“Where? Where did her name come up?” the woman asked eagerly.
“I’ve been looking into buying the Kaiser house, but can’t seem to find the woman who owns it, or her son. Someone mentioned that Liv and Stephen Kaiser were close friends.”
“For a summer,” Arlene murmured. She looked at her older daughter sadly. “Honey, can you take Penny in the house and play?”
“Sure.” The older girl took her little sister’s hand, and the girl followed without complaint.
“Liv left after that summer. That was twenty years ago,” Arlene said, holding the water can tight to her stomach.
“And then what? She moved away, or…”
“Mr. Kaminski, I don’t know what happened to my sister. I never saw her again. I never spoke with her again. My mother told us she moved out west. That was it.”
Jesse frowned.
“Why did she leave, Mrs. Hester?”
Arlene stared at him.
“I wonder why you’d like to know, sir. Clearly, she won’t be able to help you purchase a home in a state she hasn’t lived in for two decades.”
“I’m a curious man. I apologize for the intrusion.”
Jesse turned and started away.
“No, wait,” Arlene called.
Jesse turned back.
“I was hurt when she left. I was only seven, but I remember her. I miss her even now. Our mother died three years ago.” Arlene picked a wilted pink rose from the bush.
“And your father?” Jesse asked.
Arlene looked away from him, and then into the flower.
“My oldest girl looks like Liv - Melanie. She’s tall and strong and has the same wild hair. Interesting, because we’d always believed it came from Liv’s father. Maybe it did. And somehow my daughter received it anyway.” Arlene laughed and shrugged. “Liv and I did not share a father. Her father was a secret in our family. Even our brothers didn’t know she had a different father than them. I mean, everyone knew that I did because my mother’s first husband, Mark, died in 1927. But she slept with a man after Mark died. His name was George Corey, and he lived in the Stoneroot Forest. He was Liv’s biological father.”
Arlene put a startled hand to her mouth as if surprised at all she’d just shared.
“Why was he a secret?”
Arlene plucked one of the wrinkled petals and dropped it to the stone path beneath her.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” she said, glancing back toward her house. My mother…”
“Is gone,” Jesse reminded her. “I’m very sorry for your loss, but perhaps I can help you find your sister.”
“George was a secret because women did not have sex with strange men when they were newly widowed in those days.” She laughed and blushed. “I’d imagine they don’t do it now-a-days either, though the world has certainly changed. George was also… a strange man. He lived in a little cabin deep in the woods. He didn’t drive a car or use a telephone. He taught Liv about plants and…” She fluttered her fingers, as if she didn’t have words for the things George taught Liv.
“If he was a secret, how did you know about him?”
“It wasn’t a secret that he existed, but Liv referred to him as an uncle. My mom said that he’d been a close friend of Mark’s and he’d taken Liv under his wing. After Liv left, my mom told me the truth. She grieved her missing daughter for many years. She started to go visit George every few months, hoping for word. He would tell her things, though he claimed Liv never communicated with him.”
“I don’t understand.”
Arlene chuckled.
“Neither did I. Or do I, for that matter. George called Liv ‘Volva’. He came to America from Norway when he was a young man. In Norway, he lived on a secluded island and he practiced a kind of witchcraft, I guess.” She frowned as she tried to explain. “I can’t believe I’m telling you these things. I’ve never spoken of them to anyone. My mother forbade it. But you’re right, she’s gone now. George told us that Liv took care of children and lived on the east coast. He never mentioned happiness, but he spoke a lot about purpose and cleansing the past through service. He was a strange man, and most of what he said went over my head. Over my mother’s head too, but she found comfort in his reassurances that Liv was okay.”
“But you never had evidence from Liv that she was okay?”
“My mother received a few blank postcards over the years – usually on her birthday. Years would lapse between them, and then one day, a postcard with an ocean sunset would arrive. My mom believed they came from Liv.”
Jesse nodded.
“Did you know Liv’s friend, Stephen Kaiser?”
Arlene nodded.
“Not well, but he saved my life.”
“He saved your life?”
“I jumped into the Dead Stream and nearly drowned. He went in after me, though he wasn’t much of a swimmer himself. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here today. The moment I stepped off the bank, the riptide took me. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I could swim. I loved to swim, but I was no match for that river.”
“Do you think Stephen and Liv left together?”
Arlene shook her head.
“My mother asked George the same thing, and he insisted that she did not. He also told my mother to stay away from Stephen Kaiser.”
“Why is that?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Arlene, could you direct me to George? Maybe he could-” Jesse started.
But she was already shaking her head.
“I never went to his home. He lived in the Stoneroot Forest down near Kalkaska, but that was twenty years ago.”
“The Stoneroot Forest,” Jesse repeated, committing the name to memory. “Thanks for talking to me, Arlene.”
She smiled.
“If you find Liv, tell her Arlene misses her.”
He nodded, offered her a salute and walked backwards down her driveway. He spotted the older daughter in the window watching him curiously.
Chapter 35
Liv
“Boo!”
Liv felt hands on her shoulders and she jumped, sending the leather bag filled with bloodroot to the forest floor.
Stephen stepped in front of her.
“You’re back!” she exclaimed, grabbing his hands and nearly jumping up and down with glee.
“Look who’s happy to see me.” He grinned and knelt, gathering the roots back into her bag. “What are these?” He lifted a root, caked in dirt, and sniffed it.
“Bloodroot. We can use it to treat croup, but it’s also poisonous, so don’t take a bite.”
He dropped the root back into the bag and handed it to her.
“I thought you weren’t coming home until tomorrow for Halloween. Didn’t you have class today?” she asked.
“I skipped out, jumped on a train this morning. My mother went to Chicago to buy overpriced champagne for the masquerade ball and no doubt visit a friend. She’s gone for the night.”
The way he said ‘friend’ revealed Stephen’s opinion of his mother’s friends.
“A man friend?” Liv asked.
Stephen took Liv’s hand.
“It doesn’t matter. Come home with me. I have a present for you.”
Stephen led Liv to the third floor, and then pushed open the door to the attic. They walked up the narrow staircase.
The rafters were low. The room smelled sweet, as if the fine layer of dust that coated the boxes was actually sugar.
As they walked deeper, Liv saw flickering lights. In the back of the attic, Stephen had arranged candles in a circle around a red blanket. A silver tray of chocolate pumpkins sat in the center.