Fox Spirit 59 – Frayed Family Ties
Sara thought it would be difficult to explain the emergency to Jerry Wang, but this was not so. Of course she should be with her son and grandson – no question! Let Jade make the arrangements for you; she will call friends at the travel agency.
Everything was arranged for Sara’s departure, as Sara was still half-numb from shock. She had not gotten on with Rennie, she had hated the willful childishness which Mark had found so charming at first, but she had never wished Rennie dead, only different. What would this death mean to Mark and Richie?
In another hour she was beginning to have a more accurate idea of what it might mean, an hour punctuated by a jangle of phone calls from Mark, each delivering late-breaking news. First came his recounting of Giovanni and Ynez Cavallo’s violent and abusive reaction to the death of their daughter. Then in the middle of the night, came news that the morgue had released Rennie’s body to a mortician hired by the Cavallos, the body and funeral arrangements commandeered out of Mark’s control.
“The Cavallos told the morgue doctor that Rennie and I were divorced! So they gave her over to them without even checking. Mom, wait until I find out where they took her. Uncle Jasper and Aunt Carol are coming over, so I’ll have some support. Just keep standing by.”
Another panicked call came from Mark as Sara finished her morning coffee. “Mom! They’re trying to take Richie!” He had received a call from Richie’s daycare, asking for confirmation that Richie was to go home with his grandfather. “I told them no way, no one picks him up but me. But what if they snatch him?”
“Stay cool, my kid,” Sara said, hoping for calm and a chance to think. “No one is thinking straight when something like this happens. Naturally they are going to want to see their lost daughter’s only child. But of course they’ll have to work with you.”
“But they can’t have him! He’s not theirs! You know how they are – if they take him for a weekend they’ll keep him for a year, passing him from relative to relative like a basketball while I chase him from one house to the next. And they’ll tell him lies about me, about our family. I don’t want them to have any part of him.”
“All right, Mark. Just try to keep a level head. Make sure the daycare people know not to…”
“No worries about that, Mom,” Mark interrupted. “They have their instructions really clear. Anyway I’ll keep you posted.”
By the time Sara got to the office Jade Wang had secured a bereavement rate and a seat for Sara on that evening’s red-eye flight through Tokyo. Sara quickly reviewed her draft outline with Trueheart and Scarlet and then hurried home to pack. And then, just before Scarlet Li picked Sara up to take her to the airport, came another call.
“Mom, I’m glad I caught you. I decided not to fight about the funeral. The Cavallos have arranged a full Catholic mass for Saturday afternoon. But Ynez Cavallo wants Richie to come. After that day care thing I don’t trust her. What if they try to snatch him?”
Is he paranoid? Is this a false alarm? But what if he’s right? ”Honey, call your Uncle Jasper and ask him to come to the funeral with us. Make sure he’s wearing his uniform and don’t let anyone hold Richie but you or him. I don’t think there could really be a plan to snatch Richie, but a 6-foot-plus uniformed US Army colonel should be able to keep them at bay. We’ll see what happens.”
Wednesday disappeared as Sara crossed back over the International Date Line. Almost sleepless on the plane, Sara sagged into Jasper’s welcoming hug at the LAX gate. He held her at arm’s length and decided she could use a second hug. That done, Jasper took Sara’s carry-on with one hand, settled the other arm around her shoulders and steered her to his waiting car. “Glad to see you here so fast. Carol has been staying with Mark and Richie and I’m sure looking forward to having her back.”
“How is Mark doing?”
“Not so great. He’s got a lot on his plate. You’ll see.”
The next day, Thursday, was a blur of jet lag, too much coffee and tending to both Richie and Mark. Richie attached himself to Sara like a lamprey. Mark was relieved as it left him free to pace, pound the table as he passed, and inveigh against the truck driver, the morgue, the Cavallos and the blindness of fate. “What was she thinking, trying to pass a big rig in her old Datsun? I’d warned her about taking risks on the road. She just laughed at me. Mom, what am I going to do? What is Richie going to do? What if he gets sick? If I have to travel? I was barely figuring out how to be a daddy, I don’t know how to be a single dad! What am I going to do, Mom?”
“Let’s take one thing at a time, ok? We have to get through the funeral. Is there any chance that Ynez could help with the child care? She doesn’t work except at home – maybe you could…
Mark was staring at her, incredulous. “You must be kidding! You’ve seen the way it’s been just these last two days. Can you imagine me dealing with Ynez about Richie? You don’t understand what it’s been like.”
“Then tell me!”
The story gradually spooled out – the fraying of the marriage, the nights when Rennie took Richie to her mom’s house and decided to stay over; the increasingly frosty reception when Mark was there. “I know you think I’m paranoid when I talk about them trying to snatch Richie, but you haven’t been here for the last six months, Mom. They look at me as if I were a wife beater. God know what Rennie has said to her folks. You know when she loses her temper she’ll say whatever hurts the most, and she’s certainly said a lot to me that I won’t be able to forget. Whoever said “words will never hurt me” was never on the receiving end of a poison tongue like Rennie’s. And yet, you know, Mom, she could be so charming, so much fun. And then something would turn…”
The funeral passed like a series of snapshots in Sara’s mind. Her dark blue dress for the funeral, her stern-faced brother Jasper holding Richie in his arms, Ynez Cavallo’s face when she saw Sara, blood surging to her face, brows coming together like iron gates clanging shut. And then the onslaught of Cavallos wanting to hold Richie, wanting to take him up to say goodbye to his mother. Sara felt sick. Was it the reek of incense, or her jet lag, or the thought of making a child view his dead mother’s body? “Hold onto Richie, Jasper,” she muttered to her brother. “Hold on real tight.”
After the funeral mass the Cavallos were like twining vines, all edging closer to Richie and Uncle Jasper, all cooing and reaching out:
‘Isn’t Richie tired? Shouldn’t I take him outside for air?’
‘Richie, don’t you want to come to Grandma Ynez?’
Mark wasn’t being paranoid. Sara was sure any one of the Cavallo family would be ready to bolt with her grandson if they got the chance. Fortunately Richie loved being carried high by Uncle Jasper and never tired of examining his medals and ribbons. Sara sighed with relief when the reception was over.
“Mark, I know you and I have to go to the grave for the burial. But let’s send Richie home with Jasper – there’s no need for him to go and I’ll feel better if he’s out of range of all this.” She waved vaguely at the encircling in-laws. Mark’s face lit with relief. “I don’t want Richie there, but I was afraid you were going to take him home and leave me alone at Rennie’s grave with all her family glaring at me from the other side of the hole.”
“Nonsense,” replied Sara, taking his arm with a twinge of guilt. Not that I wouldn’t have liked to. She saw Ynez approaching and put on a rueful smile.
“You were right, Ynez. Richie is getting tired, so he’s going home with his uncle. We don’t think he needs to be at the burial. It might give him bad dreams, I think.” She kept smiling through Ynez’s protests. Don’t let the mask slip.
Chinese Puzzle Box 