Athena's Daughter (32 page)

“We’ll find her,” he whispered into her hair,
confirming that trust. “I promise; we’ll find her.”

Before she could respond, her mother’s voice
crackled through the walkie-talkie in her pocket. Athena struggled
to remove the huge, industrial-sized instrument, and the moment it
was free she hit the Talk button.

“Mom? Did you find her?”

“Not yet,” Katherine’s voice crushed the
momentary hope. “But there’s something we need to know. Derek was
here a while ago, and right after he left, Calvin came in and told
Walt something he just remembered. He said right before Elizabeth
went out the gate she said she was going to go get her daddy and
bring him home. Do you have any idea what she could have meant by
that?”

Athena raised her eyes to Derek who looked as
perplexed as she felt. “No. He was in Alabama, so she…” Her voice
died as a thought burst into her head. When her mother had told her
to call Derek, Athena thought then that Elizabeth would come to him
even if she ignored everyone else. And that’s exactly what she did.
Elizabeth had gone to Derek. “The Holiday Inn.”

Awareness dawned on Derek’s face, and he
grabbed her by the shoulders. “You don’t think she…”

The squawk of the walkie-talkie interrupted.
“What? Athena? I didn’t catch that. What did you say?”

“The Holiday Inn out by the airport. Derek
was staying there the last couple of days before he left. It’s the
last place Elizabeth saw him.”

“The Holiday Inn?” Katherine sounded
indignant. “Why in the world was he at the Holiday Inn?”

Walt’s voice overrode Athena’s mother. “I’m
on my way.”

“Athena, did you hear that?” Katherine
demanded. “Walt’s going right now to look.”

“I heard.” She lowered the device and stared
at Derek. “That’s where she must have gone. If she was looking for
you, that’s where she thought you’d be.” Fresh tears blurred her
vision. “This is all my fault! If I had just told her what it meant
when you had to go to work, she’d have known you weren’t
there.”

“It’s my fault,” Derek contradicted, his face
stricken. “I should never have left the house.”

“I shouldn’t have made you go. I was just so
upset, and…”

“You didn’t make me do anything, angel.” His
mouth firmed. “But we can discuss all that later. I can’t believe I
was just at the airport. I was right there! We need to…”

“We need to go get my car.” The initial
buoyant joy she’d felt at having some idea where Elizabeth might
have gone was wiped out by the thought of her little girl walking
alone and unattended down Airways Boulevard.

Derek nodded. “Let’s go.”

By the time they reached the house it was
full dark. The silence from the walkie-talkie had been ominous, and
Athena couldn’t bring herself to contact her mother, either. She’d
always heard that no news was good news, but in this case all it
meant was that the nightmare continued.

She and Derek rushed into the house so Athena
could get her keys. Only a few students remained along with Andi
and the twins, her mother, and her dad who was pouring a glass of
iced tea.

When Howard Hill saw his daughter, he put the
pitcher down and came to her, drawing her into a pipe-smoke scented
hug. “Hey, baby.”

“Hey, Daddy.” Athena rested her head against
his chest for a moment, eyes closed. “Heard anything?”

“Not yet,” her mother responded for both of
them.

“Okay.” Athena stepped away from her dad and
stiffened her spine. It was a relief to feel Derek’s arm slip
around her shoulders. “Derek and I are going to take my car,
and…”

The phone rang. For a moment, everyone in the
room stood frozen and stared at it. Then Andi rushed forward and
snatched it off the cradle, barking a terse “Hello.”

For a moment her face remained tense, and
Athena’s heart started to pound with dread. Then Andi’s face
crumpled and she sobbed, “Oh, thank God. Thank God!” She looked up
with a tremulous smile. “Walt’s got her. She’s safe.”

After a frozen second, Athena’s brain
accepted the truth, and relief and joy swept through her like a
tidal wave. All her muscles loosened with a thanksgiving too deep
for words, and her knees buckled. Only Derek’s arms kept her from
crashing to the floor.

He picked her up and carried her to the den
where he settled into a corner of the couch with her on his lap.
She turned her face into his chest and noticed he was shaking as
hard as she was. Her arms crept around him and they sat silent,
holding each other as the rest of the room swirled around them in
chaos.

“Walt said he found her sitting in the
hallway,” Andi’s voice said, low. “She was just sitting outside the
door where Derek was staying last.”

“I still don’t understand why he was at the
Holiday Inn,” came Katherine’s aggrieved tone. “Nobody ever told me
anything about that.”

Andi’s voice developed an edge. “Well, maybe
it wasn’t any of your business.”

“I’m going to call Donnie,” said Howard,
clearly eager to escape the pending fireworks.

Katherine’s sigh was that of a martyr facing
the stake. “Why they don’t just go ahead and get it over with I’ll
never know.”

“Mother!” Andi snapped. “Not now.”

“Well, it’s not good for Elizabeth to have
to…”

The sound of the front door opening stopped
everything as effectively as the ringing phone had earlier.
Athena’s head popped up from Derek’s chest as he twisted toward the
doorway.

Walt walked into the den holding Elizabeth.
Her arms were looped around his neck, and she looked into the room
over her shoulder, her anxious blue eyes taking in the crowd that
surged forward with cries of relief.

Athena scrambled off Derek’s lap and rushed
to where her brother-in-law stood. Elizabeth saw her coming, and
two fat tears rolled down her grimy little cheeks.

“Mommy,” she whimpered, and held out her
arms.

The next moment, Athena had her daughter in
her arms. She hid her face in Elizabeth’s neck and relished the
solid little weight resting against her. Then Derek’s arms
encircled both of them and Athena was complete. She never needed
anything else, would be content to spend the rest of her life right
where she was, surrounded by the two people she loved more than
life itself.

Elizabeth’s hair brushed her face as the
little girl turned her head. “Daddy?” she asked in a voice full of
astonishment.

“I’m here, munchkin,” Derek murmured.

With a sigh, Elizabeth relaxed against
Athena. After a moment, though, she raised her head again and
whispered into her mother’s ear.

“I hafta go to the bathroom.”

“Okay.” Athena glanced up at Derek’s
quizzical expression and nodded her head toward the hall.
“Upstairs.”

“Right.” He pressed a long kiss to the back
of his daughter’s head and released them. As Athena moved away she
heard his voice speaking low to someone.

“Elizabeth needs a little time,” he
explained.

“I’ll take care of it,” Andi responded.
“Y’all go on.”

Followed by Derek, Athena carried their
daughter up the stairs and to the bathroom across the hall from her
pink bedroom. While Elizabeth took care of her bladder, Athena
removed the sandals from her filthy feet, and Derek turned on the
bathtub faucet, holding his fingers under the flow to test the
water temperature.

Athena finished undressing their child, and
by the time she’d handed Elizabeth a wad of toilet paper and took
the hair band from her ponytail, Derek had the plug closed over the
drain and the tub was filling up with warm water.

“In you go,” Athena said, and assisted the
little girl into the bathtub. She grabbed a washcloth and soaped it
up while Derek used the pitcher that always sat on the tub’s edge
to wet Elizabeth’s hair for shampoo.

The little girl sat silent while her parents
removed the day’s grime from her skin and hair. As she bathed her,
Athena checked for injuries but could detect nothing more than the
usual assortment of bruises around her knees and elbows. She wanted
to make sure, though.

“Elizabeth, are you hurt anywhere?”

“No,” Elizabeth said in a small voice. She
studied the chipped pink polish on her toenails. “Am I in
trouble?”

“Yes,” Derek replied as he squeezed excess
water from her hair.

Elizabeth said nothing more, but deflated
like a balloon. She remained silent and compliant while she was
rinsed, dried off, wrapped in a towel and carried across the hall
by her father. When the towel came off she started to shiver.

“I’m hungry.”

“Okay.” Athena held out a clean pair of
yellow panties for her to step into. “Let’s get your pajamas on,
and then I’ll go get you something to eat while your dad combs your
hair.”

Elizabeth glanced up at her. “Can Daddy go
get me something to eat while you comb my hair?”

Remembering Derek’s terse tone in the
bathroom, Athena shook her head. “No.” It was about time Elizabeth
learned that her father could punish her as well as Athena could,
and far past time for Derek to start doing it.

As she descended the stairs, Athena
hesitated, listening for voices. But the house was quiet; only the
hum of the refrigerator came to her ears. She entered the empty
kitchen and breathed out a sigh of relief, grateful to Andi for her
assistance in chasing everyone out of the house.

Opening the refrigerator, she found a platter
of sandwiches covered with plastic wrap, and a fresh pitcher of
tea. An unopened bag of potato chips sat on the counter next to the
sink, and in a matter of minutes Athena had filled a plate and
glass for Elizabeth. Just as she reached the door to the little
girl’s room, she heard her speak.

“I’m really sorry, Daddy.”

Just when it seemed he wouldn’t respond,
Derek sighed. “I know you are, munchkin. But this is one time that
sorry just won’t cut it.”

Athena stepped into the room and stood just
inside the door. Elizabeth wore a hurt pout while her father
constructed a clumsy braid down her back. He glanced at Athena
before continuing.

“You scared your mum and me today more than
you could possibly imagine. And your grandparents, and aunt and
uncle, too. You know you’re not to leave without an adult, but you
did it anyway.”

“But I was looking for you,” Elizabeth
protested. “I wanted you to come home.”

“I know that.” Derek turned his daughter to
face him. “But it doesn’t excuse what you did. It was wrong, and
you’ll be punished for it.” Before she could respond, his face grew
solemn and he leaned closer. “But I did something wrong, too, and I
need to apologize to you. I didn’t explain about what happens when
I go to work. I don’t come home every evening like your mum or your
grandparents or your uncle Walt. I go far away, and sometimes I
don’t come back for a long time.” He took a deep breath. “If I’d
told you this before, you wouldn’t have thought I was still at the
motel. It was still wrong of you to go there alone, but I know you
thought I was there.”

“Why did you go there?” Elizabeth demanded.
“You and Mommy had a fight, and you went to the motel instead of
staying here.”

Eyes wide, Derek glanced at Athena. Shocked,
she shook her head to indicate Elizabeth hadn’t mentioned it
before. After a few seconds, it was apparent that Derek was at a
loss for words, so she stepped in.

“Mommies and daddies fight sometimes,
Elizabeth.” She put the plate and glass down on Elizabeth’s little
tea party table. “And I can pretty much guarantee that your dad and
I will fight again sometime. But the next time it happens and you
get upset, you come and talk to us about it instead of trying to do
something about it yourself, got that?”

“Okay.” Elizabeth studied the floor for a
minute or two, but then her brows drew together and she crossed her
arms over her chest. She shot a glare of blue anger at Derek. “But
you kissed that other lady.”

There was no other word for his expression
than flabbergasted, and Athena didn’t feel too steady herself.

Elizabeth took advantage of the silence to
press her point. “I saw you. I stayed awake so I could see you when
you came home.” She pointed toward the front of the house. “I went
to that other bedroom, and I looked out the window and saw you kiss
that lady. That hurt my feelings and made me sad. And Mommy
cried.”

“What?” Athena’s voice cracked.

“I went downstairs to tell you, and you were
sitting in the kitchen at the table, and you had your hands like
this.” Elizabeth demonstrated by putting her hands over her face.
“And you were crying.” She transferred her ire back to her father.
“That was mean, Daddy. You’re not apposed to kiss anyone but Mommy,
and I’m mad at you!”

Without responding, Derek got to his feet and
walked to the window, clearly shaken. Athena watched him for a
minute, and then beckoned to Elizabeth.

“Come eat your supper. I think Grandma made
the sandwiches because the crusts are cut off the way she does it
for you.”

As she’d hoped, it distracted Elizabeth. The
little girl sat down, checked under the bread to make sure it was
something she liked – bologna and pimento cheese – then dug in.

Athena kept an eye on Derek; his daughter’s
accusations obviously stung. He leaned against the wall next to the
window, his hand over his eyes and his back to the room. Elizabeth
had started on her second triangle of sandwich before he turned
around and came to where she sat.

He knelt on one knee next to her and put a
hand on the back of her little chair. “Elizabeth, I’m very sorry
you saw that. I’m even more sorry that I did it.”

Startled, Athena glanced at him, but he kept
his eyes on his daughter. “I never want to hurt you, and I don’t
want to ever make your mum cry. I hope you’ll forgive me.”