Part 21 (1/2)

She sighed. She had to know I was right.

”Shannon.” I tightened my hand on her wrist. ”I've never said anything like this to you before, honey, but if you don't tell your mother, I'm going to have to.”

She looked at me in disbelief. ”All right, I'll tell her,” she said. ”Just not, like, tonight.”

”You have a week,” I said.

”All right.”

We turned back to the TV and Shannon clicked the remote until she found a station with old black-and-white reruns. I didn't know what show we were watching, but it didn't matter. My niece moved closer to me on the sofa and leaned her head against my shoulder. I put my arm around her and felt my spirit fill to overflowing with love for her.

”Would you be my labor coach?” she asked.

I was touched, but I knew my answer. ”No,” I said. ”I'm not labor coach material.You know who to ask.”

She let out a long breath. ”I'm scared, Lucy,” she said.

I tightened my arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. ”Of giving birth or of telling your mother?” I asked.

”Of the rest of my life,” she said.

CHAPTER 24.

Julie.

1962.

Once upon a time, I was a hero.

On a stifling hot day during the last week of July, Lucy and I were lying on our stomachs at the Baby Beach, reading while our mother swam in the bay and Isabel hung out near the lifeguard stand with her friends. Suddenly, Lucy scrambled into a sitting position.

”Something's wrong,” she said. Lucy had an uncanny way of knowing when anything out of the ordinary was occurring.

”You're imagining things,” I said, but then I realized she was right. There'd been a s.h.i.+ft in the activity on the beach. I could still hear the music from the transistor radios, but the laughter and talking had changed to whispers and shouts. Something was definitely going on.

I sat up, too, and noticed a few women standing at the water's edge, shading their eyes as they looked out at the bay, and it was a moment before I realized that my mother was one of them. I heard a woman's voice from somewhere behind me calling ”Donnie! Donnie!” I glanced toward the lifeguard stand and saw Ned standing on top of it, looking toward the deep water through his binoculars.

My mother started walking toward us.

”What's going on, Mom?” I asked, getting to my feet.

”Oh, not much,” she said, ”but I think we should go home now. It's so hot today.”

I could see right through her. Something bad had happened and she was trying to protect Lucy from knowing about it. I had no intention of leaving. I took off for the lifeguard stand at a run.

”Julie!” Mom called after me. ”Where are you going? We have to go home.”

”In a minute,” I called over my shoulder.

Ned was still on top of the stand, but now he was crouched down on his haunches talking to a woman. It looked like a private conversation, so I walked behind the stand to where the teenagers stood huddled in a ma.s.s. I tugged on Isabel's arm.

”What's going on?” I asked.

”A little boy is missing,” she said.

”What do you mean, he's missing?” I asked. ”In the water?”

”If I knew where he was, he wouldn't be missing,” Isabel said, and some of her friends laughed.

”A three-year-old boy disappeared from his parents' beach blanket,” Mitzi Caruso explained to me. ”He's got light blond hair and is wearing blue trunks.”

I looked around me at the beach. Nearly everyone was standing now, talking with one another, holding fast to their children. Women had their hands to their mouths, frown lines across their foreheads as they stared at the water. From where I stood, I searched the beach for a towheaded little boy and spotted several of them, but they all appeared to have at least one parent close by. I felt sad and I prayed that the little boy had not drowned. I had to do something to ease my feeling of helplessness.

”I'm going to check the playground,” I said, even though the teenagers were not paying much attention to me. I ran toward the swings, my mother's request to return to her and Lucy forgotten.

I began my search for clues in a methodical fas.h.i.+on, using my foot to mark off areas in the sand to examine. I found a man's watch almost immediately. It lay in the sand near one of the swings and had probably come off when a father had been pus.h.i.+ng his child. I found a playing card-the two of clubs-along with numerous Popsicle sticks. And then I found a clue that sent a chill up my spine: a small piece of blue cloth!

I ran back to the lifeguard stand just as Ned was climbing down the ladder.

”Ned!” I called as I neared him. ”Look what I found near the swings.” I held the piece of cloth out to him and he took it from my hand but didn't seem to know what to do with it. His face looked grim, his mouth a straight, tight line.

”It might be from the boy's trunks,” I said.

”Oh,” he said. ”No. His trunks are plaid, not solid.”He looked distracted as he handed the cloth back to me. ”But thanks for trying and for keeping your eyes open.” He started toward the parking lot at a run, and Isabel walked up to me, frowning.

”Don't bug him, Jules,” she said. Lifting her hair off her neck, she slipped a rubber band around it to form a sloppy ponytail. ”This is an emergency. There's no time to fool around.”

”I know it's an emergency,” I said, and I walked away from her, annoyed.

”Come on, Julie,” my mother called again. She was folding the blanket and I walked over to help her.

”I want to stay, Mom,” I said, taking the hem of the blanket in my hands.

”You'll only get in the way.”

”I won't,” I said. ”I promise.”

My mother took the folded blanket into her arms and looked around us. People were still huddled together in small groups, talking. Some of the adults were racing this way and that, searching for the boy, I guessed, although the beach was so small you could nearly see all of it from where we were standing. The only areas hidden from view were the patches of tall beach gra.s.s at either end of the sandy crescent, and I watched a couple of women disappear into them, calling, ”Donnnnneeeee! Donnnnneeeee!”

I heard sirens in the distance and looked toward the road. Ned and Isabel and a few other people stood in the parking lot, and Ned waved at the ambulance and the police car as they came into view.

”Please, Mommy.” Lucy grabbed our mother's arm. ”I want to go home. home.”

Lucy hated the sound of sirens. They must have reminded her of riding in the ambulance after the long-ago accident she'd been in with our mother.