"
You can
'
t see…?
"
Amanda
'
s question drifted off as she motioned vaguely behind her.
Dawson
'
s concern
increased,
became more
of a surge
than a flicker.
"
Amanda, why don
'
t you come inside and
have a Coke
?
That always makes you feel better."
The frumpy woman rushed forward and took her hand.
"
It
'
s all right, dear. Come inside and sit down for a few minutes. You
'
ve been through a lot.
"
Amanda looked into the woman
'
s plain, kindly face.
Charley groaned.
"
I
'
m your mother-in-law,
"
the woman said.
"
Irene Randolph. Charley
'
s mother.
"
She
took Amanda's arm on the opposite side from Charley
and guided her toward the shop.
Her touch was soft warmness rather than the cold chill Charley's had been. "I heard you were out of the hospital, and I wanted to meet you. I couldn't find your phone number, but I called your shop this morning, and your assistant said I should come on over. I wish we didn't have to meet like this, but it can't be helped."
Faced with a live mother-in-law on one side and a dead almost-ex-husband on the other,
Amanda
couldn't find the will to
protest. Suddenly sitting down and having a Coke
seemed like a really good idea, a sane, normal action.
"
It
'
s going to be okay,
"
the woman said in a soothing voice
as if she sensed Amanda's tension
.
"
You lost your husband and you were in a terrible accident. You need some time to recover.
" The woman sensed the tension but didn't have a clue as to the cause of it.
Amanda let her mother-in-law lead her through the shop toward the small office at
the back. Motorcycles and parts
spread
around
the room
were
in a
surprising
semblance
of order.
I
n her absence,
under Dawson's care,
order had gained ground on disorder
.
A slight smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Dawson
'
s unrelenting determination to create structure everywhere was reassuring. His obsessive nature balanced Amanda
'
s tendency toward chaos.
In the
small, windowless
office, Amanda sank onto one of the folding chairs. A
clean
camshaft lay at her feet.
She jumped at the sound of a pop-hiss.
"
Uh, Coke. Sorry.
"
Dawson
handed her a red can.
"
Thanks.
"
Amanda lifted the can and took a long swallow of the cold, fizzy liquid.
Charley
'
s mother appeared on the other side, proffering a rectangular plastic container filled with cookies.
Amanda blinked.
"
Cookies?
"
In the midst of Charley
'
s murder, the appearance of his ghost, the sabotage of her motorcycle and her near death, this woman
, her newly-discovered mother-in-law,
was pushing cookies.
"
They
'
re delicious,
"
Dawson
assured her.
"They have nuts," the woman said, apparently misinterpreting Amanda's hesitation. "Are you allergic to nuts? Oh, dear, I hope you're not allergic to nuts."
Her face wrinkled with concern.
"No. No, I love nuts." Amanda
picked up a cookie.
The whole world had gone insane. S
he might as well eat cookies. She took a bite.
It
was moist, chewy, rich
, full of smooth chocolate chips
and chunky nuts
.
"This is good!"
she exclaimed.
"
Really good!
"
The woman smiled.
"
I didn
'
t know what kin
d of cookies you liked, but chocolate chip
was Charley
'
s favorite, so I thoug
ht you might like the same kind
.
"
Amanda
took
a second bite.
"
You made these cookies for me?
"
"Of course.
I
'
m glad you like them.
"
"
I love them.
"
Suddenly
Amanda found her throat oddly choked. To her surprise and consternation, she felt tears brimming in her eyes.
Mrs. Rando
lph fell to her knees beside Amanda
and
wrapped both arms around her, patting her gently
.
"
It
'
s okay to cry. I
'
ve cried an ocean over him. We both loved him
,
and now he
'
s gone.
"
Amanda decided it wouldn
'
t be a good idea to tell a grieving mother that she was crying because someone had made cookies for her, not because she
'
d loved the son in question
who wasn't really gone anyway
.
"
I didn
'
t kill him.
"
It was the only
consoling thing she could think of to say.
Mrs. Randolph drew back.
"
Why, of course, you didn
'
t! Why would you even say such a thing?
"
Amanda wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and shrugged.
"
The cops. They
'
ve been questioning me.
"
Charley
'
s mother patted her hand.
"
They questioned me, too. Don
'
t you worry. They
'
ll catch
w
ho
ever
did this horrible thing.
"
She straightened.
"
Bad enough you lose your husband. Those police shouldn
'
t be making things worse.
"
She squeezed Amanda's hand. "You've been through a lot here lately, and Herbert and I want you to come to Silver Creek and stay with us for a while, give yourself some time to heal and get to know your new family."
"Herbert?" Amanda's brain didn't seem to be working very well this morning. Instead of thoughts flashing through her mind like mercury, they seemed to be moving through murky quicksand.
Silver Creek. Family. Herbert?
"Charley's daddy. Your father-in-law. He couldn't come today because he has to work. But we all talked about it, and everybody wants you to come stay with us. Me and Herbert and the girls that are still at home…that's Paula and Penny, the twins. And then Charley has two brothers and two more sisters, and both boys and my oldest girl are married, and you have four nieces and three nephews and one on the way. Then there
's
Herbert's kin…he had five sisters. Can you imagine being the only boy in that family? They all have husbands and kids. I have three brothers and one whole sister and one half sister. Anyway, point is, you have a big family you've never met that wants to be with you while we're all grieving for the same lost loved one."
Amanda lost count of poor orphan Charley's family members somewhere after the twins. "That's…uh…thank you." Fortunately the manners her mother had drilled into her since birth kicked in to compensate for her total inability to process and respond to this overwhelming information. "I'd love to. But I can't leave right now. I have a business to run."
Mrs. Randolph smiled and waved a hand toward Dawson. "This nice young man says he can handle things here for as long as you want to stay with us. You can have Charley's old room. There's a big cottonwood tree right outside his window that makes the prettiest sound when the wind blows. It's real peaceful."
His own room with a big cottonwood tree outsid
e didn't quite coincide with Charley's
tales of sleeping on a sofa with his little brother in a tiny living room while his prostitute mother turned tricks and took drugs in the only bedroom.
"That sounds wonderful." Amanda smiled, hoping the expression didn't look as forced as it felt. "I'll think about it when Charley's funeral and the police investigation are finished."
"I understand. I've got to get back home today, but I'
ll leave
you our telephone number, and I'll be up here to help you with the funeral all I can. I buried my momma and daddy and one baby. It's not easy."
"You're very kind."
"You're family."