A Child's Wish

“Gone. She didn’t want to be here if Kelsey came out. She said to have you call her in the morning.”

Meredith couldn’t remember where she’d left her bag. “Did she go home?”

He shook his head. “She was going to the hospital…Said something about a surgery she did today that she wanted to check on.”

Work was Susan’s way of making sense out of life. Meredith understood that. And knew that her friend was exactly where she needed to be at the moment.

“How is she?” He nodded toward an archway leading to the stairs.

“Asleep.”

Mark nodded and looked, she thought, relieved. Because his daughter was no longer suffering, or because it meant that he didn’t have to deal with her? Maybe a little of both.

Meredith had to go—she was overwhelmed, exhausted, and not trusting herself to think clearly. But Mark looked so shaken and lost that she sat down on the edge of the chair opposite him. Just for a minute.

“What did she say?”

“Not much.”

His eyes were weary as he looked at her, his body slouched in the corner of the couch. She wondered how long he’d been sitting there, doing nothing.

“You were in there for almost an hour.”

“I rubbed her back while she cried, and tried to get her to talk to me. She agreed to put on her pajamas and brush her teeth. It took us ten minutes to find Gilda. I listened to her prayers and sat with her until she fell asleep.”

She hadn’t been able to leave the child until she was peaceful. And she’d wanted to give Susan and Mark some time alone.

He shook his head. “I just don’t get it.”

“She’s scared, Mark. I don’t know a lot about your wife, but my guess is that Kelsey suffered more at her hands than she lets on. The idea of introducing another woman into her life, aside from the fact that she has to share you, has got to be causing her some serious misgivings.”

He nodded thoughtfully.

“Barbie never raised a hand to her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I didn’t think she had,” Meredith said, choosing her words carefully. “But I wasn’t sure.”

“What has Susan told you about her?”

“Only that you came home from work one day and she was gone. And that Kelsey had afternoon kindergarten and was with you when you came in and found her missing.”

“Barbie adored Kelsey,” he said, staring off into the middle of the room. “From the moment she found out she was pregnant, that child was the light in her life. She was more peaceful with Kelsey than I’d ever known her to be.”

“She hadn’t been before?”

“Barbie’s a sensitive woman—always was—which made her life kind of turbulent at times. Sometimes she’d get upset about the most inconsequential things. She’d storm and fume and then it would be over and she’d be fine. On the other side, however, even the smallest things could make her happy.”

“How long were you married before she got pregnant?”

“Four years.”

“Did she have a career?”

“She has a degree in journalism, and before Kelsey she was working at the Tulsa Times. She was still at a pretty junior level, writing obits and covering local events, but she’d had a couple of impressive bylines and was on her way up.”

“Did she keep working after Kelsey was born?”

“No.” He shook his head. “She’d intended to, but when the time came she couldn’t bear to leave the baby with a sitter.”