CHAPTER SIX
Worth
Auggie seemed to have resolved, at least for the time being, the sadness that had shadowed her lately. She’d never known a hard life and genuine sorrow. She simply didn’t have the coping skills. This made me feel guilty. Not only had I made the decision that had brought this on, but I was a trained professional who should have been able to help her deal with it. I couldn’t even help myself deal with it, and I wasn’t nearly as empathetic as she was.
Mark had reported that the neighbor had been spotted watching Carlos Acres again. It was hardly a criminal offense, but it bothered me a bit that he’d chosen to watch from afar rather than drive right in and introduce himself. That indicated he had some reason for maintaining secrecy.
I’d asked around town and among our friends. No one had met him. They didn’t even know what he looked like. I had nothing more than Mark’s vague description to go by, and I didn’t want to question him too thoroughly, or he’d get spooked. I’d decided to let it lie but keep my ears open.
I was working at the clinic in town that day. My cell rang, and I saw that it was Walter, Auggie’s dad.
“Hey!” I greeted him upon answering.
“Worth, it’s your mother.” The words seemed to be pushed from her throat. “She’s sick. We’re at Norton’s emergency.”
My hand tightened on the phone. “I’ll be right there.”
I tapped Auggie’s number, and she answered on the third ring. I could tell she was out of breath. “I was just changing from my barn clothes; we’ll meet you there.” She spilled out the words. Evidently her father had called her as well — perhaps hoping to have her soften the blow if she was with me.
I arrived at the emergency room and found Walter sitting in a corner, his legs crossed at the knee, his hand patting his thigh. It was a nervous gesture. “How is she?” I asked as soon as I was close enough for him to hear me.
“Worth, sit down and catch your breath. She’s having a scan right now. They haven’t told me anything and kicked me out when the attendant came to get her.”
“What happened?”
His face pulled in on itself, and it took a few moments for him to answer. “I heard a thud when she was in the shower this morning and when I got in there, she was lying on the shower floor, passed out. I called the ambulance and dressed her as well as I could before they got there. She never woke up. Just went limp.”
“How long ago was this?”
Walter looked at his watch and looked upward, calculating. “About a half hour ago, I’d say. She did come to in the ambulance, but she just looked at me. I don’t think she recognizes me, Worth. There was no smile, no reaction of any kind.” His voice was heavy with sadness.
My heart beat hard inside my chest, so hard I could hear it in my ears. Mother was the last of my side of the family. I’d lost my brother, or at least the man I’d been raised to believe was my brother when he died in a car accident at sixteen. My father had taken his own life just after Auggie and I were married. In a screwed up turn of events, the man who proved to be my biological brother died at Ford’s hand. Filled with vengeance for having been switched at birth, he kidnapped Ford, and the boy had defended himself. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
I stood up, patted Walter on the hand and went off to see if I could find a doctor or someone who knew more. While I didn’t have privileges here, the medical community was relatively intimate and moved from hospital to hospital routinely.
They were just bringing Mother back from imaging when I caught up to her gurney. I smiled and patted her hand, but she showed no sign of recognition. I was staggered. How could I lose her all in the space of a few minutes?
Auggie showed up in the corridor. “The kids are with Dad,” she told me and looked for me to give her good news. All I could do was shake my head.
“She didn’t acknowledge me,” I said, still unable to believe the dead eyes that had peered out of her living face.
“Maybe she was groggy,” Auggie prevaricated for me, hoping to sidestep the obvious.
I looked into Auggie’s eyes and shook my head. “It’s not good,” I said and took her hand as we went into Mother’s room. “Go get Walter and the kids.”
We stood in a semi-circle around the foot of Mother’s bed, each of us crying and touching her leg or arm. Her eyes were closed, and she looked peaceful. We spoke quietly to her, each offering a story or funny memory.
It was while we all stood around her that she inhaled one last time. We all waited. Waited. Waited for her chest to move, the small hiss of air to escape her nose. It didn’t. Before our eyes, the mother I adored slipped away.
Walter looked as though he could no longer stand and I sent Marga to get a wheelchair for him. He was a proud man, however, and shook his head, rejecting the aid.
“Take them home,” I whispered to Auggie, and she nodded and gave Mother one last look before she shepherded them out of the room.
I sat on the side of Mother’s bed for some time, holding her hand as it lost heat and stiffened. I’d never been a religious man but found it impossible to believe that the vibrant, loving woman I’d known all my life had simply disappeared into the ether. Her soul had to be present, somewhere, some place.
They brought me papers to sign and even though rightfully Walter should have been doing it, I was also a next of kin and took the responsibility on myself. Her wishes were to be cremated, and this would be the last time I would see her loving face. I bent and kissed Mother’s cheek, and for a moment, imagined that her mouth curved upward in a faint smile. It was only muscles contracting, but it was comforting to think otherwise.
I said my goodbyes and left. It was time to go about the business of grieving. Margaret LaViere Langford had passed into her next existence.
***
We held a service outdoors, in a park where Mother had adopted a garden to tend each summer. We were surrounded by her beauteous legacy, as well as our memories of her. The twins were brave, but tears ran down their cheeks. There were hundreds of additional flowers and plants from friends and neighbors she’d had over the years; both from her side and from Walter’s. Mark made it his business to go through and gather all the cards and then we sent the flowers on to Sunset Village, the retirement home Auggie had adopted and converted into a haven for retirees. I wondered momentarily whether they realized their bounty was a result of someone’s death, but perhaps they no longer feared the end as I still did.
Walter stood up well through it all. Auggie was by his side the entire time. The daughter had become the parent as we are all eventually prompted to do. He stayed with us at our house until Auggie and the twins had a chance to go through Walter and Mother’s house, packing up her clothes and personal effects, putting them into storage. No one was ready to throw anything away just yet. There would always be time for that.
Nearly a week after Mother’s death, the family stayed at the dinner table after dessert had been cleared away. We had a stack of thank you cards to send and thought it would be better if we split up the job so no one person would be overwhelmed. There were almost three hundred cards. Mother had been well-loved in the community. Walter was little help. His hand shook too much to write legibly, and his heart simply wasn’t in it. The rest of us finished our stacks and then decided to move out to the porch to look at the stars. Mark held me back by the arm as I went to leave the room. Puzzled, I saw an urgency on his face and stood still until the others cleared the room.
Mark closed the door to the dining room and held out a card. Puzzled, I took it and read, Goodbye, you will be missed. ~Hawk Sansabri
Confused, I looked at Mark to explain why he’d kept this card out of the stack. “I don’t understand, son. Who is it? One of Mother’s friends?”
“It’s him,” Mark whispered. “The man who’s been watching us. I saw his name on the mailbox.”
A cold chill shot down my back. “Just a neighborly thing to do,” I told Mark, and he cocked his head as though he wasn’t fully in agreement, but he nodded and left to join the others.
I stood for a while and looked out the window to the west, wondering why this man seemed so interested in what went on at Carlos Acres. I thought of my brother, Linc, who had now been dead some fifteen years. He’d left a debt to the mob in Chicago. Were they coming to deliver their bill?
The next day, I put in a call to my old friend, Bill Daughtery. He was retired now but had done some detective work for me in the past. I gave him Sansabri’s name and asked him to look into it. He agreed and said he’d get back with me if he found something.
A week later, I hadn’t heard anything from Bill. I tried calling him, but his phone went unanswered. I left a voicemail. A few days later, I received a call from Bill’s wife and learned the stunning news. Bill had died of a sudden heart attack while on the golf course. Shaking, I expressed my condolences and hung up. There was no one I could trust who I could turn to now. No one alive who knew the whole story. I had no choice. I would just have to sit and wait.
Auggie
I worried about Worth. He was taking his mother’s death in a very strange way. I’d seen many people grieve. My time helping at Sunset Village had exposed me to plenty of that. No, what Worth was displaying almost appeared to be fear. I asked him about it several times, but he only shook his head, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and said to give him time. I had no choice but to do as he asked.
Dad took all my attention now. With Margaret gone, he had no one to be with him and to occupy his time. Many of their friends here in Kentucky had passed on. He seemed so forlorn. I approached Worth about it.
“Worth, I’m not sure how to ask this, but Dad isn’t doing well at all. The weather will be getting colder soon, and I don’t think he’ll do well here through the winter. As much as I don’t want to leave you at a time like this, you have the kids, and he needs me. Would you be okay for a while if I took him to the Florida condo and stayed a few weeks?”
Worth immediately nodded. “Of course. I’m fine. I’m no stranger to this, and I’m far younger than he is. I agree. In Florida, he will have more friends his age and, who knows, maybe he’ll latch on to someone and still enjoy a bit of life. Go any time. Let me know and I’ll charter a jet to take you down.”
I nodded. When we’d had the entire chain of clinics, we’d owned a private jet, but Worth seldom travelled now so it wasn’t practical. “I think we’ll leave on Sunday.”
“Good girl,” he agreed, “I’ll take care of things.”
“Well, there’s the farm and the business to look after,” I pointed out tentatively. “But I’ll only be gone three weeks.”
“We’ll be fine. I have Mark and Marga. They run things almost as well as you do and I’ll pitch in if they need me. Go and take care of your dad.”
Dad and I boarded the jet that weekend, and he settled into his seat with a sigh.
“You okay?” I asked him.
“Yes, honey, I’m fine. It’s just been a long haul, and I’m not as young as I used to be,” he confessed, although I knew what lay behind it.
“Dad, when we get down there, I want you to check into Mayo and have a complete physical,” I asked, knowing he would resist.
“That’s not necessary,” he answered as I’d expected.
“Dad, I’d feel better. I’ll be only staying for three weeks, you know. Then I have to get back. I want to know you’re in good shape before I leave. Please do this for me.”
“Very well,” he said, appeasing my anxiety. He knew by now it was easier to give in to me than to argue.
We landed in Florida and Worth had a limo waiting for us to go to the condo. It was a huge place, way too big for one person. I made a promise to myself that I’d bring the entire family down to stay for a couple of weeks during the winter. I needed to find someone to manage the farm for me in my absence. It would take a while to break them in, and the twins would be leaving for college in less than two years.
Dad and I settled into our rooms, and I talked to the housekeeper who was always in residence. I ordered some good old comfort food for the next few days and then called the doctor to schedule Dad’s physical.
We walked down to the Gulf together and sat in lawn chairs by the water, watching the sun settle for the night. We talked about many things; beginnings and endings. I was surprised when my Dad talked about my mother at length, recalling the good days when they’d been young and first married. There was more to her than I’d ever realized and I was glad he could remember those days, for it helped to fill the loneliness. It gave me pause to consider what my own life would be like if something ever happened to Worth. I couldn’t stand the thought of it.
Dad’s physical took two days overall, but he got a clean bill of health. The news made me feel much more comfortable about leaving him behind on his own. We went to dinner with friends he and Margaret had made, and he received their condolences with fortitude. I felt better knowing he wouldn’t be entirely alone after I went back to Kentucky.
I took some time to myself while I was there. I laid on the beach and got a tan. Shopping took up a few days, and I was rather excited to get home and show off my new wardrobe. With all that was going on at the farm, I seldom took the time to be a woman. Worth would appreciate my new clothes probably even more than I would.
Most of all, Dad and I spent our evenings relaxing. It felt really good to be lazy for a change.