Girl in the Shadows Page 16

  of us lost for a while in the hopes and the dreams that

  gave us reason to go on.

  I enjoyed the pie, helped clean up, and then

  went up to my room. As the hours marched by and I

  didn't hear Rhona. Skeeter. and Echo return. I knew

  Mrs. Westinaton was probably growing, more and

  more agitated. I hadn't heard her come up to bed

  either. so I went downstairs and found her dozing in

  her chair in the living room with the television set on

  but the audio almost too low to hear. The moment I

  entered, her eyes snapped open.

  "Are they back?"

  "No, not yet." I said. She looked at the clock. It

  was close to eleven.

  "Where could they have taken that child this

  late?"

  I had no answer, but I saw she wasn't about to

  get up and go to sleep, so I sat on the sofa.

  "You don't have to wait up with me. April." "It's all right. I won't fall asleep knowing you're

  down here worried."

  "If my daughter had one ounce of your

  decency, I wouldn't be worried."

  I wondered if I should reveal what Tyler had

  told me about his having to stop tutoring Echo very

  soon. It seemed like a flood of bad news. Maybe wait

  a little longer. I thought. Maybe he would change his

  mind anyway.

  I gazed at the television.

  "You can make that louder or change the

  channel if you want. Half the time I fall asleep

  watching it. My eyes get tired and most of what I see

  seems silly."

  I reached for the remote just as the headlights

  of the van ran a ray of light over the walls. We both

  turned to look out the windows.

  "Finally." she said. rising.

  We both went to the doorway of the living

  room. We could hear Rhona's loud peal of laughter.

  Skeeter was making some strange sound, imitating

  something that resembled an elephant. The door

  opened and they entered with Echo, who looked like

  she had been asleep, probably in the van. Her eyes

  were droopy and she barely had enough energy to

  smile when she saw us.

  "Where have you been with her?" Mrs.

  Westington demanded immediately.

  Even though a good five or six feet separated us

  from them. I could smell the odor of whiskey, Skeeter

  swayed a little. holding on to his dumb grin. Rhona

  wavered, her hands on Echo's shoulders.

  "What are you getting yourself in an uproar

  about. Ma? We just stopped at one of old hangouts

  and I met same of my old friends, friends I haven't

  seen for ten years."

  "And what did Echo do all that time you were

  in a bar? Don't tell me you took her in. too." "No. She stayed in the van and actually took a

  nap on our bedding,"

  "You let that girl sleep on that lice-infested

  filthy old mattress you had in that van?"

  "Don't exaggerate, Ma. It just looks dirty. It's

  not. It's old."

  "And well used," Skeeter added with a laugh. "Yes, well used,' Rhona agreed.

  "Come here," Mrs. Westinton beckoned to

  Echo. She moved quickly to her and Mrs. Westington

  looked through her hair. "She'll need a good bath and

  shampoo."

  "That's disgusting, Ma. We're not dirty slobs." "Until someone invents a better way to describe

  you two, I'll stick with that." Mrs Westington said.

  "This is no hour to bring home this girl. She has to let

  her sleep."

  "It's Saturday night, for chrissakes," Rhona

  said. "Are you still living in those dark ages?" "I'm still a responsible person, if that's what you

  mean. yes."

  "I don't expect to frustrate the girl the way you

  frustrated me. Ma. Here I was locked up in this house

  while my friends were out there having fun all the

  time. You have to trust the people you love and not

  expect they'll do something terrible all the time." "In your case. Rhona, you exceeded my

  expectations," Mrs. Westington said, and turned Echo

  toward the stairs. She signed and told her she would

  help her take a bath and get to bed.

  Rhona and Skeeter watched them start up the

  stairs and then Rhona turned and glared viciously at

  me.

  "Did you work her up into this mood?" she

  asked.

  "I just came down myself, surprised you

  weren't back yet."

  "Oh, so you let her know you were surprised.

  Very convenient. I'm warning you. I'm not going to let

  you turn her against us." Rhona said, stepping toward

  me.

  "I don't have to do that. You do it so well

  yourself," I replied and, even though I was trembling,

  glared back at her and then turned and followed Mrs.

  Westington and Echo up the stairs.

  "Bitch," I heard Rhona call after me.

  "Easy," Skeeter told her.

  I glanced back and saw him whispering in her

  ear. She nodded and smiled and then they turned and

  went into the living, room. I looked in on Mrs.

  Westington and Echo, who was already in the bathtub,

  the water runnin g.

  "Come here," she said, bringing me over to the

  tub. "Just look."

  She pulled some strands of Echo's hair apart

  and I could see the bugs.

  "This is what wants to turn a new leaf and be a

  mother. Lord, give me the strength." She poured the

  shampoo into Echo's hair and began to scrub. "I can do that for you. Mrs Westington. Please.

  Let me," I said.

  She thought a moment and then stepped back. I

  shampooed Echo's hair and rinsed it with the shower

  hose. Mrs. Westington stood by with a towel and

  wrapped her as soon as she stepped up and out of the

  tub.

  "Let's get this child to bed," she said. She told

  me where to find her pajamas. Echo put them on and

  Zot into bed. She still looked confused. dazed. Mrs.

  Westington arranged her blanket and gave her a kiss.

  "I'm going to sleep," she told me. She started out. "Are you all right?" I signed to Echo. Through her fatigue, she smiled and then

  brought her hands out from under the blanket to tell

  me.

  "I had dinner with my mother. And she said she

  was sorry she left me," Echo told me. "She said she

  would never leave me again. Never."

  Her happiness not only disappointed me, it

  frightened me. She was being set up for a great fall. I was positive, but I dared not contradict her or Rhona

  directly.

  "People say things sometimes and forget," I

  told her.

  "No," she said, and shook her head vehemently.

  "She won't forget. She promised."

  All I could do was smile and nod. I kissed her

  on the forehead and told her to sleep tight. She nodded

  and hugged Mr. Panda to her.

  When I stepped out into the hallway. I could

  hear Rhona's and Skeeter's laughter below. They had

  put on some music, not caring how loud it was and if

  it would disturb me or Mrs. Westington. I thought I

  heard the sound of something being knocked over,

  too. Their laughter stopped and then I heard R
hona

  moan. Skeeter laughed and Rhona cried out

  passionately. They're probably making love right on

  the living room floor. I thought, For a moment I was

  tempted to go look. I went into my room instead and

  closed the door.

  I stood there in the darkness. trembling. How

  horrid all this had become. How sorry I felt for Mrs.

  Westington. I was sure she would be having a

  troubled sleep tonight.

  "Uncle Palaver," I whispered, "you taught me how to make coins and cards disappear. You even showed me how you could make me disappear after I crawled into your magic box on the stage. But you forgot to show me how to make a horrid person

  disappear."

  That's a bit of magic I'll have to learn on my

  own. I thought, and went to bed dreaming that

  somehow, maybe through Destiny, I would find the

  way.

  8 Caught Naked

  . Rhona and Skeeter didn't come down for breakfast. They made lots of noise going up the stairway very late at night, completely inconsiderate of Mrs. Westinton and me, especially me. I heard Skeeter growl at my door, in fact, because he woke me and then I heard them both laughing. If Mrs. Westington heard anything, she didn't mention it. In the morning Echo kept looking for her mother to came down and even asked me if I thought she should go up to see if she was awake.

  "They went to bed very late." I told her. "Let them sleep." Let them sleep forever. I thought. Maybe that was mean. but I couldn't help it.

  Just as I sat down to have breakfast with Echo and Mrs. Westington, the phone rang. She told me it was Tyler Monahan calling for inc. Echo didn't know it was Tyler and I wasn't about to tell her.

  "How are things today?" Tyler asked. I told him what had happened the night before with Echo and how upset Mrs. Westington had been and still was.

  "I guess this wouldn't be a good time to bring up my leaving." he said.

  "No. it wouldn't. Tyler."

  "Can you meet me tonight in your motor home

  after Echo goes to sleep?" he asked, confirming his promise to return. Excitement trickled through me like a low voltage shock. I knew why he wanted to meet, of course, and it wasn't to improve my academic skills for the equivalency exam.

  "I suppose,:" I said.

  "And could we turn that doll around?" I laughed. "You're the one who keeps saying it's

  just a doll. Tyler."

  "That's not just a doll," he said. "Okay. I'll put

  her in the bedroom."

  "No, maybe leave her out of the bedroom.

  That's the one place I don't want her to be," he said. I

  could feel myself blush. "One other thing. I think it

  might be better if I parked on the road and walked to

  the motor home. No need to let anyone else there

  know I'm around."

  "Okay," I said. although I wasn't comfortable

  with us sneaking about the property. Was he trying to

  keep all this secret from the people here or from his

  mother?

  "I'll be there about nine-thirty, waiting for you,"

  he said.

  Mrs. Westington looked curious about the

  phone call, but she didn't ask me anything after I hung

  up and I didn't volunteer anything. It's better to say

  nothing rather than lie. I thought, and returned to the

  breakfast table to join Echo. Trevor hadn't shown up

  for dinner the night before and had not come to

  breakfast either. I imagined he just didn't want to see

  much of Rhona. As it turned out, he wouldn't have

  risked it this particular morning. She and Skeeter

  didn't come downstairs until nearly noon.

  When they finally appeared, they were both

  dressed to go out, Rhona wearing one of her old

  dresses and a light blue leather jacket I had wished

  would fit me. and Skeeter in a relatively clean-looking

  pair of jeans, a blue shirt, and a jean jacket with all

  sorts of emblems with silly things written on them

  like Down with Milk. Mrs. Westington was in the

  kitchen. Echo and I were in the living room reading

  and working on some of her English grammar

  problems in preparation for her tutoring session the

  next day..

  "Don't bother making any breakfast for us.

  Ma," Rhona called to Mrs. Westington from the

  hallway. "Skeeter and I are going to eat at the Mars Hotel in Healdsburg and then look at some properties we found out about last night. We'll see you later.

  Maybe Echo wants to go," she added.

  "That girl needs to do her homework for

  tomorrow's lessons,"

  Mrs. Westington replied quickly.

  "Oh. Well, we don't want to interrupt that now,

  do we. Skeeter?"

  "Absolutely not, Maybe we'll take her to a

  movie or something tonight."

  "A movie? How do you expect her to enjoy a

  movie if she can't hear a word?"

  "People used to go to silent movies. Ma,"

  Rhona said. "You probably did," she added, and they

  both laughed.

  "Silent movies were made differently." I

  offered from the doorway of the living room. "They

  had written words and the actors performed

  differently."

  "Who said that?" she cried, pretending it was a

  voice from out of the blue. She turned and looked at

  inc. "Oh, you're still here?" She turned her back on me

  and then marched to the front door. "C'mon. Skeeter,

  we have work to do," she called back to him. He smiled licentiously at me and moved his tongue over his lower lip. Then he laughed and joined her at the door. They both laughed at something he whispered and then they walked out. I looked back at Echo. She hadn't realized they had come down and I

  wasn't about to tell her.

  A short while after they had left. Trevor came

  in to see how things were and Mrs. Westington gave

  him an earful about the night before. He listened,

  shook his head sympathetically, and urged her not to

  let herself get too upset. She told him all about their

  request for money and why.

  "I got a very bad feeling about those two," he

  told me when Mrs. Westington went upstairs. "I don't

  think they're here for the real estate business prospects

  they claim. Before they left yesterday, two men drove

  up and spoke with that Skeeter fellow, and both

  looked like they had been dragged out of a swamp.

  My guess is they need money, but not to buy old

  houses to fix up. They have serious debts with bad

  people."

  "What are we going to do?" I asked him. "Nothing right now. All I got to go on is a

  feeling, but you watch and wait long enough and the

  rat comes out."

  "To me it already has." I said.

  He nodded and went out to the winery.

  Meanwhile. Echo, impatient now, went looking for

  her mother and discovered she was gone. A look of

  panic came over her when she found out they had left.

  Her hands were flying about like small birds trying to

  draw diagrams in the air. 'Where were they? When did

  they leave? When were they coming back?"

  "They have business here and had an

  appointment," I told her.

  Maybe I was passing on a lie as Trevor thought,

  but I didn't want her worrying. I saw she couldn't

  concentrate on our work. She was constantly thinking

  about her mother, looking alit the wi
ndow for her and

  Skeeter's return, so I asked Mrs. Westington if it

  would be all right to take Echo for a ride. "We'll

  return to the mall," I told her. "I need some other

  things and Echo enjoyed it so."

  She thought a moment and nodded. "It would

  be good to keep her mind off you know who," she

  said, reading my mind. "And I know you're

  responsible and trustworthy enough to look after her." When I told Echo, she was bright and happy

  again. This would actually be the first trip she had

  ever taken without her grandmother and Trevor

  Washington. I unhooked my car from Uncle Palaver's motor home and brought it around to the front of the

  house.

  "Where you headed?" Trevor asked. I told him

  and explained why.

  "Can't blame the girl. I guess," he said. "After

  you lose someone you love or someone who loves

  you, you'd forgive them all their sins and

  imperfections if you could have them back. You'd

  even make a deal with the devil."

  "That's who Echo would have to speak to about

  her mother," I told him, and he laughed.

  "Have a good time," he said, and returned to his

  favorite work. I realized it was work that kept him in

  close contact with the best memories of his life. It was

  truly a labor of love, and despite all the complaining

  Mrs. Westington voiced about it, she was happy for

  him, maybe even envious. I wished I could find a way

  to reconnect with my good memories, too, reconnect

  without all the baggage of sadness that accompanied

  them.

  I honked the horn and Mrs. Westington brought

  Echo out. She had helped her choose one of her new

  skirt and blouse outfits and she did look pretty. It was

  a partly sunny day with high brisk winds smearing the

  clouds over the blue sky so that they thinned out and spread like tattered white cloth toward the southwest. Sunlight brought a brightness to her face the way it

  would open a flower.

  Echo got into the car. She was very excited

  now, the short trip truly a major adventure in her eyes

  because it was just the two of us. She watched me

  drive and then told me Tyler had promised that soon

  he would teach her how to drive so she could be ready

  for her driving test when she was of age. She showed

  me some of the signing related to driving that he had

  already taught her, such as the signs for right and left

  turn, speeding up and slowing down. -Wasn't it wrong

  to make such promises to her knowing he was