Pushing Up Daisies (16 page)

Daisy crawled onto the bed like a cat and dropped her weight onto the floral sheets. The fluffy pillow folded around her face, kissing her cheeks, and the fan cooled her feet. She closed her eyes and started to drift off, but then Gigi walked into the room and nudged her.

“Telephone.”

“Who is it? Don’t tell me it’s that woman again,” Daisy muttered into the pillow.

“Lani.”

Daisy bolted up with wide eyes, fully alert as if she’d had one espresso too many. She held her breath as she put the phone to her ear. Her heart cha-cha’d rhythmically as if beating for the first time. It danced its way up to her throat, begging her to pour out her affections. But she didn’t know what to say. “Well, this is a surprise,” she finally managed.

“Hi, Aunt Daisy,” Lani said in the softest, sweetest voice that Daisy had ever heard.

“Hi, sweetie. How are you?” She beamed and her eyes began to pool.

“Good. Umm…umm…are you coming home for Thanksgiving? Grandma said you might, but I wanted to be sure.”

Daisy smiled. “Well, I was planning to. Why? Do you want to see me?”

“Yes!” Lani sang. “Jay too. I just got a new Xbox game, and I’ve been practicing. I know I can beat him now. When he was here last time, he won. Oh, and now I can ride my bike without training wheels too, and my mommy said that maybe Santa will bring me a bigger one for Christmas.”

Mommy?
The sound of Lani calling Brea that cut Daisy to the core. “That’s wonderful, sweetie. What do you want me to buy you for Christmas?”

“My mommy says it’s impolite to ask for things,” Lani said, then whispered, “but I really want a puppy and a Barbie House. Don’t tell Mommy, okay?”

“I won’t…not this time.”

“Can I speak to Jay?”

Daisy held her breath, wondering if that was Lani’s real reason for calling. “I’m sorry, sweetie, Jay’s at school. Aren’t you supposed to be at school too?”

“In a few minutes, but I don’t think I’m going. My mommy’s stomach is sick again, and Daddy’s gone already. But they promised me that after Mommy has the baby, her stomach won’t get sick no more.”

“Your mother is
pregnant?
I didn’t know that.”

“Mmm-hm. I’m having a little sister. She showed me a picture. I don’t know how pretty she’s going to be, though. Her face looked funny.”

Daisy fell out laughing. Lani must’ve seen an ultrasound picture. “She’ll be gorgeous, just like you.”

“Aunt Daisy, I gotta go. Mommy’s coming, and I’m supposed to be doing my phonics stuff. I’ll see you at Thanksgiving, and don’t forget to bring Jay.”

Daisy cradled the phone and cried.

Getting out of bed, Daisy removed the folded papers from her safe and carefully straightened them. She looked at Lani’s birth certificate and wept. She’d carried Lani almost ten months, because Lani wasn’t ready to come out. Daisy remembered being anxious and uncomfortable during her overdue pregnancy. She’d wanted desperately for Lani to be born so that Daisy could breathe and be one person again instead of two. Now, she’d give anything to relive those moments, to have her daughter so close to her that they’d be as one.

She felt her muscles relax, knowing that she’d get the chance to be near her during the Thanksgiving holiday. Gently, she traced Lani’s name on the birth certificate. She wished that she could’ve been there for Lani the same way that Ms. Christine had always been there for her. But she couldn’t change the past, only look forward to the future. “I love you, little girl. Even though I gave you away, I love you.”

“Hel-lo!” Daisy yelled, trying to get Ming Li’s attention.

“We’re over here.”

Ming Li’s pungent smoke reached them before she did. “So, are we playing straight, eight-ball, or nine-ball?” Ming Li pulled on her cigar and tapped Daisy. “Scoot over and let me sit down. My feet hurt.”

Daisy looked at Ming Li’s feet. “Nobody told you to wear four-inch heels to shoot pool. And besides, I don’t want to smell that stinky cigar.”

Gigi laughed as she racked the balls, removed a pair of dice from her pocket, and chalked her pool stick. “Tell her, Daisy. Ming Li thinks that’s attractive. I keep trying to tell her. She won’t listen.”

Ming Li picked up the dice and rolled a pair of sixes. She smiled, nodded, and blew smoke in Gigi’s direction. “I never said it was attractive. And now that I think about it, I never asked you, either. Daisy, do you remember me asking Gigi her opinion about my smoking?”

Daisy smiled and shook her head.

“I didn’t think so.”

“Smart-ass.” Gigi rolled an eleven. “I’m just trying to help you out. You know the surgeon general says—”

“Ssh.” Ming Li held a finger to her lips. “I didn’t ask him, either.”

“Alright, ladies,” Daisy said as she stood up and rolled a five. “Are we ready? It’s almost noon, and I have to pick up Jay at five thirty.”

“You’ll make it in time. Have you spoken with Adonis?”

Gigi sighed loudly. “Let’s just play.”

“So you wouldn’t even hear him out, huh? How do you know he’s even engaged?” Ming Li pushed.

“I don’t have time for Adonis’s games. I have Jay, and he’s all I need. Just hurry up and take your shot, if you know how.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny. Just watch and take notes, Daisy. If you’re nice, I may just let you clean up my house today. It’s not too bad—about an hour’s work.”

Ming Li cleared the table on her first try, and then her second.
Damn.
Daisy wasn’t in a cleaning mood.

Ming Li and Gigi walked from room to room while Daisy sat on the sofa waiting. Every time they commented on Daisy’s work, she rolled her eyes. It wasn’t as if she’d had a choice about cleaning up the house. She’d lost the bet.

Daisy checked her watch. “Alright, I’m leaving. It’s after four, and I don’t want to be late picking up Jay.”

Daisy drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She’d been waiting for Jay for over twenty minutes. Doing a 180-degree turn, she searched the grounds. She bit her lip impatiently, beginning to worry. But then it occurred to her that he’d been late once before.
He’s probably on the court.
Checking her watch again, she saw that twenty minutes had turned into thirty-five.

She hopped out of her Jeep and walked toward the school entrance. A little redheaded girl who looked to be about Jay’s age was coming out the door. She looked familiar.

“Excuse me,” Daisy said. “Do you know Jay Stevens?”

“Mmm-hm. He’s in my class.”

“Have you seen him?”

“He left already. I think his mom picked him up.”

Daisy’s heart flipped. She ran as fast as she could to the office.

“Excuse me,” she said to the receptionist who was on the phone.

The receptionist held up a finger. “Just a second,” she said, then continued a personal conversation that was filled with laughter and I-told-you-sos.

“Excuse me,” Daisy repeated, louder this time.

“I said, just a second—”

Daisy reached over the counter and disconnected the call.

“Now, can you please tell me where Jay Stevens, my son, is? A little girl from his class just told me that his mom picked him up, which is impossible!”

The receptionist was on her feet in an instant. “Just a second. You need to talk to Principal Reynolds.”

“Sure thing.” Daisy followed the receptionist to the principal’s office.

“Can I help you?” a woman around Daisy’s age asked.

“Where’s my son, Jay Stevens?”

“I’m sorry. Social Services came and got him. We couldn’t stop them. They had a court order.”

“You mean to tell me that you couldn’t even call me?”

“We tried. The phone number we have listed for you had been disconnected, and they’d already taken your son away, so we couldn’t ask him. It’s not our policy to get into these matters. Our interest is the child’s well-being—”

“And that’s exactly why you should’ve phoned me,” Daisy said, then hurried out of the office.

She broke down in the car, banging the steering wheel like a drum. It was all her fault. She should’ve returned Mrs. Tompkins’s call, had promised herself that she would. But obviously, she’d let her time run out.

But why had they taken Jay? True, she’d threatened to spank him, but she’d never laid a hand on him. As a matter of fact, he’d never gotten a spanking in his life. She thought of Jasper’s family.
Has to be them.
She pulled out her phone.

She dialed Mrs. Tompkins, who informed her that the case had been assigned to someone else, and that she should call back in a couple of days.

“Well, where have they taken him? I need to see him.”

Mrs. Tompkins cleared her throat. “They won’t allow you to see him, and I don’t know to which facility he’s been taken. But I do know,” she went on, lowering her voice to a whisper, “that you should get an attorney. Possibly a Mr. Kenneth Burgess—I overheard his name a few times. Call me and let me know how it goes.”

The line went dead.

Daisy stood stuck-on-stupid for a moment, listening to dead air. Mrs. Tompkins had given her a hint. Why else would she whisper the name of Jasper’s attorney? He didn’t practice family law. Daisy dried her misting eyes with the back of her hand. She wanted to scream, break down, cry as she’d never cried before. But there was no time for tears. It was time to fight.