Year of the Monsoon (34 page)

“Sure. I can be there in twenty or thirty minutes?”

“That’s fine.”

Leisa finished writing a social history on a new child who had just come to St. Joseph’s, and then went up to Maddie’s office.

“Come on in, and close the door,” Maddie said.

Leisa did as she was bidden and sat down.

Maddie cleared her throat then said nothing. She cleared her throat again before saying, “I’ve been thinking about you and Nan and Mariela.” She paused again.

Leisa frowned. Maddie never had this much trouble expressing herself. “What about us?” she asked.

Maddie looked her in the eye and said, “If you and Nan are ready to seriously consider adopting Mariela, I will allow weekend visits.”

“What changed your mind?”

Lyn had come into the living room, and picked up the remote to turn the television off.

“What is it?” Maddie asked as Lyn sat down beside her on the couch, tucking her legs under her.

“You know that I never interfere in your work, or the decisions you have to make,” Lyn began. Puddles jumped up onto the back of the sofa, placing herself easily within reach of some petting. “But this time, I think you’re wrong.”

Maddie turned to her. “About what?”

“About Nan and Leisa. And Mariela. I know they’ve been through a rough patch, but they’re back together. They seem to be through the worst of their problems.” She placed a hand on Maddie’s knee. “They both risked their lives to save her. They could easily have been killed that night, and they did it willingly. I don’t know why I feel so strongly about this – maybe it’s seeing Nan warm up to a child for the first time; maybe it’s Mariela herself. There is just something special about that little girl.”

Maddie thought about this. “There is something about her.” She sighed. “I think maybe you’re right. Watching Nan do the right thing with Todd, hard as it was, made me wonder if I’d done the right thing.”

“They’ll have Jo Ann and Bruce, and us, as extended family,” Lyn reminded her, relieved that Maddie had already started to reconsider her decision.

Maddie smiled and placed her hand over top of Lyn’s. “Are you ready to be an aunt?”

“What changed your mind?”

Maddie pursed her lips for a moment. “You and Nan mostly. Mariela partly. Lyn some.”

Leisa grinned. “Feeling a bit besieged?”

“A bit,” Maddie replied, grinning also. “But,” she added, her grin fading, “I do want you and Nan to talk seriously about this. I don’t know if I should tell you or not, but Mariela has been praying for this. She even asked Linus for advice. It would break her heart if this started and then ground to a halt for some reason.”

Leisa nodded. “I couldn’t do that to her. If we can’t go into this ready to make a commitment, we won’t start.”

The doorbell rang and Gimli scrabbled to get to Jo Ann who was coming in carrying a large shopping bag.

“No,” she said, laughing as she bent down to pet him. “This isn’t for you.”

Leisa came into the foyer. “What’s all this?”

Jo pulled from the bag a stuffed bear and some children’s books. “I didn’t know what grade level she’s reading at, so I got a few classics for her library.”

“Her library.”

Jo and Leisa turned around to see Nan who looked ill.

“What’s the matter?” Jo Ann asked. “Are you sick?”

Nan shook her head and went back to the kitchen.

“Jitters,” Leisa said. “She sat down and looked at our finances and started panicking about what it will cost to send her to college.”

Jo’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t you think you should bring her home for her first visit before you start planning for her college expenses?

Leisa smiled. “Yeah. Most people would do it that way, but I think Nan is trying to brace for this by having everything planned out ahead of time.”

Jo laughed. “If she figures that out, tell her to write a book.”

They walked back to the kitchen where Nan was sitting over a cup of tea. Jo sat and laid a calming hand on Nan’s arm.

“I only got to share long-distance in my sister’s anticipation of bringing Leisa home,” she said to them. “But I know she and Daniel had all the same fears of doing something wrong, not being able to give her everything they wanted to, but they figured out – and you will too – the only thing you can control is the love you give her. Love is always enough.”

“Love is always enough.”

Nan repeated that to herself Saturday night as she stood leaning against the doorjamb, peering into the guest room where Mariela was sleeping.

Leisa had brought her home after work on Friday and introduced her to Gimli. They’d had a quiet dinner, just the three of them and had watched some television before putting Mariela to bed.

“Will you be okay in here by yourself?” Leisa asked as she tucked Mariela in.

Mariela nodded.

“If you need anything, our room is right next door. You come get us, all right?”

Nan got up three times that night to check on her.

“I think she’ll be fine,” Leisa whispered sleepily as Nan got back into bed.

“I know.”

“So will you. Now go to sleep.”

Most of Saturday was spent over at the Gallagher house. Jo Ann and Bruce were ecstatic to have Mariela with them for the day. They invited Maddie and Lyn over for dinner and played Go Fish and Old Maid most of the afternoon. Gimli entertained himself with a new squeaky toy.

“I didn’t even remember these games existed,” Nan said after losing her fourth hand of Old Maid.

“These were Leisa’s old sets of cards from when she was little,” Jo said nostalgically. “I never thought we’d have another child here playing with them.”

Mariela hugged Jo and Bruce when it was time to leave. “What time is church tomorrow?” she asked Leisa and Nan as they walked home.

“Um,” Leisa stammered as she and Nan locked eyes. “How about if we go to Father Linus’s Mass?”

“I couldn’t tell her we don’t go to church,” she whispered to Nan a few minutes later when they got home and Mariela was playing in the bathtub. “Linus is the only priest I think I could stand. But I don’t even know what time his Mass is.”

“Hang on,” Nan said grimly. She picked up the phone and dialed Lyn and Maddie’s house. “All right. We now have a – hold on,” she said, turning to Leisa. “How old is she anyway?”

“Um, we’re not sure, exactly. The doctor thought she was five or six.”

“Okay, we have a six-year-old kid who expects us to go to church tomorrow. I’m not even Catholic. What are you going to do about it?”

Leisa could hear the laughter from where she sat.

“Yes… okay… all right.” Nan hung up and turned to Leisa. “They’re picking us up at eight-thirty.”

Chapter 25

DURING A BREAK IN
between clients, Nan checked her cell phone to see a missed call from her parents’ number. Apprehensively, she called them back.

“Dad? I saw you called. What’s up?”

“It’s your mother,” Stanley said.

“What about her?”

“Well, a couple of months ago, she was stopped by the police.”

Nan closed her eyes. “Again? What was her blood alcohol level?”

Stanley didn’t answer immediately.

“Dad?”

“Point two.”

Nan’s mouth opened and closed a few times. “Point two? I wouldn’t even be able to stand up at point two. Did she hurt anyone?”

“No,” he said quickly. “She just hit a curb. Anyway,” he pressed on before Nan could say anything further, “the judge ordered her to rehab.”

“You didn’t get her off this time?”

She could hear her father breathing. “I couldn’t,” he said, but she knew he had tried, like he had done a half-dozen times before. “Anyway, she’s been there for a week, and I thought maybe you would want to come home and –”

“No!” Nan pressed her hand to her eyes. “She’s starting to call you, isn’t she? Begging you to bring her home.” She took his silence as confirmation. “Dad, she needs to stay there the entire prescribed period. I’ll be here if you need to talk, but I am not coming home.”

“He’ll give in,” she said to Leisa a few hours later when she got home and repeated the story to her.

“Your mom has been in rehab before?” Leisa asked, looking up from an array of papers spread out on the kitchen table.

“A few times,” Nan said, reading the papers upside down. “But he always caves and gets her out early. What are you doing?”

“The home assessment,” Leisa sighed. “Maddie arranged for another agency to do it. Since I work at St. Joe’s, they can’t assess us.”

“How can I help?” Nan asked as she sat.

“Funny you should ask,” Leisa smiled. She held out a form. “Your family history.” Nan made a face. “Maybe it’s a good thing they’re three thousand miles away.”

“Speaking of which,” Nan said as she accepted the form from Leisa. “How much are you going to divulge about the biologicals?”

It was Leisa’s turn to grimace. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I really need to include them at all since we don’t have contact with them.”

Nan noticed for the first time what Leisa was wearing. “Did you go to the gym today?”

“Yes, on my way home.”

“I keep meaning to ask you how things are with Sarah since your talk with her,” Nan asked casually, pretending to be concentrating on the form she was filling out.

“And I keep meaning to tell you, I haven’t seen her,” Leisa replied, not fooled at all by Nan’s nonchalance. “At first, I thought we were just there at different times, but then I overheard one of the staff telling a member that she’s gone to another gym.”

Nan looked up in surprise. “Do you think it was because of you?”

Leisa smiled guiltily. “I hope so.”

The telephone rang, and Leisa reached for it.
How many times,
she wondered later,
is our life going to be disrupted by this damn machine?
She seriously considered unplugging every phone in the house.

“Leisa?”

It was Eleanor.

“Yes?” Leisa responded warily.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Leisa answered, more suspicious than ever. “What do you want?” she asked, deciding to take the initiative.

“Well, I wanted to see how you were doing,” Eleanor said lamely.

Leisa thought she heard Donald’s whisper in the background. It gave her the courage to say, “The only time you and Donald care about how I’m doing is when you want something from me.”