Last Light (10 page)
Kay followed her into the lonely living room. Eloise’s son, a big-shot trial lawyer up in Boston, had bought his widowed mother this house five years ago, and hired a decorator to deck it out. Kay had mentioned once how moved Eloise must have been by the gift.
The older woman’s eyes welled with tears. “It
was
a lovely gift, but to tell you the truth, I’d rather have stayed in the house I raised my children in and have them come visit me once in a while. My son’s never even seen the house he bought me.”
Now the woman’s loneliness seemed even more stark.
Eloise had lost more weight in the last few weeks, and her skin looked paper-thin. “Has anyone been in touch with the power company?” she asked.
Kay just looked at her, wondering if she was unaware of the extent of the problem. “Uh . . . no. The phones don’t work. Even the cars are dead.”
Eloise stared at her for a moment. “So that’s why my car didn’t start. I thought I must have a problem with my battery. And the water . . . It’s out, too. I know I paid my water bill.”
“I’m afraid no one has water, Eloise. Crazy, isn’t it?”
Her bare eyebrows lifted. “You wouldn’t be pulling an old woman’s leg, would you?”
Kay couldn’t help chuckling. “I wish I were. We don’t know what’s causing all this, but Doug thinks it’s going to last longer than a few days.”
“Oh, my. I was supposed to go for chemo today.”
Kay’s heart sank. Eloise’s cancer was aggressive and had already spread to several organs. “What will happen if you miss a treatment?”
“Well, I suppose I can make it up when things get back to normal.”
“But it’s crucial that you have it, isn’t it? We have to figure out a way to get you there.”
The woman crossed the room and took Kay’s hands. “Honey, don’t you give it a thought. The Lord will take care of me. He knows what I need. And frankly, I’m just as glad to have a few extra days before the next treatment. Maybe I’ll have time to grow my eyelashes back.”
Kay laughed softly. “You look beautiful without them.”
Eloise waved her off. “Now you’re going too far. I spent the first half of my life trying to have long, silky hair. Now all I want for Christmas is eyebrows.”
Thank heaven Eloise still had her sense of humor. “Surely the hospitals are offering critical care,” Kay said. “We have bicycles. Maybe we could get you to the hospital on one of those.”
Eloise laughed. “Me, on a bike? I could never make it without falling and breaking every bone in my body. It’s been thirty years since I’ve ridden one. And how would I get back, as sick as I am when it’s over? No, hon, I’m better off just waiting this out. I’ll consider it a blessing from God. A nice reprieve. I’ll just enjoy it.”
Kay wished she had something more to offer her. “Do you need anything? Do you have plenty of food, water?”
The woman looked around. “Water might be a problem. I have a pitcher of tea, but when that’s out, I’ll have to make my way to the lake, I s’pose. But I’ll manage. Isn’t this odd? Wonder what the Lord is doing?”
“You sound like Doug. But maybe God has nothing to do with this. Maybe we should blame terrorists instead of God.”
“Well, it’s not like a plague swept over the city and struck everyone with illness,” Eloise said. “We’re all fine. What a gentle way to get our attention.”
Kay turned that over in her mind as she studied her friend. “You have a very nice way of looking at things, Eloise.”
Eloise’s eyes sparkled. “An experienced way. I’ve seen God do amazing things in my lifetime. Maybe this is one of those things.”
Deni and Beth took the last of the grilled chicken over to the Rowes’ house and knocked on the door. Deni had never met the family. They had moved in just a year ago, while she’d been away at college.
As Beth knocked on the door, Deni heard a baby crying inside. Someone called, “Coming!” But no one did.
Finally, when they’d almost given up, the door flew open.
The woman standing there, with a baby on each hip, didn’t look much older than Deni.
She was pretty, but mascara was smeared under her eyes, and she wore a wrinkled T-shirt and shorts that looked slept in. The woman was in serious need of a makeover.
Deni tried to look friendly. “Hi, I’m Deni from next door. We were cooking our meat and had extra.”
“Oh, wow. Come on in.”
They followed her into the big house. An older child, about three years old, sat near the patio door playing with Legos. The sparse furnishings made it look as if they’d bought more house than they could afford, so had little left with which to furnish it.
“You caught me at a bad time . . .” The woman set the babies down on the floor, and Beth plopped down to play with them. One looked around two, the other about nine months. “I was losing it. I’m out of diapers, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
Deni didn’t know what to say. “You want me to put the chicken in the kitchen?”
“Yeah. Hey, thanks for that. We need it. I haven’t eaten yet today.”
As Amber followed her into the kitchen, Deni set the chicken on the counter and saw a dozen unwashed bottles near the sink. It looked like she was having a hard time.
“I’m sorry for the mess,” Amber said, “but without water I can’t wash the bottles.”
“Everybody’s house is a mess. You should see ours. We’re getting water down at the lake. You should ask your husband to go get you some.”
Amber closed her eyes. “My husband isn’t . . .” Her voice broke off. “Well, he just isn’t home.”
“Oh, no. He wasn’t stranded somewhere last night, was he?” Deni launched into the story about her journey home from the airport, but Amber didn’t seem that engaged.
When Deni stopped talking, Amber said, “He isn’t stranded.” Tears sprang to her eyes, and she grabbed a paper towel and wiped her nose.
Deni didn’t know what had set her off. Frustration at the outage? Three children under three? Marital problems?
Amber stepped into the doorway and made sure Beth was all right with the children. Finally, she turned back. “Do you know anybody in the neighborhood who might have extra diapers? I should have gone to get some yesterday, but then the blackout happened, and I ran out.”
“We could ask around,” Deni said. “I haven’t lived here for a while. I’ve been away at college, so I don’t really know the younger families.”
“I know somebody who might have some,” Beth called from the living room.
“Who?”
“My teacher, Mrs. Abernathy. She lives two streets over. Before school was out last week, she kept gushing about her grandbaby who was visiting. I’ll bet she has some.”
“We can go ask her,” Deni said.
Amber blew her nose. “That would be great. Thank you.”
Deni hesitated. “If your husband’s not here, are you going to be able to get to the lake to get water?”
“No, it’s kind of hard with the children. I was hoping I could get them to nap later, and I could go then.”
As much as Deni hated to help with that particular task, she supposed she’d have to offer. “I’ll bring you some. Do you have a way to boil it?”
More tears. “I have a charcoal grill in back, but you can’t boil water like that. Oh, I’ll figure out something.”
Deni couldn’t wait to get out of there, but she hated leaving her like this. “Are you all right?”
Amber drew in a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. “Yeah, I’m okay. Frankly, I was a basket case
before
the power went out.” She tried to smile. “So are you home for the summer or just visiting?”
“I’m visiting. I have to be in Washington to start my new job on Monday. I came home to do some wedding planning.”
The two-year-old called out for his mommy and came running into the kitchen. Amber swept him up. “Married, huh? You sure you wanna do that?”
Deni breathed a laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure. Why?”
Amber got some plates out of the cupboard. “I don’t know. You’re just awfully young.”
Young? Like Amber was any older! “I’m twenty-two. You don’t look that much older.”
“I’m not,” Amber said. “I got married when I was your age. And look at me now.”
“Yeah, look at you. You live in a beautiful house in a nice neighborhood, with three beautiful children and a husband—”
“You should have stopped with the three beautiful children.”
Deni just looked at her.
“My husband left me two weeks ago.”
Deni’s heart sank. “Oh, Amber. I’m so sorry.”
“And now I’m stuck here in the dark with three babies and I feel totally, absolutely helpless.”
“He left you with three children under three?”
“Oh yeah.” Her lips quivered as she tried to hold back her tears. “Said it was too stressful at home, that he needed a breather. Like
I’m
not under stress! They’re his kids, too, and you don’t just run off—”
“What a jerk. No wonder you’re losing it.”
Amber nodded, as if she appreciated the affirmation. “And when this outage happened yesterday, I was completely unprepared. I planned to go to the grocery store last night. I had a baby-sitter coming so I could do my shopping, but she never showed.” She stopped and covered her face, then slid her fingers down. “I need baby food, and I have to wash bottles and dishes . . . I don’t even have a flashlight or candles. I had to put the kids to bed in the dark. I had so much to do after they went to bed, but I couldn’t see to do it. I’ve never been so glad for morning in my life . . . but I
still
feel helpless.”
Deni felt pretty helpless, too. “Well, I’m sure we can help. I’ll go get you some water, and we’ll find diapers, and we have extra candles. That’s a start.”
The baby started crying, and Amber put the two-year-old down and went to pick up the other one. She turned back to Deni and took a deep breath, pulling herself together. “You’re a godsend,” she said. “I’m sorry you caught me on a crying jag. But if you could do those things for me, I would be so grateful.”
“Consider them done. Come on, Beth.”
Amber walked them to the door, and thanked them again on their way out.
When the door closed behind them, Beth looked back. “That’s so sad. I want to cry, myself.”
“Yeah, it is. But who knows? Maybe she brought it on herself. She’s the one who married a loser.”
“He doesn’t look like a loser. He looks nice. Kind of like Craig.”
“Trust me. He’s
nothing
like Craig.”
“Well, I’m glad you offered to help her.”
Deni winced. “Yeah, I guess we’re committed. We might as well get it over with.”
There was no relief from the May sun. It beat down on them from above, and heat radiated up from the sidewalk as Deni followed Beth to her teacher’s house. Deni had taken Amber one of the buckets of water from home, then offered to go with Beth to find diapers. At least that would keep her from being available for any more manual labor her mother might have for her. Sure, they needed to make more trips to the lake, but her brothers could do it.
Beth chattered as they walked. “They seemed like such a cute couple. Amber’s husband was really good-looking. And it seemed like he was a good dad. Why would he do a thing like that?”
“Don’t tell anybody,” Deni said. “Amber didn’t tell us so we could blab it all over the neighborhood. We just caught her at a weak time.”
“That could be you, you know,” Beth said. “You could be just like her in three years, with a bunch of babies and a jerk of a husband who left you for his secretary.”
“I told you, Craig isn’t like that.”
“How do you know?”
Deni grunted. “Because he’s better than that, okay? I wouldn’t marry some crud who treated me like that.”
“Miss Amber probably didn’t, either. Or she didn’t know she did. So what do you think he’s doing now?”
Deni raked her sweat-dampened hair back behind her ears. “What do I think
who’s
doing?”
“Craig, your fiancé! Hello! Aren’t you listening to me?”