Shadow Moon, page 2
It wasn’t like I was dying to make out with Cory, but I figured one little pity kiss wouldn’t kill me. I also knew it was up to me to make it happen. I positioned my lips about two inches from his and smiled. Not exactly subtle, but I figured Cory needed encouragement after my reaction to the lunge.
He took the hint, cupped my face in his palms and gave me the sweetest, the most innocent kiss. It was like getting kissed on the playground in kindergarten, a huge relief because I didn’t want to feel what I felt with Junior or Beck.
The first thing I saw when we broke apart was Charlie grinning into the rear view mirror. He pulled up to the curb in front of Corey’s house, jumped out and opened the door, still smiling. When Cory scrambled out, I heard Charlie say, “Way to go, man.”
Cory leaned back into the car. “Thanks for going to the dance with me, Allie. I had fun.”
“Me, too. See ya Monday.” I was trying to strike the right note here. I liked the new Cory and hoped the makeover would last, but I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea. I had a feeling he wanted to be more than friends.
At midnight, Kizzy and I were drinking cocoa in her kitchen. She wore a turquoise silk robe that matched her eyes. Her hair was unbraided and fell in soft waves across one side of her face, concealing the scar high on her cheekbone. The scar was a vivid reminder of the time she’d been beaten almost to death by a Trimark trying to get his hands on the moonstone.
The silver streaks in her dark hair caught and held the light, reminding me how much Kizzy had aged since that incident. A swell of almost unbearable sadness rose in my chest. How much longer would I have Kizzy in my life? She was more than my friend. When things got bad at home, Kizzy was my sanctuary, my safety net. I couldn’t imagine life without her.
Her remark a split second later jolted me out of my gloomy thoughts. “Did your young man kiss you good night?”
I felt my cheeks warm up. “I can’t believe you’re asking me that.”
“I’m not dead yet. Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be sixteen.” When I didn’t answer, she said, “Well, did he?”
Other than my embarrassment, I had no good reason to lie. I looked into Kizzy’s sparkling eyes and nodded. “Yeah, he did. Nothing big, but it was okay.”
Apparently satisfied she’d extracted all the information I was willing to give, Kizzy moved on. “What about the search for your sister? Any news?”
I lifted my hands in a helpless gesture. “It’s like she’s disappeared without a trace. Dennis McCarty said it’s the weirdest thing he’s ever seen.”
Dennis McCarty, a fellow Star Seeker and FBI agent, popped into my life every now and again. When Faye had given me the green light to search for Anna Starr, Dennis was the first person I’d contacted.
Kizzy removed her glasses and polished them with the hem of her robe. “If the FBI can’t find her, I don’t suppose anyone can.”
“Dennis said the adoption papers Faye signed were probably a fake.”
“This happened when you were newborns, right?”
“Just six weeks old,” I said.
“And nobody knows what happened to Anna? Did your mother try to find her?”
“Yes, she tried all the agencies. No luck. She’s always thought Grandpa Claude sold the baby for lots of money.”
“No wonder she despises him.” Kizzy slipped her glasses on and shook her head sadly.
Even though it was just the two of us in the house, I lowered my voice and leaned toward Kizzy. “My mom doesn’t know this, but I called Grandpa Claude. I told him I knew I had a twin sister and asked if he’d meet me somewhere so we could talk about it. He said, ‘That chapter is over,’ and slammed the phone down.”
“So, it’s a dead end.”
I nodded.
Kizzy said, “Don’t give up hope. Maybe she’ll come looking for you.”
I had a sudden visual of a horrified Anna Starr discovering her mother and sister lived in a twenty-four-foot travel trailer parked next to a cow pasture. “Yeah, maybe she’ll want to move in with us.”
Kizzy straightened in her chair. “Wait a minute. What about the nurse who took care of us after the Trimark attack? Maybe she knows somebody who worked on the maternity floor when you two were born.”
“You mean Nurse Haugen?”
“Yes, Haugen. That was her name.”
“I’m sure Dennis talked to the hospital people.”
“It’s worth a try, Allie. And really, you have nowhere else to start.”
She was right, of course.
The following Tuesday, Charlie pulled up in front of Vista Valley Regional Hospital’s main entrance. The sky was the color of lead. Snowflakes swirled in the icy wind blowing down from the Cascades.
He pointed at the back of the parking lot. “I’ll wait for you back there. Take your time.”
I hesitated, hand on the door handle.
“You okay, Allie?” Charlie asked.
I swallowed hard. “A lot of bad memories.”
Charlie reached over and patted my arm. “Sorry, I forgot. You and Kizzy were here after the Chris Revelle thing, huh?”
I nodded, unable to speak. Kizzy had almost died here, and I’d spent a week at Regional recovering from injuries inflicted by Chris Revelle, an evil Trimark. All because of the moonstone.
In spite of the frigid weather, I walked slowly to the hospital entrance. As I opened the door, my hand flew to the moonstone to make sure it was on the correct setting and lying adjacent to the silver cross hanging on a separate chain. It was. Therefore, anyone trying to take it from me would get zapped, big time. I tucked it inside my shirt. Chill, Allie. Breathing deeply, I made my way through the maze of corridors that led to the cafeteria where I would meet Nurse Haugen.
The cafeteria was crowded with visitors and hospital personnel on their break. Nurse Haugen was easy to spot. Most hospital workers were dressed in scrubs or casual pants with matching shirts. Not Nurse Haugen. Her tall, lean frame was clad in a crisp, white uniform and starched hat. She stood out like a snowball in a field of colorful wild flowers. Lifting a hand, she waved me over to her table.
I slipped into the chair and eyed the plate of macaroni and cheese on the table. I chirped, “Hi Nurse Haugen. How are you?” I remembered from my earlier stay she liked to be called Nurse Haugen, not Ms. Haugen
Her narrow lips twitched, Haugen’s version of a warm smile. “Allie Emerson. Here you are again, like a bad penny that keeps turning up. Over and over.”
I know. That sounded really cold, but her words were softened by the twinkle appearing briefly in her icy blue eyes. That and the fact she remembered I liked Regional’s macaroni and cheese.
Haugen pointed at the mac and cheese and ordered, “Eat, then we’ll talk.”
I knew better than to argue. She sipped coffee and watched until I’d cleaned my plate. Satisfied I wasn’t nutritionally deprived, she folded her hands on the table. “Now, what is all this about a twin sister?”
I filled her in quickly, mostly repeating what I’d told her on the phone.
“Why do you want to find her? She may not want to be found,” Nurse Haugen said. “That is her right, you know.”
I couldn’t tell her the real reason. I was dying to know if my sister had powers like mine. When I’d asked Faye why she’d named my twin Anna Starr, she’d said, “She had a tiny star-shaped birthmark on her bum,” which led me to believe Anna might also be a Star Seeker. Of course, there was the whole faery issue as well. Anna had a right to know she was part faery. But I couldn’t tell Haugen that part either.
Geez, why hadn’t I thought about this earlier?
Stalling for time, I picked up my napkin and wiped my hands. In doing so, my gaze fell upon the tiny crescent moon on my palm, the mark binding me to Luminata, known as The Good Queen in Boundless. Proof of my faery blood. Aha! Light bulb moment.
I straightened my spine and stared into Nurse Haugen’s piercing eyes. “I have to find her because she needs to know her medical history. When I was in the hospital before, my mother was so freaked out she forgot to mention she has a special condition, passed down from mother to child. I don’t have it yet, but it’s possible I could develop it later. Anna might have it too.”
Not an actual lie.
Nurse Haugen frowned. “What kind of condition?”
I waved a hand. “Oh, it has a real long name. I don’t remember exactly what it’s called. Guess I should have written it down.” Forest Faeryitis?
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I assume your mother knows what it’s called. Why didn’t she come with you?”
“She had to work. She’s a waitress at Bea’s Honey Pot Diner.” Besides, she doesn’t know I’m here.
I spent the next ten minutes describing the shady circumstances around my sister’s supposed adoption. Haugen finally caved when I convinced her that unless I found Anna, her family would have no way of knowing her medical history.
Haugen dug out a cell phone from her pocket and punched in a number. “Janie? Would you please bring Lily to the cafeteria?” Then she hit the end button. “My friend, Lily, was a maternity nurse here when you and your twin sister were born. Word of warning. She has Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t remember much.”
Chapter Three
Lily DeMarco, stick thin and frail as a baby sparrow, clutched a humongous handbag and shuffled to our table led by her caregiver, Janie. I jumped up and pulled out a chair. Lily recoiled sharply, gazing back and forth between me and the chair as if trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe she was.
“It’s okay, Lily,” Janie said, helping her into the chair. “Look who’s here. It’s your old friend, Arlene Haugen. You remember Arlene.”
Lily gripped the edge of the table and studied Nurse Haugen. She shook her head slowly and then turned to me. She held out a trembling hand. I swallowed hard and enclosed her hand in both of mine. Lily was probably my last best hope for information about my sister, but the sadness I felt was for Lily, not myself. Alzheimer’s had robbed her of her career and stolen her mind. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.
“I’m Allie,” I said softly. “One of your babies.”
A light sparked in her dark blue eye. “My babies.”
Deep in my heart, a glimmer of hope sprang to life.
Nurse Haugen said, “Allie has some questions to ask you.”
“I just found out I have a twin sister. We were born on May 5th, sixteen years ago. I was hoping you might remember something that would help me find her.”
Lily didn’t answer. She stared intently at the moonstone. “Pretty,” she said.
I took her hand and placed it on the moonstone. The light in her eyes flickered and went out. Her hands dropped to her lap and her head drooped.
Janie said, “Her memory comes and goes. Maybe if we chat a little, something will ring a bell.”
While Janie and Nurse Haugen chatted, I scooted my chair sideways until Lily, Janie and I formed a lopsided triangle. Lifting a napkin to wipe my chin, I slipped my other hand beneath the napkin and turned the moonstone in its setting. Could I read a mind afflicted with Alzheimer’s? Plumb the depths of her memory? Maybe not, but it was worth a try.
Sometimes I saw auras when I looked into people’s minds. Such was the case with Lily DeMarco. It was like driving through dense fog, peering through the windshield to make sure you’re still on the road. The fog was tinged with red and swirled through her mind, ebbing and flowing. I could feel her frustration as she struggled to make sense of her surroundings. Once in a while, the fog would lift and a word would float by. Hospital? Book? Babies? Pictures?
Pictures? Hold on! Had Lily DeMarco taken pictures of newborns when she worked in maternity? I flipped the moonstone back to its original setting and waited for a lull in the conversation before I asked Janie, “Do you know if Lily took pictures of the babies she helped deliver?”
Janie shrugged. “I’ve only been taking care of her a few months. She might have.”
I turned to Lily who was staring at her giant purse. She mouthed the word, “Pictures.”
A little thrill of excitement shot through me. “Maybe she keeps the pictures in her purse.”
“Maybe,” Janie said, “It’s not my job to look in her purse.”
“Is it okay if I do?”
Janie said, “Lily, can Allie look in your purse?”
Lily nodded.
I reached for the purse tucked under Lily’s chair and she smiled. I took her smile as a sign I was on the right track.
Nurse Haugen said, “Lily helped deliver several thousand babies when she worked here. I wonder if she took pictures of all of them.”
I opened Lily’s handbag and found the answer to Nurse Haugen’s question. The purse was filled with manila envelopes, each one inscribed with a different year. I found one marked with the year of my birth and dumped the photos out on the table.
My heart began to beat a little faster.
I’d once asked Faye if she had any pictures of Anna. She’d said, “No,” and left the room, which led me to believe either (a) she didn’t want to talk about it, or (b) she had one hidden away somewhere. With Faye, it could be either way.
Haugen and I started pawing through the photos, looking for twins. Most were snapshots of single babies, some in the arms of their mother with the proud father leaning in next to her.
“Is this it?” Nurse Haugen said, handing me a photo.
My hands trembled as I took it from her.
Faye, in a hospital gown, a baby cradled in each arm. Her blond hair hung in sweaty strings around her face. She had dark circles under her eyes, a wan smile on her face. One baby had wild black hair and her eyes squinched shut. She was yelling her head off and waving her arms as if to say, “What the hell?” The other baby had blond fuzz and was sound asleep with one hand resting against her cheek. Wasn’t hard to figure out who the squawker was.
Nurse Haugen pointed at the crying baby. “Gotta be you.”
I studied the picture again, focusing on my mother. She looked pathetically young and completely exhausted after the strain of delivering twins. At the time, she was barely a year older than I was right now. A huge lump rose in my throat. I swallowed hard.
Lily touched a finger to Faye and spoke. Her voice sounded rusty from disuse. “All alone. Scared. Brave girl.”
Those few words put me over the edge. A big, fat tear ran down my cheek and plopped onto the table. I grabbed a napkin and swiped at my eyes. All alone and scared. The words played over and over in my head.
I stared at Lily’s photos still spread out on the table. Happy families. Mother, father and baby. Anger at my missing father sparked, flared and began to simmer deep inside me. When Faye had needed him most, Mike had walked away. All those years, I’d understood that particular fact as a concept. My dad had abandoned us. But now, the concept was real and staring me in the face. My tears dried up instantly.
“Can I keep the picture?” I asked Lily.
A single nod.
I tucked it into my French book for safekeeping.
Janie shook her head and said, “That’s so strange.”
“What?” I said.
“You’re the third one asking about twins born sixteen years ago.”
Whoa. The third one? “Was one of them Dennis McCarty? He’s a friend of mine,” I said.
“Yes, I remember him. He came by the house. I liked him. He was nice. But, of course, Lily couldn’t answer his questions. There was something about the other two I didn’t like.”
“Other two? So, four people asked about us?”
“They were together,” Janie said. “A man and a woman. They flashed some sort of ID. Looked like government issue, although it was different than Special Agent McCarty’s.”
A sudden chill crept up my spine. Trimarks? Trying to find Anna?
She paused and peered at me. “Why is everybody so interested in twins born sixteen years ago?’
“I can’t answer for the others, but I didn’t know I had a twin sister until a few months ago. My mother was only seventeen when we were born, and my grandfather forced her to give one of us up for adoption,” I said. “My mother’s been trying to find my sister for years. She thinks the adoption was bogus.” I glanced at Haugen. “And, Anna needs to know her medical history.”
That seemed to satisfy Janie. She said, “I’d better get Lily home before she gets tired. Nice meeting you both.”
I gave Lily a hug goodbye and thanked her, but she’d checked out again and didn’t respond.
I picked up my backpack and got ready to leave, but Nurse Haugen stopped me. “I wasn’t sure if I should tell you this, but there was an incident with an aide who worked in the nursery when you and your sister were born. Her name was Karla something.”
I sat back down. “What kind of incident?”
“Lily was off duty but came back for some reason. I’ve forgotten why. She caught this Karla person standing over your bassinette with a syringe in her hand.”
The air whooshed out of my lungs. “What was in the syringe?”
“She claimed the pediatrician had ordered some sort of antibiotic, but she ditched it before anybody could check it out. It wasn’t true. She got canned, of course.”
“Weird,” I murmured.
Haugen lowered her voice. “Here’s what’s really weird. We heard a rumor that she adopted a baby shortly after that incident and left for parts unknown.”
I was so psyched, I almost jumped out of the chair. “It has to be her! The woman who claimed to be a social worker. The one Grandpa Claude sold the baby to.”
Nurse Haugen said, “Just because you want it to be true, doesn’t mean it is.”
I scowled at her. “Got any better ideas?”
Haugen thought about it for a while. “I have a friend who works in personnel. She could probably look back in the records for Karla’s last name. What you do with that information, Allie, is up to you.”
Impulsively, I reached across the table and glommed onto Haugen’s hand. “Thank you so much! I really appreciate this.”
