But Sarah refused. “I’m not waking her up, and you aren’t, either. That would be the same as waking up Stephen, and he doesn’t care about your stupid little superstitions.” She was mocking Joanna, just as Stephen had done.
“He loves me,” Joanna said in reaction. “He loves his children. Even Grace. I know he loves them.” She sounded like she was talking from a distance, tinny and unclear.
“You can have his love, then,” Sarah said, with a wave of her hands. “But not tonight.” She put a hand on Joanna’s shoulder and tried to push her toward the door.
Joanna resisted, whirling on Sarah. “My prophecies are true. You know they are. I told you when you were going to be sick last month.”
“Phht,” Sarah said. “Everyone else had already gotten sick that week. It didn’t take a prophecy to see that I would, too.”
“But now there’s a dark shadow around you, too,” Joanna said, a hand to her throat. “It’s red and black and splattered, like paint.”
“You’re crazy, that’s what you are,” Sarah said. “Stephen might feel sorry for you. He might even see you as a way to have more children. But he isn’t stupid. He doesn’t believe in your so-called prophecies.”
Joanna shook her head slowly, sadly. She turned away from Sarah, her shoulders bowed, defeated. Sarah didn’t have to ask her to leave again. She slunk out the back door, and Sarah had to pull it closed behind her.
“Idiot,” said Sarah, her lips twisted.
Before she could look up and see me, I scuttled away as quietly as I could manage. Back in bed, I thought about prophecies and women’s history of healing blessings in the Mormon church, which had been common in the nineteenth century, but now were outright forbidden.
I thought about charts and menstruation cycles and Joanna’s two children with Stephen in a short, two-year marriage. And then I thought of Stephen, who had only five wives, and seven nights in a week, leaving two nights untaken. I fell asleep before I could get beyond that, however.
The next morning, I awoke suddenly to the sound of a feminine voice calling, “Dad, we finally managed to get here! Dad? Where are you?”
I checked my phone then and saw Naomi and Kenneth had both sent me text messages about an hour ago, but I’d slept through them.
There was nothing from Kurt, however.
I got up, quickly threw on the fresh clothes from my overnight bag, and went downstairs.
In the front room, Kenneth looked wonderful, freshly shaved, his hair still wet from the shower. Naomi was holding tightly to Kenneth. She looked like she hadn’t slept, dark circles under bloodshot eyes.
“Hi, Mom,” said Kenneth. He offered me a hug, which I accepted gratefully. I felt so dislocated here, and now with Kurt gone, Kenneth’s touch was an anchor to the present, to reality, to my family.
Naomi fidgeted anxiously beside him. “Where’s Dad?” Kenneth asked.
This was not easy. “He went home.”
“And left you here alone? Was there some kind of bishop emergency?”
I’d never been one to lie to my children to keep them happy, but in this case, I filed it under “none of my grown son’s business,” and said, “Something like that.”
“How was Talitha last night?” Naomi asked.
I explained about the dead cat and burying it, and also about my visit to Talitha’s room with dinner. “She really wanted to see you.”
“You’re saying you think she was drugged?” asked Naomi, looking furious.
“Maybe,” I said, though I wasn’t a doctor, or even one in training, as she was.
“I need to talk to my father right now. Have you seen him this morning?” she asked urgently.
“Not yet.” I was surprised she wasn’t going to see the little girl first.
“He has to be down here somewhere,” Naomi said, her tone scalding. “He’s always up at the crack of dawn to pray and read scriptures. Mom?” she called.
Rebecca came out of the kitchen. She hadn’t come out when Naomi and Kenneth first appeared at the door. Had she just been too caught up in cooking breakfast? Or had she not wanted to talk to her daughter for some reason?
“Naomi, sweetheart!” Rebecca said, stepping forward for a hug.
Naomi ignored the motion and the hug was uncompleted. “Where’s Dad?”
“I guess he might be down in his office,” Rebecca said. “Although I didn’t hear him come down while I was in the kitchen. He doesn’t usually sleep in, but I’ll go upstairs just to make sure.”
Naomi went downstairs while Rebecca went up.
It was only a few moments before I heard a piercing shriek from upstairs that made my heart go cold in my chest. I clutched Kenneth’s arm as Naomi came running up from the basement.
“What’s wrong?” she asked Kenneth.
“I don’t know. That’s your mother, isn’t it?” he said.
Naomi went rushing upstairs. “Mom?” she called in a panicked tone.
Kenneth loped after her, and I tried to keep up, failing miserably.