No Place Like Home Ch 12 pt 2

Driving up and down Topeka Blvd. Rose kept an eye out but didn’t see Gilbert anywhere., so she headed home, and was greeted at the door by Charlie.1

“Did you have fun at the library?” he asked.2

“I didn’t get a chance to study up on Mormons, but I did find something interesting.  I think Gilbert may have a grandmother who is still living.  I’m going to do some research and find out!”3

“I really don’t think he does,” Charlie replied.  “ I mean, the State usually has extensive searches to try and place family members together.  If they haven’t contacted her it’s because she is unfit or hospitalized or something.  I have never heard of Gilbert mention a grandmother.”4

At the mention of hospitalized Rose nearly jumped off the couch.  “I bet she’s in a retirement home.”5

“Well, that won’t help Gilbert any.” Charlie said. “ That would just make them two people who don’t know each other and can’t take care of themselves. And why were you going to the library to read about Mormons.  You thinking of joining a cult?”6

“Shut up! Anyway how do you know they’re a cult?” Rose asked.7

“Don’t they have lots of wives and they can’t drink coffee or smoke?”8

“Are you talking about polygamy?  From what I’ve read so far the Mormon church does not practice it, but they used to.  There were so many men killed by mobs and stuff that women and children were left without husbands and fathers. I call it survival.  There is a group that split off from the Mormon church who call themselves Fundamentalists, and they still practice polygamy, but they are not considered Mormons. I saw it on Oprah.”9

“Still, you’re scaring me.  Why the interest all of a sudden in something so abstract.  Even if they don‘t have more than one wife now…they used to…doesn‘t that scare you?”10

Rose saw her mother coming up the stairs of her front porch and it looked like Gilbert was in tow.11

“We can finish this conversation later and if you even dream of mentioning this to my mother I will kill you.  Let‘s change the subject.  What happened to your stutter?  In the last few weeks I‘ve noticed it disappearing”12

“You’ve noticed?” Charlie said and smiled.  “Why don’t you ask your father?”13

“Ask her father what?” she heard her mother say as she entered (without knocking) and stomped the snow off her feet in the foyer, before turning around to help  Gilbert take off his coat and brush the snow out of his hair.14

“What happened to my stutter.” Charlie replied.15

“So what happened to it?” Rose asked, but Kate chimed in.16

“Your father used to stutter.  Still does when he gets frustrated or angry.”17

Rose had never really paid that much attention and it seemed her father had nerves of steel, especially after being married to her mother for so long, and she couldn‘t remember a time where he‘d ever lost his temper.18

“Your father…” she continued, “ learned to cure his stutter through meditation.  Some Buddhist  thing he tried when in was in the military.  It seemed to work like magic and when he came home on leave I couldn’t believe it!”19

Her father had studied as a Bhuddist and he used to stammer.  “Apparently,”  Rose thought to herself.  “I do not know my father as well as I think.”20

“Anyway,” Charlie said.  “He taught me to clear my head and relax. Which is something I have never been able to do.  While I was helping you move out of your old place, him and I worked on it everyday.  Sometimes he would have me just stand there and coach me on how to use my senses to feel everything that was going on around me.  I thought he was as crazy as you at first, but it worked. If you‘re looking for religion, perhaps you should ask your father.” 21

Rose shot him a warning look, as her mother spoke up and said “If she’s looking for religion she needs to go to Mass.”22

Hoping to change the subject she turned to Gilbert who was making steam on the window with his breath and then drawing hearts in it with his fingers.  23

“Gilbert, do you have a grandmother, great grandmother or even an aunt who might still be living.” Rose asked.24

“Aunt Paola.” Gilbert said.25

“Are you sure her name isn’t  Maragarite?” Rose said.26

“Paola.” Gilbert repeated and continued to draw on the window.27

“I think he means that she lives in Paola.” Charlie replied.  “It’s a little town close to Osawatomie.  You know, out there in  ‘John Brown’ country.”28

Rose dug a piece of paper out of her pocket and wrote Paola on it, next to the name Margarite Talmadge.  “Gilbert, do you know her address or phone number?”29

“Paola…Paola….” he said, walking down the hall to the bathroom.  Frustrated, Rose did not appreciate how much help he was actually being.30

Gilbert and Kate stayed for a good part of the afternoon and Rose watched almost with jealousy, the way her mother seemed to dote on Gilbert.   She treated Gilbert like a child and Rose thought that psychologically speaking  it couldn’t possibly be good for him to get babied like that, but she was afraid to speak up for fear of sounding petty.31

Shandrea sat in jail and awaited her bail hearing.  She was afraid that they might send her to prison and her court appointed attorney was counseling her to plead guilty in order to avoid trial.  Every time she got the chance to make a phone call she would look at the card Bill Hecht  had given her and run it between her fingers.  A quiet voice in her head would whisper at her to call him, but it wasn’t loud and she could ignore it.  32

The other voices however were getting louder and there were times she wanted to scream.  Her mother would yell at her through the transmitter constantly all day long and call her names for getting herself into such a horrible position.  Every once in a while David would shut her up and Shandrea was always grateful, even though David said things that were just as unkind.  The prison shrink would come in everyday and evaluate her.  For some reason they had taken away her bed sheets and forced her to eat with a plastic spoon.  “Suicide Watch” they called it, but Shandrea did not think she was suicidal…yet.  No one other than that creepy lawyer had come to visit her and she was feeling lonely.33

She thought about David and how they’d once been so in love.  He had taken her from the depths of darkness and despair to a magical world where there was no pain, only to throw her back into the pits of hell, and she could not understand.  Wasn’t true love supposed to last forever?  She sat on her bunk and cried.  Cried for a life unlived.  A life that she could not spend behind bars being tortured by those who knew her best.  When the guard came around to let her out for her daily phone call she took one more look at the lawyer’s card and decided to give him a call.  Reluctantly, she knew she was going against her instincts, but she didn’t see any other way out.34