by Rae Richen
“Did you or Rolly put an envelope under her door?”
Leah looked surprised. “I don’t even go to her floor except to run past it.”
“Okay. How about Rolly?”
“I don’t control him. What envelope?”
“A threat,” Willie said.
“Are you aware of how many might want to threaten her?”
“You and Rolly are the most vocal.”
“But too smart to do that,” Leah said.
Willie saw that she would have no sway with Leah, so she left to find Geneva.
And discovered that Geneva was just leaving the area, starting the climb eight flights of stairs.
Willie wondered if she had been aware that Rolly and Leah were talking about having her sent to a hospital. She couldn’t have been too far away.
**
After dinner, up on the eighth floor, Willie found her friend sitting in a chair outside her room, her biggest purse on her lap.
“You’re not invited in,” Geneva said, trying to make herself look bigger than normal by raising her shoulders and pushing her head forward.
Willie turned her walker around and used the seat part of it to sit with Geneva. “This is a nice place,” Willie said.
“You called the doctor,” Geneva said.
“No, that was not me. I’m sorry that happened.”
“Who did it, then?”
Willie settled into her chair and said, “I believe there are several people who are worried about you. Did a doctor come talk to you?”
“No. She called and asked me to come down. I’m not going.”
“Okay. Can you come to breakfast tomorrow?”
“You already eat too much,” Geneva said.
“Yes, that’s true. Eat too much and don’t exercise enough. Let’s go for a walk.”
“Nobody’s getting in my apartment.”
“Right,” Willie said. “You’re here to guard it.”
“Nobody believes me, so they can’t have the papers.”
Willie stopped moving. A feeling of cold settled into her spine. Geneva had not mentioned papers before. What papers?
After a moment Willie said, “No one can get the things you guard. That’s good.”
“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Geneva said.
“No,” Willie said, “None of us wants to go there, but if we break a leg or hurt our head, we’re glad they can take care of us.”
“Doctor Sartan is Jewish, too.”
“Is she? That’s helpful.”
“She says I have memories I need to share.”
“She may be right. Sharing memories helps us think clearly about them.”
Geneva’s hands scrabbled with the rose print of her dress. “Doctor Sartan believes me about the warehouses and the railroad. Her mother was there.”
“Oh!”
“But her mother wasn’t here when I discovered what they are doing. She wasn’t there when I knew they thought I had figured them out.”
“But you were there,” Willie said.
“You have to keep them out,” Geneva said, glancing down the hall. “Don’t let them find my papers, Willie.”
Willie listened with her heart and her mind. This was the first time this week that Geneva called her Willie instead of Wilhalmena. Did Geneva mean to say this to her old friend? Did she no longer think she was that cook?
“I said ‘yes’,” Geneva said.
“Yes?”
“I said ‘yes’. She’s coming in a few minutes. I have my suitcase.” Geneva reached under her chair.
For the first time, Willie realized her friend had a briefcase under the chair.
“She’s coming in the evening? Do you have all that you need?”
Geneva lifted her heavy purse. “I’m just going to share my memories. I won’t be gone that long.”
Now, Willie became alarmed. The nurse here told Geneva her calming pills were vitamins. What lies had Doctor Sartan told?
“When did you meet Doctor Sartan?”
“Last week. She’s very nice. Jewish, too.”
Willie nodded. “What hospital are you visiting?”
“I’m visiting the patients at St. Agnes, over on Halsey.”
Willie knew the reputation of St. Agnes. One of her students with Bulimia had stayed there for a time. Now that student was a nurse. St. Agnes sounded like a hopeful place to go to, but not if it started as a lie of just visiting to share.
Just then, the door opened on the elevator at the other end of the hall. Several others who lived on this floor came up from the dinner that Willie had just missed.
“Oh, I hate these people,” Geneva said.
Willie looked at the crowd. Mostly, these were people Geneva had liked, played dominoes with, or Scrabble.
“Did you want to take a walk?”
“Are you nuts?” Geneva asked.
“You don’t want to talk to them, so we can walk up and down this end of the hall. You can keep an eye on the door while we exercise.”
As they sat there, the others waved good night to each other, or made plans to meet for a card game or the evening movie. Finally, they each moved into the apartments.
The elevator opened once more. A young lady in a business suit came out of it.
Geneva stood. She leaned over Willie and said, “They will try to find me, so I’m going away. Tell anyone you know that I’m at Emmanuel Hospital. Emmanuel. Got that?”
“Emmanuel it is,” Willie whispered.
“And no one in my apartment. They want that proof. They get that proof and I’m as good as dead.”
“All right. For you, my friend.”
Geneva lifted her brief case and marched toward the elevator, where the young lady in a suit had come out. She waved.
Chapter Sixteen
Willie strode after Geneva and met Doctor Sartan at the elevator.
“I’d like to be able to visit my friend while she is in your care,” Willie said.
Geneva glanced at Willie and then at the doctor. Willie feared the balance of Geneva’s paranoia was about to turn, but she had to try for her friend’s sake. As far as she knew, she was Geneva’s only friend.
Doctor Sartan said, “Mrs. Oppenheim, is this what you want?”
Geneva looked down at Willie. “I know you are not the cook. I know you are my friend. I heard you defending me to Leah and Rolly.” Then she turned to the doctor, and said, “Yes, I want her to visit.”
Willie cheered inside, but knew she had to remain calm on the outside. So she said, “I will take care of things, bring you things that you need, and I’ll be glad to have you home again when all is safe.”
The doctor smiled and fished a card from her pocket. “This number should not be shared with anybody else.”
“Yes,” Willie said. “I understand.” She punched the button on the freight elevator instead of the resident’s elevator across the hall. “May I suggest an exit through the kitchen. Leah and Rolly are hovering around the mailboxes and looking for a doctor to visit you.”
“Good idea,” Geneva said. “Virginia,” she said to the doctor, “the kitchen staff are safe. One is Willie’s grandson.”
This surprised Willie. She didn’t think Geneva had understood this. Perhaps her fears were fading, and this young woman helped her.
“We will look for your visit,” Doctor Sartan said, and then the doctor and Geneva got into the freight elevator.
When Willie turned back to her room, she saw two ladies watching from their doorways. As she walked down the hall, she said, “Isn’t that nice. Geneva’s young friend has come to visit her. They will be on a vacation together for a little while.”
The two neighbors made appropriate exclamations of celebration for their neighbor, and went back into their apartments.
Soon after that, she heard the residents’ elevator door open. Mr. Corrigan and Rolly Goforth exited the elevator.
Willie just kept walking toward her room. Then she realized
that Geneva had left her chair in the hall. Goforth would comment on that as further evidence that Geneva was losing it.
She sat down in it until Rolly came by.
Rolly said, “Why are you in the hall?”
“I like to watch people,” Willie said. “They do
and say the most interesting things.”
Rolly looked at Mr. Corrigan and said, “Don, I think we need to get you in your room.”
Mr. Corrigan looked blankly at Willie and at Rolly. “Okay,” he said.
As soon as they were inside Don Corrigan’s room, Willie moved Geneva’s chair into her own room, meaning to take it back to Geneva’s later.
She sat down on her sofa and began straightening magazines, thinking about what Geneva had said this afternoon about papers.
She had been very different this afternoon. Not confused about who Willie might be, not uncertain about Doctor Virginia Sartan, and very certain that she wanted no one to find certain papers in her room.
Chapter Seventeen
As Geneva and her friend walked through the kitchen, they found Violeta, Judson and Glyn working to clean up after dinner.
Geneva sidled over to Glyn. “I know how you got this job.”
Glyn looked up and decided she might be trying to see how he would take bullying.
“Nepotism. Pure and simple,” he said. “My grandma wanted me to pay a speeding ticket.”
Geneva’s friend smiled, but said, “Geneva, we should go.”
Geneva turned to her. “Virginia, do you know how many Nazis there are in this world?”
“I suspect there are always people who want to control others, and exclude others,” the friend said.
Glyn said, “And there are always people who accuse others with little evidence.”
Geneva straightened her back and said, “There is evidence. Lots of evidence.”
Her friend frowned and said, “Geneva, we should get going.”
Geneva said, “Let’s go tell our story.”
“That’s a great idea,” the friend said as she opened the door out the back of the kitchen. “My car is right out here.”
**
Later that evening, Glyn appeared at Grandma Willie’s door with his mother and dad, Susan and Merlyn Jones. Behind them stood Leneld, of the Ancient Nation, Violeta and Judson.
Judson’s apron of blood was nowhere to be seen. He cleaned up pretty well for a guy who whacked and steamed things all day.
Grandma invited them in. “What’s going on?” she asked.
While clearing magazines off chairs, Glyn answered. “Geneva and her friend went through the kitchen this afternoon. Who was that lady?”
Grandma said, “She is a friend of Geneva’s. They are going on vacation. And, she and I are friends again.”
Glyn said, “At our Ancient Nation meeting, Markus said, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean no one’s after you.’ That made me think we really need to follow Geneva’s thinking more carefully. Geneva’s always talking about children in jeopardy. And what we have is children in jeopardy, so following her thoughts might be useful.”
Judson said, “I think that’s right. A slim chance, but we should take that chance.”
“Grandma,” Glyn said, “can you write down what all she has said about those old fears?”
“Got that verbatim in my diary.”
Glyn said, “Still keeping a diary? Red covers every year?”
“Yes,” Grandma Willie said. “I’ve had to move to peach and rose some years.”
Violeta coughed and tried to bring them back to the main matter. “So that person is okay? Geneva is not being kidnapped?”
Willie thought about this. She wondered if Geneva knew what it meant to go to the hospital to share her story. If she didn’t know, wasn’t the lie a kidnapping?
“I will be visiting her soon, where they are vacating.”
Glyn looked puzzled. “Vacation, but close enough to visit?”
Judson said, “Glyn, how about if you and Willie track through Geneva’s ramblings and see what you can come up with. Meanwhile, shouldn’t we be bringing the police in on this business of Trace and Violeta’s sister going missing.”
Grandma Willie said, “I’ve got Captain Reese checking out the drug-sales people that Glyn met.”
Glyn’s mother, Susan, started out of her chair. “Met where? Glyn?”
Glyn felt like he’d been gone from home for weeks. He’d never told Mom and Dad about his escapades.
Leneld said, “Glyn and us guys, we divided the bridges and Glyn took the skate park under the Burnside Bridge.”
And then, of course, Mom and Dad went into their parental hovering mode.
“You’ve all been trying to solve these things without help from the police?”
“You can’t be taking these chances ...”
Grandma Willie now took charge. “Susan and Merle, listen up. The kids know the police won’t search for a kid for twenty-four hours, maybe forty-eight if it’s a weekend. And I can tell you, the police bumble through these things in uniform and with attitude. So, dividing up the bridges was a start on getting some evidence without tainting it with blue wool and gold chest medal.”
She turned to Leneld and Glyn. “However, we have a good idea that Trace was taken by the guy with the overworked belt. And Captain Reese now has a name for him and a call out to pull him and his boys in, especially since his ally was caught trying to seduce minors on Tri-Met.”
Violeta let out a moan. Grandma Willie turned to her. “Your parents have given me the name of the boyfriend and a photo of him and of Liza. These photos came to them from Liza’s parents. They have been very helpful. Captain Reese has people tracking him down as well.
“So, you see,” Willie continued, “Glyn and the band have given the police something solid to go on.”
“Now wait a minute,” Susan said. “This is our son you’re roping into this.”
“Mom,” Glyn said. “You should come live with us. The guys who took Trace know where you live.”
A free-for-all ensued with everyone talking at once. Glyn noticed that Violeta sat there blinking and thinking. Suddenly, she stood up and said, “No hablen tanto.”
Everyone else stopped talking and stared. “Susanna y Merlyn pueden vivir en mi casa. Glyn y Senora Willie en ...”
She suddenly realized she needed to speak English and seemed at a loss, so Glyn said, “Violeta has invited you, Mom and Dad, to stay in their house for safety.”
“Si,” Violeta said.
Leneld said, “How about if Glyn’s sister stays with her girlfriend.”
Dad nodded. “Claudia Ash. Maybe she could stay there until the term ends.”
Silence followed. Then Mom said to Violeta, “Perhaps we should talk to your mother.”
“Si.” Violeta pulled out her cell phone.
Leneld said, “Mrs. Stamps, can we talk to this Captain Reese?”
“I will be glad to introduce you.”
Violeta handed Mom the phone and a whole conversation ensued in English and Spanish with Violeta’s Papá Aguirre.
Dad looked awash in all the activity, going on without him. “How’m I going to practice if we’re gone all the time?”
Violeta said, “My dad has a guitar. He can play while you sing, or whatever...” She trailed off.
“That’s a great idea,” Merlyn said. “Always wanted to learn some new songs. But I need to help him hunt for your sister and her friend.”
“Yes, in the little towns along the bus route, he cannot talk to the police. Only you.”
“We’ll be a team. I’ll get a copy of that boyfriend’s photo, too.”
Chapter Eighteen
Of course, Grandma Willie intended to keep on teaching, so Markus signed up to accompany her to the police academy and Leneld to the corrections facility. Markus thought of himself as Grandma Willie’s protection, but Leneld said, “I think you’re under-estimating the power of old ladies.”
**
“A great way to see jail as an outsider,” Leneld quipped a few hours later, as he and Grandma Willie entered the corrections facility.
“Because you are never going to see it from the inside,” Grandma Willie said, looking over her half glasses at him. They walked into her concrete and windowless classroom.
The guys in the class stopped talking as soon as they saw Grandma Willie. They turned their small desk-chairs toward the front, but there were no rows, only a flotsam-like collection of big feet hung on chair rungs at all angles.
The guard who had let them in, whispered something to Grandma Willie.
She glanced at him and said, “And have you worked with Officer Bailey?”
The man straightened. “Not much. And only when he’s here for some prisoner.”
“Let me know about his veracity when you have had a chance to test it.”
The guard leaned against the back wall.
Leneld looked at her, puzzled.
She said, “After class on the way home.”
He accepted that.
Leneld saw that most of the guys in the class were about twice his weight, though Leneld was taller than many. About half of the class looked to be what his mother would have called “varied flavors of chocolate” A few were chocolate with paprika and three or four were white chocolate.
“New kid,” called one guy with a big fro. He waved toward Leneld. “Sit over here. And keep your head down. Gonna learn how to write like a straight-up politician.”
The man pulled around a chair where his feet had been resting, wiped the boot marks off the seat and gestured welcome.
Grandma Willie laughed. “Gentlemen, this is my friend, Leneld Abu. He’d like to learn to write like a philosopher, but without the plodding pedantry.”
“Plodding pedantry,” shouted one of the fellows. “An alliterative alternative.”
“Correct, Mr. Art, we can write like the Irish poets and the Zulu troubadors.”
Another guy said, “Can we get this kid some paper? Ain’t gonna write nothin’ standing there.”
