The Courage Tree by Diane Chamberlain

Author:Diane Chamberlain
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Missing children, Medical, Mothers and daughters, Girls, General, Literary, Suspense, West Virginia, Suspense fiction, Nephrology, Domestic fiction, Terminally ill children
ISBN: 9780778327417
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2009-04-01T07:38:34.121352+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Zoe awakened before the sunrise Wednesday morning with her stomach churning. She lay on her air mattress, staring at the rotting wood in the ceiling of the shanty. If everything was going according to plan, today should be Marti’s day in the woods. Of course, it might have taken them longer to cross the country than Marti had expected, or they might have been detained somewhere for some reason. Only if absolutely everything had gone right would Marti make it to West Virginia today. What she wouldn’t give for a newspaper! What was the press saying about Marti’s escape? How close on her trail were the authorities?

She pictured Marti and the warden following the map she had so carefully drawn for them, turning off the highway onto the narrow road, making two more turns until they reached the dirt road that dipped and twisted as it bisected the forest. Marti would be leaning forward in the passenger seat, studying the road, biting her lower lip as she did when she was concentrating hard on something. The break would appear in the woods, and suddenly, the dilapidated, rust-colored barn would be in front of them.

“That’s it!” Marti would exclaim, and the warden would pull the car into the overgrown patch of grass around the back of the barn. They would get out of the car, and Marti, truly tasting her freedom now, would run toward the front of the barn and push open one of the broad doors. Inside, she would stop short as she waited for her eyes adjust to the darkness.

“Did you find it yet?” The warden would catch up to her, asking the question before realizing that it was too dark inside to find anything.

Slowly, Marti’s eyes would adjust, and the light from the two windows above the loft would gradually illuminate the one empty, long-unused stall at the far end of the building.

“There’s the stall,” she would say, moving forward.

Maybe the warden would get impatient at this point, and dart toward the stall himself. Would he know where to look? Would he have made Marti tell him over and over again, many times a day, where the money was hidden? Or would Marti have been wise enough to keep that information to herself until he delivered her safely to her destination? Yes, of course she would have been.

So, it would be Marti who would feel along the wall of the stall until she found the boards Zoe had pried loose. She’d reach in and pull out the fat leather bag and hand it to the warden, who would open it, pull out a fistful of bills, and whoop with joy. $500,000! The second and last installment.

Marti would breathe a sigh of relief that Zoe had come through for her. She’d say goodbye to the warden—maybe he’d give her a kiss on the cheek after traveling the breadth of the country with her—and she’d stand in the entrance of the barn, blinking from the sunlight, watching him get into his car and drive away.

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