IV

Everybody's high on consolation
Everybody's trying to tell me what is right for me, yeah
My daddy tried to bore me with a sermon
But it's plain to see that they can't comfort me

Sorry, Charlie, for the imposition
I think I got it (got it), I got the strength to carry on, oh yeah
I need a drink and a quick decision
Now it's up to me, ooh, what will be

She's gone, she's gone
Oh I, oh I
I better learn how to face it
She's gone, she's gone
Oh I, oh I
I'd pay the devil to replace her
She's gone, and she's gone
Oh why, what went wrong?

"She's Gone", Hall and Oates

Mrs. Garrett was closing up Edna's Edibles around 8 pm, with Tootie and Natalie assisting her. Edna made sure the two girls, and the other students who worked there, kept a good balance between work and their studies, feeling both were just as important in their own right. It had always been a fun place to work, and her students enjoyed helping her out.

The last customer had been out the door fifteen minutes earlier, with Mrs. Garrett counting the registers, Tootie and Natalie restocking for the next day. It was a typical night for the three of them.

As they busied themselves, there was a knock on the front door. It wasn't unusual for someone to knock, not reading the store hours that were clearly posted. Being the closest one to the door, Mrs. Garrett got it.

"I'm sorry", she began, as she opened the door, "but we're..."

She stopped cold.

Blair was looking at her, as disheveled as Edna had ever seen her: tears streaking down her cheeks, her hair askew, her eyes looking as if...

"Blair, what is it? Come in, honey."

Blair walked in, as if in a trance, barely acknowledging her friend.

Tootie looked over, becoming alarmed at how Blair looked. "Blair, what's happened?"

That got Natalie's attention. Usually, Natalie would start bombarding Blair with questions, but one look at Blair, then over to Mrs. G, and she demurred.

"Mrs...Mrs. Garrett, can we..." Blair's voice was hoarse and broken.

"Natalie, Tootie", Edna commanded, "you two go up to the apartment. I'll call you back down if you're needed."

Both girls silently nodded, both extremely worried about their friend.

When it was clear they were gone, Edna took Blair to the break room in the back and sat her down, getting her a cold bottle of water from out front.

"Blair what's going on?"

"Mrs. Garrett...it's Jo...I..." Blair started to cry again.

"Is Jo sick or hurt, Blair, why...what's happening?"

Blair didn't answer with words, but pulled out the letter that Jo had mailed to her. Blair had been crying for hours, a massive headache pounding at her brain, the life seemingly drained out of the normally effervescent young woman.

She handed it to Mrs. Garrett, who read through it, her face breaking under the emotion of the words Jo had left for Blair. Finally, despite her best efforts, Edna couldn't the tears out of her own eyes. She looked at Blair, despair in both their eyes.

"Oh, Blair..."

The both broke down, sobbing uncontrollably for what seemed like hours, but really was only twenty minutes. Mrs. Garrett couldn't believe what she had read. She could not imagine the pain Jo must have been feeling to do what she had done. It broke the older woman's heart to think one of her girls, that she loved like a daughter had...

"She's gone, Mrs. Garrett", Blair said weakly. "She left Monday, of that I'm certain. She's God knows where by now. Oh, Mrs. Garrett, I've lost my best friend." Again Blair couldn't keep in the pain and sorrow, Edna holding her as tight as she could.

After another long pause, Blair and Mrs. Garrett finally got their emotions under control. "Have you talked to Jo's parents?"

Blair shook her head. "No. I'm afraid I'd say some very un-ladylike things to them if I heard their voices. My God, Mrs. Garrett-they disowned her, and from what she said, her whole neighborhood has done the same. I can't imagine what she's going through."

"What about the other part, Blair", Mrs. Garret said softly. "You can't simply ignore what Jo told you?"

"I know", Blair said, still wiping her eyes. "You know, I never said it to you, or to Jo, or anyone else, but I love Jo with all my heart. I never thought of her in that way, Mrs. Garrett, but to know the pain that was in her heart, living with me all those years, and not being able to tell me? I'm heartbroken over all of this."

"So is Jo, obviously."

They had been downstairs long enough that Tootie and Natalie couldn't take it any longer, so they crept back downstairs, overhearing some of the conversation. Mrs. Garrett was not happy.

"I thought I told the two of you to stay upstairs!" Edna rarely yelled at the girls, but her voice thundered her displeasure. Tootie and Natalie looked stunned.

Blair intervened. "It's Okay, Mrs. Garrett. In fact, can we go up to the apartment. I need to be somewhere a little more relaxing than this."

"What's going on..."

Blair cut Tootie off, but not unkindly. "I'll fill you in when we get upstairs, Tootie. I can't keep this from either of you, but...well, let's just get upstairs."

Once upstairs, Tootie fetched Blair another water, the four of them sitting down at the kitchen table. Blair started to go over what had happened during the week, then produced the letter to Natalie and Tootie. Natalie read first, holding back the anger that was in her eyes, until after Tootie read it. For her part, Tootie simply broke down and cried, Mrs. Garrett moving over to comfort her.

"So Jo ran away", Natalie said with the anger breaking through her voice. "She couldn't ask us for help?"

"Natalie", Blair responded, not letting her own anger show, "put yourself in Jo's shoes. Her whole family turned their backs on her. Not only that, but they were going to deny her the education she's been getting. And she didn't think she could ever...face me..." Blair somehow held it together. "She couldn't take how much it was killing her inside to live with me, with the way she was feeling."

"But why run away?" Tootie was as bewildered as Natalie. "That makes no sense."

"Tootie, oftentimes when someone is dealt a blow like this", Mrs. Garrett explained, "you may not be thinking clearly. What Jo's parents did to her is completely wrong and heartless, imagine how bereft she's feeling now. She felt she had nowhere to turn. She obviously didn't feel she could even tell us. This is something that she's obviously hidden her entire life. It was crushing her."

"What can we do about it?" Natalie was on her feet pacing. "I mean, there has to be something we can do. You aren't just not gonna look for her, are you, Blair?"

"Oh, no, Nat", Blair said with a humorless laugh, "I'm not gonna let Jo disappear on me. I think tomorrow I'll call Daddy, and see if he can get some resources working on finding Jo."

"That will be tomorrow", Mrs. Garrett said, knowing she needed to do something. "Girls, if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I'm going to my bedroom to make a call. I won't be long."

She took her leave, as the three younger woman struggled with the gut-punch that had hit them this day. They were angry at Jo for leaving, that was obvious, but they were also in a fit of rage against Jo's family, and frightened to death about what might be going on with Jo. They knew she was tough, and life in The Bronx had taught her to fend for herself, but the fear in the room was palpable.

Mrs. Garrett was back out in under ten minutes. She had news for the girls.

"I demanded that Rose and Charlie come here immediately. I told them this couldn't wait, and they needed to be here, in person. I also talked to Mrs. Carruthers, the Dean at Langley, asking her for a meeting first thing in the morning."

"Mrs. Carruthers is a wonderful lady", Blair added. "She really admires Jo, and visa-versa. It's going to hit her hard, too, but she has to know."

While Edna and Blair discussed what was going on, Natalie called Mancuso's, and ordered a couple of pizzas for delivery. It was about a fifty-minute drive from The Bronx to Peekskill, and Natalie felt it would be good to have food there-although she wondered if she would simply throw the food at Jo's parents.

It took just over an hour for Rose and Charlie to arrive. Both had a pretty good idea what this would be about, as they were sure Jo had informed her friends of the fight that had taken place the week before. They had thought about bringing Uncle Sal, but thought that would be too overbearing. They were worried about facing their daughter.

After they knocked on the door, Edna opened it up. Edna was angry at them, but she was a good politician as far as it went, when it came to her poker face, and putting out formal niceties.

"Rose, Charlie, won't you please come in?"

"Thank you, Edna", Rose said with some caution, a bit surprised by the mild greeting Mrs. Garrett had given them.

When they arrived in the living room, Blair Warner was there, however, Tootie and Natalie had gone to stay with some of their classmates on the Eastland campus, taking with them their personal belongings, and their school uniform. They would go directly to class from there, and come home that afternoon. Edna had called some other students to fill in for Natalie and Tootie at Edna's Edibles for the next day. She and Blair promised to fill them in the next day.

"Blair", Charlie said as lightly as he could. He and Blair had always gotten along better than Blair and Rose. Blair now knew why. Her mother must have instinctively seen how Jo felt about Blair. "It's been a while."

"Charlie", Blair said with a coldness in her voice that even Edna had never heard. "Rose."

"Please, have a seat, the both of you." The pizza was laid out, as well as some Pepsi, Edna inviting them to eat if they liked. It wasn't surprising that the pizza didn't get touched during this visit.

"So, it's nice to see both of you, but why isn't Jo here? I'm assuming it's about her?"

"Oh, that's an understatement, Rose", Edna said with a coldness of her own.

Blair didn't say a word as she slid the letter that Jo had mailed her, across the coffee table in the room, her eyes never leaving Rose's, filled with an anger that almost frightened the older woman. Looking up at Blair and Edna before reading it, she then scanned the missive.

Her face grew in abject horror, reading what her daughter had written to Blair in the devastating letter. She glanced at Charlie after was done, the man physically going pale upon reading the contents of the letter.

"My Jo", Rose whispered. "Where are you?" She didn't realize she had said the words out loud. Blair let loose at that moment.

"Your Jo?" Blair stood, never feeling more angry in her entire life. "How dare you call her 'your Jo' after throwing her under the bus, Rose! How dare you!"

"Now, you listen here, Warner", Charlie began, himself standing, protecting his ex-wife, "you're one of the reasons all this is happening!"

Blair took a step toward him, Rose grabbing Charlie so he didn't move. "Me? How am I responsible for any of this? I didn't even know Jo had those feelings for me." She picked up the letter, flourishing it in front of Charlie. "This is how I found out. And I'm not the one who fucking disowned her simply because she was being honest with you and herself."

"Blair!" Mrs. Garrett thundered at the younger woman.

"Not this time, Mrs. Garrett", Blair said, rage filling her voice. "These two ran their own daughter off, for the sole reason that she looks at women, not men! They're stopping her education, and forswearing her-and the whole fucking Bronx already knows about it! Good God, what possessed you to treat your own flesh and blood like this?"

"She was living a life of sin, Blair Warner", Rose said, herself standing up, defending her action. "She could have just ignored what she feels for you or other women, and..."

That was the wrong thing to say to Blair.

"She did ignore it, Rose, for most of her life. All it got her was her family turning on her, and losing her friend Gloria years ago because of your intolerance! Don't you see that? You drove her to this, not me, and not her sexual orientation."

"Blair, please", Edna said, trying to calm the younger woman.

It was as if no one heard her.

"I cannot tolerate my daughter living a life of sin, against the teachings of The Church. Father Kowolski said that..."

Blair cut her off again. "So you're siding with the doctrine written by a bunch of stuffy males over a thousand years ago, and an old fuddy-duddy priest, who probably has his own sexual hangups, over your daughter? And then you allow the entire Bronx in on it, so they'll back you, and ostracize Jo even more?" Blair threw her hands up in disbelief.

"That's not fair, Warner", Charlie said, his face turning redder by the minute. "You don't have to live with the fallout from having a daughter that is a dyke. We have to put up with it now, every day!"

Even Rose gasped at Charlie's words. Blair took another small, menacing step toward the larger man. "That's what this is all about, isn't it?" She glared at Jo's parents. "Isn't it!" Neither one could answer, or even look at Blair at the moment. "You're no different than my mother, you know that? She's more worried about who I date and marry than about if it would make me happy. She's worried more about how she looks, and how her friends treat her if I were dare to date someone she doesn't approve of. You've done the same thing. Not only did you have the nerve to humiliate her simply because she's interested in women, you then let everyone know about it, so you could act like the aggrieved party.

"And now, your daughter...my best friend, whom I love with all my heart." Blair stopped, bringing a hand to her mouth, her tears letting loose. "Now Jo is God knows where, never wanting to return. How dare you act like you're the victims here."

Blair turned away, then sitting down, no able to look at the two people in the room with herself and Mrs. Garrett. She wanted to be sick at what they had done.

After a few minutes, Rose spoke. "So...you have no idea where Jo is, either of you?"

"None", Edna said with a finality. "Not the first clue, Rose. She's been gone a week. She could be anywhere by now."

"Joey's smart", Blair added, with some fondness. "If she doesn't want to be found, there's a good chance she won't be. But I'm not going to do what she asked of in that letter. I'm gonna try and get my father to bring his company's considerable assets to look for her."

Charlie was going to protest, but thought better of it. "She cleaned out the emergency fund we set up for hear when she started at Eastland. There was quite a bit of doe in that account. She is smart-she won't use credit cards to stay at a hotel, or wherever she's going. She's gone dark."

The finality of the statement hit Blair with the effect of a baseball bat to her stomach. She literally doubled over, the tears still streaming down her face. "I'm frightened to death for her, Mrs. Garrett", she said, ignoring the other two, and looking at her surrogate mother. "I'm afraid we'll never hear from her again. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to the guest room."

Blair left without another glance at the other adults, the Polniaczek's resuming their seats.

After a few minutes of silence, Edna spoke up. "I would think, as her parents, that you'd want to file a Missing Person report with either the Peekskill police, and even the NYPD", she said with some firmness. She's now been missing for over a week. "And I guarantee you, David Warner will accede to his daughter's request." Edna paused to let that sink in. "I'm also meeting tomorrow morning with Dean of Langley, Mrs. Carruthers. You are welcome to go with me in the morning. But that's your choice."

Edna got out of her chair, needing to reduce some of the tension. She turned back to Jo's parents. "None of us are perfect, God knows, but what the two of you have done to your daughter...it's inexcusable for any parent to abandon their child like that." Rose started to speak, but Edna stopped her with angry eyes. "I don't care what 'sin' they've committed. As parents, the love we have for our children should be unconditional. I can't tell you how...angry...I am at what you've driven your daughter to do."

Edna looked at them hard again. "The meeting with the Dean is at 11 am tomorrow morning. As I said, you're welcome to be there. I'm going to try and salvage Jo's stay at Langley. I owe it to her to try. But for now, I'd ask you to kindly leave my home."

Rose and Charlie didn't say a word as they stood up, Edna turning away from them, not trusting herself with saying anything further. The two looked at each other, then sadly left.