Chapter 31 #2
Dr. Page continued. “Your doctor has agreed to let your sister sign you out. He has, however, noted that because of your occasional bouts of vertigo and the need to continue strengthening your leg muscles, you should be situated on a first floor. He understands you live on a second floor, so he talked with your sister and her husband and they want you to live with them on Chappaquiddick, where she can supervise the balance of your recuperation. You’re scheduled for a follow-up appointment a week from Friday.
Meanwhile, if you pass your ‘final exams,’ as we like to call them, we should have you out of here by Wednesday. ”
Life moved quickly after that.
Before leaving the hospital that day, Maddie stopped at Dr. Mason’s office and explained Rex’s situation, and that they’d like to have the ultrasound before he was discharged.
But the scheduling department couldn’t find an opening until after Memorial Day. “The obstetric sonographer is only on the island Thursdays,” a young woman said.
“Oh,” Maddie replied. “A nurse can’t do it?”
“Only one who’s had the proper training.”
“After Memorial Day” would, of course, be when Rex was living on Chappy in the house where he’d been born and raised, and when Maddie would—hopefully—be juggling customers at the bookshop.
She made the appointment anyway, and decided to figure out later how they’d get there.
The hours and days started to close in on her as she hurried to put finishing touches on the bookshop while trying not to neglect Rex, which became more challenging after he passed his “final exams,” was discharged from Windemere, and went to Chappy.
She waited two whole days before going to see him.
Kevin greeted her and led her to the outside deck where Rex was already ensconced.
The house was an old, gray-shingled Cape, which Kevin said he’d “reconstructed” inside.
It had a large bedroom on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs; though Kevin and Taylor used the large one, they’d moved upstairs for “the duration of our houseguest,” he said, then added, “I’m pretending we’re on an exotic vacation in somebody else’s house. ”
Then he excused himself and left them to take in the sun that was warm for May. A scent of flowers filled the air; Rex noted that they weren’t exactly bougainvillea, but they were nice.
Though Maddie had considered asking Grandma if he could finish his recuperation at the cottage, she knew that Chappy was a better option for him.
Taylor would be there, and Kevin could be if she could not, as had happened that day.
Also, as an EMT, Taylor would know if Rex got into trouble and she could get him to the hospital much faster, because Chappy was closer to it than Menemsha was.
So as badly as Maddie wanted him with her, he was safer there.
Besides, if he’d been at the cottage, he might have found the newest note that had arrived the day he was discharged.
She’d shoved it into her purse with the copies of the others, and assured herself she’d deal with it, either by bringing it to Chief Lawrence or ripping the damn things up, every one of them, once and for all.
There was no such drama on Chappy, where they now sat drinking Grandma’s lavender-based iced tea concoction that Maddie brought. Though Rex seemed to enjoy it, he said he would have preferred beer.
She shook her head and closed her eyes, luxuriating in the sun, and listening to the melodies of birds who flitted in and out of the beech trees and scrub oaks around the yard. Silence and peace, she knew, would be gone in two weeks when the bookshop opened and Rafe would graduate.
“So,” Rex said, stirring her from tranquility. He set down his glass, folded his arms, and looked at her squarely. “Any more threats?”
She wished he hadn’t asked; the bigger her belly grew, the harder it had become to dodge his questions. So she simply shook her head and said, “No threats.”
It wasn’t exactly true. But, unlike the times before, when she’d opened the last envelope that was addressed to Maddie, the sheet of paper inside was blank; not a single word had been printed on it.
Then she noticed that something else was in the envelope.
Turning it upside down, she shook a small black-and-white photo into her palm.
It looked like a yearbook photo. Martha’s Vineyard High School.
Class of 1972. The picture was of Hannah, Maddie’s mother.
On the back someone had printed: SHE WOULD NOT WANT YOU HERE.
Again, ambiguous. Again, unsigned.
Despite the sunshine now, Maddie shivered at the memory, at how the image of her mother had numbed her, as if she’d been injected with a quart of Novocain.
“I still want to see what you have.” Rex sounded insistent.
“Later,” she said again and looked away.
“Maddie, stop it,” he said firmly. “Didn’t we agree on no more secrets?”
His rebuke startled her. Did she really want to argue with him over something so trivial?
Trivial? Were the notes really trivial? Or the phone call? Or the stupid vehicle behind her on that foggy, Stephen-King-kind-of-night?
Rex is right, she felt her mother whisper. Stop it.
Maddie lowered her head.
“I love you,” she said. “And I’m excited about everything ahead of us. The known and the unknown.” She patted her belly. “But I expect that down the road we’ll both have things we’ll need—or want—to do on our own, right? Problems that we might not need to bother each other with?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
She reached over and took his hand. “But if we get stuck, or if we need to talk something out, we’ll have each other. But I don’t want to drag you into all my bumps and scrapes. We’ll both have businesses to run; together we’ll have a child to raise. But we’ll still be individuals, won’t we?”
“Sure. But I have no idea what that has to do with threatening notes.”
“They weren’t really threats, Rex. They were simple suggestions that maybe I don’t belong here. I’m probably not the only washashore who’s received them. Or something like them.”
He laughed, lifted her hand, and kissed it. “If you want to handle this yourself, Maddie, that’s fine. I don’t like it, but I won’t get in your way. You took it to Ken, so I guess I need to let him do his job.”
“Thank you,” she said, though she didn’t really believe that the subject was closed for him.
“I do have another question, though,” he said. “Are you still determined not to marry me?”
Rex was remarkably good at tossing important stuff out of left field.
“I’m not determined about anything. But I want to wait. Let’s see how we are as a couple first, so we won’t wake up a year or two or ten from now feeling like we rushed into anything because of the baby.”
He sighed. “How will I know when you’re ready?”
“Oh,” she said with a smile, “don’t worry. I’ll tell you.”
“Okay. As the mother of my only child, you’re a smart woman. But, once in a while, can I be your knight in shining armor? I am a man, you know.”
Maddie rolled her eyes and laughed.
The best part was that Rex laughed, too.