The Legacy (37 page)

“We will never lose each other, baby.” He caresses her
face gently. “We will have a long and happy life together, and
we will be together even after that. I know we will.”

Cisely nods, smiling at the conviction she hears in his
voice “I believe you.”
They stand for a while longer in silence. “Are you going
to be all right?” he finally asks.
“I’ll be fine. As long as I have you I will always be all
right.”
He kisses her, feeling her smile against his mouth. “You
will always have me,” he whispers, deepening the kiss, wanting
more than anything to take her back to the hotel and lose
himself in her arms.
“I guess we should go and get the boys,” Cisely says with
a longing sigh.
“I suppose,” he agrees with a smile, taking her hand. “I
only hope the young ladies watching all those hyper little
people have not gone crazy.”
She laughs. “I know what you mean.”

We find Ingo sitting with some of the children who are
still waiting for their parents. They are at a small round table
putting together some puzzles.

“It is time to go,” Adagio says, kneeling down. He takes a
moment to watch how quickly Ingo is able to fit the pieces
together.

“Did you two have a good time?” I ask, caressing his hair.
“We had lot’s of fun, Mama, and lots of good food, too.”
I laugh. If there is one thing our kids have an absolute

appreciation for, it's food. Standing, I look around the room.
“Where’s Phillip?”
“I don’t know,” Ingo answers looking around as well.
“Excuse me.” I approach one of the girls in charge of
watching the children. “Where is Phillip?”
She looks surprised by my question. “We thought he was
with you.”
“What do you mean you thought he was with us?”
Adagio asks, standing and moving next to me.
“Well, a woman came and took him. She said you asked
her to bring him to you. She told us she was your wife’s aunt
and it was okay.”
My blood instantly chills. Adagio reaches for my hand.
“What woman? What did she look like?” I fight to keep my
voice calm and the feeling of desperation in check.
The girl looks at us nervously. “She was a large black lady.
She said she was Velma’s mother.”
The violent pounding of my heart increases. “No! God,
please no,” I whisper frantically. “Please no!”
I turn to Adagio just as the color drains from his face. He
bolts through the door and I trail close behind him. We race
through the halls, frantically calling Phillip’s name, shoving
doors open throughout the building. Running back into the
main hall we find employees putting chairs and tables away.
The reverend is also still here.
Adagio’s voice is shaky. “Has anyone seen our youngest
son, Phillip? The girls said a woman took him claiming to be
bringing him to us, but we never saw her.”
The women in the room gasp. One of them nervously
approaches us. “I saw a heavy set woman leaving a good while
ago and it looked like she had a child, but . . . I didn’t stop to
question it.” She places her hand over her mouth. “I’m so
sorry.”
The room slowly begins to spin before my eyes. “No, not
my baby,” I whisper as my legs give out and everything goes
dark.

Adagio catches her before she hits the floor.
“Cisely!” he cries as tears fill his eyes. He lifts her in his
arms, cradling her against him, his insides tearing in two.
“Someone call the police! Please, hurry!”

I come to before the police arrive. They immediately
begin questioning the girls, as well as a few of the employees
that are still here. Two other sets of officers begin a search of
the building and surrounding areas. One of the officers, a
female, takes Ingo into another room and tries to keep him
occupied while her partner, Officer Ed Payne, gets as much
information as he can.

Adagio holds me and we both shed sorrowful tears as the
young girls tell the officer what they know. By now they are
also crying. After getting what he can from them, he lets the
girls and everyone else leave. The reverend stays, just in case he
is needed for anything.

Officer Payne turns to us. “Mrs. St. John, I need all the
information you can give me about your aunt.”
I try to calm myself enough to speak, but my emotions
are so unstable, I don’t know if I can. Adagio keeps his arms
around me, trying to give me strength. I finally pull myself
together enough to tell Officer Payne about Gladys and how
much my aunt dislikes me. Only I can’t for the life of me
understand why she would do something so awful.
By the time I have finished sharing my history with
Gladys, he has come to some conclusions of his own.
“I think this is most likely some sort of revenge on her
part. I really don’t think she will hurt your son, but I feel if we
don’t catch her soon, it will be that much harder to find her
and get him back.”
While Ed calls and has an all points bulletin put out on
Gladys, as well as a car sent to her address, I press my face
against Adagio’s shoulder and silently utter the same prayer
over and over again–that we will get Phillip back safely and
quickly. The thought of my aunt being cruel to my baby boy
brings a pain so great, I can't bear it. Never would I have
imagined anything like this happening to us. In the past, I've
seen kidnapping stories on the news and in the papers, and it
always broke my heart to think of what the family was going
through. But it has always been one of those things that
happened to
other
families. Well, now
we
are one of those
other
families. I continue to plead with God for Phillip’s return.
Adagio holds me tightly, whispering prayers of his own
into my hair. He gives Ed a wallet-size photo of Phillip as he
requested to have posted everywhere. Then we wait in silence
as the minutes slowly tick by.
About thirty minutes later, Ed is called over his radio and
told that Gladys hasn't been seen at or near her home in the
past two hours, which leads him to believe she has most likely
left town. He tells the officers to continue patrolling the area.
Then he looks at us sadly.
“Mr. and Mrs. St. John, we are going to do everything we
can to get your son back. Why don’t you go on back to your
hotel and we will keep you posted and call you the minute we
hear or discover anything.”
I turn to Adagio as tears again fill my eyes. “I don’t want
to leave here. What if she brings him back?” I know it isn’t
rational thinking, but I can’t think rationally. “We have to stay
here.”

Officer Ed Payne is saddened by the anguish on Cisely's
face and his heart is quickly filled with compassion. Having
three children of his own, he doesn’t know how he and his wife
would handle it if one of their children was abducted, and he
can only imagine what they must be going through. He kneels
in front of Cisely and speaks softly.

“Mrs. St. John, I know this is hard, but I promise you, we
will do everything we can to find your son. I really don’t think
there is a chance of Ms. Baker coming back here.” He looks up
at Adagio. “Take your family back to the hotel. We will call as
soon as we find out anything.”

Adagio nods wearily. “Come on, baby,” he whispers.
“Let’s get Ingo.”
I continue to cling to him in desperation as we walk down
the hall to get our son, tears blinding my vision. I try to dry
them before going into the room, but it is a futile attempt.
The drive back to the hotel is filled with anguished
silence. I feel like I have fallen into a deep dark hole with no
way to come back out. I close my eyes as hot tears again spill
onto my cheeks, still unable to believe one of my worst fears
has actually happened. I've constantly prayed for the safety of
our children. Now one of my babies has been snatched away
from me and the pain is too much to bear.

Adagio’s heart is in turmoil. He wishes he could turn back
time and change what happened. He wishes he would have
thought to check on the children again, but he knows such
thoughts are useless. He doesn’t know how to handle the pain,
and he continues to fill his mind with prayer.

Once we are back in our suite, we sit on the sofa, placing
Ingo between us, and with a prayer in our hearts, explain to
him what happened.