Chapter Four

The next day, during the noon hour, Alex walked through the halls of Lobster Cove High School, looking for Julia Stewart’s office. The curious glances of students and teachers followed his progress, and he was pretty sure his presence here would be the topic of conversation in every coffee shop in Lobster Cove within the hour. He knew they all wondered what he was doing at the school.

He was wondering that himself.

Why was he sticking his nose into Julia Stewart’s family business? He’d never before felt so compelled to help a patient outside of the examining room, to delve into personal problems that were really none of his business. But when he thought of Ava, with her sweet gap-toothed smile and the neon pink cast on her arm, when he remembered the lost look on Dora Dawson’s face, he had no choice but to get involved.

Finally, he found an open door with a sign that read Office. He peeked inside and saw a vacant desk strewn with papers and files, and mismatched filing cabinets lined up against the wall. A couple of open doors within this outer office appeared to lead to private offices. Knocking on the frame of the outside door, he called, “Hello?”

A moment later, Julia Stewart stuck her head through one of the doors, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw him.

“Dr. Campbell, what are you doing here?”

Alex took a step toward her. “I was hoping to speak with you in private. Do you have a moment?”

She blinked a few times. “I…okay, sure. Come in.”

Julia stepped aside to allow him to enter, and then closed the door behind him. Her office was miniscule, more of a closet than an office befitting the head of a school. Her compact wooden desk was strewn with what looked like spreadsheets. Beside her open laptop, a half-eaten sandwich and an apple sat on top of a file.

“Do you always eat your lunch at your desk?” he asked.

“Not always. Only when I have a project to complete.” She took her seat behind her desk and gestured for him sit also. “But I’m sure you didn’t come here to lecture me on my eating habits. What can I do for you, Dr. Campbell?”

“Please, call me Alex.”

Her brow furrowed with a combination of surprise and suspicion. “Okay. Alex. Why are you here?”

“Because I wanted to let you know I met your mother last night.”

“Well, sure, my parents are your next-door neighbors. I knew you’d meet her eventually.”

He exhaled a long breath. How did he explain this to her? “Last night, when I got home from the hospital sometime after midnight, your mother was in my carport. She was disoriented, barefoot, and wearing her nightclothes. She didn’t remember her last name, Mrs. Stewart.”

She stared at him for a few seconds, her mouth slightly open. Then she shook her head. “No, you’re mistaken. That couldn’t have been my mother.”

“I didn’t know who she was, so I had to call the police. The officer identified her as your mother and took her back to your father’s house. I saw your dad take her inside. If you don’t believe me, check with Officer Harris. Check with your father.”

She continued to stare at him, then closed her eyes and sank back against the headrest of her chair. Bringing her hand to her face, she massaged the spot between her brows. Alex saw the tremor in her hand and the agitated rise and fall of her chest as she tried to keep her emotions in check. He wished he could say something, do something, to give her some comfort.

“I’m sorry, Julia.”

She opened her eyes and blinked at him, sitting up a little straighter. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly before speaking again.

“So what does this mean?”

“I believe your mother could be experiencing some sort of dementia, perhaps Alzheimer’s. Or maybe it’s something totally unrelated. It’s important to have her seen by a doctor. If it is Alzheimer’s, there are drugs available that may delay some of the symptoms in the early stages. At the very least, your family needs to know what you’re dealing with. I’m also concerned about your father’s health.”

“Yes, so am I.” He saw her throat work, as if she was holding back tears. “Damn it, this is my fault. I should have seen it. I noticed in the last few months that my mom seemed forgetful, but I thought that was just because she was getting older.” She took a shaky breath. “I also noticed she didn’t have the patience with Ava she used to have. I should have visited them more, seen what was really going on with them, but I get so busy with school and with Ava. I live just a few blocks away, but sometimes days, even weeks go by and I don’t see them. I should have known.”

Alex couldn’t stop himself. He came around the desk and knelt beside her chair, taking her hands in his. “It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault. It just is. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Her eyes were shiny with tears, her long lashes starred into points. A tear rolled down her cheek. Without thinking, Alex gently wiped it away with the pad of his thumb.

“Don’t cry. It’s going to be all right.”

She nodded and sat up straighter, as if trying to get herself under control. Finally she asked, “What happens now?”

“I guess you talk to your parents, convince them to have your mother seen by a doctor.”

She swallowed. “All right. I’ll do that today.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters, someone who can help you?”

“No. There’s just me. I was born to my parents late in life, after my mother was told she’d never conceive.”

“I’m sorry I had to dump this on you. I’m sure it was the last thing you wanted to hear, but you needed to know.”

“Yes.”

She carefully pulled her hand from his, signaling her wish for some space and an end to this conversation. Alex rose and headed to the door. “I’ll let you get back to work. Good luck, Julia.”

As he turned the doorknob, he heard her soft voice. “Alex?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for telling me.”

He gripped the doorknob to keep from going to her and comforting her once more. He barely knew Julia Stewart. Why should she matter so much to him?

With a brisk nod, he opened the door and left.

****

For several moments after Alex Campbell’s departure, Julia sat motionless in her chair, her pulse thundering through her head. Alzheimer’s disease? Dear God. She wanted to deny the possibility, to rage against him for telling her, but she knew he was right. She and her parents needed to face this thing, whatever it was. She could no longer stick her head in the sand and pretend nothing was wrong.

With a sigh, she reached for her phone and punched in Tracy’s number, hoping she was home today. She nearly cried in relief when she heard her friend’s voice on the line.

“Tracy, I don’t know what to do.”

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

Julia told her everything, from her mother’s strange forgetfulness to the visit she’d just had from Alex Campbell. “He says I should talk to Mom and Dad, convince them to have Mom checked out by a doctor.”

“He’s right. If it really is Alzheimer’s, you should know. You might need home care to step in to give your father a respite. His health could deteriorate if her care puts him under too much stress.”

Tracy only confirmed what Alex had already told her, yet she’d needed her view. She’d needed to hear it from someone she trusted. Listening to Tracy corroborate Alex’s opinion made it all the more real.

And frightening.

“I plan to see them this afternoon, after school. Can you look after Ava for a while? I don’t want her to overhear this conversation.”

“Sure, Ava can stay with me. I’m off today.”

“Thanks. How ’bout I buy us dinner at Maggie’s Diner later?”

“Sounds great.”

“Good, good.” She hesitated, unsure how to ask her next question. “Tracy, if my mother really does have Alzheimer’s, do you think…I mean, is it possible she could have been responsible for Ava’s injury?”

“I don’t know, Julia. Only a small percentage of Alzheimer’s patients become violent, but people with Alzheimer’s often experience a big personality change. I wish I could give you a more definitive answer, but we just don’t have enough information about your mother’s health right now to be sure about anything.”

Julia felt sick inside. How could she have missed what was going on with her parents? How could she have put Ava in harm’s way? She felt stupid for some of the things she’d said to Dr. Campbell the day of Ava’s injury. She could see now he was only concerned with her daughter’s welfare.

“I’d better run. Thanks, hon. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”

Julia set the receiver back on the phone, her gaze landing on her half-eaten sandwich. The smell of the tuna fish suddenly nauseated her. She wrapped the remains of the sandwich in the plastic wrap and tossed it in the garbage, and slipped the apple into her desk drawer, hoping she’d have an appetite for it later. With a sigh, she got back to work, forcing herself to concentrate on budgets and projections instead of her mother wandering in the dark in her nightgown.

Three hours later she finished her budget document. It was almost the end of the school day. She backed up her work and powered down her laptop. As soon as the bell rang, she’d pick up Ava at the elementary school and head over to Tracy’s before speaking with her parents.

Her stomach knotted. Would this conversation turn into a confrontation? She loved her parents. They’d been supportive and loving all her life, and had gone well beyond the call of duty during her difficult separation and divorce. She couldn’t have made it without them. Telling them of her suspicions felt like she was stabbing them in the back.

Julia had just put away her documents and pulled her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk when a knock sounded at her door. Reluctantly she said, “Come in.”

Ralph Sykes stuck his head through the open door. “Can I see you for a minute?”

Her stomach clenched. Ralph Sykes was the last person she wanted to talk to right now. But she made herself smile instead. “Of course. I have an appointment I need to get to shortly, but I’ve got a couple of minutes. Have a seat.”

He slipped into her office and closed the door. Instead of sitting, he paced the small area beside her desk.

“Ms. Stewart, you know my feelings about the daycare you’re proposing. I believe it’s wrong for our school and for our town.”

Julia suppressed an impatient sigh. “Yes, you’ve made your opinions well known, Ralph. I understand them, but I respectfully disagree.”

“I wish you’d reconsider.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not going to do that. I believe the daycare is very necessary.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “There’s opposition on the school board and in the community, you know. Some say we need a new direction at the head of the school.”

She pressed her lips together to keep from telling Ralph what a sanctimonious asshole he was. A long time high school math teacher at Lobster Cove High School, he’d been a thorn in her side ever since she’d been hired as principal three years ago. He’d felt the job should have gone to him, and he had his supporters in the community. For the last three years, he’d done everything in his power to undermine her authority.

She measured her words carefully. “I’m aware of that, Ralph. I’ll do everything I can to make parents more comfortable with having a daycare for the children of students at the school. But as I said, it will be in place in the fall.”

For a few seconds, their gazes locked in a silent battle of wills. Julia wouldn’t give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing her blink first. Finally Ralph looked away.

“I don’t like the idea of my Chloe being exposed to talk of sex out of wedlock and everything your daycare implies.”

Julia nodded. The news was hardly a surprise. Ralph’s sixteen-year-old daughter Chloe was a good student, and a sweet kid. She often babysat Ava. But she was socially awkward, which made her a target for teasing that often bordered on bullying. Julia had stepped in on a couple of occasions when she’d witnessed Chloe being harassed in the hallways. Having a father who was a teacher at the school, one that most of the students thoroughly despised, didn’t help her cause.

“I understand your opinion.”

“I’m considering organizing a petition against the daycare. If we get enough votes, we can take our views to the school board.”

Julia narrowed her eyes. Bring it on. She kept her voice calm.

“That’s your prerogative, of course.”

He gave her a small smirk. “I thought I should warn you.”

She dipped her head. “I appreciate it. But perhaps I should remind you that the push to create a daycare in the school to encourage students with young children to continue their education didn’t come from me initially. It came from parents and members of the community. And I’m sure they won’t let it go without a fight.”

The smirk disappeared. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“I guess we will.” She hoisted her purse onto her shoulder. “Now, if there’s nothing else, I really have to be going.”

Ralph gave her a brisk nod and left her office. Julia exhaled slowly, closing her eyes and willing her heart rate to slow down. Just what she needed. Another battle to fight.

****

“Alejandro! Mi querido! How is life in the north country? Is there still a lot of snow?”

Alex grinned. His grandmother began every phone conversation with a question about the weather. Having lived all her life in either Mexico or southern California, she was morbidly fascinated with snow and blizzards and temperatures below freezing, probably because she’d never experienced any of those phenomena herself.

“All the snow is gone, Nona, and has been for a while now. It’s spring now. The grass has turned green and the tulips are blooming. And it’s raining every other day.”

He found the changing of the seasons in Maine fascinating, though he could have done without the changing from fall to winter. Not only the landscape changed, but people’s attitudes. The coming of spring brought optimism and hope to the residents of Lobster Cove. Just when they were at the end of their endurance, just when they thought they couldn’t stand another nor’easter, spring arrived with a warm breeze and the smell of warm, damp earth in the air.

“Esto esta bien. That’s good.” She cleared her throat. “I spoke with your mother yesterday. She said she hasn’t heard from you in a while.”

Alex sat up straighter, immediately on high alert. “I guess it’s been a while since I called. She could call me, you know.”

“She has. She says you never answer your phone.”

“I’m busy, Nona. I’ve got a full slate of patients at the clinic, and I do two shifts a week at the ER. I don’t always have time to chat.”

“You’re avoiding her.”

“No, I’m not.”

His protest was met with silence. He could almost see Nona’s face. Her lips would be pursed in disapproval, her eyebrows raised in a ‘Who do you think you’re kidding’ expression. The thought almost made him smile.

Almost, but not quite.

“All right, fine. I may have not picked up one time when I saw her number on my call display. But in my defense, I was really busy.” He didn’t add that he was busy doing laundry, not working. He just hadn’t been in the mood to listen to a lecture.

“You need to talk to her, Alejandro. She misses you.”

“Believe it or not, Nona, I miss her, too.”

His mother had been upset with him for taking a posting so far from home when he’d had the opportunity to do basically the same job and work off the same amount of student debt closer to home in rural communities in New Mexico and Arizona. But after a visit to Mount Desert Island and the towns of Bar Harbor and Lobster Cove, he’d decided to accept their offer. The place was so different from southern California, so peaceful, so uncongested. There was no rush-hour traffic on the island; nothing on the island was in a rush, including the traffic. Being on the ocean, albeit the cold North Atlantic, was a point in Lobster Cove’s favor, too. He didn’t think he could live anyplace far from an ocean.

Of course he’d seriously questioned his decision after experiencing his first winter on the island. He’d managed to survive, but he wasn’t keen to experience it again.

His mother had wanted him to stay in San Diego and had been disappointed that he hadn’t gone into a specialty like cardiology or plastic surgery, something that really brought in the bucks. All his life she’d been obsessed with climbing social and economic ladders.

“Then you’ll call her?”

“Yes, I’ll call her soon. I promise.”

“Good.”

With that out of the way, they chatted about members of his extended family, events in the news, and other miscellany, until his grandmother declared it was nearly time for her weekly card game with her friends.

“I’ve got to run, Alejandro, but I’ll call you soon. Te quiero.”

“Te quiero, Nona. I love you, too.”

Alex grabbed some clean towels and jumped in the shower. As the steaming water melted the stress of the day, he wondered how long he could postpone a conversation with his mother.