19.

 

Despite his protests, Sadie sent Marcus to bed twenty minutes early. She was sitting on the couch in the living room staring at the black television screen, wondering what to do next, when the phone rang, cutting through the silence in the house.

"Hello," Sadie said into the receiver.

"Hi. I'm just checking up on you." It was Gloria.

"I'm fine."

"Did Kevin come home?"

"Yeah ... to pack. Then he left again." Sadie's eyes were hot with tears. She'd cried so much that she was surprised there was anything left in her. Sammy climbed up on the couch and put his head in her lap. She buried her hand in his soft fur.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure he'll come back. He just needs some time to think," Gloria said.

"I'm glad one of us is sure. I messed up big time."

"Yeah, but you are a family, right?"

"Right," Sadie said, but she wondered if it was true. Kevin did have a point. She'd lied to him for so long that everything about their life seemed to be an illusion.

"Anyway ... I was also calling because the strangest thing happened to me today."

Sadie needed to hear a story, any kind of story, to get her mind off the wreck she'd made of her family. "Really, what?" she asked.

"I was walking back to my car after work. The streets were pretty crowded, but that's usual at that time. Anyway, I noticed the woman from the museum walking toward me."

"What woman?" Sadie asked.

"You know, the woman who was watching us in the Franklin Institute. The light-skinned woman in the business suit."

Sadie remembered her more clearly than she'd ever remembered any stranger. The woman's sleek features had imprinted themselves on her brain. "Yeah, I remember." As she spoke an image of the woman's face flashed in Sadie's mind. Her intense eyes, the hard line of her thin mouth, the way she seemed to concentrate so hard on them.

"She walked right up to me and caught hold of my arm. I raised my fist to hit her and she said, 'I need to talk to you about your son.'" Gloria paused for a moment. "I was wondering what on earth does she know about me or Jay. The only reason I didn't hit her and yell for help is because I was curious about what she might say. There were so many people around that I thought she probably wasn't going to do anything to hurt me."

"What did she tell you?"

Gloria inhaled loudly in Sadie's ear. "She told me that she is the boys' biological mother."

"What?" Sadie put her hand over her mouth.

"I didn't believe her, but she told me about where she left them. She told me that she'd been hiding in the alley when I found them. She saw me take them away."

"She could be lying."

"That's a possibility, but I talked to her for a while and I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth. She told me that she saw me and Jay at the park one day and she just knew he was one of her babies. She started showing up at the park every now and then hoping to see us. Sometimes she would. Eventually she figured out our schedule and would watch us from a distance."

"She's been stalking you. She leaves her babies behind a dumpster and now she's stalking you. No wonder she was staring at us so hard at the museum. She must be crazy."

"I don't think she is," Gloria said.

"She left her babies in an alley. Why would she do that?"

"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me. She doesn't seem crazy though. She's just a normal woman like us."

"Like us, huh?" Sadie sucked her teeth. "I'd never leave a baby in an alley. What does she want?" Sadie thought about the possibility of losing Marcus and her whole body shuddered. "Does she want them back?"

"I don't think so," Gloria said.

"What if she does?"

"Like you said, she abandoned them. She's not going to want them back," Gloria said.

"You can't be sure."

"I know, but I agreed to meet her tomorrow. I mean ... I was in such shock and I think she can give us some answers about what's going on with the boys. I just want answers."

"I don't think meeting with her is a good idea." Sadie leaned back on the couch. Her whole world seemed to be collapsing.

"Sadie, I went into Jay's bedroom the other day and he was levitating one of his toy cars. I have to find out what's going on."

Sadie remembered the blocks spinning in the air when she was there. "Really?" She tried to sound shocked.

"So Marcus hasn't done anything like that?"

"Not yet." Sadie had no idea why she was lying. It was just a habit. She'd done it for so long with everyone that she did it without thinking.

"Really?"

"Why do you think she wants to see you now? I mean, she said she's known who you were for a little while, right? So why reveal herself now? What does she want?"

"I don't know," Gloria said. "I guess I'll find out tomorrow. I'll call you after I meet her."

Sadie nodded even though Gloria couldn't see her. "Be careful. Don't trust her," she said before hanging up.

Sadie had wondered what Marcus's biological mother was like. She'd always imagined her as young and poor and possibly even drug addicted. After all, that's what women who abandoned their babies usually seemed like on the news. Their thin bodies encased in tight denim as they covered their faces against the critical lens of the television camera. She didn't hate her. Sadie pitied her because she missed out on the joy that Marcus could've brought to her life.

She got up from the couch and walked quietly down the hall to check on him. The door to his room was open just a crack the glow of his nightlight seeping out into the hallway. Sadie pushed the door open just a bit more so she could peek in, but Marcus wasn't in his bed. He hovered over his bed a few feet from the ceiling. His legs and arms drooped like he was being pulled up by an invisible string near the bottom of his rib cage. He didn't look frightened at all. His eyes were closed like he was asleep.

Sadie's heart rose up to her chest. She gripped the door frame and stood there for a moment just looking. Marcus's body was completely still. It wasn't moving up or down. It hung. Keeping her wits about her she walked up to the bed. Standing there at his side Marcus was face level with her. She reached up quietly, fearing that waking him would make him fall, and put her hands under his back. He was warm. His breathing was heavy with sleep. As soon as she touched his back she felt his body slowly start to sink down into her hands. Gently she guided him down to the bed. She pulled his sheet up over him and leaned down to kiss him on the forehead.