Cascade (19 page)

“
Just a second, I’m almost done,”
Jacob said. An angel holding a star lifted to the top of the tree.
The tree shimmied and shuddered as the angel settled on the top. “I
figured I should practice. Jill wants to do our tree the old
fashioned way.”

“
Your other abilities?”

“
What about them?”

Jacob walked to Delphie to hug her.

“
They’re stronger than they were,
especially since Jill’s here. I don’t know if it’s something about
Jill or if pining for her all the time made me weaker. I’m a lot
stronger when she’s around.”

“
Love will do that.”

“
I think it’s her.” Jacob smiled.
“Katy’s powers are stronger when Jill’s around. Yours
too.”

“
I’ll have to pay more attention,”
Delphie said. “Have you talked to your mother lately?”

Delphie tried to make her voice casual as if
she was curious, not desperate. Jacob gave her a long
look.

“
Stop psychic-ing me.” Delphie
used Jacob’s favorite saying back at him.

He laughed.

“
Johansen has you in a cloud,
Delphie,” Jacob said. “That’s why you feel shut off. Do you
remember feeling this way before?”

“
Not until you mention it, the
cloud started after I saw him again,” Delphie said. “And yes, I was
like this before. Even though the Goddesses supported me, and I
could see their support daily, I couldn’t hear them. Not until I
was free.”

“
How did you get free?” Jacob
asked.

“
They put Levi on some
medication,” Delphie said. “It just happened.”

“
Huh,” Jacob said. “I’m going to
try to make coffee from here. Want to watch?”

Delphie wrinkled her nose at the vision of
coffee grounds all over the kitchen. She shook her head.

“
I’m making coffee, Jake. Don’t
mess with me,” Valerie yelled from the kitchen. “I’m tougher than I
look.”

Laughing, Delphie pushed Jacob into the
kitchen.

“
I need practice,” Jacob said.
“Big objects are easy, but it’s the finer details take real
practice.”

“
You’re stronger than Levi ever
was,” Delphie said. “Thanks for the coffee, Val.”

“
Easy to do with
HANDS.”

Valerie held her hands up to Jacob’s face. He
laughed. Singing ‘I’ve got the power,’ Valerie trotted upstairs to
change.

“
You have to kick this thing,”
Jacob said.

“
I can’t,” Delphie
said.

“
You couldn’t,” he said. “You can
now. What’s the question?”

“
Why has all of this misfortune
come over us?” Delphie asked.

“
What misfortune?” Sam asked on
his way into the kitchen. He hugged and kissed Delphie good
morning.

“
All these law suits, Val losing
her movie, poor Sandy’s past coming back to hurt her, Jacob’s heart
problems, the company’s struggles, the list is pretty long. And
it’s happened all at once.”

“
I lost my baby,” Honey wheeled
into the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

“
Honey’s baby,” Delphie said. “The
doctor said the baby was fine.”

“
No genetic problems. There was no
reason for the miscarriage,” Honey said. “They’re guessing it was
because of the injury but…”

Honey shrugged then sighed. Delphie kneeled to
hug her.

“
That’s a lot of misfortune,”
Delphie said.

“
At least we have each other.” Sam
placed his hand on Delphie’s back. “That’s all that matters to
me.”

Delphie stood to hold him.

“
I think it’s
Johansen.”

Delphie’s head jerked to Jacob. Jacob poured a
travel mug of coffee for Honey. He gave her milk and poured a cup
of coffee for himself.

“
Then Johansen must die,” Honey
poured the milk into her coffee and gave it back to Jacob.
“Asshole. I don’t even know the man and he takes my baby? MJ better
not find out. He will flip out.”

“
He’s evil,” Delphie said. “He can
do things… You’d be surprised.”

“
How did he get in the house?” Sam
asked. “I thought the house was protected by white light or
Goddesses or some other thing.”

Jacob nodded to Delphie.

“
I didn’t let him in,” Delphie
said.

“
Cloud?” Jacob asked.

“
Oh God,” Delphie’s hands flew to
her face. “It’s all my fault! Just like Delbert. It’s all my
fault!”

“
That’s how,” Jacob said. “He
rides in on your guilt.”

“
I was there when Delbert died,
Delphie. Delbert did what he wanted to do, what he needed to do for
himself,” Sam said. “Surely you know that.”

“
I don’t give a shit how he got in
here,” Honey said. “I want to know how to get rid of him. I don’t
play nice when people hurt me or my family. It’s all just
bullshit!”

Honey wheeled out of the kitchen.

“
You have to let go of your
guilt.”

Jacob put his hand on Delphie’s shoulder. He
kissed her cheek then went up the stairs to his
apartment.

“
He’s right.” Sam prepared a cup
of coffee then started another pot. He turned on the burner to the
tea pot. “What would it take to let this go?”

“
Forgiveness,” Delphie
said.

“
Whose forgiveness do you need?
Celia never blamed you. Ever. Her mother always said that Delbert
did whatever he wanted to all his life. Even Celia’s weirdo sister
never thought it was your fault.” Sam pulled her to him. “I never
thought it was your fault.”

Delphie rested her head against Sam’s
shoulder.

“
Jake decorated the tree,” she
said.

“
I hope he’s not too shy to
un-decorate the tree this year,” Sam said. “That’s the real
work.”

Delphie chuckled.

“
Forgive yourself,” Sam said.
Kissing her forehead, he stepped back. He made Delphie’s green tea
then gave her the cup. “I need to keep moving.”

Delphie nodded.

“
Ask Celia to help you.” Sam
turned at the door. “If anyone can do the impossible, it’s
Celia.”

Sipping her green tea, Delphie realized that
Celia would fix this. Celia would think it was funny. She just
needed to ask. When she was a child, she never asked to be free of
Levi Johansen because she didn’t know she could. She didn’t know
life without him. She knew life now.

Delphie jogged up the steps to her apartment.
Sitting back down on her meditation bolster, she lit the candles
and restarted her incense. Closing her eyes, she
whispered:

“
Celia, help me lift this
cloud.”

The silence was deafening.

CHAPTER
SIXTY-SEVEN

You’re not God

Two weeks later

Monday morning —– 7:30
A.M.

“
It’s Ok to drop me here,” Nash
said. He shifted as if to get out of Aden’s moving SAAB
sedan.

“
We can go another block, Nash,”
Noelle said from the back seat.

“
That’s not school property
either,” Sandy said. “Plus the windows are dark. Who’s going to
know the contraband drop off?”

“
I don’t want you to get arrested
or something,” Nash said.

Sandy laughed.

“
Look, there’s Teddy. That’s his
guardian, Andy.” Nash pointed to the bodybuilder and the boy
walking on the sidewalk. “Have you met him?”

“
I’ve met Captain Ramirez,” Sandy
said. “Should we stop here?”

When she pulled to the curb, Nash jumped out of the car.
Sandy watched the large man and the boy turn to greet Nash. She
smiled at how happy and excited the boys were to see each
other
.
For all the chaos of the last few months, Nash
had landed on his feet. His grades were good, he enjoyed school
again, and he had a nice friend. She was about to pull away when
Nash tapped her side window. The window was half down when he threw
his arms around her neck.

“
Love you, Sandy. Thanks for
taking me and… being my Mom.”

And he was gone. She watched him run off to be
with Teddy. Sniffling back her tears, she and Noelle waved as she
drove by.

“
We’re both really happy you’re
going to be our Mom, Sandy,” Noelle said.

Looking in the rear view mirror, Sandy nodded
to the girl.

“
That was the best Christmas I’ve
ever had,” Noelle said. “Everything was perfect. And mostly that
was ‘cuz you were there. Dad’s nice, you know, but he’s just a Dad.
He doesn’t think of decorating or pretty packages or stockings or
special breakfast or friends or clothes shopping or parties or… He
thinks of boy stuff, practical stuff. Not nice stuff.”

Sandy pulled up to the Marlowe School. Noelle
came around the car for a hug and a kiss.

“
See you tonight, Mom!”

Noelle waved then ran up to the school.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Sandy sat for a moment after Noelle
entered the Marlowe School. With a sigh, she pulled away from the
curb.

She was about a block away when she saw her
biological father walking up the sidewalk. She wasn’t sure why he
surprised her so much. He lived a couple of blocks from the school.
The sight of him brought shivers down her spine. Her heart raced
and her breathing was tight. She turned on the next street to get
away from the sight of him.

Pulling over, she dialed the number the child
pornography unit gave her. They assured that they were moving on
her father soon. Don’t worry Sandy, they said. We have people
tailing him. This will be over soon.

Soon.

~~~~~~~~

Monday mid-day — 12:05
A.M.

“
Sir? If you could follow
me.”

The nurse led Mike and Valerie into a small
comfortably decorated room. There was a love seat, a television
with DVDs stacked around a player and a variety of
magazines.

“
You know what to do?” The nurse
asked.

Mike nodded. Valerie plopped down on the love
seat.

“
Very well. Leave your sample in
the slot.” The nurse pointed to a box in the wall with a metal door
attached to the other side of the wall. “Click this switch so we
know it’s there. We’ll take care of the rest. The doctor will see
you when you’re done.”

The nurse closed the door. Mike shifted back
and forth then blushed.

“
I thought you did this all the
time.” Valerie said.

“
Yeah, Val, I’m perpetually
masturbating in doctor’s offices,” Mike said.

Valerie laughed.

“
Can’t stop myself. I have two
obsessions – the Captain Crunch and masturbating in doctor’s
offices.”

“
Ooh, I’m not on your obsession
list,” Valerie said.

“
Why do you think I masturbate so
much?”

“
I thought you did this here
before,” Valerie said.

“
I did,” Mike said. “They had to
check motility and health and count and whatever the fuck
else.”

“
And?” She unzipped his
pants.

Mike slapped at her hands.

“
I can’t talk to you about jerking
off and do it at the same time.”

“
Oh, okay.” Valerie leaned back on
the love seat.

“
As you know, my test results were
excellent. I have good fast moving healthy sperm. I told Candy and
she was like ‘Why don’t you just come over then?’ And…”

“
And?”

“
I am happy to donate,” Mike said.
“I don’t want to be involved.”

“
Oh,” Valerie said.

“
Kinda grosses me out,” Mike said. “Candy was pissed. Well,
you saw how she was at Christmas. Jazmyne came up with this
alternative. I give a sample and they will put it in tubes or
whatever. Candy and her wife can do what
they
want to
with them.”

“
Sounds like you’ve thought this
through,” Valerie said. “Why are we here today?”

“
You wanted to see the fertility
specialist, so I made an appointment for us. You know kill two
birds.”

“
I took all those blood tests last
week,” Valerie said.

“
Today is our consultation,” Mike
said.

“
Oh,” Valerie said. “If we have to
do this, will you be grossed out?”

Mike groaned.

“
What?”

“
If we have to do invitro or
whatever, I want to be involved,” Mike said. “It will be my
baby.”

“
Oh. Good,” Valerie smiled. “Can I
help now?”

“
I hope so.”

~~~~~~~~

Monday mid-day —– 12: 36
P.M.

“
Hey Jill.” Delphie tried for
casual. She didn’t want Jill to know that she’d been pacing in
front of the door waiting for her. “How was your first day of
school?”