Larkspur (2 page)

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Chapter Two Hundred and
Forty-nine

Special day

Five days
later
Saturday — 4:45 a.m.

Katy opened her eyes when the door to their
loft closed. She scowled. That sounded like her Daddy leaving for
work. But her daddy wouldn’t work on today of all days.

Would he?

She closed her eyes and stretched out her
mind to see if she could find him. He was listening to the news in
his truck and . . . going to work!

Katy’s eyes welled up.

Why would he go to work on today of all
days?

Didn’t he remember what today was? She’d
reminded him last night.

She wasn’t direct about it. When he was
tucking her in, she’d just said that she was excited to spend
another year with him. He’d smiled and kissed her cheek. How could
he forget from last night to this morning?

Katy stared at the starry ceiling above her.
Mommy had said that each of the little lights would remind her that
she and Daddy love her. Well, she didn’t feel very loved right at
this moment. She stared at the ceiling until she heard Mommy moving
around.

This is what it was like to be an older
sister.

She had better get used to it because pretty
soon there would be two little brothers for her mommy to take care
of. Not that Katy wouldn’t matter anymore, she’d just matter
less.

This was an example of Katy mattering
less.

Katy nodded to herself.

She got out of bed and went to the bathroom
by herself. After all, she was five years old today. She could go
to the bathroom by herself. She did it at school. She just usually
liked to have Mommy there to tell her about the dreams she had last
night. But today, she could take care of it herself.

She could even dress herself. She’d never
done it before, but she was five today, and an older sister soon.
She went to her closet and looked.

“
Katy, honey?” Jill peaked
in her room. “What are you doing?”

“
I’m picking out my
clothes. After all I’m FIVE.” When Jill didn’t respond, Katy added,
“
Today
.”

“
Ok, well, hurry along,”
Jill said. “We have a busy day getting ready for your party
tomorrow.”

Her mommy pulled the door closed. Katy was
so surprised that she stood in front of the closed door with her
mouth open. She stretched out to read her mommy’s mind.

Katy found Jill’s mind full of lists —
things to buy for the party, things to get done before the babies
come, and more lists of grown up stuff.

Disgusted, Katy sat on the corner of her
bed.

She wasn’t going to like being an older
sister very much.

“
MOMMY!” Katy
yelled.

Jill stuck her head in.

“
Why aren’t you dressed?”
Jill asked.

Jill came in the room and began pulling
things out of the closet for Katy to wear. She stacked them next to
Katy on the bed.

“
Get dressed,” Jill
said.

Katy glared at her. Jill smiled and left the
room.

“
MOMMY!” Katy
yelled.

Jill stuck her head in the room.

“
Can we send the babies
back?” Katy asked. “I don’t want to be an older sister
anymore.”

“
You’re so silly,” Jill
smiled. “Come on, let’s get dressed. We have a full
day!”

Katy scowled at the door for a while. She
glanced at what Jill had set out. These were new clothes. Mommy and
Auntie Sandy had gone shopping on Friday and come home with some
cute clothes for Katy and Noelle. Katy liked it when Mommy bought
stuff for her.

A generally cheerful child, Katy couldn’t
stay grumpy for very long. Especially when she had these cute
things to wear. Katy put on her new jeans that looked like Daddy’s
and pulled on her new purple-the-color-of-psychics top. She stepped
into her just-like-a-real-cowboy boots and went out to have Mommy
do her hair. Mommy gently combed Katy’s long hair and braided it
into two low braids.

“
Where is Paddie today?”
Katy asked.

“
Gosh sweetie, I don’t
know,” Jill asked. “I know you’ve asked a few times. His Daddy said
he just couldn’t play with us today. That’s why we’re having your
birthday party tomorrow. Remember, you wanted Paddie to be
there.”

“
But . . .”
Katy started but Mommy was on to something else.

She went to the kitchen counter where Mommy
had laid out her not-very-special breakfast. Katy felt like she was
going to cry.

Where were the “I don’t recognize you
because you’re five now”? They’d done those every every every year
since she could remember.

Where were presents?

What about birthday cake?

“
MOMMY!” Katy
yelled.

Jill stuck her head out of the bedroom.

“
Um,” Katy
said.

She saw how tired her mommy looked and she
decided not to ask about birthday cake. Jill smiled and went back
into the bedroom. Katy moped through her regular oatmeal and
regular fruit and regular milk. Because she was a big sister now,
she put her plate in the sink instead of waiting for Mommy to do
it.

Plus, they lived with lots of people. Katy
smiled. She bet people were downstairs waiting for her and Mommy
was just faking.

“
Thanks putting your
dishes in the sink, sweetie,” Jill kissed her head.
“Ready?”

Katy nodded. They went down the stairwell to
the kitchen.

The kitchen was dark and silent.

“
Where is everyone?” Katy
asked.

“
Let’s see,” Jill said.
“Daddy, Mr. Aden, Mrs. Honey, and Mr. Sam went to work. Aunt Val
and Uncle Mike are in LA.”

“
Oh,” Katy shuffled
through the kitchen.

“
Noelle, Charlie, Tink,
Ivy, oh gosh, all of them are at the police station today,” Jill
said.

“
Again?” Katy
asked.

“
Wanda just got out of the
hospital,” Jill said. “They want all of them together when they
look at the boys they arrested. I think Auntie Heather took Tink
and Ivy there too. Of course, Delphie is with Ivy.”

“
Oh,” Katy had forgotten
about Delphie. Hearing Delphie’s name, Katy felt a wave of sorrow.
Even Delphie, her favorite adult in the entire world, had forgotten
that this was her big day. “And the rest?”

Jill looked down to see Katy crying. She
knelt down to hug her. Katy sobbed against her mommy’s shoulder.
Mommy didn’t ask any questions. Her mommy rubbed her back and
whispered that she loved her. Hearing Katy’s sorrow, Scooter
appeared out of nowhere to nudge Katy from the other side.

“
I’m afraid it’s just you
and me, baby-girl,” Jill said. “I’m glad to have the chance to
spend time with my baby.”

“
Big girl,” Katy said
automatically, but she liked that Mommy still called her
“baby-girl.”

“
You’ll always be my
baby-girl, I’m afraid,” Jill said.

“
What if you have a bunch
of girls after the boys?” Katy asked.

“
You’ll still be my
baby-girl,” Jill said. “Even when you’re ancient like me and have a
pack of kids of your own.”

Katy smiled.

“
I love you, big-girl,”
Jill said.

“
Love you, Mommy,” Katy
said.

“
Why don’t we take Scooter
with us?” Jill asked. “Would that be nice?”

Katy nodded. Mommy helped her blow her nose
and they went out to their new, huge, ready for the
stupid-should-be-returned twins, SUV. Mommy helped her into the
back seat. Katy got into her car seat and let Mommy buckle her
in.

“
Paddie doesn’t have a car
seat anymore,” Katy said for the umpteenth time.

“
Paddie is quite a bit
bigger than you,” Jill said.

“
I’m getting bigger,” Katy
said.

“
You’ll be in a new car
seat soon enough,” Jill smiled. “Remember, we bought a booster
already.”

Katy gave a solemn nod.

“
I thought I’d have
it
today
.” Hoping
Mommy would remember, Katy emphasized the today.

Jill smiled and went to the driver’s seat.
Katy waited while Mommy got situated.

“
Boy, I don’t know how
much longer I’m going to be able to drive,” Jill said and started
the car. “It’s pretty tight here.”

They started driving down their street. They
turned on the bigger street.

“
Boy, look at that rising
sun,” Jill said. “It’s pretty like you, Katy-baby.”

“
Very pretty,” Katy said
to the back of Jill’s driver seat.

The drove up the big street past the park.
Katy saw Sissy’s school and remembered Mommy hadn’t said where she
was. Maybe Sissy was planning something special for Katy.

“
Where’s Sissy today?”
Katy asked.

“
I think she’s doing
ballet,” Jill said. “Or she’s with Wanda. No Wanda’s at the police
station. Gosh, Katy, I don’t know. Everything is a little weird
since Monday.”

“
Noelle’s home,” Katy
said.

“
Right, both Noelle and
Wanda were able to go home from the hospital,” Jill said. “You
know, I think Wanda’s with her friend Frankie. That’s it. He’s
moving into Denver Children’s Home today. Wanda and her dad are
there to help him get settled, and then they go to the police
station. Or maybe they go to the police station first.”

“
Auntie Sandy? Rachel?”
Katy held out hope that someone who loved her remembered that today
was her special day. “Auntie Tanesha?”

“
Let’s see,” Jill stopped
at the light at Monaco Boulevard. “Auntie Sandy has to work today
so Rachel is at school. Auntie Tanesha is studying. Did you meet
her lab partner yesterday?”

“
Uh huh,” Katy said. “He’s
looks like one of Aunt Valerie’s friends.”

“
He is very handsome,”
Jill chuckled. “I loved the look on Jeraine’s face when he met
him.”

“
He was jealous,” Katy
said.

“
About time, that’s what I
say,” Jill laughed.

“
Did Auntie Tanesha pick
him as her partner?” Katy asked.

“
No,” Jill said. “They
were randomly assigned. He does look like a model. Pretty yummy,
I’d say.”

Katy thought that talking about a man like
he was food was very funny so she laughed. Once she started
laughing, she laughed and laughed. All of her sorrow transformed
into giggles. Mommy watched her in the rearview mirror. Mommy gave
her a broad smile and pulled to a stop at Quebec Boulevard.

“
Oh shoot,” Jill said.
“Katy-baby, I just remembered that I was supposed to drop off a
check for some plants over by that path Daddy runs on. Do you mind
if we stop off? I know we have a lot to do today, but we’re right
here.”

“
It’s okay, Mommy,” Katy
said. “I’m just sitting here.”

“
Thanks Katy-baby,” Jill
turned left on Quebec and started toward the highway.

“
Big girl,” Katy
said.

“
You’ll always be my
Katy-baby,” Jill said. “Would you like to listen to some of your
music?”

“
No,” Katy said. “I want
to talk to you.”

Jill sent her a smile via the rearview
mirror.

“
Where’s Uncle Seth?” Katy
asked.

“
That’s a big deal. Did
you hear about it?” Jill asked.

“
I heard something but I
didn’t understand,” Katy said.

“
Uncle Seth is still too
sick to go back to the police force,” Jill said. “He was supposed
to start that job a few months ago, but he’s still too
sick.”

“
Is he going to die?” Katy
asked.

“
Not right now,” Jill
said. “Eventually, like all of us, but he’s just too sick to be a
police officer.”

“
Will that hurt Charlie or
Noelle or Wanda or Tink or Ivy or Frankie
or . . .?”

“
I don’t think so,” Jill
said. “But I know Sandy was really worried. He’s going back to LA
with Ava. You remember Ava?”

“
Uh huh,” Katy
said.

“
He might take Charlie
with him,” Jill said. “Depends.”

“
Why would Charlie go to
LA?” Katy asked.

“
Some bad people are mad
at him for telling the police what they were hurting people,” Jill
said.

“
Noelle too?” Katy
asked.

“
Maybe, we don’t really
know,” Jill said.

“
That dragon should have
eaten them,” Katy said.

“
Remember we don’t talk
about the dragon,” Jill said. “No one remembers the
dragon.”

“
Because the dragon made
them not remember,” Katy giggled.

“
You only know because you
read your daddy’s mind.”

Jill gave Katy a stern look in the rearview
mirror and Katy blushed.

“
You’re not supposed to do
that,” Jill said.

“
But . . .”
Katy started.

Jill gave her another hard look and took the
on ramp onto the I-70. They drove in silence for a few minutes.