Girl in the Shadows

  "What now?"

  "We've got to get her to go to a doctor. What do you think happened to her?"

  He thought a moment. "Probably a small cerebral sfroke. My father started having those before his heart attack."

  "Stroke? Oh no. Tyler."

  "Look, it's none of my business," he said. "I told you my mother thinks I'm too involved with this family as it is. I can't go telling Mrs. Westington what she should and shouldn't do about her own health. She's certainly old enough to know what she should do."

  "That's cruel. Tyler. I can't believe you're saying these things. You certainly didn't talk this way last night. What's happened to you?"

  "I don't have time for this sort of hysteria. April. I've got to finish up with Echo. She needs to master a few more things before she enters the school and is placed in the correct grade level."

  "This sort of hysteria? What are you talking about? Mrs. Westington could die!"

  "Of course shell die. We'll all die someday." he said, and returned to the desk. Echo was leaning over her work and didn't watch us talking. I glared at him a moment, but he didn't look back at me. I returned to the kitchen. I don't need his help. I thought. I know what has to be done.

  Mrs. Westington was sitting back with her eyes closed. "You've got to go to your doctor

  immediately." I said firmly. She opened her eyes and started to protest.

  "Don't argue. Mrs. Westington, If you don't take care of yourself. Echo will be at the mercy of Rhona. You said so yourself. And you've preached to me many times about not putting my head in the sand. That's exactly what you're doing right now. Well?"

  She nodded. "You're right, of course. Let's just give them lunch. I'll call my doctor."

  "Let's do it right now," I insisted. "They can wait a few more minutes for lunch."

  She smiled at me. "You're better than a conscience. All right. His name and number is in the file by the phone under B for Battie."

  I quickly looked it up and called before she could come up with any other reason for delaying it. When the receptionist answered. I told her I was calling for Mrs. Westington, who had had a serious dizzy spell and fainted. Even though Mrs. Westington would deny it. I told the receptionist she was in some pain as well. She wanted me to take her to the hospital emergency room. When I mentioned that. Mrs. Westing-ton shook her head so vehemently. I thought she would fall into another faint.

  "No, please." I pleaded. "She's okay at the moment. We just want her examined and she'll be more comfortable with the doctor."

  The receptionist squeezed us into an afternoon appointment between two-thirty and three. We had to tell Echo, of course, but to ease her fears. Mrs. Westington deliberately did more than she should at lunch. The entire time Tyler behaved the way he had when I first met him. He was aloof. disinterested, and only involved with Echo and her lessons. Watchinghim, you'd think nothing at all ever happened between us since that first day we had met and nothing had happened to Mrs. Westington right before his eyes.

  "Since you're leaving for the doctor and you won't be back before the lesson normally ends," he told Mrs. Westington. "I'll cut today's work short. I'm sure you'll want to bring Echo along and not leave her here."

  "Yes," Mrs. Westington told him. "That's true. although Trevor might be back by then." She thought a moment. "But I guess we should bring the child."

  After I helped clear the table and cleaned the dishes and silverware to be placed in the dishwasher. I put the leftovers away and then went out to the winery because I saw the truck parked in front and realized Trevor had finally returned. He was busy replacing a small electric pump on one of his machines when I found him.

  "Mrs. Westington fainted," I blurted. "'She's all right now. but I'm taking her to her doctor in about an hour. She's still dizzy and I know she's having some pain."

  He put his tools down and stood. "'Something happened with Rhona?"

  "She demanded money. There was a big argument," I said. "Mrs. Westington gave them five thousand dollars and they left, but they'll be back."

  "I knew it. A bird flew in here this morning. Not a good sign, not good," he said, shaking his head.

  "Tyler thinks she might have had a slight stroke."

  "Very likely, very likely. She needs to do less, have less to worry about. too."

  "She's agreed to place Echo in the special school. I'm going to help her with that and with the things she wants to do with her lawyer,

  "That's good. I guess it was a lucky thing, your showing up here,' he said, nodding at me.

  "I'm not so sure of that, Trevor. The jury's still out on that one."

  He smiled. "I'll clean up and come along."

  "I'm sure that will make her angry. She'll say we're making too much of it and she might not go."

  "Yeah, that's her, all right. You picked up on stuff fast. Okay, so if she wants me along, I'm going. You let me know."

  "I will," I said.

  He nodded and returned to his pump.

  When I mentioned he was back and maybe we should bring him along. Mrs. Westington had the reaction I expected.

  "You make a big thing of this and it becomes a big thing," she said. "The child's terrified enough. We're just taking a ride to my doctor's office."

  "Okay," I agreed quickly.

  Tyler poked his head in the living room doorway and wished her good luck with the doctor.

  "I'll call later about tomorrow," he said, which sounded ominous to me.

  Mrs. Westington thanked him. He avoided my eyes and left without saying good-bye to me. Mrs. Westington noticed, but she said nothing about it. A short while later, the three of us tot into her station wagon and I drove us to Healdsburg, where her doctor's office was located.

  Despite how often we reassured Echo, she still sat in the car like someone frozen, her eyes revealing the panic in her heart. Mrs. Westington had been a spine of strength for her family. She had always been independent and dependable. Living so closely with her and being so dependent upon her had created a lifeline between Echo and her grandmother. I had come here feeling so sorry for myself and in a short time found myself feeling sorrier for them. It wasn't that discovering someone worse off than you made you feel any better: it just kept you from bemoaning your own troubles and fate.

  We were fortunate in that we didn't have to wait long for Mrs. Westington to be seen by the doctor, despite his crowded patient schedule. She introduced me as her houseguest. He was Echo's doctor, too. and I could see she liked him very much. He had a good bedside manner about him. Mrs, Westington wouldn't permit me to go into the examination room with her. but I managed to tell the doctor about her fainting spell and how pale she had been. I was sure he would ask her if anything had disturbed her recently, but I was just as confident she wouldn't tell him anything. She was too proud a woman to reveal her personal problems to anyone, even her own doctor.

  I was surprised when he asked the nurse to have me step into the examination room a little while later. I told Echo to wait in the lobby and continue reading magazines.

  "Mrs. Westington speaks very highly of you," Doctor Battie began. "She says you're quite the mature and responsible younglady."

  I looked at her. surprised. I had thought her opinion of me had gone dawn since my secret rendezvous with Tyler in the motor home,

  "Never mind all that," she said.

  "I called you in here to help me convince her that she should follow my orders."

  "What are they?" I asked.

  "She has to go to the hospital. I'm alarmed by her blood pressure and I want to do some other tests. I'm going to miss something here if you don't go. Loretta." he told her.

  "I can't do that." she said.

  "If you don't, your granddaughter could very well lose her grandmother. How would you like that?"

  "You're a terrible alarmist and blackmailer. Doctor Battie," she told him.

  He laughed. "Look. I can't prescribe the right medications for you or medical services if I don't kno
w exactly what's happening, now can I? You're being unfair to me, Loretta. You're not letting me do my job properly and that will make me look bad. You want to hurt my reputation, my livelihood, my family?"

  "Oh, stop it," she said. She looked away and then she turned to me. She was obviously surprised by her own physical weakness and finally a little frightened, "I'll go if you promise and swear you will not leave the house until I return. You will not let anything or anyone drive you away and you will look after Echo."

  "I promise," I said quickly.

  "Of course, the girl's going to be terrified. There hasn't been a day in her life that I wasn't there for her."

  "We'll make her understand," Doctor Battie said.

  As it turned out, he was an expert in signing. too. We brought Echo into the room and he explained it all carefully to her, reassuring her. When he asked her if it was all right to have her grandmother go to the hospital, she nodded enthusiastically.

  "All right. I see I'm outnumbered here," Mrs. Westington said. "I'll go tomorrow,"

  "No, you'll go right now. directly," Doctor Battie said. "Whatever you need from home can be brought to you later, The quicker you get this started, the quicker it will be over. Loretta."

  "Did you ever see such a man?" she asked me. "Are you all right with it?"

  "Yes, of course. I am. and Trevor's there to help as well."

  "When he doesn't have his nose in a clump of grapes."

  "You still producing that Chardonnay?" Doctor Battie asked her.

  "Not me. That foolish man I have working for me stubbornly continues."

  Doctor Battie laughed and then pulled me out of the examination room and explained where I was to take Mrs. Westington. He said he would make the calls and have everything underway.

  "Don't let her talk you out of it at the last moment," he warned.

  "She can do that and she's dangerously close to having a serious stroke. I'm afraid," he said.

  It brought tears to my eyes. "I won't." I promised.

  All the way to the hospital, she questioned the wisdom of what we were doing. "Leaving you alone there. I don't know. I don't know. I'm sure it's a mistake."

  "We'll be fine. I'm not going to let anyone drive me out. I promise."

  "You call me if there is even the slightest bit of trouble with those two," she said. "I won't go in unless you make that a promise."

  "I will."

  "I can tell when someone lies to me. I can smell it," she said.

  "I will," I insisted, even though I wouldn't unless it was the last possible resort.

  She looked at me askance and then smiled to herself. When we arrived at the hospital, there were attendants and a nurse waiting just as the doctor had promised. Of course, she thought they were making things worst, creating a bigger commotion than was necessary.

  Very quickly she was behind a curtain, dressed in a hospital gown, and hooked up to machinery that would give the doctor the information he wanted. The sight of her in a hospital bed was hard for me and absolutely earth-shattering for Echo. The gown and the medical apparatus diminished her. She looked tiny and far more fragile outside of her own home, where she ruled like a queen.

  "Come here," she told me, and drew me closer to the bed. "When you get back to the house. I want you to go directly to my bedroom. In my closet on the floor you'll see a brown wooden box. It has a tiny lock on it that is far from strong enough to keep Rhona or that Skeeter out of it, and inside I have some valuable jewelry and some money. Actually, a lot of money. Take it and ask Trevor to hide it somewhere for me. Be sure Rhona doesn't see it."

  "I will," I said.

  "Be sure," she emphasized.

  The nurses began to surround us. so I told Echo to kiss her good-bye. I promised to bring her back after dinner.

  "Wait," Mrs. Westington said. "I have a stew in a container in the freezer. You just have to defrost it. Echo likes the creamy corn with it and there's some apple pie left over and fresh bread in the pantry. When you heat the stew, don't make the fire too high because--"

  "We'll be all right. Mrs. Westington. Don't worry. I cooked for my uncle for a long time and helped my mother, too, for years."

  "Good. Good," she said. "Confound this getting old!" she cried at the nurses, as if they were somehow responsible.

  I smiled at them. They were in for it. I thought, and guided Echo out of the room, to the elevator and out of the building. I was afraid Rhona and Skeeter would be back before we got home, but they weren't. Trevor came running out of the winery to greet us when he saw Mrs. Westington wasn't with us.

  "She's in the hospital," I told him quickly, and explained it all.

  "Well, that's best, and good for you for making sure she did the right thing for herself. She's the last one she thinks about these days."

  I then told him about the wooden box and went into the house quickly to find it and get it to him.

  And I didn't do it a moment too soon. Right after the handover, Rhona and Skeeter's van appeared in the driveway. I went back inside and told Echo she could help me with dinner preparations. At least that would keep her mind off things, I hoped.

  Skeeter and Rhona came bursting into the house, laughing as usual and sounding a little high on something. They stopped first in the living room to look for Mrs. Westington and then appeared in the kitchen doorway.

  "Well, look at our little cook working away. Where's my mother?" Rhona demanded,

  I paused and turned slowly, "Your mother had a bad dizzy spell. I took her to the doctor and he wanted her to go to the hospital for some tests. That's where she is now."

  "My mother's in the hospital?"

  "After dinner. I'm bringing her some of her personal things," I added, and returned to the dinner preparations.

  Echo was signing at her. but Rhona ignored her completely. "What happened exactly?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen.

  "I told you. A dizzy spell."

  She exchanged a look with Skeeter, who raised his eyebrows. The news appeared to sober them both quickly.

  "Well now, it looks like things are going to change around here," Rhona said. She looked at Echo, who was still signing her concern for her

  grandmother. "Stop that. You're being annoying." Rhona told her.

  "How can you yell at her like that? She's just afraid for her grandmother. She wants you to comfort her, to--"

  "Don't tell me how to talk to my own daughter. What nerve! I want you out of this house tomorrow. Tomorrow, understand? Do you?" she screamed.

  "No one's going anywhere unless Mrs. Westington tells them so," I heard.

  And so did Rhona and Skeeter. They both turned to Trevor, who had entered the house.

  "We don't want to do anything that will upset her anymore than she is, now do we?" he added, walking toward Rhona and Skeeter.

  Rhona stared at him and then she smiled coldly. "Of course not," she said. She turned back to me. "Once someone sees she can't get anymore out of my mother, she'll probably hightail it out of here anyway." She stepped closer and looked at the food. "I imagine my mother prepared all that before she got sick."

  "Yes, she did." I said.

  "Good. Call us when dinner is ready. We're both ravishingly hungry, aren't we. Skeeter?"

  "Ravishingly," he said, and they laughed again.

  She glared at me one more time and then, smiling like a cat who had her prey trapped, shifted her eyes to Skeeter. He nodded and they left the kitchen and went upstairs, their laughter rolling back behind them.

  She didn't notice or care that Echo was crying.

  10 Mother's Little Helper

  .

  "Don't you worry," Trevor said after they left. "I ain't canna let her take over here. Things are different from the way they was years ago. She doesn't have her father around to take her side. Don't let her frighten you or discourage you either."

  "I won't. I made a promise to Mrs. Westington that I wouldn't leave before she returned and I intend to keep it," I said.
/>
  "Good. Food does smell good. That woman can cook." he said, looking over my shoulder,

  "Just give me another fifteen minutes or so and I'll have it all ready. Trevor."

  "I'll be back," he said. smiling. Then he looked at the door and said, "You come to me if she causes any trouble at all."

  "I will."

  I turned my attention to Echo and tried to cheer her up. She was caught like a leaf in the wind, spinning and turning over with confusion. I had her set the table. I wasn't looking forward to eating with Skeeter and Rhona. but I didn't see any way out of it, and for the time being it was better to avoid conflict as much as possible.

  "Where's our dinner?" Rhona shouted from the top of the stairway. "I told you we were hungry. What are you doing down there?"

  I started to bring everything to the dining room. "Everything's ready. You can come down to the table," I replied.

  "That's better," she said. "If you're going to be my mother's little helper, than you're my little helper, too, while you're here freeloading. C'mon. Skeeter," she called, and the two of them came down the stairway and walked into the dining room.

  Trevor showed up immediately afterward, having changed his shirt and brushed his hair.

  "Well, look how fancy the help are. Skeeter," Rhona said. "Puts us to shame."

  "Sure does," Skeeter said.

  They dug right into the food.

  "Echo says grace first," I told them. "How can she do that?" Rhona asked.

  "Why don't you watch and see." Trevor told her, and nodded at Echo.

  They paused and looked at Echo. I nodded at her, too, and she began her signing. thanking God for our blessings,

  "What the hell is she saying? She could be saying she wants a new dress or something for all we know."

  "I thought Skeeter could read sign language."

  "A little," he said. "but I'm sorta rusty."

  "Didn't you ever know how to use it?" I asked Rhona.

  "No," she said. "I never had the time for that. My mother knew enough for the both of us anyway."

  "Then maybe you should learn it now if you're going to stay here," I told Rhona. "I have the book for you and--"