Embracing Darkness (38 page)

“Now, now, Argyle,” Father Poole began. “No need to get hostile. Remember that people who steal do so not because they’re evil but because they have more pressing needs than those from whom they take.”

“Father,” replied Argyle Hobbs as he started out the door. “that thief ain’t gettin’ away with this, no-how! I’ll find him. And when I do, I’ll be gettin’ the law on his thievin’ ass. That is, after I hang him up by the balls!”

As he hobbled down the steps with a look of determination on his face, Sister Ignatius ran up to Father Poole, who was now standing at the front door. “Phineas, you can’t let him go to the police. What if they come up here and find Jessica? How would we explain her?”

He stroked her chin. It was the first time she’d ever called him by his first name. “I know,” he said. “Ransom will just add her to our monthly bill. I’ll go talk to Argyle.” With that the priest ran out the door into the oncoming storm.

For her part Sister Ignatius ran over to the Benson house, where she opened the door and shouted, “JONAS? JESSICA?”

“IN HERE!” Jonas called out.

The nun rushed into the living room and grabbed Jessica. Jonas jumped up. “What is it, ma’m?” he asked, looking worried.

“Where’s Zachary?”

“I ain’t seen him all day, ma’m.”

“He wasn’t with us in the rectory. He’d have come down when Argyle started screaming. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that boy for hours.”

“Somefin’ wrong wit’ Hobby?”

“Yes,” she began, and then shook her head as if to correct herself in frustration. “I mean no. It’s nothing. But you and Jessica will have to stay upstairs for a while, just in case. And Zachary! We need to find Za… .”

She stopped and thought about when she had last seen Zachary.

“Jonas?” she said, dazed and staring at the wall.

“Yes m’am?”

“Take Jessica with you upstairs.”

She handed the child to Jonas and then ran out the door. When she got to the edge of the summit where the incline began, she saw Phineas about halfway down the hill, still trying to talk Argyle Hobbs into coming back up.

“PHIN…,” she began, then caught herself. “FATHER POOLE!”

“What is it?” he called back in an anxious voice.

“ZACHARY,” she cried out. “I THINK HE’S GONE TOO!”

Argyle Hobbs curled his mouth in disgust and said, “I knew it! I knew it was him! It had to be, Father. That boy’s a thief! I knew it the first time I ever laid eyes on that son of a… .”

Father Poole patted the groundskeeper on the back. “Alright now, Argyle. Let’s not get our bloomers in a twist. Let’s see whether we can figure this all out without getting the police involved, eh? Keep it in the family, right? I’ll replace any tools that are missing.”

“BUT THEY’RE
ALL
MISSIN’!”

“Then I’ll get you all new ones. Consider it a Christmas present from me to you.”

When they reached the top of “The Path to Salvation,” Sister Ignatius ran over to meet them. All three then went back into the rectory and searched it from top to bottom. They even looked in the kitchen’s huge walk-in pantry. No Zachary. What was worse, soon after they’d begun their search the three discovered that more than just tools were missing. The door to the second-floor closet was wide open, and the bundle of presents that Father Poole had bought for the children was gone.

“What would he want the toys for if he were just going to run away?” the nun asked Phineas.

Father Poole thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. He ran downstairs to his office and picked up the telephone. “Mrs. Osborne,” Father Poole said frantically, “I’d like to be connected with The Toy Chest, please. I need to speak with Jasper Beck.”

Sister whispered, “What are you calling the toy store for? If you’re going to place an order for more toys when we need to… .”

Phineas covered the receiver and said quietly, “I need to see if Zachary’s been in. Maybe he… . Hello? Yes, Mrs. Osborne? No. There’s got to be someone there. Keep trying.”

Sister Ignatius still didn’t understand what Phineas was up to.

“Yes,” he continued. “Yes, Mrs. Osborne, I realize it’s after seven o’clock, but someone’s got to be there. I mean, it’s his busy season with Christmas just four days away. He must be helping a customer. Please keep trying and call me back when you get through.”

He hung up the phone. The nun stood before him with her hands on her hips as if about to scold him.

“Now would you mind explaining what’s in that mind of yours?”

He grabbed her gently by the sides of her neck and sat her down in his chair. “Don’t you see? He needs money. He’d have to return the toys to the store for a refund. If Zachary’s been in the store to get the money refunded to him, then we know he’s the one who’s responsible and not some random burglar who made his way into the rectory, kidnapped the boy, and made off with everything.”

Sister Ignatius shook her head slowly but her eyes were kind. “Oh, Phineas. How you still trust that little scoundrel. He’s no good, I tell you! Everyone has been telling you that. Everyone sees it. Why can’t you?”

But her words fell on deaf ears as the phone rang. Phineas picked it up. Mrs. Osborne was on the other end.

“Mr. Beck is on the line for you, Father Poole.” she said, sounding as though she were talking while pinching the bridge of her nose. “Go ahead, please, Mr. Beck.”

“Father!” Jasper Beck answered. It was difficult to hear because in the background were lots of shouting and rummaging of boxes and people arguing. “What can I do for you, Father? I can’t spare you too much time. I’m a little busy right now.”

“Listen, Jasper,” Father Poole began.

“I suppose you wanna know my store hours to come down and buy some more toys, seeing as how you had that boy come and return all of the ones you already bought.”

“Jasper! The boy!”

“Normally I don’t like giving refunds, but he returned a few items I had just recently run out of, especially that train set. I got a ton of mothers here looking for one. I just sold the one that boy brought back and made two bucks more on it, so I can’t very well complain now, can I?”

“JASPER!” Father Poole exclaimed, sounding as though he were scolding the toy-shop owner.

“Oops! Sorry, Father. I know it’s wrong of me to do that. Trust me, if I were a Catholic, I’d run to confession this very minute. Or maybe after the store closed.”

“Jasper, listen to me!”

“There ain’t nobody here to help me, you know. I’m all by myself here, and I’m being mobbed!”

“Jasper, the boy who returned everything. Did you give him $19.68 in cash, the exact amount I paid for all those toys?”

“What’s that, Father? Oh, yeah. Nineteen some odd dollars. Yes, I did.”

“Did he mention where he was going? Did you see which way he went?”

“I’m sorry, Father,” Jasper Beck replied, sounding annoyed. “I can’t hear you very well, and this woman is screaming in my ear for another train set. Hold on a sec. ‘SORRY, LADY. I TOLD YOU I’M SOLD OUT!’ Father, I need to go. We can talk tomorrow if you like, but come before I open
’
cause I can’t keep up with the crowds. Thank God for rich parents in these hard times, Father!”

There was a click, and Father Poole knew that Jasper Beck had hung up. He leaned against the desk and exhaled loudly.

“You were right, Sister. Lord Almighty, and just when I thought I was reaching him. He was lying to me the whole time!”

She took his hand in hers and kissed him on the cheek. He looked surprised because at that moment he didn’t feel that he deserved a kiss. He felt like an idiot and, even worse, a failure.

“It’s only a few toys and tools, Phineas. At least they can be replaced.”

He walked to the window, hoping that Zachary would suddenly show up. “It’s worse than that,” he explained. “When we were trying to find him, I went up to my room. The door was unlocked, and my top bureau drawer was open. My gold ring, my gold cufflinks, my gold pocket watch—all are gone. He tried taking them from me once. He came back for them. This time he was successful.”

Sister Ignatius put her hand on Phineas’s shoulder. He turned to her and buried his face on her breast.

“I was going to sell them to help pay for things around here,” he added. “After you and I talked, that’s what I decided to do. I swear it. Now what are we going to do, Sister?”

She stroked the hair on the back of his head and sighed. “Call me Ellen.”

The two embraced for several more seconds but were interrupted by a creaking that came from upstairs.

“What was that?” Father Poole asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Argyle?”

“Argyle went over to the Benson house to look in on the kids.”

“Maybe he came back,” she said.

“We didn’t hear him come in,” replied Father Poole. “He always makes a lot of noise when he comes in with that limp of his. You know that.”

“Mrs. Keats?” the nun asked.

“No. She never goes upstairs.”

Then it occurred to the two of them that it could mean only one person.

Phineas ran to the office door with Sister Ignatius right behind him. As they did so, a thunderous rumbling could be heard as Zachary plunged down the stairs and out the door, which the boy had left open when he snuck back into the rectory. He had come back to get the slingshot he’d forgotten in his bedroom. Phineas and Sister Ignatius ran after him as far as the edge of the summit. Zachary must have been racing on pure adrenaline as he made it down the nearly 1,200 feet to the base of the hill, and he covered the distance with lightning speed, laughing and howling triumphantly as he did so.

“He’s laughing at us?” Phineas asked, paying no attention to the snow that was now descending.

Father Poole walked slowly in Zachary’s direction but stopped when his foot hit something. He bent down and picked it up. It was the Bible he’d given Zachary, but it had been vandalized. The binding appeared to be bulging. He flipped to the back and saw that the last book, Revelation, had been completely ripped out. Sister Ignatius noticed it but said nothing.

She walked up to Phineas’s side and pulled from her pocket a small book she had tucked inside along with her copy of
Sonnets
of
the
Portuguese
. It was Alfred Lord Tennyson’s
Idylls
of
the
King
.

As they watched Zachary grow smaller and smaller in the distance, Ellen said, “It’s like Merlin and Arthur’s sister, Morgana.”

“What do you mean?” Phineas asked.

“Merlin trusted her too much,” she replied. “And when his defenses were down, she betrayed him, just as Zachary’s done with you.”

While Phineas watched Zachary run farther and farther away, his howls growing fainter, Sister Ignatius read aloud:

Then, in one moment, she put forth the charm

Of the woven paces and of waving hands,

And in the hollow oak he lay as dead,

And lost to life and use his name and fame.

Then crying, “I have made his glory mine!”

And shrieking out, “O fool!” the harlot leapt

Adown the forest, and the thicket closed

Behind her, and the forest echo’d “Fool”!

Book III
The Benson Home for Abused and Abandoned Boys
 

Nineteen
Three Surprises in One
 

Alexander Pope once wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: / Man never is, but always to be blest.” I suppose that’s true to an extent. Because we aren’t carbon copies of one master cutout, we understand things differently and see things that others may not. That’s how it was with Father Poole. He must have seen something in Zachary Black that no one else had, or perhaps he
wanted
to see a dim light inside Zachary that might burn brighter if stoked long enough. He had to believe that; otherwise, he was myopically blind to a cunning, deceitful child.

Most of us would have turned our backs on someone like Zachary Black, and few would have endeavored to help him. One man, however, was willing to be his savior—a man with enough hope that the wayward lad would discover some speck of true humanity and learn to love himself. Phineas always thought that he could teach Zachary the principles of decency; he thought that the boy could learn morality. Yet on the evening of Saturday, December 21, 1929, Father Poole finally realized that Zachary Black was not about to let anyone reform him. The boy was lost. So it was that the kind-hearted priest let Zachary go on his way.

As Christmas came and went that year, the citizens of Holly bid farewell and good riddance to the roaring twenties, ushering in a new decade that they hoped would promise an economic recovery. The 1930s, of course, turned out to be nothing like that ardent hope, being an era of long unemployment lines, a hungry populace, failed government intervention, and beleaguered President Herbert Hoover. Because he was a self-made millionaire, most Americans resented him, feeling that he was out of touch with the working class.

The next three years were difficult for almost everyone in Holly. Given a sharply lower demand for new construction, VanLue’s Lumber in Exeter wound up going belly-up, and people were laid off left and right. Bread lines got longer, and assembly lines slowed to a crawl. Concomitant with the loss of jobs, spending decreased sharply, making things worse for the economy.

As a result, several things happened in Holly. First, Mason’s General closed, followed soon by the town’s drugstore and haberdasher. In fact, the only business establishment that wasn’t throwing in the towel was “The Watering Hole.” Now more than ever people needed to drown their sorrows. And once Prohibition was lifted in 1933, regardless of how little people had in their pockets, the former speakeasy became an even hotter spot in town.

Even Mayor Aberfoyle, who’d just won his fourth consecutive term that year and whose pockets seemed to bulge as the Depression wore on, was present at “The Watering Hole” every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. He’d skip Sundays because that was the Sabbath, and of course a good Christian man couldn’t drink on the Sabbath—not to mention that it was always when his mother-in-law would visit from Kittery.