Family Ties (32 page)

“I made a couple of decisions on the flight.”

“Now don’t be rash Ida.” Pops leaned forward to take her hand. “You promised you wouldn’t jump to any decisions.”

“For the first time in my entire life I can see how my willfulness caused so much pain for the rest of you.” She looked at Pops. “Especially you Jim. The finest, sweetest man I know. One who deserved more than being dragged into this mess.”

“I bear my own share of the blame.” He held her hand, patting it gently as he spoke to her in a soft, gentle voice.

“Only because you love me.” She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I need to put this to rights. I am going to Seattle from here and turn myself in.”

“You will not.” Gray had been afraid it would come to this. His mother was, in her own way, an honest woman. “Confessing won’t help Ma. And it will only cause more pain for all of us.”

She looked at him, her eyes bleak and nearly dead. “It will set things right.”

“Things are already set as right as they can be. I went to the church and the minister knew my parents. We met them and spent almost a week with them.”

“Do they know?” She looked away. “The truth, I mean.”

“No.” He shook his head.

“I didn’t tell them much about my life after ... after I left Seattle. Only that you’d been kind, loving parents who’d taken good care of me.”

His mother’s breath hitched.

“I let them believe the Mills’ were my adoptive parents.” He took a deep breath. “I haven’t figured out how you got a birth certificate.”

She looked at Pops.

“That’s my part of the story, Gray.” His dad sat up straighter. “I used to moonlight doing taxes in the spring. In one part of my business you meet a lot of different people.” He took Ida’s hand into his lap, smoothed it on his bony thigh. “Paper work hadn’t mattered until you were going to start school. Then we panicked. We had to produce a birth certificate to start you in the system.”

“I thought for sure we were going to jail.”

“See, we decided to home-school you for the first year, so you could get used to us and to being our son.”

“That’s not the complete truth,” his mother interrupted. “I couldn’t let you out of my sight, so I home-schooled you until Jim convinced me you needed to have friends and peers. He understood what I didn’t.”

“Anyway,” Pops continued, “I remembered a lawyer who seemed to walk on the edge of things, so I felt him out. Apparently a phony birth certificate is no harder to get than the real McCoy. Coupled with American adoption papers, no one would dare ask anything. It only took him a couple of weeks and we had the paperwork to prove you were ours.”

“Weren’t you worried about somebody checking?”

“He said it wasn’t an issue. After a few years we stopped worrying. Nobody ever asked any questions.”

“And what about my name? It’s unusual. Does it have any significance?”

Jim looked to Ida. “I think he needs to hear this from you.”

“A couple of times, at church, I’d spoken to your mother. Usually about you. You were always so intent. So focused.” She twisted her fingers around her tissue.

“This one day I noticed you’d sat with your head down all during the service, so I asked your mother about it. She smiled and told me you were trying to learn to print your name and were having a hard time with the letter ‘G’.”

She looked down at her lap, tidied the pile of tissue. “When we got home, I couldn’t bear to let all your work go to waste. Still, I didn’t want you to remember them, so I decided to give you a name beginning with ‘G’, but a different one from the ones in your family.”

Gray watched her. Noticed her hand shaking. “What did you tell me about them?”

For the first time in his life, Ida Mills cried at something he said. “I told you they’d given you to us, since they had too many children.”

The room went totally silent, except for the sounds from the children playing in the back yard.

She stared at her lap, then took off her glasses and cleaned them. “It was a big lie. Nobody can have too many children, Gray. Not ever.”

“Which is why I suppressed the memories of them.” He shook his head. “I don’t remember those words, Ma. They worked for the good, since you planned on keeping me.”

He took a deep breath. Exhaled slowly. “Other than those questions, I’d filled in the details, from what Pops said when he came here. I’m not saying it was right, and I’m not saying I can forgive you for it. But some part of me understands.”

He ran his thumb over Andie’s knuckles. “It would be like seeing loving couples everywhere around you and knowing you can never have the chance, unless you take a seemingly miraculous opportunity.”

Gray looked down, then lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. “Andie has helped me understand more about love and wanting things than I knew I needed to learn.” He smiled at her. “And she’s taught me about families.”

A loud bang came from the kitchen. “Especially about families. So I don’t want to hear anymore about turning yourself in. It’s done. The truth is out and I’m dealing with it.” He gave his mother a hard look.

“I learned some truths in Seattle. Even though I missed a lot, things could have been a lot worse for me. I always knew you and Pops loved me. You gave me a good home, which is a lot more than some kids with their own families have.” He shuddered remembering Sean’s intentions for Bonnie.

“Will you ever be able to forgive me?”

“Truthfully? I don’t know yet. I’m over the anger and the drama. I have some work of my own to do. Whatever happens, it’s going to take some time.”

She wrung her hands together, pulling the loose skin of old age. When had she become so old? In his mind, Ida Mills was the active strong woman of his childhood, not this frail senior citizen.

***

Gray had finally agreed to take a pain pill and he’d fallen asleep in her bed. It had been a long day, probably because of the high emotion, all of which had impacted on the children’s behavior.

His parents hadn’t stayed long. His mother agreed to return to Vancouver. She remained willing to make the trip to Seattle and talk to the police, or to Gray’s family or whomever he’d deemed necessary, now or in the future.

Andie’s heart nearly burst with pride. He’d handled the situation better than she could have. There were no simple solutions, although retribution wouldn’t help anyone. The Mills were his parents, for all intents and purposes. Ida’s method couldn’t be condoned but punishment wouldn’t change anything.

As she stacked the dishes in the dishwasher, the front bell rang. Wiping her hand on a towel, she went to answer the door, thinking the bell had rang more today than it had in the past month.

She pulled open the door and found another older woman standing on the step, holding a sheaf of papers. Apparently all their problems weren’t over yet. One of her neighbors wanted to give her the results of the petition.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the screen. “Can I help you?”

“Are you Ms. Bowen? The mother of all these lovely children?”

“I am.”

“I’m Mrs. Kapinski, from the corner house over there.” She indicated the house on the near end of the block. “I wondered if we could talk for a minute. It won’t take long.”

She seemed uncomfortable on the step and Andie had been raised to be polite, so she pushed the door wider. “Come in. You’ve caught me in the middle of some work,” she lifted the tea towel, “so I don’t have much time.”

“I’m amazed you’ll see me at all,” she said, stepping briskly into the hall, “After all the problems that husband of mine has tried to cause you.”

She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know what gets into his head sometimes – especially when I’m not here to keep an eye on him.” She leaned toward Andie. “My sister Vera, up in Edmonton, had a stroke, so I went up there to lend a hand and keep an eye on her. Well you know how those things go and before I knew it a couple of months had passed.”

She shook her head. “Normally I don’t leave Mr. Kapinski alone for long. He doesn’t take care of himself very well. But our neighbor on the far side promised to make sure he ate and the kids dropped by, so I stayed in Edmonton.”

“How is your sister?” Andie asked, not sure where all this was heading.

“Oh she’s fine.” Mrs. Kapinski waved her hand. “We’re a strong bunch. She’s home from the hospital and doing the exercises from physio and she’ll have a full recovery, mark my words.”

“I’m glad.”

“Anyway, that’s not why I came over. When I arrived home last night, Harold was already in bed, so I didn’t wake him. This morning I found these papers lying on the table.” She flashed the petition in front of Andie. “I couldn’t believe what he’d done. Fortunately our neighbors have more sense than he’s shown. Foolish old man.”

She handed the papers to Andie. “I wanted you to have these, so you’d know they hadn’t gone anywhere. Most folks around here know Harold’s bark is worse than his bite. He’s a crusty old thing, but I’ve put up with him all my life and I’d be lost without him. Fortunately, he doesn’t usually try to make trouble like this.”

Andie looked at the top page. Flipped up some others.

“These are all blank.”

“Of course they are. The neighbors have more sense than to get involved in anything Harold starts. He’s a good man but he has some funny ideas at times. Especially since he’s gotten older.”

Surprise and amazement mixed with delight for Andie.

Her neighbor looked back across the street. “I think he probably watched something on the television and got mixed up, Ms. Bowen. He doesn’t mean any harm. His mind isn’t as clear as it used to be. He’s always had high standards so it’s hard for us sometimes.”

“I see.”

She sighed. “I guess that’s why the words say ‘in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part’. I figure the good Lord had an idea about how foolish some old people could become.”

“I hadn’t thought of it in those terms before.”

“Anyway, the words are neither here nor there. I didn’t want you to fuss any more than you had over this nonsense. I apologize for the poor welcome to the neighborhood. I hope you won’t hold it against us for too long.”

“I won’t. Not at all.” Andie dropped the papers on the hall table and took the older woman’s hands in hers. “Thank you for bringing these to me. I can’t tell you how much it means.” She couldn’t keep her pleasure out of her voice. “Please thank Mr. Kapinski. His call to the police might have saved Gray’s life.

“I’ll do that.” The older woman shook her head. “I can’t imagine what the neighbors thought when the old coot went knocking on doors.” She reached for the screen door. “Anyway, all’s well that ends well I always say.” She stepped outside.

Still in shock, Andie could only manage to hold the door for her neighbor. “If you’ve ever got a minute, you’re welcome to come over for coffee. Harold’s not a bad sort once you get to know him. And he’ll be on his best behavior for awhile now.”

“I will. Come over, I mean. I’d like to.”

“Good.”

An hour later, Andie was relating the tale to Gray. “She stopped at the door and very nonchalantly told me to take good care of my young man.”

Gray chuckled as Andie imitated the woman’s bird like voice.

“Then she left, but at the bottom of the stairs, she turned to me and said, ‘Amazing the kind of riff raff who can burst into a neighborhood, isn’t it? Almost as if we’re not safe in our homes anymore.’

“She said the cops have him where he belongs, then went down the walkway and threw a wave behind her. She reminded me not to forget about coffee, crossed the street and went home.”

“So the petition was one old man’s idea because he misunderstood something he saw on television?”

When Andie nodded, Gray broke into guffaws. “He’s lucky the police didn’t take him downtown for questioning.”

Gray took her hand and pulled her down on the bed, beside him. “It looks as if most of our problems are solved.”

She nodded, but he could feel her tense against him. Had she changed her mind? Was the situation with his families too bizarre for her to handle?

“I won’t get the pool fenced or filled for awhile.”

“I kind of figured as much.”

“And the basement isn’t finished yet.”

“It couldn’t be. You’ve been over here protecting us.”

“It won’t take long to finish and put the house on the market.”

He held on tight when she tried to jerk away from him, almost in a pain reflex. She’d been the one constant in all this turmoil. She’d kept her sense of humor and her perspective and he wasn’t letting her go. Not now, not ever. And she could just adapt.

“So I wondered, should we fix up this place or buy someplace different?”

“What?” She rose up on one elbow to look at him.

“This house. It’s big enough for all of us, but a little more space wouldn’t hurt. We could add on to the back after we sell my place or we could buy someplace else.”

“Are you talking about us? Together?” She sounded surprised.

“Of course I am. It’s all settled. I know I haven’t bought you a ring, but I have been a little preoccupied.”