When he arrived at her house, his fears only intensified. The garage door was closed but he could hear the car engine running inside. He tried banging on the front door, but there was no response. He had to climb over the locked gate into the backyard but was rewarded by finding the kitchen slider unlocked. He opened it and called her name, then went immediately to the garage. He had to step over her discarded shoes and her purse, dropped with the contents spilling out. “Anna!” he yelled.
The car was still running in the garage but there was no one inside so he turned it off and doubled back into the house. He picked up the purse, absently scooping the contents back inside. Once inside, he called out again, “Anna!” And again, “Anna!” He walked through the kitchen, great room, into the hall, calling her name as he went.
“What are you doing?” she said. She stood in her bedroom doorway, wrapped in a terry-cloth bathrobe, her wet hair dripping onto her shoulders.
“Oh, Anna, thank God,” he said. Before he could stop himself, he rushed to her and pulled her into his arms. “Thank God!”
She stood still against him. “Thank God for what?” she asked.
“Thank God you’re okay! You scared me to death. You were crying hysterically! You said you were at the end of your rope! I had no idea what you might do.”
She pulled back from him slightly. “That I might take a shower must not have come to mind...”
“The car was still running in the garage,” he said a bit desperately. “You had sounded so...out of control.”
“Yes, that,” she said, dropping her gaze. “For a little while I had lost my mind.” She shook her head. “Humiliating.”
He was still holding her upper arms. “Anna. Your mother? You lost your mother?”
“Well, not in the usual way. Blanche is thoroughly alive, but while I was visiting with her she asked after her daughter. Me. She didn’t know it was me.”
It took a moment for Joe to digest that. Then he just grabbed her close in his arms again. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
“I should have been prepared,” she said. “I knew it was only a matter of time. In fact, we got a lot of time, thanks to a good doctor and the right medication. But somehow I thought it would happen more slowly, not a normal visiting day gone suddenly around the bend. One minute she was asking about the kids and the next asking me if I knew her daughter.” She laid her head on Joe’s shoulder as if that last statement made her weirdly tired. Her hands rested lightly on his arms and she said, “Joe? Is this my purse?”
He pulled back a bit. “It was on the garage floor and the car was running. I picked it up but I don’t know what I was planning to do with it. Give it to you, I guess.”
“Whew, I guess I was really out of my head.”
“So you decided to take a shower?” he asked.
“It was gut instinct,” she said. “The weight of the last several months coupled with all the unknowns and possible new revelations. My head was spinning. I felt so lost. I couldn’t stop crying. So I decided to give up and cry and went into the shower to do it.”
“And did it work?” he asked.
“I think I was in there a half hour,” she said. “I don’t think I have a tear left. I’m a little tired...”
“When did you last eat?”
“I don’t know. I think a half bagel this morning. But it was a full day.”
“If you want to get dressed and dry your hair, I’ll poke around the kitchen and see if I can throw something together for dinner. For both of us.”
“I think maybe I am a little hungry.”
“Now that I’ve found you safe, I’m suddenly starving,” he said. “Take your time.” He turned her around so she faced her bedroom doorway. “Here,” he said, handing her the purse.
He stood there for a moment as she went into her room and closed the door. He shrugged his shoulders. He wondered if she had any inkling of what might be happening with him right now. Unlikely, given the amount of confusing information she was juggling in her mind.
Joe had always loved her but had never put a romantic spin on it. She was married and not just married to anyone, but to his best friend. Truthfully, he hadn’t really noticed those feelings until he had survived his divorce. Then he realized he liked her, appreciated her, felt she wasn’t getting the love she deserved from Chad. He kept it tamped down. It never in a million years occurred to him that she would one day be single, even though he knew Chad was not the best of husbands.