Angel Baby (15 page)

Sarah slept late the next morning, allowing Claudia to stay
in bed a little longer than usual. She really was exhausted. Sleep had proved
extremely elusive the night before. When she wasn’t tossing and turning
remembering the close call on the stairs, she was replaying Chase’s words, his
bitter avowal that
nobody’s always there.

Claudia had known from the night they met that Chase Paxton
was a caring man who hid his gentle side beneath a harsh exterior. She'd gotten
used to it, certain she knew him better than just about anyone else. But
hearing him so utterly contemptuous of tenderness made her wonder at her own
judgment.

At around eight, Claudia heard Sarah yelling from her room,
and went to get her out of bed. After breakfast, Claudia wrapped the small
photo album she’d been putting together for Dorien. Today, of all days, she
felt, the woman would be especially grateful to receive it.

Claudia bathed the baby, and dressed her in a sweet little
pink outfit with a white and pink sun bonnet and carried her to Dorien’s house.
Though it was only ten, she knew the other woman would be up getting ready for
church.

 “Claudia, Sarah,” Dorien exclaimed when she opened the
front door. “What a lovely surprise. Come in, come in.”

“I hope you don’t mind us just stopping in like this,”
Claudia said as she entered the house, “but we wanted to come say good morning,
and give you a present.”

Dorien smiled brightly and led them into the living room,
saying, “Just having you both here is a treat.”

Claudia kept the baby on her lap while Dorien opened her
gift, then watched with pleasure as the elderly woman examined each picture
thoroughly. Her delight in the gift was evident.

“Thank you so much, Claudia. You couldn’t have given me
anything that would have pleased me more.”

“I’m glad. Considering you’ve given this child half her
wardrobe, I figured you deserved to see her model it.”

Dorien laughed and then asked if she could hold Sarah.
Claudia handed her over, and Dorien tickled the baby under the chin until she
giggled aloud.

Glancing around the living room, Claudia noticed several
wood carvings on a low end table. She’d seen them once before, crowded on the
mantle when she’d brought Sarah over, but hadn’t looked at them closely.
Curious, she crossed to the table and picked them up, piece by piece, studying
them closely.

There were probably a dozen pieces in all, several animals,
from a grinning monkey to a wise-faced owl sitting on a tree limb, as well as a
mystical looking dragon, a winged horse and a small castle. Claudia marveled at
the precision of the artist. The sculptures looked as if they’d been molded
perfectly, with no nicks or visible imperfections. Each piece must have taken
hours and hours of painstakingly patient work.

“They’re lovely, aren’t they?” Dorien asked softly.

“Exquisite,” Claudia replied. “This unicorn is amazing. I
can actually see the shy expression in its eyes.”

Carrying the baby, Dorien walked over to stand next to
Claudia. The older woman reached up to the mantelpiece and picked up a carving
Claudia hadn’t even noticed.

“This one is very special," Dorien said softly.

Claudia held out her hand as Dorien offered her the piece,
then started in surprise. The small carving was of an ugly, misshapen toad. It
had none of the mastery of the other pieces, yet even in this rough work, the
talent of the artist was evident. The toad’s eyes bulged over its squat face,
and a large lump distorted the proportion of its back. But the way its head was
slightly cocked to the side, and its mouth pulled down into a tiny frown,
seemed to reflect sorrow in the little creature.

“There’s a story here," Claudia murmured. “You know the
artist?”

“Of course," Dorien replied. "So do you.”

After a heartbeat, Claudia said, “Chase?”

“Umh-humh. This little monstrosity was the first piece he
ever carved.”

Claudia looked down at the piece in her hands, then at all
the other carvings she'd already seen. Somehow she felt no surprise that Chase
was the artist.

Claudia glanced up as Dorien returned to the sofa to sit
with Sarah. Not letting go of the toad, Claudia followed and sat across from
Chase's grandmother.

“My husband was wonderful with a knife," Dorien
explained. "Hal learned to whittle from his father, and some of those
pieces you were looking at were his. Most of the wildlife.”

“And Chase?”

“When he came to us he was only ten. A wilder boy you’d
never see. He had barely attended school, was a little thief, smoked cigarettes
and cussed like a sailor. And he hated everyone.”

Claudia nodded, not really surprised considering what she
knew about Chase’s childhood.

“He told me about his mother,” Claudia admitted.

Dorien looked startled, but only for a moment. “Well, as you
can imagine, he was a very unhappy child. Nothing we did reached him, but once
in a while, you’d see those big brown eyes soften, and tears come to them, and
he’d let me run my fingers through his hair or wipe a smudge of dirt from his
cheek. He’d scowl at me, and duck away, but didn’t protest too much. But the
one thing he’d never hide was his interest in his grandfather’s whittling.”

Sarah tired of sitting still, and wriggled on Dorien's lap.
Claudia was about to reach over and take the baby when the older women placed
Sarah on the floor. Smiling, Claudia watched as the child quickly crawled over
to the end table and began pulling off magazines.

“Hal used to sit outside in his rocker working away and
talking out loud about what he was doing," Dorien continued after a few
moments. "He knew full well that Chase was hiding under the porch
listening to every word. Finally, one day, he handed Chase a little knife and
asked him if he’d like to give it a try. Chase was skeptical, but did it,
anyway, and the child had a natural ability just like his grandfather."

Claudia nodded. There was no denying Chase's talent. She
still held the proof of it in her hands.

“Anyway," Dorien said, "after Hal taught him as
much as he could, he gave Chase a hunk of pine. Chase wanted to know exactly
what he should make, but my husband told him to carve whatever was inside him,
to look in his heart and carve whatever he was feeling, about himself, about
the world...anything.”

Claudia tightened her fingers around the ugly toad in her
hand, knowing full well what Dorien was telling her. She said softly, “This is
what he saw when he looked inside himself?”

Chase’s grandmother nodded, and Claudia saw the tears rise
in the older woman's eyes. Claudia stared down at her hands. A tear of her own
fell from her cheek, landing on her finger and sliding onto the toad’s misshapen
head. She idly rubbed it away.

Dorien cleared her throat and nodded briskly as if to shake
off the sad memory. She smiled as she said, "Things started changing then.
He came to us, showed us what he’d done, and practically dared us to laugh or
criticize it. My husband very carefully examined it, and told him he’d done a
fine job while I hid my tears. Chase seemed different after that. He trusted us
more, confided in us even, and within a few years, he was a typical exuberant
teenager.”

“Exuberant?” Claudia asked doubtfully.

“Well,” his grandmother admitted with a wry laugh, “maybe
that is a bit of an exaggeration. But at least he seemed happy. Chase worked on
his carving and pretty soon he was even better than Hal. A few months before my
husband died, when his arthritis was so bad that he couldn’t work more than an
hour at a time, Chase gave him that owl. He said this time when he went to
carve a block of wood, he looked inside his grandfather’s heart and saw the
wisest, deepest person he knew.”

“I think your husband must have been a wonderful man,”
Claudia said.

“He was indeed,” Dorien replied with a smile. “After he
died, I’m afraid a part of Chase died with him. He hasn’t carved a single piece
since.”

“That's a shame. He has real talent."

“Someday,” Dorien said. “He’ll come back to it someday.”

A quick knock sounded on the front door, and Claudia glanced
around. 

“That will likely be him,” Dorien said as she stood. Claudia
quickly got up and put the little toad back in its special place near the
mantle, not wanting Chase to know she and his grandmother had been discussing
him.

“Well, looks like you had the same idea,” Chase said to
Claudia as he entered the room.

“What’s that?” Claudia asked, forcing a note of brightness
into her voice.

“Checking up on Dorien,” he explained.

Claudia nodded then watched as Chase hurried past her to
where Sarah was preparing to stuff a wad of paper into her mouth.

“Haven’t you been in enough trouble lately, young lady?” he
asked her as he picked the baby up and handed her over to Claudia.

“It’s so sweet of both of you to come check up on me,” Dorien
insisted. “But I have to shoo you out. I’m going to be late if I don’t leave
soon. The Garden Club is meeting before church this morning about our bulb
orders for next spring.”

Claudia reached for the baby’s diaper bag, only to find
Chase already lifting it.

“I’ll walk you home,” Chase said.

After Dorien drove away with a cheery beep and a wave,
Claudia turned toward home. Sarah kept squirming to get down and play in the
grass, making Claudia suddenly realize just how big and heavy the baby had
become. Chase watched, an amused grin on his face, as Sarah twisted and
wriggled in Claudia’s arms, then finally said, “Here. Let me.”

He took the baby from Claudia, swung her up and sat her on
his shoulders. Sarah squealed, sunk her hands in his hair and held on for the
ride.

Claudia laughed out loud at the sight of Chase bouncing up
and down to make Sarah’s ride more enjoyable. She nearly warned him when a line
of baby drool slid out of Sarah’s mouth onto the top of his head, but figured
it was too late for him to do anything about it, anyway.

“Can you catch a cloud up there, Sarah?" Claudia asked
as they walked across the lawn.

When they reached her house, Claudia reached out to help
Sarah down. The baby wasn’t cooperative, keeping her wet fingers wrapped in
Chase’s thick dark hair, and tightening her chubby legs around his neck.

“She’s stronger than she looks,” Chase said as he held the
baby’s hands while Claudia tried to disengage her grip.

Finally, Sarah stopped fighting and fell into Claudia’s
arms. Staggering, Claudia laughed out loud at the angry pout on the baby’s
face, knowing she was put out that her ride had ended too soon.

“So, how’s the house holding up?”

“It’s wonderful. We love it here,” Claudia replied. “Don’t
we, pumpkin?”

Sarah just drooled and stuck her fist into her mouth.
Claudia noticed a few dark strands of hair wound in the baby’s sticky fingers,
and carefully pulled them away, casting Chase an apologetic glance. 

“It’s all right. I was due for a trim, anyway.”

“I imagine your barber works with a bit more precision,”
Claudia said with a grimace.

Chase followed her into the house. He took a quick look
around, nodded approvingly and said, “You know, the weather is supposed to turn
this week, temperatures are going to be really dropping. I guess our Indian
Summer is at an end. Maybe I should check your windows for you. I remember this
place being awfully drafty in the winter."

Claudia didn’t stop to analyze the sudden rush of pleasure
she felt that he’d found a reason to stay. She’d been thinking with every step
toward the house that she wished they could spend some time together. The story
his grandmother had told this morning made her want to know him even more. She
found it difficult to imagine that a child as unhappy and obviously angry as he
had been could have grown into such a deep, caring man. No matter how he might
deny it, despite his bitter comment the night before, she knew in her heart that’s
what he was.

“That would be wonderful,” she said with a warm smile.

Chase began checking all the windows in the house. He left
once, saying he wanted to get some tools, then came back with caulking which he
used to seal up a few cracks. He adjusted the bathroom faucet, which had
started feeling a little loose, then suggested he lower the temperature on the
hot water heater to make it less of a risk for the baby.

While he worked, Claudia played with Sarah, then put her
down for a nap. Sarah’s afternoon nap usually lasted at least two hours,
sometimes three, so after doing some laundry and cleaning, Claudia decided to
do something to thank Chase for all his help. By the time he joined her in the
kitchen, she was nearly finished making a couple of Mexican omelets.

“I hope you’re hungry. I love Sunday brunch, and I always
cook too much. Sarah’s not really into some of my more exotic creations, and
I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t like these chili peppers. Will you stay?”

Chase hesitated for a brief instant, then sniffed
appreciatively and said, “Smells too good to pass up.”

He washed up in the kitchen, shaking his hands dry as if he
didn’t want to use her flowery dish towel. Claudia bit the corner of her lip to
keep from smiling at his obvious discomfort in the feminine little room, then
set a place for him at the kitchen table. He had to wriggle his chair slightly,
and finally moved Sarah’s high chair out of the way so he could fit
comfortably. He waited for her to join him before eating his lunch.

“Go ahead, before it gets cold,” Claudia insisted as she
grabbed two glasses and poured them each a tall iced tea.

“Delicious,” he said as she joined him at the table. “I
didn’t know you could cook.”

“I imagine there’s a lot you don’t know about me."