Katy looked up at her. “That’s very helpful.” She turned to Pippa. “So what about Wendell do you like?”
The meeting continued another hour, and then Katy did give Pippa the art supplies. “Pippa, can you draw me a picture of you and Aunt Candace?”
“Why?” Pippa asked. “I’m really good at butterflies.” Julia had to hide her smile.
“I would love a butterfly!” Katy said. “But right now I need two pictures. They don’t have to be fancy or big. They can be simple. But they need to be on a different page.” Julia watched as she pulled two sheets off the sketchbook and labeled one “Pippa and Wendell” and another “Pippa and Aunt Candace.”
While Pippa worked, Katy motioned Julia aside. “I’m a little thirsty. Maybe we could get a drink of water in the kitchen?”
Again a trick, but Julia followed. She liked Katy and wanted to trust her, but she was not going to lay any more hopes in any basket the state of Connecticut was holding. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked, cutting to the chase.
Katy took it with no offense. “Mr. Combs has petitioned the court for temporary custody. I assume you know that?”
So he had gone through with it. Julia nodded, ignoring the flutter in her chest. She would not let herself go there. Not yet.
“It’s procedure for me to come out and meet with children and get a sense of what they want. At Pippa’s age, of course we want to talk with her and hear about her feelings. They’re important. But she is also very young, and we typically give more weight to older children, like yourself. You have more experience.”
“And more say?” Julia interrupted.
Katy smiled tightly. “No one has all the say. That’s why I’mhere, to listen to everyone and then combine everyone’s wants with what is best for their needs. Is there anything you’d like me to add to your thoughts today that perhaps you’d feel more comfortable sharing alone?”
Julia did have more to share, but since her experience in the courthouse during the hearing, she didn’t trust Katy or anyone else to take her seriously. She glanced back at Pippa in the living room. As she did, her eyes fell on the family portrait above the fireplace. Painted just two years ago, from a photo taken at her mother’s forty-fifth birthday celebration. It was the four of them posing at the edge of the yard, with the orchard in the background. Each one connected by a hand here, an arm there.
“Anything at all,” Katy urged her. “Speak from your heart.”
And Julia began.
Thirty-ThreeWendell
Wendell had not liked being in court the first time, just a few weeks ago. He liked being there even less that morning. But he wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Judge Bartlett got right down to business. “Good morning, everyone. I have a full docket today, so let’s get started.” He looked up. “Since our last meeting in the petition for emancipation for Ms. Julia Lancaster, the girls have split their time between the home of Mr. Combs and their family home with their aunt, Ms. Lancaster. I want to hear how that has gone. Ms. Blake has been assigned by the court to report on the children’s behalf.” He looked up at the GAL and removed his glasses. “Ms. Blake, would you please share your findings with the court?”
As Katy Blake stood before them, sharing the details of her interviews with everyone involved, Wendell’s ears burned. He listened with an intensity that belied the calm look he knew he wore. And as he listened, memories pulled at the corners of his mind. Wendell thought about the kind of parents his own had been. About his childhood with Wesley and how much had changed at the loss of their mother. How Alder, a man of such physical fortitude and moral direction, had been reduced in both size and capacity. As a first selectman to Saybrook. As a father to Wendelland Wesley. And later, to just Wendell. He watched the blond back of Julia’s head as she sat listening in the seat just in front of him, beside her attorney. He noted the erectness of her posture. The rigidity of her gaze when she turned to whisper to Jamie or glance at Candace, several seats over. Wendell wondered how she could sit there knowing that everything said in this room on this summer morning would make up the next few years of her young life. It was these thoughts that kept him glued to his seat when every other fiber in his being told him to run. Wendell cared too much, he realized. He was here not just out of duty to a man who’d taken him under his wing and hired him. Nor out of a sense of longing for the family he had lost. He was here because of what the girls meant to him. For the first time in years, Wendell was doing something forhimself.
“Will you please show the court?” the judge asked.
Wendell watched as Katy Blake stood before the room holding two pieces of paper, one in each hand. He squinted. They were drawings.
“I asked Pippa to illustrate two pictures: one of her and Wendell Combs, and one of her with her aunt, Candace Lancaster. This is the result.”
In one picture were two stick figures, standing apart. The larger one’s arms draped by its sides. The smaller one held a flower. There was a blue sky.
In the second picture were the same two stick figures, large and small. There was also a third figure, medium-sized. And what looked like a big brown dog but Wendell realized was a horse. A rainbow streaked overhead. The hands of all three stick figures were linked.
As Katy Blake sat down and Jamie Aldeen stood to speak, Wendell found himself unable to hear. He was too busy trying to swallow the hot tears that were spilling down his cheeks. Heswiped at them, trying to focus. Jamie was saying something about the wishes of the children. Wendell already knew those wishes as if they were his own.
When Candace was questioned, Wendell felt his insides simmer as they did before an episode. He cleared his throat and made two strong fists. He had to keep the panic at bay.
At some point, Wendell heard his name. By then, sweat was seeping through his button-down shirt, drenching his underarms. He shook his head, collecting himself. “Excuse me, Your Honor?”
Judge Bartlett was staring at him. Candace and Jamie Aldeen had turned to look at him, too. Julia did not.
“I asked, Mr. Combs, if you have anything you’d like to add.”
“To add, Your Honor?”
“Yes. Is there anything you’d like to tell the court about the custody arrangement this past week?”
