Temptation Ridge (Virgin River #6)(38)

Cheryl appeared in the doorway of her bedroom, wearing yesterday’s clothes, straggly hair hanging in her face, her eyes swollen and barely open. Mel took a breath. “Got a minute?” she asked.

“What for?” Cheryl asked.

“Let’s step outside and talk,” Mel said. She walked out the front door, leaving Cheryl to follow. Mel stood on the sidewalk in front of the house until Cheryl came out and stood on the front step. “How drunk are you right now?” Mel asked her.

“I’m okay,” she answered, rubbing her fingers across her scalp, threading fingers through her limp and greasy hair.

“You have any interest in getting sober? Staying sober?”

“I do sometimes. I don’t drink a lot of the time…”

“I can get you in treatment, Cheryl. Get you detoxed and cleaned up and in a program. You’d get twenty-eight days of sobriety therapy and a real good chance of going straight, off the booze. But you have to decide right now.”

“I don’t know…”

“This is your one shot, Cheryl. I’ll take you, check you in. The county will pick up the tab, but you only get this one chance. If you say no right now, that’s it. That’s all I can do.”

“Who told you to do this?” she asked.

“No one told me. I thought you could use a little help, so I found it for you. All by myself. And no, I haven’t even mentioned it to Jack. You could try this. You know you can’t do it on your own.”

“You ask my mom?”

“I haven’t asked anyone. You’re over twenty-one, aren’t you? You want help? Go shower and pack a bag—you don’t need much. They have washers and dryers. Clean sheets and towels. Healthy food. And a lot of people just like you who are trying to sober up. It’s hard for everyone, but they’re the experts and if anyone can help you, they can.”

She looked at her feet, her dirty, unlaced boots. “I get the shakes real bad sometimes,” she said.

“Just about everyone does. They have medicine to get you through the first days.” Mel looked at her watch. “I’m not hanging around while you think about it.”

“Where is this place?” she asked.

“Eureka.”

Cheryl shuffled her feet a little bit. Finally she lifted her head. “Okay,” she said.

“Fine. Go shower and pack. I’ll be back for you in thirty minutes.”

She came back and picked up Cheryl, who carried her belongings in a brown grocery bag. She had cleaned up; her hair was washed but only towel dried. She probably didn’t own a blow-dryer. She smelled of soap and a touch of liquor—a little nip to help her get into the truck, Mel suspected.

“Did you tell your parents where you’re going?” Mel asked.

Cheryl shrugged. “My mom. I told my mom.”

“And is she glad you’re going?”

Cheryl shrugged. She looked away from Mel as she answered. “She said it’s probably a waste of time and money.”

Mel waited for Cheryl to look back at her. Then she said, “No. It’s not.” She took a breath. “Come on, let’s get going.”

They didn’t talk much on the long drive to Eureka, but Mel did learn that Cheryl had been at a cousin’s house in some other mountain town for the past year until her father brought her home. And Cheryl had had some delusional and grandiose aspirations—she’d wanted to join the Peace Corps, travel to foreign lands, be a nurse, a teacher, a veterinarian. Instead, she drank her dreams away. She didn’t have any friends in Virgin River anymore, just her mother and father.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t feel like talking about,” Mel began, “but I’m curious. I know you don’t go to Jack’s. How did you manage to get liquor?”

“Hmm,” Cheryl started. “There’s a liquor store in Garberville, but usually my dad would get me something to keep me from driving his truck.”

“Ah. I understand,” Mel said.

“I try to stop all the time,” Cheryl said. “But if I get shaky and crazy, my dad takes care of it. Just enough to get me straight.”

So Dad was the enabler, Mel thought.

The aftercare was going to be a huge problem, Mel realized. Because Cheryl had nowhere to go but back home to her parents, who seemed unable to support her in getting healthy. That would have to be her sponsor’s challenge—maybe they would find a place for her in Eureka where she could work, live, go to meetings, get a grip on sobriety before landing back in Virgin River, doomed.

It was late afternoon by the time Mel got back to town. She went into the clinic to give Doc his keys.

“Mission accomplished?” he asked.

“All taken care of.”

“Your husband’s been looking for you.”

“Swell. What did you tell him?”

“That you were on a mission. A medical mission.”

“I bet that thrilled him. I guess I’ll go tap-dance around Jack and grab the kids from Brie. I’m going to call it a day, Doc.”

“I’ll phone you if anything exciting pops up.” She turned to leave and he called her back. She turned to him. “That was a good thing you did. I don’t like her chances, but that was a real good thing.”