Page 10 of The Children of Eve (Charlie Parker #22)

CHAPTER X

Jennifer Parker watched the light go on in her father’s bedroom before she entered the marshes, following trails familiar to her from years of similar vigils. Before her lay the ocean, but she knew that she would never reach it. As she approached the water, the landscape would morph, and she would once again be by the lakeside, watching the dead lose whatever of themselves remained while she waited and waited…

Jennifer paused. Ahead of her, standing on the surface of a marsh pond, her feet not disrupting the surface tension, was a woman wearing a summer dress. Unlike Jennifer’s, her face was not a mask of ruination, only a blur. Dark ovals marked her eyes, and her mouth was the barest suggestion of a line. It had been a long time since she had shown herself.

mother , said Jennifer, although she was uncertain if this remained the case. Part-mother, perhaps. Echo. Revenant. But “mother” would suffice.

The line of her mother’s mouth widened, lips moving as they attempted to form a reply. Jennifer wondered when last she had spoken aloud. The effort it cost her was visible, her neck straining like that of Julie Krakowski, a girl in Jennifer’s first-grade class who used to struggle with a stammer. The two syllables that finally emerged were between a whisper and a cough.

daughter

is that all you have to say to me, mother, after so long?

Another effort at speaking, this one less stressful. Her mother had found her tongue now.

why do you continue to visit him?

for the same reason that i wait , Jennifer replied.

Her mother shimmered as a surge of unfamiliar emotions coursed through her. Jennifer picked up on all of them: hate, jealousy, grief, betrayal—and love. She thought it might be the last that caused her mother’s remnant the most confusion.

perhaps , Jennifer added, a reason we share

Her mother shook her head, but the word, when it came, lacked conviction.

no

Jennifer elected not to pursue the matter. It would serve no purpose beyond enraging. Then her mother might leave, and Jennifer was curious to discover why she had come. Jennifer was aware that her mother also sometimes circled her father. In the beginning, Jennifer feared she might have been trying to find a way to harm him, though this turned out not to be the case. Her mother blamed him for what had happened to them in a way Jennifer did not, but then her mother’s history with him was longer and more complex than Jennifer’s, with other hurts and failings to compound the final one. Eventually, Susan Parker, or this vestige of her, had grown tired of haunting the edges of her husband’s existence. Now she had returned, and must have had some cause. Jennifer would not let her go without revealing it. But it was also true that, whatever the incomplete nature of this manifestation, she remained, in part, Jennifer’s mother, and the child in Jennifer still loved her.

mother, why have you come?

because you grow careless

here?

here, and elsewhere you are drawing attention did you think you could pass unnoticed forever?

not forever , said Jennifer, just long enough

i fear you were wrong

is it too late?

that remains to be seen

thank you for the warning , said Jennifer.

you don’t listen

i’m listening to you now i’ll be more careful, i promise

listen better

i dont understand. i—

listen now

And then Jennifer heard it. In her defense, there was so much background noise in this world, so much distraction, that she had learned to tune it out in order to focus on her father. As a result, she sometimes missed things.

Like this.

it’s a child , said Jennifer.

try again i told you: you have to listen better

Jennifer did. She closed her eyes, concentrating only on one sense.

children , she said at last. i can’t tell how many, but one is closer than the rest

good, very good

i can’t make out what they’re saying i don’t know the language

you don’t have to know it to understand its meaning

Now that she had isolated the sound, Jennifer picked up on the emotion behind it.

they’re crying out, calling to someone

and someone , said her mother, has heard

but what has it to do with me?

Jennifer’s mother looked beyond her to where the house stood concealed amid trees.

nothing this is for him alone, though he may regret his involvement what is coming for the children is very… pure

can i help him?

no, because something older and far more dangerous is coming for you

what must i do?

Suddenly, her mother was close, so close that the blurring could no longer conceal what the Traveling Man had done to her. When she spoke again, she sounded almost human.

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