?”

  “First of all, where’s the baby’s mother?”

  “Forty leagues under the sea,” he said, “probably fish food by now.”

  “I don’t want to know anything more about it. I want you to sign papers giving me full custody of this baby. As soon as they’re signed and notarized, I’ll give you the money.”

  “How do I know you won’t double cross me?”

  “I could have set you up and had you arrested when you came to pick up the money here. You must trust me somewhat.”

  “I know you want me gone so you can shack up with my brother.”

  “Oh, I do. But I want this baby taken care of first.”

  “Sure, I can do that. Tell you what, I’ll even call my little brother Sean and have him make the arrangements. But if I see one cop hanging around, darlin’, I’m gone. That baby will go into foster care and there won’t be a thing you can do about it.”

  When Ava hung up the phone she was shaking all over. She called Sean, who agreed to do as she asked, but suggested she get the police involved, at least covertly.

  “He’s so smart,” Ava said. “He’ll know.”

  “How are you going to get the money?”

  “Brian said I could borrow against the trust Theo left me.”

  “Not this one,” Sean said. “Theo set it up like Fort Knox.”

  “What will I do?” Ava asked. “I can’t protect this child from him without those papers.”

  “I’ll give him the money, and you can pay me back as your trust funds are released.”

  “Sean, it’s too much.”

  “I’ll tell him we could only borrow ten percent of its value. That will be enough to make him disappear again, but won’t clean you out.”

  “Do you think he’ll settle for that?”

  “He’ll have to.”

  “He said the mother is dead,” Ava said.

  “He’ll have to have a death certificate to prove it,” Sean said. “Does he have one?”

  “You’ll have to ask him.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t want to know.”

  “Okay,” Sean sighed. “I assume he’ll call me sometime soon.”

  “Thank you so much,” Ava said. “It seems like the Fitzpatricks are always coming to my rescue.”

  “You’re one of us, Ava, don’t forget that. We’re your family.”

  When Ava hung up the phone, she was startled to see a well-dressed, gray-haired woman at the back door. She looked familiar to Ava, who couldn’t remember where she’d seen her before.

  Ava let her in, saying, “Were you looking for a room?”

  “No, dear,” the woman said. “I’m looking for your husband.”

  “He’s not here,” Ava said, startled. “My husband has been missing for a long time.”

  “I know you’ve been communicating with him, Ava,” she said. “Why don’t you invite me in? You’re in no immediate danger. I just need to talk to you.”

  “What’s your name?” Ava asked, as she let the woman in the kitchen.

  Ava peeked in at the sleeping baby to make sure he was okay. The woman followed her glance, walked over to the basket on the couch in the family room, and looked down admiringly.

  “I’m Mrs. Wells, dear,” she said quietly. “Isn’t that a lovely baby? Look at all those beautiful red curls.”

  The woman’s words were sweet, but something about her was making Ava very uneasy. She instinctively wanted her away from the baby, and quickly inserted herself between them.

  “I’m sorry to seem inhospitable, Mrs. Wells, but it’s very late and I have had the most stressful day.”

  “I know all about your day,” the older woman said, giving her a kindly, warm pat on the arm. “Let’s have some tea and get acquainted. I won’t keep you long, and it will be very worth your while, I promise.”

  Ava felt like she was walking through a dream. She made tea, and the two women sat at her kitchen table, looking just like two new friends getting to know one another at a tea party. That appearance could not have been further
from reality.

  Ed found the letter from Margie over the visor in his truck, where he had stuck the mail he picked up on Tuesday and then forgot about it. He took the letter in his house and sat at the kitchen table with it for awhile. He thought about Mandy and all she’d been through in her life. He wondered what she could have done that would be bad enough for Margie to be able to use the information to blackmail her into being her friend.

  It was just after two in the morning when Ed picked up the letter and took it to the sink, where he used a match to set it on fire. He let it burn in the sink until it was nothing but black ash. Then he took Hank to Mandy’s trailer and knocked on the door, holding a stack of newspapers and roll of packing tape. As soon as she opened the door Mandy jumped from the doorway into his arms. He had to drop the newspapers and tape in the snow in order to catch her.

  “I was just surprised is all,” he said, in between her kisses. “I love our team, and I do want a long term contract.”

  “Shut up and kiss me,” she said. “I been missin’ you somethin’ awful.”

  “I brought tape and newspaper to help you pack,” he said. “But it’s all wet now.”

  “I don’t care about any damn tape,” she said, and squealed as he picked her up and carried her back in the trailer, slung over his shoulder. Hank followed them in, climbed up on the couch, turned around twice, and lay down to sleep.

  Scott lay awake and thought about the letter still tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket. He meant to talk to Maggie about it, but everything was going so well between them he couldn’t bring himself to take a chance on ruining everything.

  ‘What if I’d never found it?’ he thought to himself. ‘What if I burn it? No one knows about that letter but me. No one has to know.’

  He got up and went to the front room, intending to take the letter and destroy it. He wanted to do it, had convinced himself he had a right to protect Maggie from the contents. Anything written inside could only hurt her, after all. When he took the letter out of his jacket pocket he once again experienced the overwhelming feeling that he was about to do wrong. There was no mistaking the feeling, or the cold sweat that accompanied it. He put the letter back in his jacket and went to the window, which was frosted with ice. He rubbed a spot big enough so he could look out at the snow-covered lawn and a night sky full of stars.