The Edge of the Light (29 page)

“Greetings one and all,” he said magnificently and with a bow. “Bruce McDaniels, paterfamilias. We've come to offer our support to Jennifer. I hoped to do it from a distance, but I fear Jenn's rambunctious siblings escaped my control.”

From this little speech, Jenn knew how out of place he felt. She went to him and hugged him hard. “Thanks for coming, Dad,” she said into his ear.

“We miss you at home, Jennie-Jenn,” was his quiet reply. “Your mom intended to come today, but she got a call for a ride over town, and you know how it is.”

What he meant was that Kate had to go because of the money. She couldn't turn down an expensive fare whenever it happened, even if it had been the middle of the night.

Jenn wanted to believe that her father was telling the truth about Kate, but she couldn't quite get there. The fifth commandment still hung between them.

Mrs. Richardson was giving each of the boys a leg of fried chicken and smiling at their whoops of joy. She asked Bruce to join them, but he held up his hands in a gesture of refusal. “Ate on the way,” he told her. “So did the boys. The last thing they ought to be doing is eating more.”

Jenn knew eating had consisted of PBJs, but she still felt embarrassed that Petey and Andy fell upon the food like members of the Donner party. Bruce called the boys to him. At least
they came, happily gnawing and casting longing looks at the rest of the spread. Mrs. Richardson said, “Are you sure?” and Mr. Richardson said, “There's plenty to go around.”

But Bruce was firm, and he was equally firm about where they would go to watch the second half of the tryouts, which was at a distance from anything edible, such as the Richardsons' bag of oatmeal raisin cookies, at which Petey and Andy were liable to throw themselves. He made another bow, and they walked off, with Petey shouting “Good luck, Jenn!” and Andy talking loudly about potato salad.

When the whistle blew for the second half of the tryouts to begin, the activity to which Jenn's group was sent dealt with control of the ball. If she was going to play the position she wanted—center midfielder—Jenn knew she had to be a star here. She was grateful when Cynthia walked her over to the activity, reminding her of what to pay attention to when she was performing. At the end, when it was time for Jenn's group to move to the next station, the coach at that station, who was writing something on the paperwork her clipboard held, looked up and said, “Good job, McDaniels,” and Jenn heard Cynthia, close by, whoop. Then she punched the air.

That filled Jenn up unexpectedly, more than the coach's words. She grinned to herself and made easy work of the rest of the tryouts. Nothing could touch her. She was invincible. Still, she was thrilled when her name was the second one called to be a part of A team and therefore not required to attend the next day's tryout. The Richardsons surrounded her. The McDaniels
contingent broke through. Jenn felt herself swept up in her father's arms, her little brothers hugging her around her waist.

“Jennie-Jenn-Jenn,” her dad said in triumph. “What a day for you, my girl!”

“It's because of Cynthia,” Jenn told her father. “I couldn't've done it without her help.”

“Indeed, indeed,” Bruce agreed. He embraced Cynthia as well.

Jenn wondered if he would have done so had he known about the confusion of feelings she had for the older girl.

B
ecca knew Derric's dad wasn't going to change his mind about her revealing her true identity to his son. The only thing that
might
keep him from insisting she do it n-o-w was if he understood the dangers facing Hannah Armstrong because of what she could hear when she wasn't using her AUD box and what she could see when visions came upon her. Yet Becca couldn't tell him any of that.

She was still trying to develop some strategy—
any
strategy—a day later when a car passed her on Newman Road and made the turn into Ralph Darrow's driveway some 150 yards ahead of her. It was a car that Becca didn't recognize, so she felt cautious. Her caution morphed into having a bad feeling, mostly due to her previous conversations with Debbie Grieder, Dave Mathieson, and Mrs. Kinsale. Because of this, she slowed down, and when she got to the property and saw the car parked next to Jake's, she glided down the new driveway and decided not to enter the house till she knew what was going on.

Leaving her bike at the side of Grand's house, she crept around the back of it where the window to the bedroom above and the
bedroom below looked into the forest. She reached the house's north corner. From here, the space was open. Lawn gave way to a few of Grand's rhodies and some of his specimen trees. But not far from the house, a massive cedar drooped its lacy branches nearly to the ground.

Becca darted to this tree. Under the cover of its curtain-like boughs, she was able to get a very good look at the living room window. She was unsurprised at the sight in the living room of a young woman with sunny California blonde-streaked hair. Dave Mathieson would have told the San Diego reporter that Ralph Darrow was the man who found the ringing cell phone in the parking lot of Saratoga Woods. It would be Olivia Bolding's logical next step, and here she was.

She was at the chess table where Grand was sitting. She was showing him what Becca figured were the altered photographs of Hannah Armstrong. Grand was fingering them but he didn't appear to be acknowledging the resemblance between Hannah Armstrong and Becca King.

Prynne passed the table on her way to the kitchen. She, too, didn't seem to be saying anything about what she saw printed. But the fact that the reporter showed them to Prynne at all was enough to tell Becca that at some point someone was going to see the pictures, recognize who was in them, and betray her. It wouldn't be done maliciously. More likely was the possibility of someone saying, “Hey. That looks like Becca King.”

Olivia Bolding didn't remain long in Grand's house. Becca saw her head away from the chess table, and in a moment, she could
hear voices on the front porch. Olivia and Jake were speaking, and although Becca couldn't make out the words, they seemed to constitute a casual good-bye. She thanked her stars that Jake Burns was there and not Celia Black. She could only imagine Celia giving the pictures a glance and saying in her Celia way, “Oh hey, isn't she the spitting image of our Becca!”

Becca waited until she heard a car start in the parking area at the top of the hill. Even then she waited another two minutes to make certain it was safe to leave her hiding place. She quickly crossed the lawn to the house and made fast work of getting inside.

Everything seemed normal. Prynne was the one to tell her that some reporter had been there talking to Grand about a cell phone he'd found in the woods something like eighteen months ago. She showed them all some pictures of this Hannah chick who looked like she'd had an amazing television makeover, Prynne added. But all that came of it was Grand saying
ring woods
, and the reporter chick had decided this meant he'd heard a phone ringing in Saratoga Woods. She said she was heading there next, although Prynne couldn't figure out why.

As she spoke, nothing came from her in whispers. In fact, nothing had come from Prynne in whispers since Becca had given Seth the black tar heroin. Becca couldn't work out what this meant, but she understood that Prynne
couldn't
become her problem. She didn't want her to be an addict, but what was going to happen with her and with Seth had moved out of her hands the moment Becca had given Seth the tobacco tin.

She crossed the living room to Grand. He watched her with those twinkly eyes of his. She caught his whisper—
Green Gabe—
and for a moment, she didn't follow his meaning. But then she saw his memory in the quickest of flashes. His hands were holding her childhood copy of
Anne of Green Gables
, the only item from her life in San Diego that she'd brought with her. Those hands opened the book and through Grand's eyes within the vision, she saw the inscription to “my sweet Hannah” that her grandmother had written.

She knelt by his chair and put her head in his lap. She murmured, “I just couldn't tell you,” and she felt his hand descend with infinite gentleness onto her hair.

S
eth figured that since his family was paying Prynne for the hours that she was at Grand's, she'd been able to buy dope all along, and she had to have it hidden all over the place. But she also had to know that someone had found that one tin in Grand's workshop and removed it. So she was probably waiting to be unmasked. And Becca and Jake were waiting for him to do the unmasking, which Seth knew he had to accomplish before someone else—like Aunt Brenda—came across another stash somewhere. Brenda hadn't been around much since being awarded guardianship of Grand, but Seth knew that was only Round One. She'd be back when
whatever
her plans were stood in place.

Seth was too bummed after talking to Prynne's parents to engage in any search of Grand's property. He figured there wasn't any dope at his own parents' house, but if there was, Prynne was probably going to keep it close.

It was a phone call from Steamer Constant that set Seth on the path to a confrontation with Prynne. The talent scout called to tell him that the music agent Freda Windsarm was back in
town. She'd talked her into giving Triple Threat another listen. Seth told the talent scout that it would have to be just the guys this time as Prynne wasn't doing so well. In reply to this Steamer Constant revealed that it was Prynne who'd taken them over the top.
Terrific
musician
and
excellent technician
were the words she used and she added,
even when
Prynne obviously wasn't at her best
. “So give us a yell when she's feeling better” was how Steamer Constant ended the call. Seth said he would.

He'd learned from Prynne's parents that they'd run through their savings sending her into recovery programs. They were well into her brother's college fund trying to help her when they came to understand this wasn't the route that was going to save anyone. From this Seth took the knowledge that Prynne would die if she didn't recover. He also took the knowledge that she would die if she didn't
want
to recover.

When he got to Grand's house that afternoon, he shoved the tin of black tar heroin into a canvas satchel. He found Prynne in the garden with Jake and Grand, sitting in lawn chairs enjoying the sun.

Gus was with him, and he loped to the porch where the bone box was. Instead, Seth rooted for a ball and handed it over. Gus dashed onto the lawn and dropped the ball at Grand's feet. Ralph bent slowly. With his good hand, he picked it up. He gave it a toss that he couldn't have given two months ago. Jake and Prynne said “Way to go!” and “Wow!”

Seth shouldered the satchel and went to them. He kissed Grand on the top of the head and said to Prynne, “Want to go for a walk?”

She jumped to her feet. “Where to?”

Seth decided on the tree house. She'd never seen it.

He could feel Grand watching him in that way he had as he and Prynne set off into the woods. No one knew him better than his grandfather. Grand had picked up that something was wrong.

Seth didn't talk much as they walked the path, other than to say he needed to get out here and do some work on it. The way of path-keeping in the forests on Whidbey was to fight reclamation by nature. Within three years, any path made by man would be overgrown if someone didn't make the attempt to get the plant life under control. Seth told Prynne this in fits and starts. Had to bring the chain saw out to remove a downed tree, had to yank out some yellow archangel before it took over, had to pull out that English ivy.

Prynne said nothing other than
hmmm
and
oh
. It was in this manner that they arrived at the clearing where Seth had built his tree house under the watchful guidance of his grandfather.

Seeing the building nestled between two hemlocks, Prynne said, “Seth, this is
amazing
,” and for the first time in days, she seemed enthusiastic about something. “C'n I go up and see inside?”

“That's why we're here.” He went first up the stairs in order to open the trap door onto the deck. He was happy to see that the wood was holding up strong and true.

Inside, the place smelled musty from disuse, and there was a fair amount of dust because the stove that heated the single room in winter had been left ajar and a film of ash from the last fire within it had been blown out. Seth opened one of the
windows. He noticed that jays were chattering
shaark shaark shaark
in the trees. A crow called out a warning to the rest of his gang and flew off as if in indignation at the human invasion into the woods.

“How come you've never showed me this before?” Prynne went to the cot. She sat and tested its strength. “Do you ever sleep here? It would be fun. I always wondered where the trail went. I walked a ways along it, but—”

“Why?” Seth asked.

“Why what?”

“Why did you walk a ways along it? Were you looking for something?”

Her face became wary immediately. “What would I be looking for?”

Seth opened his satchel and brought out the old tin. “A place to hide something like this,” he said.

She said nothing at first. She managed to look supremely confused. Finally, she said, “What's that?”

“A tobacco tin,” he told her. “A real old tobacco tin.”

“An antique? Is it valuable?”

He wanted to laugh. He could feel laughter's nastiness bubbling up. “What's inside is worth money. Not a whole lot but probably more than the tin. Want to see it?”

“I don't know . . .” and there she faltered.

“You don't know what? What's inside? Where we found it? What don't you know, Prynne?”

He opened the tin. He dumped the contents next to her onto
the sleeping cot. When she started to say something, he jumped in. “Don't even bother. I've been to Port Townsend. I've talked to Steve. He sent me to your mom and dad, so I went to Port Gamble and talked to them. If you want to tell me this isn't yours, go ahead, but we both know it'll be a lie because we both know lying is what you do best.”

Her good eye filled. “It isn't mine. I don't even know what that stuff is. I don't know where it came from. I don't know where you found it. I don't know what it's used for. I don't
know
.”

“Oh yeah right.” Seth grabbed up the square of aluminum and a small chunk of the heroin. He snatched up the Bic lighter from beside her leg. He said, “You don't know, huh? Want me to show you? You think it's mine?”

“I didn't say that. It could be anyone's. It could be Jake's. Or Celia's. Or Becca's. Or . . . or. . . .”

“How 'bout Grand's? Grand's smoking heroin in his free time these days?”

Her lips trembled spasmodically. She clenched her fists in her lap and lowered her head so her hair spread around her like something meant to protect her from what would come next. She said brokenly, “You're the best thing in my life, Seth. You're the
only
thing in my life. You and my music and if I lose you . . . I can't lose you, Seth.”

“You lied to me about everything,” Seth said. “Right from the first. You claimed all you did was weed. You said that whole thing with my mom's Oxy was just giving it a try when the truth was you hadn't found a heroin source on Whidbey yet. You
had
to use the Oxy and you would've kept using it if Mom hadn't needed to renew the prescription.”

“All I have is you and my fiddle,” Prynne said, and this time she looked up. She'd started to cry and she didn't cry prettily. She went all red in the face, her neck got splotchy, and she had to wipe her nose on her arm. “You have to know that you—Seth,
you
—are the most important thing in—”

“
Dope
is the most important thing to dopers,” Seth said. “Everyone knows that. Like Steve, like your parents, like
everyone
. Where the hell did you get this stuff? How'd you figure out . . . ?” It came to Seth even as he was speaking. “Langley,” he said. “I bet it was the music store. You said you needed strings and rosin and you kept me from going in with you. That was when, wasn't it? Someone in the music store knew where to find this stuff. Someone told you and you made contact and that was that.”

“Please,” Prynne cried. “Please don't leave me. I'll stop. I swear it. I
can
stop, Seth. I've done it and I can do it again. I can. I will.”

“Your mom and dad said you've been in recovery three times.
Three
times and they spent their savings and some college money trying to get you straight. Do you know that, Prynne?
All
their savings before they gave you the boot.”

“They . . . they should have told me. They
never
told me. They should have told me. I didn't know. I swear. If I knew, I would've—”

“What? Been cured because they'd used up all their money trying to get you cured?”

She rose creakily. She extended her hands in a gesture that
looked like someone pleading for a handout on the street. “Please help me,” she said. “Do you think I want to be this way? Do you believe that I haven't tried and tried and told myself . . . but they sent me to the wrong kinds of places. I went and I did
everything
they told me to do and it didn't take. But something will. I know something will. I swear I'll make something work for me. You have to believe that. Just don't . . . Oh God please don't give up on me. I know we can make it together. And what's changed? Nothing, Just this. I have a problem. I'm trying to solve it. Help me solve it.”

Seth began to gather what he'd dumped from the tin. Prynne touched his arm so tentatively that it felt like the touch of a frightened kitten. “If you give up on me, too, I won't have anyone. And you and me . . . we'll lose our chance at happiness, Seth. And we were happy.
I
know we c'n be happy again.”

Seth closed the tin on its foul contents, but what he saw in his mind's eye was Prynne playing her fiddle that first day he'd encountered her. He saw the liveliness of her, the joy in her music, the way she carried her audience effortlessly with her. He saw her in her gypsy shirt and her old blue jeans, tapping a foot shod in a cowboy boot. He saw her when she was asleep in the morning and when she sat up in bed at night reading a book. He saw her helping his mom cook dinner, throwing the ball for Gus, showing Grand his flash cards, and more than anything else, he saw her believing in
him
.

What he knew was that he couldn't let her go. What he knew was that he didn't know how to keep her.