Seeking Carolina (19 page)

“Maybe.”

“Ladies?” Efan entered the conference room smiling. “The ambulance is here. They are going to move her now.”

“Ambulance?” Emma asked. “Why?”

“Policy. They can’t discharge her in her state, but they can move her.”

“I thought they were keeping her through tomorrow.”

“I got everyone to cooperate.” He grinned. “It is my gift.”

“You sure it’s safe?” Nina asked.

“Absolutely. And it’s for the best. Sam will better know how to handle whatever state she wakes from sedation to, and she’ll be closer. To all of us.”

The sisters and Efan waited in the hall while Julietta was transferred to a stretcher and strapped securely in. An IV in her arm, Julietta stared straight ahead. Efan lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.

“I’ll be right behind you,
cariad
,” he said, and placed her hand gently down again, but it didn’t stay down. Julietta’s unfocused stare shifted as her hand came up again, reached out at first unsteadily, then most definitely for Johanna.

“I’m here, Jules.” Johanna rushed to her sister’s side. “I’ll go with you in—”

“Mommy…” Words trembled. Hands grasped, pulled Johanna in close. “Mommy. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t.”

Johanna leaned closer. “You didn’t mean to what, sweetie?”

“I pushed him and it fell off,” Julietta whispered. “I was scared.”

Julietta wailed, a sound like a teakettle coming to a boil. Her wail became keening and thrashing that had Dr. Faust injecting something into the IV port. Another moment and Julietta was staring placidly again, but her eyes were locked on Johanna. As they wheeled her out of the ward. As they wheeled her through the hallways. As they loaded her into the waiting ambulance and closed the double doors.

“What did she say to you?” Nina asked.

“I—I’m not sure,” Johanna lied. “She thought I was Mom.”

“Someone should go with her,” Emma said. “If she thinks you’re Mom, you should.”

“Bad, bad idea.” Nina shook her head. “You saw what just happened. I’ll go.”

“It’s probably better than none of you do.” Dr. Faust put the matter to rest. “Who knows what memories will be triggered, and why. It’s best to keep the stimuli down to a minimum.”

“What about me?” Efan asked. “Could I ride with her? I know she’s not herself, but there might be a small part of her that will know me. I have no connection to her past further back than a few weeks. Perhaps I will be a comfort to her.”

Dr. Faust nodded. Efan pounded on the ambulance door, dug into his pocket and pulled out his keys. “Will one of you take my car back to Great Barrington?”

“Is it automatic?” Johanna asked.

“Stick.”

“Then I’m out. Nina?”

“I got it. Where are you parked?”

* * * *

Julietta spoke no more, not even when she saw Johanna again. Dr. Sam Chowdary had been waiting when the ambulance arrived. Johanna breathed an immediate and relieved sigh. Young and handsome in the way of a Bollywood actor, he took charge immediately, focused all his attention on Julietta. He spoke to her as if she would respond, wrote notes even though she did not. Most comforting was he greeted Efan with a warm and concerned embrace that made no excuses for itself.

“I will need some background information,” he said once Julietta was settled into a private room in the tiny, but well-funded Great Barrington Academy Hospital. “A private interview with each of you would be best. Ms. Coco-Allen, I understand you have pressing matters to attend to back in New York.”

“Nothing that can’t happen without me,” Nina answered.

“Nevertheless, we will start with you. If you wish, I can interview you today, your sisters tomorrow. Mrs. Chambers? Ms. Coco? Will that be all right?”

“Sure.”

“Yes, it’s fine.”

“Excellent. Ms. Coco-Allen, if you would give me a few moments to prepare, I will be with you shortly.”

Dr. Chowdary acknowledged each of them with a slight bow, and left them outside of Julietta’s room.

“Does he meet with approval, ladies?” Efan asked, his face wide and wanting as a child’s.

“He’s great,” Johanna assured him. “I feel better with her here. With him.”

“How did he know our names,” Nina asked, “down to the form of address we each prefer?”

“I informed him,” Efan answered. “Was I incorrect?”

“No, not at all. It was just…odd. And odd that you know, come to think of it.”

“Not when you were mostly raised by my mamgee.” He laughed. “Very forward thinking for a woman from a certain time. She despised the fact that a woman’s marital status was announced in her name and, from what my Mum tells me, was quite pleased to adopt Ms. when it first came about. She always told me, ‘
Cariad
,
names are important. They have power.’ I didn’t think it was fair, women getting to choose from three titles when men only got one. Do you know what her response was?”

“I couldn’t guess,” Johanna said.

“She told me that went to making up for the years upon years they got no choice at all.”

“I like your mamgee. Does it mean grandmother?”

Efan nodded. “I lived with her during my childhood and teen years so I could go to the boys’ school in her district. When one is the fifth son and seventh child, funds do grow meager. Mamgee was as happy to have me as I was to be free of my older siblings.”

“Ms. Coco-Allen?” A nurse stepped out into the hall. He waved her to follow.

Nina turned to her sisters. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. Why don’t you two go home and send Gunner to get me?”

“No need,” Efan said. “I will stay with Julietta for a while, then take you home.”

“Are you sure?” Emma asked. “I don’t mind waiting.”

“I am positive. Go home. Rest. It has been a wearying twenty-four hours.”

“Is that all it’s been?” Johanna asked as she and Emma sat in her car, waiting for the heat to kick in.

“Not even,” Emma answered. “This time yesterday, we were all just waiting for night to come. I can’t believe this.”

“Me either.”

Emma turned sideways. “Do you have the locket on?”

“Always.” She pulled it out from under her clothes. “Why?”

Lifting it from her sister’s hand, Emma clicked it open, brought it close to her face. “You really do look exactly like her.”

“Not exactly.”

Emma’s gaze shot up. She pursed her lips. “You do. It doesn’t mean—”

“I know,” Johanna pushed out a long breath. “I know. Habit. I do look like her.”

Emma closed the locket, rubbed circles on the etched surface with her thumb. “Where do you think this really came from?”

“I have no idea. Maybe Gram just bought it and put all those stories to it, for us.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you believe in the wish. No, don’t deny it.” Emma let the locket drop. She turned in her seat, facing front and putting the car in gear. “I know you don’t think so, but I do too.”

* * * *

Charlie had been trying to shake the jittery feeling in his gut all morning. It wasn’t until Johanna called just after noon to tell him she was on her way home that it eased. Though he chastised himself for thinking of his own heart when Julietta was in the hospital, he allowed himself the joy.

Johanna was coming home.

“I’m heading to work, Dad.” Will bounced down the stairs. “I’ll be late for dinner.”

“You have to go in now?” Charlie checked his watch. “Your mother will be here to drop the kids off soon.”

“I know. I gotta go. Keep something warm for me?”

“All right, son. Have a good day.”

Despite the crocodile tears Charlie suspected when his son called sobbing, his avoidance said there was more to it. While Charlotte spouted her feelings, Will buried them. The result was the same. He was glad, at least, that Caleb, Tony, and Millie seemed to be having a good time with their cousins. With their mother. Perhaps they were just young enough to be freer with their forgiveness.

His eldest had also absented herself from the house, necessitating Charlie’s presence there instead of letting him head out to finish building shelves for the new owners of the trendy restoration of the old dime store in town.

Cleaning up lunch dishes, as always, left in the sink instead of put into the dishwasher, Charlie itched to get back to work. Once Gina returned the kids, he would leave them with Caleb, call Charlotte home, and put in a couple of hours before Johanna got back.

Kitchen cleaned, Charlie checked his watch. Gina said she’d be there by one o’clock. It was almost two. So much for getting to work. He blew an exasperated breath through his lips. Until Gina left him with sole custody of his children, he never realized how much freedom he had formerly enjoyed. Going to the cemetery, or a client’s place, was his job. A given. Every morning. Doctor appointments and school conferences were arranged around it. Now the kids were his job that work got rearranged for, and it was more difficult than he ever imagined.

Two o’clock came, and went. He made himself a cup of tea in the Shakespearean insults mug he got as a gag gift many years ago, the one that sparked his interest, and got him reading the plays he dreaded in high school, that then sparked his determination to read and understand every one good ol’ Billy Shakes ever wrote. Then it was three o’clock, his second mug of tea finished, and his interest no longer in the insults book he bought when he found out about the contest. Johanna was due to arrive soon, and though there were no issues between the women, he would have preferred to keep his ex-wife very separate from the re-budding of his relationship with Johanna.

Calls to Gina’s cell were not answered. Texts weren’t either. He cursed his firm decision about unemployed children not needing cell phones. Where could they be? Why hadn’t she called? Unthinkable thoughts first trickled then careened through Charlie’s head. They’d already been gone for days. For all he knew, they were in Florida. Gina was enrolling them in school there. She was telling them he wasn’t able to take care of them all on his own, that they were better off with her and Bertie, that he had Johanna now and didn’t want them anymore, that—

Feet pounded up the front steps. His racing heart eased enough to keep him from bolting for the door and yanking it open. Charlie dropped into the couch, his head back and eyes staring at the ceiling. He collected himself in time for Millie to come bounding into the room and dive onto his lap.

“Daddy, I missed you.”

“Oh,” he groaned. “Careful there, Mills. Did you have a good time?”

“Lots and lots. Tony was mean to me though.”

“How was he mean to you?”

“He told me I couldn’t play blocks because I’m a girl.”

“Well, that isn’t very nice. You want me to talk to him?”

“It’s ok, Daddy. Mommy did.”

Tony and Caleb entered the room just ahead of Gina, who had Millie’s pony duffle slung over her shoulder.

“Hey, Dad,” Caleb called and headed up to the attic. Tony, at least, gave him a hug.

“Sorry we’re so late.” Gina slid the duffle from her shoulder. “You know how Tracy is. I tried to tell her you’d be waiting.”

“Why didn’t you call?”

“We took the kids to the…what was it called, Ton?”

“Discovery Dipstick.”

Gina laughed. “Discovery District. In Torrington. You know how bad coverage is there. Were you worried?”

“No.”

“You were.”

Charlie shifted the twins on his lap. “Why don’t you go put your stuff away,” he said. “Johanna’s coming over. We’re going to bake cupcakes to take to her sister.”

“Do we get to keep any?” Tony asked.

“I’m sure we can.”

The twins leapt off his lap and ran from the room. Charlie listened to Tony’s footsteps until they reached the attic.

“Something wrong?” Gina asked, sitting beside him.

“Things have been a little intense here.”

“Is it ever any different with the Coco girls…women? What happened?”

Charlie told her, and found he felt a whole lot better afterwards. The jittery feeling in his gut wasn’t just fear of Johanna bolting in the face of this adversity, but a genuine concern for Julietta.

“That’s rough,” Gina said when he finished. “I didn’t know about the accident. I always thought their parents were involved in drugs or something.”

“I don’t think so. I guess nothing would surprise me at this point.”

“And on top of all this, I’m three hours late getting the kids home. No wonder you were thinking I took off with them.”

“I didn’t—”

“Charlie, please. We were married for sixteen years. Give me the benefit of knowing you better than just about anyone.”

He managed to smile. “It wasn’t real worry.”

“Good. I would never. The kids belong here, with you. I know that, even if after these few days, it’s killing me to leave them.”

“I’ll get them to you this summer. Even Will.”

“Not Charlotte, though.”

Charlie picked at the throw pillow beside him on the couch. “She says she’s going to work for Johanna in Cape May this summer.”

“You okay with her going?”

“She’s all grown up. She can do what she wants.”

“I meant Johanna.”

Charlie startled silent. “I hadn’t really thought about that part of it, to be honest.”

“You think she’ll move back to Bitterly?”

“I really don’t know.”

“What will you do?”

Leave Bitterly? The revitalized town center, the schools, his kids’ lives so rooted to this town that Gina had not fought him for custody. Would she fight him if he pulled their roots to follow Johanna to Cape May? Taking things with her a day at a time, a moment at a time was suddenly not the best idea he ever had, even if it had been necessary until now.

“I’d better get going.” Gina patted his knee as she rose from the couch. “I got myself a room near the airport. My flight out is at butt-crack o’thirty tomorrow morning.”

Charlie laughed softly. “Call when you get home. The kids will want to hear from you.”

Gina shouted up the stairs for the kids to come say good-bye, a scene Charlie had been dreading but that went over just fine. Millie and Tony cried a little, but Gina promised them Harry Potter World—at last!—when they came to Florida for the summer and tears were banished. Caleb hugged his mother tight, but didn’t shed a tear. The cordless in his other hand, finger over the mouthpiece, he whispered, “Love you, Ma,” and hurried back up to the attic, hunched and muttering into the phone.