Dean Koontz - Sole Survivor

‘In my case, I didn’t know until I got to the airport to pick them up,’ Joe said. ‘They’d been to Virginia to visit Michelle’s folks, and then three days in New York so the girls could meet their Aunt Delia for the first time. I arrived early, of course, and first thing when I went into the terminal, I checked the monitors to see if their flight was on time. It was still shown as on time, but when I went up to the gate where it was supposed to arrive, airline personnel were greeting people as they approached the area, talking to them in low voices, leading some of them away to a private lounge. This young man came up to me, and before he opened his mouth, I knew what he was going to say. I wouldn’t let him talk. I said, “No, don’t say it, don’t you dare say it.” When he tried to speak anyway, I turned away from him, and when he put a hand on my arm, I knocked it off. I might have punched him to keep him from talking, except by then there were three of them, him and two women, around me, close around me. It was as if I didn’t want to be told because being told was what made it real, that it wouldn’t be real, you know, wouldn’t actually have happened, if they didn’t say it.’

They were all silent, listening to the remembered voices of last year, the voices of strangers with terrible news.

‘Mom took it so hard for a long time,’ Clarise said at last, speaking of her mother-in-law as fondly as if Nora had been her own mother. ‘She was only fifty-three, but she really didn’t want to go on without Tom. They were—’

‘—so close,’ Bob finished. ‘But then last week when we came to visit, she was way up, so much better. She’d been so bitter, depressed and bitter, but now she was full of life again. She’d always been cheerful before the crash, a real—’

‘-people person, so outgoing,’ Clarise continued for him, as if their thoughts ran always on precisely the same track. ‘And suddenly here again last week was the woman we’d always known and missed for the past year.’

Dread washed through Joe when he realized they were speaking of Nora Vadance as one speaks of the dead. ‘What’s happened?’

From a pocket of her khaki shorts, Clarise had taken a Kleenex. She was blotting her eyes. ‘Last week she said she knew now that Tom wasn’t gone forever, that no one was ever gone forever. She seemed so happy. She was-’

‘—radiant,’ Bob said, taking his wife’s hand in his. ‘Joe, we don’t know why really, with the depression gone and her being so full of plans for the first time in a year. but four days ago, my mom she committed suicide.’

The funeral had been held the previous day. Bob and Clarise didn’t live here. They were staying only through Tuesday, packing Nora’s clothes and personal effects for distribution to relatives and the Salvation Army Thrift Shop.

‘It’s so hard,’ Clarise said, unrolling and then rerolling the right sleeve on her white shirt as she talked. ‘She was such a sweet person.’

‘I shouldn’t be here right now,’ Joe said, getting up from the armchair. ‘This isn’t a good time.’

Rising quickly, extending one hand almost pleadingly, Bob Vadance said, ‘No, please, sit down. Please. We need a break from the sorting. the packing. Talking to you. well.

He shrugged. He was all long arms and legs, graceful before but not now. ‘We all know what it’s like. It’s easier because—’

‘—because we all know what it’s like,’ Clarise finished.

After a hesitation, Joe sat in the armchair again. ‘I only have a few questions. and maybe only your mother could’ve answered them.’

Having readjusted her right sleeve, Clarise unrolled and then rerolled the left. She needed to be doing something while she talked. Maybe she was afraid that her unoccupied hands would encourage her to express the grief that she was striving to control

— perhaps by covering her face, by twisting and pulling her hair, or by curling into fists and striking something. ‘Joe. this heat would you like something cold to drink?’

‘No thanks. Quick is better, and I’ll go. What I wanted to ask your mother was if she’d been visited by anyone recently. By a woman who calls herself Rose.’

Bob and Clarise exchanged a glance, and Bob said, ‘Would this be a black woman?’

A quiver passed through Joe. ‘Yes. Small, about five two, but with. real presence.’

‘Mom wouldn’t say much about her,’ Clarise said, ‘but this Rose came once, and they talked, and it seemed as if something she told Mom was what made all the difference. We got the idea she was some sort of—’

‘—spiritual advisor or something,’ Bob finished. ‘At first, we didn’t like the sound of it, thought it might be someone taking advantage of Mom, her being so down and vulnerable. We thought maybe this was some New-Age crazy or—’

‘—a con artist,’ Clarise continued, now leaning forward from the sofa to straighten the silk flowers in an arrangement on the coffee table. ‘Someone trying to rip her off or just mess with her mind.’

‘But when she talked about Rose, she was so—’

‘—full of peace. It didn’t seem this could be bad, not when it made Mom feel so much better. Anyway—’

‘—she said this woman wasn’t coming back,’ Bob finished. ‘Mom said, thanks to Rose, she knew Dad was somewhere safe. He hadn’t just died and that was the end. He was somewhere safe and fine.’

‘She wouldn’t tell us how she’d come around to this faith, when she’d never even been a churchgoer before,’ Clarise added. ‘Wouldn’t say who Rose was or what Rose had told her.’

‘Wouldn’t tell us much at all about the woman,’ Bob confirmed. ‘Just that it had to be a secret now, for a little while, but that eventually—’

‘—everyone would know.’

‘Eventually everyone would know what?’ Joe asked.

‘That Dad was somewhere safe, I guess, somewhere safe and fine.’

‘No,’ Clarise said, finishing with the silk flowers, sitting back on the sofa, clasping her hands in her lap, ‘I think she meant more than that. I think she meant eventually everyone would know that none of us ever just dies, that we. go on somewhere safe.’

Bob sighed. ‘I’ll be frank with you, Joe. It made us a little nervous, hearing this superstitious stuff coming from my mother, who was always so down-to-earth. But it made her happy, and after the

awfulness of the past year—’

‘—we didn’t see what harm it could do.’

Spiritualism was not what Joe had expected. He was uneasy if not downright disappointed. He had thought that Dr. Rose Tucker knew what had really happened to Flight 353 and was prepared to finger those responsible. He had never imagined that what she had to offer was merely mysticism, spiritual counselling.

‘Do you think she had an address for this Rose, a telephone number?’

Clarise said, ‘No. I don’t think so. Mom was. mysterious about it.’ To her husband, she said: ‘Show him the picture.’

‘It’s still in her bedroom,’ Bob said, rising from the sofa. ‘I’ll get it.’

‘What picture?’ Joe asked Clarise as Bob left the living room.

‘Strange. It’s one this Rose brought to Nora. It’s kind of creepy, but Mom took comfort from it. It’s a photo of Tom’s grave.’

The photograph was a standard colour print taken with a Polaroid camera. The shot showed the headstone at Thomas Lee Vadance’s grave: his name, the dates of his birth and death, the words ‘cherished husband and beloved father.’

In memory, Joe could see Rose Marie Tucker in the cemetery:

I’m not ready to talk to you yet.

Clarise said, ‘Mom went out and bought the frame. She wanted to keep the picture behind glass. It was important to her that it not get damaged.’