Fern Michaels: Tuesday’s Child

Time to get this show on the road. She was going into the office. To do what, she wasn’t sure. More of what she’d been doing since Tuesday, when Adam Star walked into her office and dropped his bombshell.

The death watch was on, and it was disconcerting to be so excited and at the same time sad to be waiting for someone to die. Still, donor recipients did the same thing, didn’t they? In order to live, someone had to die to donate an organ for the other’s survival. This wasn’t all that different. Adam Star had to die so Sophie Lee could live again. Kala shook her head. She hated thoughts like this. As Jay said, no matter how you looked at it, it was one helluva mess.

Kala tried to shift her thoughts in another direction. What better than her canceled trip and Ben Jefferson? Ben had taken it well and didn’t seem the least bit upset. Either that, or he was hiding his disappointment well.

She loved Ben, she really did. And the success of her thirty-five-year relationship with the retired judge, she felt sure, was because they had never married. He had his own house, and she had hers. They didn’t commingle anything but their bodies, and ooooh, that was heavenly. Neither of them needed money from the other, each had robust brokerage accounts, and neither had to count their pennies or answer to each other about spending those pennies. Independence was truly a wonderful thing, Kala thought. And she planned on keeping it that way.

A time or two she and Ben had actually talked of marriage, then looked at each other and laughed, saying no, it would never work. What they had did work, and neither one of them wanted to jeopardize the relationship. Sometimes, she missed having children, and other times, she was glad she didn’t have any. The world today was a crazy place; she saw it firsthand day after day in court. Ben said he felt the same way.

Number crunching of any kind was not Kala’s forte as she tried to figure out how many hours it would be till Tuesday. Did she count all of today, all of Tuesday? In the end, she had to give it up because she couldn’t concentrate. “Oh, God, make me stop thinking like this,” she mumbled as she climbed into her racy Mercedes convertible. She could have driven to the office blindfolded, but today, she made a stop on the corner of Cedar and Central. She waited for the light to change and made a right turn into the parking lot of St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church.

She was from the old school and reached into the glove box for a scarf to put on her head. She wanted to stamp her feet in fury, shake her fist at something when she found the church door locked. Her shoulders slumped until she saw a young priest headed her way. He smiled and unlocked the door, saying something about vandalism. Kala just shook her head. What kind of upbringing did kids who vandalized churches have?

The church was cool and dim, smelling faintly of incense and smoking candles. Sun streamed through the stained-glass windows, which were so vibrant in color she could only stare at them, mesmerized. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone to church in the middle of the day. She made a mental promise to herself to come more often because it was so peaceful.

Kala bowed her head and prayed for Adam Star and his soul as he prepared for his journey to the hereafter. She prayed that Sophie Lee would be able to adjust to the outside world and that her heart and mind wouldn’t be full of bitterness and hatred. Lastly, she prayed for herself, that she was doing the right thing, and asked God to take away the hate she felt for Adam Star. And Ryan Spenser. Especially Ryan Spenser.

Kala looked around, certain that something inside would have changed with her plea, but everything was the same as when the young priest had unlocked the door. She could still smell the incense and the burning candles, could still see the sun shining through the stained-glass windows, creating rainbows over the pews. Her heart felt as heavy as before, but her eyes were dry. She closed them and offered up a prayer for everyone involved in what Jay Brighton referred to as one helluva mess.

She didn’t see the young priest until she was at the door. He was waiting for her so he could lock the doors again. It saddened her that such a place of comfort had to be locked down. A crazy thought swirled through her head, that maybe in the future she should call ahead, make an appointment to visit with the Lord. What was this world coming to?

Twenty-two minutes later, Kala parked her car in the underground lot and took the elevator up to her office. From the looks of things, it was business as usual except for her empty office. She hung her suit jacket and purse on an ancient bamboo coatrack and settled herself behind her shiny, empty desk. She flipped open her laptop, booted up, checked her e-mails, then her voice mail. Nothing of the slightest importance.

Even though it was late morning, and she’d had more than enough coffee, she meandered down the hall to the kitchen. She stuck her head in Jay’s office and asked if there was any news.

“There’s news, and then there’s news plus no news. Which do you want first?” Kala shrugged. “Okay, Judge Oldstein is in the hospital having his gallbladder out. That means the two motions I had with him for today and Monday have been canceled. Jim Langley’s deposition was canceled for this afternoon because he was in a fender bender, and he needs to have that checked out, plus he’s a hypochondriac, as you well know. He is on his way to some bone cruncher as we speak. The closing on the Webers’ new house has been put off again because the new buyers swear they saw termites even though there is a termite bond on the house. Judge Ellison’s office called, and his clerk asks that you stop by sometime today for a chat. That’s exactly how he put it-‘a chat’-so don’t grill me for more details because that’s all I have.”

“And…”

“And, Adam Star slipped into a coma during the early hours of this morning-four twenty-six to be precise. That’s all I know about that, too.”

“I wonder what Ruth Ellison wants to chat about,” Kala mumbled to herself.

“She probably wants to rent your house in Hawaii. I seem to recall hearing something a few weeks ago at the courthouse that she cleared her docket for the entire month of August to take a much-needed vacation.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen. Do me a favor and call her office and point-blank tell her clerk that the house is rented through the rest of the year. It is, you know; I’m just not getting paid any rent. And if the occasion arises, and you can get it in that she has never given me a favorable ruling, go for it. I’m outta here in two weeks, so I couldn’t care less what she thinks or feels.”

Jay’s outrage was a palpable thing. “Well, that’s just great, Kala. What about me, Linda, and the rest of our associates?”

“Deal with it like I’ve been dealing with it for the past however many years. She’s a snarky witch, and you can tell her I said that, too. You know, now that I think about it, I should call all those nasty judges who don’t know their asses from their elbows and tell them a thing or two. I just might do that, too, before Ben and I leave.”

Jay threw his hands in the air. “What? Did you wake up this morning and decide to take an ugly-mood pill or something? What’s with you?”

Kala leaned back in her comfortable chair. She closed her eyes, and responded, “Or something, I guess. I was just venting, Jay. But do call Ruth’s office and tell her the house is rented. I have no desire to go to her office today. Or any other day, so if we can nip it in the bud, that’s a good thing. Besides, I am officially retired.”

“What are you going to do today?” Jay asked curiously.