Page 23 of X-Ray in the Xanth (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #3)
“Can you think about what the father might have done for a job? Or, if you could come up with a surname, that would help, or somebody who might know of a surname. Did they have any other friends? Anybody else they were close to?”
“It was just the two women in the family as far as I remember,” she said. “But my memories get old and fuzzy, and it’s hard to keep things clear.”
“You’ve done wonderfully though,” Doreen replied, “and it is very much appreciated.”
Margaret muttered, “I hope that Eli had a good long life and that he was happy.”
“I also heard something about broken legs?”
“Yes, he was in an accident, and the broken legs never really healed properly. He ended up in a wheelchair fairly quickly, but it was while they were trying to figure out why the legs weren’t healing that they discovered the brain tumor,” she explained.
“So, in a way it was a blessing but, in another way, maybe not.”
“Ah, do you know how old he was?”
“Oh goodness no. Yet he would be a senior I think. I highly doubt he’s even alive.” Her voice dropped for a moment, and then she suddenly seemed energized with curiosity. “I have to wonder why on earth you would be even asking about him. Hardly anybody even knew him.”
“I was looking for people who had gone missing in town. In particular, various extremely tall men.”
“Eli would have been tall. That’s for sure. It’s one of the reasons why his legs never quite healed. There was already a weakness, maybe the pituitary or pineal gland, I don’t know. I’m sorry. It really was a long time ago.”
“I understand.… Have you heard about the discovery made at the park here?”
“I heard something, but I’m not really sure what it means.”
“They found the body of a very tall man in a grave,” Doreen shared.
Margaret gave a harsh gasp and then spoke in a shocked whisper, “No, please… no.”
“I’m so sorry,” Doreen said, “but that’s one of the reasons that I’m trying to find Eli, to see if he is okay, whether he carried on to live a nice long, happy life. I had heard that he was very tall, so—”
“Yes, yes,” she confirmed, pain evident in her tone. “He was very tall.”
“And obviously we want him to have had as good a life as he could have.”
“Obviously,” Margaret agreed, “but you’re making it sound as if he didn’t.”
“I can’t make it sound any way other than what it is,” Doreen clarified, “which, at the moment, is completely inconclusive. We don’t know anything yet.”
“Right, so it may not be him.”
“Exactly, and I’m not suggesting that it is him. I was literally just trying to find out if people happen to know other tall men or anybody else who went missing or who people lost track of.”
“The people I dealt with were all from the home,” she noted. “I worked there all my life.”
“I presume somebody from the home contacted you about me asking about Eli then.”
“Yes. My niece works there.”
“Ah, well, I’m glad she did because it’s been wonderful to connect with you.”
“I hope you’re wrong about Eli,” Margaret said, her voice deepening.
“I don’t know anything at this moment, so keep that in mind. All I know is that they found a body.”
“It would be terrible to think that it could be him,” she whispered. “He was a very lovely person.”
“And we don’t know that it was him or that anything bad happened to him,” Doreen repeated.
“That’s true too. But why bury him out there?”
“I’m not sure everybody had access to proper burials back then.”
Margaret went silent for a moment, and then she added, “They did not. You are right about that, and his family was incredibly poor. So these things happened. But, if it had been a death that everybody knew about, people would have come together to confirm Eli was buried. He was well-loved, though not always the easiest to work with. He certainly wasn’t always perfect, but none of us are,” Margaret shared.
“Still, he was a good man who never really had a chance to be any better because of all the challenges that he had. Once the physical challenges came about, the other challenges increased as well. After the brain tumor, he was never quite the same.”
“I’m so sorry for him,” Doreen whispered, and she meant it. “He sounds as if he would have been a lovely person to know.”
“Oh, he was absolutely wonderful,” Margaret stated.
“If I’d had a son, I would have been more than honored if it had been Eli.
But I was never blessed with a boy. I think those in the home just became mine by surrogate,” she conceded, with a chuckle.
“And thankfully for me they filled a deep emptiness in my heart that I couldn’t have filled any other way. ”
“And that’s what we have to hang on to,” Doreen pointed out. “Life happens for reasons we sometimes can’t understand.”
“I always figured it was God’s will, and that made it a whole lot easier to deal with,” she admitted. “But, if you tell me that it’s Eli out there, I sure hope you find out that he died of natural causes and that his family was just too broke and too ashamed of being so broke to bury him properly.”
“I will try to give you an update, if and when we ever solve it,” Doreen stated. “And, if you do come up with any more tidbits of information, or anybody else who might help, either pass on my phone number or give me a call back.”