Part 6 (1/2)
”Here it is,” she said, almost begrudgingly.
”Thank you. And thanks for agreeing to meet with me,” I said, reaching for a cup and saucer after it became clear she wasn't going to serve me. I raised the cup to my mouth, ready to take my first sip.
”This isn't a tea party. I'm a busy woman, Miss Ashe. I expect you'll be brief,” she started in as I innocently blew on the tea.
”Of course,” I said, setting my cup down, a little miffed. First, she had just about demanded I take the tea. Then, she had practically ordered me not to drink it.
”You agreed to talk with me for an hour. I'll respect that,” I said, wondering how I'd gotten her to agree to anything. Obviously, she resented my intrusion in her staid life.
I'd been up front with Benjamin Greaves about taping our conversation. I'd intended to be honest with Marie Kenwood, too, but seeing how cantankerous she was, I opted for deception. I reached into my pocket, turned on the tiny tape recorder and pulled out a Kleenex. I wiped my dry nose as the older woman again looked at her watch and deliberately avoided my gaze.
Ignoring my tea, I relaxed back into the couch, s.h.i.+fted my body so that it was facing her, flashed my brightest smile and said, ”So tell me about Destiny, Mrs. Kenwood.”
For the first time, she looked directly at me.
”Are your eyegla.s.ses purple and red?” she asked as she squinted and leaned forward for a better look.
”Yes,” I said wearily, preparing for a lecture.
”I like colorful things,” she said, totally surprising me.
Well, that was all the encouragement I needed. Her cold veneer had slipped for an instant. Shamelessly, I took full advantage of the moment.
”You must. The artwork on your walls is beautiful,” I said, lying without a trace of guilt.
”Oh, those, they're nothing. Just a little something I did in my painting cla.s.s.” She smiled for the first time.
”You painted them?” I feigned surprise.
”I certainly did.”
”You're quite talented. I especially like the one of the sea. The colors are extraordinary.”
That must have been enough flattery for her because she changed the subject.
”So you want to know about Destiny, eh? After all these years, you come into my life to ask me about Destiny?” She pushed her eyegla.s.ses up her nose.
”Er, yes.” I felt so timid around her.
”Before you called, young lady, I hadn't heard that name for some time. After my son Peter died, after the little one left, I forbade people to utter their names.”
”I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Kenwood,” I said, meaning the loss of her son.
”I missed her every day, you know. No one ever thought about that when they took her away,” she said with more than a trace of bitterness.
”Why didn't you ever see her?”
'The Sisters wouldn't allow it. They found her a new family, and they came to get her. It was best for her, they said, best for the child.”
”Were the two of you close?”
”And how! I was her Nana a” that was what she called me. Barbara was forever trying to get her to call me Grandma Kenwood, but she never would,” the older woman said with a hint of triumph. ”She was such a beautiful child,” she added, almost as an afterthought.
”She's quite beautiful now,” I said softly, but I don't think she heard me.
”She was never more beautiful than the night her father died. We were together, you know. The kids had dropped her off earlier in the evening. What a grand evening that was.”
I wasn't sure I'd heard her right.
”Pardon me?”
”Oh yes,” she said, startled by my voice. ”It was a grand evening. We made sugar cookies and paper dolls. Destiny took a bubble bath. We overflowed the tub with bubbles and laughed at our silliness. I tucked her into bed. She was so tired a” as only the young can get. I think she was asleep before her head hit the pillow. I kissed her forehead and turned out the light.” All of this Marie Kenwood said, as if reciting a poem.
'That was our last happy time,” she continued. ”I was still up, reading, when the phone call came. My boy was dead.”
She pulled a tissue out of her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes.
”They didn't tell me then, on that awful night, that I'd lose Destiny, too, but I knew it.” She paused. ”I knew they'd take her away from me.”
”That night, did you tell Destiny her parents had, ahm, pa.s.sed away?”
”Dead is the word, young lady. They weren't pa.s.sed away. They were dead,” she said, the fatigue evident in her voice. ”Someone had to do it, so yes, I told Destiny, but not that night. For six and a half hours, I cried in the dark. I thought the sun would never come up again. When it did, I told her.”
”What did you tell her?”
”Oh, my, I can hardly remember. I tried to compose myself before I woke her. No sense letting her see her Nana cry. If I recall correctly, I told her that her parents were in heaven with Baby Jesus. That made her happy. Then I told her the truth, that she wouldn't be seeing them anymore. At that, she started crying... and I started crying again, too, a little.”
”I couldn't help myself,” she added, as if she owed me an explanation. ”I remember, she patted me on the head and said, 'It's okay, Nana.' ”
”Did you ever think of being Destiny's guardian?”
”Of course, I did,” she said spiritedly. ”But do you think they'd award custody to a 57-year-old widow with diabetes just because it made the most sense? Of course not! I was all alone. My husband, Rudy, had died of cancer the year before. Unfit, the nuns told me. As if they knew what was best for my Destiny.”
”Weren't there any other family members who could have taken custody?”
”I was her only family on Peter's side. He was our only child. On Barbara's side, there was her parents and a sister, but they lived back East and hadn't seen the child but once or twice. They didn't care a whit about her,” she said with disgust.
”Barbara wasn't close to her family?”
”No, siree. They cut her off when she married our Peter. They saw her a few times after the child was born, but that was it. They never even came to the funeral. Imagine that a” wouldn't come to Colorado to bury their own daughter.”
”Why didn't they like Peter?”
”He wasn't rich enough for the likes of them. They wanted Barbara to marry some society boy. She went against them when she fell in love with Peter. Rudy always said she was better off not talking to them, but I don't think it's natural when parents don't have relations with their children.”
”Were Barbara and Peter in love?”