it.
“She’s not here,” I called out to Zed as he hurried toward the kitchen.
Ella came through the door and the screen slammed behind her. “What happened today?”
“Both of you sit down,” I said. They both stared at me, not moving. I stood. “Your mom’s been charged with negligent homicide,” I said. “Bail was set.”
“Where is she?” Zed’s voice had a frantic edge to it.
“In jail.”
Ella stepped around to the sofa and sat down, hard, her head falling into her hands. “How much is the bail?”
“Fifty thousand dollars needs to be posted to get her out.”
Neither Ella nor Zed spoke.
“I’ll go see her tomorrow.” I needed to call to find out when visiting hours were. “I’ll see if you two can go too.”
Still both were silent, and after a moment Zed stepped into the dining room. The whir of the computer started a moment later.
“You’d better talk to Mom before you take us to see her. She might not like it,” Ella said through her fingers.
“Okay.” I hadn’t thought of that. I sat down on the other end of the sofa. “Things will work out.”
Ella took her hands away from her face. “How can you know that?” Tears filled her eyes. “You have no idea if they’ll work out or not. And if they don’t, what will Zed and I do? Become wards of the state?”
“Ella—”
She jumped to her feet, flinging a couch pillow against the sofa.
“Ella.” I stood, stepping toward her, but she flew to the staircase, her coat still on, and disappeared up the steps. I waited for the slam of her door but it didn’t come.
TWENTY
Feeling lost, I decided to focus on dinner. Zed didn’t look up from the computer screen when I passed through the dining room. I wondered about him tying up the landline, but then I decided Marta would call my cell if she needed to talk. I searched through the little pantry cupboard. There was a box of saltine crackers. Chicken stock. A can of black beans. A box of whole wheat pasta. A jar of what looked like homemade spaghetti sauce—at least, I hoped it was. And a couple of jars of canned pears. I check the freezer above the refrigerator. There were several plastic containers of jam and a couple bags of green beans. It looked as though we would be having spaghetti for dinner and I would be going shopping tomorrow. I started water for the pasta and then put the sauce on to heat. There was a little bit of cheddar cheese in the fridge. I would grate that to go on top of the sauce. I wondered what the kids took for lunches. Maybe I would need to go to the store tonight.
“Hey, Zed.” I stood in the doorway to the dining room. “Do you take sandwiches for lunches?”
He shook his head without looking up. “Hot lunch.”
“Do you have money for that?”
“Yeah…” His voice trailed off.
It was only five fifteen by the time dinner was ready, but I decided we might as well eat. As I set the table, there was a knock on the door. I knew Zed wouldn’t answer it, so I hurried into the living room. Alice was at the door with a casserole dish covered in foil. “I brought you a little something for dinner,” she said.
I thanked her and asked her in. She declined, saying, “Just hug the children for me. Tell them I’m praying for their mother.”
A minute later, as I turned off the burner under the sauce, there was another knock at the door. It was Peggy’s husband, Eli, with a store-bought frozen lasagna in his hands. “Peggy sent me over with this.” He thrust the lasagna toward me. His face reddened and he turned to leave quickly.
“Thank you,” I said, wanting to ask about Peggy and the baby, but he’d already reached his carriage.
Three more people dropped food off before I had dinner on the table, two Mennonite women and another Amish man. As I headed to the staircase to call Ella to come eat, she came bounding down, her cell phone in her hand. “It’s Mom,” she said. “She wants to talk to you.”
I took the phone. Marta said, “My car’s in the parking garage two blocks from the courthouse. Could you get it back to the house for me? There’s an extra key hanging by the front door.”
“Sure,” I said. Maybe Sean could help me.
“And speaking of cars, a couple from our church have a car you can borrow.