MISS LILA
By
Matthew Keith
When Lila Dupree first walked out of her duplex condo for her daily afternoon walk on Monday, April the twenty-first, she noticed that for the first time that spring, the sunlight burned very hot on her tender skin. This was supposed to be the first warm day of the year (according to that old fool who did the weather on channel 5), and she had donned her green walking shorts for the first time since late Fall. But of course, the weatherman had failed to mention that it would feel like an oven out here. As usual, she had been writing in her journal since eating breakfast that morning and watching TV in the early afternoon and had not stepped outside to see what the sun felt like as she should have done. She abruptly turned around and headed back into the apartment to apply some sunscreen to her arms, legs, and face before her walk. God does not reward those who do not protect themselves, she thought to herself.
Re-appearing on the front porch fifteen minutes later, her exposed skin now protected with a new premium-grade sunscreen (“guaranteed to block 99% of harmful sunlight”, it claimed on the front of the tube), Lila set off down the sloped driveway and onto the street. It was a cul-de-sac with a length of roughly a third of a mile, rather large for one that did not serve the well-to-do and their big, fancy houses, but she had no problem whatsoever doing five laps around the block on a daily basis.
Lila firmly believed in regular exercise, and she believed in the fact that the body was the temple of the Lord and should be taken care of. In her seventy-nine years on this Earth, she had always made it a point to exercise daily, eat well-balanced meals, and stay active. Her late husband Carlton, who had died back in ’90, had shared her enthusiasm for keeping fit although he had been confined to a wheelchair for five years prior to his death. Lord in Heaven, how she missed him. God rest your soul, my dear. I will be by your side soon – just as soon as my mission here is over.
One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four. Lila always kept this cadence in her head when she walked. It was something that Carlton had always done in his later years (the ones where he could still walk), and she felt closer, more in tune with the memory of him when she called the cadence. It made her smile.
In the three years since she had moved to this neighborhood, she had made friends with just about everyone along her walking route. She especially loved children, and there were many of them here. To her, children were the most important people in the world because they were the basis for the future – the very heart of society. If a child could be instilled with the proper values at an early age, then that child could mature to be a fine, upstanding citizen. Respected and valued, she used to say to Carlton.
The fact that she had never been able to have children of her own was something Lila had long ago accepted that fact as a sign from the Lord that there was other, more substantial work for her to do on this Earth. She had been blessed with a gift. Well…a gift is what she called it. Others might call it a curse, depending on their point of view. Those people probably wouldn’t even think that the gift was given to her from the Lord, but Lila knew better. All good things came from above.
She had discovered her gift only a short while before Carlton’s death. They had been visiting a hospital and nursing home up in the City as part of their community work for the Church. While inside one particular ward where there were many with terminal illnesses, Lila suddenly became…connected to these people. As if all of their pain and suffering was then part of her own body and mind. As if she knew that she could control their pain somehow, although she knew she could not cure them – that was not her place. She had told Carlton to go wait in the hallway, and then she went to the bed of each person in the ward. The nurses had paid her no mind – after all, she had made friends with all of them before. At each bed, she spoke softly and touched that person on the forehead. By doing this, Lila had then realized that she was sharing their pain one minute, and then taking it away the next. She had felt the compulsion inside her to make their final days a little brighter.
A few days later, she learned from her pastor that one of the nursing staff had called the Church to say that the patients in that ward had all sent a word of thanks to Lila Dupree, and that they had all of a sudden ceased having the need for pain medication. It had been a miracle of sorts, the nurse had said.
Carlton, who had been in an auto accident back in ’85 and had lost the use of the lower half of his body, had already been blessed with not having to experience much pain, so Lila knew she could do little to help him. The Lord took him one summer morning only a few weeks after her revelation at the hospital. He had suffered a bad stroke as he was wheeling out to the mailbox, and died in less than an hour.
In the months following her husband’s death, Lila began to understand more about what her role was. In her mind, the Lord spoke to her and let her know what was expected of her. It went beyond just doing good deeds, and beyond easing the suffering of the terminally ill. She realized that she had to do whatever she could to make the world a better place. Somehow, she also knew that she would not be able to leave this Earth until she had become worthy of the gift. It had to be used to its full potential, and she would only understand what that potential was when the time came.
It became apparent during this time that her ultimate objective was somehow connected to these children that she loved so much. Now whenever she met a child, she became connected to that child just as she had become connected to the suffering patients. She saw through them, into their minds and hearts. In many cases, she was able to see the adult that the child would eventually become. Lila learned that she could use her gift very freely when children were concerned – influencing their thoughts, their values - to build character in them where their parents had failed.
Walking along the northern side of the cul-de-sac now, Lila began to watch for her kids to come and greet her, as they usually did, and she always stopped to talk to them along the way. In the building next to hers in one-one-nine, there was little Jenny, five years old and sweeter than a honeysuckle in June. Jenny was filled with what Lila liked to call ‘the righteous spirit of youth’. There was nothing bad inside her at all, and her parents were fine people that raised her properly. Jenny was her favorite. Stopping here in front of her house was always the highlight of the day’s walk. Momentarily, she spotted Jenny running around the rear of her father’s pickup truck to come and greet her. Lila’s heart leapt at the sight of her, and she put on her best and brightest Monday smile.
“And how are we doing today, my little angel?” Lila said, opening her arms for her hug.
Jenny ran into her arms and promptly told Lila, “Fine Miss Lila – I baked some cookies for you but they’re still in the oven Mommy said”.
Laughing in spite of herself, Lila told her, “Well that’s OK sweetheart, I’ll just have to get them tomorrow. Is Mommy going to let you walk with me today?”
“I have to clean my room, YUK!”
“No my dear, you GET to clean your room. Remember what I told you – there are lots of beautiful little girls like you who don’t HAVE a room to clean, right?”
Jenny nodded and smiled. “I know, but I’d give my room to them if I could”. Lila knew that she meant what she said. She always knew right away when a child was lying.
“Yes, I know. Well, you go on back and do your chores. On my way back around, I’ll have a flower for you”. Lila hugged the little girl again and sent her back to the house, waving. Jenny waved twice and then ran back up to the front porch.
Resuming her walk, Lila began to look for Anthony and Meghan. Anthony, who lived in one-two-five, was an eleven-year-old who loved to rollerblade in the street and sometimes went along with her on her walks. Meghan, whose preferred mode of transport was a bike, was also eleven, and lived in the same building as Anthony, in one-two-seven. The two were usually out riding in the street together, and they both loved to talk to Lila, as nearly everyone did. Lila thought that they might be out and about on this sunny afternoon - that is if Anthony was caught up on his homework and Meghan wasn’t with her Mother. Upon approaching the building, which was only three down from her own, she was discouraged to see that the children were not there waiting for her to pass by. Maybe they are already out and about, she thought.
One-two-three-four…Lila walked onward, rounding the first curve of the cul-de-sac. On the western side, there were no children – or at least there were none that she was familiar with. This was where she liked to step up the pace a bit. There was no scenery to stop for – all of the condos looked the same – and there was no one familiar to her that would greet and talk to her. Occasionally here she would see old Mr. Browning at unit three-one-seven sitting out on his porch drinking a beer and inviting her inside to “watch old movies”. But of course she never paid him any attention, only smiling and wishing him a good day. She had no time for such tomfoolery. Today, he was not outside, which made Lila breathe a little sigh of relief.
After a couple of minutes of brisk walking, Lila rounded the next curve to the South side, which was home to several of her acquaintances. Jim and Judy Crabtree, who lived in three-twenty-five here at the corner, were fine, Christian people who always waved to her if they were outside. There was a Pakistani family in three-three-two across the street which included twin ten-year-old children, a brother and sister. Looking in the driveway, Lila could see that they were not home at the moment. Miss Evelyn (Lila regrets always forgetting her last name) in three-twenty-seven was a eighty-something widow who often came to visit Lila in the mornings for tea and conversation. She was usually sitting in her rocking chair in the afternoons when Lila made her rounds, and today was no different.
Waving to Evelyn as she passed, Lila called out, “Be sure to come by tomorrow. I have your pictures back from the photo place!” Lila often ran errands in town for her since Evelyn did not own a vehicle and was unfit to drive one anyway.
“I’ll be there!” Evelyn shouted back from the porch, waving her cane. I do hope her daughter comes to visit her soon, Lila thought. She is so very lonely and I worry about her state of mind.
From behind her, Lila heard a familiar voice. “Miss Lila, did you think I had disappeared or something?” Stopping in mid-stride and turning around, Lila saw Meghan sitting there on her bike, smiling a smile of mischief that only Meghan could produce. Soon, the smile turned into a quiet giggle. At eleven, the girl was not yet at the age where she would undergo the changes in behavior that tortured so many parents, but her bright, pink T-shirt that said “IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!” was perhaps an early warning sign.
“You think it’s OK to sneak up on an old woman, don’t you young lady?”
Meghan laughed and pedaled up to her. “Yes, I was being a spy. I was tailing you on the sidewalk and being REAL QUIET”. Lila embraced her, looked into her eyes, and immediately saw something rather disturbing.
“You look happy, but you really aren’t, are you?” Lila asked her.
Meghan’s smile slowly turned downwards, and she looked at the ground. “No ma’am.”
“Well, what is it? It’s such a beautiful day today. School is almost over for the year, and you will have so much fun this summer!”
Still looking at the ground and shifting nervously on her bike, Meghan said, “I’m worried about Anthony. He wants to quit school now because of…” She stopped.
“Because of what, child? Speak up!”
“Because Marky picks on him every day at the bus stop, and takes his school stuff, and his money, and calls him nasty names. But please don’t say I called him Marky. He hates that, but that’s what we call him to ourselves.”
Lila realized that Meghan was talking about the new boy whose family had moved into a small house on the adjoining street above the cul-de-sac. She did not know their last names, but she knew that Mark was an eighth-grader, a little older and bigger than Anthony. She had also heard that the family was from Chicago originally, and had lived in the Inner-City where such violent behavior was probably tolerated too much.
“You know, come to think of it, I haven’t seen Anthony in almost a week. Where is he now, Meghan?”
“He’s at home in his room. Marky punched him in the face today and said he’d do it every single day from now on until Anthony gave him his rollerblades.”
Lila felt very discouraged that she could not see the bus stop from her condo. It was up on Mark’s street behind some trees, although only a short walk for all of the kids in the neighborhood. Perhaps she would have to start her daily walk at three-thirty instead of five so that she could arrive there when they got off the bus.
Smiling in spite of her thoughts, Lila told her, “Do me a favor, dear. Go tell Anthony to get his blades on and come meet me when I come back around. I want to talk to him.”
Meghan sighed. “OK I will. I’ll be back!” She turned the bike around and headed back towards home. After she had gone around the corner, Lila turned and resumed her walk once again. She was very troubled at this news of Anthony. He was a good boy, and did very well in school. He would become a successful Architect when he was still in his twenties, and would contribute great things to the world.
Soon, Lila rounded the corner to the East side. It was a bit shorter than the other three sides, and contained only two buildings on each side of the street. She was not familiar with the people who lived in these buildings – one was currently unoccupied and the others had relatively new tenants who didn’t seem to get out much.
As she walked, Lila’s thoughts returned to what Meghan had told her a few minutes ago. Presently, her head began to ache. This sometimes happened when Lila felt the urge to use her gift, but today the ache was a little worse than normal. In her dealings with children, she had come across those who liked to bully others, and it was a behavior she greatly despised.
A few years prior, when she had still been living in the house she had shared with Carlton, she had been walking in the City Park one day when she saw a nine-year-old boy chasing a smaller boy with a cap gun, shooting it in the smaller boy’s ear and calling him a sissy. As the two had run by her, Lila firmly grabbed the larger boy’s shoulder and he had just…stopped dead in his tracks. She remembered that day very well. She had placed her other hand on the boy’s other shoulder, squaring him around to face her, and had connected to him. Then, seeing the boy’s bullying inner nature, Lila had calmly said to him, “You are a smart boy, Aaron. You will now see that what you are doing is wrong. You know right and wrong because you learned it from your Daddy all your life.” The boy then produced a puzzled look on his face, not because a strange, old woman was reprimanding him, but because her words were sinking into him, as if they had been missing all his life and had now found a home inside him. Lila had then pulled a dollar bill from her pocket, handed it to the boy, and said, “Go over there and tell your new friend that you’d like to buy him an ice cream on the way home.” The boy then smiled, and walked away without a word, tossing the cap gun in the bushes as he went.
Reflecting on this memory now, Lila couldn’t help but wonder if she could do something similar for Marky (oops…Mark ha ha). Of course, the reality of it was that the older a child was, the more difficult it was to fully connect. She did not understand why this was, but it was not her place to question it. She could only hope that she could fix the situation somehow.
Rounding the last corner of the cul-de-sac, Lila could now see her own front porch a few yards away. Just beyond that, she could see little Jenny in her front yard throwing a beach ball up into the air. Ahh, I have forgotten to pick her a flower, Lila thought. Her head was pounding now, and so she feared she would be unable to do her remaining laps this afternoon. As she walked toward her condo, she could see Meghan pedaling towards her up ahead. Anthony was not with her. Lila kept up her pace until Meghan was again by her side. “Well, did you see Anthony?” she asked Meghan.
“He won’t come outside. Not even to see ME.”, Meghan announced.
“Well my dear, I’m afraid I can’t keep walking today. I think this hot sun has scrambled my brains up because my head hurts something awful! Give Anthony a call when you get home and tell him that I will see him tomorrow. Can you do that?”
“Yes ma’am, I will.”
“Remember, Meghan, to keep a positive attitude even when bad things happen, and always, ALWAYS talk to a friend about something that is bothering you. That is what friends are for.”
Meghan smiled. “I know that. See you tomorrow, Miss Lila.” She rode off to go around the block again.
Approaching her own driveway now, Lila called out to Jenny next door, who was standing still in the yard looking at her. “Sweetie I’ll have to bring you that flower tomorrow. I’ll trade it to you for some cookies, OK?”
In response, Jenny circled her pointer finger around to touch the tip of her thumb, held her hand up, and shouted, “O-TAY!”
Lila walked up her driveway to the front door, retrieved her house key, and unlocked the door. Stepping inside, the conditioned air at once made her head ache worse since her body was hot from the walk. In the kitchen, she poured herself some iced tea, then came back to the living room and sat down in her rocking chair.
The headache, she realized, was more than just a regular headache. She was beginning to see in her own mind that her time was coming. The moment that she had anticipated for years would soon be here. She had done many good and influential things to better the world, but the thing that always remained – the thing that had avoided her for so long – was finally at hand. Still unsure of what exactly this thing was, she would have to wait it out. For how long, she had no way of knowing.
HEAVENS why does my head have to hurt so much?
Massaging her temples, Lila rocked in her chair until her eyes felt heavy. Her pain slowly faded away, and within minutes, she was asleep.
On Tuesday afternoon, the twenty-second, Anthony Landers sat at the very front of the school bus as it made its way to the stop near his home. For the past week or two, he had sat up here by the driver so that, at the very least, Marky could not torment him until they got off the bus. Marky liked to sit in the back with the other eighth-graders so he could safely assassinate the younger kids with his spitwad launcher, a six-inch tube of aluminum that resembled a straw.
Meghan sat beside Anthony today rather than back with her girl friends. She had told him that Miss Lila wanted to see him today, but he insisted that he had to go to his room and study. And if he was lucky enough, he would make it there with all of his teeth intact and without being humiliated. But no matter what, he was not giving up his rollerblades. It was fortunate that he could not take them to school, because Marky would probably already have them otherwise.
Anthony could not understand why the kid hated him so much. Two weeks ago, on Mark’s first day at his new school, he had been waiting at the bus stop that morning by himself when Anthony and Meghan arrived. Only trying to be friendly, Anthony had asked him if he liked to rollerblade, to which Mark had replied, “Screw you, you little geek. What freakin’ difference does it make if I like it or not?”
To the best that Anthony could figure now, the guy was just a mean-ass, pure and simple. Not that many eighth-graders were overly receptive to the younger kids anyway, but with Mark, things got out of hand within a few days. On Thursday afternoon of Mark’s first week there, the kid had robbed him. After they had gotten off the bus, Mark had followed him a few steps and then tripped him from behind. As Anthony had lain there, Mark snatched up the book-bag that Anthony carried and began rummaging through it, saying, “Whatcha got in here that I might want, geek? I better not find anything weird in here or I’ll just have to kick your ass.” From the bag, he took out Anthony’s brand new MP3 player and noise-cancelling headphones.
Getting up and dusting himself off, Anthony had said, “Gimmie back my stuff, MARKY.” At this last word, a look had come over Mark’s face that had made him look like the Devil himself. Veins had popped out all over his face.
“What the hell did you just call me?” He took two steps towards Anthony, his right fist cocked. “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”
Ignoring the question, Anthony made a move for his MP3 player, but he hadn’t gotten far. Mark was four inches taller, muscular, and outweighed him by at least twenty pounds. One punch had sent Anthony sprawling backwards onto the pavement, his glasses cracked and sitting askew on his face. “Do not say a word about this to anyone, geek, or I will break your face even worse”, Mark had told him as he lay on the ground. After he had lain there for a minute or two longer, Mark calmly turned and headed towards his house, new MP3 player in hand.
Now, Anthony turned around in his seat to look towards the back of the bus. Mark was in the process of firing a particularly large spitwad at one of the girls in front of him. Seeing Anthony turn around, Mark shook his fist and mouthed the words “You’re mine.”
Turning to Meghan, Anthony said, “When we get off, I’m running. I can’t win a fight with him. He’s just too big. I’ll call you later.” Meghan turned to look back at Mark and saw that he was staring at them, no longer interested in his sniper action. All of a sudden, she was scared. Not for herself, but for Anthony. Miss Lila had told her once that there were very bad kids in the world, not just kids who misbehaved sometimes, but bad kids, and that they should always be avoided.
As the bus crept towards their stop a few yards up ahead, Anthony got a good grip on his book-bag and readied himself to jump quickly off the bus. God, how he wished he had his rollerblades on right now. Meghan looked at him and said, “Just get going. If he catches you, I’ll scream or something and draw some attention.”
Finally, the bus stopped and the driver opened the side door. In a flash, Anthony was outside on the road, but because of where the bus stopped here, he was faced with a dilemma. He either had to cross the side road in front of the bus and then turn left to cross Mark’s street in order to go towards his own street, or he could try to save a few seconds and go directly towards his street by maneuvering through a large ditch on this side of the bus. If he could get through the ditch running, he might get so far ahead of Mark that he’d be safe, but on the other hand, if he stumbled just once, it might cost him.
All of this flashed through his head in one second. Choosing the ditch, Anthony leapt into it and hit the bottom running. There was about fifteen feet until the cross street, and when he reached it, he would have to ascend back up five feet to level ground on a rocky, muddy slope. A few feet from where he had to go back up, his foot hit a muddy spot and he slid a few inches before landing flat on his back. Wasting no time, he sprang back to his feet and hit the slope of the ditch running to climb it. His heart pounded as he heard the bus pulling away behind him. Mark was out.
As Anthony got to the top on the other side of the ditch, he slipped again, this time on a rock. He didn’t fall, but it caused another delay. Neglecting to look behind him, he broke into a run across the street. He got only ten feet before something large and heavy rammed into his side, sending him flying the rest of the way across the street and landing near the foot of a stop sign. Mark looked down at him and showed a dark smile.
“I told you your ass was mine. You little pansy. You can’t even run through a freakin’ DITCH.” Anthony closed his eyes and tried to prepare for what he knew was coming. Behind them, Anthony could hear Meghan screaming for Mark to stop.
Mark stepped forward. “So where are my rollerbl…” He stopped when he saw someone move out from behind the stop sign - someone that seemed to just come out of nowhere. It was a little, old lady. Anthony opened his eyes and looked up. In the background, Meghan had stopped screaming.
Lila had watched them from the time they got off the bus, although they could not see her until now. She wanted to have the chance to see Mark’s true nature, just in case he would be difficult to read when she connected with him. He was, after all, an older child. The behavior she saw in him disgusted her. She did not know his parents, of course, but they couldn’t possibly be without blame. A child who acted this way was in serious need of discipline. She only hoped she could…do what was best.
She walked up to them now, Anthony on the ground, and Mark standing three feet away. She reached down and touched Anthony’s forehead, dispersing his pain. Mark had a bewildered look on his face at her having seemingly appeared from thin air, but she was not concerned with that right now. She walked up to him and held out her hand with the palm up, and said to him, “Mark, my name is Lila Dupree. May I speak to you for a moment?” She placed her hands on his shoulders. He resisted for a few seconds, but then stopped as if hypnotized.
As their eyes locked and they connected, Lila saw at once what she was going to have to do. What she saw inside this child horrified her - his past, his present, and most certainly his future. She saw in him a great many reasons for the way he was now, at age fourteen. Although his parents had provided for him and had taken care of him, they had neglected to teach him discipline or responsibility of any kind. They had also not taught him to respect other people or the law. He had been in a street gang in Chicago, involved in all kinds of debauchery. He was involved in drugs now and was guilty of burglary, larceny, and assualt. He associated with older kids who were known criminals. She saw that this child was on a path that no child should ever be on. In his future, she saw…My Lord, no. The vision was blurry now, but she saw…a schoolyard, many kids, a man with a gun running into the schoolyard with policemen chasing him, gunfire, a small boy being held around his throat, more gunfire, and then…Her head began to ache fiercely again now, as it had the previous night. He is going to kill a child to save himself. In ten years.
A sudden onrush of ideas was swimming in her head now. It was the Lord – He was talking to her again. In a split second, she understood what her objective was. For years, she had used her gift to make the world a better place, but she had always used it to enhance the good things that already existed. Standing here now, looking at Mark, she realized that in order to make her job complete, she had to remove something bad from the world. Something evil, like this child. The opportunity that she had waited so long for had finally shown itself.
But I cannot simply make him disappear or cause him to die. There has to be another way. Please Lord, give me the strength to understand. Show me the way.
Then it all became crystal clear to her. She knew exactly what she must do. It would be very difficult for people to understand, but Lila was not concerned with what would transpire after the fact. This had to be done. It had to be done right now.
Continuing to hold Mark transfixed in place, she spoke to Meghan and Anthony. “Children, I want you both to go home right now. Mark has some things he wants to tell me and I think we are going to talk to his parents for a while.”
Anthony, who was now standing with Meghan and watching from a few feet away, shuffled his feet nervously and said, “OK Miss Lila - whatever you say. Let’s go, Meghan.” Before they left, Anthony looked back at Mark. He seemed to be awake but there was something in his eyes that said he really wasn’t. He seemed to be staring at Lila, almost in disbelief. Anthony only hoped that he would get his MP3 player back and that he wouldn’t have to run from Mark anymore. He did not know then that he would never have to worry about Mark ever again.
Looking into Mark’s eyes still, which were blank and without emotion, Lila whispered to him, “Are you ready to turn over a new leaf, young man? I am going to give you this wonderful chance to start over.”
Mark’s eyes briefly swam back into focus, and he replied, “Yes, I can start over. I hate my life anyway.”
Lila smiled and then leaned forward, kissing him on the cheek. “I am so proud of you for saying that. You may not ever see me again, but you will remember me. Now what I want you to do is come over here on the side of the road in the grass, and then I want you to lie down on your back with your hands folded across your chest. Can you do that for me?”
Mark did as he was instructed.
At precisely four-ten P.M., Mrs. Gail Whittaker, wife of Joseph Whittaker and mother of Mark Whittaker, heard the doorbell ringing. Her husband was in the bathroom showering before his long night at work, and she had been punching a calculator trying to figure out how they were going to be able to afford the big-screen TV that she wanted so badly. With her husband working twelve-hour shifts and her rotten-ass kid always out with his friends, she didn’t have much of anything to do all day. The TV would keep her occupied during the day until such time as she could drink her cares away at night.
“Now who in the hell could that be? We don’t know anybody here yet.” Gail primped her hair briefly and headed for the door.
When she opened the front door, she fought the urge to laugh at what she saw. Standing on her porch was a very old woman. She had to be at least eighty, and probably more. And she was wearing jogging shorts, no less. But that was not the part that struck her as funny. In her arms, the woman held what looked to be a newborn baby. The baby wasn’t even wearing a diaper – it (he? she?) had a ripped piece of cloth, maybe part of shirt, wrapped around its entire midsection. And it was looking up at the old woman as if she were the most peculiar thing it had ever seen.
Gathering herself, Gail addressed the woman. “Hello. Are you my neighbor? If so, I…”
“Are you Mark’s mother?” the woman asked her, an extremely bitter look on her face.
Surprised, Gail responded, “Well, yes I have a son named Mark. Has he harassed you? I swear that kid drives me insane. He…”
Interrupting her again, Lila said, “I know your name and your husband’s name and I know all about you. If you don’t mind, I have something that I want to say.”
Gail was not really in the mood for this. She sensed something unpleasant was about to develop. “OK sure. What was your name again?” Looking down, she noticed that the baby was
now looking at her with keen interest.
“My name is Lila Dupree. I live down below in the cul-de-sac – unit one-one-seven. I would like to talk to you about Mark – about how he was raised, about how you FAILED him.” Lila’s face was stern, and anger radiated from every wrinkle. She almost spat her words at Gail.
“Listen, Miss Dupree, I…”
“No, YOU listen. You need to listen right now more than you have ever had to listen to anyone before in your life. There has been…an occurrence.”
Puzzled, Gail said, “What do you mean, an occurrence?”
Lila held the baby upright in front of her. “Do you recognize this baby? If not, look very closely below his right armpit. Do you see it?”
Gail did see it - the familiar birthmark on the baby’s side which resembled a question mark. But no – it couldn’t be.
“Look at his face, Mrs. Whittaker. A mother knows her own son, does she not?” Lila continued to hold the baby outward in her arms, her body shaking from the prolonged effort. Gail was speechless, staring at the baby as if staring at the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Lila continued, “Your son’s life was perhaps saved today, Mrs. Whittaker - saved in the sense that he could have a PRODUCTIVE life now. He will just have to start all over. From scratch. And it won’t all be up to him, either. This is YOUR chance, as a parent, to atone for your past failures. Raise him again, and raise him to be a person who respects others, and who has self-discipline and morals. Be a MOTHER to him this time around, will you? This chance will probably never come around again, so you are truly blessed.”
Seeing the doubt in Gail’s face, Lila took a more soothing tone and said, “This is Mark. He has been reborn. I saw the evil inside him, and I had to act. I saved his life today, Mrs. Whittaker – but I cannot guarantee the quality of his life from this moment on. That is up to you now.”
Gail stood in awe of Lila and the baby now, both hands flat on her chest near her heart as if she feared it would leap through an invisible hole there and splatter on the ground. Mouth wide open, she started to slowly turn her head around to look behind her, but Lila spoke again.
“Your husband is still drying off, and he will be a few minutes. You know that he is not quite as open-minded as you are, and that he is very ill-tempered. Perhaps you should discuss this matter with him in private, and ask him to call in sick today. You will need some time to think about things and what lies ahead of you both.”
After a moment longer, Gail covered her mouth with both of her hands and began trembling. She stared at the baby, who had begun to whimper. It was a unique whimper, a sound that she was very familiar with. Gail’s eyes filled with tears then and she held out her arms. Lila handed baby Mark over to his mother.
“Redeem yourself now. This is your chance. Your lives did not turn out quite like you planned, so now you can change it. If you and your husband do your jobs right, this boy will grow up to become a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army. I guarantee it!”
Gail held her ‘newborn’ son in her arms, weeping and staring at Lila. She did not know what to say to the old woman.
Lila took the baby’s tiny hand and gave it a kiss. “So long, Marky. You are in your mother’s hands once again.” As she stepped off the porch and onto the sidewalk, she told Gail, “Don’t worry about the authorities when they find out. I will take care of that when it happens. You are truly free to start over.”
Watching her go, Gail fell to her knees, still holding her son. She felt as if she were about to faint, but she could not. Mark was whimpering in that certain way he had whimpered when he needed changed. Gail hugged him a moment longer, then rose and closed the door.
One week later, on Tuesday the twenty-ninth, as she was nearing the end of her daily walk, Lila spotted Meghan and Anthony for the first time that day. They weren’t out riding, but rather climbing a tree in the front yard. They seemed to be spending a lot more time with each other lately, but that didn’t surprise Lila in the least. In twelve years, they would marry. They already loved each other; they just didn’t realize it yet.
On her fifth and final lap around the cul-de-sac today, she had stopped on the South side where she had secretly planted some roses in a small clearing amid some trees away from the road months earlier. Picking a rather large yellow rose, she carried it with her in hopes that she would see Jenny when she got back around to the North side for the last time.
Now, as she neared her driveway, she did spot Jenny. Jenny was sitting on the stairway of her front porch reading a book. Spotting Lila, she jumped up and ran out to the street with a small plastic bag in her hands. “Miss Lila, I got your cookies!”
“Well, guess what? I’ve got your flower. Look at it!” Lila gave the rose to Jenny, and then said, “Be sure to put it in water soon so it will live for a while.”
“I’m gonna help Mommy bake a cake tonight. I can bring you a piece tomorrow.”
“No my dear. I am afraid I will not be home for a while. You may just have to eat my share. You can do that, right?”
“Well SURE, but where are you going?”
“I have to go to see my husband, dear. You remember my telling you about him, right? It has been so long, and I miss him.” At this, Jenny’s face became very sad. “Oh, don’t worry. I will be happier than I have been in many years”, Lila told her.
Jenny looked up at her with those big, brown eyes and asked, “Well, when am I gonna SEE you again?”
“It might be a while before you see me, dear. But you can write to me and put the letters in your mailbox until then, OK? I promise I will get them. Go bake your cake and tell your Mommy hi for me.”
“It might be a while before you see me, dear. But you can write to me and put the letters in your mailbox until then, OK? I promise I will get them. Go bake your cake and tell your Mommy hi for me.”
Lila hugged her favorite child once again and brushed back a tear from her eye. She watched Jenny wander back up her driveway to the porch where her book awaited.
Walking to her own driveway once again, Lila called out her cadence One two three four. She unlocked her front door, stepped inside, closed the door, and went directly to her bedroom. She stretched out on her bed and closed her eyes. Her last thought before she fell asleep was how fulfilled she felt. Her children would be OK. She had seen to that.
In a few minutes, drowsiness came over her. In her last conscious moment, she felt divine warmth spread from head to toe. Yes, her mission was over.
Lila Dupree fell asleep for the last time.
This story was written from June to July of 2008
This work is hereby copyrighted © 2008 – Matthew Keith – 210 Briar Circle, Winchester, TN 37398.
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