"Looks good, Elsie," Julie said.
"The men like good heavy food in the winter. You like livin' here?" Elsie asked.
"I do. I'm trying to make up my mind about whether to rebuild or buy a trailer."
Elsie wiped her hands on a towel and carried a cup of coffee to the table. She was a medium-sized woman with dark hair and brown eyes. Maybe sixty years old, but it was hard to tell. Her eyes sparkled with life and she could be anywhere from fifty to seventy.
"Think on it. There's no hurry. My sister has cooked for Alvera Clancy for years. She says that Alvera would do anything to keep you in Saint Jo."
"Someday I'm going to grow up and be just like Alvera," Julie said.
"I can see it happening," Elsie said. "She's a nice woman. My sister loves working on her ranch."
Lizzy peeked around the corner. "Julie, where is Annie? I can't find her."
"Is she in the bathroom?" Julie asked.
"No, I checked them both and your room and the den and the front porch and I can't find her and where is she?"
Julie's heart skipped a beat. "Annie? Annie! Where are you? Don't you play hide-and-seek with me, young lady," Julie yelled up the stairs and out the back door. She and Lizzy ran all the way around the house together and Chuck took off to the barn where the cats were located.
No Annie.
Her pulse thumped in her ears as she picked up the phone in the kitchen and called Griffin. "Annie is gone. I can't find her. She never leaves the yard, Griff. She's not in the house and Chuck checked the barn where the kittens are and she's just vanished." Her tone was frantic.
"I'm five minutes away. Keep hunting. I'm on my way," he said.
By the time Griffin arrived, Lizzy was in hysterics, Julie was hoarse from screaming, and still there was no Annie. Griffin hurriedly made one more check and then called the police to report a missing child; then he wrapped his arms around Julie and hugged her close, promising that they would find Annie.
The warmth of his embrace gave her the strength she needed to keep from falling completely apart in front of the children.
Annie had been having a conversation between two dolls. They were deciding what they'd tell Chuck and Lizzy when they came back from the house.
Then the lady showed up as if she had floated down from the trees.
She was very tall with funny hair. It had a pink streak in the same place she and Lizzy had white streaks. Annie looked up at her and wondered if her streak was lucky.
"Lizzy, come on, you are going with me," the lady had said.
"I'm Annie. I'm not Lizzy," she had said.
"Don't you play games with me, little girl. I'm your mother, Dian, and you are going with me."
"No, I'm Annie. Lizzy had to go to the bathroom."
"I know my own child and you are Lizzy, so don't tell me shit like that."
"Julie is my momma and she's in the house and my momma is…"
That's when the lady reached down, jerked Annie up from the quilt, put her hand over her mouth to stifle the screams, and carried her to her car parked beside the house. She took her hand from Annie's face, strapped her into the car seat, and said, "You make a sound and I'll beat you to death."
Annie's blue eyes popped wide open and she slowly looked around the car, terrified to move her head for fear the woman would hit her. She looked at the woman's reflection in the rearview mirror but it wasn't Rachel driving the car; it was a woman with a pink streak in her hair and a pink diamond glued to her nose and lots of pink earrings on her ear. She had on a short black shiny skirt and high heels, like one of Barbie's outfits. But Barbie didn't have a pink shirt like the lady wore or a jean jacket like that, either. Annie didn't mean to cry because she didn't want the lady to hit her, but the tears had a mind of their own and before they reached the end of the lane, she was sobbing.
"Shut that shit up, Lizzy, or I swear I'll stop this car and whip you. I'm your mother and you are going to live with me from now on. Your father just thought he was paying me off. He's going to give me a wad of child support and you'll love living in the big city. You've got a set of twin brothers that you don't even know about and you can watch them for me. Funny thing is, your daddy was a twin and you were a single birth. My boys' daddy can't even remember a single twin in his background and his boys are twins. Maybe we'll even dye that streak pink so you'll look a little more like me," the lady said.
"You are not my mother. My mother is Julie," Annie wailed.
"That's probably your step-mother and your father told you she was your mother, but I'm your real mother. My name is Dian. Didn't he ever talk about me?"
"No, you are not. You are Lizzy's mother. She has a picture of you in a big white dress with Griffin. My mother is Julie," Annie kept protesting.
Dian looked in the rearview mirror to make sure the child really was the one she'd given birth to more than five years before. "You think I wouldn't know my own kid, especially with that white streak in your hair? Shut up that bawlin' or I swear I'll shut you up. Just think, we can be together for Christmas. Santa Claus can bring you a present to my house."
Annie hushed but continued to sniffle. "Take me home and you'll see I'm not Lizzy. She went to the bathroom and Chuck forgotted something. That's why I was there by myself. I'm not Lizzy."
"We're going to the Dairy Queen and get some food. I've driven nonstop from California to get you and I'm starving. We'll eat on the road since I've only got so long to get back. Possession is ninety percent of the law and if Griffin Luckadeau wants you, he's going to give me more than a measly ten grand. I may not be able to touch that ranch, but you belong to me."
Annie finally put together a plan. She folded her arms over her chest and waited.
Dian drove up to the drive-up window and ordered two hamburger meal deals and a kids' meal, both with Dr Peppers and a chocolate malt.
"I don't like Dr Pepper and I want chicken strips, not a hamburger," Annie said.
Dian yelled into the voice box. "I need to change the order."
"Thank you but I'm still not Lizzy," Annie said.
Dian looked into the rearview mirror again. The kid looked exactly like Griffin and Graham. "I can't imagine a kid of mine not liking Dr Pepper."
Annie began to wiggle. "Well, I hate it. I like Coke and Momma usually gets me a juice pack or a carton of milk and I've got to pee."
"You sit still. You're not getting out of this car, do you hear me?" Dian turned around and stared at the child for a long time while she waited for the car ahead of her to move up.
"If you don't let me go in there and go to the bath room I'm going to pee in my pants and get the car seat wet," Annie said.
"Okay, okay. I'll park and we'll both go in and use the bathroom. That way we won't have to stop again until we've got a lot of miles behind us."
She backed up and eased around the car in front of her, parked facing west, and held Annie's hand tightly all the way into the Dairy Queen. "Don't you do anything stupid like scream or I'll make you pay for it all the way to California. I swear, Elizabeth, you won't stop for a bathroom break all day if you scream."
Annie glared at her but didn't answer. Her momma would call that woman a bitch and hit her with the hoe when she found her. She waited until they were inside the Dairy Queen and broke loose from Dian's grip. She ran toward the back of the dining area toward the restrooms. She remembered where they were and which one was for girls because Julie stopped and let the kids have an ice cream on Fridays after school.
Annie knew she had to get in there fast or Lizzy's mother was going to take her way off to California. The only thing Annie knew about California was that he bought all her mother's squash relish on the day Grammy and Poppa Carl came to visit. Why would the crazy lady want to take Annie or Lizzy to California? What did he want with a little girl?
Annie ran faster than Dian could in high heels and beat her to the restroom. In one motion she shut and locked the bathroom door and sat down in the corner behind it.
Dian turned the doorknob but the brat had locked the door. She tried to shake it loose, muttering under her breath the whole time. That didn't work.
She tried sweet persuasion and finally threats. Annie just rolled up tighter and tighter into a ball of fear.
"What's going on?" Annie heard a strange voice ask.
"My little girl has locked herself in and can't get out," Dian said.
"She's not my mother," Annie screamed.
"She's mad because she wanted ice cream and I told her she had to eat her lunch first," Dian said.
"Call my momma at the Lucky Clover ranch. I'm not Lizzy," Annie screamed again.
"That's Griffin Luckadeau's place," the voice said.
"Yes, he's my ex-husband. I'm taking Lizzy for a few days. Visitation, you know. She didn't want to go with me. Griffin didn't want her to go, either, so I'm sure he's poisoned her mind against me, but the law is the law. I've paid child support five years and he can damn well let me have my visitation rights." Dian improvised the lie as she went along.
"I see. Well, I just started working here but I'll go get the key and get her out for you," the voice said.
Annie tried to roll up into an even smaller ball. If Lizzy and Chuck were there, they'd all three run like the wind and get away. They'd slip past the mean woman and just run until a policeman found them. Annie knew the way to Mamie's store and she could run very, very fast all the way there. Mamie would tell the woman that she was Annie and not Lizzy. Mamie would call Griffin and her momma and everything would be all right.
She stood up and pressed herself against the wall behind the door. When the knob turned she took a deep breath and waited. When Dian rushed into the bathroom, Annie sped out from behind the door. The woman in the hallway tried to grab Annie but she slipped from her grasp, took off across the dining room, and was out the door before either of the women could get their balance.
Dian's high heels had straps around her ankles making it impossible to kick them off and chase after the child, but with every long stride she felt she was gaining on her. Air burned in her lungs, a product of too little oxygen and too many cigarettes. She swore if she caught that kid she was going to thump her bottom.
Annie's little legs churned, kicking up dirt as she trav eled west toward the square. She darted through yards, across streets without looking until she reached the east side of the square. Dian was only a half a block behind her when she dashed into Molly's store gasping for Mamie.
"What's wrong, Annie? Where did you come from and why are you running?" Mamie asked.
"Mean woman," Annie got out before she raced behind the curtains and hid in the back room.
Mamie had the phone in her hand calling Julie's cell number when Dian burst through the front door.
"Where is she? I saw her run in here, Mamie Pickett, and by damn you'll give her to me or I'll…" Dian bent over and grasped her knees. Her lungs were blazing and her calf muscles were one solid cramp.
Mamie cocked her head to one side as the phone rang the fifth time. "Dian?"
"Hello," Julie said.
"Where are you?" Mamie asked.
"At the ranch. We've lost Annie and Griffin called the police and Mamie, I'm scared out of my mind."
"That merchandise would be in my possession," Mamie said casually.
"
You've
got Annie. Why?"
"Yes, ma'am, that's the correct price. You can pick it up as soon as you can get here."
Julie raised her voice. "Why are you playing games?"
"An old customer has just come by so I'll have to call you later. Dian, can I get you something to drink?"
"I'm on my way," Julie said.
Mamie set the phone back on the stand. "Now what can I do for you?"
"I saw the little bitch. She ran into this store," Dian said.
"Who?"
"Lizzy. She ran away from me at the Dairy Queen and ran into this store."
"I was in the bathroom and just grabbed the phone as I came out. If she ran in here, she kept right on going out the back way. Why would you have Lizzy?"
"She's mine and I'm taking her back. If Griffin wants her, he can pay me more money or give me child support and I'll keep her. I could use a five-year-old to help me with the twins."
"Twins?" Mamie said.
Dian clutched at her side. "Damn that hurts. Boys, I've got twin boys a year old now. I've got to go find that kid. Out the back door you say?"
"Want to sit down?" Mamie asked.
"No, she's probably hiding along the back of one of the stores. I'll find her and she's in big trouble when I do. Lizzy! Girl, you'd better come out and show your face." Dian marched through the curtain and across the room. She opened the back door and looked both ways, heard a noise to her left, and started that way, calling out to Lizzy every second step.
"Be still and don't move, Annie," Mamie whispered as she locked the door behind Dian. After that she hurried to the front door, locked it, and called the police.
In less than ten minutes, Julie, Griffin, Chuck, and Lizzy pounded on the front door. Mamie let them inside and led them to the back room, where Annie raced to her mother and broke down into gulping sobs, which caused Lizzy to set up a wail and Chuck to wipe tears from under his glasses. That's when Dian started beating on the back door and hollering at Mamie to let her in.