The Gatekeeper's Daughter (3 page)

“Hello?”

“Carol, it’s me.”

“Therese? My God! Where are you? What happened? Are you alright?”

Therese could see Carol stand upright and turn to Richard, who was sitting on the sofa with black rings beneath dark, bloodshot eyes, but who now stood, too, his mouth agape.

“I, I’m okay.”

“Thank God! Where are you? What’s going on?”

“I was upset.
About Vicki. I wanted to see Than. But I’m coming back. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was afraid you’d say no.”

“My God, Therese.
Do you know what we’ve been through the past three days? Three days! You should have called before now. The police are…”

“The police?
You called the police?”

“Of course we called the police. What did you think we’d do? You disappeared. We thought you were stolen.”

Therese could see her aunt sink into Richard’s arms. He led her to the sofa, and they both collapsed into it.

“You better call Jen, too.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Where are you?”

“At Than’s. But I’m taking the bus home in a few days. I’ll be home in a week, I think.”

“A week?
You get on that bus today, Therese. Do you hear me?”

“I can’t. The return ticket is nonrefundable.”

“I’ll buy you a new one. Better yet, I’ll fly down and get you.”

“No. Please. I need time.”

“You and Than haven’t…”

“What?”

“Are you being safe?”

“Oh my God!
Nothing to worry about. I just needed to see him.” Yuck. Her aunt was asking about sex?

“Does he live with his parents or alone?”

“His parents.”

“And they’re there?”

Therese looked up at Than. “Yes. They’re here. Well, his dad is. His mom’s, um, visiting his grandmother.”

“Let me speak to his dad.”

“You can’t. He’s working right now.”

“Call me tonight, when his father returns, so I can speak with him, and call me every night till you’re home safe, to let me know you’re still okay.”

“Okay.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“I still can’t believe you did this to me.”

“I’m so sorry.”

As she hung up the phone, she closed her eyes and sighed, wondering if her aunt and uncle would ever forgive her. Then her stomach balled up in a knot at the thought of having to ask Hades to talk to her aunt.

Than kissed the top of her head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and relished his comforting squeeze. “We’ll get through this,” he said.

She nodded, pulling back and brushing tears from her cheeks. They felt different. Less wet. Almost as though her cheeks were numb.

Next she called Jen. As she punched in the number, she could see Jen with her bright blond hair in two braids in the barn talking to a girl their age she’d never met before. The girl was shorter than Jen with long brown hair and a thin frame. Jen answered the phone in the barn.

“It’s me,” Therese said.

Jen stopped, rigid. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

“With Than.
I’m coming home. I just freaked, you know? I’m sorry I scared everyone.”

“Have you called your aunt?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have kept your secret and come up with a cover so your aunt and Pete and everybody wouldn’t go all nutso.”

“Pete?”

“When will you be back?”

“In a week or so. I’m taking the bus.”

“Call me or text me, okay?”

“I will. Who’s that with you?”

“What? How did you know someone was with me?” Jen glanced in all directions, as though searching for Therese.

“I thought I heard another voice.”

“That’s weird. She didn’t say anything. Anyway,
it’s Vicki’s cousin, Courtney.”

“Vicki’s cousin?”

“Yeah. She and her mom are visiting Mr. Stern for the rest of the summer. Her mom is Mr. Stern’s sister.”

“I didn’t know he had a sister. That’s good.” Therese was glad for Vicki’s dad. She’d been worried about him being alone after Vicki
died, only a year after her mother took her life. Hopefully having family around for the summer would ease his pain.

“Yeah.
He called your aunt and my mom to see if we’d spend some time with Courtney, so she wouldn’t get bored. Turns out she knows a lot about horses. Her mom grew up around them. They’re from…hang on, did you say North Carolina?”

“North Dakota,” the girl named Courtney corrected.

“North Dakota,” Jen said into the phone.

“Cool. I’m looking forward to meeting her.” Therese felt slightly jealous that Jen was having fun with a friend. She hadn’t seemed all that worried about Therese’s disappearance.
“Later, Jen.”

When she hung up, she internally reprimanded herself for thinking that way.

“What’s wrong?” Than asked.

“Nothing.
I’m an idiot, that’s all.”

Than looked back at her, his mood suddenly dark.

“What?” she asked.

“You regret…”

“No. Absolutely not. How can you think that? No. I have no regrets.” She hugged him, feeling his mood lighten and his body relax. Then she added, “Things are a mess, though. I need to fix them.”

“First things first.”
He touched the tip of her nose and brushed a stray tear from her cheek. “I have to train you.”

Chapter Four: Goddess of Death in Training

Of all the places
Than had to be today, this death seemed the gentlest for Therese’s first time. He didn’t want to throw her in the middle of a tough one. He needed to help her gradually get used to people dying all around them.

Therese stood beside him in a hospital room near the bed of an old woman, whose eyes were closed, breathing erratic. Two middle-aged women sat on either side of the old one, holding her hands and praying. Therese said, without speaking, “I can hear them.”

“Please let her go easy,” one prayed.

“Take Mama to heaven,” the other prayed.

“She’s almost ready.” Than wrinkled his nose at the pungent smells of urine, perspiration, and body odor, not uncommon in his line of work, but desensitized he was not. “When her body stops, you have to reach in and put your hand on her soul. She won’t know what to do. We’ll guide her, okay?”

Therese nodded, looking apprehensive but determined. That’s what he loved most about her: her determination.

“Say hi to Daddy,” one of the women said, sensing the end. “Tell him we love him!”

In the next instant, the old woman’s eyes flashed open, and she looked directly at Therese. Her mouth opened wide,
and she gasped.

“Can she see us?”

“Yes. Tell her it’s okay.”

“
It’s okay, Madeline. I’m here to help.” She looked at Than. “How do I know her name?”

“It’s like that with everyone. You’ll see.”

The old woman collapsed against her pillow, her eyes fixed and unblinking. Her breathing stopped.

“Mama?”

“She’s gone! Call the nurse!”

Than led Therese closer to the bed.
“Now reach in, just at her shoulders.”

“Into her body?”

Than took Therese’s hand, and together they penetrated the old woman’s shoulders and fell upon the airy, feathery feel of something not quite solid, but palpable.

“Help her out.”

Together they helped the soul emerge from the woman’s body and out into the room.

“It’s going to be okay, Madeline,” Than said to the woman. He kept a hand on her shoulder.

Therese did the same, and together they left the bustle of nurses, machines, and departed loved ones to god travel with the woman to the banks of the Acheron where Charon waited on his raft. As they neared Cerberus, Therese gave the three-headed dog a friendly wave, and he wagged his dragon tail as his three tongues hung from his three mouths. Cerberus loved her almost as much as Than did.

They passed Cerberus and entered the
iron gate. Then Charon delivered them to the judges, who declared the woman destined to the Fields of Elysium. Once they saw her safely there, Therese and Than returned to his rooms.

Therese sank into the leather club chair by the fire. “That wasn’t so bad.” Although she was a bit drained looking, something in her eyes appeared radiant, triumphant even. “I didn’t think I could handle it, but I could. It felt good.
Like I was helping.”

“Yes. Those are the best cases—when they’re ready to go and their loved ones have accepted it.”

“I guess most cases aren’t so easy, huh?”

Than shook his head. She had so much more in store, so much pain and agony. He wished he hadn’t put her in this position. He wished he could spare her from it all. Her willingness to suffer for him made him love her all the more.

“I keep telling myself it’s temporary—their pain and sadness, I mean.”

“That’s right. That’s a good girl.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Ready?”

“Already?”

Than frowned.
“This job is never-ending. That’s your first big lesson. Remember, I’m all over the world right now. You’ll have to be, too.”

He helped her from the chair and into his arms. “Hold me close,” he whispered. “This won’t be easy.”

She gave him a brave smile, which made him proud. “By the way,” he said. “Demeter says you have three months to find your purpose.”

“Three months?” He watched her count on her fingers. She was so cute.
“October. What’s today?”

“Jul
y third in some places. The fourth in others.”

“October third. I have to figure this out by October third.”

The room was small and
stuffy, the stringent smell of anesthetic and cleaner overpowering the lesser one of urine. The thirty-six year-old woman, bald and sallow, lay in a morphine-induced sleep in a hospice bed with her older brother collapsed and sleeping in a nearby chair in the dim circle of light from a bedside lamp. The dying woman’s six-year-old twin sons and eleven-year-old daughter had already said their goodbyes the night before. Her ex-husband and his new wife and children had also come and gone. The only one left was her lifelong friend, her brother, and, knowing her time was close, he had refused to leave her side. Than usually took it upon himself to wake such a dedicated loved one just before or after the body expired so the soul could whisper goodbye in passing.

Therese held his hand with a tight grip. He could hear her thoughts, aimed at him, “Poor woman! Poor woman! She’s so young, her children not ready. This doesn’t seem fair.”

“Life isn’t fair,” came his automatic reply. He wished he didn’t have to put Therese through this.

“I can feel how hard she fought,” Therese said. “And I can sense the pain she was in before the medication took over. The cancer started in her breasts but spread throughout her body. I can feel it in her liver and in her kidneys. It’s eating her alive from the inside.”

Than gave her a solemn nod. “We’re here to end her pain.”

“But her children.”

“They have their father and a stepmother who love them. Not all left behind are as fortunate.”

“Fortunate?”

“Sorry. Poor choice of words.”

“I can feel her dying,” Therese said. “I feel it all around my body, especially my chest. It’s weird how I can sense her every breath, her every movement.”

“It’s time to reach inside for her soul. I’ll just nudge her brother awake.”

“Why not let him sleep?”

“He’ll feel good tomorrow knowing he had the chance to say goodbye.”

Therese gave him a loving smile that made his heart fill up with joy even in the midst of this overwhelming sadness. Together they reached into the woman’s body for that feathery part of her still alive.

“This way, Tamara,” Than said.

Her brother opened his eyes and looked at her, instantly aware that she was no longer breathing. He grabbed her hand.
“Sis?”

The brother seemed to look directly at his sister’s soul, as though he could see it. “I love you,” he said. “Wait for me.”