Abby blinked back stingingly hot tears. Try to speak normally? Sams life had changed dramatically today. Hers, too. From now on, their roles would be totally different. Never again would she be Aunt Abby, a person to whom Sam and his brothers could look to get them off the hook with their folks. She, who never raised her voice to the boys and rarely meted out discipline except occasionally on the school playground, would be a parent. Starting tomorrow. Large tears leaked from her eyes and dripped on Sams pristine sheets.
Get better, guy, she muttered. She did her utmost to keep her voice from sounding panicky. Ill be back in the morning, and Ill bring Raggedy Andy, she promised softly. Each of the children slept with a favorite toy. Sams was a rag doll Blair had made for his first birthday. Andy had undergone several surgical procedures himself. Maybe Sam would be comforted by that. Because the older of the two nurses kept eyeing her watch and then Abby, she took it as a hint to leave. Smoothing Sams mop of carrot-red curls, she dropped a kiss on the tip of his freckled nose. Abby had always been partial to this child. She understood firsthand the teasing hed one day endure at the hands of schoolmates. Of her brothers five children, only Sam had inherited Grandfather Drummonds fiery Scots hair. The others all had strawberry-blond shades, and few freckles. Sam and Abbykindred spirits.
With a last look at her broken nephew, Abby scrubbed at her cheeks and escaped from the room.
The nurse whod promised to help Abby contact the funeral home appeared in her peripheral vision. I have a representative from Taylors on the line in the conference room. Come. Ill wait outside until youve finished making arrangements.
Thank youwhats your name? I feel I should call you something.
The woman frowned at the left side of her uniform. Drat. I lost another name tag. I lose one a month. It should say Olivia Warren here. Abbys helpful companion tapped a torn flap near her left shoulder.
Olivia? Oh, youre the one who phoned me. I remember the name.
I made a lot of calls. Too many. Pursing her lips, the nurse continued to stroke the spot where she was missing her name badge.
Hmm. Perhaps you should take your uniforms to one of those firms that embroider names on kids ball shirts. Part of Abby couldnt conceive how she could carry on such a mundane conversation in the midst of tragedy. On the other hand, discussing inconsequential things gave her an excuse not to face the task she needed to face.
I never thought of having my name stitched on. Thats a great idea.
Sports King in West Seattle does it on site. Our elementary school gives them a lot of business, Abby said. I teach second grade, and I coach sixth-grade girls soccer. It dawned on Abby, as she entered the conference room and saw the phone lying on the table, that, too, would probably change in the coming months. She knew how much time Blair spent shuffling the boys to soccer, baseball, karate and what-have-you. She deliberately blanked from her mind the fact that Blairs full-time job had been taking care of the house, the menagerie, the boys andElliot.
Picking up the phone with a damp hand, she said in a shaky voice, This is Abigail Drummond. She gave her address and mentioned that Taylors had handled her parents funeral. I need to arrange for a double, ah, burial. No. Idont know if they had lots at Shady Glen. I understand you have to ask, but this is verydifficult for me. Im calling to arrange for my brother and his wife. Apart from their asking if Id serve as guardian to their sons, Im afraid we never discussed the details of theiruhwishes. I thoughtwe all thought we were planning for a remote possibility. Abbys voice faded.
Uh, huh. Now I see the need, but thensirmust I provide this information tonight? Oh, fine. I dont mean to be difficult, but She burst into tears. Sorry. She blotted her eyes on her jacket sleeve. If you could work with the officials at Mercy General, Ill come in tomorrow and fill out the papers and give you a check.
Abby fumbled the receiver as she attempted to hang it up. She looked through her tears as Olivia Warren popped into the room.
Hey, are you okay? Taylors didnt give you a hard time or anything, did they?
I expected this to be rough, Olivia, Abby said around muffled sniffles. I had no idea how bad. Taylors were nice enough. Im just so horribly ill prepared.
Are you related to Dr. Galloway? the woman asked as they left the room and started down the hall.
No. What made you ask?
My friend said she saw you come out of the chapel with Dr. Kirks son. She said he had an arm around you.
Were Abby hesitated. Shed started to say, friends. But in view of their interrupted plans, she supposed they were more. Right now, she wished they were much more. Which was odd. Abby couldnt recall ever picturing herself married. If ever the vows of for better, for worse had meaning, this would be it.
Ben and I met last year. I had one of his nieces in my class. Weve dated. So, of course, he was my first thought when I learned Sam needed an orthopedic surgeon.
I see. You taught Bens niece? Then I guess you must know he lost his sister today.
What? No. No, I didnt know anything of the kind. Abby stumbled over nothing on the tiled floor. Surely you misunderstood. Isaw Ben. We spoke. He talked with his father. Abby waved a hand feebly.
Yes, Olivia said with eyes gone dark. I probably shouldnt have mentioned it, but apparently Dr. Ben and Dr. Kirk had a difference of opinion over who should look after the little girls.
Going back over a scene shed witnessed from afar, Abby pictured it from a new perspective. From Bens. They shared the same predicament, and her heart ached for him. For him and for Marlos sweet, sweet daughters. Was there no end to the horror of this earthquake? Abby wondered how she had tears left to cry.
She went to Rainas to get her nephews, then to her own town house and finally the boys home. Both places were cluttered with various things, shaken from shelves and walls and cupboards.
She learned that tears were natures release valve, and over the next weeks she and the boys shed them freely, often in shared moments with friends and neighbors, many of whom suffered, too.
CHAPTER FOUR
SIX WEEKS AFTER the quake, the city began to restore order and set about rebuilding, a process the engineers expected to take a year or more.
Ben Galloway, in a slow moment at the clinic, studied a book on how to braid hair. Hed assumed the housekeeper-cook hed hired after laying his sister to rest would be equipped to handle his nieces girlie requirements. But after watching normally good-tempered Erin dissolve into tears for the tenth morning in a row over messy braids, Ben was at his wits end. Hence the book. About the only thing in his life he hadnt altered or dispensed with to accommodate the girls had been his morning stop on his way to the clinic at a bookstore-coffee house.
Today, while the attendant brewed his hard-hitting double espresso, it struck him that a man with the manual dexterity to sew up cuts on little people surely ought to be able to braid hair. But he hadnt stopped with the braid book. Before he got out of the store, hed purchased a hundred dollars worth of current information on raising girls. Books promising confident, happy girls. Happy was what his formerly sweet niece was not. Erin had turned into a brat. Ben couldnt help thinking it was partly his fault. In spite of coauthoring a pamphlet on discipline, he was obviously missing the mark when it came to girls.