All true, but Ellis didn’t want to push the teens. It was a life-changing decision. They had to be certain.
The party in the living room lasted another hour. Jonah and Ryan left first. They looked like they very much wanted to be alone. Ellis had never seen Jonah so happy and relaxed.
Not wanting to disturb the lovers, the five boys and Viola got a card game going in the main house. Max headed home, and Rose went to bed. Ellis and Keith made love in their porch bed, then fell asleep to the murmur of the young people’s laughter. The happy sounds of her family and friends were every bit as satisfying as listening to owls and tree ducks.
On Christmas Eve morning, Viola and Jackie were up earliest. They ate and went for a walk. The others who’d stayed up late to play cards didn’t rise until around noon.
Keith and Rose took charge of lunch while Ellis showed newcomers Ryan, Huck, and Reece around the nursery. Afterward, everyone played Frisbee, football, and a long tournament at the horseshoe pits Max and Keith had built over the summer. River had been playing for months and was the ringer of the group, even better than Max.
The sunset was covered by clouds. Darkness and a scent of imminent rain enveloped the Wild Wood. Ellis hadn’t seen Viola or Jackie all day. She asked if anyone else had. Rose said her son had come into the kitchen to get food and drinks at around one o’clock. He said he and Viola were having a picnic, but Viola wasn’t with him.
Ellis and Keith went out front to talk privately. “Are you thinking what I am?” Keith asked.
“Yes. No way would she miss being with friends and family on Christmas Eve. Especially Reece, when he has to leave soon.”
“He doesn’t have to leave for those jobs now,” Keith said.
“He’s leaving. He told me he won’t leave his employers shorthanded over the holidays.”
“Good guy,” Keith said.
“He is, and Viola adores him. She wouldn’t miss this time with him.”
Keith looked out at the back acres. “So she’s somewhere out there having the baby?”
“Sounds like her, doesn’t it?” Ellis said.
“I’m afraid so.”
Jonah and Ryan were coming down the path from the barn house. “No one has seen Viola all day,” Ellis said. “Jackie came to the kitchen to get lunch without her and disappeared.”
“Oh boy,” Ryan said.
“You think she’s in labor?” Jonah asked.
Ellis nodded.
“Poor Jackie,” Ryan said. “I wouldn’t want to deliver a baby at night in the woods.”
“And it’s starting to rain,” Keith said.
“Good thing it’s warm,” Ryan said.
“It feels warm to us because we’re from New York,” Jonah said. “It’s midsixties, and it will feel colder if she’s wet.”
“We’d better hand out flashlights and start searching,” Keith said.
“She won’t want that,” Ellis said.
“I think we should talk to Rose and see what she thinks,” Jonah said. “She knows Jackie better than we do.”
Rose was in the kitchen with Huck and Reece.
“I see by all your faces you’ve come to the same conclusion I have,” she said.
“Yes,” Jonah said, “and we’re trying to decide whether to go look for them.”
“She’s having the baby?” Reece said.
Huck turned off all the burners on the stove. “We have to find them. No way can we let Jackie do that alone in the dark.”
Jasper and River had come in from the living room. “Viola won’t like that,” River said.
“I don’t care,” Huck said. “We can’t let her call the shots just because a mentally ill person made her afraid of hospitals. If something bad happens, my brother will never forgive himself. Raven . . . Viola . . . should never have asked this of him.”
“I agree,” Reece said. “That woman, Audrey, used to force Viola to make promises that were horrible for her. We can’t let her get in the habit of doing that to people.”
His words hit Ellis viscerally. He was right. Her daughter was manipulating Jackie the way her abductor had controlled her. Jackie was only seventeen. To ask him to do this alone was absurd.
“Okay, we’re decided,” Jonah said. “Let’s find flashlights. Ryan, get your bag.”
Maxine came into the kitchen with a stack of waterproof tarps, blankets, and towels. She urgently nodded at the door to say they should get going.
“Apparently Max figured out she’s having the baby long ahead of us,” Keith said.
While Ryan ran for his medical bag, they searched the house for flashlights. Viola’s was gone from her bed stand, and Max had one from her truck. That left only three for nine people.
They were in the living room deciding how to search the property when the back door opened.
“She’s home!” Jonah said.
“No,” Jackie said breathlessly, striding into the room. He was wet and had clearly been running fast. He looked desperate.
“What happened?” Reece asked.
Jackie tried to talk while he caught his breath. “The baby . . . it’s coming. It’s too dark to see anything . . . and now . . . it’s raining. She’s in so much pain . . . I’m kind of freaking out.”
“Oh, Jackie!” his mother said.
“Has her water broken?” Ryan asked.
“Yes. Not long ago. She’s been in labor all day.”
“Where is she? How far?” Ellis asked.
“She’s in that little circle you keep mowed to have picnics. At the edge between the big field and woods.”
Where Ellis had massaged her the day before.
“You’re a doctor,” Jackie said to Ryan. “You would be able to see if everything is going right, wouldn’t you?”
“I can do my best,” Ryan said.
“Will you go look at her?” Jackie asked. “She won’t come to the house. She wants to see the stars.”
“Of course I’ll go,” Ryan said.
Jackie pointed at the blankets and tarps Max was holding. “Those are a good idea. She’s soaked, and I’m afraid she’s getting too cold.”
“Let’s go,” Ellis said.
“I have to run ahead. I need to get back to her,” Jackie said before he jogged out of the room.
Ellis led the group. Max took up the rear to illuminate the trail from behind. The ones who didn’t have flashlights
