All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (12 page)

"Tell me about the girls when they were in
school," she said.

"Kellie and
Jillie
," Lydia
smiled. "That's who they were to us. They were horrid brats and we all
loved them. They were identical and played that up at every chance. I know they
drove their parents crazy, alternating personas. They made their mother cut
their hair exactly the same and when she tried to do something different to one
of them, they'd figure out a way to fix it so they looked the same. Even if you
got to know them well, it was difficult to tell until you spent a few moments
with them. They were constantly pulling dirty tricks on teachers. The school
tried separating them into different sections, but then they would take each
other's place in the classroom, waiting for the teacher to say something.

"They seemed to have a second sense about each
other. If one of them got sent to detention, you knew the other was going to
show up there before too long. Both were smart as a whip and did well in
school. When they got older, they finally began separating their interests.
Jillie
loved playing
basketball. Kellie played, but wasn't very good at it. Kellie loved to sing.
Jillie
sang in the
choir, but didn't have a very good time.
Jillie
was totally in love with every boy in the school. When
she got into eighth grade, she made it her goal to dance with every single
unattached boy before the fall sock hop season was over. Kellie was more of a
wallflower and didn't care whether or not the boys paid any attention to her."

Lydia paused and grinned. "Then, Kellie figured
it out our freshman year. Things got much worse for the boys. They didn't know
which sister they were asking out most of the time. And it was very possible
they would ask Jill out and Kellie would show up at the front door for the
date. One time, both girls decided to go after ... who was it?" Lydia
mused. "Oh, I think it must have been Bob
Andle
. Yeah,
that was it. They separated and began talking to him at different times. He
didn't know who was talking to him. They set up a date with him to go to Boone
for a movie. He showed up at the house and both girls were dressed and ready
for him.

"Most boys would have thought that was so cool,
but Bob took one look, realized what had happened and left them at the door. The
next day, his sister, who was a senior, found the two girls and told them they
had pulled a dirty trick. I think she scared them. They apologized to him, but
he never looked at either of them again."

"Oh, Polly," Lydia sigh
ed. "If it is this hard for me
; imagine how hard it is going to be for Linda and
Sarah."

"I know," Polly said and squeezed the hand
she continued to hold.

"Did they suspect anyone other than the drifter
or did the
y
think the girls ran away or what?" she asked.

"They did ask about the possibility of them
running away. That didn’t make sense, though. There was nothing wrong in their
house and if they had run away, it would have been for a fling to Des Moines or
maybe even Omaha. Then they would have called and come home after having had a
little bit of fun.

"With all the rumors of them showing up in these
other cities, I suppose the police thought maybe the girls had been kidnapped. I
know that for the next year, all the girls in high school were very careful. There
was a lot of talk about white slavery, you know, girls being taken away to live
in foreign countries. We all made a big deal out of it and were frightened of
our own shadows," Lydia responded.

"What about anyone else in town. Was there anyone
that would have deliberately hurt them?"

"Well, they'd tortured nearly everyone around
them with their twin antics, but I don't think there was anyone who had enough
reason to want to hurt them, much less kill them," Lydia responded.

"Kellie had started dating a junior in high
school about the time of the Winter Ball in January, right after we got back
from break. Buddy Landers. They got pretty hot and heavy. Jill didn't like him
very much, but we all figured she was mad because Kellie had a steady
boyfriend. Buddy was destroyed when the girls went missing. It was as if his
heart had broken in two. He didn't come back to school that fall, but I think
he ended up graduating with the class. The police were pretty rough on him and
it messed him up emotionally. I think I remember his mom worked with the
teachers to get work for him and then he had to see a counselor in Ames. He
finally showed back up at the school the next January and though he didn't say
much to anyone, ever, he got through the year and got his diploma.

"Wow, I hadn't thought of him in years. After
graduation, he left town. I heard he ended up in Florida somewhere, but I have
no idea what he's doing now. Heck, I don't even know if he's still alive. His
parents moved away back in the
90s when h
is dad got a job in Denver. So, unless he has stayed
in contact with a classmate, we don't know where he is or what he's doing.

Polly heard the front door open and then Beryl's
voice, "Lydia?
Girlfriend?
Where are you?"

Lydia stood up and walked to the door of the kitchen. "I'm
in here. Come in and have some tea. Polly's here and
I'm
telling her about Kellie and Jill."

"So are you doing alright?" asked Ber
yl. "I can't believe it is true.
Really?"

"I'm afraid so," said Lydia. "Poor
Dougie
Randall pulled a fake ceiling down this morning and
their remains tumbled out. Polly's been kicked out of her home until they get
it all cleaned up and sorted out, so I get to have her stay with me!"

Beryl pushed Polly's shoulder a little, "Well, ain't
that the best deal you're getting today! Are you sleeping in one of those
five-star luxury rooms upstairs?"

Polly laughed. "They are beautiful! And that bed
may never let me leave in the morning."

"Now you see why we like sleepovers here. Which
room did you take?"

"I'm in the burgundy and green room."

"Oh! I love that room. As soon as Lydia's Jill
moved out, she ripped it apart and re-did everything. You'd never have known it
was the same room. That girl liked pink! I thought she would have grown out of
it, but that room was seriously sick. It was ... yep … it was Pepto-Bismol
sick," said Beryl.

"She loved all that pink," said Lydia. "I
was so glad to have at least one daughter who was all girly and frilly. Marilyn
was happiest in blue jeans and Sandy wouldn't be caught dead in a dress.

"You named your daughter Jill," Polly
exclaimed. "Were these girls the reason?"

"Actually, they were.
Jillie
and I got pretty close when Kellie started dating
Buddy. I'm not sure why. We'd never been that close before, but we drifted
together. I'd had a steady boyfriend for a while and we broke up right after
Valentine's Day. I was whining about it one day, Jill thought it was funny and
then asked if I wanted to come over and shoot some hoops after school. I was
terrible! But, she kept inviting me over and so I went."

Beryl put her arms all the way around Lydia. "I
don't think anyone realized how much you missed her the next year, honey."

That was all it took, Lydia fell apart and began to
cry. Polly didn't know what to do with herself while the two women held on to
each other and she was saved by a soft knock on the door sill. Andy had come
into the house and her face was drawn.

"I was with Sarah today in Ames. She wanted me to
go to lunch with her and talk about some English tutoring for her youngest. He
want
s
to go out East to college and
needs
help prepping for the SATs. Aaron called her and
asked her to go to Linda's when she got back to town. I dropped her off and
went in with her when he told them what had happened today. After I sat with
her for a while, I figured the next place I needed to be was here."

"How are they doing?" asked Lydia.

"Actually, they're doing pretty well right now. Rev.
Boehm is there. Angela went with him. Aaron was doing a great job. He's pretty
awesome, Lydia."

"I know. He really is." Lydia snuffled a
little and Polly
automatically
handed her a cloth napkin from the table.

Beryl snorted with laughter. "Blow your noise
baby, that's the most action that napkin has seen in years! At least this time
when it hits the laundry, it will have something to do!"

All four women cracked up. Lydia tried to be dainty
and pressed the napkin against her nose, but finally looked at the others,
grinned and blew it.

Sitting at the kitchen table with Lydia and her
friends,
Polly listened while the others
reminisced about their school years, and especially those years with Kellie and
Jill Stevens. There were no more tears, but she recognized the wistfulness of
lost opportunities with people you love. She'd felt it often enough at the loss
of both of her parents. Soon, Beryl looked at her watch!

"Ladies," she said, “it's 5:45 and there
isn't a thing to eat on the table. Lydia, what are you going to do when Aaron
comes home and you have nothing to feed him? Aren't you worried he'll become a
beast?"

"No, the beastly stuff comes after you've all
gone home to your sweet little beds." Lydia giggled and even blushed. "I
can't believe I said that."

She pulled out her phone, "Let me see what he's
up to, just a second," and she texted her husband. In a moment, he
returned the text.

"He says he's about finished. Do you want to go
to Davey's for dinner tonight?" she asked the table.

"Oh, that will be perfect," Beryl responded.
"They have a new bartender I'm dying to try out."

Polly looked up at her, a little bemused. "You
want to try the bartender?"

"
Well, hell
yeah
,
toots,
he has to be at
least one third of my age. At
least! And
I hear he's cute."

Polly looked around the table at the other two, who
were grinning.

"She has a few drink recipes she loves tossing at
bartenders. Beryl, here, says any bartender worth his salt will know how to mix
them properly and if they don't, she's glad to teach them, isn't she,
Lydia!"
declared
Andy.

"And she's been known to walk around the bar and
start mixing drinks like a pro. Every restaurant and bar owner from here to
Davenport knows about Beryl. If they're smart, they make sure to get her
favorites trained from the beginning. If they want to watch their bartender
squirm, they say nothing. Davey will have said nothing. Beryl's attack on his
new bartenders is one of the favorite parts of his day."

Lydia texted Aaron again and said, "Alright! Let's
go! I'll drive, unless you want to crawl in the back of Polly's truck."

Andy laughed. "You know, someday I could drive. I
have a perfectly good car."

Beryl poked her in the arm. "Your perfectly good
car might hold us, but it wouldn't go very fast with four people in it. And I
hate unfolding myself out of your stupid back seat. The last time I nearly
broke a nail! The front seat isn't much better. I've kissed a lot of ugly in my
life, but I'm not particularly fond of your front windshield. You might want to
wash the inside sometime."

Andy sighed.
"Oh, whatever."

Lydia laughed at her friends. "Let's take my
Jeep. Unless you guys want to drive separately and then go home after we're
done. "

"Oh no," said Andy. "If Beryl starts
testing drinks, your husband would flip a lid if she drove. We'll bring her
back here and figure it out from there."

"Hey!" cried Beryl,
then
she stopped. "Oh. You're probably right." Then,
she stopped again and looked at Lydia. "You know. We drive right past my
house. Why don't I drive there and then you can pick me up."