Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 57 of 70

Tuesday came and Polly did not call. Lymber texted her at ten and got nothing back. She told herself Polly was proving a point. She said only Tuesdays, only when asked, and now she was making Lymber ask twice. By noon Lymber had called three times. The phone rang out to the machine each time. Paul was at work. The twins were in the yard with Jett. Violetta was upstairs on her bed with the door half open. Lymber put her coffee in the sink and picked up her keys. She drove to her mother's house with the radio off. The front curtains were drawn the way Polly drew them at night. The porch light was still on in the daylight. Lymber sat in the car for a second before she got out. She knocked twice and then used her key. The kitchen smelled like cold coffee. The pot was half full on the warmer, burned down to a ring. Polly's purple cardigan hung on the back of the chair where Lymber had sat two nights ago. Lymber called for her from the hall. Nothing came back. She went up the stairs one at a time and stopped at the bedroom door. Polly was in the bed on her side, one hand under her cheek, the blanket pulled up to her shoulder. Her mouth was open a little. Her skin was the wrong color. Lymber said her name and then said it again louder. She put her fingers on her mother's wrist and then on her neck. She held them there a long time before she took them away. Polly was seventy-one. She looked smaller than she had two nights ago at the kitchen table. Lymber sat down on the edge of the bed. She did not cry yet. She called the ambulance first and gave the address plain. Then she called Paul and told him to come. He said one word and hung up. She sat with her hand on the blanket over her mother's arm and waited. She looked at the cardigan she had seen last, at the cup on the nightstand, at the pill bottle beside it with the cap on. She thought about how she had told her, two nights ago, that she did not need her. She thought Polly had almost smiled. The ambulance came. Paul came behind them. He stood in the doorway and did not step into the room. He said, I'm here. He said it once and stopped. Lymber let them take her mother down the stairs and out the front door. She locked the house behind her with Polly's key and put it in her pocket. At home Violetta was on the top step waiting. Missy stood in the hall in her pink dress, holding Jett's hand. Max was behind them. Lymber knelt on the rug and told them Grandma was gone. Missy started crying first. Lymber held all four of them l.