Chapter 40: Alternate Route Ahead

During my drive back home, I began to wonder just why I’d suddenly decided to trust Lucille with the twins’ care. After a lot of thought, I realized that my trust began to build toward the end of our discussion the night before, when she’d said she still wanted to talk to me at some other time. It seemed she still wanted to be friendly even after I’d spent all that time putting her and her family down. On top of that, she’d told me that she left home rather than put up with her father’s pushy ways – that had to count for something.

I think part of my trust stemmed from the simple fact that she seemed to have compassion for the less fortunate and had worked hard to become a nurse. Although I’d met some tough nurses I had yet to meet one who hated young women, or one who wouldn’t help someone else who was in trouble.

That’s when I sighed deeply, realizing that more that anything, I’d been following a hunch that was based on some fairly weak arguments, but I was hoping Lucille wasn’t like her father.

I was a bit worried about leaving the girls with her, but I didn’t think I could do much else. When I’d suggested to Mom that I might take the girls to hide out with Leila MacArthur, the dog breeder, I really hadn’t been thinking too well. I didn’t know Miss MacArthur well enough to judge her reaction to a request like that and I certainly didn’t know her well enough to trust her to hide the twins. Having the girls that close to home would have been another problem. It would have been too easy for someone to make a mistake and accidentaly expose where they were hiding.

More than anything else though, my biggest worry was the fact that what I was doing was actually illegal, even if I was convinced that it was the right thing to do. I was worried about saying or doing the wrong thing and getting everyone into trouble. The worst part was going to be walking into the police station and talking to them, but I thought that was essential. I had to be certain that I told the cops that the girls had been afraid that they were going to be shipped off to become part of some older guy’s harem. As I thought about it, I thought that Mom might even have to tell the police about the call she’d gotten from Mrs. McAdam about sending the girls away before they were ‘ruined’ in some way.

Just in case, I thought I should call Mom and warn her about that and at the same time I could find out if she’d heard anything more about the McAdams. With that in mind, I pulled off at the next service station on the highway even though it wasn’t that far from our town. I tried calling Mom and got no answer although I let the phone ring several times. Then I tried calling Aunt Alice, but got no answer there either. That didn’t sit right with me. Something had to be wrong when no one answered the phone on either farm. It worried me.

I hopped into my car and drove toward home as quickly as I could, but decided that I’d make one last call from town before driving out to the farm. I pulled up to the pumps at Frank Dolens’ service station and asked Jerry if I could use their phone to call home.

“Don’t even bother trying,” he advised me instantly. “There was an accident out there just a while ago. The police, the fire truck and the ambulance went out that way not ten minutes ago, and Billy just left with the tow truck, so it’s a traffic accident of some sort. Dad might have a clue what’s going on, but since there’s no phone service out that way now, I guess someone drove a car into a phone pole or something. How come you didn’t see it on your way into town?”

“Probably because I just drove home from Calgary,” I shrugged. “Your cousin, Carissa, Sandy McAdam and Jackie McAdam, Sandy’s cousin, are in the hospital. They were in Carissa’s Jeep and got hit by a truck at an intersection, but it sounds like they’ll all be okay.”

“Oh, I heard about Carissa, but I didn’t know Sandy was in the accident too. I guess that’s where Sam and his wife were headed then. They came in a bit more than half an hour ago, screaming at me to fill their car with gas in a hurry. While I was gassing up the car, Sam went rushing in to see Dad, then came back out, jumped in the car and left here like his tail was on fire.”

“Oh shit. I wonder if they might have been the ones who had the accident?” I frowned at Jerry.

“The way he was driving when he left here, they might have, if they went out that way. Want me to call Billy on the CB and find out?”

“No, he’ll be busy at the accident. Don’t disturb him on my account.”

“You want a fill up while you’re here?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, I’ll leave the keys in the car so you can move it if you need to. I think I’ll go talk to your dad for a minute.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll need to move your car,” Jerry snorted almost sarcastically. “After all it’s ten thirty in the morning, so we’re due for the midmorning rush any minute now.”

I just grinned at him and headed for the sales office. Frank was at his desk and on the phone when I came in, so I waited patiently for him to finish his call.

“Hello Chris. Have you heard anything new about Carissa?” he said as he set the receiver down.

“Yeah, I was there late last night. She was out of the operating room and in recovery. She’s messed up, but they say she’ll be okay. Corinna and her folks are there with her.”

“Oh, you went down to Calgary?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought maybe you and Carissa were ... Well, I heard she’d found a girlfriend,” he said quietly, glancing around to be certain no one could hear him. “How are the other girls doing?”

“Well, Sandy isn’t bad condition, minor bones busted as well as cuts and bruises. Jackie, her cousin, got thrown out of the back of the Jeep and across the road or something. I think she’s has the worst injuries of all three,” I told him. “By the way, what’s with the telephones?”

“An accident, out at Graham’s curve. A car went off the road at high speed and took out two telephone poles as well as screwing up all the phone lines. Billy just called in and said it was the Sam McAdam. I was just calling their next door neighbour, because no one is answering their phone. The strange thing is that Sam was just in here asking about you.”

“Well, that might be because he thought his twins were with me. I took them to Calgary, but they took off this morning before I woke up. They left a note saying that they might be coming home, so I came back in a hurry. If they’re still in Calgary, I don’t know how to find them,” I dissembled, trying to establish an alibi for both the girls and myself. “I guess if that was Sam in the accident I’d better take the note to the cops, huh?”

“Probably, either that or else take it to Ann. She should know what’s going on too.”

“Umm, from what Jerry said, Ann was in the car with Sam.”

“Oh damn. That might not be good,” he looked at me wide eyed. “Do you know if the twins were in the car too? They might have been I guess, because the early bus from Calgary came through a while ago. We’d better ask Jerry.”

“Well, from what Jerry said, I think only Sam and his wife were in the car.”

“I’ll check with Jerry,” he said, grabbing the phone. “But, if the girls weren’t with their folks, you’d better go check with the cops. They’re going to want to find those kids.”

“Yeah. See ya later and thanks,” I headed for the door, wondering just how much more complicated my life could get.

The next few hours were an absolute nightmare. I had to play it the way the girls and I had set it up, but it made me feel like a real bastard and I had to think on my feet every second. The first thing I did was sign for the gas and I even checked with Jerry that the girls weren’t with the McAdams when they left. Then I had to go to the RCMP station and talk to them. The Constable had me phone the Coulters at the motel so they could keep an eye out for the girls because the accident had definitely been the McAdams. From the way the officer spoke to me, I knew that the news wasn’t good. Luckily, I got Mr. Coulter on the phone and told him that if he happened to see the girls, to call back and let me know right away because their folks had been in an accident. I had to hope that he’d read between the lines and he did, asking me to check that Ann McAdam wasn’t home, then to wait at his house for a phone call, even telling me where a key to their house was hidden. That suited the cops because they’d know where to find me, yet I wouldn’t be hanging around at the police station waiting for news.

John Coulter phoned me back inside of half an hour, letting me know that he’d phoned Lucille and that she wanted me to call her. It seemed she didn’t trust him, thinking that he might be either Sam or his brother. That made me wonder a bit about Lucille, but when I called her, I realized that she’d done the right thing. She knew my voice, but not John’s because he hadn’t spoken to her before. Luckily, the girls were still with her and after we talked, she agreed to drive them over to the motel to stay with the Coulters. It took an additional hour, but once John had phoned back to tell me the girls were with them. I was able to phone the RCMP and tell them the girls had been found and that they were still in Calgary, but now they were with the Coulters.

That’s when the RCMP officer asked me to come back to the station. When I got there, Constable Davis looked at me very seriously and sighed deeply.

“Chris, I’ve got a problem. You don’t happen to know how to contact any of Sam McAdam’s family, do you? By that, I mean anyone other than Sandy and the twins.”

“No. I know Sam has a brother in Calgary, but I don’t know how to contact him. Why are you asking?”

“Well... , “ he hesitated, then sighed and looked at me very seriously. “We understand from talking to Frank Dolens that you and Sandy were very close. Is that true?”

“Yeah, she stayed with me at the ranch for a while, but what’s going on?” I was now extremely hesitant about answering.

“Oh boy,” he sighed again. “Right now, you are the closest that we have in the way of next of kin to notify about the condition of Sam and Ann McAdam.”

I just stared at him as he explained, but no matter how hard I try, I can barely remember what he said for the next few moments. I know he said that Ann McAdam was killed instantly in the crash and that while Sam had survived, they weren’t certain that he’d live long. I also got the idea that since I and my family had been involved with the McAdam family, they wondered if I would go to Calgary and bring the twins back to the farm, at least for now. In the meantime, they’d try to find some of the girls’ family.

“I know it’s a lot to ask of you, Chris, and if you want, we’ll have an officer drive you out to your father’s and ask him, but we’d rather you decided how to handle it. However, whether you go, or your parents do, since the twins are still so young, we feel it would be best if it was someone close to them who tells them the news about their parents,” Constable Davis said quietly. “If they were adults, we’d have the local police in Calgary do it, but we’ve seen how close you are to them, so we thought you might prefer to be the person to tell them. I wish there was some way we could contact one of their relatives and have them handle the task, but we have no way of contacting anyone at this time. We have contacted the hospital and they let us know that the McAdam’s older daughter refuses to cooperate with our request for any information on relatives. You’re certain that you don’t know how to get in contact with anyone?”

“No, I don’t,” I shook my head. “I’m not sure I’d tell you if I did. From what I’ve heard Sam’s brother is a real son of a bitch. I don’t even want to know how to contact him.”

“Oh? Is it something we should know about?”

“Well, maybe, I guess it might be your business. He’s a Mormon and he was trying to arrange to send his daughter off to some Mormon place in BC in order to involve her in some sort of multiple marriage thing. To be honest, I think he just wanted to get rid of her,” I told him as calmly as I could. “That’s probably why Sandy won’t tell you anything either. She’s probably afraid that if she does, he’ll force her and the twins to go out there. Then all of the girls will end up being sent away from everything they know and into that mess, then they’d have to marry some middle aged polygamist.”

“Legally, that might still happen and there wouldn’t be much we could do,” he sighed. “You see what they do isn’t legally classed as polygamy.”

“Yeah, I know. Sandy explained it to me,” I growled.

“If she explained it to you, you probably know more about it than I do,” he frowned. “I wish there was a way to prevent it from happening, but I don’t know how. Even if a parent or guardian goes against the girls’ wishes, there’s no way we can interfere, not unless we can prove abuse of some kind.”

“Well, Sandy is going to turn eighteen in a few days. Won’t that make a difference?”

“It certainly will,” he smiled. “If she can prove in some way that she can support the girls, then she can assume custody of the twins.”

“I’ll provide that support, if it becomes necessary,” I said flatly. “While it’s not public knowledge yet, tomorrow morning my grandfather is legally turning over control of Mile High Ranch to me. With that as backing, I can certainly support them.”

“Oh, I thought you were just looking after the ranch while Old Tobias was in the hospital.”

“I was, but his health is so bad that the doctor doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to look after the place again. Since I’m the only one in the family that loves the solitude of the upper ranch, Grampa Bender is putting me in charge. His only condition is that I have to take some Olds Ag. School courses and I’ve already registered to start there in January.”

“Chris, the first time I saw you, you were standing up and protecting the Coulter twins, then there was that stupidity at the cafe and again at the service station. After that, I’ll never forget you sitting on the porch of your cabin, grinning and sipping a coffee while you let your dogs keep those two juvies on the roof of your pig pen,” he shook his head. “Now you’re in here doing your best to protect some more kids. You have never failed to impress me and from the sounds of it, I’m not alone. Old Tobias isn’t one to do something like that for anyone he didn’t trust fully.”

“Well, thank you, but all I ever do is to try to do what I think is right.”

I was trying not to feel guilty about being deceitful to him before and at the same time I was upset at the idea that Ann was dead and Sam might be dying. His praise wasn’t helping me feel a bit better.

“Well, you keep doing what you think is right, and I’ll give you what backing I can. Now have you decided what to do about those girls in Calgary? We think they should be home, just in case.”

“Yeah, I think I’d better go out to the farm and see if either Mom or Aunt Alice wants to come along to Calgary with me to be there for the girls. I really don’t think I want to tackle that job on my own.”

“That sounds like a wise decision, and yet, to have you make a good choice doesn’t surprise me at all,” he nodded, then smiled. “Call me to keep me posted on what you and your folks have decided to do about the girls. Or call me if there’s anything I can do to help in any way after things settle out.”

When I left the police station, I felt terrible about the way things had gone. I’d walked into the police station and lied, then Constable Davis had praised me for being such an outstanding citizen. The combination simply didn’t sit well with my sense of honour. Then as I was driving home, I had to pass the scene of the accident and saw the stubs of the two broken telephone poles, the torn up fence and the deeply marked field where the McAdam’s car had to have come to a rest. There were already two telephone service trucks there and four men were busy trying to reestablish phone service to everyone who lived out in our direction. I know sitting and waiting for them to clear the road so I could get past the spot where Sam and Ann McAdam had died really upset me, but it wasn’t until later that I realised how much.

I can only guess that sitting there gave me too much time to think about the situation. By the time I got home I was a basket case as I tried to make sense of everything that had happened in the last few days. I suppose I was blaming myself for most of the problems and perhaps it was simply too much for me to handle. To be honest, I recall turning into the driveway at the farm, but I have no clear memory of anything further that happened during the rest of that day. I know I must have told Mom and Dad about everything that had happened, but I don’t remember doing it. I do recall being in the truck with Dad and Beth as he was driving me up to the ranch. I don’t even remember Dad helping me into the cabin. In fact I don’t remember much until I awoke the next morning.

What woke me in the morning was the smell of coffee and the sound of it perking in the kitchen. As usual, I had to get outside fast, so I grabbed some pants and rushed out, scarcely hearing Beth’s ‘Good Morning’ as I hurried out to the biff. It was while I was sitting there that bits and pieces of what had happened in the last few days came crowding back into my memory. Surprisingly, they didn’t upset me nearly as much as I’d somehow feared they might. Instead, I was able to look at what had happen to me and my friends, as well as what I’d done, and was able to decide that I’d done as well as I could at the time. There were many things I’d change if I could live those last few days over, but at that moment, I didn’t feel I’d done all that badly. I had even held off mourning for what had gone wrong, and what had happened to those I cared for, until I was safely home with my family.

It seemed that as I’d slept, my mind had processed and compartmentalized everything in a way that it could handle the pressure and pain. By the time I walked back into the cabin, I was ready to face the world again.

“Well, good morning, for the second time,” Beth said quietly. “Are you able to talk now?”

“Yes, Beth,” I nodded. “Thank you for baby sitting.”

“Oh you twit,” she snorted, then suddenly she was hugging me and crying.

After a few minutes she got her tears under control and looked up at me bleary-eyed.

“Do you know you slept for almost twenty hours?” she said accusingly. “You must be starved.”

“I am,” I nodded, then thought about the day before and managed a weak grin. “Do you know what? All I had to eat yesterday was a big sticky-bun. That’s it, for the whole day. No wonder my belly thinks my throat’s been slit.”

“You ass, you’re still a growing boy. Why didn’t you eat?”

“Lack of time and opportunity to start with, then sheer emotional overload later, I guess,” I sighed. “Can I go put some more clothes on? I’m getting chilly.”

“You get dressed. I’ll make breakfast,” she snapped, wiping her eyes with her apron as she turned toward the stove.

As we ate breakfast, Beth helped me get caught up on what had happened while I was zonked out. Mom and Aunt Alice had borrowed my car and gone to Calgary. Once they were there, they’d gone to the motel and told the twins about their parents. Then they’d gone to the hospital, and explained things to Sandy. After that, they’d gotten Sandy released from the hospital in Calgary to the hospital at home and had arranged for an ambulance to take her there.

While they were doing that the Coulters had gotten their lawyer to press for a judgement against Jackie’s parents for some of the actions that she had told Carissa about. It seemed that her father’s idea of punishment was tying and blindfolding her, then putting her in a closet for hours at a time. At other times he would have his wife hold Jackie down while he’d take a strap to her bare bottom. It seemed that Jackie bore the scars to prove it. One of the surgeons who had worked on her in the emergency had seen that sort of scarring previously and was willing to testify in court. The Coulters had told the lawyer to pass on the fact that they would be willing to either foster Jackie, or adopt her, anything to get her out of the control of her parents.

Sometime during the day, Wil and Mr. Coulter had found the time to rent a ‘U-haul’ trailer. They’d gone to the duplex with Carissa’s keys, loaded everything belonging to the girls into the trailer and parked it at the motel. Both of them thought the girls’ possessions were safer there than in the duplex.

Late yesterday afternoon, Will had driven Mom, Aunt Alice, Jess, Jean and Corinna home. So, Sandy was in our hometown hospital and being fussed over by the people she’d formerly worked with. Jess and Jean were back at Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice’s. Wil and Corinna had driven my car back up to the ranch last night and Dad had come to pick them up to take them back home. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Coulter were staying in Calgary for a few days. Mr. Coulter would come home Sunday night pulling the trailer with all the girls’ things, but he’d go back to Calgary on Wednesday night so Mrs. Coulter could spend a couple of days at home.

By the time Beth had explained all that, we were sitting out on the porch and enjoying a coffee in the sunshine. Since we had almost an hour before we had to go to town to officially hear about Grampa Bender’s new arrangements for the ranch and the lease, Beth carried on explaining things that had happened the day before.