“You live in a big ol’ farmhouse,” he said in a whisper.
“Mm.” I knew he’d grown up in the heart of Darville. Different worlds, in too many ways to count. I walked him out to Paul’s car. Round Hill Road was dark. No other cars. No people. I leaned against the sedan and he kissed me good night.
“Thursday night,” he said.
“Thursday night,” I agreed.
* * *
Walking back to my house, I saw the kitchen light reflected off the side of Buddy’s truck in the driveway. I hoped someone had left the light on accidentally. I decided to go in the front door. Maybe no one would notice me and I could slip up the stairs to my room unseen.
I opened the front door. I was so quiet, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could hear me, but as soon as I stepped into the room and shut the door softly behind me, my father’s voice boomed from the kitchen.
“Ellie, get in here.”
I shut my eyes. Took in a breath. Made sure my dress was on right side out. Then I walked into the kitchen.
They were all waiting for me. My mother, father, brother. Mama sat at the table, crying, blotting her tears with a cloth napkin, and for a brief moment, I thought this midnight meeting had nothing to do with me. Had someone died?
“What’s going on?” I asked, already feeling guilty that I hoped this was about some tragedy and not about me.
“Sit down,” Daddy said. It was a command. This was about me, after all.
I sat down at my usual place at the table. I glanced at Buddy, sitting across from me. He just shook his head and looked away.
“You know,” my father said, “we didn’t talk to you about the toll your shenanigans have taken on our good name in this town and maybe we should have, because you don’t seem to have figured out on your own what you’ve cost us.”
“I was only gone for a month,” I protested. “Your good name must have been pretty fragile if you could lose it over me trying to give poor people a say in their government.”
“Eleanor!” my mother snapped, and I knew I’d stepped way over the line.
“You were with that boy tonight,” Buddy accused me.
“What boy? What are you talking about? I was just outside to get some air. It’s stifling in—”
“Don’t lie to us!” my father shouted. “Mama thought she heard a sound and went to your room to check on you, and found your bed empty.”
“What are you doing, Ellie?” Mama asked. “Who’ve you turned into?”
“I saw you with him,” Buddy said, and the way he looked at me, I thought he knew I’d taken off my dress for Win. Let him touch me all over. Let him inside me.
“How could you see me with someone when I wasn’t with anyone?” I asked.
“Two people comin’ down Hockley Road in the moonlight? Could tell it was you plain as day, but couldn’t make out the face of the boy. I assume he’s the same one I beat up? Didn’t learn his lesson?”
I felt frightened, not for myself, but for Win. Buddy’s expression was serious and determined. He thought he was protecting me from someone—or something—but he was only hurting me.
“Look, everybody.” My body trembled as I got to my feet. “I’m done with him. Tonight was just to tell him that. I’m done with him and I’ve left SCOPE and I’ll start seeing Reed again and we can all put this month behind us, okay?”
I would do it, too. I’d do whatever I had to do to protect Win and get everyone off my back. I’d return to my old life. I’d work on getting Brenda’s friendship back. That might take time. I’d get back in everyone’s good graces, and then, when I got my pharmacist degree, I would move someplace far, far away where I could be my own person and not have to bend to the rules of anyone else.
“You’re telling the truth?” My father looked suspicious. “You’ll get back with Reed?”
“Yes. Not right this second. Not tomorrow. Let me ease into this, okay? I need to do this on my own time and I can’t expect him to just pick up where we left off, either. But I ended it with Win … the guy you saw me with tonight.” I looked at Buddy, acknowledging that he was right. “It’s over.” It hurt to say those words.
My mother was shaking her head. “I’m so ashamed of you,” she said. “So disgusted! How could … ugh.” She shuddered. “I just don’t under—”
“It’s all right, Pat,” my father said, resting his hand on her shoulder. “She says it’s over. Let’s forget it happened. If Reed can forgive her, we can too.”
“Thanks, Daddy,” I said. I was amazed they seemed to believe me. I wasn’t sure about my brother. His eyes were narrowed and suspicious and I had the feeling he would have liked to take another swipe at Win. But I seemed to have come out of this on top. “Good night,” I said, and I turned and headed for the stairs wondering how I was going to get a message to Win to stay away on Thursday night.
We would have to work out another way to be together.
Chapter 43
KAYLA
2010
The light still glows in the woods by the time the police officer shows up. He’s very young and looks as though he spends all his free time at the gym. Although I’m disappointed that he’s not Sam, I’m relieved to have him next to me as I point through the trees toward the small white light. I give him the short version of my disconcerting conversation with the woman in my office and the kidnapping of my daughter, who is now safely sleeping upstairs.
“The woman left my little girl in this old tree house,” I say. “See that light in the distance? It’s coming from the tree house.”
“So you’re thinking it’s the redhead?” the officer asks quietly, as I guide him down the path from the deck. He lights the way with a flashlight.
“I don’t know what to think.”
We reach the trail that goes into the woods. Far ahead of us, the light glows. It looks like a star that fell into the trees.
“You go back on the deck,” he says. “I’ll check it out.”
I return to the deck and sit at the glass-topped table. The song of the cicadas quickly swallows the sound of his footsteps and I fold my hands on the cool glass, waiting. My body’s tense, fearing a gunshot. The longer I sit there, the more certain I feel that it’s the red-haired woman in the tree house. The officer will arrest her for … what? Trespassing? I don’t know. At the very least, he’ll take her to the hospital and they’ll give her a psychiatric evaluation and hopefully get her treatment in a nice, secure locked ward and I won’t have to think about her any longer.
I hear footsteps and voices and get to my feet. Soon I see light bobbing through the trees, but when the officer emerges from the woods, it’s Ellie walking next to him, not the redheaded woman. I hurry toward them.
“Ellie!” I say. “That was you up there? I had no idea!”
The light from my house is bright enough to let me know she’s been crying. She’s not wearing her glasses and her eyes are rimmed with red.
“I’m so sorry for trespassing, Kayla,” she says. “And I didn’t mean to scare you. I just remembered how lovely it is up there at night and I wanted to experience it again.”