Firestone (41 page)

“
Ever?”

“
Ever,” Tanesha said.
“Heather swore me to secrecy. Sandy and Jill don’t even know
this.”

“
Wow.”

“
When the car gets to our
house, I’ll never say another word about this.”

“
Okay,” Jeraine
said.

“
I met Heather after
they’d been here a week or something,” Tanesha said.

“
You were ten?” Jeraine
asked.

“
We both were,” Tanesha
said. “Or I thought so. I asked her when her birthday was and she
told me this crazy story of living life after life — every time she
was settled in and grown up, usually having had at least one child,
her mother would move them and Heather would become a child
again.”

“
How many times had she
done it?” Jeraine asked.

“
Thousands, probably
more,” Tanesha said. “She said they all kind of blurred together.
But sometimes, I think she remembered all of them. World War II,
the Romans, the Spanish Inquisition . . . That guy
Maughold on the Isle of Man? He knew her.”

Tanesha gave an indignant snort.

“
Heather never had a
choice,” Tanesha said. “She left behind love after love, child
after child. Every time she finally felt safe, wham, her mother
would take her. She never knew when or where or even why, really.
It just happened.”

“
Such a horrible thing to
do,” Jeraine said.

“
She told me because she
said I was more like her,” Tanesha said. “We met Sandy and Jill
about a week later. Heather knew that Jill was a Titan, and told
her so. But then, she knew I was a fairy.”

Tanesha fell silent.

“
Early on, I mean, we’d
probably known each other a month or something, I promised Heather
that if I ever got the chance, I would make sure her mother didn’t
take her again,” Tanesha said. “We stayed up all night talking
about what we’d do, how we’d fool them. I thought it was just
something fun, a game, but . . .”

“
You planned
this?”

“
When we were ten,”
Tanesha said. “I guess it sounds foolish, but we were sincere. I
couldn’t imagine a more selfish or horrible thing than what
Heather’s mother did over and over again to her.”

“
And Perses?” Jeraine
asked.

“
I don’t know how or why
he got here,” Tanesha said.

“
Seemed like he and Eros
knew each other,” Jeraine said.

“
Eros put Jill in danger,”
Tanesha said.

“
Looked like they had bad
blood,” Jeraine said.

“
Probably,” Tanesha said.
“Katy must have known about the plan. That’s why
Paddie . . . But the Sword of Truth,
I . . .”

“
The Sword of Truth is in
those books, you know from Ne Ne?” Jeraine nodded. “I’ve been
reading them to Jabari, so I remember.”

“
Okay. What’s the deal
with the Sword of Truth?”

“
It cuts two ways,”
Jeraine said. “Mostly, it cuts through falsehood to show truth.
Only in the most dire situations, when protecting someone or
something from a great evil, can the sword make a falsehood seem
true.”

“
You mean Heather’s
parents believed she wasn’t there because Paddie made it seem
true,” Tanesha said.

“
For them,” Jeraine
said.

“
I bet that’s what Perses
was agreeing with Paddie over,” Tanesha said.

“
Does the child
know?”

“
I doubt it,” Tanesha
said. “But he might. He and Katy are . . . like
kings and queens of old, or saints or something.”

Jeraine smiled and pulled into the alley
behind their house.

“
The finger Perses held
up?” Jeraine asked.

“
We’re home,” Tanesha
said.

“
We’re still moving,”
Jeraine said.

“
I don’t know for sure,
but my guess is that Heather gets one human lifetime,” Tanesha
said. “One lifetime to live and love all the way through before
having to go back. Her parents will stay on Perses’s island,
wherever that is, until Heather’s lived this life, had her
children, and been able to see them grow up.”

Jeraine stopped the car inside their small
garage. For a moment, they sat in silence.

“
Thanks for coming with
me,” Tanesha said, and got out of the car.

He sat for a moment while she went into the
house. He ran through the entire story in his mind before smiling
to himself. With a nod, he went inside.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 9:25 p.m.

“
How did they know?” Blane
asked.

Heather was sitting in a plastic chair on
the other side of the glass.

“
I don’t know,” Heather
said. “Tanesha called Jill and Sandy. She might have told them
about me but I doubt it. I think they just knew. After all of these
years, they just knew.”

“
And they wanted to fix
this,” Blane asked.

Heather nodded. Blane smiled. His eyes
welled with tears. Seeing his tears, her eyes filled.

“
So you’re here for a
while,” Blane said. A tear ran down his face.

“
One lifetime,” Heather
said. “I’ll have to go join them after this
but . . .”

Heather smiled and tears of joy fell down
her cheeks.

“
One lifetime is all I
have too,” Blane said.

Heather chuckled and Blane smiled.

“
You’ve beaten your death
sentence,” Blane said.

Heather nodded. They’d called the
eventuality of Heather’s mother taking her away her “death
sentence.”

“
Now it’s your turn to
beat your death sentence,” Heather said.

“
I’ll do it,” Blane
said.

“
I just can’t believe it.”
Heather smiled. “I’m so grateful to Perses, Paddie, Katy, the
fairies . . .”

“
And the girlfriends,”
Blane said.

“
Always grateful for
them.” Heather nodded.

“
It’s been a good night,”
Blane said. “What are you going to do with the rest of your one
lifetime?”

“
I don’t know,” Heather
said. “Live it one day at a time. Be your wife, the mother of our
children. It sounds like bliss to me. What are you going to do with
your one lifetime?”

“
Get well,” Blane said.
“Have another son. Be the father to our children, and your husband.
Nothing else really matters.”

Heather smiled, and Blane laughed. He could
have told her about playing cards with Jacob or finding out about
her father coming or his treatments, but the first few moments of
Heather’s free life were too profound for such trivialities.

Instead, they sat together relishing the
silence, and the new promise of life.

Monday night — 9:40 p.m.

“
Was it really Eros?”
Jacob asked as Jill came into their living room.

Jacob had bathed Katy and Paddie, and Jill
had put them into bed. The children were fast asleep in Katy’s
bed.

“
It looked like the
paintings of him,” Jill said.

“
A cherub?” Jacob
laughed.

“
He certainly acted like a
child,” Jill said. “But no, not a cherub. He had light hair, clear
blue eyes . . . I guess he was handsome.”

“
You guess?” Jacob asked.
“He’s the god of love!”

“
He was just so childish.”
Jill shrugged. “He and Heather’s mother deserve each other. They
are both self-consumed, spoiled children.”

Jill scowled. Jacob patted the sofa next to
him. When she sat down, he tugged on her until she was sitting on
his lap. He kissed her neck.

“
They didn’t seem very
god-like,” Jill said.

“
What
is
god-like?” Jacob asked. “It seems
like every god or goddess is a little childish. They have terrible
temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want.”

“
Certainly, the Christian
God destroyed a few cities in the Old Testament,” Jill
said.

“
People used to throw
their children into volcanos to appease angry gods,” Jacob said.
“Why would a god be appeased by the death of a child?”

Jill nodded.

“
Petulant,” Jacob said.
“Powerful. The Vikings used to burn a young slave woman alive with
the body of a Viking warrior. She usually had the ‘honor’ of
sexually servicing the entire crew before she was burned
alive.”

“
Yuck,” Jill
said.

“
The weird thing is that
the written account says that the woman felt honored to do it,”
Jacob said.

“
I bet
that
was written by a man,” Jill
sniffed.

“
Probably,” Jacob
chuckled.

“
How do you know about
Vikings?” Jill asked.

“
Isle of Man,” Jacob said.
“I’ve been reading up to try to understand some of my experience
there.”

“
And?” Jill asked. Her
eyebrows went up and she smiled.

“
It still doesn’t make any
logical sense,” Jacob laughed.

Jill laughed and nestled against him.

“
Thanks for picking up the
boys,” Jill said.

“
It’s my pleasure,” Jacob
said. “I’m amazed at how fast they’re growing, and how tiny they
still are.”

“
Miracles,” Jill
said.

“
Yes,” Jacob said. “How
are you holding up with the feedings and parenting and healing and
now dealing with a childish Greek god?”

“
Good.” Jill smiled. “I’m
tired, but . . . Katy and I had fun tonight.
Boy . . .”

Knowing she needed to collect her thoughts,
Jacob waited for her to speak. She sighed.

“
What is it?” Jacob
asked.

“
She’s just growing up
fast,” Jill said. “She’s five going on fifty. You should have seen
her tonight. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was the ring
master and the rest of us were following her bidding.”

“
Sounds like our Katy,”
Jacob chuckled.

“
It does,” Jill laughed.
“I just love her.”

“
Yes,” Jacob
said.

“
Do you think she’s
growing up too fast?” Jill asked.

“
No,” Jacob said. “I think
we’re growing — all of us. It feels like she’s growing up fast, and
the boys are huge, because we’re growing too.”

Jill sighed.

“
I think it’s good,” Jacob
said.

“
I know,” Jill said. “But
I kind of wish she was still my little baby.”

Jacob held her close. After a few moments,
he chuckled.

“
What?” Jill
asked.

“
What’s the deal with the
sword?” Jacob asked.

“
The wooden sword?” Jill
laughed.

“
It’s a wooden sword,”
Jacob said. “I practically had to kill Paddie to get it away from
him for his bath.”

“
I heard you arguing with
him.” Jill smiled.

“
He said Perses told him
no man would be able to take it from him,” Jacob said. “So the
child is supposed to bathe with it?”

“
Paddie is very literal,”
Jill laughed.

“
He’s four,” Jacob said.
“He’s supposed to be literal. What was your father
thinking?”

“
It’s a special sword,”
Jill said. “The Sword of Truth.”

“
From the books?” Jacob
asked.

“
The fairy books. Right,”
Jill said.

“
Cuts both ways,” Jacob
said.

“
Paddie made the lie that
Heather wasn’t there seem true to her parents,” Jill
said.

Jill snorted, and became overwhelmed with
emotion. Jacob kissed her cheek.

“
I can’t tell you how many
times I’ve wished that Heather was free of this
stupid . . .” Jill sniffed at her tears.

“
And now she is,” Jacob
said.

“
It’s like a dream come
true,” Jill said. “Like you and the boys and Katy and Paddie and
this place . . . Everything.”

Lost in her own thoughts, she fell
silent.

“
It’s like dreams actually
come true,” Jill said.

“
My dream certainly came
true,” Jacob said.

She turned to look at him and he kissed her.
She smiled.

“
Come on,” Jacob said.
“The boys will be . . .”

Tanner made a noise somewhere between a
scream and a laugh. Bladen whimpered in response.

“
Right on schedule,” Jill
said.

She laughed. They started toward the
nursery.

“
What?” Jacob
said.

“
Dreams come true,” Jill
said.

Jacob laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 10:40 p.m.

Heather let herself into the side door at
the Castle and took a breath. Jill had left a lamp on for her in
the Castle living room. From where she stood, she could see a note
and a plate of chocolate chocolate-chip cookies on the table under
the lamp. Heather smiled.