This Time Forever (27 page)

“You should have told someone. We could have helped. That’s what families are for.”

Mickelle felt a tear trickle down her cheek. “I am telling you.” She paused and took a deep breath. “What I want to do is tell Riley. I want him to deal with it. But he’s not going to. Even if he were here, I don’t know that he would deal with it unless it was his truck. He wouldn’t even fix the wipers, for Pete’s sake. I have to learn to do it all on my own. I have to. I need to. Don’t you see? I can’t be running to my family every minute.”

“I know that.” Brionney’s tone was subdued. “I mean, I see it now. But we need you to rely on us occasionally . . . please?”

Mickelle wiped the tears from her face. “That’s why I’m calling you. I was so angry I couldn’t function. Now I’m feeling better.”

“The guy is obviously an idiot.”

Mickelle gave a short laugh. “You said that already.”

“Well, he is. I can’t believe he’d treat any woman that way—especially my sister!”

As though Brionney had taken some of her anger, Mickelle felt lighter. The compassion she had previously felt for the motherless child crept back into her heart. “Apparently his wife died, and it’s hard raising children on your own. Besides, the child did look like a good boy. I wonder—”

“I don’t want to hear it! I’m too mad! Besides, it could all be a lie. The mother could be very much alive. Maybe she’s in Italy, picking out a new gold necklace or another diamond ring.”

Mickelle laughed aloud, a real laugh this time, remembering her similar thought. “See? I knew calling you was the right thing to do. But don’t be too upset.”

“You have to take him to court!”

“I’ll think about it.”

They talked for a few more minutes until Forest started a fight with his brother and Brionney had to hang up. “Call me if you need me again.”

“I will.” It was comforting to know that help, should she need it, was only a phone call away.

Instead of going outside to the garden, Mickelle went to her room and found her scriptures. On Sunday after church, she had decided to begin her study on prayer by looking up every scripture about the subject in the Bible’s topical guide. She had looked up many scriptures but still had many more to read. Certainly she needed the inspiration. She didn’t want to go to court. Aside from the fee she knew they charged to file a claim and serve papers, the time and energy involved were too much to consider. Perhaps prayer could solve this problem better than her instinct for revenge.

She knelt near her bed, the scriptures opened in front of her. A light from the window fell on the Bible as though highlighting the words. She found her place in the topical guide and looked up the next scripture in Matthew. At once she recognized it: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you . . .”

Mickelle’s heart rebelled, but the whisperings of the Spirit were too strong to deny. Before she had talked to Brionney, there was no way her anger would have allowed her to follow this strong prompting. No way at all. But now she remembered the boy looking wistfully at his ruined car, and the father staring after her from the porch like a lost soul.

Mickelle prayed. First she gave thanks for her blessings, then she prayed for herself and for her family, and finally she prayed for Mr. Wolfe, his son, and the unseen little girl Tanner had been going to pick up at the school.

The rest of the anger and frustration in her heart faded, and the lust for revenge dimmed. Somehow, everything would work out. It was in the Lord’s hands now. She would focus on fixing her car and being happy.

Maybe today would be the beginning of a miracle.

* * * * *

Damon was in Jesse’s office, discussing the latest addition to their program, when Brionney strode into the room. Jesse looked up from the computer. “I’ll be ready in just a second, hon. Do you mind waiting a minute?”

“Not at all. The twins and Rosalie are at my mother’s, and she said to take as much time as we want for lunch.” She smiled, but Damon thought her sky-blue eyes didn’t shine with their usual good humor.

Jesse glanced at Damon. “Ah, a peaceful meal for a change.”

Damon chuckled. With five small children under the age of nine, they certainly had their hands full. Maybe exhaustion explained the difference in Brionney’s eyes.

“So, as I was saying,” Jesse continued, “all they have to do is type in the patient’s name, and . . .”

Damon listened, but couldn’t help noticing how Brionney paced the room, as though she had too much energy and didn’t know what to do with it. He had come to know her well enough to see that something was eating at her.

Jesse had stopped talking and also stared at his wife. “Bri, are you okay?”

She looked at them, surprised. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, you look kind of . . . well, mad.”

She sighed and flopped into the stuffed chair against the wall. “I guess I am.” Then she hurried to add, “But not at you. It’s Mickelle.” She jumped to her feet again and started pacing.

Jesse’s brow rose. “You’re mad at your sister?”

“Goodness, no.” Brionney stopped pacing and faced them. “I talked to her this morning, and she was really upset about the accident. Last night she went to talk to the father of the boy who caused it.”

“What happened?”

“The father just brushed her off. This dumb guy believes his son instead of
my
sister. It makes me want to kill him!” She made a fist and hit it forcefully into her other hand. “Can you believe that a father would excuse his son’s driving without a license or insurance? And then make matters even worse by not taking care of the problems his son caused by breaking the law? He should be grateful for the opportunity to teach his son a lesson. I mean, this is a relatively minor incident. No drugs, no unwed pregnancy. We’re talking minor stuff here but big enough for a great teaching moment. But no, this guy bails his son out once again. I bet he’ll keep doing it until finally it’s too big a problem to bail him out of. It’s disgusting! How are children supposed to learn values when parents won’t let them pay the consequences? Five hundred bucks would be nothing to this guy, if his house is any indication. But no, he won’t take responsibility. My sister’s already suffered so much, and now this. Ooh, I’m so angry!”

“It’ll be okay, Brionney.” Jesse stood up and went around the desk. He put his arms around his wife. “We’ll help her. I’ll fix her car myself.”

“When are you going to have the time? Besides, she’s determined to do everything herself. Meanwhile, she’s having to drive around in that sorry excuse for a car.” Brionney wiped tears from under her eyes. “It was bad enough before the accident, but now she has to get in from the passenger side because the other door won’t open. People stare at her and laugh. And every time she turns left, the wheel scrapes against the metal. Can you even imagine what driving that thing must be like?”

“I’ll go over there tonight,” Jesse promised.

Damon listened to the exchange with growing remorse. Stories he had heard about Brionney’s widowed sister came back to his mind, and they made his guilt even heavier. “Uh, can I insert something here?”

The Hergarters looked at him, and Damon returned their gaze miserably. “Well, I—it seems . . . uh, Tan got in an accident the other day, and—”

“Wait a minute.
You’re
the insensitive jerk?” The anger in Brionney’s eyes changed to sudden understanding. She put her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “Well, now you know the truth. My sister was
not
at fault, and she needs help. What are you going to do about it?”

He looked at her sheepishly. “Buy her a new car?”

To his relief, she smiled. “Well, you don’t have to do that. But you could at least take care of the repairs.”

“Give me her address and number,” Damon said decisively. “I’ll get right on it.”

Looking satisfied, Brionney left for lunch with Jesse, and Damon decided to do the same.
First I’m going to take a detour to the high school.
There was obviously more to the accident than Tanner had let on, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. Now.

He went to the school office, and was directed to Tanner’s math class. “I need to speak with my son for a moment,” he told the teacher.

Tanner came out into the hall quickly, his face pale with worry. “Is Belle . . .?”

“She’s fine.”

“Rebekka?”

Damon smiled. Tanner’s crush on Rebekka was apparently stronger than ever. “Everyone is fine.” He put his hand on Tanner’s shoulder. “But I do want to discuss something with you.”

“What?” Tanner’s face was the picture of innocence.

“About the accident.”

Tanner’s smile vanished.

“I want to hear again what happened.”

Tanner began talking. Damon stopped him when he got to the part about the music. “So your friends were fighting over the music. You really didn’t see if the lady was moving or not.”

“She wasn’t! And then Randy said to go, and I looked at Amanda—”

“Who was in the backseat, I understand.”

“Then I started to go—”

“Did Amanda do anything?”

“When?”

“When you looked at her.”

“She smiled. She’s really pretty when she smiles—”

“So you were looking at Amanda’s smile when you crashed into the lady?”

“Well, I looked back to the road, and there she was, right in front of me. I couldn’t stop!”

“You do know that she had the right of way—no matter how slow she was?”

Tanner looked at the floor. “No. I didn’t.”

A couple of students passed by them in the hall. Damon smiled at them and waited until they were out of earshot to continue. “You didn’t know the person going straight ahead has the right of way?”

Tanner met his eyes. “Maybe I did, but I was worried about getting Belle on time.”

“Oh, yes—the reason you took the car in the first place.” Damon started to twist the ends of his moustache, but remembered to rub his chin instead. “Did you really think Rebekka and I would forget Belle?”

Tanner stared back down at the floor. “You could have.”

“We wouldn’t. Even if we had, there were other options open to you. For instance, you could have called the school and told them to ask the teacher to watch out for Belle.”

“I didn’t know the number,” Tanner muttered.

“Oh, come on. I raised you to be more intelligent than that! I’ve seen you look up your stocks on the Internet. Getting the number of the school would have been a piece of cake. The bottom line is that you knew there were other options, but you
wanted
to drive your car. Am I right?”

Tanner said nothing, but clenched his fist against his stomach as though it pained him.

“Well?”

“Yes,” Tanner answered softly.

“Did you or did you not know that you were breaking the law?”

Tanner nodded.

“Did you or did you not go somewhere other than the school?”

“I did.”

Damon’s heart ached for the distress in his son’s face, but he remembered Brionney’s words about taking the opportunity to teach Tanner. He wanted his son to become a man the Lord could be proud of, a man who would be true to others and himself.

Damon squeezed Tanner’s shoulder. “Thank you for admitting that, son. I know it’s not easy. But you know what? Together we’re going to make this right. And someday we’re going to look back on this as a learning experience. To that end, I think we’re going to have to restrict you from hanging out with Randy and Eric for a while. And you have to come up with a way to fix the lady’s car.”

Tanner met his gaze, and Damon was touched to see the tears shimmering in his eyes. “I want to help the lady,” he said. “I really do. When I talked to her on the phone, she was nice. And I did feel guilty.” He blinked hard. “I wish it hadn’t happened. But it did—so maybe we can fix her car before mine. I’ll even use my savings to pay for parts.”

Pride filled Damon’s heart. “That might mean your car won’t be ready when the juvenile judge says you can get your license,” he warned.

“That’s okay.” Tanner’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “I don’t know if I want to drive, anyway.”

Damon blinked away his own tears. “You will one day.” He glanced up and down the hall to make sure no one was watching and then put his arm around his son’s shoulders, giving him a quick hug. It lasted only a second—nothing that should embarrass Tanner. “I’m proud of you for wanting to make it right. Really proud. And I think the Lord is proud of you, too.”

Tanner gave him a weak grin. “I sure feel a lot better.”

“We’ll go over there after work tonight and talk to the lady,” Damon continued. “We’ll get it all straightened out.” He gave his son’s shoulder a final pat, wishing Tanner were as young as Belle so he could sweep him up into his arms and hold him close. But the time when he could insulate Tanner from everything was long past. Now he would have to teach by other methods—and do a lot of praying.

Damon took a few steps down the hall and then turned back toward his son. “Uh, aren’t you going back into class?”

“Yeah. But I’m just going to wait a minute to make sure my eyes aren’t red. Amanda’s in there.”

That explained everything. “You look great. But if anyone says anything, just tell them your dad needed your advice on how to help fix a car.”

Tanner’s smile was larger this time, and the tears all but gone. “I will.”

Damon had taken a few more steps when Tanner’s voice stopped him. “Uh, Dad.”

Damon turned. “Yes?”

Tanner’s brown eyes were once again luminous. “I’m glad you came. This has really been bothering me, and I didn’t know what to do.”

Inside, Damon sang for joy. Tanner was a good boy; he had simply needed a strong, guiding hand.

* * * * *

Belle insisted on accompanying them to the Hansen home. Damon really didn’t mind, so he gave in. She’d been grounded since pulling the disappearing act on Friday, and he thought she had learned her lesson. She was probably going crazy with nothing to do.