The Way Back to You

by Sharon Sala

  “It’s a pretty big deal for me, too,” Lovey said. “I’m so proud of the man you became. Oh…the parking lot will be roped off so that guests can spill out into that area as well. The caterers are setting up some chairs, and there will be bar tables so people will have a place to put their drinks as they visit. Parking is along the curbs.”

  Now Sully’s worry concerning fire hazards had been put to rest. “We can handle that. See you soon.”

  Melissa came out of her walk-in closet carrying the outfit she planned to wear.

  “Is Lovey okay?”

  “I think she’s nervous. She’s known these people for years and years. Having to let go of her deepest secret is probably scary as hell. I can’t imagine how that must feel,” Sully said.

  “Bless her heart. Should we get there earlier?”

  Sully nodded. “She asked if we could be there by five. I said yes.”

  “Then I better quit dawdling,” Melissa said, and they both began to get ready.

  * * *

  When Lovey walked back into Granny’s a little after 4:30, Mercy gasped, then went to meet her.

  “Oh, Lovey, you look beautiful! Your hair is gorgeous put up like that. The outfit is dynamite, and your silver cross sits perfect in the V-neck of your top. Don’t do anything but watch. Whatever you want done, tell me. I don’t want one thing about you messed up.”

  Lovey beamed. “I see the caterers are already here. Have they brought the cake in yet?”

  “It’s here. They weren’t sure where you wanted them to put it.”

  “In the banquet room in front of the podium.”

  “I’ll tell them right now,” Mercy said.

  Lovey took the time to look at how beautiful everything was. The dining room tables had been moved so that most of the space was left open for people to mingle, but they were all covered with white tablecloths, and each bud vase had a single rose. A large floral arrangement was on a round pedestal table in the middle of the floor. Lovey didn’t know where that table came from, but she suspected Ruby was responsible. It looked dramatic, which was just what Lovey was going for.

  She moved into the banquet room to check it out. One of her eight-foot banquet tables was in front of the podium, covered with a white tablecloth, awaiting the cake. The other large floral arrangement was on another pedestal table in the middle of this room as well. Some of the long banquet tables had been scooted against the walls, but most of them had been folded up and stored in the equipment room. It looked so grand, Lovey hardly recognized the place.

  She was still standing there when Sully and Melissa walked up behind her and grasped her hands.

  Sully whispered in her ear. “You look beautiful, Mom.”

  Melissa squeezed Lovey’s hand. “You are radiant,” Melissa said, “and the place is amazing.”

  “Thank you, Sully. Thank you, Melissa. I never dreamed this could happen. I can’t wait to share our news, which brings me to the question of the announcement. How are we going to do this?”

  “You need to be the one to say however much you want to say. They’ve all heard my story. Now you tell yours,” he said.

  Lovey nodded. “Okay, but will you stand beside me when I do it?”

  “Of course, and proudly,” Sully said.

  “Then it’s settled. Oh, look, they’re bringing the cake. It goes in front of the podium.”

  They followed the people with the cake, watching as they transferred it from the cart to the table. Another cart followed with the serving setup. It was exactly the level of fuss that Lovey wanted, and as soon as they were gone, they got their first good look at the cake.

  “It’s huge!” Sully said, eyeing the size.

  “I love this!” Melissa said. “The cross being stair steps! And the ‘Here I am’ flag on the cake topper is priceless.”

  Sully gave Lovey a quick hug. “This is awesome.”

  Lovey clasped her hands in delight. “It’s exactly how I imagined it. It should be tasty, too. Two layers are vanilla with strawberry filling, and two are vanilla with Swiss meringue filling, and then it’s all covered in white fondant. It’s supposed to serve several hundred. I hope the turnout is good.”

  “Are you kidding?” Melissa said. “That’s all people have talked about in town since you put up the signs. I heard all of the businesses along Main Street have volunteered their parking spaces, including the Crown which is closing early so their parking lot can be utilized as parking for this event.”

  Lovey looked up at Sully, briefly touching his cheek.

  “So dear to my heart,” she said softly, then blinked away tears. “After tonight, I can officially call you my son.”

  “It’s getting close to time,” Sully said. “We’ll keep a little distance away from you until you’re ready to make the announcement so it won’t give away the surprise.”

  Lovey nodded. “Okay, guys. Let’s do this,” she said.

  By the time she reached the front lobby, people were already coming in.

  And so began the excitement of people seeing Lovey’s appearance and how the interior of Granny’s had been transformed. Almost immediately, the caterers began moving through the gathering crowd with finger foods and drinks.

  Melissa’s status as a newly engaged woman was noted, and the word quickly spread, with most of the crowd assuming this party was for her and Sully, until they mingled their way into the banquet room and saw the cake. Now they didn’t know what to think.

  It was 6:30 on the dot when Lovey gave Sully and Melissa a nod, then headed for the podium. Sully escorted her up the steps and then stood aside. Lovey turned on the microphone, then tapped it to make sure it was live.

  The room had already quieted down and everyone was waiting, but they didn’t know what for until Lovey began to speak.

  “I know you all want to know what’s going on, so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. I have a story to tell about the saddest and happiest times of my life. When I was barely sixteen years old, I was forced, by my parents, to give my baby boy up for adoption. I never thought I’d see him again.”

  She paused and drew a deep, shaky breath. “So you know how I don’t hear things so good anymore, and how most of my attention is always focused on Granny’s…which is how I completely missed details that could have saved this delay. You all know Sully here has been looking for his birth mother, Janie Chapman.”

  Sully walked up beside her and winked.

  Lovey blinked away tears as she reached for his hand.

  “Although I’ve been Lovey to all of you for as long as I’ve lived here…I was born Loretta Jane Chapman, and tonight I want to introduce you to my son, John Sullivan Raines.”

  The room erupted in cries of shock, then surprise and delight. And when Sully wrapped his arms around her and hugged her, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

  “Way to go, Mom,” he whispered.

  “You say what you want now. I can’t do any more,” Lovey said.

  When Sully moved to the podium, the room went silent again.

  “You’ve all heard my story about not even knowing I was adopted until a few months ago. But you have no idea what finally finding my Janie has meant. I have answers to why I look the way I do. I now know the name of my father. I know why my hair is black and my eyes are dark, and that half of my heritage is Greek. I know that the bonds of parent to child are stronger than anything science could ever prove.

  “The moment this happened for us was the moment my lopsided world finally righted. Melissa and I were already in the process of getting ready to move all of my belongings here to Blessings, because I have fallen in love with her and this town. But after forty-five years without knowing I had another mother, little did I know I’d already found her. Finding out she is such an amazing person was a bonus. It’s evident how much my mom is loved and admired
here, so I feel like I just won the lottery.”

  The room erupted into cheers and clapping, and more tears, and then Lovey stepped up to the podium again.

  “Thank you for coming so I could share this news with all of you. I think it’s time we cut this cake and party.”

  After that, Lovey was engulfed. Hugs of congratulations, people wanting pictures of Sully and Lovey together, and more congratulations to Sully and Melissa.

  Newcomer Cathy Terry had seen the sign on Granny’s and came out of curiosity, and for something to do. Now she was glad that she had. It was a good feeling to know some people still had happy endings in their lives.

  People moved in and out of the building and back again, talking among themselves about what a miracle this was, and talking about how strange it was to know and love someone for so many years without knowing anything about their past.

  By the time the party was winding down and the caterers were packing up, more than a dozen men stayed behind to help Lovey put Granny’s back together again.

  Peanut showed up with a borrowed truck to pick up the pedestal tables the flowers had been on, and they put the flowers in the banquet room to be used tomorrow for the next event.

  Finally, Granny’s was in place and ready for morning customers, and Lovey was going around checking locks and equipment in the kitchen to make sure everything had been turned off and cleaned.

  As soon as she was satisfied all was well, she went through turning out the lights, and then found Sully and Melissa waiting for her in the lobby.

  “I didn’t know you two were still here,” she said.

  “I was helping the caterers load up the bar tables and folding chairs so we could take the chain off the parking lot,” Sully said. “It’s all ready to go for tomorrow now.”

  Lovey stared at him then. “I just realized something.”

  “What?” Sully said.

  “Well, Granny’s has been here for a long time, but I’m not getting any younger. I’ve wondered now and then if someone else would buy it when I’m gone, or if it would just go by the wayside. Now I don’t have to worry about that anymore. This will all be yours one day…if you want it.”

  The smile that spread across Sully’s face lit up the whole world.

  “If I want it? Mom! I would be honored to carry on what you’ve built. I know how to put out a fire in the kitchen, but I don’t know anything about running a place like this. I’ll bus tables. I’ll sweep floors. I’ll even be your bouncer if the need ever arises, while you teach me what I’ll need to know.”

  “Well, now I am gonna cry,” Lovey said, and hugged him to her. “It would be my delight to do just that.”

  “Sully, I think you just found your job,” Melissa said. “He’s been trying to come up with something ever since he decided to move here. You are an answer to his prayer, in more ways than one.”

  “It’s late, and you must be exhausted,” Sully said. “So I’m going to take this as my first lesson. Do you leave on night-lights, and if so, where do you turn them on?”

  Lovey pointed them out, and as soon as Sully turned them on, she turned out the lights in the lobby and walked Sully and Melissa out.

  “Usually, I have a night-deposit bag with me when I come out this door, and I go straight from here to the bank, but that’s all for another day.”

  “Melissa and I are making a quick trip to Kansas City to close up my apartment and bring back my personal belongings. Once that trip is over, I will gladly show up anytime you want, any days that you want. Just let me know.” Then he looked around. “Where did you park?”

  Lovey pointed across the street at the Seed and Feed store. “That lone car in the parking lot is mine.”

  “As soon as I get Melissa in the car, I’ll walk you across.”

  Once they reached his car, Melissa gave Lovey a big hug. “I am so happy we’re going to be family.”

  “Oh, child, so am I,” Lovey said.

  After Melissa was safely inside, Sully walked Lovey across the street, gave her a good-night kiss and another hug, then waited until she was driving away before jogging back across the street to where Melissa was waiting.

  He slid into the seat, then leaned across the console and kissed her.

  “Love you, honey. Thank you for helping me make this time so special for Mom.”

  “It was the best, seeing how she blossomed when she realized her news had not caused people to feel disdain toward her. I think that was her biggest fear…how she would be received.”

  “Which says a lot about how she was treated when she found out she was pregnant,” Sully said. “The ridicule and shaming for a teenager would have been devastating…and to be facing it alone. She said my dad was never told. I wonder what he’d think if he found out about me, kind of like I found out about them?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you’ll find him one day, like you did your mom.”

  “That would be the best. To know both of them.”

  He started the car, then made a U-turn in the empty street and headed home, holding her hand all the way.

  “Hey, honey, I’ve been thinking about my stuff back in Kansas City. After all that’s been happening, and what you’ve gone through, a road trip is not the best idea.”

  “If you need to go alone, that’s fine. You won’t hurt my feelings,” Melissa said.

  “Oh no, I’m not leaving you. I’m going to make a couple of calls tomorrow. I’ll make a list of what I want packed up and sent here, and I’ll donate the rest to Habitat for Humanity.”

  “What if they miss some stuff you want?” Melissa said.

  “The only thing I’m leaving behind is furniture and the like. Everything else will come here, and I’ll sort out what I want to keep then,” he said. “Now no more worry. It’s settled.”

  Chapter 18

  Marc Adamos was finally back home in Springfield, Missouri, after his long flight from the Hawaiian Islands. He’d been on Hawaii, the Big Island, for a couple of months, getting live footage of the recent activity from the Kilauea volcano, as well as the extreme flooding that had happened on one of the other islands.

  He was in his office going through still shots and video. Once he’d scanned in the stills, making notes as to which ones he might use for the documentary, he moved to different footage he’d gotten earlier in the year. The first set he picked up was what he’d gotten on the California fires. He’d moved on to the extensive fires that burned the Pacific Northwest. He’d been on-site during hurricanes for footage and video during and after the storms that had hit along the southern border of Texas, as well as a later hurricane that had impacted the East Coast along the Florida and Georgia coasts.

  He loaded what he wanted onto his laptop and then took it with him into the kitchen to make himself some lunch. He’d been gone so long that ready food in his place was sparse, but he did have a couple of cans of soup and some crackers in the pantry and settled on that rather than ordering in.

  After having worked for National Geographic most of his adult life, he was getting ready to retire. The story he was working on now would be his last and eventually would be aired on the National Geographic Channel on cable TV. Since it was his swan song, he was determined to give it his full attention.

  The topic of the program was natural disasters, marking the increase in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and even the change in weather patterns.

  His job as a photojournalist for Nat Geo had left little room for a personal life. He’d never married. It was hard to have a relationship when a job was as fluid and mobile as his. Life had not turned out the way he’d once expected, but he was satisfied with where it had taken him.

  The soup was heating on the stove, and he’d put a fresh pot of coffee on to brew when his cell phone rang. He set the soup off the heat to answer it.

  “Hello. Marc speaking.”<
br />
  “Marc, it’s me, David.”

  Marc smiled. His younger brother, David, was his best friend.

  “Hey, Bro, what’s up?”

  “I know you just got home, but I’m afraid I have bad news. Uncle Wayne passed away early this morning.”

  Marc frowned. “Oh man, the cancer?”

  “Yes,” David said. “He’s been in the hospital for the past three weeks and on life support all of this past week. Aunt June and the girls finally agreed it was time, and they took him off this morning. He passed about three minutes afterward.”

  “I’m so sorry. I guess it’s too soon to know when the service will be,” Marc said.

  “They’ve had three weeks to make decisions,” David said. “They’re at the funeral home as we speak, setting a date. As soon as I find out, I’ll text you. Can you come?”

  “Absolutely,” Marc said. “You know how we are. Family is everything.”

  David sighed. “Yes. I’ll get back to you later today. Glad you’re home. It will be good to see you again. I suppose you are still rocking your silver-fox look. No hope you finally got fat, or that you finally shrunk so I’d be the taller son?”

  Marc laughed. “What are you complaining about? You’re the one with the beautiful wife and grandkids.”

  “True,” David said and laughed, but he knew there was a sadness in Marc that he had neither. “When I know more, I’ll text.”

  “Okay, and tell Aunt June I love her and I’ll see her soon.”

  “Yeah, I will,” David said.

  The smile on Marc’s face disappeared the moment the connection ended. Their uncle Wayne had been the father figure in their lives ever since he and David were in their early twenties. But the old man had suffered too long with inoperable cancer, and he had lived a long and fruitful life. In Marc’s eyes, there was no greater blessing.

  He poured the soup and took the bowl and a soup spoon to the table, tossed a handful of oyster crackers on the surface of the hot chowder, and then took a small bite. The time he’d been on the phone had been the perfect cooling period, and he ate the rest of the soup without issue.