Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (26 page)

Noelle’s bed was empty. Sandy jogged to the
bathroom. Empty. She spun in place. Looking around the small room,
she saw the closet door was closed. Sandy padded over to the closet
door. Pressing her head against the mirrored door, Sandy heard
Noelle inside.

“
Noelle?” Sandy asked.
“Honey, I’m going to come in.”

“
NO!!” Noelle
said.

Sandy opened the door to find Noelle sitting
on her shoes in the back corner of the small closet.

“
Noelle?” Sandy crouched
down. “Come out, honey.”

“
NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!!”
Noelle yelled.

“
No,” Sandy said. “I’m not
leaving you alone when you’re this upset.”

“
I HATE YOU!” Noelle
said.

“
More the reason not to
leave you alone,” Sandy said.

“
HOW COULD YOU DO IT?!”
Noelle’s face, neck and chest were bright red. Tears streamed down
her face and nose. Her hair was wild.

“
Do what?” Sandy asked. “If
you won’t come out, then I’m coming in.”

“
NO!! LEAVE ME
ALONE!!”

“
No,” Sandy said. “Ok, how
about if I sit right here and you tell me what’s going
on.”

Noelle collapsed into herself. She pressed
her face against her knees and sobbed. Sandy crawled over Noelle’s
shoes to sit next to her. Sandy’s hand hovered over the little
girl’s back before landing on her head. Sandy stroked Noelle’s hair
and back.

“
What did I do that made
you this upset?” Sandy asked.

Noelle shook her head against her knees.
Unsure of what to do, Sandy kept stroking Noelle’s hair and back.
Noelle sobbed uncontrollably.

“
Well, I’m very sorry,”
Sandy said. “I would never ever do anything that would make you
this upset. Whatever I did, it must have been pretty
bad.”

Noelle’s her face rubbed against her knees
when she nodded. Sandy put her hand on the girl’s shoulder to hold
her while she cried.

“
I wish I knew what I did,”
Sandy said.

“
You m-m-married th-th-that
g-g-guy,” Noelle said through her tears.

“
Which guy?”

“
The PILOT!” Noelle turned
to Sandy in rage. Frustrated, Noelle raised her hands to shake
Sandy off. In the process, she hit Sandy in the face.

“
Ouch,” Sandy grabbed her
face.

“
SANDY!” Noelle screamed.
The little weeping girl threw her arms around Sandy’s neck. “Oh
Sandy…”

“
I’m all right,” Sandy
said. “I was just surprised. Can we get out of this
closet?”

“
NO!” Noelle said. “You
married that guy and…”

“
I married your Dad last
night,” Sandy said.

“
He’s not
my
dad! He’ll never
be
my
dad. He’s
just some guy…”

“
Noelle. Look at me,” Sandy
said.

Noelle shook her head and turned her head
away from Sandy. When Sandy sighed, Noelle’s eyes shifted to look
at her. Sandy smiled at the girl and Noelle turned her head toward
Sandy.

“
Your father, Aden Norsen,
and I got married last night.”

“
You did?”

“
Yes,” Sandy said. “You
don’t recognize his voice because he usually has a lot of cotton in
his mouth when he’s here. He comes for dinner and I help him with
his teeth. Social Services doesn’t want him to be here, so we’ve
snuck around.”

“
You married
my
Dad last night?”
Noelle asked. “Why didn’t you get me?”

“
Because you have a big day
today,” Sandy said. “You know how hard it is when you don’t get
enough sleep.”

“
But…This is what I
wanted
more than anything
in the world!” Noelle said.

“
I thought you wanted Teddy
more than anything in the world,” Sandy said.

“
No,” Noelle said. “All I
ever wanted was a Mom. I wished on thousands of eyelashes, stars,
shooting stars, wishbones…anything that would give me a
Mom.”

Sandy hugged the girl.

“
Nash too. We wanted you to
be our Mom and… You’re sure you married
my
Dad? He’s tall and his teeth are
messed up and…”

“
Here look.” Sandy leaned
back to show Noelle her hand. “This ring matches my engagement
ring.”

“
I can’t tell,” Noelle
said.

“
We’d have to leave the
closet to check,” Sandy said.

“
Ok,” Noelle said. “Your
eye is swelling up.”

“
Let’s look at the rings
and then get some ice,” Sandy said. “Come on.”

She crawled out of the closet and held her
arms out to Noelle. Noelle held her tight.

“
Come on,” Sandy
said.

Sandy held her hand out to Noelle. Noelle
took her hand and they walked into Sandy’s bedroom. Sandy took the
engagement ring from her jewelry box and slipped it on her
finger.

“
See,” Sandy said. “Match
set.”

“
You didn’t marry Teddy’s
Dad?” Noelle asked. “He’s been staying over.”

“
No he hasn’t,” Sandy
repeated what she’d said before. “Your Dad’s been here every night.
Remember? Teeth? Social Services?”

Noelle’s eyes filled with tears again.

“
But... but… I wanted to be
in the wedding!”

Sandy laughed.

“
Katy was in her Mom’s
wedding,” Noelle said. “Don’t I get to be in the
wedding?”

“
You do,” Sandy said.
“We’re having a really big public wedding next year when the baby’s
here. You will be front and center for that wedding.”

“
What about me?” Nash
asked. “I want to be married too.”

Sandy held her arms out for the boy. They
hugged.

“
Will we get cake?” Noelle
asked.

“
We get cake tonight,”
Sandy said. “Fancy store bought cake.”

“
I think your cake is
better than any store bought cake,” Noelle said.

“
Yes but it’s my
celebration,” Sandy said. “Can’t make your own wedding
cake.”

“
Did you marry Teddy’s
Dad?” Nash asked.

“
She married OUR Dad!”
Noelle said.

“
You did?!” Nash asked.
“What about the guy who has been coming over?”

“
It was OUR Dad! He sounded
funny because of his teeth.”

“
Oh, wow,” Nash beamed.
“That’s great!”

“
We’re a family,” Sandy
said.

Noelle threw herself at Sandy and Nash
hugged her.

“
Can I call you Mom now?”
Nash asked.

“
I get to call her Mom!”
Noelle said.

Laughing, Sandy shook her head at their
mercurial nature.

“
NO, I’m the oldest. I get
to,” Nash said.

“
Mom, your eye’s swelling,”
Noelle said. Turning to Nash, she said, “See…”

“
I’ll get you some ice,
Mom,” Nash said.

He jettisoned into the kitchen. Noelle and
his Mom followed close behind.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday morning — 7:15 A.M.

“
Moping around?” Mike asked
Jacob.

Jacob had been sitting at the kitchen table
wondering what to do with his Saturday when Mike came down. Not
quite willing to admit he was moping, Jacob shrugged.

“
Feeling sorry for
yourself?” Mike asked.

Refusing to acknowledge feeling sorry for
himself, Jacob moved to get up.

“
Listen, I have a lot to
do…” Jacob said.

Mike laughed at Jacob. Knowing he was
caught, Jacob smiled.

“
Cereal?” Mike
asked.

“
Sure,” Jacob
said.

“
Sure?” Mike pulled a box
of Captain Crunch with Crunchberries out of the pantry. “Really,
Jacob Marlowe says ‘sure’ to Captain Crunch. We need to mark this
day.”

He set the cereal in front of Jacob and
retrieved two bowls from the cabinet. Jacob grabbed the milk from
the refrigerator.

“
Spoons?” Jacob asked as he
sat down.

“
Your spoon, sir,” Mike
said.

Mike set the spoons down on the table. Jacob
filled his bowl with Captain Crunch and gave the box to Mike.

“
I don’t know,” Jacob
said.

“
Did you just answer a
question I asked in my head?” Mike asked.

“
Oh, I don’t think so,”
Jacob said. “You want to know why I’m moping around, right? Well I
don’t really know. I’d planned on spending these days working on
the Castle. I can’t do that because of the murder scene. I was
going to work on a new rehab project but I’d mostly be in the way.
I was going to look at Honey’s new project but she and MJ want to
show me their plans before I start. And…”

“
Then you’re free to go
fishing?” Mike interrupted Jacob’s flow of stuck
projects.

“
Fishing?”

“
Yes workaholic boy,” Mike
said. “Remember when you weren’t the Great and Powerful Sultan of
Lipson Construction and we used to go fishing?”

“
I still owned Lipson,”
Jacob said.

“
You still own it
now.”

“
Not really,” Jacob
said.

“
You deal with my sister
like this?” Mike asked. “I’m surprised she doesn’t just kill
you.”

Jacob scowled at Mike and dug into his
Captain Crunch. The men ate their cereal in silence. Jacob picked
up the box to refill his bowl when Mike cleared his throat.

“
What I’m saying is that
you used to do a lot of fun stuff. You’d ski, fish, backpack,
mountain bike, hunt… whatever and whenever Jake Marlowe was up for
fun,” Mike said. “You do remember that don’t you?”

“
Vaguely,” Jacob
said.

Mike raised an eyebrow at him and poured
another bowl of cereal.

“
You need to go to rehab.”
Mike pointed to him with the box.

“
Rehab?”

“
Starting today,” Mike
said. “You and I are going fly fishing. When we’re done, we’ll stop
in Idaho Springs for pizza and a few beers.”

“
But…”

“
Then we’ll drive home to
our wives for dinner and romance,” Mike said.

“
We have hockey tonight,”
Jacob said.

“
At midnight,” Mike said.
“Can’t you squeeze a little romance in between six and midnight?
What has happened to you? You’ve got the skills to start foreplay
from thirty miles out.”

Shrugging, he gave Mike a sour face and took
a bite of cereal.

“
Tomorrow, we’ll go rock
climbing,” Mike said.

“
I thought you were leaving
for LA tomorrow,” Jacob said.

“
Here we go again. This is
the kind of attitude I’m talking about,” Mike said. “You used to
say, ‘I’ve got an hour, I…”

“
May as well play,” Jacob
and Mike said together.

“
That was a long time ago,”
Jacob said.

“
Like two years ago,” Mike
said.

Jacob held his spoon out. Mike tapped his
spoon to Jacob’s.

“
Let’s go,” Mike
said.

“
Right now?”

“
Yes, right now,” Mike
said.

Mike grabbed Jacob by the shoulders and
pulled him to his feet.

“
Your gear is in my car,”
Mike patted Jacob’s shoulder. “See, I can read your mind
too.”

“
I need to tell Jill,”
Jacob said.

“
I told her last night,”
Mike said. “She said to have a great time. She and Katy have a play
date with Paddie and his mom, Julie, this morning. They are doing
something with Sandy this afternoon. We’ll be here by the time they
get back.”

“
But…” Jacob
said.

“
Call her from the car,”
Mike said.

Jacob picked up the two bowls and carried
them to the sink.

“
Let’s go.”

Mike opened the door to the coal tunnel.
Jacob rinsed the bowls and set them in the dishwasher.

“
JAAACCCCOOOOBBB!” Mike’s
voice echoed from the tunnel.

Laughing, he joined his friend in the
tunnel.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday afternoon – 2:15 P.M.

Standing in what she’d begun to think of as
‘her corner’ of the morgue, Delphie watched a middle-aged couple
talk to the Coroner. The man’s hands gripped the woman’s upper arms
to keep her from collapsing. The woman’s shoulders were hunched
near her ears. Her fists were drawn up near her face. In her grief,
she looked like a grasshopper ready to spring.

“
This is my sister?” the
woman asked.

“
Yes, ma’am,” the Coroner
said.

“
You’re sure?” the woman
asked again.

“
I’m very sorry but we
are,” the Coroner said. “We’ve been able to match the dental
records you provided.”

“
All these years…I told
myself that she was off on some exotic journey. She always wanted
to see the world. She wallpapered her room with pictures from the
National Geographic,” the woman said. “She woke me up… in the
middle of the night. She told me she was going on an adventure…
I’ll be back, she said. I won’t leave you, she said. But… How long
has she been…?”