“Well, we’re going to change that. You are not delicate. You are a strong, talented woman, and we’ll prove it right here on Hummingbird Lane in trailer number thirteen,” Sophie said.
“I only counted six trailers,” Em said.
“That’s right. But back before Josh bought this place, there must have been more. Only four of them are occupied right now. Arty lives on the other side of the circle in seven. The two next to us are vacant until fall, and then there’s Josh’s place, and Filly lives between him and Arty.” Sophie headed down the hallway. “I’m just going to take a bathroom break and then make a couple of phone calls. Then I’ll get us some food. We usually eat together in the evenings, but it’s not mandatory, so . . .”
“I’ll try, but not tonight,” Emma said.
“That’s good enough for me. Like I said, everything is up to you.” Sophie disappeared into the restroom.
“I’m not sure I can handle making my own decisions,” Emma muttered as she got her phone out of her purse, turned it on, and called her mother.
“Where are you?” Victoria asked without even saying her usual proper “Merrill residence, Victoria speaking.”
Emma went outside and sat down in one of the red plastic chairs. She sucked in a lungful of night air, but her chest still felt like an elephant was sitting on it, and the stars in the sky went all blurry for a few minutes. “I’m in south Texas somewhere close to Big Bend National Park. I’ll be here for a while.”
“No, you will not,” Victoria declared. “I’ll send Jeffrey to get you tomorrow morning. What is the address? You are not staying with Sophia more than tonight. The center called me an hour ago and told me that you’d checked yourself out. Have you lost what little mind you have left? You’ll be dead in a week if you don’t listen to me. I may have Sophia charged with kidnapping.”
Emma giggled. “I knew you’d say that. If you do, I’ll run away and live on the streets. I’m not going back to an institution, Mother.”
“Jeffrey will be there tomorrow morning, and don’t you ever use that tone when you talk to me.” Victoria’s voice had dropped to that place that scared Emma. “You will do what I say, when I say, and you will not argue with me. Jeffrey—”
“I will not come home, so spare Jeffrey the trip,” Emma declared with as much courage as she could muster. “I am a grown woman, I’m past thirty, and this is my decision.” She reflected that much of that was said for her own benefit.
“You are much too delicate to be away from home. Where are you living, anyway?” Victoria asked.
“In a trailer house with Sophie.” Emma hoped that poor old Jeffrey didn’t suffer the wrath of Victoria Merrill. He was close to seventy and had been the Merrills’ driver and the pilot of their small plane for as long as Emma could remember.
“I’m not a bit surprised. I knew that girl would always be trailer trash,” Victoria hissed.
“Goodbye, Mother,” Emma said and quickly turned off her phone. The first time she’d skipped out on a therapist’s visit and spent the afternoon in the park, her mother had installed a tracking device on her phone that let her know exactly where Emma was at all times.
“But only if the thing is turned on.” Emma pulled her knees up to her chin and took a deep breath. Talking to her mother hadn’t been nearly as difficult as she’d thought it would be, but then Victoria wasn’t standing in front of her with her mouth clamped in a disapproving expression and her eyes boring holes into Emma.
She eyed the phone in her hands as if it were a rattlesnake. “I can use Sophie’s phone when I want to make a call, and I see a landline over there on the kitchen counter. Mother will hate me . . .” She removed the back of her phone, took out the battery and the SIM card, and went inside the trailer and found a hammer in a drawer. She carried it outside and laid the phone down on the wooden porch floor.
“Sophie says I’m in charge of me. I don’t want Mother to find me,” she said as she drew back the hammer. With one well-placed hit, she crushed the battery and the SIM card, then drew back again and brought the hammer down on the face of the phone. Just to be sure, she hit it again until it was nothing but a pile of bits and pieces.
“That’s step one,” she said, but her hands were shaking when she laid the hammer on the porch railing and then swept all the pieces into a dustpan and took them into the trailer.
“What is all that?” Sophie asked.
“My phone,” Emma said.
“Wow, what did that phone do to you?” Sophie asked.
“My mother’s voice came through it,” Emma answered.
“Then good job,” Sophie said. “I’m going out to call Mama and Teddy and then get us some food. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“I’ll be right outside,” Emma said. And in that moment, sitting on a wooden porch in a red plastic chair, Emma felt more alive than she ever had in her entire life.
Sophie sat down on the top step of the porch, waved at the folks around the table, and pointed to her phone. Filly nodded, and Arty gave her a thumbs-up.
Rebel answered on the first ring. “I’ve been expecting your call for the last hour. How did things go?”
Sophie hesitated for a second too long.
“What happened?” Rebel asked. “Did you have car trouble, or did you and Teddy break up? I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he told you to go find another boyfriend since you refuse to marry him.”
“No and no, but I did go see Em in that place. Do you have any idea what happened to her to make her quit college?” Sophie asked. Rebel couldn’t possibly understand that Sophie had her reasons for not wanting to get married.
“That poor, sweet child. All Annie has heard is that Victoria said Emma was too delicate to endure the pressure of college and had to come home. Victoria has always pounded it into that girl’s head that she was fragile and never let her do anything for herself. I thought it was a bunch of bull crap, myself. A kid is as strong as you let her be,” Rebel said.
“I couldn’t stand to leave her in that dismal place, so I brought her with me,” Sophie blurted out.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Rebel gasped. “Victoria is going to go up in flames. How did you manage such a foolhardy thing? And why did you? You’ve never been impulsive in your life, girl.”
“Em is in a bad way. She has no self-confidence, and something horrible has happened to her that she doesn’t want to remember. I wonder if it isn’t something to do with Victoria. There was a sign on her door that said, ‘Females Only.’ That suggests to me that she’s been hurt, and probably by a man. Knowing that Victoria was talking about putting her away forever, I just had to try to help her.” Sophie finally stopped for a breath.
“Well, good luck,” Rebel said. “And I do mean that. You’ve got work to do for your overseas showing, and you need to spend time with Teddy when he can get away, and”—Rebel stopped, and Sophie knew it was to collect her thoughts—“and a million other reasons that you already know. The last of which is that Victoria will send a hit man out to kill you for taking her delicate little orchid away from her. I’ve always wondered if she didn’t treat Em the way she did so that everyone would think Em was crazy. I saw a show on television that had to do with Munchausen by proxy. That means that—”