Eternal rest.
*
It was three days later when Angie was found downstream from the farmhouse. Her body was bloated and beaten up, as she likely went over a few falls and got snagged on the rocks. It was quickly ruled an accidental death. Roy told the police she’d taken the boat out alone after getting off work and never came back. He said he saw the boat floating out there, empty. He explained away his scratches and bruises by saying he’d gotten in a fight in a bar in Adora Springs.
*
After the funeral, when Kasey was leaving the bathroom alone, Roy came out of the hallway and pulled her inside the bathroom again, locked the door.
“Mama called me. She left me a voicemail. The police will know you’re lying,” she said. Her voice was barely there and shaking, but she didn’t care. The fear of being locked in a bathroom with him was eclipsed by her hatred. She wanted him to kill her now; then at least he’d get arrested. He wouldn’t be able to lie his way out of both murders.
“If you tell anyone about that voicemail or what you saw, not only will I kill you, but I’ll kill your pretty friends out there too. I swear to God I will, and I know you believe me now,” Roy said, like a scripted cartoon villain. Kasey felt as if she’d slipped into another dimension that night on the kitchen floor, and now she was stuck in this nightmare. “It’s not just me you’ll have to deal with. I know everybody in this town. Trust me—they’ve made sure this will not fall back on me. They owe me too much.”
Kasey boldly walked around Roy without saying a word. She unlocked the bathroom door and stepped into the bright hallway.
She called the woman who ran the internship in New York and told her that her mom had died unexpectedly and she no longer had housing. She asked if there was any possible way for her to come up to the city early. She’d do anything—work anywhere, sleep on anyone’s floor if she had to. The woman let her know there were some students who were in hard situations like hers and emergency dorms were available. Kasey cried so hard thanking her that the woman told her to let her know as soon as she was safe in the city.
*
That night after taking a long walk around Goldie and having dinner and pie at Ada’s, with Rosemarie and Caro too, Kasey asked Silas to take her for a ride. They drove out of town and back into it, talking about how things would be totally different now that her mom was dead, but Silas said she could stay at the Castelow lake house or their B and B anytime she came back home. Nothing felt real and Kasey was numb. Desperate to feel something, she asked him to take her to their spot and they touched in the dark again until they both felt good. Both of them crying at the shock of everything and hanging on to each other afterward.
She told Silas to drop her off at Caro’s because she was sleeping there again. She kissed him and told him she loved him, that she’d love him forever. He returned her kisses and said the same.
Once he drove away, she walked past Caro’s trailer down to the lake, threw her mom’s phone in the water, and hers too. She walked to the bus station in her dad’s Gremlins T-shirt and bought a ticket to New York. When she got on that bus, she put her iPod earbuds in and turned up “Wide Open Spaces.”
She’d call Silas when she was safe in the city. She’d call Rosemarie and Ada and Caroline too. They’d be so mad at her, but she’d sneakily left them letters so they wouldn’t think she was missing. She left Silas’s next to the black wooden bear at the lake house. Rosemarie’s, tied up with the lilac sundress she’d borrowed last month, and left on her doorstep. Ada’s, underneath the windshield wiper of her pink car. Caro’s, peeking out from underneath the trailer’s ladybug rug.
Maybe if she and her mom had run away a long time ago, everything would be different, but it was too late. Run, baby girl. Kasey cried with her head against the warm bus window until Goldie and everything in it was gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone.
2019
27
Caroline
In the hospital, Caroline dreamt she was married to Beau, not Trey. She and Beau had a baby, and Beau was holding the baby up in the air, swooping it back down. He put his arm around Caro and touched her cheek. He kissed her softly and called her Muffin Mix, and he held their baby’s little foot in his big hand.
When she woke up in a regular room, her grandma was sitting in the chair right next to her bed, knitting and watching a cooking show. Mimi told her she’d said Beau’s name more than once in her sleep.
“One time, it was so breathy I thought I’d teleported into my romance novel, Ladybug,” Mimi said, motioning her head down at her lap, where a glossy paperback sat. Caro looked at it. The woman on the cover had red hair like hers, blowing in the wind. The man’s face was hidden. He was kissing her neck. The woman was Caroline and the man turned into Trey. He put his arms around Caro’s neck and started squeezing. Caroline sat up and gasped. She couldn’t remember how long she’d been in a coma. Was it only one day? Someone told her that, but who? Those words, in a coma, on top of all the pain medicine running rivers through her blood and the strange, new surroundings of the hospital were creating a distress signal in her body.
Her grandma put her knitting down and reached out to touch her. “What do you need, honey? Some more water? I’ll call the nurse,” her grandma said, taking her hand.
“No…no. Sorry. I’m fine. I think I was half-asleep…still dreaming. I’m okay now,” Caro said, taking a deep breath. She told herself she was okay now, safe. She had murky memories of being in the ICU. Of Rosemarie, Ada, and Kasey coming in and out. Of her grandma and possibly her mother too. She asked Mimi about that.
“Yes. She was here. She couldn’t stay, but she was here. You talked to her. Does it feel like everything’s okay with the baby? I love that baby so much. I’ve been talking to her while you’ve been sleeping, you know,” Mimi said, winking at her.
“How do you know it’ll be a girl?” Caro asked. She put her hand on her stomach. It seemed like magic how she could feel the flash of life inside of her now that she knew it was there. She had no clue she was pregnant until she woke up in the ICU. Four weeks.
She wasn’t like her mother. Caro knew she’d be a real mom to her baby; she’d do anything to protect her baby.
Her baby.
The baby.
She didn’t have time to talk to her grandma about the baby being a boy or a girl right now. First, she had to protect it from Trey. He’d kill it. He’d take it.
I have to protect the baby.
Grandma Mimi continued talking.
“Where’s Trey?” Caro asked, interrupting her.
“I’m not sure, but you don’t have to worry about him. He’s not coming up here right now. Silas will let us know what’s going on soon.”
“Is he in jail?” Caro asked. Her bottom lip quivered quick. “Does he know about the baby?”
“No, and he’s saying all this was an accident, honey. I don’t want you making yourself upset over it, though. You’re safe here. We don’t have to worry about him right now. All we need to worry about is getting you better. And no, he doesn’t know about the baby, and we’ll keep it that way for as long as we can,” Mimi said confidently.