Gold Hill (41 page)

Like a magic trick, Jill
stopped vomiting.

“
What is this?” she
asked.

“
It’s a powerful detox
bath,” Jacob said. “I used to have to take them when I was a
kid.”

“
Why?”

“
I’d get overwhelmed,”
Jacob said. “Everything going on around me would get caught up
inside me. Just a walk home from school – the guy in the car who
was mad at his wife, the lonely dog stuck in his yard, the lawn
mower whose wife was still in Mexico or really anything I ran into
I’d take on. I felt so frustrated – I wanted to do something, make
everything better, or even change one thing. But I was just a kid.
I couldn’t
do
anything to make
any
change
anywhere
. My body systems would shut
down. I’d throw up and . . . ”

“
I shouldn’t have helped
Tanesha, I just . . . ”

“
You did the right thing.
I can only imagine how upset you’d have been if you couldn’t help.
This is just a combination of you and the boys. Tanesha’s injury,
for lack of a better way to say it, clogged your pores. It’s going
to happen.”

“
It’s never happened
before,” Jill said.

“
You’ve never been
pregnant with Marlowe boys,” Jacob smiled.

“
I’m sorry,” Jill
said.

“
Don’t be,” Jacob said.
“The boys would want to help Tanesha. We all love Tanesha. Even
Katy even gave Tanesha her favorite sippy cup.”

“
The one Paddie’s Auntie
gave her?”

“
Her Tinkerbell sippy
cup.”

“
Wow,” Jill
said.

“
I know the boys feel the
same way,” Jacob said. “Tanesha is family. You would have been
heartbroken if you couldn’t help her. We would be too. You’re
just . . . more fragile now.”

“
Fragile, fragile,” Jill’s
voice was glum. “I’m sick of lying around up here in my chamber
above the Castle. If I had long hair, I’d throw it out the window
and pray some handsome prince would save me.”

“
Yes my princess,” Jacob
smiled.

She smiled at him and then
frowned.

“
I’m going kind of crazy,”
Jill said. “Talk about impotent. My one of my best friends in the
whole wide world needed my help looking for her Mom and all I could
do is sit here.”

“
I know,” he said. “You
just have one more day alone then everyone will be home for the
weekend. Everyone’s coming to help harvest the rest of the garden.
I bet that between Mike and I, we can get you down the
stairs.”

“
What about Rodney and
Yvonne’s wedding?” Jill asked. “Delphie said it was
tomorrow.”

“
Something else is going
to happen,” Jacob gave her a vague look. “I don’t know
what.”

“
Something bad?” Jill
asked.

“
Feels like something
magical.”

“
Let’s hope so,” Jill
said. “That family could use some magic!”

“
I know,” he nodded. “I
thought you were using salt water or something to purge the toxins
accumulate from healing people.”

“
That was Delphie’s idea,”
she said. “Instead of using other people or objects.”

“
Does it work?”

“
Sure,” Jill said. “It’s
actually really great. I focus moving the illness or injury from
the person into the salt water. Then I toss out the water and wash
the glass with salt. But it didn’t work this time.”

“
Any idea why?”

“
I’ve been kind of
stagnant,” Jill said. “I should probably do one of these baths
every day.”

“
Good
thinking.”

“
How long do I stay in
here?” Jill asked.

“
Twenty minutes, no more,
no less,” he said. “Then you shower and scrub with the soft brush.
After that it’s lotion and sleep.”

“
You going to scrub my
back?” she asked.

He leered and she gave him
a worried look.

“
What?” he
asked.

“
Are you getting deadly
sperm back up?” Jill bit her lip.

“
What?” he
laughed.

“
Meg told me that most men
have affairs when their wives are about eight months pregnant
because all their sperm back up and they go crazy.”

“
You’re only seven months
pregnant.”

“
You know what I mean,”
she said.

He laughed. Seeing she was
serious, he smiled.

“
Seems to me that I
haven’t had a chance to get backed up,” he said.

“
I guess that’s true,” she
blushed. “What if you do?”

“
Let’s deal with one thing
at a time,” he said. “Are you ready to shower?”

She nodded. He stripped off
his clothing.

“
What are you
doing?”

“
Joining you,” he said.
“For deadly sperm backup preventative purposes.”

Laughing, she got out of
the tub and followed him into the shower.

~~~~~~~~

Friday early morning —
4:15 a.m.

Yvonne’s eyes opened the
moment the bathroom door closed. Sitting up in bed, she looked
around the room. She scanned the bedside table for her book. She
got up and walked to the door for her book. She always left her
book either right beside her or next to the door. Her eyes flicked
from table to dresser to mantle.

Her book was not in this
room.

Where was she?

She heard a sound in the
bathroom. Someone was taking a shower.

Feeling something tight on
her left hand, she looked at her hand and gasped. She was wearing
her wedding ring.

The spider tried to cut her
finger off the last time she was wearing this ring. He would surely
kill her if he saw her wearing her wedding ring again.

Was it Saturday?

Her heart pounded in her
chest.

Where was her
book?

Who was in the
bathroom?

How did this ring get on
her finger? She’d given it to . . . someone.
Delphie? No, Maresol put it in one of those safes at Seth’s house.
And . . . 

There was light knock at
the door. She opened the door a crack and peeked out.

A small woman with enormous
hazel eyes and long black hair was standing at the door. The elfin
looking woman was holding a tiny sleeping baby, possibly a newborn.
Yvonne blinked. The woman gave Yvonne a radiant smile.

“
Good morning,” the woman
said.

Yvonne lifted the corners
of her mouth in a slight smile.

“
You don’t remember me,”
the woman said. “I keep thinking you will
but . . . ”

“
Should I?”

“
I’m Celia’s daughter,
Valerie,” the woman said. “You used to babysit me and my brother
Jake when we were little. You told me that because I was pretty, it
meant that I had to work extra hard to
be . . . ”

“
Smart and kind,” Yvonne
smiled. “Because pretty
women . . . ”

“
Are underestimated,”
Valerie beamed. “We have to work harder and be twice as great as
they expect.”

“
I remember babysitting
this tiny little rat,” Yvonne said. “Was that you?”

“
I’m no rat,” Valerie said
with the same indignation she had when Yvonne had said that to her
as a child. They laughed. Yvonne leaned out the door.

“
Where am I?” Yvonne
whispered.

“
You’re at the Castle,”
Valerie said. “Or we call it the Castle. Mom bought this house for
Delphie and Jake fixed it up. We all live here.”

Yvonne nodded.

“
I know you don’t have
your book because you left it when we were trying on dresses. Don’t
worry, though. It’s safe. It just doesn’t have your morning
information. That’s why I’m here.”

“
Why were we trying on
dresses?” Yvonne asked.

“
I need a dress for a
movie premiere,” Valerie said. “And you are getting
married.”

“
I’m already married.”
Yvonne’s words came out automatically. Then panic slashed through
her heart. Yvonne gasped. Her hand went to her mouth in horror. Her
face fell with sorrow. She began to cry.

“
What did I say? What
happened?” Valerie said.

“
Rodney’s dead,” Yvonne
said. “I have to marry the spider.”

“
No, he’s not and you’re
not marrying the spider and . . . ,” Valerie
said. “Oh crap, Delphie’s going to kill me.”

As if they were never
there, Yvonne’s tears stopped. She squinted at Valerie.

“
How do you know
Delphie?”

“
She was my mother’s best
friend,” Valerie said. “She’s like a mother to me. You’re in her
apartment.”

Yvonne glanced at the room
behind her and then gave Valerie another suspicious look. As if she
was casting a spell, this woman’s words pulled at her. But Yvonne
knew all the devil’s tricks. If this little woman was trying to
make a fool out of her, she was going to have to do better than
that.

“
Look around,” Valerie
said. “Doesn’t it look like Delphie?”

Yvonne looked around the
room. The little woman was right. The room did look like
Delphie.

“
I’m disoriented today,”
Yvonne said.

“
You only slept a couple
of hours and didn’t have your sleeping pill.”

“
Who did you say you
were?”

Valerie smiled.

“
I’m Valerie Lipson, Sam
and Celia’s daughter,” she lifted the sleeping baby in her arms.
“This is Jackie.”

Yvonne’s eyes blinked at
Valerie for a moment.

“
You look like Sam,”
Yvonne said.

“
Jake and I,” Valerie
said. “Both. You’ll meet Jake’s daughter Katy today. She looks more
like Mom.”

Yvonne nodded. Hearing a
sound, she turned to look at the bathroom.

“
Who’s in the bathroom?”
Yvonne asked.

“
Your husband.” Thinking
she’d said exactly the right thing, Valerie smiled.

Yvonne began to weep into
her hand.

“
Oh crap,” Valerie said.
“Rodney. Your husband, Rodney. He’s in the bathroom.”

“
Rodney?” Yvonne asked.
“Is it 2020? No wonder I’m so disoriented.”

“
Go look,” Valerie said.
“I’ll stay right here.”

“
But . . . ”

“
Go on,” Valerie’s words
pushed Yvonne toward the bathroom. “Just peek in.”

Yvonne didn’t trust the
little woman or her words. But she wanted to know who was in the
bathroom. At the bathroom, Yvonne looked back at Valerie. She
nodded and Yvonne opened the door. She glanced at Valerie and then
went into the room. Terrified she’d see Aaron Alvin, Yvonne bit her
lip before pulling back the shower curtain.

Rodney stood under the
stream of water.

“
Yvie?” he
asked.

Drawn like a magnet, Yvonne
stepped into the shower to hold him. Valerie smiled and pulled the
door closed. She met Delphie at the stairwell.

“
Did you do it?” Delphie
asked.

Nodding, Valerie
smiled.

“
Thank God,” Delphie said.
“Let’s get breakfast ready.”

Valerie moved down the
stairwell.

“
Before you ask,” Delphie
said. “I’d do it for you.”

Seeing Mike standing in the
middle of the kitchen, Valerie said, “You already have.”

Chapter Two Hundred and
Thirteen
Dinosaurs

Friday early morning —
5:35 a.m.

Sitting near the end of the
table, Tanesha looked around the Castle dining room. The room was
full of excited people. While she had slept, everyone had met to
make a plan to fight for her mother. Heather told her that Blane
had said that they were up almost all night ironing out “something
good.”

Her mother wasn’t going to
be trapped by Alan Alvin again.

And the men in blue suits
had found some “very interesting” things in Yvonne’s
journals.

She glanced at her parents.
She had no memory of these two people ever being in the same room.
This morning, her mother was tucked up against her father. His left
arm around her, she ate with her left hand and he with his right.
Occasionally, he fed her rather than himself. She would nod and
smile and continue eating as if nothing had happened. They moved
with practiced ease, as if they were one body with four
arms.

Katy ran into the dining
room. Mike, with Jill in his arms, came in after her. Jill gave
everyone the back-handed princess wave as she passed. Mike
deposited her near the empty chair next to Tanesha. She leaned over
to kiss Jacob and sat down between him and Tanesha. Katy sat next
to her Dad.

“
That was quite an
entrance,” Jill said.