"Thank you."
She looked at me closely.
"Did you have a bad day?" she asked.
I started to shake my head, but my lips trembled and my chin quivered. I had to bite down to keep from releasing a sob.
"You poor girl," she said, coming to me. I couldn't help myself. I started to cry. She wrapped her arms around me quickly and held me to her, stroking my hair. "There, there, now, nothing is as bad as all that."
"Yes it is," I wailed. "My own mother refused to recognize me today. She ran off and left me with relatives back East and then I think she pretended to die so she would be rid of me forever," I blurted.
Christina looked shocked for a moment and then she nodded slowly, her lips firm.
"Any woman who denies her own child must be in trouble," she declared. "It's not natural and it has to be painful for her."
"Do you think so?" I asked, wiping my eyes.
"Oh yes. When you become a mother, you'll understand," she said with a smile. "Your child is part of you, always your baby. It hurts to see them grow up because you know they're growing away from you, but that's a different and healthy kind of letting go.
"I'm sure your mother will contact you," she said and squeezed my hand softly.
"She doesn't know where I'm staying."
"Then she expects you'll be back," Christina assured me.
"I don't know," I said, thinking about it. I wanted to share her optimism, to make everything terrible look small and insignificant, to believe that after a storm there was always a rainbow, but I had been disappointed so many times already.
"Have more faith, dear," she said. "Relax, eat a good dinner, get a good night's rest and tomorrow, tomorrow will look a lot more promising."
Her smile was like the sunshine after the rain. I couldn't help but smile back.
"Thank you," I said. "Your children are lucky to have such a good mother?'
"Oh, I tell them that all the time," she joked. She had me laughing again and for an instant I felt like my old self, full of sunshine and laughter.
I enjoyed my whirlpool bath, soaked and relaxed and practiced meditating. I thought about Billy Maxwell overcoming his personal disaster and I grew stronger. I was even hungry and looking forward to dinner.
Right after I got dressed, there was a knock on my door and Christina poked her head in.
"Everything all right?"
"Yes, thank you, Christina."
"You have a call," she said. "Just leave the bathroom as it is. I'll come back before I leave and take care of it all," she added, closing the door so I would have privacy. I imagined it was Holly calling again. Maybe Dorothy had called her and told her what Philip had said. Holly would want me to fly back to New York and stay with her for a while. I had to admit it looked like the best idea.
"Hello."
"Melody," Cary said. What a surprise it was to hear from him.
"Cary!"
"I called Holly and got her sister's number. Are you all right? How was the trip?"
I spoke quickly, in minutes summarizing everything that had happened, beginning with the near disaster at the airport. He listened silently until I was finished. I realized it was already late in the evening back East.
"Sounds like you've had a terrible time from the day you left New York," he said.
"But how are you?" I asked.