Salvaged (25 page)

She looked over at Melody's grave for several moments before
I placed my hands on either side of her face and turned her back to
me. "Gosh, I wish you could see yourself the way I see you, the way
my parents and your friends do. If you knew how special you really
are, there's no way you'd ever doubt why you survived."

Tears filled her eyes again.

"Other than my Gramps, you're the nicest person I've ever
known."

"I'm not saying all this to be nice; I'm saying it because it's true."

Gently pulling her head my direction as I leaned toward her, I
bent over and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'm gonna visit your mom's grave." I stood up, collected my
supplies, and handed her some flowers.

"Come meet me when you're ready."

Walking up to Mrs. Reed's headstone, I took out another clean
piece of paper and made a rubbing of the granite.

After several minutes, noticing Attie standing a few feet away, I
collected my supplies again. Walking up to her, I handed her the
remaining flowers and noticed her face was wet with tears.

"I'll wait in the car."

She wrung her hands. "Won't you stay with me?"

I kissed her on the forehead. "No, Charlie, you need to do this
alone."

I made my way to the car, put my supplies into the backseat, and
then sat on the bumper waiting for Attie. My heart ached for her,
and I prayed that the time spent at her mother's grave wouldn't be
too painful for her to bear.

When she still hadn't returned after more than half an hour, I
went to check on her and found her sitting on the ground with her
cheek pressed to her mother's headstone. She'd curled in a ball as if
she tried to crawl into her mother's lap. My heart broke.

"I miss her," she whispered as she heard me approach.

I sat down next to her. "I know."

Slowly, she reached out her hand, wrapped her pinkie around
mine, and gave me a small smile. "Thank you for this and for being
so good to me."

"You're welcome."

She closed her eyes and we sat, pinkies entwined and without
speaking, until she was ready to leave.

When we stood to go, she leaned over and placed the flowers in front of the headstone. "Good-bye, Mom," she whispered. "I'll be
back soon."

Visiting Mrs. Reed and Melody's graves had obviously been an
emotionally draining experience for Attie. As soon as she climbed
into the car, she laid back in her seat and didn't speak until we were
walking through our front door.

"What are you going to do with the rubbings?" she asked.

"Follow me."

I led her into her room and removed one of the empty frames
from the wall.

Hearing her make a light gasping noise, I turned to face her. "Is
this all right?"

She nodded her head and smiled. "It's perfect."

Walking to the wall she removed another empty frame. We
placed the charcoal rubbings into their new homes and placed them
back onto the wall before standing back to admire our work.

"I don't know, Riley; the wall is still missing something."

"What?"

"It needs a picture of the two of us."

"Funny you should say that." Giving her a grin, I reached into
my sketchbook and pulled out a picture I'd drawn after getting home
and waiting for her to wake up that morning.

"It's us!" She grabbed it out of my hands. "And it's perfect."

"I love it," I admitted. Of course it was the picture I'd been
imagining in my mind for months. "Tammy took the picture with
my phone yesterday."

She smiled at it and then turned her attention to the wall and
back to the picture in her hands. She glanced back and forth several
times before looking at me with a shocked expression on her face.

"Charlie, what's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"What is it?"

"I just remembered what made my dad and I laugh when we
were getting our picture taken."

The mystery was about to reveal itself, and I couldn't wait to
hear. "What?"

"The photographer told my dad to take a good, long look at me."

"Why?"

"Because before long I would no longer have eyes for my dad;
only a special boy would grab my attention."

(Attie)

I made my way into the vet clinic ready to get to work and put
yesterday behind me. Finally the anniversary passed, and I'd survived
what I'd feared would be my worst day since the accident.

The Bennetts kept it a very low profile evening. Marme made
chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and cream gravy, which
were my favorites, and we finished the night watching Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. It was Molly Ringwald night, and it felt
good to see high school life through the eyes of someone different
for a change.

If Riley and I had believed the nightmares would leave after
visiting the graves, we'd thought wrong. Only a few hours after we
fell asleep, the monsters came out of hiding.

"Gramps, I'm here!"

"Great, Atticus. I'm in the back."

I stopped by the reception desk to put my purse in the file cabinet and realized that I heard another voice. I listened carefully.

It was a male voice, and it sounded somewhat familiar, but I
couldn't place it.

I grabbed Baby's sling off the back of my chair and headed
toward the back.

"See here? Notice the very limited range of motion... "

There stood Cooper Truman; he wore a white lab coat and stood
next to my Gramps as he worked on a Schnauzer.

As the boy noticed my arrival, a large smile formed across his
face, revealing his annoyingly white teeth. They practically blinded
me. "Hello, Attie!"

Frustrated by his presence, I asked the obvious question. "What
are you doing here?"

"Surprise, I'm working here now-or volunteering."

I'm certain that my jaw dropped. "Pardon?" Surely I hadn't heard
him correctly. God wouldn't play such a cruel practical joke on a
poor soul like myself. Would he?

I looked at Gramps hoping that he would clarify the situation,
but he just smiled.

"Well," Cooper said, "I took the liberty of calling your dad in
Ithaca to let him know that I would be coming back to Cornell in
the fall and I'm studying vet med. We got to talking, and he gave me
all kinds of great information, just like you said he would."

"You called my dad? In New York?"

"Yeah, our dads know each other, so I figured why not?" He gave
a shrug and waited for me to respond, but seeing as how I couldn't
speak due to a case of complete shock, he continued talking without
missing a beat. "While we were on the phone, he mentioned your
Gramps here. Your dad said he'd give Doc a call and talk to him
about letting me intern this summer."

"You talked to my dad? I haven't even talked to my dad," I
whispered.

"Isn't it mind-blowing?"

"You'll be working here all summer?"

"Tuesdays and Thursdays." An obnoxious, large grin spread
across his face. "So, Attie, we'll be seeing a lot of each other this
summer. Isn't that great?"

"Wonderful," I lied and faked a little enthusiasm.

"I'm totally stoked about it." He was practically giddy. "This is
going to be awesome!"

"Yes, it certainly will be," I lied again.

"Yeah, Princess," Gramps finally spoke, "I figured with your
counselin' sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays takin' up part of the mornin's that those might be the best days for Cooper to help out
`round here."

Was I mistaken or had my grandfather told a complete stranger
that I was in counseling?

"So you don't need me on Tuesdays and Thursdays then?"

"Yeah, I still need you, Atticus. We'll just have an extra set of
hands to help us out. Cooper'll be here more to watch and learn than
anything."

"Oh great." I headed over to Baby's cage. Peeking in, I saw her
sitting in the corner.

"Hey, Baby."

She immediately responded to my voice and limped toward me.
I took her out and put her in the sling. "How'd she do this weekend,
Gramps?"

"She missed you, but she did get a little better. She's a wee bit
more lively."

"Are you doing better, Baby?" I asked while kissing her on the
head. "That's my girl."

"Is that your dog?" Cooper asked.

"Sort of, I guess. I've kind of taken her in."

He smiled at me again. "She's very cute. I can see that she likes
you.

"Atticus, could you answer that phone?"

"Sure, Gramps."

I made my way to the reception desk relieved that I was escaping to the front and away from Cooper.

After answering the phone and setting an appointment for
someone, I frantically searched in my purse for my phone.

I typed in Tammy's number and a message: "OMG! UR gunA
di! Cooper Truman is at my wrk 2day."

I waited for her to reply, and within seconds my phone vibrated:
"W@d?"

My fingers frantically typed: "He's wurkn hre now. Tues/Thur.
UGH."

The phone vibrated again: "Gt ot! Lnch 2day? Gtta get scoop!"

Of course: "Yes! 11:45?"

She replied immediately: "Pik ii A"

I rolled the chair over so that I could peek down the hall at
Gramps and Cooper. Under the white coat he wore a baby blue
shirt, which made his blue eyes sparkle, his tan appear darker, and his
teeth whiter. Surely he had to bleach his teeth every night; nobody
got teeth that white naturally.

His jeans were stonewashed just the right amount, and his shoes
were the latest in fashion-well, I assumed so; I really had no idea
what the latest fashion was.

As Cooper watched Gramps work on the pooch, I thought back
to the conversation we had at the pool party. He was tired of horses,
so I guess he found dogs a change of pace.

My vibrating phone startled me and caused Cooper to look in
my direction. He caught me watching them and smiled up at me.

"Everything okay back there?" I asked so it wouldn't look like I
was checking him out.

"It's great," he said proudly.

"Wonderful," I lied again and then rolled back to the desk to get
my phone: "Anne n Tess cmng 2 Inch 2, K? Writ scoop!"

"Hey, Attie."

Cooper's voice startled me, and I dropped my phone onto the
desk. Looking up, I saw his smiling face peeking around the corner.

"Yeah, Coop?"

"Want to go to lunch today?"

I held up my phone. "I just accepted an invite from friends.
Sorry." I tried to act apologetic.

"Gosh, you're one busy girl." He sounded disappointed. "Got
plans on Thursday?"

"Uh, I don't think so."

"Great! We can go Thursday then."

"Great," I lied again in my fake enthusiastic voice as he walked
away.

My phone vibrated. I looked down and saw that it was a text
from Riley: "Gr8 nws. Dad z U cUd brng Baby hom w U."

How sweet was that? I responded: "Orsum! Tnx, Riley!!"

I never asked him to talk to his dad about Baby. He must have
decided to do it on his own.

My phone vibrated again: "Got Top Gun & Rainman from Netflix. We on anite?"

Tom Cruis-a-pa-looza, huh? I responded: "Gr8."

I thought about telling Riley about Cooper being at the clinic
but then thought better and figured I would save it for that night.

Vibration caught my attention again: "Pik U A @ 4:45. Bye. R"

At least there were two things to look forward to today: lunch
with the girls and movies on the couch with Riley. No stuffy, highbrow, brown-nosing, vet wannabe was going to ruin my day.

"Excuse me, Attie?"

"Yeah, Coop?"

"Have you ever ridden a stallion?" he asked, grinning from ear
to ear.

"Uh..."

"I thought maybe you could come over sometime and we could
go riding. We've got extra saddles; I could teach you how to ride
English."

"Oh, horseback riding? Uh, that sounds great." I shook my head.
"No, I've never ridden a stallion ... of any kind."

"Great! When do you think you can make it?"

"Oh, I don't know."