We all stared at him
and he continued gazing down at the picture on his phone. His hands were shaking and his eyes glistened
with a hint of tears. He took a deep
breath as if trying to push everything down, trying not to fall apart with all
of us right there watching.
“David,” Will said,
standing and walking over to him, “why don’t you have a seat.” David didn’t move, so Will gently held his
arm and started to guide him toward the sofa.
“Come on, just sit down right here, and then we can all talk and try to
figure this out.”
David nodded and sat
down next to me. I took one of his hands
in mine and he turned toward me. “I
didn’t know,” he whispered.
“Wait a minute,” Dr.
Cowart said, as he and Will both took their seats again, “you mean you had no
idea you were adopted?”
“No…I knew
that. I always knew that. My sister and I were both adopted, and our
parents always talked to us about it.
No, what I mean is I didn’t know about Amelia Davis, her baby, any of
this.”
Will asked the next
question. “So finding your birth mother
was not why you came here?”
David looked at
him. “I didn’t know anything about my
birth mother. The adoption records were
sealed, and I never really tried to get access to the information. I mean…I was curious. Of course I was curious, but I had a family
and I was happy, so I was willing to wait.
What brought me here was something else, something I needed to
investigate.”
“So what did bring you here?”
Again he glanced
over at me, the only person with whom he had shared that information. He seemed to be searching for some advice,
but I had none to give him. “If you want
to tell them, that’s up to you,” I said.
He looked at Will,
then at Dr. Cowart, and shook his head.
“No. I can’t get into all of
that. I only told Sarah because she
started guessing some stuff. She’s the
one who made the Amelia Davis connection in the first place. But anyone else would think I was crazy. I’m sorry, I know you’re all curious.”
Dr. Cowart came over
and patted David’s shoulder. “Don’t
worry about that, son. Your business is
your business. You have the right to decide
who you tell and don’t tell.”
David nodded. “Thank you for that.”
I was confused about
one thing. “Um, David. You said you didn’t come here looking for
your birth mother. You mean you didn’t
suspect at all that that’s what you’d find here? That that was the meaning of all of…of
everything?”
“Maybe I
suspected. I don’t know. I think it was in the back of my mind, but it
wasn’t my main reason for coming here.”
“And then when I
told you about Amelia…and the baby..?”
“Yeah, I started
putting some things together then. But I
wasn’t sure. I mean I thought that…if it
was true…I thought I’d know.”
“And now you know?”
He smiled, and I was
glad to see he was starting to relax a bit.
“Know? How can I know? We’ve got these baby pictures, but newborn
babies have a way of all looking alike.
So it’s still hard to tell. But
yeah, I’m pretty sure now. I mean it
explains everything, right?”
“What do you mean it
explains everything?” Dr. Cowart asked.
“You mean you have an idea who killed her?”
David shook his
head. “No, I don’t know anything at all
about that. But it explains…things.”
“Okay,” Dr. Cowart
said, “you don’t have to say anymore.
You already told us it was private, so we’ll just back off and let you
do what you need to do. But if you need
any help, feel free to ask.”
“I’ll keep that in
mind. Thank you.”
Will stood up
then. “Well, on that note I think it’s
time for me to go.”
“Don’t feel like you
have to,” David said. “I mean I’d like
to tell you more…It’s just that…”
“Oh, no, it’s not
that. I just need to be on my way. I’m going over to Jenny Morris’s for dinner
tonight.”
“Jenny Morris? Really?” I said, standing up.
Will laughed. “Yes, Jenny Morris. But you can’t tell Mom.”
“Wow, first beer,
now a secret girlfriend. You’ve got a
regular double life going on.”
“No, it’s not like
that. We’re not dating—not really. We
just hang out in the evenings sometimes, and she offers to cook for me—which is
good because a man can only survive on frozen pizza for so long. But really, there’s nothing going on. I haven’t even kissed her. But I don’t want Mom to know because you know
how she gets. She’ll have the entire
wedding planned before I even have time to propose.”
“And will you propose?”
“Come on Sarah! I just said I haven’t even kissed her. We’re really good friends, that’s all. Would I like more? Maybe.
And maybe she does too, but we work together so we don’t want it to get
weird.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll keep your dirty little secret, but
you’ll owe me.”
“I’ll remember
that,” he said, hugging me. “Bye,
Sis. Bye David, Dr. Cowart.”
David stood at this
point and came over to shake Will’s hand.
“Goodbye Will. It looks like I’m
going to be staying here for a while now, so I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah, see you
around.”
He picked up the box
that he’d set by the door and left, and then David and I said our goodbyes to
Dr. Cowart. We walked out to the car and
David drove me home.
After we pulled up
in the driveway, I said, “Would you like to come in?”
He shook his
head.
“Are you sure? You haven’t had dinner yet, and when my mom’s
not bringing home piles of leftovers from the restaurant, she’s cooking enough
food to feed an army.”
“No, I’ve got some
stuff I can heat up, so I’ll just go now.”
“Are you okay?”
He looked at me and
those beautiful dark eyes once again seem to penetrate all the way into the
depths of my soul. We just gazed at each
other for a long time and then he smiled—that smile that spoke to me in ways I
could not begin to understand. Nodding,
he said, “Yes, I’m okay. I just need to
be alone with all of this, to sort some things out in my head.”
“Okay. Just come and see me again alright? I’m officially involved in this now, so I
want to know what you find out.”
“I’ll keep you in
the loop, don’t worry. Bye Sarah.”
“Bye David.”
But I didn’t get out
of the car right away. With my heart
pounding in my chest I took a chance and leaned over to kiss him on the
cheek. Then without saying another word
I opened the car door and sprinted up the driveway and into the house.
******
My mind was so full
of thoughts as I lay in bed that night that I have no idea how I managed to
fall asleep. But somehow I did. I slept and I dreamed—of rivers and old
gnarled trees, of blood and death and abandoned babies. I dreamed of David. I saw him standing on the riverbank looking
out over the water. He looked over at me
and held out his hand. I took it and we
smiled at each other. We seemed to float
up and up and up until the whole world disappeared and it was just me and
him. Then he let me go and I was
falling, but of course in dreams you never hit the ground so the next thing I
knew I was back in the clearing by the old tree. And I saw a foot sticking out from under a
bush. Amelia Davis’s foot. But when I pulled back the leaves to see what
was there, it was not Amelia’s body that I found. It was David’s. His lifeless eyes looked at me and through me
and I tried to scream but there was no air. And then he grabbed my wrist and
sat up. He put his face close to mine
and shouted one word. “Help!”
My eyes shot open
and I was in my room again, safe and sound.
My heart was racing and I was wide awake. I tried to calm myself down, to tell myself
that it was just a dream, but then I heard it again. It was like a whisper but at the same time it
was so loud it made my ears ring.
“Help!”
It was David’s
voice.
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