The Night a Barefoot Girl Ran Into Hell's Lantern

CHAPTER 4 - THE THING HE NEVER KNEW

The rain had softened by the time they reached the clinic in town.

Helen needed stitches for her lip and X-rays for her wrist. Lila sat wrapped in a borrowed blanket, her bare feet tucked under her on the waiting room chair. Wade stayed across from them, elbows on his knees, the photograph in one hand.

He had spent twenty-two years believing Helen left because she stopped loving him.

Now he wasn't sure what he had believed at all.

When Lila finally fell asleep against Maggie, who had driven over from the bar, Helen asked Wade to step outside.

The parking lot was slick with rain. The storm had passed, but water still dripped from the awning.

Helen looked straight ahead.

"I was pregnant when I left."

Wade said nothing.

"My father found out. You remember what he thought of you. Bikers, bars, your brother getting arrested. He said if I stayed, he'd make sure you went down for a robbery you didn't commit. He knew people then. Sheriff deputies, county board men. He had enough pull to ruin you."

Wade's jaw clenched. "So you vanished."

"I wrote to you."

He looked at her sharply.

"Three letters. Maybe four. I gave them to my sister to mail after I went to Ohio with my aunt. Years later I learned she never sent them." Helen swallowed. "She thought she was helping me start clean."

Wade stared at the wet blacktop.

He remembered those months. Drinking. Fighting. Waiting by a phone that never rang.

"I married Daniel when Lila was two," Helen said. "He wasn't her father. But he was kind then. After he lost work, he started bringing rough men around. Tonight one of them wanted the money I'd hidden for rent. Daniel ran before they turned on me."

Wade finally faced her. "Why didn't you tell Lila the truth?"

Helen's eyes filled. "Because I was ashamed I had chosen so badly twice."

He shook his head once.

"No. You were scared. That's different."

She let out a fragile laugh that turned into a sob.

Then Maggie opened the clinic door.

"Wade," she said. "You need to hear this. Lila just told the deputy Daniel took something before he ran. Your old letters. He had them in a metal box."