She couldn’t think about it because she didn’t want to scare Cal by being angry herself.
She couldn’t think about it because who knew how Benjamin would handle Marie having one of the boys disappear.
But Cal would be safe.That was all Glenda could think about.
So she focused on her steps.On getting up to where Gerald had said he’d be camping tonight.He’d be able to protect Cal.He’d know what to do.He always did.
When he was sober.
“It’s only a little while longer,” she assured Cal.
Then she began to hum her favorite lullaby, calming them both.She’d hummed it to her babies—dead and the one who’d survived.She’d hummed it to her grandson and her granddaughter—both of who she didn’t get to spend enough time with.She’d hummed it to Cal and the other boys any time she helped Marie out with them.
Because she remembered her mother humming it to her and her brothers… before Mama had been sent away.A tragedy best left in the past.Like all of them.
As she got closer to where Gerald had said he’d be camping, breathing heavily and worry and fear pounding through her, she heard raised voices.Shouting.
Gerald had said he’d needed alittle alonecamping trip.She stopped for a moment, as the realization stung.He’d lied.
Because she recognized the other voice.Daryl Everly.
Bad news, that man.She tried to keep the sudden fury off her face so Cal didn’t pick up on it.Why couldn’t Gerald see that man was only after strife?
No time to worry about it now.A little boy was at stake.Gerald and Daryl would have to set their childish bickering aside.
Cal came to a sudden, dead stop and wouldn’t be dragged—and since his arm was hurt, she didn’t want to drag him.
She smiled down at him.“Come on, honey.Just a little ways.I bet Gerald has some marshmallows.”
Cal just stared at her—but she didn’t think he saw her.His eyes were wide and glassy like he was somewhere else, but he was trying to pull his arm away—away from the angry voices echoing from the trail above.
Glenda understood in this moment.He was afraid.Because in his life angry voices meant a hurt arm and a hurt mother.
Her heart just broke for him.But broken hearts didn’t protect anyone, that she knew.
“Okay, it’s okay.”She looked around, saw the mouth of a cave just up the trail a little ways.Protection.Safety.She gently pulled Cal over to it.“You sit right here.Keep nice and quiet.”
Obediently, the boy did as he was told.He edged into the dark of the cave.Then sat, cross-legged.He put his hands over his ears.
Glenda had to blink back tears.She crouched in front of him, gently took one hand off one ear.“I’ll stop the yelling, and then everything will be okay.Okay?You only have to stay put and wait.”
The little boy looked up at her in a way that gave her a cold shiver.She recognized that dead-eyed stare.She saw it in her husband too many times to count since he’d come back from Vietnam.
What had he seen?Endured?She couldn’t think on it now.She had to get to Gerald and find a way to get Cal out of here.
“Shh.It’ll be okay,” she assured him one more time, then left him in the cave.
She’d interrupt Gerald and Daryl’s argument, bring Gerald home.He’d know what to do about Cal once he was away from Everly.
Before she’d gotten a few steps, the gunshot rang out.
She ran toward it.Panic.Terror.
All of it crashing into the center of her chest when she reached the little clearing and saw Gerald on the ground.
She shoved that memory away.The terror.The sobbing.Managing to get Gerald down to their cabin so she could call an ambulance.She’d tried to hide Cal away in the house, but Marie had heard the ambulance and came and collected Cal.
Taken him back to that nightmare, calmer then, sure she could handle Benjamin.Always so sure.She hadn’t been wrong.It had taken another ten years before Benjamin had killed her.
