The Way Back to You

by Sharon Sala

  He closed his eyes again as the orderly wheeled him out of recovery and then down the hall to an elevator. He slept through the ride up and woke up again surrounded by people.

  “Hoover, we’re going to transfer you to your bed. Just relax and let us do it for you.”

  Pain rocketed through him so fast he passed out again.

  “Let’s get him moved before he comes to,” the nurse said.

  Hoover woke up again surrounded by machines registering his blood pressure and his heart rate, and the pole with the IV drip.

  “Mr. Slade, I’m Hope. I’ll be your nurse for the rest of the day.”

  “Hurt,” he said again.

  “I just gave you some medicine. You should be able to feel it soon.”

  He blinked. “Water…thirsty.”

  “I have some ice chips,” Hope said. “Let me raise the head of your bed just a little.”

  Hoover groaned at the movement, but once it stopped, the room stopped spinning, too.

  “Open your mouth,” she said.

  Hoover opened his eyes and lifted his head slightly as she spooned a couple of ice chips into his mouth. As he did, he looked down toward the foot of the bed and then froze, the ice chips slowly melting on his tongue.

  Something was wrong. He didn’t look right, but what—

  “My leg! Where’s the rest of my leg!”

  And right on cue, his surgeon walked in.

  “Mr. Slade, I’m Dr. Hastings. I did your surgery. How are you feeling?”

  “Like hell,” Hoover said. “What did you do to me?”

  Dr. Hastings gently put his hand on Hoover’s arm.

  “I’m sorry, but by the time you were found and brought to the hospital, the tourniquet you had on your leg was on there so long that the lack of blood supply had destroyed your leg. We had to remove everything below the tourniquet line. But you’ll heal, and prosthetics have come a long way in the past few years.”

  “Oh my God,” Hoover whispered, thinking about going back to prison a cripple.

  “I’ll be back to check on you this evening when I make my rounds. Just let the nurse know if your pain level is too severe. I left instructions,” Dr. Hastings said.

  Hoover watched the doctor walk out of the room—on two good legs—and wanted to cry. This was God’s punishment for the way he’d lived. Every time the going got tough, he ran away, just like the incident in prison. Maybe when they took him back to lockup they’d take him to a different prison, but wherever he went, one thing was for certain. He wouldn’t be running away from anything again.

  * * *

  The tension of the morning lockdowns in Blessings was mostly gone by evening. With Melissa’s return so soon after she’d been taken hostage, there was much discussion and rejoicing about the outcome.

  Peanut and Ruby both came home from work exhausted and mutually agreed to dinner at Granny’s. They walked into a place of laughter and friends and the best food in town, and slowly their exhaustion gave way to a sense of relief, and then gratitude for the place where they lived.

  Lovey sat with them a bit as they waited to order, just in case there was any new gossip via the Curl Up and Dye.

  “So, anything new to share?” she asked, then winked and grinned.

  When Ruby rolled her eyes, Peanut laughed.

  “What?” Lovey asked.

  Ruby leaned forward and lowered her voice.

  “Girl, you have no idea! One of the bankers’ wives, and I will not say who, brought her two girls in with head lice. The girls were eight and ten, and I don’t know who was more mortified when I found them, her or the girls. She said it had been going around school, and then she said…‘I just never expected this to happen to us! We’re not in the lower socioeconomic spectrum.’”

  Lovey grinned. “She did not say all that mouthful?”

  “Oh, yes she did.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I told her bugs did not recognize social status, and I wasn’t in the business of treating head lice. Then I sent them to the pharmacy and told them to ask Mr. Phillips how to get rid of the lice—and not to come back here until they were gone.”

  “Did it make her mad?” Lovey asked.

  Ruby rolled her eyes again. “If she’d been on fire, she couldn’t have been any hotter.”

  Peanut patted Ruby’s hand in commiseration. “She’s had a long, rough day, Lovey, and that’s why we’re here. What’s good tonight?”

  Lovey laughed. “Everything! Now I’ve got to get back to work before the boss fires me,” she said, and went back to the register.

  Ruby grinned. “She’s said that for as long as I’ve known her. Funny thing about that is when I first heard her say it, I was new here in town, and I wondered for almost six months who owned the place. When I found out it was her, I finally got the joke. Oh…here comes our waitress. What are you going to have?”

  “You know me. When in doubt, I’m a burger man.”

  * * *

  Sugar Slade’s evening was turning out less jovial, but relieved just the same. After finding out Hoover had been captured, and what condition he’d been in, she couldn’t help thinking about what cute little boys he and Truman had been when she married into the family. She wanted to remember them the way they were, not what they’d become.

  So she took her Bible outside as twilight was approaching and read aloud her favorite passages to the owl sitting in the tree by her porch, and to the rabbit hopping across her yard on its way home, and to the birds flying in to roost for the night. And when she was through, she closed the Bible and looked up, just in time to see the sun fall below the horizon.

  The sky lit up in a vivid wash of purples and pinks, and then as it grew darker, it faded into black. Sugar sat as the night grew colder, waiting for the first star, and when she saw it, she nodded.

  Her day was complete.

  * * *

  By the time Lovey closed up for the night, she’d heard so many stories about what had happened to Melissa, and how she got away, and when Sully found her, that she made up her mind to go talk to her in person right after the breakfast rush tomorrow. Sometimes she felt like the world passed her by because she was always in Granny’s. And then she reminded herself that Blessings and Granny’s were the lifesavers she needed. The town and the business were her family, and she loved what she did. There wasn’t a lot to complain about.

  * * *

  Night had come to Blessings, and Sully was asleep, curled up on his side and spooned against Melissa with his arm over her waist when he heard a car door slam, and then a dog begin to bark. A few moments later, the dog was quiet.

  Someone came home, Sully thought.

  Melissa was his home, and he’d come so close to losing her today. She stirred in her sleep and began to mumble. When he felt the tension in her body, he pulled her closer.

  “You’re safe, baby. You’re safe, and you’re home.”

  She sighed, and then she was still.

  He closed his eyes, and the next time he woke, it was morning. He blew her a kiss and then eased out of bed and went across the hall to shower so he wouldn’t wake her. As soon as he was dressed, he went downstairs to start the day. Coffee was first on the to-do list.

  By the time Melissa came down, he had pancake batter made and was frying bacon. She stood in the doorway watching him, and then he looked up and saw her standing there.

  “Hey, sweetheart!” He left the bacon long enough for a quick wake-up kiss, then hurried back to the skillet. “How long have you been standing there?”

  Melissa smiled. “Long enough to think ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Usually, the woman is in the kitchen, and the man arrives for food.”

  He frowned, waving his tongs in the air. �
�How caveman do you think I am? I’m a renaissance man. I fight fires. I rescue the occasional damsel in distress, I have an A+ in sex, and I do laundry and cook. This is what you get from a man who’s lived alone forever.”

  Melissa laughed out loud. “Oh my lord, Sully. You had me at ‘caveman.’”

  Sully took the last piece of bacon from the skillet, then switched off the fire and turned and took her in his arms.

  “It feels like I’ve loved you forever, and yesterday scared the hell out of me. I don’t have a ring. I don’t have a job. But will you marry me anyway and trust me for the rest?”

  “In a heartbeat,” she said, and shivered when his mouth brushed across her lips.

  Pancakes and bacon became the engagement breakfast, with sorghum molasses instead of syrup.

  “Georgia will make a Southern boy out of you yet,” she said, eyeing the liberal pour of molasses on his second stack.

  Sully shook his head. “All these years, I didn’t know what I was missing. I was on a search when I came here, but I didn’t know it was for you, too. You and sorghum might be the best things that have ever happened to me.”

  He winked when she grinned, then forked another bite into his mouth, rolling his eyes in delight at the tangy, sweet taste.

  Melissa got up to refill their cups and was sitting back down when her cell phone rang.

  “What did I do with my phone?” she asked. She could hear it ringing, but she didn’t see it.

  “It’s on the sideboard,” Sully said.

  Melissa grabbed it, glancing at the caller ID.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, sugar, it’s me, Lovey. How are you feeling today?”

  “Still sore and kinda beat-up looking, but I’m feeling great,” Melissa said.

  “Are you up for a little company this morning? It will be after the breakfast rush.”

  “Yes! Wonderful. We’ll be happy to see you.”

  “I’ll see you then,” Lovey said, and disconnected.

  “That was Lovey. She’s coming over after the breakfast rush.”

  “Good. I really like her. You can tell what a good heart she has, and she doesn’t mince words.”

  “She and Granny’s are fixtures in Blessings. When she nearly died in the hurricane, everyone pitched in to clean up the restaurant and make needed repairs, and the staff ran it for her until she was well enough to come back. We love her to pieces.”

  * * *

  It was a little after ten when Lovey arrived. Melissa was in the living room, reading the paper and watching for Lovey’s arrival, when she heard her knock.

  “I’ll get it,” Sully said, and went to the door.

  “I’m here,” Lovey said, handing him a bakery box. “It’s coconut cream pie, one of Mercy’s best.”

  “Sounds delicious,” Sully said. “Come in. Melissa is in the living room and anxious to see you. I’ll go put this in the refrigerator and be right back.”

  Lovey caught the sparkle in Sully’s eyes and smiled to herself as she went into the living room.

  Melissa was getting up when Lovey stopped her.

  “Hey, sugar! Don’t get up. I’ll come to you,” she said, and gave Melissa a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “It’s good to see you,” Melissa said.

  Lovey plopped down on the sofa next to Melissa’s chair.

  “I think that man is gone on you,” she whispered.

  Melissa laughed. “It’s mutual.”

  Lovey grinned. “I love it when a good thing comes together. I came just to satisfy myself you were still in one piece. The whole escaped prisoner thing and him taking you hostage when he stole your car unnerved all of us yesterday. I see your car is back under your portico.”

  “Yes. Lon had one of his officers drive it back.”

  “So tell me, did you really untie yourself inside the trunk and then get thrown out of the trunk and roll off the road into the holler below?”

  “It sounds like an action-adventure movie, doesn’t it? But yes, I did get myself free of the ties around my wrists and feet, and yes, I did get thrown out of the trunk when he hit a big pothole on a muddy road. The trunk lid popped up, and I was trying to get out when he gunned the engine. I went flying out of the trunk, but I didn’t have my balance as I tried to stand and rolled straight down one of those slopes leading down into a hollow. I was sliding and rolling, trying to grab onto all those trees and bushes I kept sliding past. Then I caught myself about two-thirds of the way down.

  “The problem became trying to get back up the hill. It was slick from the rain the night before. I heard the police coming, but I couldn’t get up fast enough. Then I got within a couple of feet of the top and could not climb another inch. There was nothing to hang on to. I’d been sliding backwards more than gaining ground, so I was just hanging there, waiting for a miracle. All Sully could see from the road was my hand waving. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when he looked over the edge and then grabbed my hand and pulled me up. You know the rest.”

  Lovey shook her head, staring in awe. “You are amazing, honey. Thank God Sully found you, but you absolutely saved yourself!”

  At that point, Sully walked in, smiling. “See, baby? That’s exactly what I told you.”

  “Yes, and thank you for helping me see it from that angle. Come sit beside me.”

  Lovey saw the look in his eyes when he started toward Melissa, and sighed, remembering that kind of love. And then her gaze shifted from him to a painting he’d just walked past. She stared for a few moments, then got up without speaking and walked toward it.

  Sully paused midstep and followed her, delighted that she’d noticed it.

  “Isn’t it beautiful? Elliot Graham painted it for me.”

  Lovey was standing in front of it now, still staring. Her voice was shaking when she finally spoke. “What is this?”

  “It’s a painting of my birth mother and me. I didn’t know I was adopted until my mother passed a few months back, and I’ve been looking for my birth mother ever since. That’s why I wound up here. The last known address that was found for her was Blessings, Georgia. I bugged everybody I met, asking if they knew her, but it wound up a dead end. Someone told me Elliot Graham was something of a psychic, and I wasn’t going to miss a chance that he might help. So I went to see him.”

  Lovey shook her head. “I didn’t know that’s why you were here. I don’t hear so good anymore.”

  “Yes, I’ve gone to every possible place here in Blessings looking for records that would say she’d been here.”

  Lovey was beginning to shake. “But this painting? If you don’t know who she is, how did you get this?”

  Sully pointed at the painting. “See that necklace? I have it. It was in with the adoption papers I found, along with a letter my birth mother left. So I took the letter with me to Elliot’s house. He held it, and then all he would say was to stay in Blessings. So I stayed. He only gave the painting to me a couple of days ago. He said he saw this in a vision when he held the letter and painted it for me. Isn’t she beautiful? Her name is Janie.”

  Lovey swayed and would have fallen had Sully not caught her.

  Melissa came running. “Honey, what’s wrong? Are you sick? Come sit down.”

  Lovey curled her fingers around Sully’s wrist.

  “Your name…all of it,” she asked.

  Sully frowned. “John Sullivan Raines, but she called—”

  Lovey’s voice was shaking, and she couldn’t look away from his face.

  “Oh my God!” she cried, and then grabbed his arm. “She called you Johnny. You were born in Columbus, Missouri, on June 4, 1974, to a sixteen-year-old girl named Loretta Jane Chapman.”

  Sully’s heart began to pound. “How do you know that?”

  “Because I’m that girl. My last husband called me Lovey, and th
at’s all anyone in Blessings ever knew. The girl in the painting… I had that blouse, and your father gave me that necklace.”

  Sully looked down at the woman in his arms. His eyes were full of tears, but he couldn’t stop smiling.

  “Oh my God, indeed. Hello, Janie Chapman. I’ve been looking for you,” he said, and wrapped his arms around her.

  Lovey was laughing and crying, and Melissa was ecstatic for both of them.

  “Both of you, come sit,” she said.

  And so they did, still holding hands, still staring at each other in total shock.

  “You have no idea what just happened to me,” Sully said. “All my life, I questioned my parents about why I didn’t look like either of them. Why my hair was black and they both had light hair. Why my eyes were dark. Why they were so fair and freckled in the summers and why I tanned so easily. They laughed it off. All of it, telling me it was recessive genes, or that I looked like their long-dead relatives…and I bought it. Right up to the moment I found that birth certificate. Finding you gave credence to my existence.”

  He lifted Lovey’s hands and kissed the back of each of them with such tenderness that it brought tears to Melissa’s eyes. She was dumbstruck by the revelation and so overjoyed for both of them and grateful she was here when it happened.

  “Thank you for coming to look for me,” Lovey said. “I’d made peace with not being able to raise you, but I never gave you up in my heart. I loved every tiny inch of your perfect little self for the time I got to be with you. The grief of giving you up so suddenly after all that time was heart-wrenching. I’m so glad you found me. And you deserve answers.” She took a deep breath. “Lord, help me get through this,” she said softly, then began to talk.

  “I grew up with a boy named Marc Adamos, and the year we turned fifteen, we suddenly saw each other in a different light. We fell in love…so much love. And even though we knew the consequences, we made love, too. I want you to know you were conceived in love. I didn’t know I was pregnant until Marc and his family had moved away. I told my parents, and they were horrified. They were very religious and so angry with me. I wanted to keep you… I begged to keep you, and they refused. I was only fifteen. Then I told them it didn’t matter what they thought because I was going to find Marc and we’d get married. They said if I did, they’d file charges against him for rape, and I was young and scared and I believed them.”