All that is Darkness

CHAPTER THIRTY: THE MIRACLE GIRL

"They're calling me the 'Miracle Girl'," I said, fearful and overwrought as I looked up from the newspaper.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," said Uncle Bill. "I did my best to keep you out of this, but it was inevitable they'd find out sooner or later."

"That's the media for you," said Aunt E, her face pinched in censure. "Nosing about where they've no business."

"I suppose it is their business," said Uncle Bill. "It is an incredible story."

"William!" Aunt E glared at him. "I'm trying to make the poor girl feel better." She turned to me and smiled consolingly. "Never you mind, child; eventually it'll all blow over. These things usually do." But I could see the disquiet in her eyes, the anxiety she wanted to hide but couldn't, and I didn't miss the silent exchange between her and Uncle Bill.

"What if it doesn't?" I said. "They're making such a big production of it, and I can't even go outside because they're waiting for me." I stole a look toward the front of the house. "The newspapers, the TV and radio—there are scads of them. What if they get a picture of me and it's splashed all over the front pages or shown on the news? What if someone recognizes me?"

"You've changed a lot in the last few years," said Aunt E. "You're a young woman now. I very much doubt anyone who knew you in the past would recognize you as being the same person."

I thought she was being hopelessly optimistic and said, "And what if one of those reporters goes digging?"

"Jim has done a good job of creating a convincing and thorough backstory for you," Uncle Bill assured me. "Anyone who bothers to look is just going to find out that you're everything we've always said you are: the daughter of my brother who perished with his wife in a tragic fire. All the records will show you were in hospital down in Point Barrow after the fire and that once you recovered from the ordeal you came here to live with us."

"But if they start asking around down there..."

"Even if they do," he said, "they're not going to find anyone in Point Barrow who'll challenge who you are. Heck, the girl's own teachers are convinced she pulled through."

"Someone must know the truth," I argued. "Someone had to deal with the body. What if they talk?"

"That's all been taken care of. Those people were moved to other towns long ago, while Mallory was still in office."

It was tempting to be swayed by his arguments, but I'd the nagging suspicion that if a picture of me got out through the press there was a good chance people who'd known Uncle Bill's real niece would see it, and they'd have to think that that girl had changed an awful lot since the last time they'd seen her. At some point someone was going to put two-and-two together and then the jig would be up.

"In a few days something else is going to come along and the media will turn their attention to that," said Aunt E. "We just have to weather the storm."

For her sake I tried to look mollified, but even more than the media I was fearful of the people who'd been chasing Mom and me. They were here, in Caelo, and if they got so much as a whiff of my presence...

"I just worry about what might happen to you and Uncle Bill," I said, looking from one to the other. "I don't want you getting hurt because of me. Amelia Westerly doesn't seem to care about the law or anything, and you've got your daughters and grandchildren to think about. Maybe it'd be better for everyone if Uncle Jim found me somewhere else to live."

"You're part of our family now," Aunt E said with a firm and dignified conviction as tears shone in her eyes. "We're not going to abandon you."

"But this isn't just about me," I said. "I have to think about everybody else."