I hear footsteps and voices and get to my feet. Soon I see light bobbing through the trees, but when the officer emerges from the woods, it’s Ellie walking next to him, not the redheaded woman. I hurry toward them.
“Ellie!” I say. “That was you up there? I had no idea!”
The light from my house is bright enough to let me know she’s been crying. She’s not wearing her glasses and her eyes are rimmed with red.
“I’m so sorry for trespassing, Kayla,” she says. “And I didn’t mean to scare you. I just remembered how lovely it is up there at night and I wanted to experience it again.”
I still feel unsettled by the thought of someone wandering around my property uninvited. “Well, if anyone deserves to be in that tree house, it’s you,” I say sincerely, in spite of my discomfort. I look at the officer, whose expression is confused. “Ellie and her brother and father actually built that tree house many years ago,” I say. “It’s fine.” Now I wish the officer would leave, but to his credit, he’s not entirely comfortable with the situation and he takes me aside.
“You’re sure you’re okay with her being on your land?” he asks. “She’s not the woman who threatened … who made a statement to you about killing someone?”
“Completely different person,” I say. “Really. I’m sorry you had to come out here. It’s okay.”
Once the officer leaves, Ellie apologizes again. “I’ll go home, now,” she says. “And again, I’m sorry for wrecking your peaceful night.”
I don’t want to let her go yet, not when she’s this upset. “Come in the house,” I say. “It’s my turn to make you some tea.”
She looks as though she might resist, but then she follows me into the house and I settle her at the kitchen island while I boil water. I find a box of chamomile in the pantry. I hold it up and she nods.
“Perfect,” she says. She watches me in silence as I turn on the burner beneath the kettle. Then she speaks again. “Those steps your husband built make it easy to climb up to the house,” she says. “Back in the day, we just had some boards nailed into the tree. They were a snap to climb up when I was young. Wouldn’t be so easy for—” She can’t finish the sentence. She covers her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking with her tears. I skirt the island and sit next to her.
“What is it, Ellie?” I ask. “Can you tell me?” I guess that her brother—or mother—has taken a turn for the worse. But that’s not it at all. She lowers her hands to her lap and then begins to speak, telling me more than I ever could have imagined.
Chapter 44
ELLIE
1965
There was no way for me to get word to Win not to come. I had no car to drive to Flint, and Daddy was keeping me working nearly day and night, anyway. There wasn’t enough time to get something to him by mail. I knew, deep down, that I was glad I had no way to reach him. I had to see him one more time. He would come and I would tell him then that it wasn’t safe for us to keep meeting. At least not for now. At least not on Hockley Street.
I waited for him on the tree house deck and spotted his light a little after nine. The night was gloomy and overcast with no moon to speak of and if he hadn’t called out softly, “Hey, Ellie,” I wouldn’t have been sure it was him. He climbed the steps up to the tree house and once we were inside he kissed me, but he knew right away that something wasn’t right.
“What is it?” he asked, drawing away from me.
“Put out your light,” I said. I’d turned off my own as soon as he reached the tree.
He turned off his light and we were in complete darkness. I couldn’t read his face, and I was glad he couldn’t read mine. “My brother saw us walking back to your car the other night,” I said. “He told my parents. I got the law laid down on me, but I couldn’t figure out a way to get word to you. We really shouldn’t be here.”
He didn’t respond right away and I took his silence to mean that he was unnerved. I was sure he didn’t want to meet up with Buddy again. “Where do your parents think you are?” he asked.
“I told them I was going over my friend Brenda’s. She and I had a falling-out and I said I was going to try to smooth things over with her. So I can’t stay long. If for some reason they call Brenda and I’m not there, they’ll—”
“Shh,” he said. Wrapping his arms around me, he drew me down onto the sleeping bag. “Let’s not … do anything tonight,” he said. “Just stay like this for a little while. Then I’ll leave and we’ll have to figure out some other way to see each other in the future.”