Russell's Return (6 page)

“You too Russell,” Emily smiled.

Her voice made his heart skip what
seemed like a hundred beats and his hands shook the whole time he was setting
out the dishes for their mini-feast. Russell worked diligently to get all of
their food put out and the two plates filled with fried chicken, his mom’s
famous potato salad, and garden fresh veggies and baked beans.

“Mind if I join you after all?”

Russell’s heart was doing that strange
skipping thing again as he looked up into her eyes. He quickly looked away so
she couldn’t work her evil magic on him again.

“My mother got called to the
hospital.  There was a pretty bad accident on I-90 and they are taking
patients to all hospitals within a fifty mile radius.”

Russell nodded. “Yeah, I’m not
surprised, my brother Dylan is stuck behind that accident.” His emotions were
involved in a tug of war. Should he say no, should he say yes? In the end,
politeness won out. “Please, sit down.” He moved over so Emily could sit
between him and Miranda. He couldn’t very well have said no, he wasn’t raised
that way. This definitely wasn’t going to be his idea of fun though, it was
more like extreme torture. But he knew this development had just made his
daughter one really happy little girl. “That is if you think you can handle us.
We’re pretty loud some times.” Russell smiled, resigned to his fate, as Emily
laughed quietly.

“Can I help you get your food out of
your basket, Miss Emily?” Miranda asked politely.

“I would love it, sweetie.”

Miranda dug into the basket and pulled
everything out so Emily could make herself a plate.

Russell laughed. “Great minds think
alike.” Their mothers had packed the same things for them except for dessert.
Emily had her mother’s famous chocolate chip cookies, and Russell and Miranda
had his mother’s famous apple pie. Plus there were plenty of Logan’s donuts to
share.

With everyone’s plate filled, they all dug
into their food, talking about everyday things like school, work and even the
old standard - weather. Especially with steady snowfalls just around the
corner. But mostly the tasty homemade food was the star of the show. Any silent
moments were filled with enjoying the good food and were far from
uncomfortable.

Russell and Emily were cleaning up after
lunch, when they received a visitor. “Hello everyone.” Miranda’s teacher Mrs.
Platski
appeared before them. “Russell would you mind if
Miranda came with my daughter and I over to the Carnival?  The girls would
have a great time together.”

“Can I Daddy?” Miranda asked excitedly,
which was highly unusual, she always shied away from leaving his side. She must
really like Mrs.
Platski
.

“Uh, yeah, I guess so
darlin
’, go ahead. Here, take this.” He pulled some money
out of his wallet and gave it to her. “Don’t lose it”

“Yay.” The little girl jumped up and
walked toward the carnival with her teacher. “Bye Daddy!  Bye Miss Emily!”
she hollered over her shoulder.

Russell let out a breath he’d been
holding for way too long. He found himself gasping for breath.

“You worry about her a lot when she’s
not with you, don’t you?” Emily’s voice was sympathetic.

“Yeah, I just can’t help it.” He looked
toward the mountains that still had a slight white stain of snow from the
surprise storm. “What if she has a tantrum and no one knows how to calm her
down? Oh hell, I even worry when she’s with my mother, or even now when she’s
with her teacher, someone who knows what she can be like.” He ran his hands
through his dark hair in a gesture of frustration.

“It will be fine Russell,” Emily
comforted, reaching over to take his hand. Her hypnotic powers must have been
at work because he suddenly felt better. Not one hundred percent, but much
better, anyway.

He laid back on his elbows and crossed
his legs. “I know she’ll be okay but…” he shrugged his shoulders and glanced
toward the carnival. Quiet stretched on though not completely uncomfortable. He
was suddenly at a loss for words. Without Miranda there he didn’t know how to
keep the conversation going. Plus the heat of Emily’s body and her sweet
vanilla scent mixed together to scramble his mind.  He really felt like
he’d been going through a second turn as a teenager the last week or so. But
finally he thought of something to say, he just hoped it would make her laugh
so he could hear that sweet sound again. “Here I am making you talk about your
students again.  I’m so sorry I keep being so rude.”

Emily laughed and smiled at him. 
“I accept your apology. But you know, I really don’t mind talking with you
about Miranda. She is a wonderful little girl. If you need to talk to someone
about what you go through with her, you can always come to me. As a friend, not
a counselor.” Russell nodded his thanks and smiled at Emily. He suddenly felt
an almost overwhelming need to change the subject.

“You know, the other day you said you
would tell me about your reasons for coming back to Harper’s Rock. And well,
here we are, together with no one else around.”

“Ah, so you have a good memory. I was
kind of hoping you didn’t.” Emily looked down at her hands.

“I’m sorry, you don’t have to tell me if
you don’t want to,” he said, concerned that he was making her uncomfortable.

Emily smiled. “No that’s okay, I’ll tell
you.  It really does help to talk about it sometimes. But remember this
isn’t a long and boring story.  It is quite short and quite tragic,” she
practically whispered.

He sat up quickly to give her his full
attention. “That bad, huh?”

Emily just nodded and took a deep
breath. 

“Remember, you don’t have to,” he
reminded her, but his eyes begged to hear it.

“I know, but I really should talk about
it more often.  It’s good for the psyche,” she smiled.

The sadness he’d caught glimpses of
before was overwhelming this time. “Well then, whenever you’re ready, I would
love to hear your story. You know, to compare notes.”

Her smile brightened a bit, remembering
she’d said almost the same thing to him. Emily took a deep breath and started
“Well, as I told you before, I went to college in Seattle. It was a dream come
true.”

Russell saw just happiness in her eyes
for a moment and then it was gone. “Kind of like how I felt when I moved to
Denver and even more so when I moved to Vegas probably.”

“Probably,” Emily agreed. “Anyway, after
college, I couldn’t imagine coming back here. I was having a wonderful time in
the big city after growing up so sheltered here in Harper’s Rock.”

“Single in the big city. Ah, fun times,”
he said reminiscing about his own college days.

She laughed her magical laugh and it
affected him more than usual this time.  Maybe because he was becoming
more in tune with the deep-rooted pain she was going to tell him about.

“Well, because of the inheritance that
my grandfather left me, I was able to start up my own counseling practice after
working in a clinic for only a year.  I was over the moon with happiness,
yet another dream come true.”  She paused, seeming in no hurry to continue
so Russell didn’t push her even though he was dying to hear more.

“I was building up a great clientele. I
saw individual kids, kids with siblings and parents, and I had a social skills
group, kind of like the one Miranda is in at school. It was everything I’d ever
wanted to do with my career.”  A bitter laugh escaped from between her
lips and she was momentarily embarrassed by it. “And then all my dreams came
crashing down.”  She paused again as if contemplating exactly how to say
the painful part to make it a bit less painful, if possible. Her voice lowered
when she continued. “I was going to take the kids to the museum of natural
history. We decided to meet at a local restaurant. I was running a bit late
because my alarm clock had picked that morning to go kaput.”  She shook
her head. “It was a miracle for me, but not so much for other’s that day. 
While the kids and their parents were waiting for me at that restaurant, a
young man who’d been fired as a cook the day before, took a gun he stole and
decided to get revenge on the restaurant owner.  The owner survived. Three
of my seven kids died and two of the parents did too.”

Russell reached over and took her hand.
“It wasn’t your fault, you know.”

Emily turned to look at him.  “I
know that deep down inside, but I still can’t stop myself from feeling like I’m
to blame sometimes.” Her eyes were filled with tears that she was holding back.

“It’ll take time and then every part of
you will realize it,” Russell put in.

“Hey buster, who’s the counselor here,”
she laughed, wiping a lone tear from her cheek. She was a bit embarrassed that
her emotions always got so out of control. Right now though, Russell was with
her and for some bizarre reason that seemed to help. She couldn’t quite figure
that one out, after all she hardly knew him.

Russell laughed along with Emily. He
could feel that part of her burden had been taken off of her shoulders, and he
knew a little bit more would be taken off every time she could bring herself to
talk about her tragedy.

“So, the pain was just so bad that you couldn’t
stand to stay there anymore?” he asked curious to have her finish explaining
her reasons for coming home.

“No, that wasn’t it.” She chose her
words carefully. “I didn’t just blame myself. I blamed the city.  This kid
who took all those innocent lives had been a product of the city.  Street
kid, drugs, guns, violence at every turn.”  Emily’s smile now was bitter
and not genuine at all. “I loved every one of those kids.  They had so
much potential, they were responding to the therapy, they were going to be
okay.  Now the ones that survived are scarred, and two kids are now
missing a parent which doesn’t help them heal their problems at all.  I
just couldn’t be a part of that anymore. I needed safety and a society that
still teaches kids values. I needed to be someplace where I felt safe. 
So, I sold my practice, took some classes to become a school counselor and here
I am - starting over and finally becoming happy.”

“Small towns can be dangerous too. 
It isn’t only big cities,” he pointed out to her. Russell hated to think she
might be living with a false sense of security.

Emily smiled brightly at him. “I know
that. It could happen anywhere, but in my mind, it is less likely to happen
here.  And if it does, at least I have friends and family to help me deal
with it. I have this wonderful community that would pull together to survive
something like that. You know after two or three days, I didn’t hear another
word about the incident.  It seemed Seattle was happy to go on about its
business and not help these families heal.  It just seemed wrong to me.”

Russell smiled at her. “You know, as
much as small town life seems to stifle me, I can’t seem to argue with you
there. This town would pull together and they would come out better for it.”
Until now, Russell never realized that a sense of community was just as
important as his ambition to be obscenely successful. He couldn’t ever remember
having a sense of community anywhere but here in Harper’s Rock. His world was
tilting on its axis and he felt it down to his toes.

“Are you okay, Russell?” Emily laid her
hand on his bicep in a gesture of comfort. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost
or something.”

“I don’t know, I just had some sort of
epiphany or something I think. Maybe it will become clearer over time.  I
just know that I am starting to think that I might just be able to be happy
here in Harper’s Rock.”

“Good, that makes two of us!” Emily
looped her arm through his and they sat like that for a while as the world
buzzed around them.  Carnival music played, people chatted, animals from
the petting zoo made their various calls.

Russell felt the sudden, crazy urge to
kiss the beautiful woman beside him, again. Only this time, he didn’t have an
almost stronger urge to stop himself.  “Would you consider me a jerk if I
said I wanted to kiss you, you know, so soon after you bared your soul like
that?”

Emily smiled that magical smile at him.
“No. I really wish you
would
kiss me because I think I want it as much
as you do.”  Her eyes glazed over with longing and her lips parted ever so
slightly. That was it for Russell’s control. He leaned close and took her face
in his hands, gently kissing her soft, welcoming lips. She returned the kiss
just as gently. Russell absently caressed her right hip, comforting both of
them.

Soon, he was for once grateful that
Miranda was such a loud child. He and Emily both heard the little girl from
quite a distance. They quickly jumped apart before she could catch them
kissing.  As much as Russell wanted the contact with Emily, he was pretty
sure they both wanted to spare Miranda any of the emotion that would go along
with seeing them together like that. They looked at each other and burst out
laughing, laying back on the blanket to catch their breath, not knowing if it
was from the laughter or the kiss.

“Hey kiddo, how was the carnival?”
Russell asked his daughter who was leaning over him with a concerned look on
her face.