2. Mischief Maker

2

MISCHIEF MAKER

LIVVIE CARLSON

Present Day

M y little River, resting in his car seat, was the best thing to ever happen in my life. I snuck glances at him in the baby monitor hanging from my rearview mirror often throughout the drive this afternoon from St. Louis to our new home in Kissing Springs.

Only he was not a baby anymore. He’d start Kindergarten next week, and he announced last night he was too old to sleep with his baby blanket.

Didn’t I have enough going on getting us started with our new life? My heart wasn’t ready for him to grow up, too. But I eyed him sleeping, his head lolled to the side, his tongue peeking out between his teeth, and his tiny snores singing into my ears. Without a doubt, he was still, and always would be, my baby.

As if on cue, he woke up. As much as his booster seat would allow, he stretched his limbs and yawned. I thought the five hour drive in the back of my old small blue Volkswagen Beetle would be rough on him, but he’d slept most of the way. Of course, that meant he’d be up late tonight once we finally arrived at Nancy’s house.

“When are we gonna be there, Mom?” That was new, too. He’d started using Mom more often than Mommy.

“Very soon, sweetie. About a half hour, I think.”

“I have to go.”

“Um…” Just ahead, a green sign appeared with the list of facilities on it. “We’re coming up to a rest stop. Can you hold it?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, buddy. What a trooper you’ve been. You’re my brave little man.” That produced a smile out of him, but then it faded.

“I wanna go home, Mommy.” Ah, there it was. Back to Mommy, albeit in his tired, whiny voice. I sighed, but I knew he didn’t mean it; home was never what I’d call sweet, but it was all he knew in his brief years on earth.

“But we’re on an adventure, right? Just like Chilly and Tilly.” I forced my own smile for his sake, keeping up appearances for him.

“Don’t forget their dog, Billy.” His eyes brightened once again. I sent a mental thank you to the creators of the latest cartoon hit on the Animated Network, which we streamed and watched daily.

“Right. Chilly, Tilly, and Billy. And what is it they always say?”

“We’re off on our next adventure!” He shouted, even doing their pose with one fist in the air and the other on his chest. Gotta hand it to those show writers for creating a decent program about two kids and their dog who tackled life with positive attitudes.

Which was a better example than I had growing up. But just like St. Louis faded behind us in my rearview mirror, so did my past. Hope was all I had to cling to.

“Here we are.” I pulled into the rest stop parking lot, darting my eyes around every corner of it. The autumn sun outside at this time of late afternoon was still bright enough. The only other car around was an SUV. Things appeared safe enough. Couldn’t be too careful as a single mother on the road, though.

“Let’s go.” We got out of the car. As we headed into the female side of the restrooms, we came across a mature gray-haired woman, presumably the occupant of the SUV.

“Hello, dear.” She sent a kind smile our way as she stood at the mirror drying her hands. Clearly, she wasn’t from St. Louis and guarded like us. I simply nodded, but Blake waved and I shuddered. Getting used to friendly people down here in a southern small town would take me some time getting used to.

After we finished our business, and walked back out to our car, I noticed the woman and an older man stood by their vehicle consulting a map.

“Hey, neighbor? I wonder if you could help us? We’re trying to get to Lake Maneto and not sure which road to take.” The silver-haired man called over to me.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t be any help. I’m not from around here.” I paused at the front of my car. The man returned to scowling at the map.

“Same with us, dear. We drove over from Tennessee to meet up with our family for a reunion at the lake,” the woman said, casting a grandmotherly type glow through her sweet eyes. Although the closest thing I ever felt to a grandmother’s kindness was Nancy, my mother’s old friend who took us in when we needed help the most. Then she retired to Kissing Springs and begged me to move down and stay with her, calling it my fresh start.

I hoped it would be.

“Sorry, I can’t help—” Suddenly, as if I had ultra senses, all my motherly instincts became aware of a simple fact. River wasn’t about.

From the car to the restrooms to a scan of the parking lot, it was like my eyes became bionic, assessing in one second flat that he was nowhere to be seen.

“River? River!” My heart plummeted as I ran all the way around the car, then dropped to my hands and knees in case he’d managed to lodge his skinny body under it.

“River!” I screamed. “Did you see my boy? Did you see where he went?”

“Oh. She lost her child,” the woman whispered to her husband, but I could still hear it in my panicked, heightened state as I ran into the restrooms and checked every stall, every corner. Back outside, I darted around the small building as well, which sat in a clearing, butting up to a forest. The tree line looked undisturbed by any human.

“I dressed him in a red shirt today. Red. Do either of you see red anywhere?” I returned closer to the couple, their faces more pale than they first were.

“No. What’s his name? River? River!” The woman woke up and sprang into action, calling his name and looking around, while the man stood there, gaping at us.

For several long minutes, an eternity without my son, I sprinted around the parking lot, searching for him everywhere. A lump threatened to choke me in my throat, but I had no time for that. I had to find my baby.

“Where could he be? Oh, God, this cannot be happening.” So much for that fresh start.

“Can you call the police?” Finally, the man proved useful.

“I-I don’t have a phone.” Shock hit me; my body trembled head to toe as if the warm afternoon turned into the polar, frozen north.

“Call, Joe. Call right now. Tell them there’s a child missing,” she urged.

He dialed, but handed me the phone. I paced in front of them and explained to the operator what had happened. They dispatched the police.

“Can you stay on the line with them? I need to keep looking,” I cried, handing back the phone to the couple.

The tears finally demanded a run down my face as I continued rushing around, looking everywhere, again and again. No one else was about, just me and the older couple. Unless some horrible mountain person saw their chance to steal my son away into the forest?

“That’s ridiculous.” I refused to start down that line of thinking. No. This was just River. He had little impulse control sometimes, something I’d worked hard to curb, and to teach him to slow down and think before acting. As a smart kid, he could sure get himself into some scrapes, and hide and seek was his favorite.

Like the time he escaped our apartment and thought he could hide in the bar downstairs. I shuddered thinking about that horrific night.

How could he do this? We talked about being some place new and staying beside me and never leaving my sight. These were basic ground rules I’d instilled in him from a young age, but I’d made doubly sure to talk about them again leading up to our move.

I couldn’t be mad at him, as the mother, I shouldn’t have let my guard down. What if this was karma? The things that happened in St. Louis… Was this my payback? I’d lose my baby forever as punishment because of my troubled past?

Finally, sirens approached, ending my downward spiral. A fire truck, a police car, and a few more pickup trucks all arrived on the scene. The uniformed officer from the police approached me first.

“Ma’am, I’m Police Chief Robbie Boyd. I’m sure you’re worried, but I promise you, I’ve have search and rescue canvasing the forest. The rest of us will search this area. We’ll find him. It’s best you stay close to your car in case he returns. And if you have a photo of him on your phone?—”

“I don’t have a phone.” Dammit. I’d left mine behind, just like my past. Why didn’t I at least buy a cheap one? One of those disposable kinds. But my life as a single mother didn’t allow for those little luxuries. “B-but I have a photo of him in my locket? And he was wearing a red t-shirt and navy blue shorts.”

I drug the necklace over my head and opened it, thankful that I’d recently replaced his baby photo with a more recent one. My dark-haired, blue-eyed boy peeked out at me from the gold frame of the jewelry. That was enough for my tears to break the dam.

A minute later, Chief Boyd zapped a photo and description out to every first responder around us. The tall and brawny lawman had a way about him that soothed, at least he had full faith in his crew.

At this point, prayer and faith that they’d find my son were all I had to hold on to, the hope for a new and better life faded fast.

“Good. Now this here is Officer Amanda Sparks. She’ll stay with you and keep you updated on our progress.” He motioned for a female officer to join us.

“Livvie, is it? Here you go, ma’am,” she handed me a packet of tissues and a bottle of water. Her face and demeanor comforted. “Don’t worry. We may be a small county, but we’ve got some of the best people on the job. Especially with search and rescue. Now, why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me what happened.” She’d taken out a small notebook from her pocket and poised with pen, ready to write.

Start from the beginning…? The night I conceived River? The incredible night of my twenty-first birthday I’d never forget? No way would I ever share details of that intimate encounter with anyone. Not even when my overbearing father and older brother demanded to know who’d knocked me up. Even their threats couldn’t get me to tell.

What was I going to say? I had no idea who the handsome stranger was. Blake, the fireman, who called me Olivia, and seduced me, and did things to me I still craved to this day. I think he’d said he was only in the city for training; it was his last night there.

When I found out I was pregnant, what could I do? Call every fire department in America to see if someone named Blake worked for them?

The reality was, things weren’t supposed to happen like that on the fateful night I met Blake. Darcy and Dirk only took me out for drinks in the city because I begged them to. I wanted a real bar experience like other twenty-one year olds, and not have to spend it at the bar my dad owned, the place I’d worked at daily, scrubbing and cleaning long before I was of legal age to work.

I wanted dancing and drinking, and a night where I could pretend to be someone else. What I found was Blake, and in his arms I was a woman he called beautiful several times while he did things to my body no other man had. It was a one-night thing with a man I’d never see again.

Only nine months later, when I held the tiny pink-skinned, dark-haired River in my arms for the first time, I knew right then he was my greatest blessing.

Officer Sparks waited, while I took a few sips of water, then I started in. I recounted what had happened from the moment we arrived at the rest stop, when suddenly a voice broke into my story from somewhere behind me.

“Did someone lose a little mischief maker?” A deep voice called out, somewhat familiar, along with a barking dog.

“Mom! The doggie found me.”

“River!” I ran so fast, my heart raced out of my chest; never had relief washed over me so fast like this moment. I yanked my son out of the hold of a man dressed in camouflage and held him tightly. Nothing and no one else mattered now but him being in my arms again.

“Oh, baby. My baby boy. Thank God you’re here, and you’re all right.” I let the tears fall freely as I kissed him all over his sweet head. There’d be time for talking and reminding him of the rules later, that he must stay by my side when we were in new places. Right now, we needed this reunion.

“Thank you, officer. I can’t thank you enough—” I gasped as my eyes finally landed on the man who was my savior today. Then I screamed.

Note to self: Next time, when coming face to face with the man I had an unforgettable night with six years ago, who didn’t know he was the father of my child, I should try not to scream.