Two Steps Forward

by Luana Ehrlich

  “Never?” I asked.

  “No, never.”

  “That surprises me.”

  “Look,” Felix said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, “I’m not sure when Lisa will be home. If you want to leave a message for her, I’ll be glad to deliver it.”

  While Felix was making this offer, I thought I heard footsteps at the side of Lisa’s apartment building—the side nearest Felix’s patio.

  Seconds later, even before we saw her, we heard a woman’s voice call out, “Are you talking to yourself again, Felix? You really need—”

  “I’m not talking to myself, Clare.”

  “Oh,” the woman said, stopping dead in her tracks, “I had no idea you were over here with—”

  “They want to talk to Lisa,” Felix blurted out. “They need to speak to her about a family matter.”

  Clare, who looked to be around seventy, had short white hair and was wearing a bejeweled red jogging suit, silver sandals, and a pair of oversized black glasses. After staring at us a moment, she said, “I’m Clare Turner, one of Lisa’s neighbors. What kind of family matter?”

  “Hi, Clare,” Nikki said. “I’m Nikki Ray, and this is my husband, Titus. We need to speak to Lisa about a private family matter that concerns her granddaughter, Eleanor Taylor.”

  Clare glanced over at Felix and then back at us. “Lisa’s never mentioned a granddaughter.”

  “I told them the same thing,” Felix said.

  Nikki unzipped her purse and pulled out her cell phone. A few seconds later, she turned the screen around so Felix and Clare could see it.

  “This is Eleanor, Lisa’s granddaughter. I assure you; she exists.”

  The two of them crowded around the phone and studied the photograph. It was one Nikki had taken just before we left the wedding reception as the guests were blowing bubbles at us.

  It showed Eleanor all dressed up in her floor-length mint-green dress, wearing a pink ribbon in her hair and holding up a piece of molded plastic shaped like a heart. The camera had caught her effervescent smile the moment she’d blown a large bubble through the heart-shaped plastic.

  “Oh, isn’t she precious!” Clare said.

  “She favors Lisa, all right,” Felix said.

  Clare immediately looked over at Felix as if she didn’t approve of his statement, and for a few awkward moments, the two of them stood there glaring at each other.

  After a couple of seconds, Felix threw up his hands and said, “Clare, we have to tell them about Lisa.”

  She looked down at her feet. “Yes, I suppose we do.”

  Without saying another word, Felix walked over, pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, and unlocked Lisa’s front door, stepping aside as the cat bolted past him.

  When Felix invited us to come inside, we didn’t hesitate.

  * * * *

  We entered a spacious uncluttered living room decorated in a contemporary style with ultra-modern furnishings—all black and white with a few chrome accents.

  While the furniture was probably expensive stuff, the room seemed uninviting and made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

  Whether or not that was the fault of the furniture, I couldn’t tell.

  But I had no doubt my uncomfortable feeling was exacerbated by the absence of any color in the room, something that would have at least given the place some warmth and taken the edge off the furniture’s bold features and the starkness of the two paintings on the wall—one of a black circle on white canvas, and the other of a white square on black canvas.

  “Have a seat,” Felix said, opening up the blinds. “I’m sorry if it’s a little stuffy in here.”

  Nikki sat down on a dark leather sofa, while I walked over and took a look at the only personal items in the room, a couple of framed photos on Lisa’s entertainment center.

  The massive entertainment center took up one wall in the room, and its black veneer exterior matched both the coffee table in front of the sofa and the two end tables on either side of it.

  Except for the photographs, the shelves on each side of the wall unit were bare. A wide-screen TV took up the shelf in the middle.

  Clare walked up beside me as I picked up one of the frames.

  The photograph showed two women standing together on a beach with their arms intertwined. I recognized Lisa Redding, and I had a feeling the younger woman was probably her daughter, Kaylynn.

  Clare tapped the frame lightly with her fingernail. “This is Lisa’s favorite photograph of her daughter. She has one in every room in the house.”

  “Do you know why it’s so special to her?” I asked.

  “It was taken the last time they were together before Kaylynn’s car accident.”

  I showed the picture to Nikki and picked up the second photograph. “What about this one?”

  “Oh,” Clare said, “that’s Lisa with her ex-husband—I guess you know he’s deceased. That picture was taken at Kaylynn’s birthday party when she was six. I believe Lisa’s husband divorced her not long after this picture was taken.”

  “Eleanor looks a lot like Kaylynn in this picture,” I said.

  Clare peered down at the photo for several seconds. “You’re right, and that’s probably why Lisa’s never mentioned anything about having a granddaughter.”

  “Oh, yes,” Felix said, taking a seat in a barrel-like chair upholstered in cowhide, “that would have been much too painful for her.”

  “I don’t get that,” I said, sitting down next to Nikki.

  “Neither do I,” Nikki said. “How could having a granddaughter be painful for her?”

  “You explain it,” Felix said, gesturing over at Clare, who was sitting on the edge of an oversized armchair. “You’re much better at telling a story than I am.”

  “Well,” Clare said, pushing her glasses up on her nose, “since I’ve known Lisa a lot longer than you have, it makes more sense for me to explain Lisa’s condition than for you to do it.”

  “Yes, Clare. That’s what I said. You tell them Lisa’s story.”

  “If that’s what you want, I’ll do it.”

  Felix let out an exaggerated sigh. “That’s what I want, Clare.”

  Suddenly, Clare pointed her finger at Scout, who was busy sharpening his claws on the legs of the cowhide chair. “You should put him outside.”

  Felix bent over and picked Scout up. “He’ll be fine,” he said, placing him on his lap. “Are you going to tell them about Lisa or not? I could have already told them the story twice over by now.”

  “Yes, but you’re always in too big of a rush when you’re trying to explain something, and that only ends up confusing people. I believe the details of a story are just as important as the story itself.”

  Felix shook his head. “So get to the details already.”

  “I’ll do that in just a moment.”

  She motioned toward Nikki and me. “First though, would you mind telling me how you’re related to Lisa?”

  “I don’t mind at all,” I said. “My cousin, Jeremy Taylor, was married to Kaylynn.”

  * * * *

  Nikki didn’t flinch when I told the lie about my relationship to Jeremy. As I went on to embellish my tale, I noticed she was completely focused in on Clare and Felix, and I figured she was trying to gauge their reaction to the tale I was spinning.

  She didn’t need to worry. I was pretty sure they were buying it.

  I was an excellent liar.

  It was both a gift and a curse.

  I began my tale by explaining how Jeremy and I were very close, having lived just a few miles apart when we were growing up. After that, I told them Jeremy was recently killed in a military training exercise, and that’s when Eleanor had come to live with me while the Department of Defense was trying to locate Lisa.

  “After Kaylynn was killed in the car accident, Jeremy lost track of Lisa,” I said, “and since the DOD’s office wasn’t having any luck finding her, I thought I’d try to find her myself while Nikki and
I were here in Israel for our honeymoon.”

  “We think it’s important for Eleanor to know her grandmother,” Nikki said. “Every child needs to have family around them when they’re growing up.”

  Clare pointed her finger at me. “But you’re her family. You’re related to Eleanor too.”

  “He’s just her second cousin, Clare,” Felix said. “That’s not the same. That little girl needs her grandmother now.”

  “Exactly,” I said, “and perhaps Lisa needs to know her granddaughter as well.”

  Felix shook his head. “That’s not gonna happen.”

  “We don’t know that, Felix,” Clare said. “When I talked to Rose last week, she said Lisa’s doing much better now.”

  Felix brushed the air with his hand. “Oh, that doesn’t mean anything. You know Rose is always the eternal optimist. The sky is always blue. The sun is always shining.”

  “I’m sorry. You’ve lost me,” I said. “Who’s Rose?”

  “Rose is my best friend,” Clare said. “Until a few months ago, she lived with me in the apartment building behind us, but then she moved out to the Tzora kibbutz.”

  “What did you mean when you said Lisa was doing better now?” Nikki asked.

  “Yes, maybe I should explain that.”

  “No,” Felix said. “I’ll do it, and I’ll give them the short version.”

  “Maybe they don’t want the short version,” Clare said.

  Felix ignored her. “A few months after Lisa moved in here, she had a mental breakdown, but then Rose was able to persuade her to move out to the Tzora kibbutz where she was convinced she’d be miraculously healed by the magical spiritual powers of the kibbutz.”

  “Rose never promised any such thing,” Clare said.

  “I didn’t say she promised anything. I said she was convinced.”

  As the two of them sniped back and forth at each other, I thought about the telephone intercept Shin Bet had picked up from the Tzora kibbutz a couple of weeks ago—the conversation between a female at the kibbutz and a male in the German Colony.

  Had that been a conversation between Felix and Rose?

  As I went over the transcript in my head, I remembered how the male caller had wanted to contact the American Embassy about someone living at the kibbutz, but the female caller had discouraged him.

  At the end of the call, she’d talked about the male caller getting a pass to come out to the kibbutz and visit.

  “Have either of you been out to the Tzora kibbutz to see Lisa?” I asked.

  “Yes, I have,” Clare said, “but Rose hasn’t been able to get authorization for Felix to come and visit yet.”

  Nikki asked, “You can’t go visit her whenever you want?”

  “No,” Felix said, stroking the cat’s neck, “it’s a restricted kibbutz, and they’re very particular about who’s given access. It’s not like the old agricultural kibbutz. This kibbutz was started as a community for people with special needs, and then it branched out to include adults suffering from emotional issues.”

  “He doesn’t mean someone just dealing with depression,” Clare said. “The Tzora kibbutz provides treatment for adults who are too emotionally incapacitated to take care of their physical needs.”

  “Are you saying that’s Lisa’s condition?” I asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Felix said.

  Clare said, “But she’s only been that way for a few months, so we’re very hopeful it’s not something permanent.”

  “When she first moved in here,” Felix said, “she seemed a little despondent, but that was right after she’d lost her daughter, so we completely understood why she was so unhappy.”

  Clare said, “At the time, Rose was dealing with the death of her father, so she knew what Lisa was going through. In fact, that’s how Rose met Lisa. They were both attending the same bereavement class. They connected right away, and when she told Rose she was looking for a new apartment, Rose told her about this place. I thought—”

  “You’re chasing rabbits, Clare. They want to know about Lisa, and how she lost touch with reality.”

  “Is that what happened?” Nikki asked.

  “That’s totally what happened,” Felix said.

  “It didn’t happen all at once though,” Clare said. “It was more of a gradual thing.”

  Felix said, “Yes, but I knew something was wrong when she had dozens of copies of that photograph made.” He pointed over to the photograph of Lisa and Kaylynn on the beach together. “She started carrying one around with her all the time. Finally, it got to the point I couldn’t have a conversation with her without her bringing up something about her daughter.”

  “Yes, poor thing,” Clare said, “and it only went downhill from there. First, she began having trouble forming coherent sentences. Then, she started neglecting her personal appearance. Eventually, she stopped eating regular meals, and any attempts to convince her to seek medical attention were met with hostility. Finally, it got to the point the only person she would allow inside her apartment was Rose, and that was only because she thought Rose was Kaylynn.”

  “Rose doesn’t look anything like that picture of Kaylynn,” Felix said, “but for some reason, Lisa began calling her Kaylynn.”

  Clare said, “As long as Rose pretended to be Kaylynn, she could get Lisa to eat, and she could even have a coherent conversation with her. Pretty soon, Rose began taking care of Lisa’s finances, doing her shopping, and seeing about her medical needs. Since Rose is a doctor, she—”

  “No,” Felix said, wagging his finger at Clare, “don’t lie to them. Rose isn’t a doctor. She’s a nurse practitioner.”

  “Okay, whatever. She’s still a medical professional, and since she was already working for the Horizons Clinic at the Tzora kibbutz, she was able to consult with the doctors there about how to treat Lisa. Eventually, she was able to convince Lisa to move out to the kibbutz with her.”

  “Did they hospitalize Lisa?” I asked.

  “No,” Felix said, “the kibbutz doesn’t have a hospital. People with mental disorders are treated a little differently out there. Although, if you ask me, I think a good dose of medicine would be—”

  “The doctors at Horizons Clinic believe medicating someone with mental problems isn’t the answer,” Clare said, “and they told Rose they thought Lisa would be a perfect candidate for their program.”

  Turning to Nikki and me, she said, “Their treatment program is pretty simple. After a patient is evaluated at the clinic to see if they qualify, they’re given permission to move into an apartment at the kibbutz with their caregiver. Then, they’re treated for their specific condition with a combination of homeopathic medicine and professional counseling. The doctors at Horizons believe the nurturing environment of the kibbutz community, plus the stabilizing influence of being isolated from all negative elements, creates a positive aura around the patient and promotes complete healing.”

  “Clare is just repeating all the hype from the clinic’s brochure,” Felix said. “Let me translate that for you.”

  Clare started to protest, but he hurried on. “The patients are treated with herbal medicine, acupuncture, massages, and a bunch of other hocus-pocus while being completely isolated from the real world. If that works, I’m all for it, but I don’t believe it will do Lisa any good and could even make her condition worse.”

  I asked, “How often do you talk to Rose?”

  Clare answered, “Oh, at least twice a week.”

  “Are you able to call her whenever you want? Like, for instance, could you call her right now?”

  She looked down at her watch. “She and Lisa are probably getting ready to eat lunch now, but, yes, I should be able to reach her.”

  “Would you mind calling her and letting her know Nikki and I would like to come out to the kibbutz and visit with Lisa?”

  “No, I don’t mind giving her a call, but access to the kibbutz is restricted, so she’ll have to make arrangements with the kibbutz genera
l secretary first. He’s the one who issues all the passes.”

  “Good luck with that,” Felix said. “Rose told me a few weeks ago she would get me a pass, and I’m still waiting for that to happen.”

  I asked Felix, “Do you know if access to the kibbutz is limited because of the mental patients living there, or if there’s some other reason?”

  Felix said, “Who knows? Rose told me after Shin Bet arrested a Jihadi terrorist who entered Tzora under the guise of visiting a patient there, the kibbutz administrative council tightened their restrictions. However, that story sounds suspicious to me.”

  Clare pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “Well, these two certainly aren’t terrorists,” she said, motioning at Nikki and me, “so I don’t imagine Rose will have any problem getting them a pass.”

  Moments later, she was talking to Rose, repeating the story I’d told her earlier. Clare’s responses led me to believe Rose was eager to speak with us, and Clare affirmed this a short time later when she momentarily took her phone away from her ear and addressed us.

  “Rose said she thought it would be an excellent idea for you to visit Lisa, so she’s calling Jacob Kaplan—he’s the general secretary at the Tzora kibbutz—and asking him to issue you a pass. She put me on hold while she’s making the call.”

  Felix shook his head. “I don’t know why Rose didn’t do that for me. It’s not like I—”

  “Yes, I’m here,” Clare said, speaking into her phone. Nodding her head, she said, “Okay, I’ll tell them.”

  Clare disconnected the call and gave us a big smile. “The general secretary gave you permission to visit the kibbutz. Rose said when you arrive at the main gate, you just need to show the security officer your passports. Remember, though. This authorization is only good for twenty-four hours.”

  “When are they expecting us?” I asked.

  “Tomorrow. You’ll need to be there before noon.”

  Good.

  That would give me plenty of time to get in touch with Moshe Geller and ask him what was really going on at the Tzora kibbutz.

  Chapter 17