Читать книгу Two Much Alike - Pamela Bauer, Pamela Bauer - Страница 9

WHAT FRANNIE DIDN’T NEED today of all days was to have her former mother-in-law drop in. “This is a surprise,” she said, although it really shouldn’t have caught her off guard. After all, Arlene Harper had a way of showing up when she was least expected. If there was one word Frannie would use to describe Arlene, it was unpredictable.

“Did you take a taxi from the airport?”

“Oh, I didn’t fly,” Arlene answered. “I drove.”

“By yourself? Where’s Harry?”

Harry was Arlene’s fiancé—or at least he was the last time Frannie had seen her. She glanced at Arlene’s left hand and saw the ring finger was bare. It looked as if Harry had gone the way of the rest of the men in Arlene’s life.

“I’m afraid that didn’t work out.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Frannie said, although she really should have told Arlene how lucky she was to be rid of the moocher. From the very first time Frannie had met Harry she’d had her suspicions that he was all charm and no substance. But then, in the eleven years she’d known Arlene, that’s all there had been in her mother-in-law’s life—men with charm but little substance.

Arlene’s next words indicated that she’d finally figured out Harry, too. “It’s for the best. He wasn’t the man for me,” Arlene said without any bitterness. “He thought work was for other people. But let’s not waste our time talking about me. I want to hear what’s been happening to my beautiful grandchildren,” she said, wrapping her arms around Luke and Emma.

“As you can see, they’re fine,” Frannie answered.

“We only have one more week of school and then we’re on summer vacation,” Emma stated joyfully.

“I know. That’s why I came. I want to spend lots of time with you this summer.”

Frannie gulped. “You’re staying for the summer?”

“This is going to be so cool,” Emma gushed, giving her grandmother another hug.

“Yes, it is,” Arlene agreed with a smile. “You won’t have to have a baby-sitter while your mother’s at work.”

As much as she appreciated Arlene’s offer, the thought of her mother-in-law staying with them in a house that was already too small did not put the glee in her eyes that it did in her children’s.

“It’s very generous of you to offer, but I’ve already contracted for day care,” she said, trying not to sound ungracious.

Alex, who’d been standing in the background, stepped forward. “We hate going to day care. It’s all little kids. Why can’t Gramma take care of us?”

“Because it’ll cost me money if we back out now,” Frannie explained.

“But it’s going to cost you money anyway, right?” Arlene asked.

“Can’t we please stay home with Gramma?” Emma begged, giving her mother a look that was just as dramatic as her plea.

“What about summer camp? The bus is supposed to pick you up at the day care center,” Frannie reminded them.

“That’s not until August,” Alex answered.

“Oh, by then I’ll be gone,” Arlene told them.

Frannie hoped no one heard her sigh of relief.

Emma’s face dropped. “I thought you said you were staying the whole summer.”

“Just for part of the summer, dear. But I will be here all of June and part of July.”

“What about your job?” Frannie asked.

“Oh, I quit,” she said with a flap of her hand.

“You quit?”

“Yes. Don’t look so alarmed, Frannie. I’ll find another,” she said nonchalantly, then turned to the twins and said, “Wait until you see what I brought for you.”

“Did you bring us cards with the holes in them?” Alex asked, moving closer to the couch.

“I most certainly did,” Arlene said proudly. “Two decks for each of you.”

“And the teeny bottles of shampoo and lotion?” Emma wanted to know.

Arlene nodded. “They smell just heavenly. Wait until you see.”

Because she worked as a cashier at a hotel casino in Atlantic City, Arlene often brought playing cards as well as complimentary bottles of lotion and shampoo.

Her glance moved between Emma and Alex. “Now, what should we do today? Gramma wants to take you someplace fun.” Arlene looked at Frannie and asked, “You don’t have plans for today, do you?”

“Actually, I do.” She was assigned to cover a charity walk-a-thon. She’d planned to put Luke in the stroller and let Emma and Alex push him, as they walked with the rest of the participants and she took photos.

Alex groaned. “We don’t have to go to that, do we?”

“Go where?” Emma asked.

“Some stupid walk-a-thon,” Alex answered.

“It’s not stupid. It’s for a good cause,” Frannie chastised him.

“We can always do something tomorrow,” Arlene suggested, which provoked groans from the twins. Then she looked at Frannie and said, “Or I could take the children today and then you’d be free to concentrate on your work.”

It was a tempting offer. The children would be a distraction while she tried to work. On the other hand, Frannie knew her children could be a handful, especially Luke. The memory of her son throwing a temper tantrum the last time she’d had him at the mall made her hesitate. As much as Frannie wanted to say yes, she wasn’t sure she could do so with a clear conscience.

Finally, after much cajoling by the twins, she agreed to let them stay with their grandmother, but extracted the promise that they would help their grandmother with Luke. They also needed to complete their Saturday chores, which would give Arlene a chance to rest before their adventure.

Alex didn’t protest the later start. “That means I can go over to Josh’s and get my posters done.”

That raised his grandmother’s curiosity. “What posters are those?”

“I’ll show you,” he answered, then disappeared into his room.

Frannie thought about stopping him, but knew it would only be a matter of time until Arlene found out about his campaign to find his father. When Alex returned with the flyer, he held it up for his grand-mother’s inspection.

“I’m trying to find my dad. Me and my friend Josh made this, but I have to change the phone number. That’s why I have to go to his house. He has a computer,” he explained.

Arlene looked first at the poster, then at Frannie, her eyes filled with questions. Frannie didn’t know how to answer them, so she simply lifted her brows and shrugged.

“I’m going to put them up all over Minneapolis, and some of my friends are going to take them when they go on vacation this summer,” Alex continued. “Will you take some back to Atlantic City with you, Gramma?” He looked at his grandmother expectantly.

Arlene placed her hand on his shoulder. “If it’s important to you, of course I will, but I don’t know if it will do any good. I doubt he’s anywhere close. If your father were living near me, he’d call.”

“But there are lots of people who come to the casinos and hotels. Maybe a tourist will see the poster and recognize his picture,” Alex argued.

Frannie could see how unsettling it was for Arlene to have such a discussion with her grandson, and decided to change the subject. “Okay, kids, get your chores done.”

That got Alex to table the discussion of his missing father. Frannie knew, however, it was a subject that wouldn’t be left for long. Sooner or later she and Arlene would have to talk about Dennis’s disappearance and Alex’s quest.

That’s why she wasn’t surprised when later that evening, after the kids had gone to bed, Arlene joined her in the kitchen. Frannie offered to make her a cup of tea, but the older woman said she just wanted to sit for a bit and talk.

Seeing her yawn Frannie said, “The kids can wear you out, can’t they.”

“It’s a nice kind of tired. Alex, Emma and Luke are good kids, Frannie. You’re doing a fine job with them,” she said, taking a seat at the table where Frannie sat folding the laundry.

Frannie smoothed the wrinkles out of a small undershirt. “Thank you, Arlene. I do my best.”

“I know you do. And it shows. Of course, Luke does have quite a temper,” she remarked.

Frannie gave her a smile. “He had a tantrum?”

“I didn’t know kids could arch their backs that way,” she reflected with a weary chuckle.

Frannie grimaced. “I’m sorry if he was a handful.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m a mother, too. I know what kids are like.” She picked up one of Luke’s socks that had fallen out of Frannie’s basket. “I’d forgotten how tiny they make these things.”

Frannie smiled in understanding and continued to fold the clothes. “I appreciate your help with the kids today. They didn’t want to go to the walk-a-thon.”

“And you shouldn’t have to take them with you when you work,” Arlene said as she reached inside the laundry basket for the matching sock.

“Most of my assignments are during the week, and I can drop the kids off at day care if necessary, but on weekends I have to rely on the girl next door. When she’s busy, it means I either have to find someone to cover for me at the paper or bring the kids along.”

“That can’t be easy,” Arlene commented, adding the pair of folded socks to Frannie’s pile.

“No,” she said. “That’s why I’m grateful for what you did today.”

Arlene blew off Frannie’s gratitude with a wave of her hand. “It was nothing. Actually, I’m the one who should be thanking you. You’ve always made me feel welcome here, Frannie, despite everything that’s happened.”

“That’s because you are welcome here,” Frannie said sincerely.

“Thank you. It’s nice to hear you say that, especially when I know you wouldn’t say it if you didn’t mean it. I hope you don’t mind that I want to spend some time here with the children.”

Frannie wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but she didn’t admit her uncertainty. “You said you quit your job?”

“Yes. I wanted to see what it would be like to be footloose and fancy free.” She smiled reflectively. “I discovered I like it. Now I know why women marry money.”

“Money isn’t everything.” Frannie recited the familiar refrain she’d used hundreds—maybe thousands—of times in the past few years.

“No, but it makes life a bit less stressful,” Arlene said.

“Is that why you’re looking so relaxed? Because you’ve come into some money?”

A self-satisfied grin spread Arlene’s lips. “I’m here because I’ve had some very good luck recently and I want to share it with you and the children.”

“What kind of luck?”

“Do you remember me talking about Martha Ball?”

“That sweet little old lady who lives down the hall from you?”

Arlene nodded. “I used to pick up her groceries for her, take her to the beauty shop once a week…you know, those kinds of things. She had such bad arthritis that it was difficult for her to get around.”

“Had?”

A sadness came into Arlene’s eyes. “She passed away a couple of months ago.”

Frannie placed a hand on Arlene’s arm. “I’m so sorry. I know you were fond of her.”

“Yes, she was a dear. And a bit of a gambler. She used to look forward to me coming over so we could play penny-ante poker.” Arlene shook her head, a nostalgic twinkle in her eye. “All those years we played for pennies…I had no idea how much she was actually worth.”

“She had a lot of money?”

“Oh, yes, and no family to share it with. That’s why when she died she left everything to the people she said had been the kindest to her.”

“And you were one of them?”

Again she nodded. “There weren’t many people who took the time to visit her. Just a handful of us who stopped in to play cards. None of us expected to get anything. Heck, we all thought she was one step from poverty. We’d often let her win just to give her a few extra bucks.” She chuckled at the memory.

“Then it must have come as a surprise to learn you had an inheritance.”

“Oh, my goodness, yes! I had no idea she had money in the bank. Every month when I’d help her write out her checks to pay the bills, there barely seemed enough for her to get by. She would say she had a little bit put away for a rainy day—which I thought meant thousands, not hundreds of thousands.”

“Hundreds of thousands?” Frannie’s eyes widened.

“You can imagine my shock. I’ve lived payday to payday my entire life.”

“Most of us do,” she said soberly.

“You shouldn’t have to.”

Frannie really didn’t want to be having this conversation with her ex-mother-in-law because she knew where it was leading. And she didn’t want to talk about her ex-husband.

Arlene, however, would not be swayed. “I want to give some of this money to you and the kids…you know, to try to make up for what Dennis hasn’t done.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Frannie began, only to have the other woman cut her short.

“I know I don’t have to. I want to. What good is inheriting money if you can’t share it with the ones you love?”

It was a very generous gesture, yet Frannie couldn’t let her do it. She knew that Arlene had worked hard all her life and had very little to show for it. Forever bailing Dennis out of trouble, she’d never hesitated to spend her money to help her son. Now she wanted to give away what could be her retirement nest egg because of obligations he’d failed to meet.

“If you want to put a little money aside for college for the kids, that’s fine, but you don’t need to help us out, Arlene. We’re doing all right.” It wasn’t exactly the truth. Frannie was tired of there never being enough money, but she also knew that until she no longer had the expense of day care, she’d continue to scramble for money.

Arlene’s face fell. “You don’t want my help?”

“You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your future because of Dennis’s irresponsible behavior. That money should be used for your retirement, not for raising your grandchildren.” Frannie didn’t like the awkwardness that the subject of money had introduced into their conversation. “Look, I think it’s best that we don’t talk about Dennis.”

“No, you’re probably right,” Arlene agreed. “It’s how we’ve managed to stay friends, isn’t it? By not talking about him?”

Frannie knew there was no need for her to answer.

“I just have one question,” Arlene said.

Reluctantly, Frannie asked, “About Dennis?”

She nodded. “Do you think there’s any chance that Alex’s posters might succeed in finding him?”

Frannie shook her head. “We’ve hired private investigators who haven’t been able to come up with any leads.”

“That’s true.”

“And if Dennis was going to contact anyone, it would be you.”

“I don’t think so, not after I threatened to turn him in to the authorities.” Arlene sighed. “I’m not proud to call him my son, Frannie. You ought to know that. And it hurts me to see Alex struggling with all of this. If there was some way I could make that son of mine behave like a man, I would have done it by now.”

Frannie felt a rush of sympathy for the older woman. She could imagine how painful it would be to be estranged from one of her children. “I don’t think we should be talking about this, Arlene.”

She nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Frannie.”

“It’s all right. He’s still your son, Arlene, no matter what happens.”

“And the father of Alex, Emma and Luke,” her ex-mother-in-law added.

As much as Frannie wanted to argue that Dennis had given up the right to be a father, she knew it would be wise to say nothing. If Arlene planned to stay for part of the summer, Frannie needed to keep a tight rein on her feelings about Dennis.

And she would. For her children’s sake.

“IT’S WORKING OUT BETTER than I thought it would,” Alex told Josh the following Monday on their way to school. “Now that my gramma’s staying with us, I won’t have to go to day care next week when school’s out. And you know what that means.”

“You’ll be home to answer the phone when someone calls with information about your dad,” Josh supplied. “Aren’t you worried your mom’s gonna get mad when she finds out you left your phone number on the flyers?”

“Only on half of them. The ones I put up around here all have my aunt’s office number on them.” He kicked a rock in his path and it went rolling across the street.

“You think your aunt will tell you if someone calls about your dad?”

“I’m not sure. She says it’s better for society if deadbeats like him drop out…at least, that’s what I heard her tell my mom one night when they didn’t know I was listening.”

“Hey, I heard Jamie Richards is going camping in the Boundary Waters as soon as school’s out. You should have him put some posters up there.”

“Good idea. And Angela Martin is going to the Wisconsin Dells.”

“You asked her?” Josh wrinkled his nose in disgust. “She’s a dork.”

“It doesn’t matter. She said she’d take my posters with her.”

“How many out-of-town ones does that make?”

“Seventeen. Before summer’s over, my posters will be all over the country.”

“Cool. I bet you’re going to find him.”

“Maybe” was all Alex said, remembering all the times he’d heard his mom and his aunt discuss his father. He knew it wasn’t easy finding a deadbeat.

TRUE TO HER WORD, Arlene did her best not to mention her son’s name during her stay. Alex, however, asked every day if his auntie Lois had called with any information. And each day Frannie would give him the same response. No, not yet.

As days turned into weeks and there were still no leads as to Dennis’s whereabouts, Frannie expected Alex to become discouraged. He didn’t. He just kept sending the posters with his friends as they left on vacation.

Frannie viewed Arlene’s presence as a mixed blessing. It was wonderful to see how warm and loving she was with her grandchildren, but it also made Frannie realize how much easier her life would be with another person sharing the responsibilities of child rearing. Having another adult in the house meant Frannie actually had some time to herself, and she discovered she liked it.

When she expressed this sentiment to her sister as they lunched at an outdoor café, Lois said, “You sure don’t sound like the same woman who only a few weeks ago was bemoaning the fact that her ex’s mother would be a houseguest for the summer.”

Frannie took a sip of her iced tea. “I did have my apprehensions at first, but it’s worked out remarkably well. I’m actually going to hate to see her go, even if she does occasionally get on my nerves.”

“When does she leave?”

“Next week. She’s going out to California for her high school reunion, where she’s meeting up with some friends. Then they’re all going on a road trip.”

“A road trip?”

Frannie nodded. “Apparently they want to see the western part of the United States, go to some of the national parks, stop in and see friends along the way. You know Arlene—she has friends all over the country. I suppose it’ll be months before we hear from her again.”

“Do you think she’d ever consider moving here?” Lois asked as she stuck her fork into her salad.

Frannie shook her head. “I don’t know. She has wanderlust. It’s why she moves so often—and why she didn’t mind life in the military.”

“She must have family.”

Frannie reached for her napkin. “A couple of older sisters and some cousins.”

“What about the Harper side?”

She shook her head. “Never talks about them. Dennis never did, either.”

“There’s probably a good reason why they didn’t.”

Frannie shrugged. “All I know is that it’s been good for the kids to have a grandmother around. They’re going to miss Arlene.”

“By the end of the year Mom will be back,” Lois remarked.

“We hope.”

Lois frowned. “Why wouldn’t she be back? Richard’s contract was only to work overseas one year.”

“That’s true, but the last time I talked to Mom, she told me Richard was doing such a terrific job that the company was thinking about extending their stay.”

“Mom’s not going to like that.”

“I’m not so sure. Obviously it’s a great opportunity for them. I mean, what Minnesotan wouldn’t want two years working in a warm climate with beautiful sand beaches?”

“But she misses her grandkids.” Lois took one last sip of her iced tea, then reached for the check. “I’d better get back to the office. Oh, one other thing I should mention. We did get a call in response to one of Alex’s posters.”

Frannie’s heart skipped a beat. “And?”

“It wasn’t legit. Some kid thinking it was funny to place the call.”

Frannie breathed a relieved sigh. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. Caller ID told us it was a call placed in South Minneapolis, not Los Angeles, which is where the kid said he was. Technology can be such a timesaver, can’t it?”

ARLENE’S DEPARTURE was a solemn occasion at the Harper house. Frannie, Alex, Emma and Luke all waved at her as she pulled out of the driveway in her shiny new minivan. Frannie understood the reason for her children’s tears. Even she had to choke back sadness as she said goodbye.

Seeing their faces as Arlene’s van disappeared from sight, Frannie was grateful that there was a summer arts festival going on in a nearby park. It would give them something to take their minds off their grandmother’s absence. As well as arts and crafts, there were street vendors and musical entertainment with a small outdoor stage production.

While she was putting together a picnic lunch for them to take along, the phone rang. She heard Alex call out that he’d answer it. A few minutes later, he came bursting into the kitchen, his eyes wide. In his fist was a slip of paper.

“I got it!”

“Got what?” Frannie asked, as he stood wiggling before her.

“I got the name of the place Dad is!” Frannie was stunned. After six weeks of getting no responses to Alex’s posters, she’d assumed that nothing would come of his efforts.

“Was that Auntie Lois?” she asked weakly.

He shook his head. “Uh-uh. It was some lady. She gave me her name but I didn’t write it down. I think it was Margaret or something with an M…” He trailed off, his face showing his bewilderment.

Frannie took the piece of paper from his hands. On it Alex had printed, “Gran Moray. North Shore. Fishing. Nice, helpful.”

When she didn’t say anything, he added, “It’s where Dad is…in Gran Moray.”

Gran Moray had to be Alex’s spelling of Grand Marais, the small Minnesota town located on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Frannie’s heart hammered relentlessly in her chest.

“The lady said she saw someone who looks just like Dad when they were fishing in one of the streams,” Alex continued. “They talked to him and everything.”

It couldn’t be, Frannie told herself, taking several calming breaths. “Your father doesn’t like to fish,” she told him. “And you heard your grandmother say that she doesn’t think he’s living nearby. It’s not him,” she said with a confidence she wasn’t feeling.

“How do you know? This lady said he looked just like the guy on the poster. It could be him, Mom. It could be.” There was a plea in her son’s voice that tore at Frannie’s heart.

“I’m going to call Lois and see what she thinks.” Frannie started to walk out of the room, but Alex stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Auntie Lois doesn’t know about this.”

Frannie frowned. “What do you mean she doesn’t know? She must have given that woman our number…”

Guilt made his eyes dart back and forth nervously.

“Alex, you didn’t put up the posters with our phone number on it, did you?”

She could see by the look on his face, that was exactly what he’d done.

“Alex!”

“I wanted to be the one to get the calls, not Auntie Lois. He’s my father,” he said on a note of frustration.

Frannie pushed an errant curl away from her forehead. “Oh, good grief! Our phone number’s out there for all the world to see?”

“You don’t need to get upset. No one’s even called except for this one lady. And she was really nice, Mom.”

Again, pain knifed through Frannie’s heart. She could see how much Alex wanted this strange woman to be the connection to his father. She closed her eyes momentarily, trying to find the words to tell her son that the man this woman had seen couldn’t possibly be Dennis.

“It can’t be him, Alex,” she began.

“Why not?” he demanded.

Because I don’t want it to be. She pushed aside that thought and said, “I told you. Your father doesn’t know how to fish.”

“Maybe he learned.”

“He hates cold weather. Why would he live in northern Minnesota?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but we need to go find out. Will you take me?”

Frannie stifled a groan. “I wish you’d let me talk to the woman who called and gave you this information.”

“She said she lives in Minneapolis.”

“You should have written down her phone number.”

“You can call her. All you have to do is press star sixty-nine, and you can get it.”

Frannie realized he was right. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Because she’d been too upset over the fact that there was even the tiniest of possibilities that the man spotted along the North Shore might be her ex-husband.

The woman who had phoned Alex was named Margaret, just as he’d said. She was also very nice and helpful, as he’d written on the slip of paper. Only, Frannie soon discovered that Alex hadn’t written those adjectives about the woman who’d phoned. They were the words Margaret had used to describe the man she’d seen at the North Shore.

As well as repeating what Alex had already told Frannie, the woman told her that this man didn’t seem like the type to abandon his kids. By the time the phone call ended, she had told Frannie enough about the man’s personality to convince her it couldn’t have been Dennis.

Frannie knew her ex-husband would have no patience for fishing or for helping a couple of senior citizens change a flat tire on their car—which is what the man had done for Margaret and her husband.

“Are we going to go there?” Alex asked as soon as she’d hung up the phone.

Frannie wanted to again say, “It’s not him,” but she stifled the words. “I’m going to call Lois and see what she thinks.”

Alex groaned. “Do you have to?”

“Yes.” Frannie dialed her sister’s number. As soon as she heard the voice-mail recording, she remembered that her sister was out of town for the weekend. “I forgot. She’s in Chicago and won’t be home until Tuesday.”

“What does that mean? That we have to wait for her to get back before we can do anything?” he asked, obviously hoping that the answer to his question wasn’t yes.

“There’s no point in driving all the way to the North Shore without first investigating whether the possibility exists that it is your father,” Frannie answered patiently. “If—and I say if—there’s a chance it is your father, then it’s up to the authorities to investigate, not us.”

“You mean we’re not going to go?”

Frannie tried not to let the devastation on his face tug on her emotions. It wasn’t easy.

“I’m sorry, but that’s my final word on the subject. We wait until we talk to Auntie Lois before we do anything,” she said firmly.

“Do what?” Emma asked as she entered the kitchen, backpack slung over her shoulder.

“It’s none of your business,” Alex said, stomping out of the room.

“What’s wrong with him? Aren’t we going to the arts festival?” Emma asked.

“Yes, we’re going. Just give me a few minutes,” Frannie replied. “Watch Luke for me, will you?”

Frannie found Alex in his room, lying on his stomach on his bed, his elbows supporting him as he played a video game.

“I know you’re disappointed, Alex, but you don’t need to take it out on Emma.” Her words were met with silence. “Get your stuff together and we’ll go to the arts festival at the park.”

“I don’t want to go,” he grumbled.

Frannie put her hands on her hips. “You wanted to earlier this morning.”

“I changed my mind.”

Frannie could see the stubborn set to his shoulders. If there was one thing she knew about Alex, it was that when he made up his mind about something, he didn’t change it. “Alex, I can’t leave you home alone.”

He sat up then and said, “I’m ten, not two. I’ll keep the door locked and won’t let anybody in. Satisfied?”

She wasn’t. She knew that some parents did leave their kids home alone for short periods of time, but she wasn’t one of them. She didn’t doubt that Alex would be fine on his own for a couple of hours, yet she wasn’t ready to set a precedent. If she left him today, then he’d want to stay home alone the next time she had to go somewhere that was of no interest to him.

“Come on, Mom. I’m almost eleven,” he pleaded. “I’m responsible. Didn’t I prove that to you that time you had the flu and I had to take care of Luke because you couldn’t get out of bed?”

“But I was still in the house.”

“You couldn’t even lift your head off the pillow,” he reminded her. “I did a good job taking care of everything. Even you said so. Please, let me try it just once,” he pleaded. “I won’t answer the door, and if the phone rings I won’t say you’re not here. I’ll say you can’t come to the phone, like I’m supposed to do.”

Frannie could feel her resolve weakening. She knew Alex wouldn’t enjoy the arts festival as much as Emma and Luke would. And then there was that look of devastation on his face when she’d told him they weren’t going to go looking for his father. It tugged at her heart in a way that made her fall back on emotion rather than logic.

“Please, Mom?” he begged. “Don’t make me go with you.”

The park was just at the end of the block, and if Alex did have a problem he could call on any one of the neighbors. Finally Frannie caved in. “All right, you can stay home.”

It was a decision that left her feeling uneasy, however, as she wandered later through the various exhibits. It was also the reason why, despite Luke and Emma’s groans of protest, she packed up their things as soon as they’d finished lunch.

A feeling of relief washed over her as she returned home and saw that the house looked exactly as it had when they’d left. The front door was still shut, the drapes closed, the yard empty of kids. Using her key, she let herself in and called out, “Alex, we’re home.”

When there was no answer, she repeated the call. Then Emma handed her a piece of paper. “I found this on the kitchen table.”

Frannie read the note written in her son’s handwriting: “Mom, I’m going to look for Dad. I’m taking the bus. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Alex.”