So Alone Part 8

A little frown creased his forehead. "The people are great. The fresh air is wonderful, even if it does get frightfully cold in the winter. What is that b.u.mper sticker I see around once in a while? '36 Degrees Below Keeps Out The Riffraff!'"

Their gazes locked. "You truly do like it here, don't you?"

"Yup. There's no area more beautiful than the flat plains when the golden ripe wheat sways in wind-blown waves, or when the fields are white as far as you can see with snow that never seems to get dirty."

She laughed. "It never gets dirty because it never melts or turns into dirty slush. It's too cold to thaw from October to April."

"I know, and there's less air pollution to discolor it. But the sky. Look at that unbelievable sky," he told her with a sweep of his arm over his head. "It goes on forever!"

They looked up at the clear sky that contrasted so beautifully with the green leaves of the tree beside them. Not a cloud in sight, only the church's tall white steeple, visible from anywhere in town, pierced the broad unbroken expanse of blue and made Carrie feel small and very insignificant.

Carrie turned to watch him looking at the sky. "Sounds like the North Dakota countryside has a convert."

"What's not to like? I'd be happy to live here the rest of my life."

Tears stung her eyes. She turned and touched the corner to take one away before it escaped down her cheek.

"What's wrong?" He caught her arm to stop her when she tried to move away.

"I... I just got something in my eye from all that unpolluted country fresh air," she tried to joke, wondering what the eternal punishment was for fibbing to a pastor. Good thing there were no clouds or she would worry about lightning striking.

"Let me see," he offered as he reached to hold her face in his hands.

"No. No, thank you." She backed away quickly, and he had no choice but to drop his hands to his sides. "I'm all right. I have to go anyway. Can't leave Maddie alone too long."

"Okay. See you in the morning," he said easily.

Carrie nodded. "If Maddie is up to it." She continued backing across the lawn. "So long." She started to turn away from him.

"Carolyn?"

She stopped walking. "Hmmm?"

"I've learned something about myself since moving to the country." She tilted her head slightly in question, but didn't speak. "I can be very patient when I need to be."

Her gaze remained locked on his and she shivered. If only she had been able to be more patient five years ago, she wouldn't be feeling so miserable right now. Unable to maintain the visual contact with the tumult of emotions churning within her, she turned without a word and jogged to Maddie's house. She had to escape before she did something stupid like let him discover that she'd wanted to cry when she learned he would be happiest if he could spend the rest of his life in Sunville.

Careful not to catch her gored skirt on the bushes, she ran around the house. She swiped at her cheeks with the backs of her hands and focused her thoughts on thanking Bette. Thinking about Bette's colorful personality always brightened her mood.

She rounded the front of the house and found the porch empty. The heat had probably driven the ladies inside. North Dakota always amazed her. It could be over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and thirty-five degrees below zero or colder in the winter. It was a wonder anything survived here--people, plants or animals.

Carrie ducked in the front door and called out when she didn't see the women in the living room. She began to feel uneasy when she discovered Maddie's bed and the kitchen were empty, too. "Bette?" she called, running to look on the back porch.

When Carrie hurried back to the front hall, she saw Bette coming down the stairs in tears. Her steps heavy, she was clinging to the railing. Her face was flushed and Carrie thought she could see tears on her cheeks. Carrie had never seen the woman other than cheerful. Panic clawed at Carrie's chest.

"Bette, what's wrong? Where's Maddie?"

"I... I was only gone a minute. I came in to get us some more lemonade. It was hot out and we were thirsty."

Carrie reached for a tissue from the box by the hall phone and handed it to Bette. "Where is she? Where is Maddie?"

"I'm trying to tell you. I don't know. I just don't know where she is. I looked all through the house in case she went back upstairs to find her old room. You know how she forgets."

Her hand went to her chest and grabbed a handful of her dress. "I'm so out of breath from everything that I have to sit down a bit."

Carrie stroked Bette's shoulder and walked with her to a living room chair. "Sit down and try not to worry."

"Oh, Carrie, I'm sorry. I was supposed to watch her and I lost her. I lost my best friend."

"It wasn't your fault, Bette. She just wandered off. If you know she's not upstairs, then I'm going outside to look. You sit here and rest. We can't have you getting ill over this. I'll find her. Don't you worry," Carrie said, hoping it was true.

She had to find her and quickly. Not waiting for Bette's response, she ran out the front door to the street. Looking each way down the tree-lined curbless blacktop, she couldn't see Maddie--only one neighbor out in a yard working. She ran to his side. "My grandmother," she said when she had reached his side. "Maddie. She's wandered away from the porch. Have you seen her come down this way?"

"Maddie's gone again?" he asked as he rose with his pruning shears in his hand.

Carrie nodded, too worried to have his "again" bother her much at the moment. "Have you seen her in the last ten or fifteen minutes?"

"No, Carrie, sorry. I've been tr.i.m.m.i.n.g these bushes here that long, but I guess she might have wandered by and I wouldn't have noticed."

Carrie looked up and down the street again and saw no one. "Thanks," she called over her shoulder as she took off at a run for home. Bounding up the porch stairs, she let the screen door slam behind her as she raced into the house.

"Did you find her?" Bette called from the living room.

"No!" Carrie pressed her fingers to her pounding temples. "Where can she be?" she cried.

Carrie grabbed the railing and bolted up the stairs. She looked in every bedroom, just to be certain Bette hadn't missed seeing her. She checked the bathroom downstairs and the mudroom, as well as the backyard.

Returning to the front foyer, she leaned her palms on the phone table to catch her breath. Moments later, when she thought she was breathing slowly enough to be able to talk, she picked up the phone and dialed the police.

"No, I just got home," Carrie told the police who asked if anyone had been there with her grandmother when she disappeared. "And of course someone was with her, but when they left the porch for a few minutes she disappeared. She's been gone for maybe ten or fifteen minutes." She glanced at Bette who was nodding in agreement.

With their promise to send someone right over to help look, Carrie went to stand at the front door, anxiously awaiting their arrival. In a few minutes, the local police car arrived in the driveway with the red lights on top flashing.

She ran out to explain the situation to the officers. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the tall balding officer who climbed from the driver's seat.

"Ms. Whitmore," he said politely at he put his hat on his head. He gave his name and she nodded. "We met some years ago after the unfortunate death you were involved in at the Sunville Nursing Home," he reminded her.

She nodded more vigorously and had to swallow before she could speak. "Yes, I remember." How could she ever forget? Her sense of guilt reminded her everyday. She took a deep breath and tamped down all the torment that had surfaced when she recognized him.

"So what's the problem today?" he asked.

Carrie didn't dwell on the past when she thought of Maddie being missing. She explained the situation to the officers and answered their questions.

"You stay at the house in case someone calls about Maddie and we'll canvas each house in the neighborhood to see if anyone has seen Maddie."

Carrie agreed and returned to the house as they walked down the sidewalk in opposite directions. For once Carrie was thankful Maddie lived in a small town and Carrie didn't have to wait twenty-four hours to report a missing person like on TV detective shows set in big cities.

Pa.s.sing through the front hall, she looked up wide-eyed when the back door burst open and Peter ran in.

"Carolyn?"

He stopped for an instant in which their gazes locked, and then they ran toward each other. He swept her into his arms and held her tightly. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked without loosening his hold on her.

Beside herself with worry, Carrie gave little thought to what she was doing as she circled his waist with her arms and accepted his warm and supportive hug. "Oh, Peter. It's Grandma."

"I was so worried when I saw the police car. Tell me. What's wrong?" He straightened enough to look at her.

"When I came home, she was gone. Bette doesn't know where she is. We can't find her! Two policemen came and they're going door to door to see if anyone's seen her."

She hiccupped in her effort to stop crying. Peter slid his hands from her back to hold her jaw in his palms while he wiped away the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. Carrie could have dropped her arms from his waist, but she didn't. She needed to maintain the contact with him. Even though she shouldn't, she felt so much better with him close.

"What about her friends? Could she have gone to see one of them? Can you call some?"

She shook her head and Peter moved his hands to her shoulders. "No, I'm to stay off the phone in case one of them is trying to call me."

Bette appeared at the arch to the living room, her aged face red, her eyes still brim-full of tears. She leaned the heel of her palm against the wall for support. "Oh, Peter, I'm glad you're here. I lost her. My best friend. I lost Maddie."

Carrie turned out of Peter's embrace. She wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks with her trembling fingers. She felt so worried and helpless, but one look at how pale Bette looked and Carrie began to worry about her, too. She and Peter both urged Bette to return to a seat. "It wasn't your fault, Bette," Carrie told her. "Don't think that I believe that for a minute."

"I'll go back to the church to use the phone there. We need more manpower for the search," Peter offered.

"That's a good idea." Carrie straightened and turned to face him. "Thank you, Peter."

"You're okay?" His hand rested firmly on her shoulder. His thumb rubbed the hollow in the base of her neck in rea.s.suring circles.

She nodded. "We've got to find her, Peter."

"We will," he promised before he turned and ran out the kitchen door.

Bette sniffled. "I wish there was something more we could do," Bette said, leaning heavily against the back of the chair. She wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand.

"Bette, you mustn't get so upset. We'll find her. I know we will." Carrie handed her a tissue from the box she retrieved from the telephone stand in the hall.

"I just can't imagine where she is," Bette insisted. "Where could she go?"

"Exactly. If we could just figure out where she could have gone in such a short time, we'd know," Carrie said as she rose. She felt too tense and restless to stay sitting beside Bette. "I'm going to look out front again. You rest there," she said as she walked out on the front porch.

The policemen were crossing the street at the end of the block to canvas each house on the other side. Maddie was no where to be seen.

"Carolyn!"

She heard Peter shout her name before she heard him burst through the back door a second time. She ran back inside letting the screen door bounce shut behind her as she ran to meet him.

"I found her. I found Maddie," he said pausing to swallow and catch a breath. "She's fine. She's over in the church sitting in a pew. She's fallen asleep." Carrie's eyes widened when she heard "asleep". "Yes, I checked," he a.s.sured her before she could ask. "She's probably exhausted from the walk and fell asleep. You go on over there and I'll go tell the police." She smiled up at him. "Thank you, Peter." "Hey, what are good friends for?" he asked with a shrug and his arms spread in a palm-up gesture. Without thinking Carrie rose onto her toes and kissed him briefly on his lips. In another ten seconds, without giving the kiss another thought, she was halfway across the yard, racing for the church. She took the front steps two at a time. Inside the sanctuary the air felt cool and her skin, moist from her run, felt chilled. After a quick glance across the rows, her gaze fixed on Maddie sitting over to one side. Carrie inhaled deeply and uttered a soft, "I haven't had much opportunity to show appreciation, but I thank You, Lord, for keeping Maddie safe." Slowly, Carrie slipped into the row and moved sideways to sit beside Maddie. She put her arm around her grandmother and spoke softly. "Grandma? Grandma, are you feeling all right?" "Oh, dear," Maddie said, waking up with a start. "I must have dozed off. Is the service over already? Wasn't the music lovely? I truly love organ music. John does, too. We had such a lovely time together this afternoon." Maddie looked down the pew beside her and then back at her granddaughter. "I see he's left already.

He's such a busy man, but I'll see him later at home." "Come on, Grandma. Let me help you up. It's time for us to go home." With infinite patience, Carrie waited until Maddie tucked her lace-edged handkerchief into her dress sleeve at her wrist before she helped her to stand and walk toward the rear of the sanctuary. They were nearing the double white doors when they opened and Peter came in with the two police officers. Peter stepped over to support Maddie's other arm. "Good to have you come to church for a visit, Maddie." He winked at Carrie over the white head between them.

The officers politely introduced themselves and offered Maddie a ride home.

"Oh, my, no. I just live behind the church," Maddie told them.

"But you've had a busy day, Maddie. How about if I drive you around the block and right up to your

front door?" Peter asked.

"Well..." Maddie vacillated.

Peter didn't give her a chance to object before helping her to his car. The two policemen left without

objections after Carrie thanked them. She sincerely hoped she would never see them again.

Bette came down the front steps looking visibly relieved as she watched Peter and Carrie help Maddie out of the car after the quick trip. She hugged her friend and had to wipe away tears of relief. "Now that you're home safe, I'm going home and take a nap. It's been quite a day."

"Bette, would you like a ride home?" Peter asked. Bette looked at him, her face drawn with weariness, but she didn't respond. "Or maybe we should call the police back so you can have a ride in their car?" She smiled at Peter. "Haven't been in a police car before and I don't intend to start now. In fact, I think I would prefer to walk home. At my age, my boy, I have to use it or I'll lose it," she announced.

Carrie suspected she felt guilty and didn't want to be a bother after the problem she felt she'd caused.

Carrie could tell because she was an expert at feeling guilty because of situations she'd caused. "A walk sounds like a lovely idea. I'll come with you," Peter told Bette, holding out his elbow for her as he winked at Carrie.

"Well, if you insist, my boy."

Bette was smiling, but Carrie noticed that she leaned heavily on Peter's arm as they walked slowly down

the porch steps and across the crushed-stone path to the street.

"Come on, Grandma. I'll help you into bed," Carrie said as Peter and Bette left.

"That's a good idea. I'm all tuckered out, too."

Once Maddie was settled in bed, Carrie raised the light cover over her shoulders and kissed her cheek.

She remained by the bed and watched as Maddie's eyes drifted shut as she went right to sleep.

"I love you, Grandma," Carrie whispered before she left the room.