Mildred Charlotte Wilson's Arc

Chapter 3 of 12

The town was three hours away. Mildred drove until the road ended at a small house with a porch. The retired caseworker waited in a chair, a blanket on her knees. The glowing cat sat beside her, the same one from the boarded lot. It watched Mildred climb the steps. "You made it," the old woman said. "Sit. I found the notes last night." She set a battered notebook on the table. Her hand shook as she turned to a marked page. Mildred leaned close. One line held her case number. Beside it, in faded pen, a name. Mildred read it and her breath stopped. Then she looked again and her hope cracked. "That's a common name," Mildred said. "I searched it in the car. There are five women in this county with it. Maybe more." She pressed her thumb to the page. "How do I know which one is my mother?" The woman frowned. "I didn't write more. We weren't supposed to write anything." She rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, child. A name was all I could keep." Mildred sank back. Five strangers. Five wrong doors. She had driven for hours to trade one dead end for five. Her jaw tightened. She wanted to swear, to kick something. Instead she stared at the notebook. The cat jumped onto the table. It nosed the pages, then pawed one loose. A small charm slid out from between the leaves. It was a shamrock, green and gold, with faint marks along each leaf. A pale stone sat at its center like an open eye. Light moved across it. "What is that?" Mildred asked. The old woman picked it up slow. "I forgot I kept this. The mother left it. She wanted the baby to have it someday." She turned it in her fingers. "She had it engraved. A date and a place. Not the county seat. A little town north of here." Mildred took the charm. She read the tiny engraving under the stone. A date. A town name she had never seen. Her hands went cold. "So only one of those five women lived there," she said. "Only one," the woman agreed. "Find the one from that town. That's your mother." Mildred closed her fist around the charm. The name alone had been useless. But the charm carried a place, and a place could cut five women down to one. She stood. The cat watched her from the table, calm and bright. "Thank you," Mildred said. She meant it. The old woman nodded. "Go while you have the light." Mildred walked to her car with the charm warm in her palm. She had a name and now a town. The next step was clear. She had to reach that place and find the one woman who matched both. She started the engine and turned north.