Tuesday’s Child

Sophie made her way into the bathroom and stopped short. She reached for the doorframe to steady herself. It wasn’t just a bathroom. It was a grotto, with brick walls that held moss and water trickling down. Within it was a huge Jacuzzi with twelve jets. All tiled to match the grotto walls and floor. The shower was clear glass and spouted twenty-seven jets. Sophie counted them. The vanity was white and gold, with three sinks. In the middle were bottles and jars and jugs and pots of lotions, shampoos, and perfumes. The towels on the racks were thick and thirsty and bigger than twin sheets. They were mint green with the initials KA on them. She laughed when she saw the bidet. Oh, if the prisoners back in Georgia could only see this. She was glad they couldn’t. What they didn’t see couldn’t make them hunger for it.

Sophie stripped down and piled her wet clothes in one of the three sinks because she didn’t know what else to do with them. She turned on the twenty-seven jets in the shower and danced under all of the gushing water. She soaped up and rinsed three times, each time using a different bath gel. She also washed her hair three times, using different shampoos and conditioners. When she saw that her skin was starting to pucker, she got out of the shower and wrapped herself in one of the green towels.

Sophie took her time poking through the clothing in the walk-in closet. She finally chose a yellow sundress splashed with white daisies and spaghetti straps. On the floor she found a pair of thong sandals with matching daisies on the bands. She brushed out her hair and hoped that at some point she could get a fashionable haircut in town. She wondered if she smelled as good as she felt.

Sophie looked at the little clock on the night table: 7:45. Lunch hour back in Georgia. She shrugged; there was nothing she could do about the time. And right now it was time to eat because her stomach was growling. She walked down the hall and saw Linda sitting on the pineapple bed.

“I want to live here.” Linda laughed.

“With or without Jay?” Sophie said.

“Only with Jay.” Linda jumped off the bed and linked her arm with Sophie’s. Together, they made their way downstairs and back out to the lanai, where Mally served them macadamia-banana pancakes with banana syrup, fresh mangoes, and crispy fried bacon strips. Fresh flowers and a silver urn of Aulani coffee sat in the middle of the table. Mally served them gracefully. Both women ate like it was their last meal.

Mally cleared the table, leaving them with their coffee. She returned a few minutes later with the dinner menu, which read simply, “LUAU.” Linda squealed with pleasure, and Sophie drooled.

“Find out what is going on back in Georgia. I can’t wait any longer, Linda.”

“You’re the boss. This, by the way, is something called a Droid. You can do everything but wash your car and paint your house on this gizmo. Be patient now, and before you know it, I’ll have everything at my fingertips.”

“Why don’t you just call the office and ask what’s going on?” Sophie said. “You can put it on speakerphone, and I can hear both ends of the conversation. It will save you from repeating everything to me.”

“I guess that makes sense. Okay, here we go.”

Chapter 8

SOPHIE LEANED BACK ON THE GLIDER, HER FEET SWINGING slightly to make it move back and forth as she listened to Linda talk to her husband. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she listened to what she called kitchey koo talk between husband and wife before they got down to serious business. Her mind wandered a little as she considered how she was going to spend the day. The beach, of course, a swim in the sapphire water, another walk down the shore, possibly a nap here on the lanai. Or perhaps no nap. She got down to the business of mapping out her life and what she was going to be doing once Linda left and she was on her own.

She thought then about her old friends from the orphanage and wondered what they were doing. She wished now that she hadn’t cut them off when she went to prison the way she’d cut off Kala, Jay, and Linda. How wonderful it would be to call them up and say hello. Dominic Mancuso, otherwise known as Nick; Patricia Molnar, Patty to her friends; and Jonathan Dempsey, also called Jon. Best friends. Today the term was best buds. That was the four of them back at St. Gabriel’s. Ten years was a long time to lose track of three of the people you loved most in life.

They had been there for her during the trial, steadfast, testifying on her behalf. Even Sisters Julie and Helen had testified for her. Not that it did any good. And she had kicked them out of her life. She told herself she was doing them a favor because they didn’t need a jailbird for a friend. They had lives, good lives, and she didn’t want to burden them with her miserable existence. Their memories would have to suffice.

What would they think when the news came out about her release and that she was out of prison? They would have no way to find her. If she wanted to reconnect with her old friends, it would be up to her to initiate contact. Did she have the guts to do that? At the moment, she just didn’t know.

There had never been the slightest doubt in her mind that Nick would be successful. And she had been right. The number two golfer in the country. She hadn’t been at all surprised to hear that. Patty, too. Jon, now that was a different story. Jon was the weak one of the four, the gentlest, the kindest, and not the least bit motivated. Jon was frail, too, something about his immune system. She hoped he was all right.

Sophie wondered where her things were. No one had said, and she hadn’t asked once she was convicted. Who packed up the little efficiency apartment she had shared with Patty? Did they toss her belongings, or did they store them? She wondered if Linda knew. There wasn’t anything she really cared about except her books, her address book, and some costume jewelry she’d saved up to buy. A strand of pretty pearls and a gold bracelet. A gold chain with a locket that Nick had given her the first year they were all out on their own. Surely whoever packed up her things wouldn’t have thrown those away. When it came right down to it, she didn’t care about the forty-dollar string of pearls or the sixty-dollar bracelet, but she did care about the locket Nick had given her. She cared about it because of the minuscule picture of the four of them that Sister Helen had taken for just that purpose.

Sophie almost laughed out loud when she noticed Linda wiggling her fingers in her direction. Obviously, the kitchey koo part of the conversation was over, and they were finally down to business. She shook her head that she understood and leaned forward to hear better. Jay was talking.

“I really have no news other than that Kala called for a status report. She said they were on their way to see Big Ben. One of the investigators called in and said that at six-oh-five last night, Adam Star, as we knew him, had been cremated and his ashes were placed in a burnished bronze urn. The nameplate on the urn reads ADAM WILLIAM CLEMENTS. Not Star. And the director of the crematorium told the investigator that Adam’s wife’s nameplate had been changed a month ago. Her urn now reads AUDREY STAR CLEMENTS. Both urns are in a crypt of sorts since there was no one to claim them. Bought and paid for by Adam.

“I filed the suit Kala drew up against the state of Georgia before five o’clock yesterday. Today, there were four calls I didn’t take from the state’s attorneys. Guess they want to try for some kind of settlement for Sophie’s wrongful imprisonment. I’m going to let them sweat so the media can have their field day. I can tell you what their offer will be first crack out of the barrel-ten years salary and a little extra thrown in for taking ten years of her life. Kala said to start at two point five million a year and come down to only two million for every year of prison. She said twenty million dollars was fair.”

Sophie fell back against the cushions on the glider. Twenty million dollars! That had to be just about all the money in the world. “Is it tax free?” she managed to squeak.

Linda started to laugh and couldn’t stop. She had no idea if the settlement was tax free or not. She asked Jay.

“Yep!”

Sophie grew so light-headed she had to drop her head between her knees. She made a mental note to add to her to-do list: how to spend $20 million. How many pieces of paper would she need for that?

Sophie didn’t realize Linda had ended the call until she sat down next to her on the glider. She hugged Sophie so tight she grunted.

“Is that possible? That they would pay me that much money?”