Everyone Here Is Lying(71)

At last, the doctor comes out to the waiting room and beckons to them. William stands up briskly and he and Erin follow the doctor into another room farther down the hall. Michael remains behind in the waiting room.

The doctor sits down and directs them to sit in the chairs in front of him. William swallows nervously, afraid of what he’s about to hear.

The doctor says, “She’s perfectly well physically. She appears to be well hydrated and well fed. She has not been harmed or violated physically in any way. She has, however, obviously experienced severe trauma, and you must get her help with that. I can give you some names.”

“Thank you,” William says.

Erin nods beside him. “Yes, thank you. Can she come home?”

“Oh yes, I think that’s the best place for her.”



* * *



? ? ?

Word has gotten out, and now everyone knows that Avery Wooler has escaped from her abductor. There’s a crowd waiting outside the hospital for them, and Avery has to stifle the impulse to appear triumphant. She feels like a hero, and she would like to be hailed as one. But Marion is dead, and she can’t walk out of the hospital, head up, pleased with herself, after what she’s been through. That’s not what people will be expecting. They will be expecting a traumatized child, bewildered and still frightened, and that’s what she will give them.

They have a police car take them to their house, and that’s exciting. She is ushered into the back of the cruiser with her mother, while her father follows behind with Michael in another police car. As they leave the hospital they are chased by reporters, and Avery turns around and watches them out the back window for as long as she can, because being alone with her mother makes her uncomfortable. She doesn’t want her mother to see through her. But her mother loves her and thinks the best of her even when she really shouldn’t. Her father’s not like that. It’s her father she should be nervous about. But he’s already afraid of her, and she’d like to keep it that way.

Her mother doesn’t speak the whole way home but clasps her hand tightly and looks at her constantly, as if she can’t believe she’s real. Avery is quiet and tearful and lets her mother hold her hand, even though it’s not something she would usually tolerate.

When they arrive at the house, they are shepherded inside quickly by the uniformed officers, who surround her as if she’s something precious. There are reporters here, too, waiting for her return. Avery enters the house first, after her mother unlocks the door. It’s been only four days since she walked out the back door of this house and appeared at Marion’s back door. It feels like a long time ago. Her mother comes in behind her. Her father and brother arrive, and they all go into the kitchen. The two uniformed officers remain inside the house with them.

Her father is pretending to be happy, she thinks, but he eyes her uneasily. Avery knows he’s remembering the last time they were in this kitchen, when he hit her so hard she ended up on the floor. He’s wondering if she’s going to tell. She might. She tries to convey that to him with her eyes, and he looks away.

“Why are you still here?” Avery asks the police officers.

“We’re to remain with you until Detectives Bledsoe and Gully arrive,” one of them explains.

She doesn’t like that. She’d like a bit of privacy, some downtime, but there’s nothing she can do about it. The detectives are coming here, and she must be ready.



* * *



? ? ?

Michael had ridden home from the hospital in the back of a cruiser with his dad, who was unusually quiet. Michael is relieved beyond measure that Avery has been found. Now his mother will go back to normal. He’s been incredibly worried about her. But he is still a little uneasy. The woman who took Avery is dead. He’s unsure about what’s going to happen next.

Once they get inside the house, the atmosphere is charged, strange. They all wanted Avery back and now she’s here. But it’s like they’re all walking on eggshells. It doesn’t help that the two police officers are in the house with them. They find themselves in the kitchen.

“Do you want something to eat, Avery?” their mother asks, as if to break the tension.

Avery sits down in a chair at the kitchen table, as if she’s suddenly too weak to stand. “Sure,” she says.

It all seems quite awkward, Michael thinks. No one knows what to say, how to act, after something like this.

“I can make you some eggs on toast, would you like that?”

“Okay.”

Michael catches their father looking at Avery with something like fear. He’s never seen his dad look at her quite that way. He wonders what it’s about.

As their mother starts frying the eggs, Avery asks, “Can I have some cookies?”

“Don’t you think you should have your eggs first?” their mother says.

“I want the cookies now,” Avery insists.

Her mother gets them from the cupboard and hands the package to her. Michael is staring at Avery, and she stares back at him as she noisily eats the cookies, straight from the bag. She doesn’t offer him any.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Michael says truthfully.

Avery looks back at him as if she doesn’t believe it.

It occurs to him that maybe she can’t really recognize love.