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GAIL HELD HER HUSBAND’S hand. They sat on the loveseat in the sitting room, side-by-side, staring at nothing. Visions of their daughter, helpless and brutalized, danced behind their eyelids, taunting in their helplessness to prevent the evil that had befallen her.
While Lexie drank lemonade on the porch with Heather and the kids, Gail told Ed what she discovered earlier in the fields. Her daughter had been raped, and this revelation had been no easier for Ed to stomach than it had been for her.
“Does she know the...” Ed paused, choking on the words. “The man who did this to her?”
Gail’s gaze slid over the old wingback chair in the corner, the cherry curio cabinet, which housed mementos and knick-knacks from a life well-lived, searching for nonexistent answers in the possessions she loved. “She wouldn’t say, but I’m guessing from the way she spoke of the baby’s father, that she knew him.”
Ed nodded, clenching his free hand.
“I keep trying to think of a way to fix this. I want to make things better for her,” Gail said.
Ed shook his head. His eyes turned dark and brooding, cast with shadows of despair. “For the first time, this is something you can’t just fix. What’s been done to our baby is something we can’t take back. It’s irreversible.”
“If I could trade places with her, I would.”
Ed nodded. He picked idly at a small tear in his flannel shirt. “All we can do is be here for her, talk to her, and listen.”
Gail spoke between clenched teeth. “It’s not enough.”
“Our support has to be enough.” Ed’s voice boomed through the room, then he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he said, “I’m sorry. I’m just so...” Words were too small for how he felt.
“I know,” Gail said, her throat thick. “I’m angry too. I’m angry for her, about what happened to her, and I’m angry for the baby that did nothing wrong, but nevertheless is going to be punished for some maniac’s sins.” She shook her head. “I wanted her to keep the baby, but how can I ask that of her now? I thought maybe even we could keep it, but I see now that won’t work either. If I were her, the child would be a living reminder of what happened. How can I ask her to relive something, so horrible, so debilitating, every time she looks into her child’s eyes?”
Ed didn’t answer because there were no answers he could give. Suddenly, nothing seemed clear anymore. Instead, he said, “She’s been so different since she’s been here, like she’s lost and can’t find her way back. I’m so afraid we’ve lost our daughter for good. Now we’ll lose our grandchild too.”
Gail’s piercing eyes narrowed on his face. “No. We did not lose her. We will not lose her. Do you hear me, Ed Dodson? She’s going to be fine. We’ll help her in any way we can. We’ll be here for her like you said, and she’ll come back to us.”
He enveloped her hand in his. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Of course, you’re right.” Ed said, though as he did, Gail wondered if she was, in fact, wrong.