Gold Hill (40 page)

Delphie nodded.

“
And Tanni? She’s okay?”
Yvonne asked.

“
You can’t go; none of us
can,” Delphie said. “There’s a mob of press and fans because
Jeraine’s there.”

“
Okay,” Yvonne nodded and
walked into the backroom.

“
What was that?” Sandy
asked Dionne as she returned to Sandy’s chair.

“
Revenge,” Dionne
said.

“
La venganza es un plato
que se sirve frío,” Maresol said. “Revenge is a dish best served
cold.”

Confused, Sandy shook her
head. Her eyes looked from one woman to the next finally settling
on Delphie.

“
Don’t worry Sandy,”
Delphie said. “By the end of today, no one is going to fear Aaron
Alvin ever again.”

Chapter Two Hundred and
Twelve
Flash

Friday early morning —
12:15 a.m.

Tanesha rolled over in bed
and tried to let the events of the evening play back on her
eyelids. Sedated from the moment she reached the emergency room,
she recalled only a series of flashes.

Flash
: She, Rodney, and Jeraine were hustled through the hospital.
Star struck nurses gave way to worried doctors and frantic hospital
administrators. She was pumped full of pain meds, her jaw was wired
together, and they were slipped out of the hospital. She pictured
the face of her friend and mentor Dr. John Drayson, when came to
check on her, but she couldn’t remember if he’d actually come to
see her or when that happened. She remembered getting in the
extended cab of Rodney’s work truck and
then . . . 

Flash
: She had a vague recollection of arguing with Jeraine and
her father. They wanted her to go back to the condo. They wanted
her to rest. Unable to speak, she tried to get her point across –
she wanted to see her parents get engaged. She must have won
because . . . 

Flash
: She remembered standing at the doorway to the Castle living
room with her girl, Heather, at her side. Some strange men in ugly
blue suits were pawing through her mother’s private journals and
her mother was in the small sitting room with the French lady who
made Valerie’s dresses. She remembered seeing a very pregnant
Samantha Hargreaves waddle passed them. She sat down with Katy on
the couch because . . . 

Flash
: Furious, Yvonne stormed out of the small room and
then . . . 

Tanesha wasn’t sure what
happened next. In her memory, her mother, wore only a slip and a
battered bra and glowed like a super hero. Her mother was angry,
no . . . really angry.

“
Why was my mom so angry?”
Tanesha wondered.

“
She didn’t like that you
weren’t taking care of yourself.” A woman’s voice came from the
side of her bed. Tanesha rolled over to see Delphie.

“
Why can I talk?” Tanesha
asked through her wired jaw.

“
Jill,” Delphie said. “She
was able help. But because of the boys, she had to hold back. She
can’t push her body to help you heal completely.”

“
She’s
amazing.”

“
Yes,” Delphie said.
“You’re upstairs in Jacob’s old apartment. Jeraine’s been here but
had to get back to work on the score for the movie. Your Mom was
here until about an hour ago. I convinced her to sleep in my
apartment. Your Dad’s with her there.”

“
Did I miss the
engagement?” Tanesha asked.

“
No,” Delphie smiled. “The
police didn’t come for her either. We thought they’d be there
tonight, but it seems that
his
friends moved faster than we guessed. They’ve
arranged for him to slip into Witness Protection. They’ll come for
Yvonne tomorrow.”

“
Why were those men
looking at my mom’s journals?”

“
Yvonne was a favorite
among many of the most powerful men in the state, well, and the
country really,” Delphie said. “Alvin used her to garner favors
from his friends. Because she couldn’t remember, they spoke freely
in front of her. They shared all the intimate details of their
activities. Those arrogant sons of bitches even asked for her
advice. Called her their secret advisor
and . . . ”

Delphie swallowed hard to
control her rage. Tanesha gave Delphie a vague nod.

“
She took notes and drew
pictures. Do you remember she used to draw and paint
murals?”

“
No,” Tanesha shook her
head.

“
Yvonne is an impressive
artist,” Delphie smiled.

“
What about her hand?”
Tanesha asked.

“
She’s left handed,”
Delphie said. “Like her daughter.”

“
What?”

“
Yvonne didn’t realize she
was left handed until she couldn’t use her right hand,” Delphie
said. “Yvonne grew up in a world where good people believed that
left handed people were devils. Her Aunt, NeNe, the woman who
raised her, was afraid for her and made her to use only her right
hand. When she couldn’t use her right hand, Yvonne taught herself
to draw again, to write. Your mother is . . .
amazing.”

“
Great Aunt NeNe lived
with Gran,” Tanesha looked confused. “She died just before I went
to Howard.”

“
She came to keep an eye
on you when your mother was . . . taken,” Delphie
smiled. “You know how Sam says that we’re all interconnected,
right?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
NeNe is part of the web,”
Delphie smiled. “Celia too. Celia knew that Alvin would never let
Yvonne go. She came up with a plan for Yvonne to win her freedom.
Yvonne agreed to keep track of what she heard and saw. Celia gave
Yvonne those composition books. You remember the books?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
Yvonne played it off as
trying to remember, but she kept track of everything. She even drew
accurate pictures of the things she witnessed and the men she
saw.”

“
But her keeper read her
books,” Tanesha said. “I saw him take her book from her, threaten
to beat her if she wouldn’t give it to him,
and . . . ”

“
She kept two sets,”
Delphie said. “She gave the second set to us – to me, Maresol, or
Dionne. We’d meet her around town every couple of weeks to get
them. I kept them here at the Castle for her. Only Jake knew where
they were.”

“
But . . . ”

“
I know that you’ve only
known your mother as . . . well, diminished and
small, but Tanesha, she’s actually very smart and tough. You
probably don’t remember, but when she saw you were sitting in the
Castle living room and not in bed?”

Delphie
chuckled.

“
Let’s just say, she’s a
great mother,” Delphie said. “You were up here about a minute after
Yvonne heard you were sitting on the couch with Katy.”

“
But . . . ”

“
The last years?” Delphie
smiled. “She knew she had to survive until Rodney got out. She’s
played a game, turned down her light, to survive. Give her a month,
Tanesha. You’ll see what an incredible person she is, especially
with Rodney back in her life. They fuel each other.”

Unsure of what to say,
Tanesha rolled onto her back. In the last week, her entire life had
shifted. Of course, everything that happened was what she’d hoped
and dreamed of. It was just a lot of change.

“
You should rest,” Delphie
said. “I know you want to go to class tomorrow.”

Tanesha groaned. She’d
forgotten about medical school. Delphie chuckled.

“
Sandy and Valerie will be
here with Rachel and Jackie at about two-thirty and Jeraine said
he’d be here around five to help you get ready for school,” Delphie
said. “I’m supposed to give you more pain meds and talk you into
sleeping. Will you sleep some more?”

“
Have to,” Tanesha
said.

“
This is Katy’s. She
wanted you to have it,” Delphie gave her a Tinkerbell sippy cup
with juice with her liquid meds mixed in. “Tomorrow is not going to
be an easy day – for any of us, really. But we’ll get through
it.”

“
Can I ask you a
question?” Tanesha asked.

“
Of course,” Delphie
said.

“
Why didn’t you tell me
that my mom was going to be all right?” Tanesha asked. “Tell me
where she was. You’ve never been shy about butting right into the
middle of everything. But the day my Mom might get free, you had to
work?”

“
Because I didn’t know if
she’d be all right,” Delphie said. “Everything that happened wasn’t
set in stone. Yvonne had to make the choices to get through the
day. Jeraine had to meet up with the donkey so he would look
familiar to Yvonne’s keeper but still unrecognizable. Bumpy had to
reconnect with his son so he could call Rodney and convince him to
come to Yvonne. Jeraine had to find her at the exact moment her
keeper didn’t have time to kill her. I had to make her keeper think
he had to be in Saint Louis by dawn. And you had to look for
her.”

“
It
was . . . horrible.”

“
For everyone,” Delphie
said. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t exactly what had to happen.
Jeraine closed his bank account, right?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
He helped someone else
without regard for himself, right?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
That’s exactly what he
needed to do to grow into the man he needs to be,” Delphie said.
“You needed to stand your ground and commit to finding your mother.
Everyone involved from Charlie and Tink to the boys with your
father at Sand Creek, they needed to experience the frantic loss of
someone they didn’t know but loved anyway. The whole experience
gave Rodney the courage to stay with Yvonne the first night. Your
actions reforged your family.”

“
But . . . ”

“
And it was hard,” Delphie
said. “It was awful for me. I saw all of the possible paths.
Jeraine missed the donkey so the keeper recognized him. Yvonne
insisted on finding you and her keeper killed her and dumped her
body in an alley off Franklin. Your despair was too great to launch
the rescue so the boys that helped your father never experienced
the panic their families felt every time they disappeared. I could
see them all. I had to believe and trust that everything would fall
into place.”

“
It did.”

“
And, in a way that can
only be described as a miracle,” Delphie said.

The strong pain medications
pulled Tanesha toward sleep. She forced herself to stay
present.

“
Did you make it happen?”
Tanesha asked.

“
No, I’ve never had that
kind of power,” Delphie said. “If you ask me, I think love made it
happen. You love your mother even though she’s disappointed you.
Rodney desperately loves Yvonne, but, like his years in prison, she
was taken from him by a power much greater than himself. Jeraine
loves you. You love him. Bumpy loves his son. Each of you felt cut
off from what you loved and powerless to change it. You couldn’t
have your mother. Rodney couldn’t have Yvonne. Jeraine wasn’t able
to connect with you and you with him. Bumpy felt like his son was
dead to him. And even Yvonne’s keeper. On some level, he loved her
too much to kill her.

“
Step by step, love made
it happen,” Delphie said.

Smiling at the idea,
Tanesha slipped into medicated sleep.

“
Let’s just hope love will
carry us through the next few days,” Delphie whispered to herself.
“Because anything can happen now.”

Delphie’s brow furrowed
with worry. She shook the worry out of her head and said a prayer
to the Goddess. She had to believe that everything would work out
for the best like it always had. Nodding to herself, she returned
to her knitting.

~~~~~~~~

Friday early morning —
2:15 a.m.

Throw up!

Sound asleep, Jill rolled
onto her side.

Throw up!

Jill jerked awake. Who said
that?

A surge of nausea overcame
her. Jill clamped her mouth shut, hopped out of bed, and put her
hand over her mouth for good measure. She made it to the bathroom
doorway before throwing up. Unable to control herself, she fell to
her hands and knees and threw up again.

Jacob knelt down around her
and touched her back. He held her shoulder length hair out of her
face. She threw up on the floor until she began to dry
heave.

“
You have to stop,” he
said.

“
I can’t stop.”

“
Try the breathing
exercise the midwife taught you.”

Jill took a breath in and
threw up again.

“
It’s from the break in
Tanesha’s jaw,” she said. “I don’t know what happened
but . . . ”

Jacob stepped over her
heaving body and began to fill the tub with warm water. He threw in
a handful of Epson Salts. Moving as fast as he could, he ran to the
kitchen and grabbed the ground ginger. Not remembering how much to
put in, he dumped some in the bath. He went back to Jill and pulled
off her vomit covered nightshirt. He carried her to the bathtub and
set her in.