Once Upon a River Page 0,69

Junior or his papa. The doctors put him on medication that helps him with his moods and his temper. Junior asked me to mail him his jacket, and I’m trying to put a flannel lining in it to surprise him. Now wait here a minute.” When Joanna returned less than a minute later, she stuffed a paper grocery bag into Margo’s arms. “Here’s some slices of my bread that you always loved and a little jar of your favorite peach jam. You can share it with your friend.”

“Thank you,” Margo said. The bag was warm and smelled of cinnamon. She glanced inside to see that Joanna had given her about a third of the cinnamon swirl breakfast loaf. Some of the boys would have to eat plain bread tomorrow.

“Are you sure you have a place to stay?” Joanna asked. “You could sleep in the barn if you needed to. Some of the kids had a sleepover out there last week. There’s probably still blankets out there.”

Margo would not take a chance on staying in the barn, so far away from where she could hide her boat. And so long as it wasn’t raining, she preferred to sleep outside, where she’d hear someone coming and be able to run.

From inside, upstairs, Margo heard a wail.

“Randy’s crying,” Joanna said.

Margo must have looked confused.

“You don’t know?” Joanna said, and her eyes spilled over. “Of course. How could you know? I had a baby.”

“A baby? Congratulations.” Margo hoped it was the right thing to say. What Margo had done to Cal, then, had not stopped him from making another baby. It had been exactly what she had intended to do—not damage him permanently, but only make him hurt. Her revenge had been just right, and yet it had all gone so wrong.

“A boy?”

“A boy. Yes.” Joanna’s voice cracked. “I was so sure it would be a girl this time. I was going to name her Rachel, after my sister.”

“What’s he like? I wish I could see him.”

“Your new cousin has Down syndrome,” Joanna said and swallowed as though she dreaded explaining. “That’s why we had to get rid of the dogs. The barking made him scream and cry. Down syndrome is what they say now, not Mongoloid.”

“Down syndrome,” Margo said and nodded.

Joanna shook her head. “I love him, but I’m so tired. I paid Julie to help me for a while, but . . . Oh, Nymph, you were the only one of the kids who was ever really helpful.”

“I always loved helping,” she whispered.

“You know, Cal was furious when you disappeared and left that note. Why didn’t you stay for the burial?”

“What burial? Daddy was cremated.”

“But we interred his box of ashes in the cemetery, on the north edge. Cal made all the boys go along.”

“I didn’t know they put ashes in a cemetery.” Margo had thought that when a person was cremated, he was simply gone. “Did Billy go?”

Joanna nodded. “For three months, your uncle Cal wouldn’t tell the police you were gone. Not until they needed your signature. Then he told them you’d gone to your mother’s, out of the state.”

Margo shook her head. She had been living with Brian at that time.

“They looked for your mother,” Joanna said, “but said they couldn’t find her. How did you find her?”

“I asked around and sent letters,” Margo said. She wished she could have been at her father’s funeral, despite Billy’s being there. Margo’s heart started to feel squeezed when she thought about Billy living comfortably with his family, as though he’d done nothing wrong.

“I hear somebody coming. Come back and talk to me tomorrow morning if you can. The boys’ll be at day camp, and Billy’s in summer school. I’ll make you something nice to eat.” Joanna closed the door.

• Chapter Fourteen •

Back at the marijuana house, Margo devoured Joanna’s bread with jam and wiped the jam jar clean. As kids, Margo and Junior used to pile the chunky peach preserves on their toast as thick as pie filling. The food fired something up in her, and it took her a long time to fall asleep. The following morning was hazy, and Margo slept late. She wanted more bread and jam so powerfully that she couldn’t bring herself to eat the vegetables she’d collected and so went hungry. While she packed up all her things, she was feeling dopey, and because of the hazy sky she couldn’t get a sense of what time it was. She parked her boat downstream from the