āThereās something going on with Delaney.ā
She felt Jordan inhale, then he pushed the breath out again. āI know. I just havenāt figured out what it is yet.ā
āI wish sheād let us help.ā
āMe, too. She will when sheās ready.ā
āIs there actual glitter in this toothpaste?ā Delaney yelled from the bathroom. āHow in the world do you brush your teeth with glitter in the toothpaste?ā
āGo,ā Jordan said, pulling away from Theo. He grabbed the coat heād hung on the doorknob and put it on. He left the room but gave Theo a look over his shoulder as he did. āAnd Iād throw that toothpaste out if I were you.ā
Theo sat in her inner office at the Brubaker Building waiting for Dr. Gardnerās phone call. The three of them had gone to Denverās Diner for lunch. Her thought as she waited for the phone to ring was that she might have overdone it on the lemon meringue pie.
āHello?ā
āTheodora?ā
āHi, Doctor Gardner.ā
āIāve got Cleopatra on the line.ā
āHi, Patty.ā
āHey. So, how did the session go this week?ā
Theo took a deep breath and listened as the psychiatrist told Patty what had transpired during Indigoās visit. As usual, Theo kept quiet unless one of them asked her a question. She knew Patty didnāt care to hear her opinion about anything, especially Indigo, and it was Patty and the doctor who would make any decisions about the childās care. Theo was just the person making sure all of happened.
āWell,ā Patty said once Dr. Gardner had signed off. āI guess Indigo wonāt be at any homecoming celebration that might be planned at the hotel.ā
āNo,ā Theo agreed, ābut when youāre feeling up to coming to the barn, Iāll bake a cake and weāll celebrate you then. Indieās really looking forward to having her mom back. Even if she doesnāt love the Madeleine right now, she loves you always.ā
Theo heard Patty sigh.
āAh, Theodora, have you been practicing? I swear I almost believed you when you said that.ā
āCleoāā
āSave it,ā Patty interrupted. āI canāt do much on my own, but I sure can shop. Thereās a boatload of packages headed your way. I canāt live with my kid, but I sure can buy her shit. Wrap it all for me, would you? Thatād be great. Thanks.ā
When Patty disconnected the call, Theo wasnāt even surprised. She hadnāt gotten the chance to let her know that the bungalow was all cleaned out, but she figured Patty didnāt need an update. It had needed to be done, so it had been taken care of. Thatās the way things had always worked out for Patty. Theo knew sheād expect nothing less.
5. UNDERWATER BOWLING
Theo sat at a four-top near the window in the Blackbird Bistro. The world outside was frosty and white, frigid beneath a deep blue sky. It was Monday, and she was waiting for Jordan and Indigo to meet her for lunch. It was just one of the many things that made up a very busy weekly schedule.
Sundays, of course, were, as they always had been, Murphy family dinner nights. Back when Theo and Patty were young, Mamie had made all the decisions about what food would be served. It was rarely palatable, and sometimes it wasnāt even thoroughly cooked. It wasnāt that Mamie hadnāt tried. She had. Preparing meals had never been one of the things sheād been good at, but the idea behind the four members of the family sitting down together for an hour each week had been the goal. In that, Mamie had been successful. Ā
These Sunday dinners had changed since Theoās return to Colorado. A deal had been struck. At the beginning of each month, Mamie handed Theo an envelope full of cash. Theo then planned, shopped for and prepared each meal. Because Theo found a sort of personal therapy in the act of cooking, she enjoyed the process. Sheād taken countless cooking classes when sheād lived in Boston which had introduced and helped hone a culinary talent sheād had hidden inside of her.
Delaney had told Theo once that food had become her love language. The fact that she was good at what she did became currency in which she used to buy Jordan and Delaney a seat at their table every week. There had even been a few other guests in attendance. Mamie had complained about that, but sheād done so in an unusually reserved fashion. There were, however, still rules in place. The Murphys were to be gathered around the table at six oāclock sharp. Mamie didnāt care how they were dressed and didnāt argue if one of them couldnāt linger long after the meal had been served, but nothing short of a severed limb or death would excuse an absence. Theo was fairly sure that Mamie was holding a grudge against Patty for missing the last dozen or so. She hadnāt actually died in that car accident; sheād only come close.
Theo took Indigo to preschool on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from nine to noon. On Mondays, Jordan picked Indie up, and the two of them met Theo for lunch. Sometimes they brought their mid-day meal to the office. Sometimes Theo joined them at Fireweed Farm, and still other times, the threesome met at one of the many eateries that Whisper Creek had to offer.
After lunch, Indigo and Jordan would take off and entertain themselves until it was time for dinner and the two of them would meet Theo again back at the barn. There seemed to be no end to their activities. They played at the park, they went for walks, and they played with Odetteās cats. Jordan buckled a helmet onto Indigoās head and gave her rides on the ATVās they had at the farm. They treated themselves to ice cream floats, afternoons filled with fingerpainting and rounds of Candy Land, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Chutes and Ladders, and lately, Indigo had taken a real liking to the hockey games Jordan had always loved to watch on television. Theyād taught themselves origami, theyād gone fishing in Whisper Creek, and taken long, leisurely strolls on the back of Mae West, Maxās favorite mare.
Tuesdays were still technically considered to be yoga days, even though Cleopatra hadnāt been able to participate in the activity for some time. Mamie took Indigo on Tuesdays just as she had since before Theo even knew of the childās existence. Their day began at nine. Sometimes they would stay at Murphy House and Indigo would color or put puzzles together while Mamie worked. Other times, the two of them would visit Fireweed Farm.
Throughout the year, Mamie volunteered her time to help with any number of events Odette organized. Winter was the busiest time, and many people in town found themselves at the farm gathering pine boughs and tying them with long strips of red, gold and green metallic ribbon. These handmade wreaths hung all over the walls of the gift shop along with hand poured candles and oversized mugs Eloise and Isaac Sloane made in their store, Mystic Mountain Creations.
Mamie helped run the farmerās market from opening day in May through October, and she bought and sold tickets to the hayrides and rung up the pumpkins the kids picked out of the patch. Sheād be hard pressed to come up with the number of eggs she helped dye for the annual Easter egg hunt, or how many ribbons sheād tied to the handles of baskets the kids used to collect those eggs. Thatās what had pulled Theodora from her life as a lawyer in Boston. Mamieās fingerprints had been found on the handles of a pair of scissors in Odetteās work room. That hadnāt really been surprising. The fact that the blades had been plunged deep into Jamison Hardyās chest had been the real issue. Fortunately for Indigo, that horrible event had taken place on a Friday, which was not yoga day. Fortunately for Mamie, Theo was good at her job and had proven that as cantankerous as her mother could be, she hadnāt been the one to end Hardyās life.
When Indigo and her grandmother werenāt at Murphy House or the farm, the two of them could be found around town running errands or at the house on Cascade Trail. It was a home bought by Glory and given to Owen and Mamie when they were newlyweds. They lived there until Theo was about three, then the family moved to Murphy House. The Cascade Trail house had been a rental property since then, and while Mamie had never been exactly warm and fuzzy, she was a very competent and conscientious landlord. When things broke, she fixed them. She made sure the water heater, the furnace, the fridge and the stove were current and in good repair, and sheād had the property repainted four times in the thirty years since her name had been put on the deed.
And on Tuesdays, Mamie and Indigo always had lunch together before they wrapped up their day at about one in the afternoon. Mamie would pull her faded white and baby blue 1980 Chevy Sierra Classic truck in front of the law office, then Indigo would wave to her aunt through the large plate glass window before taking her grandmotherās hand and disappearing inside the Brew Ha Ha, the coffee shop next door. When they would return fifteen minutes later, Indigo always had a hot chocolateāsometimes frozenāand whatever Vivienne, the shop owner, decided to make for Theo on that particular day. Tuesday nights were always reserved for dinner at the barn with Jordan and Delaney.
Mister Henry was in charge of Wednesdays. Theo picked Indigo up from school while Jordan provided lunch which was then eaten in Mister Henryās office at the farm. At six oāclock sharp, dinner for the Murphy women was served at the barn. It had been made clear to Theo that there would be no bending of the rules during this mid-week meal. There would only be four people in attendance. No questions asked. Theo respected this.Ā The tradition had been altered slightly since Pattyās accident. The Murphy women still had dinner on Wednesdays, it had just been at the hospital for the last three months. Theo had no control over nurses or other medical personnel who inadvertently interrupted.
Indigo spent Thursdays with her mom. When Theo, Trix and Ashley had been preparing the law office to open, it had been decided that, because Patty picked Indigo up early on that day, they would have their weekly staff meeting on Thursday mornings before opening for clients. Patty and Indigo went to see Doctor Gardner together at two. Dinner was never set in stone. Sometimes Indigo ate with Patty, oftentimes Patty would find the visit to Indigoās therapist more than she could handle and the child would be back at the barn long before it was time to eat. Patty would mutter her āgoodbyeā and her ālove youā without looking at her daughter before rushing to her Subaru and driving too quickly down the long driveway toward Silver Maple Road.
Patty didnāt make Thursdays easy, but that had never been her way. Theyād gotten a little more challenging after the accident, but nothing Theo couldnāt handle. Patty couldnāt take her daughter to therapy, but Theo wasnāt convinced that was a bad thing. Theo hated driving to the hospital every week, but not because it was inconvenient. She just hated the fact that Patty was in the hospital in the first place.
On Fridays, Odette picked Indigo up from school and the two of them would do whatever suited their fancy. On these days, Theo had lunch with Delaney while Odette and Indigo spent their time at the farm, usually playing with the goats Indigo loved so much, or whipping up one of the hundreds of recipes the older woman was known for, but Odette knew just about every soul that resided in Cloud County. She was well informed about every eventālarge or smallāand she always had a willing partner to go and participate in whatever festivity was taking place. There was always lots of good food involved, and Indigo always showed up at the barn happy and worn out after her time with Odie.
Belinda MacNamara and her Tiny Tutus dance studio took up an hour of time on Saturday mornings. Class wasnāt very long, but the more Saturdays that passed, the more Indigo expressed a dislike for the leotards and tights that Patty bought her in bulk. Sheād been enrolled in class since the previous August, and Theo had hoped the child would eventually grow to enjoy her time at the studio. To her dismay, the opposite had happened, and Saturday mornings had become stressful and filled with anxiety. Indigo, who was normally a very happy and easy-going child often cried and dragged her feet while Theo tried to get her out the door. The hour-long class had turned into a two-hour ordeal that left both of them feeling emotionally wrung out and defeated. Theo kept thinking she should just pull Indigo from the school, but that was a dual-edged sword. If she did that, Cleopatra would sweat her for making decisions about her daughter without asking her. She also knew that if she asked Patty if Indigo could stop going to class, sheād wind up with a sarcastic reply indicating that Theo was Indigoās legal guardian. Why would she need to ask Patty if such a decision could be made without her? Theo would be made to feel guilty in one way or another no matter what she chose to do.
āAntee!ā
Indigoās musical voice broke through Theoās thoughts and she blinked them away to see her niece burst through the door and run toward her. Wintry air slinked into the establishment like a silent cat before the door shut behind Jordanās back.
āIndie, honey,ā he said quietly. Indigo slowed down, her seafoam eyes moving around the restaurant.
āI forgot,ā she said, looking up at him.
Jordan gave her a grin. āI totally understand,ā he told her. āI get very excited when I see your aunt, too.ā
He reached down and took hold of Indieās coat. She slipped out of it, leaving the garment hanging from Jordanās fingers, then reached up to pull the knit cat hat she wore further down on her forehead.
When Theo met Indigo nine months before, the child had been wearing a similar hat. That one had been knitted by Glory in bright red yarn and given to her youngest granddaughter when Theo was close to Indigoās age. When Theo wore it, it had two pointed ears, a pair of shiny black button eyes and thick whiskers sewn in bold, straight stitches across the headband. The first time Theo had seen it againāthis time on Indigoās bright blonde headāthe ears were gone and the red of the yarn had faded. Theo found out later that it had been Patty who had ripped off the earsānot when sheād been a child, but since Indigo found the hat at Mamieās house and had decided she wanted to wear it even while she slept. Indigo had developed a bond with her aunt before the two of them had even met. Patty had always hated that bond.
āYouāll never guess what happened,ā Indigo declared as she reached their table.
Theoās eyes moved quickly up to meet Jordanās and she saw a smile lift the corners of his mouth. He shook his dark head.
āSheās right,ā he agreed. āYou probably wonāt guess.ā He bent down to pick up the mittens Indigo had dropped on the floor. In her excitement sheād abandoned her normally quiet and well-mannered self. Theo chose not to bring attention to it. The child had spent all morning with Jordan so she deferred to his judgement.