Hear No Evil (35 page)

He wanted Eden, but he didn’t know what she wanted. She was pouring all her grief and energy and nervousness into caring for Peyton and Jessie, especially Peyton.

Now his sister Shannon, in full nursing mode, was lurking in wait for him at home, a fate too gruesome to contemplate. She was filling his unfinished house with objects he didn’t want, beds, chairs,
possessions
.

“Look,” he said to Eden. “I know you’re concerned about Peyton. That you have to be.”

“She needs a lot of attention now,” she said, not looking at him. “We’re doing everything we can for her. Time will tell.”

What will time tell about you and me?
he wanted to ask. Instead he said, “How’s Jessie doing?”

She smiled slightly. “Jessie’s tough. But she’s shaken, she’s even humbled a little.”

They were both silent for an uneasy moment. Then Eden said, “I can never thank you enough, you know.
You nearly got yourself killed for us. We owe you—everything.”

A sharp, crooked little bolt of pain shot deep inside him, twisting and turning. He wished, for Eden’s sake, that he could have saved Mimi, but in his heart he did not believe that Mimi had wanted to be saved.

Whenever he thought of the other woman, Raylene, and he thought of her often, a dark chill fell on his soul. His emotions about her were many and complex, but sorrow was not among them.

Eden kept her eyes straight ahead. “All this has changed Peyton,” she said.

He nodded. “It would have to.”

“She can talk about the past now. She doesn’t like to, but she can. She saw and heard terrible things with those people. She
heard
them talk about bombing that plane.”

“It’s over now,” he said. He reached over, rubbed her shoulder, even though the movement cost him pain.

“There’s something else, too,” she said, her pretty face looking haunted. “Henry’s gone. Last night she said he’s gone for good.”

He nodded. “Maybe she doesn’t need him now.”

Eden said, “A psychologist talked to her at the hospital. He said she has a healthy sense of self and seems very intelligent. And strong. That should help.”

“Yeah,” he said, stroking her shoulder. “It should.”

She glanced at him, smiled rather sadly. “I’ve thought about you so much and so often,” she said. “But Jessie’s needed me, and Peyton’s needed me even more. Can you understand that?”

He caught her right hand, laced his fingers through hers. He took a deep breath. “Right now I’ve got my sister hanging around playing Florence Nightingale. You’ve got Jessie. But when we have time alone again—”

Her fingers tightened around his. “Owen, we’re not going to have time alone together. I go back to L.A. Soon. Tomorrow.”

Of course
, he thought.
Of course
. Of all the things they hadn’t talked about, that was the subject they had avoided most carefully. She must go back.

She withdrew her hand from his and placed it back on the steering wheel. She glanced in the rearview mirror.

“Everyone’s anxious for you to get home,” she said lightly. “They’re all waiting for you. Jessie made you a lemon cake. That is, she bossed me around so that I made it to her orders. I don’t know how it’ll taste. I’m no cook.”

He watched her. “Tomorrow. That’s early, isn’t it?”

She kept her chin high. “Not really. Jessie’s set; I’ve hired a nurse to stay with her. She’s there now, in fact. And I have to get Peyton settled.”

“And you?” he asked, watching her profile. “Your memories of this—will they all be bad?”

She sidestepped the question. “I just mean the sooner she feels she has a permanent home, the better.”

“I asked about you,” he said.

She shrugged almost blithely. “Me? I’ve been too busy to let myself think. I had to set up an appointment with a psychologist for Peyton in L.A. I have to find a pediatrician—a hundred things. Then there’s Jessie. Getting her a nurse, making sure she’s taken care of.”

“I’ll see she’s taken care of,” he said gruffly. “She’s going to hate to see you go so soon.”

Eden shook her head. “She and I are already arguing about how to treat Peyton. Jessie—well, Jessie’s set in her ways.”

“Yeah,” he said darkly, “people get set in their ways.”

He gazed out at the woods. Many leaves had fallen while he was in the hospital; the trees were starting to look bare, winterlike.

She tossed him a careless smile. “I’ve got some big adjustments ahead. Life with a child is
not
simple. I’ll have plenty to do.”

“Yeah. I know how it is.” He thought of the thousand and one responsibilities that nailed him to Endor.

“Plus,” she said brightly, “rehearsal begins next week. I’m a working girl, remember?”

“You’ll come back to see Jessie from time to time?” he asked as casually as he could. “You don’t plan to wait another fifteen years?”

Her expression went wistful, but only for a moment. “Yes. Peyton’s fond of her. But Jessie won’t come to Los Angeles. She says it seems as far away as the moon.”

It seemed farther to him. “Maybe I’ll come see you,” he said. “Someday.”

She didn’t seem to know how to take that. She flashed him a brief, insincere smile, then looked back at the road. “You should do that,” she said pleasantly.

He thought,
I ought to step on the brakes. I ought to wrench that wheel out of her power, pull over to the side of the road, and kiss her until—

Until what?
he wondered. Then, it was too late to wonder. The car was pulling into Jessie’s drive, and his sister was standing on the porch, holding the strings of a batch of metallic balloons that said things like “Welcome Home!” and “Cheers!”

Jessie sat in a wheelchair, beaming at him, a bouquet and a lemon cake on the wicker table beside her. Peyton sat demurely on the porch steps, holding a sign that someone had printed for her. It was white, and in red letters said
WELCOME HOME, OWEN
!!!

She had her pixie haircut and was wearing new clothes, pink overalls and a white T-shirt with pink trim. She looked like a normal kid, pretty, even, and he tried to force himself to smile at her.

Yet when his gaze met hers, she seemed to look through him as if he weren’t there. It was Eden who brought the smile to her face, it was Eden she ran to meet and hugged.

He did not belong in the equation.

I
T WAS A SNOWY AFTERNOON IN
F
EBRUARY
. J
ESSIE SAT IN
the living room, playing chess with Owen. She was a fierce and wily competitor, and she won as often as he did.

Four months had passed since Eden had returned to Los Angeles, taking Peyton with her.

This particular game was close, and Jessie studied the board craftily, plotting her next move. From down the hall came the sound of her office phone ringing.

“Oh, hellfire,” Jessie grumbled and heaved herself to her feet. She shook her finger at Owen. “Don’t you move nothing while I’m gone.”

He gave her a wry, one-cornered smile. “I don’t cheat, Jessie.”

Jessie gave him a look that said,
You better not
. She
lumbered down the hall, leaning heavily on the ivory-headed cane Owen had given her.

She pulled out her chair and sat. She picked up the receiver. “Sister Jessie,” she said. “God’s gifted seer.”

“Hello, Jessie,” said a familiar voice. “It’s Eden.”

Jessie stiffened in surprise and disapproval. “Why you calling me on this line?” she scolded. “It’s expensive. You’ll waste all your money.”

Eden laughed. “It’s not wasted. It goes to you, doesn’t it? Then you’ll have money to call me. It works perfectly.”

“You got no more financial sense than a rabbit,” Jessie said, but she said it with brusque affection. She had never been able to believe that Eden was doing well in Los Angeles, but Owen said it was true, and Owen was expert in such matters.

“Consider this call a Valentine present, then,” Eden said. “It’s almost Valentine’s Day. Besides, I’m in a celebrating mood. Guess what I got for Peyton today.”

“What?” Jessie demanded.

“A puppy,” Eden said triumphantly. “She’s been wanting a puppy. A collie. It’ll just be old enough to bring home on her birthday.”

“It’ll shed all over the place,” Jessie said, although she was pleased that Peyton would be happy.

“It’s genetically engineered not to shed,” said Eden.

Jessie’s nostrils flared in suspicion. “Is that a joke?”

“Yes,” Eden said. “Anyway, I was excited and I wanted to call and tell you before she got home from school.”

Jessie’s heart softened. “Does my honeyduck still like school?”

“She loves it, Jessie. She’s amazing. She’s
hungry
to
learn. I think it’s one of the things that’s going to save her.”

Jessie thought of what the child had been through and it gave her a troublesome lump in her throat. She tried to swallow it down. “How’s she doing?”

Eden paused. “Emotionally? There’ve been ups and downs. But her psychologist is optimistic. And she’s like you, Jessie. A survivor.”

Jessie didn’t like the idea of a psychologist at all, but it flattered her ego to hear that Peyton resembled her. “Does she ever talk about Mimi?” she asked.

“Not much,” Eden said. “It’s something she’s still learning to deal with. But she understands that Mimi’s dead, and we’re working hard to make her understand that the death is in no way her fault.”

“Well, it’s certainly
not
her fault,” Jessie countered. “She shouldn’t think such hogwash for a minute.”

Eden sighed. “The human mind is complicated, Jessie. And mysterious. But she’s a strong little girl. She’s going to make it.”

“Of
course
she’s going to make it,” Jessie said, offended by the very thought the child might not prosper. “But she’ll do better if you’re not in the poorhouse. You hang up now. Call me back on my home phone some other time—when Peyton’s there and she can talk to her old granny.”

“I’m not ready to hang up yet,” Eden said, an odd note entering her voice. “I had another reason for calling on this line.”

“Well, what?” Jessie said impatiently.

“I need your professional opinion,” Eden said. “Some psychic advice.”

“You?” Jessie said dubiously.

“Me,” said Eden.

Jessie had a sudden flash of intuition. “Ha,” she said. “It’s Owen, isn’t it? He wants to come out there, don’t he?”

“Did he tell you that?” Eden sounded wary.

“He didn’t have to tell me,” Jessie answered. “I got eyes in my head. I can see what he’s thinking.”

“Can you really?” Eden said, rather dryly.

“Yes I can,” Jessie asserted. “He’s thinking he’s got responsibilities here, but it don’t always have to be that way. He’s thinking it’s time he got on with his life, that’s what.”

“Jessie,” Eden said, sounding nervous, “he phoned me. He’s thinking of buying property in L.A. If he does, he’d have a reason to come out here regularly. And if he comes out here, he says he wants to see me, and—”

“And what?” Jessie demanded.

“And I told him I’d have to think about it.”

Jessie paused. She had seen this coming, of course, she had expected for some time it would happen. It was possible that Owen could even move to Los Angeles. He could consolidate his family affairs somehow, manage everything from halfway across the country; in this day and age it was possible.

Jessie felt a strong and unpleasant twinge of jealousy. She herself would never leave Endor, she knew, and she loved Owen as if he were her own flesh and blood. She did not want to lose him. Her desires and loves fought a small, intense war within her breast.

“Jessie?” Eden said. “Did you hear? I told him I’d have to think about it, and I’m afraid of what I think.”

“Have you got rocks in your head?” Jessie said harshly.

“What?” asked Eden, obviously taken aback.

“What’s to think about?” Jessie asked pointedly.
“He’s a good man, a fine man. You’d be lucky to have him. And he’d be wonderful for Peyton.”

“But—Peyton never seemed to take to him, Jessie. That’s one of the things that worries me.”

“She will,” Jessie said. “Just give her time.”

“You think so?”

“I by God know so.”

“How?” Eden asked with false lightness. “Can you see it in your crystal ball?”

Jessie eyed her crystal ball. It was full of deep and glassy shadows, and things danced in those shadows that seemed like indistinct forms trying to take shape.

“As a matter of fact, I can,” she said. “I can, indeed.”

B
ETHANY
C
AMPBELL
was born and raised in Nebraska. She has taught at colleges and universities in Nebraska, Illinois, and New Hampshire. She and her husband make their home in Arkansas with three cats and a dog passionate about rodents and their pursuit.