LEXI BLUM

“What daughter?” Iris asked again. “Please, Lexi. How on earth could Harriet have a daughter?”

How do you tell your elderly mother that her dead friend gave birth to, and then lost, a daughter? Lexi sat close to Iris on the sofa and put both arms around her mother’s frail body.

“I made Dad tell me everything,” Lexi said. “How he had Harriet fired, and that led to her being called before that subcommittee. How Harriet showed up at the hospital threatening him and he had her committed. How he kept her quiet with psych meds. How she tried to kill herself and eventually succeeded.”

“I know all that, dear,” Iris interrupted. “What about the daughter?”

“Two years after Harriet was locked up in the hospital, she got pregnant. Dad couldn’t find out if she was raped or had consensual sex.”

“How could she consent if she was imprisoned, drugged?” Gloria asked.

“Just because a person is incarcerated doesn’t mean they can’t still have the full range of human emotions,” Gandalf said quietly.

Lexi looked at Gandalf. What did she mean by that? Was she talking about consent, or something else?

“It was probably rape,” Evelyn blurted. “I was raped at that hospital just a few years later. It was a horrible place!”

Gandalf scooted her chair closer to Evelyn and took her hand.

There didn’t seem to be any way to further respond to Evelyn, so Lexi continued. “Dad made sure Harriet had good prenatal care, decreased her meds to protect the baby during the pregnancy. The baby was born, a girl, and they took her away.”

Iris cried out. “Oh, poor Harriet! I wonder if she ever got to see her baby, hold her. Do you suppose she understood what was happening, or was she so doped up she didn’t know?”

Lexi squeezed her mother’s shoulders. “I don’t know. Probably, Harriet never saw the baby. Dad arranged for her to be adopted.”

“When was the baby born?” Iris asked.

“September 1958.”

Gloria made a strangled sound in her throat, as if she started to speak and cut herself off.

Iris looked at her. “Are you all right, dear?”

Gloria nodded and stroked Canary.

“Dad wasn’t sure of the exact date,” Lexi continued. “She was adopted by a local family. He kept track of the girl for years, until she went to college. He tried to access the adoption papers a few years ago but was told they were destroyed in a fire. He says that’s all he knows.”

Iris was silent, then asked. “Do you know her name?”

“No. No other details, Mom. I’m sorry.”

A gust of wind rattled the old basement windows and the women sat quietly, listening.

“I’ve been thinking about ghosts,” Evelyn said. “The new woman in Number Five believes that our ancestors, our community elders, stick around to watch over us. Maybe all the people, all the women, who lived and died here are still around. Maybe they’re in this room with us. I can almost feel their presence.”

“Like Harriet and Rebecca,” Gloria said.

The cat growled, deep in his throat.

“See, Canary agrees with me,” Gloria said.

Before Lexi could answer, the door to the hallway opened.