Summer of Joy

by Ann H. Gabhart

  “Can’t.” Jocie looked around at Aunt Love. “The phone went dead. We can’t call anybody.”

  “Oh well. He surely can’t be anybody dangerous if Zel-la’s sending him over,” Aunt Love said. “We’ll just have to remember what it says in Hebrews. ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’”

  The guy did sort of look like an angel when he finally knocked on the door over an hour later. Either that or a snowman. Snow was clinging to his coat and pants and melting on his hair. “Did you walk all the way from Zel-la’s?” Jocie asked when she opened the door.

  “Not all the way. I slid off the road about a half mile from here.”

  “Let him come in, Jocelyn, so he can warm up by the stove,” Aunt Love said from the kitchen door. Tabitha had stopped halfway down the steps, carrying Stephen Lee. She was looking at the guy standing in the door as if she’d never seen a man before.

  “I’ll drip all over your floor,” he said.

  “It’s been dripped on before,” Aunt Love said.

  The man stomped his feet to get off as much snow as possible and stepped inside. “It is cold out there.”

  “Too cold to be traipsing around without gloves and boots. Of course you’re cold. Hungry too, I’d say. We just finished supper, but we’ve got plenty of leftovers,” Aunt Love said.

  “That’s okay. Miss Curtsinger fixed me a sandwich and made me some hot chocolate,” the man said.

  “Zella made you hot chocolate?” Jocie was shocked. “Are you her long-lost son or something?”

  “Jocelyn, behave yourself,” Aunt Love said. “Run get one of your father’s sweaters and some socks.”

  “I’ll get them,” Tabitha offered from the stairs.

  “I don’t want to be any trouble,” the man said with a smile at Tabitha.

  “No trouble at all.” Tabitha looked so ready to swoon that Jocie thought she might ought to run up the stairs and be ready to catch Stephen Lee.

  Jocie took a better look at the guy now that some of the snow had melted off his hair. She supposed he was sort of cute and he looked about Tabitha’s age. And that smile. It reminded her of somebody.

  He was trying to explain why he was there dripping all over their floor. “Miss Curtsinger said she thought it best that I should talk to Mr. Brooke about why I’m in Holly-hill. Or rather, Reverend Brooke. She said he’s a preacher. Is he here?”

  “Not right now, but he should be soon,” Aunt Love said as she stepped over closer to the stranger to get a better look at his face. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”

  “No, ma’am. I sort of doubt it. I’m from Ohio, and I’ve never been down this way before.”

  “Maybe you just look like somebody I know,” Aunt Love said.

  “That might be it,” the man said. “I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Robert.”

  Tabitha practically fell down the steps in her hurry to get the sweater and socks to the guy. She handed Stephen Lee off to Jocie as she said breathlessly, “I’m Tabitha and that’s Jocie holding Stephen Lee. And that’s Aunt Love. All Brookes.” Tabitha’s eyes were sparkling and her face was almost as pink as the rose in the little tattoo on her upper cheek.

  “Except Aunt Love. Her name’s Warfield.” Jocie frowned a little. She wanted to tell Tabitha to take a deep breath and count to ten before she fell off the deep end. This Robert hadn’t even given them his last name. “And your last name?” she asked.

  “Miss Curtsinger said it would be better if I just waited and explained everything to Reverend Brooke.”

  “I didn’t ask for the whole story of why you’re here in the middle of a snowstorm or how you ended up snowbound at Zella’s house, of all places,” Jocie said. “Just your name. That ought to be an easy enough question to answer.”

  Tabitha turned to make a face at Jocie. “Stop being so rude, Jocie. You don’t have to always know all the answers. I think it’s sort of fun to have a mystery man show up in the middle of a snowstorm.” She looked back around at Robert with a big smile as she handed him the sweater. “Here, let me take your wet coat.”

  Aunt Love was pulling a chair up close to the stove. “Take your shoes off and come over here and warm up,” she said, ready to give her best effort to entertain angels.

  The man shrugged off his wet coat and pulled on the sweater Tabitha handed him. “That feels great,” he said. Before he went over to sit down in the chair Aunt Love offered, he stepped closer to Jocie and looked straight into her eyes. “I’d answer your questions, Jocie, but I promised Miss Curtsinger I’d wait and talk to Reverend Brooke. But you don’t have to worry. I’m harmless. You and little Stevie here don’t have a thing to worry about.”

  Stevie. The name echoed in Jocie’s head. The only person to ever call Stephen Lee Stevie was Wes. And suddenly staring into the eyes of this man who said his name was Robert, everything was echoing. It was the same as if she might run into Stephen Lee’s father someday and look into his eyes and see Stephen Lee. Or some stranger’s eyes and see a reflection of herself. But now she was looking into this man’s eyes and seeing Wes.

  The ship from Jupiter had finally landed. And she wanted to put Stephen Lee down and run out the door and all the way to Hollyhill to make Wes promise that he wouldn’t get on it and fly away. She would have too if it hadn’t been snowing. But Aunt Love would never let her go at night with it snowing the way it was.

  24

  It was after eleven before David and Leigh drove back into Hollyhill. The roads had gotten more hazardous by the mile, and twice they’d slid sideways going down a hill. Luckily no car had been coming from the other direction, or perhaps luck had nothing to do with it. It was prayer, pure and simple.

  He and Leigh both breathed sighs of relief when he pulled up to her apartment. “Were you praying as much as I was?” Leigh asked.

  “More. At least we didn’t have to pray our way out of a ditch.”

  “Or spend the night at my parents’ house.”

  After he helped Leigh carry her gifts and packages of food up the steps and into the apartment, he kissed her good night. He was amazed afresh every time he put his arms around her how right it felt. How well she fit there in the circle of his arms. She asked him if he wanted to eat another piece of her mother’s stack pie before he left, but the snow was still falling. If it got much deeper, his car would belly up in the snow and he’d be stuck for sure.

  He tried to call home from Leigh’s to let them know he was on the way, but the line kept beeping the busy signal. Nothing to worry about, he told Leigh. The line went out a lot.

  Once he drove out of the city limits, the roads got even worse. He crept along staying in the tracks of some other car that had passed along the road some time back. He wasn’t too concerned. Even if he got stuck, he was close enough to his house that he could walk the rest of the way if he had to.

  Just over the top of one of the hills in a curve, the car that had made the tracks he’d been following was sideways in the ditch. Snow covered it like a blanket, so it had obviously been there awhile. David carefully tapped his brakes to stop his car. He got out and brushed the snow off the driver’s side window of the car in the ditch to peer inside. His flashlight’s beam was weak, but strong enough to let him see the car was empty. Whoever it was must have deserted the car and walked wherever he was headed.

  He had expected the house to be dark and everybody to be asleep when he got home, but instead when he turned into the driveway, the house was ablaze with light. His heart started beating faster as possible reasons for so much light this late at night ran through his head. Stephen Lee might be sick. Aunt Love could have had a stroke. Jocie might have gone out and gotten lost in the snow. The girl loved snow. But there was no reason for her to get lost and there was no reason for him to panic until he knew what was wrong.

  Jocie must have been watching for his car because she flicked on the porch light and stepped outside to meet him. His he
art felt a little lighter. At least she was okay. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he climbed up the porch steps. “Is Stephen Lee sick?”

  “No, no. Nothing like that. We have company.”

  “Company? Oh, did whoever got stuck up on the hill walk down here?”

  “Yeah, but here is where he was headed to begin with,” Jocie said. “He says his name is Robert. That’s all he would tell us. Seems Zella sent him out here to tell you his story and only you.”

  David frowned as he brushed the snow off his coat and stomped his feet. Maybe he was just tired—it had been a long day—but nothing was making a whole lot of sense. He pulled in a deep breath to try to get his mind working better. “Then I guess I’d better go in and hear what he has to say.”

  “Wait a minute, Dad.” Jocie looked over her shoulder at the crack of light spilling out of the door she hadn’t quite pulled shut when she stepped out on the porch. Then she looked back at David. “I know where he’s from. He’s from Jupiter.”

  “Jupiter? Jocie, it’s too late for this nonsense.”

  “Well, maybe not really Jupiter, but wherever Wes is from.” Suddenly Jocie looked ready to cry. She mashed her mouth together and sniffed before she went on. “He looks like Wes. He must be family. Maybe a son or something.”

  David reached out and put his arms around Jocie. “That might be. But you don’t have to look so worried. Wes could have a hundred sons show up from Jupiter and it wouldn’t change how he feels about you.”

  Jocie kept her face against his coat. There were tears in her voice as she said, “But they might want him to go back to Jupiter with them.”

  “They might, and he might go. I don’t know.” David pushed Jocie back where he could see her face. “We can’t keep the people we love captive.”

  “I don’t want to keep Wes captive. I just don’t want him to leave.”

  “He hasn’t gone anywhere. He probably won’t. But even if he does, I do know one thing for sure. He’ll never stop loving you.”

  Jocie pulled in a shaky breath and rubbed the tears off her cheeks. “I know. But it just seems like I’m always having to borrow family. Sometimes you have to give back stuff you borrow.” She kept her eyes down.

  For a minute David forgot about the person inside who might or might not be related to Wes. He thought they’d worked through all this after the tornado, but sometimes it was hard to hold on to the truth. “Look at me, Jocie.” Slowly her eyes came up to his. “There’s nothing borrowed about your family. I am your father. I have always been your father, and I will always be your father. There’s nothing you can do to ever change that. And Wes loves you the same way. Whatever you want to call him. Grandfather. Uncle. Friend. He’s not going to change how he feels about you. The two of you are tied together by something stronger than mere blood kinship. If you don’t believe me, ask him.”

  Jocie smiled through her tears. “I know, Dad. But sometimes I can’t help but worry that everything might change. That something will happen.”

  “Something has happened. Something is always happening, but love stays. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He rubbed the tears off her cheeks with his gloved hand.

  “Now let’s go in before we both freeze.”

  Jocie was right. The young man who stood up when David came into the room did look like Wes, but he was too young to be the son Wes said he’d left behind when he went out on the road after his wife and daughter had died in the auto accident. A grandson perhaps. But there was no reason for David to play guessing games. The boy would tell him his story. That was why he was there.

  “Hello, Reverend Brooke, my name is Robert. I apologize for barging in on your family like this, sir,” the young man was saying as he reached to shake David’s hand. “But Miss Curtsinger said you’d know how best to handle my situation. I don’t want to upset anyone or cause any problems. And she said maybe you could put me up for the night since there isn’t a motel in Hollyhill. I realize that might be a terrible imposition. If so, I can always go sleep in my car.”

  “The one stuck up on the hill, I presume,” David said.

  “Yes sir.”

  Aunt Love jumped in. “You aren’t going to sleep in your car. You can have the couch. Jocelyn can bunk in with Tabitha.”

  “I could sleep on the porch the way I did on Christmas Eve,” Jocie offered.

  “No,” Aunt Love said. “It’s too cold and I’m not having that dog tracking snow all over the porch. It won’t hurt you two sisters to share a bed one night.”

  David almost laughed at the way Jocie’s eyes popped open wide as she looked at Aunt Love. She’d thought her dog coming in to sleep by her bed out on the closed-in porch until winter had pushed her in to the living room couch had been a secret from Aunt Love. “All right,” he said. “That’s settled. Somebody bring Robert a pillow and blankets, and then everybody to bed.”

  Tabitha jumped up to fetch the blankets. Her eyes were shining and she was smiling as if Santa Claus had brought her a late gift. The boy looked a bit stunned at being showered with attention by such a beautiful girl, but not at all unhappy. Sometimes the chemistry of attraction worked fast between young people. It could be David should plan to sleep light whenever his head finally did hit his pillow this night. Or morning now.

  Finally Tabitha reluctantly followed Jocie up the stairs, and David and the young man were alone. David stretched out his socked feet toward the stove. Outside the wind was picking up, blowing snow against the windows. It sounded cold and his feet were cold, but not as cold as the day he’d baptized Wes. Forevermore he would have a reference for cold. Cold, yes, but not that cold.

  He settled his eyes on the boy. “All right, Robert. It’s time to tell your story about why you’re here. I’m guessing your last name’s probably Green.”

  “Yes sir. Robert Wesley Green Jr. I guess you could see the resemblance the same as Miss Curtsinger.”

  “You look like Wes. No doubt of that. Even Jocie knew who you were.”

  “She did?” Robert looked troubled. “Miss Curtsinger told me whatever I did not to tell Jocelyn—Jocie—who I was. That things might get really messed up if that happened.”

  “I’m a little confused here. Just what has Zella got to do with all this?”

  So Robert told him about getting Zella’s letter back in the summer. “I was so excited. I just had a feeling about it all. I wrote back to her saying I wanted to come down as soon as possible to see if the Wesley Green she knew could be my grandfather, but she’d said in her letter that he’d been in an accident and might not be strong enough to have some unknown family member just show up without warning. So I waited to hear from her. Then my school started and I couldn’t miss classes.”

  “Did she say how she found you?” David stared at the gas flame in the stove and waited for his answer.

  “I didn’t ask. I didn’t care. I was just glad she had if this turned out to be my grandfather. So I waited until a few weeks ago and then I wrote again. To see if she thought it would be all right if I came now.”

  “And she wrote back and said you should come?” David looked over at the young man. At least they knew now why Zella had been so on edge around Wes. It was a wonder she hadn’t already dumped the problem in David’s lap, but sometimes Zella thought she could handle and rearrange everybody’s life for the better.

  “No, she was pretty surprised when I showed up at her door.” The boy smiled a little.

  “I can imagine,” David said.

  “But since I’m on break until the second week of January, I thought now would be as good a time as any. I’ve seen pictures of him, you know. I was pretty sure I’d know him if I saw him. I never thought about anybody recognizing me even though Dad has always said I looked like his father.” Robert Wesley shifted in his chair and looked uneasy as he pushed out his next question. “He’s not in trouble, is he? My grandfather, I mean.”

  “Not that I know of. Why?” David peered over at hi
m.

  “Just something Miss Curtsinger asked in her letter. If the police had ever contacted us or anything.”

  “That’s just Zella.” David waved his hand in dismissal. “She likes things she can understand, and she’s never been able to understand Wes.”

  “I guess maybe Dad’s the same way. He didn’t really want me to come. Said it wouldn’t be our Wesley Green. That I’d just end up disappointed. He’s always said my grandfather had to be dead. That he wouldn’t have stayed away so many years if he hadn’t been dead.”

  “No, not dead in body. In spirit for a while, I think.” David massaged his forehead, hoping it would help him think more clearly. He had no idea what Wes was going to think about this boy showing up to claim kinship. Would it make him run again the way he’d run so many years ago? “I suppose you know why he left.”

  “Right. The wreck where Dad’s mother and sister were killed.” He waited for David to say something, but David stayed quiet and after a moment the boy went on. “Dad said he and my grandfather both had a hard time accepting their deaths. That instead of leaning on one another, they drew apart to suffer alone. Of course Dad had just gotten married and he had Mom to help him. Still, he was surprised when my grandfather bought a motorcycle and rode off. That’s the last he’d seen of him or heard anything about him until Miss Curtsinger’s letter. That was over twenty years ago. How long has he been here in Hollyhill?”

  “About ten years,” David said. “I don’t think he meant to stay, but the years just sort of piled up on him. He works for me putting out the local paper.”

  “I thought Miss Curtsinger said you were a preacher.”

  “I am. Preacher. Newspaper editor. General problem solver.” David smiled. “Although I don’t always do so good at that last one.”

  Robert Wesley didn’t smile back. Instead he looked worried. “Do you think I’ll be a problem for my grandfather? I mean I don’t want to be a problem. I just want to meet him. To find out he’s okay so I can tell my father. Dad said they didn’t part on very good terms. Dad has never actually said so, but I know that’s been eating away at him all these years.”