A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton [105]
“So what,” Theresa said, without looking up, without moving, “did Robbie say Alice did to him? I’m not clear on that.”
I had come up to the scene so many times. I couldn’t get to it. I knew Alice had always admired me for the fact that I was “solid”—that’s the word she often used to describe me. In fact, I was like a mouse skittering back to its hole in the face of a shadow. I had not watched Robbie abuse his doll but I’d gathered what private acts he thought Alice had done to him.
I started to get up from the chair, hoping that Theresa would leave, now that she’d heard most of the story. “I need to check Emma—” I started to say.
“What does Rafferty think?” She was trying to hold me. There was a thin stream of light coming through the door from the upstairs hall light and the flicker of the television. The rest of the house was dark. “He thinks the way into the case is through the mother, a boyfriend or two.”
“Is he any good, Howard?”
Now there was a question which took me by surprise, I must admit. Dan had been friends with Rafferty for years. Rafferty was one of the few Dairy Shrine Angels, having contributed over a thousand dollars to the museum. Dan had told me that Rafferty could have worked in any major city, in any firm he liked, but that he chose to stay in Racine.
“How do you dispute the injury to a doll?” I said. The words came out the side of my mouth. I thought that if my fists came uncurled my hands might knock something over.
“I’m sorry, Howard,” she said, stretching her arms toward me. “I’m sure Rafferty is the best, I really am. It’s just that I’m so concerned about Alice. These things are capricious. I love Paul, I do. He’s such a character—but sometimes he gets caught up in the drama of the trial. I’ve been on the receiving end, hearing amazing stories over the dinner table. He’s a nut, you know? Every now and then he does lose a case. I’ve been to the jail and—”
“She says she’ll be all right,” I said. “Three months, four months.”
“But it will be so much more than that. They always make motions. Trials are always delayed. That place is crowded. They’ve got four hundred fifty people in there, on average, at a time. Half of them are going cold turkey from crack, or even cigarettes—there’s no smoking anymore. It’s noisy all night long, it smells, it’s never dark to go to sleep.” She covered her eyes with her hands. “God, Howard, I really can’t bear to think of her in a cell.” She put her head down again and started to cry. I thought that if she made one more irritating comment it might be difficult to resist striking the back of her neck.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she sniveled. “Do you know what? I’ll take the girls tomorrow. I’ll take them until this thing is over. I’ve got all summer off. You need to work and Audrey will love to have company now that—”
Now that what? In the hour that I’d been talking to Theresa I’d forgotten that Lizzy was gone.
“Would you let me do that, Howard? Take care of the girls?”
The kettle was clattering on the stove top. I hadn’t heard it until now. Most of the water had probably boiled away. My children were sleeping on the dirty floor in the glare of the one station we could get. It probably came out in a fairly gruff way when I said, “That’d be fine.”
Chapter Thirteen
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THE NIGHT AFTER THERESA first came down we started a routine that went smoothly for a few weeks. I got out early and did the chores, before the girls were up. They were to ring the old dinner bell if they needed me. That had always been the rule, when Alice and I used to milk together. It had never been put to the test and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hear the call over the whir of the compressor. Usually they were just beginning to blink and stretch when I came back to the house for breakfast. Theresa showed up around eight