Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (17 page)

“
You remember Delphie?”
Honey asked.

“
The lady with the red
hair?” Ivy asked. “She’s nice.”

“
Right.” Honey gave Ivy a
workout top. “You probably won’t believe it, but she’s a true
psychic.”

“
Really?” Ivy asked. “Pan
said she was but I didn’t believe him.”

“
I bet if we ask her,
she’ll know where you’re mom’s sister is,” Honey said.

“
Do you think so?” Ivy’s
smiled covered almost all of her face. “Can we do it
now?”

“
I don’t see why not,”
Honey said.

Ivy walked out of the closet with only a top
and the shoes on.

“
You have to get dressed.”
Honey called after her.

“
Shhh,” Ivy said. “The
baby’s sleeping.”

Honey smiled at the girl. Ivy grinned and
put on some exercise tights.

“
Let’s go find Delphie,”
Honey said.

Honey wheeled out of the apartment and into
the Castle. She followed Delphie’s laugh to the kitchen where
Delphie and Valerie were drinking tea.

“
Honey! Ivy!” Delphie
said. “Would you like some tea?”

Delphie got up from the table to turn on the
electric kettle.

“
Is that your baby?” Ivy
asked.

“
This is Jacquotte,”
Valerie said.

“
Jacquotte?” Ivy asked.
“That’s a big name. I wouldn’t know how to spell it.”

“
We call her Jackie,”
Valerie said. “Would you like to hold her?”

Ivy nodded. Valerie pulled out a chair. Ivy
sat down and Valerie passed the baby to her.

“
Do we have more of the
cookies you made?” Delphie asked Honey.

“
I’ll get them.” Honey
wheeled to the pantry. “Delphie, Ivy’s looking for her mother’s
sister. She and her Grannie weren’t ever able to find
her.”

“
She used to say it was a
mystery for the record books,” Ivy said.

“
I like mysteries. I help
my friend Seth with his detective work,” Delphie said. “I don’t
have any mixed mint tea, Ivy, just peppermint. I do have chamomile.
Does that sound good?”

Ivy nodded. She watched Jackie sleep for a
few minutes before she realized that Delphie knew what kind of tea
she liked. Ivy’s heart filled with hope. She looked up at Delphie
and Delphie smiled at the girl.

“
I don’t see any souls
around you, so that probably means your mother’s sister is probably
alive,” Delphie said. “Tell me about her.”

“
I only know what my mom
told my dad and what my dad told my Grannie,” Ivy said.

Honey came out of the cabinet with a
Tupperware full of cookies.

“
That took a while,”
Delphie said.

“
I try to hide them from
the young men in the house,” Honey said.

“
Locusts.” Valerie
laughed. “Ivy was telling us about her mother’s sister.”

Honey wheeled to the table and set the
cookies on top.

“
Oh right,” Ivy said.
“Well, my mom had a bunch of brothers and sisters. She was the
youngest. Most of her brothers and sisters died from getting sick
or hurting themselves or whatever. They were real poor and didn’t
have insurance or money for doctors and stuff. I guess they worked
on farms or whatever work they could get.”

“
How do you know your mom
had a sister?” Delphie asked. “Or that she’s here? You know, Honey,
those boys are going to blow through here in about five
minutes.”

“
I know,” Honey
said.

“
At least we get some
first.” Valerie reached for a cookie. “Ivy?”

“
Oh, I don’t know for
sure,” Ivy said. “My mom’s dad died. A tractor fell on him or
something gross. My mom and her mom moved here to Denver. I know
that because my Grannie found the apartment building they lived in
together. We talked to the owner once during one of our
adventures.”

“
If we can’t figure this
out here, we can always go to the apartment building and see if I
can get something there.” Delphie nodded.

“
Good thinking,” Honey
said.

“
It’s kind of bad, because
my mom’s father
sold
her sister,” Ivy said. “But it’s kind of good because if he
hadn’t, she probably wouldn’t have survived.”

The electric kettle clicked and Delphie
turned around to get two more mugs from the cabinet.

“
Do you know your mom’s
sister’s name?” Valerie asked. “Maybe Delphie can call in the
name.”

“
Chastity Bell,” Ivy
said.

Delphie dropped a mug.

“
Anyone here?” Nash yelled
from the front room. Charlie said something to Nash and Noelle
laughed.

“
What did you say?”
Delphie scurried to clean up the broken mug.

“
My mom’s last name was
Bell,” Ivy said. “I mean before she married my dad. Her sister was
called Chastity or we thought it was.”

“
There you are!” Noelle
said. “Hey they’re back here.”

Noelle grabbed a cookie and looked at
everyone.

“
How come you guys are all
weird?” Noelle asked.

“
Did I wreck everything?”
Ivy asked. “I’m really sorry.”

With his arm draped over Tink’s shoulder,
Charlie came in. He glanced at Delphie and moved away from
Tink.

“
What’s going on?” Charlie
asked.

“
I wrecked everything
again.” Ivy gave Jackie to Valerie and ran out of the room. Tink
and Noelle ran after her.

“
She’s a little girl who
has no one in this world,” Charlie said to Delphie. “You need to
fix this.”

“
Charlie!” Noelle
said.

“
No, he’s right,” Delphie
said.

Delphie walked out of the kitchen. She
looked around the living room, not sure where Ivy had done.

“
Hi Ivy,” Jacob’s voice
came from the front room. “Nash. Tink. What’s going on?”

Delphie followed his voice.

“
She’s running away from
me,” Delphie said.

“
Are you eating little
girls again?” Jacob laughed. He put his hands on Ivy’s shoulders.
The little girl looked up at him. “Sometimes, people can’t give us
what we need at the exact moment we need it. That’s all that
happened. You surprised her.”

“
She broke a cup,” Ivy
said.

“
We have lots of cups,”
Jacob said. “It’s your heart that matters to Delphie and to all of
us.”

He stepped to the side to let Tink hug the
little girl.

“
Ivy?” Delphie
asked.

The girls turned to look at her. Delphie
glanced at Jacob, and he nodded to her.

“
My name was Chastity
Bell,” Delphie said.

Tink gasped and stepped away from Ivy.

“
You’re her mom’s sister?”
Charlie asked.

“
I don’t know,” Delphie
said. “I could be. I left home when I was a little kid. I was the
oldest so I don’t really know what happened to them after I
left.”

“
She looks like you,” Nash
said.

“
I do?” Ivy
asked.

“
I’m quite a bit older
than you,” Delphie said.

“
She does look like you,”
Tink said. “I didn’t notice it until Nash said
something.”

“
We all noticed it
downstairs,” Nash said.

“
Come on, Ivy,” Delphie
said. “Whether I’m your mom’s long lost sister or not, you’re
welcome here. Why don’t we sit down, have some tea, and get to know
each other? Would you like that?”

Ivy nodded.

“
I would too,” Delphie
glanced at Jacob. He smiled at her.

Delphie put her arm around Ivy’s shoulder
and led her back to the kitchen.

“
Who’s going running
today?” Jacob asked.

He started pushing the other kids out of the
kitchen.

“
Charlie?” Jacob
asked.

“
I can only go within one
square block,” Charlie said.

“
Good to know,” Jacob
said. “Let’s go!”

Honey’s baby monitor gave a wail as Maggie
woke up from her nap.

“
Have fun!” Honey waved
and wheeled back to her apartment.

“
I’m going to change
Jackie.” Valerie pointed upstairs and Jacob nodded.

He managed to round up the rest of the
children and they left.

“
It’s so quiet,” Ivy
said.

“
They’re giving us time to
talk,” Delphie said. “Please sit.”

Delphie sat down at the kitchen table. Katy
came running down the stairs from the apartment. She pulled out the
chair Valerie had been sitting in and sat down.

“
Katy?” Delphie
asked.

“
I wanted to meet your
niece,” Katy said.

“
Is that all right with
you?” Delphie asked.

“
Sure,” Ivy smiled at
Katy.

Katy took a drink of Valerie’s tea. Too
uncomfortable to start, Ivy stared at her tea. Delphie was
unusually quiet.

“
So, where did you grow
up, Ivy?” Katy asked.

Ivy chuckled and Delphie laughed. Katy
smirked.

“
Katherine Roper Marlowe!”
Jill yelled from the upstairs apartment. “Your bath is ready and
you’re not here!”

“
Have to go,” Katy said.
She ran up the stairs.

“
She’s
really . . .”

“
She is,” Delphie
laughed.

“
Are you all psychics?”
Ivy asked.

“
Me, Jacob, Katy,” Delphie
said. “Everyone in the house has a special capacity. We’re drawn to
each other.”

“
Do you think I do?” Ivy
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Delphie
said. “We’ll have to see.”

Ivy nodded and drank her tea.

“
So, where did you grow
up?” Delphie asked.

Ivy smiled and answered the question

Chapter Two Hundred and
Thirty-Two
It begins

Tuesday evening—7:17 p.m.

“
Tanesha!” Jill yelled
when Tanesha came through the backdoor.

Standing near the door, Heather gave Tanesha
a hug. Jill and Sandy met their friend near the deck. In order to
celebrate meeting Ivy, and the possibility of her being Delphie’s
niece, Honey and Valerie had put together an impromptu gathering
while Jacob and the kids were running. As typical of Denver, the
recent freezing weather had broken into an unseasonably warm fall
day and night. They were barbequing in the backyard.

“
What’s going on?” Tanesha
asked. With her jaw still wired shut, her voice came out in low
tones.

“
How
are
you?” Jill asked.

“
I don’t know Rapunzel,
how did you get down from your lofty castle?” Tanesha
asked.

“
That’s a long story.”
Jill smiled.

“
Short version is that her
husband’s freak out was unwarranted,” Sandy said.

“
She’s a brood cow, like
me,” Heather said.

The women laughed.

“
I love my house,” Tanesha
said. “I slept like a stone last night. First time
since . . .”

She made a gesture, which indicated finding
her mom and almost getting raped and everything good and bad. She
waved to Jeraine, who was talking to Mike near the grill.

“
The boy is behaving,”
Tanesha said.

“
Why isn’t he at work?”
Heather asked.

“
They’re almost caught
up,” Tanesha said. “Seth’s orchestra is doing longer sections which
means they can get more done at one time. That’s how he was able to
get everything moved yesterday. He should be done with the movie by
the end of the week.”

Tanesha shrugged.

“
Do you love the
bathroom?” Sandy asked. “Or I should say, I love your
bathroom.”

“
My towels were warm this
morning.” Tanesha smiled. “How did that happen?”

“
Housewarming present,”
Jill said.

“
From all of us,” Heather
said.

“
I love you guys,” Tanesha
said.

Tanesha held her arms out and they
hugged.

“
Wait, that’s Tink.”
Tanesha gestured to where Tink, Noelle, and Ivy were talking.
“Isn’t she supposed to be in that shelter?”

“
She lives with us now,”
Heather said. “It’s a trial run. We get six months. If it works
out, then we file for adoption!”

“
I love that.” Sandy
smiled.

“
I go to medical school
and all this cool stuff happens,” Tanesha said.

“
It’s weird, but I guess
we’re getting what we’ve always wanted,” Jill smiled.

“
Who’d ever believe it?”
Tanesha asked.

“
Not me,” Heather
said.

Jill and Sandy shook their heads in
agreement.

“
Hey,” Tanesha said. “I
was hoping you could cut my hair.”

“
Sure,” Sandy
said.

“
What are you going to
do?” Heather asked.

“
That rapist guy?” Tanesha
pointed to a spot of missing hair on her head.