Home To Safe Harbor by Kate Welsh

Author:Kate Welsh [Welsh, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2003-10-15T20:00:00+00:00

Dinner at Matt’s house was over, and Justine had volunteered to finish up the dishes while Matt ran out to pick up some milk and bread for the morning. As she finished rinsing the last pot, she checked her watch. Six. Still plenty of time to get home and change for the service.

The phone rang and she hesitated to answer it. But then, thinking Cindy had already gotten in the tub and knowing Matt had a rule against Gina answering the phone at her tender age, Justine lifted the receiver.

“…accept a collect call from— Say yes,” Leslie shouted at the other end of the line.

“Y-yes,” Cindy said, surprise and uncertainty in her tone.

“Good girl, Cindy,” Leslie said, before Justine could reveal her presence on the line.

“Hi! Are you okay? Kristin Griffin took over your part in the play. She wasn’t nearly—”

“Listen, Cindy,” Leslie cut in. “I don’t have time for old home week right now. I need you to do me a big favor.”

“Oh. Well, sure.”

Justine could hear the hurt in the nine-year-old’s voice. She felt like a spy but knew Leslie might still have a few tricks in her arsenal. Spying, she’d told Matt, was okay if it saved a child’s life. Realizing she’d trivialized the difficulty, she fervently prayed Matt would get back soon. She thought it might be better to get Cindy off the phone instead of finding out what Leslie was up to. Silently, anxiously, Justine hung on.

“I need help getting out of here,” Leslie told Cindy.

Matt walked in, and Justine motioned him to be silent as she flipped the phone to the speaker setting.

“But Daddy says you’re sick and that you’re in a hospital so you can get better,” Cindy argued. “Besides, how could I help you? I’m just a kid.”

“I want you to tell Daddy you’re mad at him for making me stay here. Maybe he’d need me to come home if you cause Miss Neal all kinds of trouble.”

Matt took the receiver from Justine’s unresistant fingers. “Busted, Leslie,” he snapped, before she could continue with her inventive little plan. “How could you tell your sister to do something like that? Now, tell Cindy you’re sorry for trying to get her in trouble, and hang up the phone.”

“Sorry, Cindy,” Leslie said, sounding more disgusted with getting caught than she did apologetic. “It’s your fault, Dad,” she accused, the second Cindy clicked off the line. “If you hadn’t locked me in here, I wouldn’t—”

“Stop right there,” Matt cut in. “I’m very disappointed that you’d try to use your sister this way. I can’t handle talking to you right now. I’m just too angry. I’m hanging up now, since you didn’t,” he told her, and disconnected the call. He stood there staring at the phone and shaking his head. “I don’t know her at all anymore, do I? How could I lose a child practically overnight?”

The phone rang again before Justine could formulate an answer. Truthfully, she doubted there was one. It might actually be the most universally asked and unanswered question in the history of the world.

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