The Kindest Lie(89)

Mama went through Lena’s cupboards until she found a glass and a bottle of whiskey. “Worrying won’t bring him home any faster. You just need to get your mind and your nerves right.” She poured a small taste for Lena. Something to take the edge off.

On the women’s usher board at church, Mama joined the other sanctified folks in preaching against the sin of alcohol consumption. Yet she excused Eli’s overindulgence and was now serving whiskey as a sedative. Ruth added this hypocrisy to the running tally she was keeping.

Ignoring her grandmother, Ruth said, “What can we do?”

Lena held the glass to her lips with both hands and drained it. “I don’t know. He hasn’t called or texted or answered his phone. If anything happens to him . . .”

Ruth rubbed Lena’s back through her threadbare pale blue nightgown. Sharp pain squeezed her chest. “I should have mentioned this before, but Midnight called me over here one day before Christmas. He had packed a suitcase. Didn’t say where he was planning to go, but I convinced him to put away his clothes and the suitcase.”

Lena looked stricken. “I didn’t know you’d been here. He didn’t say a word. Yes, you should have told me.”

“I’m so sorry I didn’t.”

Lena ran into one of the bedrooms and returned pulling the red suitcase Ruth had seen Midnight with that day. She fumbled with the latch until it fell open, empty. “I checked his closet and his dresser drawers. His clothes are still there. Maybe he didn’t run away. What if somebody snatched him off the street?” Her voice became more strident and agitated as she spoke.

One of the bedroom doors opened and closed. Midnight’s aunt Gloria appeared in a loose-fitting sweatshirt that stopped just above her knees. She balanced her son on her hip. “Now, who would kidnap him? That little pain in the ass. You know he likes to pull pranks. He’ll be home when he gets hungry.” In spite of her dismissiveness, Ruth glimpsed worry shadowed in her eyes, too.

“Have you called the police?” Ruth asked.

Lena puffed on her Newport and walked to the open front door to blow out the smoke. She craned her neck looking down the street, as if Midnight might suddenly appear. “I waited a couple hours at first because, you know, he’s a kid and he always stays out later than I’d like . . . but that’s boys for you. When it got late and I couldn’t get ahold of him, I called the cops. They came over and asked a lot of questions and took one of his class pictures with them.” She took another hard drag on her cigarette.

Midnight had left behind his suitcase and clothes, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t run away. If something triggered him, he might not have planned ahead. Ruth could still hear the despondency in his voice. In a child’s mind, everything was magnified and world-ending. Why hadn’t Ruth grasped the depth of his despair? She had been so overwhelmed by how Midnight had inadvertently revealed her son’s identity. That was all she could think about then. She replayed their conversations from that day on a loop in her head until the words they’d spoken got scrambled in her mind.

Eli stood in the middle of the living room stretching his hamstrings as if preparing for a race. Immediately, she could tell that blood and adrenaline were pumping hard in him and he was ready to do more than just stand there talking. “All right now. Let’s get focused on finding him. If the police won’t, we will. What had Midnight so riled up he wanted to run away?”

Ruth ran her fingers through a tangled knot of hair, a nervous habit she had. “He didn’t say a lot and I didn’t want to push him. But he did tell me he was upset about having to move to Louisiana and he didn’t want to go.” She felt guilty knowing she was betraying Midnight’s confidence. But finding him and bringing him home safely had to be the top priority.

Lena’s face reeked of apology. “I wasn’t trying to get rid of him. God knows I wasn’t. Money’s just been so tight lately. I knew that was on his mind, but I didn’t think he’d worked himself up that badly.” She rummaged in her purse, tossing aside Chapstick and a bottle of aspirin, until she found another cigarette.

An engine roared, and all heads snapped in the direction of the sound. A truck pulled up in front of the house and she recognized it as Butch’s. All eyes focused on it, waiting to see if Midnight would emerge from the passenger side. They huddled in the doorway, no one moving until that truck door opened. It didn’t. The air thickened with their disappointment and deepening fear.

“I looked every place I could think of, but nothing,” Butch said as he made his way up to the house. The cold had reddened his runny nose and he breathed heavily. When his eyes finally settled on Eli, he stiffened.

But Lena stopped him short. “Don’t even. Not today. Not now. Did you check Leo’s lot and the junkyard? What about the rec center? You know he likes to hang out there.”

“Checked all those, went up and down the aisles at Walmart,” Butch said. “Stopped in practically every gas station and no sign of him.”

Lena said, “Can you hand me my phone? I need to try the Cunninghams again. I haven’t been able to get ahold of them. I know Sebastian and Pancho are home, but I’m not sure about Corey.”

Every synapse in Ruth’s body fired. She knew Corey and Midnight were good friends, but she hadn’t considered that her own son could be missing, too. She kept her eyes on Lena’s face, wondering what the Cunninghams were saying on the other end of the call. Mama moved closer to Ruth, as if sensing her alarm. But the only comfort Ruth wanted was to know Corey was safe in his bed.