The Homecoming

by Robyn Carr

  Sixteen

  “You’re a good sport,” Seth told Iris as they were climbing into the car at five in the morning to head for Seattle. “It’ll probably be seven hours. You can sleep. I like this drive.”

  “You do it often?” she asked.

  “Every month or two. I use the drive for all those deep thoughts I have to mull and never have time for. I find it relaxing.”

  “This must be some friend,” she said.

  “Let me get us out of town and on the freeway and I’ll tell you about him.”

  Once they were underway, Seth told her the story. “Oscar was the other driver in that accident when I was twenty. That accident changed both our lives, his more dramatically than mine. He’s been in a wheelchair ever since. When I first went to see him, he was not happy to see me. There’s no logical explanation for why I went back. A real glutton for punishment, I guess. Over time, we found we had more in common than you would think possible. More than our injuries. Of course, I didn’t head for his house until I was up and walking. I still used a cane and wore the big shoe with the built-up sole. When we plowed into each other, he was forty-five years old and had a couple of kids. And we were both a little angry.” He chuckled. “He was angrier, and understandably so—he was worse off. I might’ve lost a football career but he lost much more than that. And it turned out, over time, that we had things to talk about.”

  “The accident? Your injuries and disabilities?”

  “Not so much,” Seth said. “We talked more about life, philosophy, faith, death. Chess.”

  “Chess?”

  “Well, once we started to communicate, we could only talk if we had something else going on. First it was checkers, but we graduated to chess. I don’t know how it is with women, but men don’t sit in two chairs and stare at each other and just...converse.”

  “Women can do that,” she said. “Most women quilt or knit or drink coffee or wine, though. But women who have someone they trust can just go to them to talk. Just to talk. If they need to.”

  “Who is that person to you?”

  “Grace,” she said. “I’ve known her since she bought the flower shop, but it’s been the past year that we’ve gotten close.”

  “Did you tell Grace about me?” he asked.

  “Uh-huh. In pieces. First I told her about the prom, then I told her about the prom and teenage sex, then I told her I couldn’t get over you, then I told her those calla lilies did the trick.”

  He grinned. “I’m going to fill your bedroom with calla lilies.”

  “You don’t have to do that. Now, about Oscar—you went to see him because he was injured?”

  “We were both injured. He was worse. And he had a family to worry about. I felt so bad about that.”

  “The accident was your fault?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “The cause of the accident was his—technically he was impaired. He fell asleep at the wheel. But I was also cited—I’d been speeding. Not speeding a little bit. I spent my first contract money on a hot car and I was a rocket. If I hadn’t been going so fast I might’ve been able to avoid him. Or he might’ve cleared the intersection before I got there. Of course, no one knows what might’ve happened to him next. Maybe if I hadn’t been there and if he’d cleared the intersection, he could’ve hit a tree or another vehicle or any number of possibilities. Or, he might’ve been jolted awake by my horn! But the fact is, the speed of my car and the impact was probably responsible for the level of injuries. There was no criminal trial but his family sued me for speeding.”

  “Oh, my gosh. And you’re friends?”

  “It didn’t come fast,” he said. “Not only was Oscar pretty grumpy, but he had a wife and kids who blamed me.”

  “And you went to him because you were sorry about the accident? The injuries?”

  “I was definitely sorry,” he said. “I don’t know why I went. I wanted to see how he was getting along. I wanted someone to talk to about it even though I had a physical therapist and a counselor. I wanted to know how he was coping with his disabilities because I wasn’t coping that well with mine.” He shrugged. “I didn’t have an agenda. I kept going back and I’m not sure why. But first only Oscar accepted my visits. Then his wife did. Eventually his kids did. Just so you won’t be broadsided, Oscar is one of the people I talked to about you. About how it was important to have you in my life again. That was before I dared hope we’d be a couple.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask, but how much have you told him about us since we’ve become, you know—”

  He chuckled. “I haven’t told him anything. But it will only take you five minutes with Oscar to understand there are a lot of things he doesn’t need to be told. A few years ago when I was struggling to finish my degree, trying to get into the Sheriff’s Department and failing time after time, having Oscar to talk to made a difference. We don’t call each other on the phone and even though he has a bunch of online friends he keeps up with, we don’t exchange many emails. I just like to spend a day at his house sometimes.”

  “It’s a very long drive to do that,” she pointed out.

  “It always feels like it’s worthwhile. I get the quiet and alone time of a long drive, a few hours with Oscar and Flora, time to think. I’d say it’s been one of the highlights of my life since I was twenty years old.”

  For the rest of the drive, they talked about a hundred things, from careers to families to the town they were both so attached to. They stopped a couple of times for food and drinks but didn’t waste a lot of time. Seth promised he’d take her to a nice hotel for the night and they could sleep in on Sunday morning. They’d been on the road almost exactly seven hours when they pulled up to an ordinary small brick home. The ramp to the front door and the van with the handicap sticker were dead giveaways—this was Oscar Spellman’s house.

  Flora let them in and seemed so pleased to see them. Rather than shaking Iris’s hand, she embraced her. “I’m so happy Seth brought you,” she said. “He’s talked about you a little bit.”

  “I’m glad to be here. I didn’t know until just recently that you’ve been Seth’s good friends for years.”

  “Yes, it’s been a lot of years now,” Flora said. “I did a little cooking. Sometimes one of the kids or grandkids comes by. Did you eat along the way? Do you need a snack? Coffee or tea?”

  “I’d love a cup of coffee,” Iris said.

  Then the whirring sound of Oscar’s chair announced his arrival in the room. Iris had been unprepared for the fact that he was a quadriplegic. When Seth said Oscar was in a wheelchair she assumed he had lost the use of his legs, but this was more dramatic, more difficult for the family.

  And yet this sixty-year-old man had a grin as big as the sky. They all sat around the kitchen table for a little while, getting to know one another, having coffee. It took a very short time for Iris to learn that Oscar had partial use of one arm and hand but needed twenty-four-hour care, most of which Flora handled. They did have a physical therapist and a visiting nurse to help with those chores that were difficult for Flora, but the responsibility was on her for the most part. Now that their children were grown, there was a little help from that quarter, but Oscar and Flora didn’t want to burden the kids with his full-time care.

  “The worst part about all of this is being dependent,” Oscar said. “Sometimes it puts me in a real mood. That aside, we get along pretty well.”

  “Speaking of getting along, is there anything I can help with while I’m here?” Seth asked. “Anything heavy or difficult that you’d like me to do?”

  “There is something,” Flora said. Then she looked at Iris. “I hate to give Seth chores. Usually when he comes, I leave him with Oscar and get out of the house for a while. They can be alone, I can take a break.” She looked back at Seth. “Mark nearly finished putting up the storm wind
ows and there are just a couple left and they’re on the ground floor—no ladder involved. It shouldn’t take long. Iris can visit with Oscar and I’ll help you.”

  “I don’t need your help, Flora,” he said, standing. “If there’s anything else you’d like to do.”

  “I’d like to come outside with you and breathe the outside air. I can take the screen off your hands and lift the storm window to you, but fastening it in is beyond me. Winter’s coming fast and the insulation on this house just isn’t good enough without those windows. Oscar, do you need anything before I go with Seth to do those last windows?”

  “I don’t need nothing,” he said. “Turn off the stove or ask Iris if she can mind it.”

  “I can make sure things don’t burn,” Iris said. “What do you have going on over here?”

  “Oscar’s favorite that I don’t make too often—greens and corn bread, pork loin, potatoes and cobbler. If you’ll just make sure that pork doesn’t flame up or the greens dry out, I’d be grateful.”

  “I can do that,” she said.

  Once Flora and Seth went outside, Oscar started the conversation. “Seth is mighty proud of you, Iris. He’s mentioned you several times.”

  “Has he?” she asked, grinning.

  “Oh, yes. Before he went back to Thunder Point to work, he was talking about you. He said you were a team, growing up. I wonder what he was like as a boy.”

  “He was hyperactive, I think. He had white-blond hair when he was really young and I don’t know why, but it was too long and cut real choppy and floppy. He reminded me of an unkempt Peter Pan.”

  “Was he always good at sports?”

  “Always, I think. But no one made a real big deal over him until high school, then he owned the place.”

  Oscar laughed deep in his throat. “I can almost picture it.”

  “Do you want me to get out the checker board or something?” she asked.

  “Nah. But maybe you can warm up that coffee some,” he said, using his eyes to indicate the cup he kept in his cup holder. “I need as much milk as coffee so I don’t scorch my gullet.”

  She jumped up and Oscar stopped her. “No need to be rushing around, girl. I’m not going anywhere. Say, Iris, did you want to play checkers or something?”

  She brought him back his coffee and shook her head. “I’m fine. But Seth said men can’t talk unless they’re doing something else.”

  “Seth can’t.” Oscar laughed. “Some of us have learned to sit still. That boy, he might never be still. I hope you’re prepared for that.”

  “To tell you the truth, Oscar, I’m not real sure what to be prepared for. He’s the same guy I knew growing up and yet, he’s brand-new.”

  “How’s he different? Tell me.”

  “He’s a little more serious,” she said. “And he’s a lot more patient. He takes some things in stride that a younger Seth would’ve been all worked up about. Like his father. You know about his father?”

  Oscar nodded. “Cranky, I’m told.”

  “I guess that’s accurate. I don’t know exactly why. I know he’s disappointed that Seth isn’t a football star, but you’d think he’d be over that by now.”

  “You know, Iris, some folks are just that way no matter what. I think they dislike the good turns in their life as much as the bad. I was a little bit that way when I was younger.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded and bent his head to sip some coffee through the straw. “I was always worrying about things I couldn’t do anything about. Always working too hard, sleeping too little, my brain whirring around all the time. That can get to be a habit, I think. In fact, right after the accident I was like that because I couldn’t figure out any other way but being mad all the time.”

  “I guess you figured it out,” she said.

  “I did. Flora was a big help.”

  “She was?”

  “Oh, yes, ma’am,” he said with a big laugh. “Flora is a gentle woman. She hardly ever has a gruff word for anyone. It used to drive me crazy that she was too soft on the kids when they could’ve used a stronger hand. But after putting up with me and my temper while I was stuck in this chair she told me in her nicest possible way that from that moment on she was all done doing for me if I couldn’t be civil and pleasant and most of all grateful. She said, ‘I’m done with your bullshit, Oscar Spellman, and you can either be sweet as an angel or you’ll get none of me. And none of me is gonna leave you real damn hungry!’” He laughed. “I think I always knew she had it in her.”

  Iris smiled. “Did you straighten right up?”

  “Oh, yes, ma’am, I did. I didn’t doubt her a second. Still, it took a while for me to slow down my mind and listen for a while. I move a lot slower, but I have some things now that I was moving too fast to notice before. I have a better relationship with my wife and kids. I taught my grandson to play chess. My grandson thinks I’m a lot smarter than I am.” He laughed at himself again.

  “You almost seem grateful for some of the changes in your life.”

  “Let’s don’t go that far,” he said, but he smiled. “That young man of yours, I don’t know where he got it, but if I’d been in his shoes I never would’ve visited me even once, much less all the time.”

  “I got the impression he felt really bad about the accident,” Iris said.

  “I reckon. But he could’ve come one time, said he was sorry it all happened and never come again. He’s a strong boy, but he’s got a very kind heart. He kept coming back even though Flora and the kids didn’t make him welcome. Now, what makes a man do that?”

  “I don’t know. But I admire it.”

  “He’s a generous man. We’d’ve been lost without his help.”

  “I thought he only visited every month or two?”

  Oscar nodded. “True. And it was a good year before I’d even have a conversation with him. I made that boy work real hard. Even after the way everything turned out—the court battle and all. All the money that he gave us.”

  “He must have felt some deep responsibility after losing the suit,” she said.

  “Losing? Girl, he won. We lost that suit! Seth wasn’t driving safely, but no jury would agree it was his fault we were hurt. Mighta been, no one will know.”

  Iris frowned. “He won? What money?”

  “You don’t know?”

  She shook her head.

  “Girl, he set up a trust for our family. Gave us every penny he had.”

  Iris scooted forward in her chair. “What money?”

  “Well, all the way through his surgeries and rehab, he was pretty well taken care of—he had insurance, disability, plenty of support—he was a pro ball player. He also had some money set aside—a large sum he’d gotten for signing his contract. I imagine he could’ve used that to live on, to pay for college, that sort of thing. Maybe his father is mad about that—that the money didn’t stay in the family. I told Seth we didn’t want his charity and he just said it wasn’t charity. That I’d have to earn it every day. It beats me just how he thought I’d do that. He set up the trust so that when some of my benefits ran out, there would still be help. He told me, ‘Take care of this here, Oscar, because that’s all I got and there ain’t no more.’”

  Iris was speechless.

  “He didn’t tell you?” Oscar asked.

  She shook her head. “I bet he didn’t tell anyone.”

  “He’s got a big heart, that boy. And you remember, he was a kid then. Not a wise older man, but a kid whose dreams were destroyed. A kid who was gonna have a lot of work ahead just to get by.” He shook his head. “He’s going to make a good father.”

  “Has he talked about that? About wanting to be a father?”

  “Here and there,” Oscar said. “He mentioned that a couple of kids with the right woman
would make everything he’s done in his life more meaningful.”

  Iris felt her eyes well with tears. “What a coincidence. I feel the same way.”

  * * *

  It didn’t take Seth long to get those storm windows up and then he and Oscar got to that ongoing game of chess. Flora tended her dinner and then took Iris upstairs to show her some of her quilts and petit point—she loved needlework. And while Oscar and homemaking might be a lot of work, there was lots of time she could lose herself in sewing. Since Oscar couldn’t get upstairs, one of those bedrooms was dedicated to her quilting. When she watched TV with Oscar in the evenings, she liked to stitch. “Now that the kids are grown I have lots of quiet time and, don’t tell anyone, I enjoy it. The kids worry that I’m overworked and lonely and I think I’ll just let ’em think so. Keeps them on their toes. Keeps ’em coming around to help their father.”

  They had a wonderful dinner together, though Oscar complained that he had to succumb to being fed, which he disliked in front of company. But Flora hushed him and had a very organized way of parceling out a bite for him, a bite for herself. They shared a plate, Oscar and Flora. And when the meal was done, she held his hand and they talked and laughed.

  It was nine before Iris and Seth said goodbye and headed for a hotel.

  “You did pick a nice hotel,” she said.

  “I looked for one with the best breakfast,” he said. “We can relax in the morning before tackling that big drive. Thanks for coming with me, honey.”

  “I love Oscar,” she said. “And I love Flora.”

  Seth nodded. “Kind of an inconvenient way to find new friends, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “They’re very grateful to you.”

  “Not as grateful as I am to them. What happened to us changed everything. You never really know how much one small single act can change things. At the end of the day, I think I’m better off where I am today than I could’ve been. I think this is where I’m meant to be.” He smiled. “And when we get into bed, I’ll be in an even better place.”

  “Seth, Oscar told me about the money. The trust you set up for them.”