She nodded as a grin creased the corners of her mouth.
“I did, didn’t I? How lucky was that?” she said, “What if…”
“Don’t even think that. Don’t even ponder such a thing. We just found our ‘happily ever after’ in a far off tomorrow,” he said.
“We did, didn’t we? It’s severely tomorrow.” she grinned, “But history still says I died there?”
“It does,” his mother inserted, stepping past them, “I checked before I came downstairs.”
She looked down at her hand and remembered her bad news. Then she grinned again. She held up her hand and showed it to Eddie as she started laughing.
“I put the ring on Lu Lu’s hand because she commented that I was still Lowell’s girl,” Brooksie said, still feeling a bit of hurt over it, “That was my bad news. It was really our ring.”
“So that ring would have been found in the fire,” Eddie said.
“Right next to the body of Lowell Barnes,” she added.
“So Patience Webb died in a fire in 1928.”
She nodded with a grin.
“So, how does Nena Brooks feel about spending the rest of her life with me starting in 2009?” he asked.
“As long as there are no trains to jump from, no madmen with guns, and no roller coasters, I think it would be wonderful,” she said, “Do they still have Ferris wheels?”
“Oh yes, there are still many of those around. Actually, all those things still exist, but how about we vow to stay clear of the trains and the madmen?” he replied.
“Then I think I’m ready to start a whole new life here as Brooksie.”
17
July 3, 1928
The bells of a distant church chimed the midnight hour. Ben looked down at the rubble in front of him as the firefighters put away their hoses. The news crews were still hovering behind the sawhorses, trying to get a confirmation of the rumors.
“The door must have been blown from the hinges,” the officer said from behind him.
Ben turned around and looked over at the door. It was leaning against one of the trees as though it had been intentionally placed there. He stepped past the trash can and walked over to the only remaining piece of the Wisteria ballroom.
“You see that, Webb?” the other police officer asked, “There’s a bullet imbedded in the door. I heard there was a gunfight here.”
“No gunfight,” Webb muttered, appearing lost in thought, “It was just a tragic accident.”
The officer looked over at Webb’s battered face. He had refused to tell anyone what happened. It was obvious that there was more to the story than Webb was letting out. He watched as the broken man stared at the door.
“I hear the medical examiner identified Lowell Barnes and Patience Webb,” he cautiously stated, “Is it true she was your sister?”
Webb nodded. Then he stepped back as two junior officers walked by.
“Jones,” Ben said, stopping one of the officers, “Take this door over to the park office. If they ever rebuild this place… who knows?”
Ben turned back to the charred rubble and wondered how much of this he could have prevented. The medical examiner and two investigators were still knelt beside the only two bodies taking notes and making measurements. The officer behind him put his hand on his shoulder.
“You should probably go home, Webb. The chief will definitely understand,” the man said.
“No, this happened on my watch.”
The medical examiner stood up and jotted down some more notes on his clipboard. Then he turned to Ben with a question painted across his face.
“What’s up?” Ben asked, stepping over two charred beams.
“Your sister – how tall was she?” he asked.
Ben looked down at the blackened bodies.
There were two.
Why didn’t he think of that before?
There should have been three. That Edward guy was much too determined to let Patience die. Lowell said that Edward jumped from a moving train just to rescue her. If Patience died, then Edward would have died with her.
And that wasn’t Edward next to Patience. That was definitely Lowell Barnes. There should have been three… or even four bodies. Lu Lu…
“She was 5’ 5”,” Ben said, “Why do you ask?”
“The female here is 5’ 1”,” he said, “I checked three times.”
“And the ring?”
“It’s definitely her engagement ring. It was engraved ‘To PW love LB’,” he stated.
Ben smiled. He didn’t want to smile, but it came nonetheless. Even now, he tried to wipe it away with his hand as he pretended to ponder the situation.
“She varied a lot in size depending on her shoes. Now that you mention it…”
“Uh, I’m not talking about her shoe size here, Webb,” the medical examiner said, “I measured her skeleton and…”
“Well, I never measured my sister’s skeleton, so I think you’re right,” Ben said with a friendly pat on the examiner’s back, “Patience was always about 5’ 1”. Looks like we’ve got a positive ID here. Good job, buddy.”
The medical examiner just stared at Ben as he seemed to trot joyously away from the disaster scene. The strange man was already making a statement to the news crew even before the report was signed. Shaking his head, he wrote out the name of Patience Webb and then signed his name at the bottom of the page.
The End
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Saving Brooksie Page 19
