35. Coraline
35
Coraline
I’m sitting on a bench with Gemma as she attempts to help me calm down. Rationally, I know what I need to do. But it’s so much harder when you’re actually going through the situation and it’s your own kids who are missing.
My hands are shaking in my lap while I hold on to my prayer quilt. I always keep it on me now, no matter where I am.
I can’t think of anyone who would want to take them other than a pure monster. I mutter the same prayer over and over again. I give my all to God amidst the chaos.
I look up from my prayer quilt and see Pappy and Jesse running over to get to us.
“Cora, they found them,” Jesse says in a rush. “Let's go get our babies.”
I jump up out of my seat and take off after him. I don’t know where we’re going but I know that I can't stop until I see their faces with my own eyes.
Sirens wail in the distance, but all I can hear is the pounding of my heart. It’s racing so fast I swear it might burst. Flashing red and blue lights spin across the scene, casting frantic shadows. Police cars are everywhere. My mind is drowning in the endless spiral of what-ifs—what if they’re hurt? What if I’m too late?
Then I hear it— “MAMA!”
One word. One voice. My world snaps back into focus.
I spin toward the sound, legs moving before I can even think. I run across the pavement, dodging between paramedics and officers until I see them.
My babies.
I fall to my knees and gather them into my arms, clutching them like I’ll never let go. Jesse reaches us seconds later, wrapping his arms around all three of us. We’re a knot of tears, arms, breathless sobs—and love.
Thank you, God.
I press my face into their hair, breathing them in, as tears slip silently down my cheeks. Relief floods every part of me, washing away the fear. They’re here. In my arms. Alive. Safe.
“What happened?” I finally manage to ask.
I’m not ready to break the hug yet, I’m afraid that if I let go of them that they’re going to disappear again.
“Michael had to pee and Granna was acting really strange so I told him to go ahead and go to the bathroom," Harrison said. "He had been gone for a long time and Granna was still acting funny, so I went inside to check on him."
“When I was looking for him in the stalls, I saw Nash. The bad man.”
My stomach drops like a stone.
“Are you sure it was him?” My voice comes out quieter than I mean it to.
What is he doing out of jail? How did he get out? Why was he here?
“It was! Daddy told me that he wanted it to be just like the old times," Michael says, his little voice trembling now. "He said that I needed to go with him, but I told him about my new daddy. That made him very angry."
“Oh sweetheart," I cry and hold him tighter against my chest.
“The bad man was trying to take my bubby and was dragging him out the back door. So, I went up to him and tried to get my brother back," Harrison continued. "I was swinging as hard and as fast as I could at him and then some lady grabbed me. They made us leave with them and get inside of an old, stinky car.”
“They put us in the back seat and told us to lay on the floor and be real quiet. Daddy said that if we were good he would take us to get superhero ice cream. I knew that was wrong because I remembered you said he was not a good person and bad people don’t take good people to get superhero ice cream,” Michael said while he pointed his finger up.
"I also remembered what my teacher at church told me to do anytime I felt scared,” Harrison said, his voice soft but steady. “So I laid down in the back seat, hugged my bubby, and prayed.”
He glanced up at me, eyes wide. “When I started to pray, the strange lady in the front seat got really mad.”
“When I finished praying,” he continued, “a policeman knocked on the window. He asked the bad man and the strange lady if they had seen two little boys.”
He paused, letting the moment hang. “And something told me in my mind to scream. So I did—as loud as I could.”
“The policeman heard me. He saw us. Then he took the bad man and the strange lady away.”He's smiling now, proud of himself.
“I’m so very proud of you boys," I whisper. "You both are so brave. I love you so much.”
After I finally felt level headed, I went to speak to the police officer who found them. He confirmed that the entire story that Harrison and Michael told to me was true.
It turns out that Nash was bailed out of jail a few days ago by the “strange lady” who turned out to be Jesse’s mother, Keri. Why on God's green earth she decided to bail him out of jail and hook up with him is a complete mystery to me.
It’s an even bigger mystery as to why she wanted to help kidnap my son. It literally made zero sense to me other than the fact that she wanted to hurt me like she was hurting.
Apparently when Jesse approached her about hiding Harrison from him, she left town and then proceeded to look up what jail Nash was in and paid him a visit one day. They bonded over their hatred for me over the weeks she was gone. That’s why Lloyd hadn’t heard anything from her and why Nash had stopped harassing me.
Finding out that your wife has been hiding a grandchild from you is bad enough but then to add on an affair and attempted kidnapping? How do you move on from that?
Keri and Nash have both been arrested tonight and the officer says that they will be charged with aggravated kidnapping of a child under the age of fourteen on two counts.