Chapter 52
ETHEL
Ethel watched Sophia stumble down the stairs and into the car, gripping a box so tightly that her knuckles looked white. Her face was tear-streaked, and she looked disheveled.
“What on earth happened?” Ethel asked as Sophia threw herself into the front seat of the car.
“My mother. She’s dead.”
Ethel reminded herself to breathe. How could this poor child have discovered her mother and then lost her all in the same day? Ethel reached into her skirt pocket for her rosary and started moving her fingers over the beads. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“She took her life. Because of me.”
“Oh, dear. When?”
“September ’64.”
“How did you find all of this out?”
“Her sister, Jutta.” Sophia crumpled against the car door. “If Ma Deary had told me the truth, I could have found Jelka before she was gone. Maybe meeting me could have brought her some peace, and she wouldn’t have killed herself.”
“Don’t you dare blame yourself.” Ethel slid across the seat and took the girl into her arms. Sophia shivered against Ethel like a puppy caught in the rain. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Ethel rocked her as Sophia sniffled and cried. They sat like that for a long time, and Ethel traced circles on her back to help her calm. It was how she had soothed her own children, and it was working on Sophia.
“I feel so useless,” Sophia said.
“Hey, there’s nothing you could have done to prevent this. You are the child in all of this. You can’t control what grown-ups do.”
Sophia’s eyes looked vacant.
“Let me get you home.”
On the ride up I-64 West Ethel continued to talk, in an attempt to quell Sophia’s pain, but after a while she could see that the girl needed to rest. With one hand on the wheel, she reached the other into the backseat for a blanket and draped Sophia with it.
“You’ve had a long day. Why don’t you close your eyes, and I’ll wake you when we get close. ”
Sophia clutched the tin box to her chest and fell asleep in an instant.
The ride home always seemed faster to Ethel. When they arrived back at the high school parking lot, the sun hung low in the sky. She rubbed Sophia’s arm until the girl opened her eyes. “Honey, we’re here.”
Sophia stretched and mumbled a thank-you. But Ethel didn’t feel comfortable letting her out of the car. She was from the school of driving children up to their front door, watching them go into the house, and not pulling off until she knew they were safe.
“Sweetie, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you this late in the day, walking down the side of a road alone. Where do you live?”
It was obvious from the look Sophia gave her that she wasn’t used to being mothered.
“I can’t let you take me all the way home. Ma Deary would…” She shuddered. “How about you drop me off at the little dirt path that leads to the farm?”
Ethel agreed and followed Sophia’s directions to the path. The area was nothing but trees and bushes, wide-open and rural. She could hear the crickets and nocturnal creatures settling into the evening. “Are you sure you are going to be all right?”
“Trust me, Mrs. Gathers, it’s a short walk. The house is right past that clearing. I’ve been doing it all my life.”
“Please call me whenever you can. I’m home most days before three. We’ll figure out what’s next together.” She reached down to the floor and passed the tin canister to Sophia out the window. “What’s this?”
“Something my mother left for me. I’ll open it when I’m ready.” Sophia attempted a smile, but it landed as a grimace, and then she turned down the narrow path.
Ethel sat and waited, listening for any noise that would tell her the girl was endangered.
When she felt satisfied that Sophia was fine, she steered the car back toward the highway and headed for her home in Washington, D.C.
If she wasn’t attached to Sophia before, she certainly was now.
As she drove, she racked her brain for what she could do next.