He smiled. “Why, what else? A family,” he said. “I’m just marching along to your orders. A baby in the first year. That’s what you said.”
I started to shake my head but stopped, turned away, and muttered to Mr. Moccasin, who was sitting and looking up at me, “Haylee, what have you done to me?”
7
Haylee
It took Simon Adams quite a while to get up the nerve to call and ask about Kaylee. He was probably still shaking all over from the events at the movie theater. I didn’t think we’d ever hear from him again.
Daddy had looked in on me before he went downstairs in the morning to answer phone calls. I knew he was standing in my bedroom doorway, but I didn’t turn or open my eyes. He closed my door softly, and then I turned onto my back and looked up, infatuated for the moment with the way the morning light sliced through the window curtains and shifted shadowy shapes over the pale pink ceiling. The part of my brain that had always been my Kaylee part tried to project her face, with her pleading eyes gazing down at me, but I washed my own face with my dry palms, and she quickly disappeared.
I hadn’t had even one dream, not one nightmare, about her. When we were very little, she had often clung to me when she was frightened by something, and I’d hated that because it brought her fear into me. I’d have to practically tear her arms away from me, but only when Mother wasn’t looking. Then she’d cry, and I’d cry so Mother wouldn’t know what I had done.
Just like she wouldn’t know now. Of course, I wondered what Daddy really thought about all this. Thanks to the demands Mother was making on him in her hysterical state of mind, he hadn’t asked me too many detailed questions. I was sure that would come, but I’d be ready for it, and if he got too upset with me, I would turn the tables on him and blame it all on the way he had deserted us.
I wondered how his night had gone. I had fallen asleep the moment my head hit the pillow, and I hadn’t heard any talk or movement outside my door. Right now, I didn’t feel like facing all that was unraveling, but I did have to pee, so I got up.
When I came out of the bathroom, Daddy had just brought Mother her breakfast. I poked my head out to listen and heard him urging her to eat something. I didn’t hear her voice, so I closed the door. He stopped by my room again. This time, I turned to look at him.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
“I didn’t want to worry you, but I had one nightmare after another and hardly slept at all. You didn’t hear me, but I got up in the middle of the night and went to look in Kaylee’s room. I saw you asleep in her bed and hurried back here.”
He nodded. “You don’t need to be asleep to have a nightmare. This whole thing is a nightmare. I just brought your mother something to eat. Come down when you’re ready.”
“I heard the phone ring a few times this morning. That’s what actually woke me. Anything new?”
“Just my secretary and some people at my office,” he said. “They’re releasing it all to the news media this morning. Ho
pefully, that will bring results. Good results,” he added, and went downstairs.
I didn’t rush to follow him. Instead, I turned on my television, keeping the volume very low, and I saw Kaylee’s picture on the news. The commentator talked about the dangers of Internet relationships, especially for young girls, and some male detective out of Philadelphia discussed the problem in general. Once again, Kaylee’s picture was shown, and police numbers were flashed to call. It gave me a funny feeling, because although I knew the difference between us, of course, I still imagined those who knew us saw the picture and were, for the moment at least, thinking it was me. Anyone who didn’t know we were identical twins, strangers on the street, would look excitedly at me when they spotted me.
I imagined someone rushing over to me and asking, “Are you the girl who was kidnapped?” They would probably think they had found the missing girl.
“Oh, no,” I would say with a terribly sad expression, close to tears. “That’s my dear identical twin sister. She’s still missing.”
I decided to shut off the television and go downstairs. First, I looked in on Mother. She appeared to have fallen asleep again, with her tray on her lap and little, if any, of her food eaten. I was still in my pajamas. As I anticipated, my cell phone started ringing only minutes after Kaylee’s picture was posted on the morning news. I didn’t answer, of course. I returned to my room and switched the phone off, but then my landline began ringing. I turned off the ringer, and those calls went to voice mail, too.
Daddy had just hung up after speaking to someone and turned to me when I entered the kitchen.
“Was that the police?”
“No. Melissa Clark.”
Melissa was one of Mother’s older friends. For a long time, Mother had had very little to do with any of the women in her group, especially after the divorce. She had started to see some of them again when she began dating, and now, with the breaking news about Kaylee on television and radio, they were all sure to be calling.
“I looked in on Mother, and she was asleep with the tray of food on her lap.”
“I’ll go back up soon.”
He poured himself another cup of coffee and shook his head. The look on his face frightened me. Had he discovered something? What mistake had I made?
“We might have to get some temporary help,” he said.
I released the air I had trapped in my lungs as if I was blowing out birthday candles. Anyone would think I was crazy, but I enjoyed the excitement this had brought into my life. It was as if the wide spotlight that had always been on the “mirror sisters” had been tightened and was now on only me.
“What kind of help?”