The Way Back to You

by Sharon Sala

  “Janie? Janie Chapman?”

  Lovey gasped. “Oh. My. God.” She felt like she was dreaming. “Marc Adamos? Is that you?”

  “Yes. What are you doing here?”

  “I own the place,” she said.

  Marc frowned. “I was told a woman named Lovey Cooper owns it.”

  “That’s me. No one in Blessings calls me Janie.”

  His eyes widened in disbelief, remembering that lifeless-looking woman in Johnny Pine’s arms and looking at her now. He just shook his head and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I came to interview the survivor of a hurricane, never imagining in a thousand years it would be you. And I just found out what happened to you less than a week ago. I went home for Uncle Wayne’s funeral, and some of my cousins were talking about the old days, and when I heard them mention something about how sad it was what happened to you, I nearly lost it. I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry,” he said. “Is there somewhere we can talk? Can you come sit in the car with me a bit?”

  “Give me a minute,” Lovey said, and spun out of his arms and went into the dining room. He followed, curious as to what her life had become, and was surprised by the size of the place and her obvious expertise.

  Within a couple of minutes, she came back with one of the waitresses.

  “Marc, this is Wendy. Wendy, this is Marc Adamos. I’ll be gone for a bit. I have my phone. Call if there’s an emergency.”

  Wendy’s eyes were big, and she was smiling. “It’s so nice to meet you, sir.”

  “Um, it’s nice to meet you, too,” he said, but as soon as they were out in the parking lot, he took Lovey by the arm. “Why did she act like she knew who I was?”

  “It’s a long story,” Lovey said. “Which one is your car?”

  “Oh. Right. It’s over here,” he said as he aimed the remote and unlocked it. They got in together, then turned to face each other.

  “Janie…I mean, Lovey…I had already planned to start searching for you as soon as I finished the story I’m working on. Talk about the hand of fate delivering you into my lap! I’m still in shock.”

  “What story?”

  “I’m a photojournalist–documentarian. I’ve worked for National Geographic most of my adult life, and as soon as I finish this last documentary, I’m retiring.” Then he reached for her hands. “Why didn’t you tell me about the baby? You know I would have come for you!”

  Lovey sighed. “Lord, help me get through this,” she whispered, and then once again began to explain. “The first thing you need to know is that keeping it from you was not my decision. You’d been gone two months before I realized I was pregnant, and when I told my parents, they hit the ceiling. I told them I needed to find you, but they cut that dream off fast. They already didn’t want the baby in their lives and told me if I contacted you, they’d have you arrested and charged with raping an underage girl because I was only fifteen.”

  “Oh my God,” he said, and wiped a shaky hand over his face. The words of her story were like blows to the gut. “If only we hadn’t moved.”

  Lovey stopped him short. “No! I gave up on all the what-ifs years ago, so don’t do that.”

  Marc took her by the shoulders, his voice rough with pain and anger. “I don’t care what your parents threatened. If I’d known, I would have found you both. My people don’t abandon their own blood.”

  There were tears running down Lovey’s face now. She’d been afraid to cry in front of the people of Blessings, and yet here she was crying with him.

  “It was too late, Marc. I signed the paper. I gave our baby away. He was no longer legally mine.”

  “I heard you stayed with him for a while, and then one morning you were gone.”

  Lovey nodded. “It was bound to happen. I was nursing him and only going to stay until he was weaned. But he had started to babble, and when he finally said ‘mama,’ it was to me, not Dolly Raines. She came to me later that same night and told me to pack my things and get out, and she never wanted to see my face again. I left in the night. It nearly killed me, but I never looked back.”

  Marc lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them, over and over, as his eyes filled with tears. “This breaks my heart for you. How did you survive? I heard your parents died while you were with the Raineses.”

  Lovey nodded. “And that’s how I did survive. I was sixteen by then, and I’d inherited the car, the house, and their little bank account. I’d already sold the house when my ultimatum came, so there was some money in the bank and it was the nest egg I needed to find a place to be. It took me several years of running and marrying two different men who weren’t all that good to me, but I never felt safe enough to stop running until I came to Blessings. Within a month, I found a good man. I married him for a place to live, and he loved me enough to save me. He owned this place. We got married in Vegas and came back here. He always called me Lovey, not Janie, and that’s how everyone here came to know me. I didn’t care. In a way, I felt reborn. Finally leaving Janie behind gave me a reason to stop running.”

  Marc grabbed a handful of tissues and began wiping the tears from her cheeks.

  “No matter what else happens, from this day forward, Lovey Cooper, you are part of the Adamos family and the beloved mother of my child. I never married. I never met anyone I couldn’t live without. I didn’t know what I’d missed until I found out what I’d lost. My apologies that you bore the brunt of your sacrifices alone, but never again. Do you hear me? Never again. Wherever I am, all you need to do is call and I’ll be at your side. We’ve gotten a whole lot older, but in my eyes you will always be my girl.”

  “Thank you, Marc. This is where I belong, and I’m very happy here. But I still can’t believe you just walked into the restaurant like that.”

  “Fate. Meant to be.” Then he touched the cross hanging around her neck. “You still wear this?”

  Lovey smiled. “I hadn’t…not for a very long time.”

  Marc nodded. “I found out about our child’s adult life because of my cousins…but I can’t find him. He was a fireman and just retired. I called the station where he used to work and left my number, but he never called me back. I had to accept he probably wants nothing to do with me.”

  Lovey smiled. “Start the car.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Trust me. Just start the car, and drive where I tell you to go.”

  Marc never said another word, and as they drove back onto Main, he began following her directions wordlessly, driving through a residential area until she pointed to a big redbrick two-story home.

  “Pull into that drive and park.”

  So he did, and when she motioned for him to get out, he followed her all the way up to the door, watching as she rang the bell. But when she turned and looked up at him, her eyes were sparkling.

  He grinned. “What are you up to?”

  And then Sully opened the door.

  “Oh my God! It’s you!” Marc said.

  Sully looked at his mom, then looked again at the man standing beside her. That’s when it hit him. He was looking at an older version of himself. He began backing up as Lovey pushed the man in the door ahead of her.

  “Are you my father?” Sully asked.

  “Yes!” Marc said, and wrapped his arms around Sully and began thumping him on the back, and then looking at him, and then hugging him all over again. “I can’t believe you’re here! I just found out about all of this less than a week ago. I am still horrified at what your mother went through alone, and had no idea she was here. Because of my cousins who still lived in the area where you grew up, I knew enough about your adoptive parents to find you, only to learn you’d just retired. I called the station where you worked, told them who I was, and asked a man named Rick to give you my phone number. But when you didn’t call, I just assumed you weren’t interested in meeting me.”
/>   “I never got the message, but I’m so glad you found me, anyway,” Sully said, and then Melissa walked into the foyer.

  “Hi…what am I missing?” she asked, smiling.

  “Honey, this is Marc Adamos,” Sully said.

  Melissa gasped. “Your father?”

  Sully grinned. “What do you think?”

  She started laughing. “Well, now I know what my future husband is going to look like at that age. I’m still going to be giving women the evil eye.”

  Marc grinned. “Please introduce me to my future daughter-in-law.”

  “Marc, this is—”

  “Please… Dad, Pop, Father…anything,” Marc said.

  Sully sighed. Marc Adamos had just thrown out the anchor he needed to settle his world.

  “Dad, this is Melissa Dean, my fiancée and soon-to-be bride.”

  “It is a true pleasure to meet you,” Marc said.

  “I don’t know how all this happened, but I’m so happy you found us,” Melissa said. “Come sit,” she said, and led the way into the living room.

  They’d barely cleared the doorway before Marc stopped, then turned and walked toward the painting of mother and child hanging on the wall. He touched the face of the girl, then the necklace around her neck, and then the baby. Then he saw the name of the artist who had signed it and turned abruptly.

  “Elliot Graham? Is this an original?”

  Sully nodded. “He just gave it to me last week.”

  “You know him? How? He disappeared from the art scene probably twenty years ago.”

  “He lives here,” Sully said.

  “But the scene… Did he paint it from a photo?” Marc asked.

  “There were never any pictures taken of the baby and me,” Lovey said.

  “Then how? I don’t understand,” Marc said.

  Sully patted his dad on the shoulder. “It’s a long story. I’ll have to introduce you before you’ll understand, but it’s the necklace you gave her that unlocked the mystery of where she’d gone. Mom left the necklace for me when she disappeared. I didn’t know I was adopted until my adoptive mother died. Then I found the necklace with my adoption papers and a letter stating my mother wanted me to have it. I swore if I found her, I’d be the one to put it back around her neck, and there it is,” Sully said, and winked at his mom.

  After they settled in to visit, the two men began filling in the gaps of each other’s lives, until all the questions had been asked and answered.

  “As soon as I’m finished gathering up the info I need on Johnny and Janie…I mean, Lovey’s, story, I’ll be going back to Springfield to finish the piece and turn it in to Nat Geo. At that point, I am officially off the clock. Please say you’ll all come to Kansas City to meet the family,” Marc said.

  “We’ll all come to Kansas City to meet the family,” Lovey said, and when they laughed, Lovey frowned. “What?”

  Before she could say anything more, her cell phone rang. She glanced up at the clock.

  “Work is likely calling me back.” She got up and walked into the foyer to take the call.

  The trio sat quietly, not wanting to talk over the conversation that took a sudden turn for the worse.

  “What do you mean, it fell in the toilet?” Lovey shrieked.

  Sully arched an eyebrow and looked at Melissa.

  “No!” Lovey said. “If Chet dropped it in there, Chet can fish it out. Lord love a duck! I can’t walk out of the place for five minutes without shit hitting the fan! And yes, I know that’s a good pun because I meant to say that. If he can’t get to it, call the plumber. I’ll be there soon.”

  She stuffed the phone back into her pocket with a frustrated jab and came back into the living room.

  “Chet, the dishwasher, dropped the only key we have to the extra freezer right into the toilet. It remains to be seen why they ever gave him the key in the first place, and why he went to the bathroom with it instead of straight to the freezer where he was sent. They’re running out of hamburger patties, and the extra order is in that freezer. Sully, remember you saying you wanted to learn the job? Well, this is it. Are you sure you’re still up for it?”

  Sully grinned. “I was a fireman. I have pulled cats out of trees. Puppies out of storm drains. Freed a thief who got stuck in a chimney, and delivered three babies. I got a man’s foot unstuck from a toilet bowl and have cut too many wedding rings off of swollen fingers to count, and the list goes on. Unless Chet already flushed the toilet, all I need is a coat hanger and a little luck.”

  Marc stared. “I am in awe of the both of you.”

  “Lord,” Lovey muttered. “Well, get your keys, Son, and let’s go.”

  Sully followed as Marc took Lovey back to Granny’s.

  It occurred to Marc as he drove how truly amazing Janie Chapman and her son had turned out to be with no help from him. He couldn’t wait to become a part of their lives.

  Once they got to Granny’s and parked, Lovey took them in through the alley and straight into the kitchen. She frowned at Chet, who was frantically putting dishes into the washer.

  “I’m sorry, Lovey,” Chet said, and there were tears in his eyes.

  “Can I talk to him a minute, Mom?” Sully asked.

  “I’m leaving this in your hands and going to relieve Wendy so we won’t be short a waitress during dinner,” Lovey said.

  Sully smiled at Chet. “I have a quick question, and tell me the truth, okay?”

  Chet nodded.

  “Did you see the key fall into the toilet?” Sully asked.

  “No, sir.”

  “Then how do you know that’s where it went?”

  Chet sighed. “I told Mercy I didn’t flush the toilet, but I did, because that’s why I went in there. And when the key wasn’t in my pocket anymore, I guessed that’s where it went.”

  “So you guessed. Where is the bathroom back here?”

  Chet pointed.

  “And you’re sure you put the key in your pocket, and you’re sure you don’t have a hole in your pocket?” Sully asked.

  Chet paused, then jammed his wet hands down into both pockets and grimaced. “There is a small hole in this pocket, but I don’t think it’s—”

  “Where is the key kept?” Sully asked.

  Chet pointed. “Right there. The key hangs on that hook.”

  “Oh, so it’s on some kind of key ring,” Sully said.

  Now Chet’s eyes were getting bigger. “Yeah, with a yellow plastic tab.”

  “Okay, thanks. As you were,” Sully said, and he walked off.

  Chet looked at Marc and frowned. “What did he mean, as you were?”

  Marc grinned. “It means carry on…go back to what you were doing.”

  “Oh!” Chet said, and went back to work.

  Sully was moving along the path Chet would have taken—walking behind Elvis, who was at the griddle, dodging waitresses picking up orders—all the while looking for a place the key might have fallen unnoticed. When he reached the door to the bathroom, he started to go inside, then paused. He squatted just outside the bathroom door and began looking under the wall of shelving beside it.

  “What are you doing?” Marc asked.

  “If the key fell out of his pocket on the way to the bathroom, he could have kicked it and never known it. Instead of looking for a key, I’m looking for something—”

  All of a sudden he got up and grabbed a broom from the corner, got down on his knees and ran the bristle end beneath the metal shelving, then swept it along the wall.

  The key ring came flying out from beneath.

  “—something yellow!” Sully crowed, as he grabbed the key, put up the broom, then took the key back to Chet.

  “Here you go, son. Now go finish what they sent you to do, and bring me the key when you’re done.”

 
Chet was beaming. “Thanks!”

  He dried his hands and took off in a lope. Within a few minutes, he was back with the large box of frozen hamburger patties that Elvis wanted and had put them into the walk-in near the griddle.

  “Thanks, kid,” Elvis said.

  “Sure thing,” Chet said, and went back to work.

  Now that the crisis had been averted, Sully was going to make sure the one-key situation no longer existed.

  “Hey, Dad. Wanna take a quick ride with me?” Sully asked.

  “Sure,” Marc said, and followed Sully out the back door and into his car.

  Marc hadn’t missed the calm manner in which Sully had dealt with what appeared to have been a crisis to Lovey, and was in silent admiration. Sully didn’t immediately assume what he’d been told was the whole truth, and he didn’t get angry or lay blame. But it was his last act that said to Marc what kind of a man Sully was. Chet needed to finish what he’d been sent to do, so as not to feel like a failure, and Sully knew it when he gave Chet the key a second time to complete the task.

  “You know what, Sully?” Marc said.

  “What, Dad?”

  “You’re a good man, and I don’t say that to a lot of people,” Marc said.

  “Thanks,” Sully said.

  “On another note, where are we going?” Marc asked.

  “To Bloomer’s Hardware to get some keys made.”

  “Yet another good move. What would you have done if the key was lost?”

  Sully grinned. “Taken my bolt cutters to the lock, in which case I’d still be on my way to Bloomers to buy a whole new lock with multiple keys.”

  Marc grinned.

  They arrived at Bloomer’s, where Sully introduced his dad to Fred, then explained after they left that was where Melissa used to work.

  When they got back to Granny’s, they went in the front door. Lovey looked up.

  “Did you get it out?” she asked.