Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (33 page)

Andy put her hand on the little girl’s back
and she kissed Patty’s cheek. Patty nodded to Andy and left down
the hallway. Andy closed the door and kneeled down to the girl.
Child Sandy threw her arms around Andy’s neck.

“
Love you Mommy,” child
Sandy said.

“
Love you Sandy,” Andy
said. “What shall we do today?”

“
Dance!” child Sandy
squealed. “Dance!

“
Yes, let’s dance,” Andy
said.

The dream paused.

“
We did this every weekend
until you were eight or nine,” Andy said. “When you were eight, I
tried to fight her in the courts. But… I lost you all together. You
don’t remember.”

“
I had a sense that I had
another Mommy,” Sandy said. “Someone who loved me, cared for me,
and made everything better. But I figured I made you
up.”

“
The records are hidden in
my boxes,” Andy said. “You’ll find them.”

“
I remember loving you,”
Sandy said. “I think I was told you had died but the trauma of
everything has messed up my memory. That’s what the therapists
say.”

“
I thought you had died,”
Andy said. “My beautiful girl. I…”

“
Let’s watch,” Sandy said.
“If I never remember then Patty’s cruelty will have destroyed the
love and light that belongs to me and to you.”

“
Yes,” Andy’s face broke
into a beautiful smile.

The dream continued. Holding hands, Sandy
and Andy watched themselves laugh and play. For all the pain and
all the trauma Sandy had experienced, she now saw how well she was
loved. The simple joy of mother and child permeated her
consciousness. She’d always felt like she had to grasp for love and
hold onto the tiny remnants. She’d never realized she was
surrounded by love the entire time.

“
Sandy,” Aden kissed her
cheek to wake her. Sandy hugged him close.

“
I’m heading out. I’m
taking Charlie with me to a meeting before work.”

While Aden continued his usual run down of
where all the people in their tribe needed to be, Sandy held on to
him.

“
You okay?” Aden
asked.

“
Love you,” Sandy
said.

He smiled and kissed her lips.

“
You sure you’re
okay?”

Sandy nodded. For the first time, probably
since she had spent weekends with Andy, Sandy felt surrounded by
love.

“
We’ll talk tonight,” Aden
said.

Sandy waved. Picking up Rachel’s sleeping
form, Sandy went to wake the other kids. Throughout their usual
morning grumbling and laughter, Sandy felt Andy standing right next
to her. With an SUV full of talking children, she wondered if Andy
had always been there. By the time she reached her salon she came
to the only logical conclusion.

Andy had always loved her. Even without
knowing her, Sandy had always loved Andy. Somehow, that made
everything that happened to her all right.

Humming the tune they’d danced to, Sandy
opened the door to her salon and started her day.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday morning—8:35 A.M.

Sitting on the back deck of the Castle,
Delphie drank the remnants of her morning green tea. The day was
going to be warm, at least ninety, yet she felt… bored. Her new age
doctor had told her she was depressed. She had said her depression
was a natural, normal side effect of having a stroke. The doctor
had given her samples of some medicine and made her promise to try
them. But Naomi, the spirit of her beloved friend Celia, told her
she was bored.

As always, Naomi was right.

She was bored. Sighing, she picked up her
cup. It was empty. She set it back down.

Since her stroke, she hadn’t been back to
work. Plus, it was summer and most people’s attention was on the
mountains and vacation. There wasn’t a big press for her services.
Outside of a few long term clients, she wasn’t telling anyone’s
fortune.

The garden was growing. With all the kids in
the house, and Aden as their task master, she had plenty of help
with the weeding, watering, pruning, and harvesting. Like they did
every Saturday, Sissy and Noelle would show up around noon to
eagerly help her with the bees. For the first time in more than a
decade, she was caught up on her beekeeping.

She had worked and worked and worked when
they were trying to catch Saint Jude the serial killer. But they
had caught him. Or she should say he caught up with himself.
Delphie smiled at her joke and picked up her cup. It was still
empty. Rather than make more tea, she continued her review.

The girls were helping with dinner. Rosa
continued to help with the house. The sale of shares of Lipson
Construction had freed Jacob and Sam’s time. They were making
steady progress on repairs to the Castle. They even had a foreman
to keep track of things. The Castle didn’t need Delphie’s help
either.

In fact, no one needed Delphie’s help. At
least until Valerie had her baby and Honey had her baby and Jill
had the boys and…

But right now, no one needed Delphie’s
help.

She knew that Sam would say she should rest
or go to the spa or go shopping or do something else to relax. She
would be needed soon enough, he would say; and he was right. But
all of that resting, pampering, and shopping sounded dreadful to
Delphie.

She wanted to be needed. She needed to be
needed.

Sighing, she picked up her cup and went into
the kitchen. Mike was standing next to the sink eating a bowl of
Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries. His hair was disheveled, his
beard speckled with paint and his clothes were threadbare. His
hands wore multiple coats of paint.

“
Valerie out of town?”
Delphie asked.

“
LA,” Mike grumbled.
“How’d you guess?”

“
Just a hunch,” Delphie
said. “Were you up all night?”

“
Otis is coming next
week,” Mike said. “I need to complete a few paintings.”

“
You were up all night
because you’re worried about finishing paintings?” Delphie raised
her eyebrows at him. Caught, he smirked and went back to shoveling
cereal in his mouth.

“
Miss her,” Mike said
through his cereal. “I’ve gotten used to having her
around.”

“
Why did she go to LA?”
Delphie asked.

“
Some emergency publicity
thing with Tanesha,” Mike said. “She and Tanesha left last night.
They’re meeting with a few publicists today. I told her if she has
the baby in LA, I’m not coming there.”

“
She’ll have her here and
you’ll be there,” Delphie said. “Don’t worry.”

“
Who’s worried?” Mike
asked. “Do I look worried?”

He poured the last of the cereal into his
milk filled bowl.

“
No, you’re right,”
Delphie said. “You didn’t eat an entire box of cereal because you
were anxious and lonely.”

Scowling, Mike pointed his spoon at her.
Delphie laughed. He smirked and finished his bowl. There was a
buzzing nearby.

“
You’re cell phone’s been
going off this entire box of cereal,” Mike said.

“
My cell
phone?”

“
Forgot you had it
again?”

“
I have a cell phone?”
Delphie asked.

Mike rolled his eyes and went to pick up
Delphie’s Blackberry.

“
You’re lucky Jake plugs
it in,” Mike gave her the phone.

“
Oh look,” Delphie said.
“This is my phone. See, it has a photo of the Queen of Wands on the
front. That’s me.”

She turned the phone toward Mike. He
chuckled.

“
Need help?”

“
It says: ‘Press messages
then enter your code and listen,’” Delphie said. “Right
there.”

“
That’s a text from Seth,”
Mike said.

“
Oh,” Delphie pressed
messages.

“
Please enter your
password,” the phone said.

“
Oh, do I have a
password?” Delphie held the phone out to Mike.

“
Let’s see if Seth knows,”
Mike took the phone and scrolled through the text. “He says it’s
the date you met Celia. Something you wouldn’t forget.”

“
Oh, right,” Delphie typed
in the number. “You know, I’m not an idiot.”

“
Yes, and you don’t have
dementia,” Mike said. “You just…”

“
Hate electronic gadgets,”
Delphie and Mike said together.

“
Right,” Delphie said. She
held up a finger. “It’s Maresol asking me if I forgot about my
phone again. Yes, Maresol, I forgot my phone again. She’s coming
over and bringing lunch. Yea.”

Shaking his head at Delphie, Mike set down
his bowl and started to leave the room. She snarled at him. He
stopped in place. Backing up, he put the bowl in the dishwasher. He
was about to leave when he caught the look on Delphie’s face. She
was scowling while nodding to the voice message. She deleted the
message and stared off into space.

“
Is everything all right?”
Mike asked. “Should I call Sam?”

“
Sam?” Delphie asked. “No.
Seth needs my help on a case. He wants to know how to pay me. How
should he pay me?”

Thinking she wasn’t listening, he said, “In
Captain Crunch.”

“
With Crunch Berries,” she
smiled. “Good plan.”

“
So you’re all
right?”

“
I’m needed,” Delphie
said. “Makes me happy.”

Mike nodded and moved toward the back
door.

“
By the way, Otis will be
here tonight or tomorrow morning depending on when the CIA releases
him,” Delphie said. “I bet Sandy will find time for
you.”

“
You’re sure?”

Delphie nodded and dialed the phone.

“
Can you…?” Mike
started.

“
Hey Sandy, can you
squeeze Mike in? It’s kind of an emergency,” Delphie looked up at
Mike. “She can see you now or tonight after the kids go to bed. But
I bet your grandfather will be here by then.”

“
Why can’t she just
squeeze me in whenever? That’s what she usually does.”

“
She thinks you need a bit
of extra time today.”

“
Me?” He nodded his
thanks.

“
Take a shower,” Delphie
said.

Running up the stairs, he added, “Why do I
need a shower?”

“
He’ll be right there,”
Delphie said. “Thanks Sandy.”

Delphie tucked the phone in to her pocket.
She smiled. It was great to be needed.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday mid-day—12:35 P.M. PDT

Hollywood, CA

“
What are you doing?”
asked Schmidty as he arrived at their table with lunch from the
commissary.

“
Sending an email,” Seth
continued typing on his laptop.

“
To who?”

“
Whom,” Seth said. “I’m
sending the song I worked on last night to Jeraine Wilson. Do you
know him?”

“
I signed him last night,”
Schmidty said.

“
So everything is good,”
Seth said.

“
And what did you do last
night?” Schmidty asked.

“
I worked on this song,”
Seth said

“
Why are you so
tired?”

“
Some songs wear me out,”
Seth said. “Are you my mother?”

“
What’s the song?”
Ignoring Seth’s question, Schmidty pushed a salad in Seth’s
direction. “Eat.”

“
It’s a special song for
Tanesha,” Seth said. “I doubt he’ll sell it. It’s a private message
from a man to the woman he loves. We musicians communicate in the
language we know best – music. It’s beautiful, very
special.”

“
Oh,” Schmidty
said.

“
Why are you so tired this
morning?” Seth asked.

“
None of your
business.”

Schmidty turned to his lunch. Seth smiled.
He’d embarrassed Schmidty just enough to get him off his back. Now
if he could get through lunch without Schmidty finding out about
the LAPD, everything was fine. He ate his salad.

“
You just worked on the
song, huh?” Schmidty asked.

Seth nodded. Schmidty picked up their plates
and took them to the trash.

“
So why did the LAPD come
to the house right after I left?” He asked when he
returned.

“
LAPD?” Seth
asked.

“
The house has security
cameras,” Schmidty said. “Dad’s idea.”

Seth smiled.

“
What bothers me is that
you lied,” Schmidty said.

“
I’m sorry about that,
it’s just that…” Seth started. Schmidty held up his hand and Seth
stopped talking.

“
I don’t really mind if
you work on cases. You have a passion for it. I get that. I even
think your music improves when you’re working on a case,” Schmidty
said. “But the lying has to stop. It’s not good for your sobriety.
It’s not good for our relationship.”

“
You’re right,” Seth said.
“I’m sorry.”

“
So what’s the case?”
Schmidty asked.

“
You want to
know?”

“
If you’re doing it, I’m
doing it,” Schmidty smiled. “What are we working on?”

Seth’s eyes reviewed the young man face. He
blushed under Seth’s scrutiny.