Chapter 5

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Life went on as usual for the next two weeks.  Long tedious days waiting tables, uncomfortable evenings trying to avoid arguing with my parents, and constant curiosity about the mysterious stranger who had invaded our little town.

For those two weeks I did not see David at all.  I was beginning to think he had gone back home, but my father said at dinner one evening that he had seen him going into the library.  I waited patiently.  I knew that if he was still in town he’d have to come into the restaurant eventually.  Or maybe I’d see him while I was out and about one day.  I could only hope.

That hope was the only thing that kept me going.  The only thing that made my new life in my childhood home bearable.  It was ridiculous and I knew it, but I couldn’t help the way I felt.  There was something that drew me to David in a way that I could not put into words.  The way he made me feel when he looked at me, the way my heart raced whenever he was around, though I somehow felt relaxed and happy at the same time.  I felt as though I could actually be myself around him and he would understand, which was also ridiculous.  I had spent, what, half an hour with him?  In that half hour he had told me virtually nothing about himself, and I had not opened up to him very much either.   And then there was the mystery—the riddle that I tried day and night to figure out in my head.  What in the hell was he doing here?  What did he want?  And why was he not telling anyone about it?

And then one morning Dad casually mentioned that he was meeting David again for lunch.  My heart leapt, but I said nothing, embarrassed about how I felt, how obsessive I was becoming.  I was just glad I was going to be working the lunch shift.  Maybe I could finally find some answers.

All morning I watched the clock, waiting for David.  My friend Gina didn’t know what to make of me.  Several times she had to nudge me out of her way as she tried to do her job, and she was constantly reminding me that I needed to clean up this table or bring food to that table.  She was generally a pleasant person and did not seem annoyed with me, but I know she was darn curious.

“So what is it…you got like a hot date you’re waiting for?” she asked when she caught me staring at the clock for about the hundredth time. 

I blushed.  Date?  In my dreams.  “I’m just preoccupied today, that’s all.”

“Well, I’m just glad your dad took the morning off.  He doesn’t tolerate slow service around here, and I wouldn’t want to be around when he got going on you today.  I mean, I like fireworks and all but I don’t like being that close to them.”

“It’s okay, Gina.  And I’ll get back to work now.  I’m off in a couple of hours anyway, so I think I can tough it out until then.”

“Just make sure you do and…” her voice trailed off as she glanced out the window.  “Oh shit…your dad just drove up.  I gotta get back to work.  Hurry and look busy.”

“Sure thing,” I called after her as she disappeared into the kitchen.  But it was hard to keep my word, knowing that the only reason my dad was there was to meet with David.

Seeing my father coming up the walk I quickly made myself busy tidying up a recently vacated table near the door.  I watched him out of the corner of my eye, trying to see where he was going to sit.

What he did was odd.  He walked all the way to the back of the room and sat down at a table with Big Mack and his son Benny.  What in the world?  Ignoring the voice that was screaming inside of me to go over and ask what was going on, I went about my work.  What made matters worse was that Gina was already waiting on Mack and Benny, so there was no good reason for me to be near their table at all.

David came in a few minutes later, briefly nodded a greeting in my direction, and then scanned the room.  Big Mack saw him first and waved him over.  He took his seat next to my father, and Gina handed him a menu.  A threw myself into my work, hoping that one time as I passed their table I would catch a little bit of what they were saying, but with the lunchtime rush the restaurant was too noisy.  I would just have to ask my dad again after David left.

And then my brother showed up.  Just as David had done, Will smiled and nodded at me and then headed straight for the table in the back.  He had to pull another chair over and then he too joined the odd little group that was having lunch at Rick and Rhonda’s that day.

What is this, a freaking conspiracy? I asked myself, feeling more than a little offended that my father and brother had been invited to this luncheon while I had been left out.  And what the heck did Mack and Benny have to do with it?  Okay, Big Mack I could understand.  If David was interested in learning about the river, then Benjamin MacPherson was the one to ask.  He had spent more time there than just about anyone I knew.  But Benny?  Will?  There was something off here, something that simply wasn’t adding up. 

And then it hit me.  The details came together in my brain all of a sudden, and I knew.  Or at least I had a theory—the only theory that made any sense.  I knew I couldn’t very well go over there while they were all talking.  My dad would just tell me to get back to my job.  But maybe they would still be there when my shift ended, and I could catch David alone.  Just for a minute.  Just to ask him if what I was thinking was correct.

I cleared my last table of the day and they were still there.  I walked to the back room to punch my time card and hang up my apron, and when I came back they were still there.  I took a seat at a table and asked Gina to bring me a Coke, and as I sat and drank I watched them.  Will left first—he had to get back to work.  Then my dad said goodbye and walked back to his office.  Finally Mack and Benny stood up and David stood to shake their hands.  That’s when I made my move.  He was reaching into his wallet to leave a tip when I slid into the seat where Benny had been.

“I figured it out,” I said.

He gave me a confused look, but didn’t seem annoyed because he sat back down.  “Figured what out?”

“Why you’re here.”

With a hint of a laugh he said, “Somehow I doubt you’ve figured that out.”

“No, I have.  It didn’t make sense until I saw the five of you together.  You, my dad, Will, Benny, and Big Mack.  And the river.  It all makes sense.  The Amelia Davis case!”  He did not respond right away, so I went on.  “You’re here to solve it, aren’t you?  And you think that there was something supernatural going on and that’s why the police could never figure out who did it.  But you know.  Or you have an idea.  Am I right?”

He stared at me in stunned silence for a moment, seeming to collect his thoughts before answering.  Finally he shook his head.  “I’ve never heard of Amelia Davis,” he said, punching an enormous hole in my theory.

“Oh, come on,” I continued, not ready to give up yet.  “You have to know that story.  Everybody in town knows that story.”

He smiled, and I felt relieved to know I was not scaring him off.  But he shook his head again and said, “That’s just it though.  I’m not from here, so I don’t know.  But I won’t say it’s not why I’m here.  There’s a lot about why I’m here that even I don’t understand, so maybe you could tell me the story.”

I didn’t know what to make of his answer, but I ignored it and went on.  “Well, I don’t know all of the details because it happened a few years before I was born.  But what I do know is that it was my dad and Will and Benny and Big Mack who found her.”

“What happened to her?”

“Well, it was weird because…hmm…okay let me start at the beginning.  I think Will was around five or so because it was the first time my dad had taken him fishing.  They met Big Mack and Benny down at Mack’s little cabin on the river, and took boats out into the water.  And they went a good ways down the river, way out where there’s no houses or anything.  And then Will—I think it was Will—heard something.”

David seemed really interested now.  “Heard what?”

“He heard a baby crying.”

“What?”

“Yeah, a baby.  So of course you hear a baby crying in the middle of the woods you’re gonna go investigate, which they did.  They pulled their boats up on the bank and started looking around.  And there were a lot of bushes and things so it was hard, but like I said, it was a baby in the middle of the woods.  So they kept looking and then finally—and I don’t remember who saw it first, but somebody saw a foot sticking out from under a bush.  Now Will doesn’t remember much about this part because they wouldn’t let him get too close, but my dad and Big Mack went over there, and it was her.”

“Amelia Davis?”

“Yes.”

“Alive?”

“No.  She was dead, but there was this baby curled up in her arms.  And the baby was alive.”

“So how did she die?  And what was she doing in the middle of the woods with a baby?”

“She had been stabbed.  They knew that was how she died.  But why she took a baby way out in the woods like that I don’t know.  Everybody’s best guess is that she must have been running away from someone.”

“Who?” David looked pale.  This story was affecting him more than I had expected.

“That’s the thing.  Nobody knows.  They never arrested anyone, and they finally stopped looking.”

“And the baby?  Was it her baby?  What happened to it?”

“Look I don’t know all that.  Like I said, it was before I was born. Are you sure that’s not the reason you’re here?”

He looked at me for a while, as if he had something he wanted to say but didn’t quite know how.  Then finally, “I told you…I’m not really sure why I’m here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

He laughed.  “No it doesn’t.  But here I am.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I, but I’m trying to.  And this Amelia Davis thing just makes it that much more confusing.  But somehow it makes a lot of sense at the same time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well I’m not really sure how to explain it, but you see…I’ve been dreaming of this place my whole life.”

That was the very last thing I expected to hear him say, and assuming that he meant it metaphorically, I immediately scoffed, “Really?  I would think most people dream of getting out of this place.”

“No,” he said, looking straight into my eyes with an intensity that I could almost feel on a physical level.  “I mean I’ve been dreaming of this place.  Of the river, your dad and brother, Mack and Benny.  I’ve seen all of them…in my dreams.”


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