The Shadow Wife

Carlynn walked up the path toward her, using her cane, with only a hint of a limp in her gait. Joelle drew in a deep breath. Sorry if I’m making a big mistake, Mara. She stood up and led the older woman into the home.

Mara’s bed had been cranked up into a sitting position, and she looked exactly the way Joelle hated to see her look. She was asleep, her face slack, aging her fifteen years. Her mouth hung open a little, a rivulet of saliva trickling down her chin, and her short hair, which Joelle cut herself once a month, was disheveled from the pillow.

Joelle took Carlynn’s arm at the door of Mara’s room. “She’ll smile when she wakes up,” she whispered. “She’ll look as though she knows who I am, but I don’t believe she does.”

Carlynn nodded and followed Joelle into the room.

Joelle sat on the edge of Mara’s bed, while Carlynn stood off to one side.

“Mara.” Joelle touched the pale hand where it rested on the covers. “Mara? It’s Joelle, sweetie.”

Mara’s long, dark lashes fluttered open, and she smiled the instant she saw Joelle.

Joelle took a tissue from the box on the nightstand and wiped Mara’s chin with it. “Mara,” she said, “I’d like you to meet a friend of mine, Carlynn Shire.”

Mara didn’t shift her gaze from Joelle until Carlynn moved closer to the bed, stepping into her field of vision. She looked at Carlynn, that vacuous but eternally happy expression on her face. Carlynn had to be taken in by her beauty, Joelle thought, by the remarkable change in Mara’s face once she was awake and alert, if alert was the right word to use. Her black eyes were extraordinary, and even the messy haircut looked stylish on her.

“Hello, Mara.” Carlynn gently lifted one of Mara’s hands.

“Would you rather she be in her wheelchair?” Joelle asked, standing up from the edge of the bed.

“No,” Carlynn spoke to Mara, “let’s leave you in bed, where you’re probably more comfortable.”

Joelle sat in the chair near the night table, while Carlynn rested her cane against the table and took her place on the edge of Mara’s bed.

“My, you’re very beautiful,” Carlynn said. “I’ve spoken with Joelle, and she told me all about you. How deep your friendship is with her. How much she loves you. You are a much-loved person.”

Mara merely blinked her eyes. Joelle was certain she had no understanding of Carlynn’s words.

“Would you like to have a gentle massage of your hands?” Carlynn asked, but Mara’s expression didn’t change.

“I think she would,” Joelle said. “I’ve done that for her sometimes.” She realized as she spoke that it had been a long time since she’d given Mara a massage. She used to rub her all over with moisturizing lotion, and it had made her feel as though she was at least trying to help her friend. Sometime in the past year, she’d given up. Did Liam still do that, massage Mara, touch her that way, with gentleness? She hoped so.

Carlynn reached into her large handbag and brought out a bottle of lotion. Joelle craned her neck to see the label, expecting the lotion to contain special herbal ingredients or at least something out of the ordinary, but it was a plain pink bottle of baby lotion.

Carlynn poured some of the lotion onto her own palm, then gently lifted one of Mara’s limp hands and began a slow, tender massage. Joelle remained quiet, not even watching the two women after a while, just listening as Carlynn spoke to Mara in an even, almost hypnotic, tone.

“This feels so good, doesn’t it, Mara?” Carlynn asked. “Yes, you like the way it feels. You like to be touched with caring, I think. You can tell the difference if someone cares or not. You are very wise that way.”

After a while, Carlynn stopped talking and Joelle looked up to see Mara’s gaze fastened on the older woman. There wasn’t a sound in the room, and Joelle looked at their hands. One of Mara’s hands lay limp in Carlynn’s, but the fingers of her right hand, her so-called “good” hand, were moving against Carlynn’s palm. She was massaging her! Could it possibly be? She didn’t dare stand up to see, but something was happening between Mara and the healer. Something Joelle was not a part of.

Mara’s eyes gradually fell shut and her breathing grew even, but Joelle felt certain that her face lacked the flaccid, droopy look of her usual sleep. Her facial muscles looked merely relaxed rather than limp and wasted.

Carlynn turned to smile at Joelle, then silently replaced the cap on the baby lotion. She was getting up from the bed when Liam walked into the room.

“Joelle!” he said, stopping short. He looked at Carlynn, then back at Joelle. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Of course he hadn’t. She had told him she was leaving work early to go to a doctor’s appointment.

“Liam, this is Carlynn Shire,” she said, motioning toward the older woman, hoping he wouldn’t recognize her name.

“Hello, Carlynn.” He reached out to shake her hand, then frowned. “Are you the Carlynn Shire of the Shire Mind and Body Center?” he asked.