A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton [66]
“Don’t worry,” I echoed.
“They have nothing to go on.”
“Alice—” I said, waiting for her to interrupt.
“The women in here are young enough to be my daughters,” she said after she’d waited for my response. “I’m worried about you three,” she whispered. “I’ll be all right. This is only an indication of things to come, for the next life. I’ll be in hell, and you’ll be in heaven with the girls. We’ll have to consider ourselves lucky if there’s even such a thing as Sunday visitation.”
When I didn’t respond she said weakly, “I’m kidding, Howard. It was a joke.”
After the call we got in the car. It was the first of many such excursions. We’d edge toward Racine and then veer north or south. I’d think in a hallucinatory moment that I could go straight to the jail and wrangle her out. That first trip we opened the windows and cranked up the radio. The girls put their heads in the breeze and closed their eyes. I followed the arrows for the winding roads, assuring myself that she would be home by morning. It wasn’t possible for her to be held any longer than one brief night.
Over the next few days several problems arose. I shouldn’t have been surprised on Wednesday when I pulled the Blackwell Dispatch from our mailbox, the dark headline proclaiming, “Prairie Center Nurse Charged with Sex Abuse.” Below, in smaller print, it said, “Principal sets meeting for concerned parents.” I stood on the driveway, hoping to look away and then back again at a different lead story. I hadn’t taken off my clothes the night before. I hadn’t slept much, or at all, sitting in the living-room chair. The sunlight stung my eyes. Claire crawled up my leg, screeching at me to feed her while I stood and read.
Alice Goodwin, age 32, was arrested early Tuesday morning at her home, 22394 Walnut Lane, for seven felony charges, including two counts of reckless endangerment, child abuse, and three counts of second-degree sexual abuse. Mrs. Goodwin, a LPN, is employed by the Blackwell School District and holds the part-time job of school nurse. She had been under investigation for several weeks prior to the arrest. If Goodwin is convicted of these charges the combined maximum penalties would be over $100,000 and fifty years in prison. Racine County Circuit Court Judge Rhone also ruled that additional counts of felony charges to be filed in an amended criminal complaint will include reckless endangerment and sexual abuse.
In addition, Goodwin is under investigation in the drowning of Elizabeth Collins, two years old, of Prairie Center. The suspect was baby-sitting when the child allegedly ran from the house and drowned in the pond on the Goodwin farm. The principal of Blackwell Elementary, Mr. David Henskin, said today that he was shocked by the arrest and that he will assist the investigation in any way he can. A meeting for concerned parents has been set for Friday, June 16, at 7 P.M.
I suppose it was then, stuck on the driveway with Claire, that I began to understand the nature of the problem. We weren’t going to be able so easily to remedy what to us was a mysterious error. Even with Rafferty’s help Alice wasn’t going to be able to slip from jail without notice. By the end of the morning, after the phone calls started coming in, I knew full well that her trouble was like mercury, spilling and slipping, running into unexpected corners. I was dazed by the equation that overnight made Alice’s private trouble equal to everyone’s trouble. I had waited in the chair until dawn. I was waiting, and also standing guard against something outside I couldn’t name. I hadn’t known that it was already spreading, that it was at large.
I carried Claire inside and put the whole box of Cheerios into her outstretched arms. Emma started in about not having her very own box of cereal when the phone rang. “Shut up,” I said to her. I had never used those words to my children before, or in front of them. “Shut up,” I said