Twenty-six

THE DAYS WERE A BLUR of confusion and if not for Kate and Bree, I wouldn’t be able to remember any of it.

Police. Doctors. Reporters. Some of this probably isn’t in the right order, but it’s what I remember.

Neither Kate nor I left Wendy. Bree slipped in and out to get us food and fresh clothes. Word spread that I was the one who called 911 and alerted the camp before the explosion and they cut me a little slack. I think they admitted me instead of treating and releasing so I could stay. I had college health insurance and didn’t really care if it didn’t cover everything. There was a second bed in Wendy’s room and we were told it was mine. I don’t remember if I ever slept in it.

Wendy and I were released on Tuesday. There was a storm brewing outside. Bree brought her car to the front entrance. A reporter pushed a microphone at us.

“Miss Martin, can you comment on the arrest of your father?”

“Was this a personal attack on you?” shouted another.

“Will you be pressing charges for enslavement?”

Wendy’s mouth fell open in terror and I caught her as she fainted.

“Get the fuck out of our way,” Kate growled at the reporters. That stuck in my memory. I’d never heard Kate so angry.

“Wait! That’s Tony Ames. Did you recognize the attacker?” someone called as I carried Wendy to Bree’s car and we got in. “Do you have a relationship with his daughter?”

“What the hell is going on?” I yelled at Bree when we got underway.

“It was just on the news,” Bree said. She was shaking tears out of her eyes so she could drive. Kate reached over to touch her. “They arrested Wendy’s father. Police went to tell him about Wendy and discovered he had suspicious burns on his hand and arm. They got search warrants and found evidence that he’d spray-painted the gas tanks in his garage.”

The son-of-a-bitch.

“They’re still asleep.— No.— I was so scared.— What would I do?— No. We’ll be there in two days.— I need you to hold me.— I don’t know if I can take this.”

It took me a minute to realize that Kate’s voice was coming from behind me as she whispered into the phone. That meant that the hand clutching mine and the skin against my side must belong to Wendy.

“I love you.— I can’t wait to see you.” Kate disconnected.

I looked up at her as she moved back into the bed and reached my hand toward her. I was feeling okay, though my face stung like hell. The salve the hospital had given us numbed the area slightly. The good thing about having been burned and using the treatment was that I could tell when Wendy was going to need more on her burns. She wouldn’t have told us.

“Kitten, I love you.”

“You break my heart, Tony. What if we’d lost you? Either of you?”

“It will be okay. We survived. Please don’t pull away, Kate. We need you. I love you.”

I think I got through to her. She slid up next to me and draped her leg across mine as she snuggled against my left side.

“I love you, Tony. I love you.”

From the other side, I felt Wendy squeeze my hand, almost painfully. I got her message.

Clarice went straight to work on Tuesday, commandeering my cell phone that was ringing non-stop and giving me a new, pay-as-you-go phone that let me stay in touch with my family. She met with our lawyer and they prepared a statement that satisfied the press hounds for a day. Some school official joined them. They said generally that we had no knowledge of the arrest or the involvement of Wendy’s father. Wendy and I were long-time friends and she was one of several models that I used in my paintings, referring reporters to the Rhapsody Suite. She affirmed that I had only discovered recently that Wendy was living at Tent City where I was one of the student security liaisons.

Clarice was brilliant. She deflected all the attention away from us individually and talked about how the students at SCU rallied to support the homeless and that several former residents had been moved into dormitories until their housing situation was resolved. She was able to turn the briefing over to the school official who completely rerouted the conversation away from Wendy or me.

“So how many sleeping spaces will we need?” Mom asked.

“Um ... well, Mom ... there’s a total of eleven of us coming when Sam gets there.” It had taken some convincing, but Sam had finally agreed to fly out Saturday and join us for Christmas.

“Tony Ames, you know very well what I’m asking,” Mom said. “We’ll put Jack and the boys in your room. You, Lissa, Melody, and I suppose Kate will share the guest room. I can put Bree, Wendy, and Lexi in the sewing room.”

“Mom ... I don’t think Wendy will sleep anywhere without either Kate or me next to her,” I said. Wendy hadn’t said much yet. I didn’t ask her to come to Omaha with us, I told her. She just nodded her head. I know that was against our principle of not ordering her around, but neither Kate nor I could leave her alone in Seattle. I wasn’t sure but what she’d hurt herself. She was overwhelmed by guilt.

“Well, it’s not fair to leave Bree with Lexi. Lexi gets the sewing room and you’ll have to figure out how to sleep onetwothree ... six in the guest room. That’s your problem. Sam can have the den.”

“Mom?”

“If Beth wants to stay over...”

“Mom!”

“Yes, Tony.”

“I love you.”

Sam picked up my keys from Bree and went to the hospital parking lot to get my car. He brought it to the house at midnight on Wednesday and took Wendy, Kate, Bree, and me to the airport. We checked in early and went through security where reporters couldn’t follow. Lissa had a membership in one of the airline member clubs and arranged for us to be in a comfortable place for a few hours. We just huddled together in a corner and slept.

Jack and the boys checked in about eight in the morning. Our plane took off at ten.

I wasn’t sure yet where we’d all fit, but Mom and Dad insisted they were prepared for us. No matter how old you get, or how much responsibility you have, sometimes you just need parents to take care of you.

Jack rented a fifteen-passenger van and signed Lexi and Lissa as drivers. You know what really sucks? None of the rest of us in the family is old enough to rent a car or be a designated driver. Well, Bree and Wendy could, but it would cost a lot extra.

Our reunion with Melody and Lissa was almost desperate. Kate and I grabbed them and held them so hard we were crushed together and they held us just as tightly. When we looked around, the boys were clinging to Melody’s and Lissa’s legs and Lexi was hugging Jack. We opened our embrace wide enough to bring Bree and Wendy into it.

Yeah, and there wasn’t a dry eye, but you expected that.

The boys went absolutely wild when we went outside. It was snowing, adding to the inch or so that was on the ground.

I rode shotgun as Jack drove so I could give him directions. I looked back at the family behind me. Melody and Bree rode on either side of Drew’s car seat in the first row. Lissa and Lexi sat on either side of Damon’s car seat in the second row. Kate and Wendy sat together in the fourth row. We had the last row of seats and the limited space behind it packed with our luggage. Lexi, Lissa, and Melody had brought huge bags of presents with them and the boys kept trying to guess what was in them. The van looked like a bus when it pulled up, but now that it was full, it didn’t seem so big.