Chapter 22: The Lawn Again

The next vigil's planning night was held on the courthouse lawn in Ponca City, at dusk, where the stage was still up from October.

Three hundred people came.

They came because I asked them to, and because Levi's mother had made the calls.

Now she stood beside me on the stage at the microphone, in her good coat, and all three hundred of them watched.

I had not told Garner I wouldn't come alone.

I had only told him where.

The folding chairs were full.

Cassidy stood at the foot of the stage in a green sweater, with her arms crossed over her chest.

Levi was in the third row with two men in plain jackets on either side of him.

There was a man in a green cap somewhere in the dark.

I knew he was there.

"My name is Hallie Shiflett," I said into the microphone. "I was born Rosalie Fisk. Two weeks ago I stood here and said I was the child."

The hush deepened.

"I'm going to say one more thing about the child. She had a license plate in her head for twenty years because nobody asked her anything else."

I took a breath.

"Texas plate, K, L, W, seven, four, two, one. White van, green cap on the driver."

Nobody moved.

I looked past the lights at the long path between the rows of chairs.

"Garner," I said. "I'm here. You wanted me on the lawn. Come and get me."

For a moment I heard only the flag rope tapping the pole.

Then, at the back, under the dead streetlamp, a man in a green cap stood up.

He walked slowly down the center aisle.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Daughter They Abandoned Twice from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.