“Did you find the other lady?” Waaboo asked.
“No, Little Rabbit, we didn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Waaboo said.
“Not your fault, Son.”
Waaboo was quiet, all the features of his little face squinched up as if he was deep in a difficult consideration. Then he said, “I want to go back.”
“Why, Waaboo?” Jenny was surprised and, Cork could see, distressed.
“Mishomis said I needed to be strong. I wasn’t strong.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Jenny said firmly.
“I want to go,” Waaboo said.
The look on Jenny’s face was like something chiseled from granite, and Cork was sure his daughter was never going to agree.
“What if we asked Henry to be there?” Daniel suggested. “To guide Waaboo, maybe help him understand.”
Jenny frowned and looked at her son.
“Please, Momma,” Waaboo said.
It took a few moments, but she finally gave a slow nod. “But you’re not going without me.”
Cork lay in bed that night, sorting through the puzzle pieces. Olivia Hamilton and her disappearance. Mathias Paavola, who was hiding something, but what exactly was still unknown. The possibility of another body still undiscovered in the clearing. And Waaboo’s sense of evil at Paavola’s cabin.
“Can’t sleep?” Rainy said in the dark beside him.
“I feel like a juggler with too many balls in the air.”
“How did it feel today?”
“What do you mean?”
“Working with Marsha, just like you were a cop again. Did it make you miss the badge?”
“Nothing makes me miss the badge. For Marsha, the badge ties her hands in a lot of ways. Me, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that I might just have a talk with Mathias Paavola on my own and in my own way.”
He felt her hand laid lightly on his chest. “Don’t do anything stupid. Or dangerous.”
“When have I ever?”
“Oh, please,” Rainy said and kissed his cheek.
Jenny stood at the bedroom window, staring into the night. Daniel rose from the bed and joined her.
“I wish Waaboo wasn’t a part of this,” she said.
Daniel took her hand. “Not his choice. It’s like Henry told him. He has to be strong. And he is strong. He was strong from the moment he was born. He survived under that rock until you found him.”
“And all I’ve wanted to do since is protect him. I don’t think I’ve done a very good job of it.”
“I’m guessing all parents feel that way. We would love to shield our children from all the stones the world is sure to throw at them. Which is impossible.”
“Doesn’t make me feel any less guilty. I keep asking myself, Why my son? Why would the Great Mystery place this burden on his shoulders? That’s something I’m going to ask Henry the next time I see him.”
“It’s not Henry’s fault. Or yours.”
“Maybe it will pass,” she said hopefully. “Maybe it’s just this onetime thing.”
“Stephen’s had visions his whole life. It seems to me the question we should be asking ourselves is how we help Waaboo accept and handle what he’s been given.”
“Does that include taking him back to that awful place tomorrow?”
Her words were harsh, and Daniel felt their sting.
“He asked, Jenny. It’s what he understands he has to do.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. But I think we need to help him figure it out. And I don’t know how to do that unless we take him there.”
