The Homecoming: Countdown to Armageddon: Book 5 (10 page)

     Becky’s smile suddenly faded away, and she looked crestfallen.

     “Becky. The nurse who saved my life. The woman who helped me heal after Joyce’s death. The woman I fell in love with along the way. And the one who for some strange reason fell in love with me. Linda, didn’t you tell them?”

     All eyes in the room turned to Linda, who turned a crimson hue.

     “Well, damn, Scott. We had two weddings going on. It slipped my mind.”

     Her last words were addressed to those around her.

     “I’m sorry, guys.”

     Jordan added, “Hey, it’s no big deal. We’re all happy for you, Dad. And for Becky too. Is she there with you?”

     Becky spoke up for the first time, a bit apprehensive now.

     “Right here.”

     Tom said, “Well, welcome to the group, little lady. If Scott has fallen in love with you, then I know the rest of us will too. He only picks the best,” winking at Linda.

     Linda added, “We’re all looking forward to meeting you and getting to know you, Becky.”

     Hannah spoke up. “Becky, it’s Hannah Castro. Do you remember me?”

     “Of course I do, Hannah. It’s been too long since I’ve seen you and the girls. I’ll bet they’ve grown a lot in the last two years. John will be driving us up there. Did he tell you that?”

     The girls’ faces brightened.

     “No. No he didn’t, the little brat.”

     “Well, he might be planning to surprise you. If that’s the case, you didn’t hear it from me.”

     “No, of course not.”

     Jordan added, “Gee, Dad. It’s too bad you couldn’t have been here when Reverend Massey was here. He could have married you too.”

     “Well, we’ve already taken care of that. We looked high and low for a minister, and then found out the police chaplain has the authority to wed. Who knew?”

     “You mean you got married and we didn’t get to be there?”

     “Yeah, well, let’s say I just got even for missing your weddings.”

     “Touche, I guess.”

     “Anyway, we’ll be there a week from Wednesday.”

     “We can’t wait to see you,” Linda said.

     She looked around the room and saw shaking heads and shrugs.

     She looked at Misty and said, “Do your thing, little one.”

     Misty, relishing the seat of authority, announced over the radio “Scott’s loved ones, signing off.”

     The airwaves went silent once again, and the group turned to Hannah. She was the only adult in the room who knew Becky.

     “So, Hannah, tell us everything you know about Scott’s new girl…”

-18-

     Scott swore it was just a coincidence, and that he had absolutely nothing to do with the timing. But the people at the compound were giving him a hard time about it anyway.

     “I don’t know, maybe it’s just me and my paranoia,” Linda said with a smile. “but it seems awfully convenient that the all-clear just happened to be given just
after
we finished that backbreaking harvest.”

     Scott countered, “Convenient to you, maybe. But I’d have gladly helped in that harvest if it meant getting out of here three weeks earlier.”

     “Well, it’s a good thing you feel that way, Scott. Because Jordan has scheduled the second planting for next weekend. Just in time for you to help out.”

     “No problem. Looking forward to it.”

     But although she couldn’t see his face, the tone of Scott’s voice gave him away.

     Linda laughed.

     The group debated constantly which was worse: planting two acres of seeds by hand, or harvesting the crop without the aid of modern equipment. Each was backbreaking work in its own right. Each bore heavily on a different set of muscles and joints. And each produced a group of people who, at the end of each day, could barely stand up straight. And now that they were planting and harvesting two crops of wheat and two crops of corn per year, they got to enjoy their misery twice as often.

     Scott got permission to drive his police cruiser to the compound and pick up Sara, now that the all-clear had been given.

     He still had some apprehension about taking her into her parents’ death house, but was willing as long as she was. He’d tried to clean up the place to some degree, but the stains still stubbornly lingered on the recliner and the carpet.

     The worst part, though, was the stench of death which still hovered over the house like a dark and gloomy cloud.

     Scott called Sara just before he left San Antonio. Just to give her one last chance to back out.

     “Are you sure you want to take that trip? It’s never too late to change your mind, you know.”

     “I know. It’s just that… well, I don’t know if I’ll ever be at peace about my relationship with them, or their deaths, if I don’t at least see the place where they passed on. I feel that I need to go there, and tell them some things. To share my feelings and frustrations and pain with them. I know it sounds silly, but…”

     “Hey, it’s no sillier than painting a brick with fingernail polish…”

     “I’m sorry, what?”

     “Never mind. Becky is teaching me that the grieving process is different for everybody. There is no right way or wrong way to grieve. I’ll be there around dinnertime tonight. Make plans to get up early tomorrow and we’ll get it over with. On our way back to San Antonio we can talk about whatever parts of your past you want to share with me. Or you can keep them to yourself. Whatever you choose to do is fine with me. I’m there for you, in whatever capacity.”

     “Thank you, Scott. I love you so much.”

     “I love you too, honey. Get a good night’s sleep. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

-19-

     The following morning newlyweds Tom and Linda were missing at breakfast.

     “I don’t know why they’re sleeping so late,” little Misty said. “When I said I was tired and wanted to go to bed at ten o’clock, they said they were going to sleep too. I’m wide awake now. Shouldn’t they be wide awake too?”

     Her sister Hannah, a teenager and therefore wise to the ways of the world, rolled her eyes.

     She said to no one in particular, “Oh, to be young, innocent and naïve once again…”

     Everyone else at the table smiled or chuckled. Misty, certain she’d somehow been insulted, said “Hey, I’m telling Mom.”

     “You’re telling Mom what, exactly?”

     “I… I don’t know. But I’m telling her something.”   

     Scott finished his plate and pushed it aside.

     Sara had already finished. She peered at Scott with a look of determination.

     “I’m ready to do this when you are.”

     “Okay, then,” he said. “Let’s get it done. Have you ever ridden in a police car before?”

     Zachary interjected, “I think he means the
front seat
, Sara.”

     “Oh, shut up, you little twerp.”

     To a chuckling Scott, she added, “No sir. I’ve never ridden in one,
front or back
.”

     “Nice to know. Let’s go.”

     The pair said their goodbyes and walked out the door.

     During the ninety minute drive, Sara decided to reopen an old wound and tell him about her relationship with her parents.

     “Scott, did Joyce and Linda tell you that I deceived you all on the day of the blackout?”

     “Yes. They told me that you didn’t really leave a note telling them where you went. That you left an empty envelope instead, so Jordan would think you had.”

     “Did you wonder why?”

     “Yes. I wondered. But I didn’t feel it was my place to ask. I had the sense that Linda and Joyce knew. And that if you didn’t want to share it with me, that it was your decision to make.”

     “I originally was ashamed, thinking it was somehow my fault. But eventually I accepted that I couldn’t have prevented my step-father’s behavior. That it was my mom’s job to do that. And that when she chose not to, that she was really telling me I wasn’t an important part of her life.”

     “Your step-father’s behavior?”

     “That’s a gentle way of saying he sexually assaulted me for years.”

     “I’m sorry. And your mom knew but didn’t intervene?”

     “Yes. She liked the finer things in life. And apparently I wasn’t one of them.”

     “Meaning what?”

     “Before my step-father came along, she really struggled. She’d gotten pregnant with me when she was fifteen and dropped out of high school. Then she had a vicious argument with her parents and moved out. They’ve been estranged ever since, and I’ve never even met my grandparents.

     “Without an education and with a child, she tried her best to make money to pay the rent and put food on the table, but we went hungry many times. We even stayed in a Salvation Army shelter a couple of times when we couldn’t pay our rent and got evicted.”

     “Then Glen came along. He had a nice house and bought a second car for my mom and she finally got a chance to experience a comfortable life, free of debt. My well-being simply took a back seat to that.”

     Scott swallowed hard. He was no expert at counseling, or talking about difficult subjects. But he’d grown to love this child as his own. And he sensed that she needed to talk, to expose an old wound that still hadn’t completely healed. So he’d encourage her to go on as long as she wanted.

     “I’m so sorry, honey. Did the abuse start right away?”

     “No. For the first few months he played the role of the hero, rescuing us from our dire situation. He showered us both with lots of things, and lots of attention. He took us to fancy restaurants and on little weekend vacations. He gave us gifts for no reason. He tried to win our affection with the almighty dollar.

     “Then, after a few months, I think he finally got the sense that he had us on the hook. He started talking marriage with my mom, and she swooned. She thought it was so cool that she was going to be the wife of a successful businessman, and would get to be the socialite she’d always wanted to be. I think at that time she either hadn’t realized he wasn’t really after her. Or, she turned a blind eye to it because she didn’t want to go back to a life of struggling.

     “And he was good at it. Hiding his activities, that is. He was careful to do it when she was away for awhile, and always swore me to secrecy. He hinted that it was my fault, and even told me that a time or two. He said that the way I looked at him or brushed past him made him respond in certain ways, and that I had somehow instigated everything.

     “I was young and confused, and didn’t understand what he meant. But he never elaborated other than to blame me. And he kept reminding me that if I told my mom things would go back to the way they were before.”

     “But you eventually told her?”

     “No. Not outright. Not until the day I discovered that she already knew about it.”

     “I’m still listening, if you want to talk about it.”

     “It was a few months after he first started molesting me. He always did it behind closed doors, or when she was away. I assumed he was hiding it from her as well as the rest of the world. I thought about the various ways to tell her about what he was doing, and I tried to imagine her reaction to the news. I wasn’t sure whether she’d scream, or attack him, or kick him out of the house, or call the police.

     “He was out drinking with his friends the night I told her. I chose the most gentle words I could find, because I just knew what I had to say was going to destroy her.

     “But as I spoke, the reaction I saw on her face wasn’t one of anger or pain. It was one of guilt.

     “As we got more and more into the conversation, it became increasingly obvious that she’d known about it for quite some time.”

     Sara stopped for a few moments to compose herself. Scott held her hand.

     “Take your time, honey. I know this is difficult for you.”

     She suddenly laughed a hideous laugh.

     “Difficult? No, this isn’t difficult at all. Difficult was looking into my mother’s eyes and realizing that she’d been letting this evil man paw all over my body for months, and knowing she didn’t love me enough to stop it.