Beyond Midnight (15 page)

"
I
...
this is almost embarrassing after the misunderstanding we had this afternoon, but I have some very good news for Mr. Byrne. It seems we do have room for Katie in the summer program, after all.
"

"
Really.
"

"
Yes. I wonder if I might speak to Mr. Byrne about it.
"

"
I
'
m afraid it would be a waste of your time, Mrs. Eve
tt
. We
'
ve made other arrangements.
"

"
Oh.
"
There was a confused pause.
"
So quickly
?"

"
Yes,
"
said Peaches.
"
But we do appreciate your efforts.
"

The director
'
s voice sounded bemused as she said,
"
It was nothing
I
did, really. We had a last-minute cancellation. It seemed almost fateful.
"

My ass.
"
We appreciate your thinking of us. Thank you so much for calling.
"

"
Well, naturally I thought of Katie. She made quite an impression on me,
"
Helen remarked. Clearly she was stalling. She sighed and said,
"
I wonder—could I have a moment of Mr. Byrne
'
s time if he
'
s free? Our leave-taking was so awkward,
"
she explained.

"
I understand your concern, Mrs. Evett, but it
'
s unwarranted,
"
Peaches said, throwing her a bone of reassurance.
"
It was a simple misunderstanding. Mr. Byrne never thought twice about it afterward.
"

"
Are you sure?
"
Helen asked guilelessly.
"
He seemed so upset.
"

"
Not at all,
"
Peaches answered. She glanced up in time to see Nathaniel Byrne come into the music room, looking for a report she knew he
'
d left behind.

Peaches motioned silently toward the low table where it lay mixed in with Katie
'
s coloring books, and then she said briskly into the phone,
"
I
'
m sorry. We
'
re simply not interested,
"
and hung up.

"
Who was that?
"
B
yrne asked, picking up his docu
ment.

"
Another telemarketer,
"
said Peaches with distaste.

*****

Helen had no intention of letting Peaches Bartholemew speak for her employer.

"
Call me a snob,
"
she told Becky later that night,
"
but I
'
ll be darned if I take a ‘no
'
from the baby-sitter. This is too important to Katie
'
s welfare. If Nathaniel Byrne doesn
'
t want her in my preschool, he
'
s going to have to tell me that himself.
"

Becky was in her pajamas, scouting the kitchen for a bedtime snack. She settled on a banana, although her sigh seemed to say potato chips.
"
You
'
re really into this Katie kid, aren
'
t you,
"
she said, peeling back the fruit.

"
I guess,
"
Helen agreed.
"
I feel so sorry for her.
"
Becky took a big bite of her banana and said with a full mouth,
"
You talk to Aunt Mary?
"

"
As a matter of fact, I did. She
'
s been inside all day, finishing an afghan for the Senior Citizens
'
Jumble this weekend. She wasn
'
t on our side of the house—and she seemed absolutely fine.
"

Becky shrugged.
"
Oka-ay.
"
Obviously she didn
'
t believe it.

Helen was well aware that her aunt had been slipping a bit; but it was normal slippage for someone her age. Absolutely normal. And today she seemed vital and enthusiastic. Yes.
Normal
.

"
So what do we think the smell was?
"

Helen was ready for that one.
"
Between you and me, I wouldn
'
t put it past your brother to pull a stunt like that. He
'
s still mad at me for going through his room on that search-and-destroy mission for moldy clothes.
"

Blame it on Russ. It was the easiest thing for now. Helen preempted any more questions by fishing noisily through the silverware for the can opener, which she used on a can of gourmet fish blend for poor starving Moby. The cat was brushing relentlessly back and forth against Helen
's
jeans, leaving a swath of black fur on her pant legs.

"
All right, all right; hold your horses,
"
Helen scolded.
"
God. The more I feed her, the thinner she gets. I wonder if she
'
s hyperthyroid?
"

"
Maybe she
'
s bulimic,
"
Becky quipped.

Helen looked at her daughter sharply.
"
Why do you say that? What do you know about bulimia? Are your friends doing that? Are you—?
"

"
Muh-ther!
I am not bulimic. And yeah, I know people who
'
re into that. I think it
'
s disgusting,
"
Becky said, sliding off the marble countertop where she
'
d been perched.

"
Good. You just stay disgusted,
"
said her mother as she rinsed the smell of fish from the can opener. She wiped her hands on a checkered towel and said softly,
"
You know how you want a normal mom? Well, I want normal kids. So please, honey,
"
she said with a wistful smile.
"
Stay just the way you are.
"

"
I will if you will,
"
Becky said without missing a beat. She tossed her banana peel and resumed her search through the cabinets.
"
I
'
m still hungry,
"
she whined.
"
How come we never have anything good to eat around here?
"

Smiling to herself, Helen hung up the towel and threw the bolt on the kitchen door. There was nothing more normal than a ravenous teenager.

Helen went to bed in her freshly aired-out room, slept soundly through any tappings and jiggles that may or may not have occurred, and the next morning drove to the preschool filled with determination to pin down Katie
'
s arrogant, misdirected father.

After ca
ll
ing the Columbus Fund and picking her way through a bewildering maze of electronic directions, she was finally delivered over to a live human being at the other end of the line. Helen gave the assistant her name, along with a brief—and no doubt unprofessional—message that the call concerned Katherine Byrne. Sometime after lunch Byrne returned her call.

"
I
'
m sorry I wasn
'
t available earlier,
"
he said without sounding sorry at all. He was definitely still angry. It occurred to Helen that Peaches was either unobservant or very diplomatic.
"
What can I do for you?
"
he asked.

Helen had decided beforehand not to mention her call to his house; it was simpler just to plow forward in ignorance.

She cut right to the chase.
"
One of our three-year-olds won
'
t be able to attend the summer session. The slot is available for Katie if you
'
d like it. I
'
m referring, of course, to the summer of this year,
"
she couldn
'
t resist adding through a grim smile.

He surprised her by saying in a halfway friendly voice,
"
Gee, that
'
s too bad. I
'
ve just made plans to send Katie for a stay with her grandmother in
Zurich
.
"

"
Zurich
,
Switzerland
?
"
said Helen, hoping for his sake that there was a
Zurich
in
Massachusetts
.

"
Yes. Linda
'
s people are from there.
"

Helen knew that, of course, from the obituary, and still she couldn
'
t believe it. His own daughter! She tried to keep her tone reasonable as she said,
"
No doubt you
'
ve thought about this long and hard.
"

"
It
'
s a safe assumption.
"

She could picture him so cl
early as he said it: the clean-
shaven jaw set in annoyance; the intense, laser-beam focus on the subject at hand. Damn his blue eyes!

"
How can you
do
that?
"
she blurted, despite herself.
"
How can you just ship Katie across an ocean?
"

"
Oh, I won
'
t box her up or anything,
"
he said with brutal irony.
"
I
'
ll probably pay for a plane ticket and let her sit with Peaches and me.
"

"
Don
'
t do it! It
'
s a mistake!
"

"
Says who?
"
he snapped.
"
Look, Mrs. Evett. I read your brochure. I understand that your preschool is approved by every organization in
America
except maybe the U.S. Artichoke Association. I understand that you have dual master
'
s degrees in education and psychology. I even understand how little I know about childrearing. What I don
'
t understand is how you get off butting your nose in my business.
"

"I
—
"

She sucked in a breath of air, then let it out in a deflated sigh.
"
I don
'
t know either. I have no right to say any of this, but
...
I just know that Katie needs to be around you. It
'
s very important,
"
she said with soft urgency.
"
You must believe me, Mr. Byrne.
"

Something in her voice—probably her begging tone— made him actually try to reassure her.
"
You know, Katie
'
s grandmother sounded genuinely thrilled when I called this morning,
"
he said.
"
She has a house on
Lake
Constance
with dogs and a cat and swings
...
Katie has some cousins over there; they all speak English. I think. It
'
ll work out. You
'
ll see.

"
Besides,
"
he added,
"
it
'
d be embarrassing as hell to call it off now. I
'
d really look like a jerk.
"