What we did have in common was that our bloodlines led us to this dangerous destiny, and that we’d both crossed the line to save someone we loved. And we’d do it all over again.
5
Promises Kept
Lyla didn’t remember anything the next day. She said she had a nightmare about a spider and being in the water, but she couldn’t remember details. Noah was gone by sunrise. He hugged me tightly in his arms before he left and made me promise to call him if there was trouble. He said he’d be back again tonight if I wanted him to. I told him I did.
***
I had a talk with Lyla in the waiting room while Clothilde was in surgery. It was a little after 8:00 AM, and I was exhausted, despite all the coffee I drank from the cafeteria. We were the only two in the waiting room. Lucas had come by earlier with donuts for us after he dropped Jon off at the sitter’s. He stayed long enough to make sure we were okay, but then he had to leave for work at the police station. He was polite to me, but I could tell that yesterday still bothered him. I didn’t tell him about last night.
Lyla lounged on the little couch, immersed in her book, not a thing wrong with her. It looked like she only had a few chapters left. I said prayers for Clothilde and her doctor and the team operating on her. The old prayers I grew up saying were so automatic that they didn’t feel genuine anymore. I talked to God instead. It was something I hadn’t done since Mom died.
If you’re there, please see her through this. I can’t bear to lose another mother. Neither can Lyla.
“Lyla,” I said.
She put her finger up for me to wait a second. She reminded me so much of Clothilde. When she finished reading a paragraph, she put her bookmark in place and closed the book.
“What?”
“Would it upset you if I went somewhere?”
“You mean to Paris?”
“Oh, so you were awake yesterday when Maw Maw and I were talking.”
“Yeah. It’s fine with me.” She opened her book again.
“Wait a sec.”
She let out an aggravated sigh and closed the book again.
“I’m not so sure I should go.”
“But you promised her.”
“I know, but I’m worried about you.”
“Why?”
“Well, Maw Maw will take a while to heal and—someone has to stop you from being taken by monsters—someone has to see about picking up your school work, and—”
“They email that now.”
“Oh. Well not just that stuff. You start therapy tomorrow.”
Another aggravated sigh.
“C’mon, you promised me. Remember? I think it’ll really help you.”
“Okay, but if I have to keep my promise to you then you have to keep your promise to Maw Maw Clo.”
I was silent for a moment.
“You have to,” she insisted. “And don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I can help Maw Maw at home, and Uncle Lucas or Miss Carrie can take me to the counselor every week.”
“It looks like you’ve thought this through.”
“Mmm hmm. Everything will be fine.”
“You seriously seem more put-together than I am.”
“Maybe you’re the one who needs counseling.”
I chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
She went back to her book, and I texted Carrie to ask her if she’d be available to bring Lyla to her therapy sessions if I went to Paris. I didn’t want to ask Lucas. He would have said yes without a doubt, but I knew he’d be hovering over Clothilde for the next couple of weeks and I didn’t want to wear him out. Also, I still hadn’t told him about Paris.
About ten minutes later my phone vibrated with Carrie’s answer to my question: DUH!
Thanks, I texted back.
***
The surgery lasted just under three hours. Dr. Kelly greeted us in the waiting room. She was smiling.
“Everything went very well,” she said. “She’s in recovery. You can go in and see her in a few minutes, but not for long. Visiting hours are almost over. Just to warn you, she’ll be a little out of it. She needs a lot of rest.”
I thanked her, and Lyla and I went to see Clothilde. As soon as I saw her, my heart skipped. She looked the way she did in my dream, pale and lifeless, but with a breathing tube taped to her mouth. Her chest rose with a deep breath. Her white hair was crushed flat against the pillow. Lyla went straight to her and held her hand. I went around to the other side of the bed and took her other hand. Her green eyes blinked open.
“Maw Maw,” I said softly. “It’s me and Lyla. The doctor said you did great.”
Her eyes fluttered, and she tried to move her head.
“Don’t move too much,” I said. “You need to rest.”
She slipped her hand out of mine and tried to pull out the tube.
I pulled her hand back. “You can’t do that. It has to stay put. It’s going to help you.”
Her eyes looked angry and hard.
“It’s okay, Maw Maw Clo,” said Lyla. “You’ll be out of here in no time.”
Clothilde’s eyes fluttered closed, and she went back to sleep. Lyla and I stayed there nearly fifteen minutes, just holding her hands and watching her chest rise and fall, before a nurse came in to tell us it was time to go.
***
Noah stayed with us at the house that night, under the radar. I hated keeping secrets from Lucas, but I felt it would have made things so much worse if he knew. I wasn’t worried about him being jealous, though I was sure he would be. I didn’t want him to panic about our encounter the night before.
The next day, Cee Cee came to see Clothilde and volunteered to stay with Lyla and me. Having her at the house made me feel so much better. I felt safe with Noah, but I felt just as safe with Cee Cee, and she was comfortable. In a way, it was like having Clothilde there, but a more cheerful Clothilde.
It was raining the day of Lyla’s first therapy session, which was the third day after the surgery. Cee Cee woke us up that morning with the house smelling of breakfast. She had laid out a feast of bacon, scrambled eggs, and French toast with freshly-made cream to go on top. Lyla and I ate better at that meal than we did the last two days.
Cee Cee left shortly after to go see Clothilde at the hospital for the morning visiting hours. I had planned to go for the noon hour, after I dropped Lyla off at her appointment, and then I’d take her with me for the evening visiting hour.
I drove to the therapist’s, popped open an umbrella and walked Lyla to the front door.
“You sure you don’t want me to go in with you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Do I have to answer again?”
“Okay,” I sighed. “I love you.”
I thought she’d roll her eyes again, but she hugged me instead, taking me by surprise. It was a short hug, and when she let go, she went inside the office and closed the door. But it was a hug.
I hopped over the rising water near the curb and headed for the hospital. Visiting time started in fifteen minutes, but I almost missed it altogether.
As I was crossing the intersection of Congress and Bertrand, a big rig cab ran a red light at full speed, clipping the rear end of my car. I spun on the wet road and crashed into a utility pole. My air bag went off. I started shaking, adrenaline coursing through my body. But it wasn’t because of the accident. I caught a glimpse of the driver right before he ran the light. His face was not human. The eyes were solid black, and its face was twisted up into a snarl.
A police officer who was getting gas at the station on the corner ran up to me. I recognized her. Yolanda Freeman—she was in the academy with Lucas, David and Michelle.
“Ma’am, are you okay?!”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” I said, trying to get my hands to stop shaking.
“Leigh?”
“Hey, Yolanda. I’m okay. I am. I don’t need an ambulance. You should chase that truck so he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
“I just radioed for a cruiser to
go after that guy. I really think you should get checked out.”
“Thanks, but I’m about to go to the hospital anyway to see my grandmother.”
“You’re not going anywhere in this car. I’ll call a tow for you. You should call your insurance company ASAP. And I need to get a statement from you.”
I made sure to leave out the part about the inhuman truck driver when I gave my statement. When we were done, I asked Yolanda to drop me off at the Hilton up the street. I was doing a good job of holding back the shakes, but still felt weird and didn’t want to upset Clothilde in her condition.
Carrie worked the front desk of the hotel. When I went into the lobby, she was wrapping up with a guest. Despite my every attempt to look normal, as soon as she saw me her eyes widened and her jaw fell open. “What’s wrong?”
I was about to say that nothing was wrong, that I just wanted to stop and tell her hi before I went to see Clothilde, but I just started crying. She came around the counter and put her arms around me. We sat on the overstuffed sofa in the lobby, and I told her about Lyla being attacked, about something monster trying to run me over, and then I started crying for the first time about facing the possibility of losing my grandmother and my niece.
“It’ll be okay, Leigh-Leigh. Care Bear is here!”
I sniffled and smiled.
“Really, Leigh. It’ll be okay.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No. But I believe it.”
Lucas walked in just then. His eyes desperately searched the lobby. He probably heard about the accident on his police radio, or Yolanda called him personally. He spotted me and Carrie, saw me crying and hurried to me. I stood. He wrapped his strong arms around me, and I tucked my head into his neck. I started shaking again, but out of relief. I was safe.
***
The tender moment with Lucas didn’t last long. A few minutes later, he pulled it out of me and Carrie what had happened, that it wasn’t a regular accident. And I told him about Lyla’s attack. He scowled and was too quiet. Carrie took that opportunity to excuse herself to get back to work because her boss was scowling from his office.
“I know you’re not happy with me right now, but can we talk about this later? I really want to go see Clothilde. The noon hour is almost up.”
He nodded. “Come on. I’ll drive you. But I have to get back to work. I was working on a case and left in the middle.”
“Sorry.” I looked down at the floor.
He shook his head, softening a little. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just so relieved that you were okay. I can call one of the guys to give you a ride back when you’re ready.”
I laughed. “Thanks, but I don’t want the Lafayette PD to be my personal taxi service. I asked my insurance company to meet me at the hospital with a rental. I’ll be okay.”
We waved goodbye to Carrie, who looked a little relieved that some of the tension between us had dissipated, but she still looked uncertain and questioned me with her eyebrows. I discretely shook my head, meaning for her to drop the subject. Outside, a white sheet of rain obscured the parking lot.
“I’ll bring the truck around,” he said.
“No. I’ll run with you.”
“You sure?”
I nodded.
He pulled the keys from his pocket and held the key to unlock the doors in his right hand. His old truck didn’t have electronic locks. He held out his left hand for me. I glanced at it for a second and smiled briefly at that old southern-gentleman nature of his. It was the kind of gesture he did without thinking, probably not wanting me to slip and fall running across the wet pavement. I took his hand, and we sloshed through the water building up over the lot.
He opened my door first and closed it for me after I got inside. When he came in and shut the door on the driver’s side, we looked at each other and let out a small laugh at how pathetic we looked. He started the truck and turned on the heater. The radio kicked on. It was always tuned to the same classic country station. Willie Nelson’s “Red Headed Stranger” was playing. It reminded me of the last time I heard Willie. It was when I first moved back to Louisiana. I was with Lucas at a bar. We had talked about the Dark Man that night, but we also spoke of faith and the afterlife. Lucas, always the faithful and the good.
“What are you thinking about?”
His eyes were on mine. In this kind of rain, the light tends to have a white tint. It brought out the green in his eyes.
“That you’re too good for me.”
He rolled his eyes and laid his head back on the head rest, staring up at the ceiling of the cab. “C’mon, Leigh.”
“No, really. You’re unselfish and brave and always do what’s right. I’m … I’m a coward who ran away to California because I couldn’t face life after Dad died. Losing him and Mom were too much for me. I let it be too much, so I ran.”
“I don’t blame you for that. No one did. David and I were glad you left.”
“Glad?”
“Yeah. You were young and needed to find yourself and experience life. That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re young.”
“But Clothilde—”
“She was hurt and worried, but David and Michelle talked to her and got her to understand. But what I don’t understand is why you keep pulling away from us again. I mean it looks like you and Carrie have made up, and that’s great, but she, like the rest of us, have been very worried about you. You hardly see Lyla or Miss Clo … or me. Why are you still so set on going through life alone?”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
He threw his hands up in frustration. “Then what?”
I crossed my arms and stared out the window, watching more people dodge the rain. “You’re all going to get hurt. My life is harder now, more dangerous.”
“Then I’ll protect you.”
I looked at him. “You can’t! Don’t you understand? You can’t protect me. Not against all the crap out there that I have to deal with.”
“Then don’t deal with it.”
Now I threw my hands up. “Yeah, that sounds good. ‘Hey, Leigh, you’re been given this special ability to fight the Dark Side.’ ‘Thanks, but that’s okay. I’m just going to go work at the mall.’”
He glared at me in the corners of his eyes.
The DJ came on the radio. “Willie Nelson, yes indeed. ‘Red Headed Stranger.’ Talk about bring back some memories. Now this next song is a dedication. It comes to us from an employee at the Lafayette Hilton. She says this is going out to the two knuckleheads in the truck in the parking lot, who are arguing and acting the donkey, when they should be steaming up the windows!” He laughed. “All right, for those two knuckleheads, here’s Travis Tritt with ‘Anymore.’”
Our mouths hung open. We looked toward the hotel lobby. Carrie stood at the window with her cell phone in her hand. I could barely make out her expression, but she gave me that quit-being-a-dumb-bitch look again.
“Seriously?” I murmured.
I looked over at Lucas. He stared at the steering wheel, his hands in his lap. It looked like the song was getting to him.
After a few seconds of listening to the unrequited love song, he said, “I’m giving up, Leigh. You know how I feel.”
And that was all. We drove out of the parking lot, headed for the hospital. As the song played, it started to get to me, too.
Damnit, Carrie.
***
When I went into Clothilde’s room in ICU, I saw a bouquet of white daisies in a vase next to her bed, and I suddenly hated myself for forgetting to bring flowers. The card said they were from Lucas. He had come earlier when Cee Cee was here. I noticed that she left a gris gris bag on the night stand. It smelled like cinnamon, cedar, and rosemary.
Clothilde still had the breathing apparatus taped to her mouth. Now she had mittens on her hands, and her wrists were tied to the bed rails. I assumed they did that because she kept trying to remove the tube. It was pitiful to see her like t
hat, and I felt my eyes water.
I sat near her and rubbed her arm. Her eyes opened, looked around the ceiling like she was lost for a second, and then found me. If looks could kill …
I gestured toward her tied hands. “It’s for your own good,” I said.
Her eyes turned away from me.
“It’s only temporary.”
She wouldn’t look at me. I noticed how dry and cracked her lips were. I took a little jar of petroleum jelly from the night stand near the bed and dabbed some on her lips. She rejected it at first, but she relaxed, liking it.
“There,” I said. “That’s much better, huh? I hate dry lips, too.” I put the cap back on and returned the jar to the night stand. “Lyla’s in her first therapy session right now.”
Her eyes found mine again, though this time they were curious and not angry.
“I really hope it helps. We should have had her in therapy since last year. After David and Michelle … Anyway, I think it’ll help her.”
She looked at me as if she were trying to transmit a thought. Her eyebrows arched like she had just asked a question.
I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”
She did it again, but her look was more intense.
“Is it about Lyla?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
“Me?”
Her eyes opened again, and the intense look and the questioning eyebrows returned.
“Um … oh, about going with Miles?”
She nodded.
“I didn’t want to tell you this, but Lyla was attacked the other night. She’s fine right now, but it scares the hell out of me to leave. I don’t think I should.”
There was a sense of urgency in her eyes.
“I know you want me to, but it’s too dangerous to just leave her with Cee Cee. And you’re going to be so weak when you get out.”
She shook her head, tried to lift her arms, and then restlessly moved her legs under the blanket.
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy Page 14
