by Patricia Fry
“The boy?” she asked.
Scott looked around, then pointed at Adam. “Michael’s boy. I saw him out there at the Old Witch Tree. He made me remember myself when I was his age.” He held his hand out to Adam. “Come here boy, will you?”
Adam glanced at Michael, who nodded and he slowly joined Scott and Aggie.
“Do you know who I am?” Scott asked.
Adam stared down at his feet, then raised is eyes and said, “No.”
Michael suggested, “Look more closely son. Like he said, he visited our camp the other night.”
Adam frowned. “Are you the one who scared me?”
Scott chuckled. “Yeah, that was me.”
Adam looked him over. “You look way different now. You look kinda like my dad and Uncle Keith.”
“I’m your grandpa, son.”
“You are?” Adam asked.
Scott nodded. He pointed at Cassie, then the two younger girls, saying, “And yours and yours and yours.”
“And Teddy?” Cassie asked. “Teddy’s grandpa?”
Scott looked confused. “Who’s Teddy?”
“Dad, can I go get him?” Adam asked.
Michael nodded. “Sure, Son.”
“This is Teddy,” Adam said, returning slowly and carefully with the infant cradled in his arms.
“Oh, isn’t he a miracle?” Scott smiled down at the infant. “Teddy, huh?”
Biscuits are ready,” Holly announced. “Anyone hungry?”
“Homemade biscuits?” Scott asked.
“With homemade jam,” Aggie said. “Let’s go sit around the dining room table and catch up with this wonderful family, shall we?”
Scott took her hand and helped her up. “By all means. Let’s do.”
****
It wasn’t until later that afternoon that the brothers had a chance to talk with Scott in private. Keith said, “I’d suggest a walk, but I guess we’d better keep you under wraps until we get the all clear.”
“All clear?” Scott asked.
“I’d like to know that they’ve caught the killer before we take you out in public.”
“Do you actually think anyone would recognize him?” Michael asked.
Keith laughed, and patted Scott on the back. “No, I guess they wouldn’t.”
“Nope,” Scott said. “No one would give us a second look. They’ll think we’re just an ordinary family—a dad out for a hike with his twin sons. And they’d be right.”
“Okay, then, let’s take a walk,” Keith said, leading the two men out onto the porch.
Before descending the few steps, Scott stopped and looked back at the house. “Hey, do you know what would make this walk even more perfect?”
“What?” Michael asked.
“If Adam joined us.”
Michael hesitated. “Um… Scott… um… we’d really like to have that elephant-in-the-room conversation with you. Will it be appropriate for Adam to hear?”
Scott thought for a moment before answering. “I can’t see why not.”
Michael nodded. “Okay then, I’ll go get him.”
“Bring the little girl, too—Cassie,” Scott suggested.
The five of them had been walking along a wide trail for about forty-five minutes, engaging in small talk and admiring the mountainside, when Adam asked Scott, “Do you know any legend stories about this mountain?”
When Scott hesitated, Michael prompted, “You know, folklore. Adam likes folklore.”
“Well, yeah, actually, I do,” Scott said. “Want to sit here in the shade and rest while I tell you all a folk story?” As soon as everyone was comfortable, Scott began, “Once upon a time…”
Michael chuckled. “That’s original.”
“I think I’ve heard this story before,” Cassie reported, straight-faced.
Keith took her on his lap. “Yeah, it does sound familiar, doesn’t it?” he joked.
Scott’s eyes twinkled in response to their attempt at humor, then he continued, “Once upon a time there was a very happy, happy prince. He had found the princess of his dreams and they planned to marry. But before they could marry, the prince met with a horrible accident that whisked him away from his family and his village and put him into a deep, deep sleep. When he awoke, he discovered that every memory of his life up to that time had been erased from his mind.” He looked at Adam, then Cassie. “Oh, he remembered how to walk and talk. He knew what a dog was and a house. But he didn’t have any memory of who he was or what his childhood was like. He didn’t remember his family or even the beautiful princess he had planned to marry.”
“He didn’t even remember where he lived?” Adam asked.
Scott shook his head. “No. He had to start all over and try to make a new life. But it was very, very hard for the prince. He didn’t have many skills—at least he couldn’t recall that he had any. He didn’t even know how to behave around other people, because he couldn’t remember any history of friendships or social activities. He felt so alone—like a newborn baby. But the prince wasn’t a newborn baby with parents who could teach him about life. He was a thirty-something-year-old man who had already learned it, but who had forgotten most of what he’d learned.”
“Wow!” Cassie said. “What did the prince do? I sure don’t know what I’d do if I’d forgotten everything. I wouldn’t want to go back to preschool, that’s for sure.”
Michael and Keith smiled.
Scott winked at Cassie. “Well, he just watched others and followed his gut—you know, his instincts—the best that he could, and he managed to get by. But that’s all he could manage—to just get by. Eventually the prince found a new wife and they had children. He was happy, but he still had a huge hole in his heart. He didn’t know what he was missing, but he had a deep longing for something.”
Scott took a swig of water, looked around at the others, and said, “Something happened one day that kind of scared the prince. He started having what seemed like dreams about other people—people he didn’t know, yet who seemed familiar to him. He liked the people in his dreams and he started spending more and more time with them—asking them questions and paying attention to the things they were doing and saying.”
“He talked to the people in his dreams?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, haven’t you ever done that?” When Adam shook his head, Scott said, “You ought to try it sometime.”
“What kind of answers were you—I mean, was the prince getting?” Keith asked.
Scott thinned his lips. “Wonderful answers; frightening answers. Things were beginning to feel familiar, yet odd. The prince got kind of scared and decided to run again—to enter the embrace of Mother Earth.” He winked. “Some people would say this was a cop-out—that the prince was hiding from his past. But the prince didn’t see it that way. When the prince was sure that the dreams he was having were real—real memories from his past, he decided to check them out, and one day he got up enough courage to visit a city he remembered and a person he remembered. That person gave the prince additional information and the prince went away, back to Mother Nature to think some more.”
“Wow,” Adam said. “What did he have to think about, now that he knew more about who he was and where he came from?”
“Well, he had to figure out if he really wanted to go back to the world he’d forgotten so many years before. By then, you see, the princess was gone. Most of the people he knew were gone.” He looked Michael and Keith in the eyes. “But then he remembered that life goes on in the bodies and spirits of others.” He addressed the brothers. “I knew about you—not that you were twins, but that your mother and I were going to have a child. I was elated.” He looked down. “When I learned about you boys just a couple of years ago, I didn’t know what to do. I felt sad to have missed all those years with you. I was afraid to approach you for fear that you’d reject me. So I just kept the status quo and continued hiding from the world and from myself.”
Adam e
yed Scott suspiciously. “Do you mean that you’re the prince in the story?”
Scott looked at the boy. “Yes, Adam. Yes, I am.”
“And the princess is my dad’s and Uncle Keith’s mother?”
Scott nodded.
Adam glanced around at everyone. “So you and… and… my dad’s mother were going to have a baby when you got hurt? Does that mean you are my dad’s real dad and my real grandpa?” He tilted his head. “So you weren’t kidding this morning when you said you were Cassie’s and my grandpa.”
Scott gazed at the brothers before responding. He swallowed hard. “Yes, son, I am your dad’s real dad and your real grandpa, and boy, am I proud of that.”
After no one had spoken for several moments, Adam volunteered, “Well, you took an awful long time to tell us about it. At least I got to know my dad when I was eight.” He lowered his head. “My mom kept me a secret from him for eight years.” He looked up. “And she didn’t even have a bad memory like you did.”
Everyone laughed.
Michael took a breath. “So what are your plans?” he asked.
“Well, I have a daughter who probably still needs me around.”
“Yes, we met Brenda,” Keith said. “Wonderful young woman. And she does love you a lot.”
“Yeah, I need to be there for her and try to make repairs in my relationship with my son, Drew.” He took a ragged breath. “I have a lot to make up to my mother.” He smiled. “What a grand lady she is.”
“Yes, she is,” Keith said, smiling. “Aggie’s one of a kind.”
“GranGran’s your mother?” Cassie asked.
Scott nodded. He looked at her for a moment, then at each of the others. “I’d love to be part of your family, if you’ll let me.”
When emotion kept the other men from speaking right away, Adam said, “Yeah, it’s okay with me. I can use all the grandpas and grandmas I can get.”
Everyone laughed and Scott hugged the boy to him.
When Keith noticed Scott waiting for his response, he said, “I’d be honored to welcome you and your children into our family.”
“Ditto,” Michael said. “Do you like to travel?”
“I’ve never done much of it, but yeah, that is something I’m interested in. Why? What are you thinking?”
“Well, you have Keith in Colorado, me in California, and Aggie in Connecticut…”
“Hey, we have all the C states covered, right?” Keith said.
Michael and Scott looked at one another. “I guess we do.”
“Except for the Carolinas,” Adam said.
They all laughed.
“Yes, I’m ready to travel. I’ll do anything I can to maintain a relationship with you boys and your families.”
Just then, Michael’s phone chimed. “A text from Savannah,” he said. After reading it, he reported, “The rangers are at the lodge.” He looked at Scott. “They want to talk to you. They’ll wait. Are you ready to go back?”
“Yes,” Scott said, letting out a long sigh. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
“By the way,” Michael said, “Savannah wrote here that they’ve caught the killer, so you’re no longer a suspect. They just want to talk to you.”
“About my debt to Wanda?” he asked.
Keith chuckled. “No. I paid that. You owe me—how about catching us a fish in payment?”
Scott thought for a moment, then slapped Keith on the back playfully. “How about I teach you to fish, then you won’t ever go hungry?”
“Deal,” Keith said, embracing his father.
Michael went in for a hug next, and Adam and Cassie squeezed in between them.
****
“So it was the husband, Brad, who did in the boyfriend, right?” Michael asked later as the adults sat on the porch watching the children play among the pine cones and pathways in front of the lodge.
Savannah nodded. “Yeah, I guess he suspected that something was going on between his wife and her coworker and he started snooping. He found Marlene’s little note in the matchbook.”
“But if he found it before she gave it to Clarence, how did Clarence know where Brad would be?” Holly asked.
Savannah frowned. “Good question. I guess she found another way to communicate that to him.”
“Certainly, she did,” Gladys said. “I mean, she must have thought she lost the matchbook.”
“Unless…” Aggie said. When everyone looked at her, she explained, “Maybe she had given her lover the matchbook and the husband found it on him after he—you know, did the deed. And he took it as evidence.”
“Or a souvenir,” Gladys said.
“Oh, that could be,” Savannah agreed. “At any rate, somehow Brad got wind that Marlene and Clarence were going to pull his plug and he decided to take the upper hand on that little plan.”
“Did Craig explain the car debacle?” Michael asked. “How did so many vehicles become wrecked? Was that some sort of ploy to confuse the cops?”
Savannah shook her head. “I don’t think so. From what Craig said, that probably wasn’t planned. He believes that Brad took Clarence’s keys, lit the car on fire, and rolled it down an embankment. He then took off in his own silver Mazda pickup, spotted the boys, who he thought might be witnesses, and tried to do them in. He panicked when his truck got stuck and managed to catch up to the boy who had the keys to Evan’s truck, and he stole it. He must have abandoned it someplace, because he said he was without wheels when we saw him at the Ridgecrest.”
Michael nodded. “Yeah, he must have ditched it. He didn’t want to be caught with a stolen vehicle. He couldn’t afford any red flags. I mean, he’d just killed someone.”
Keith looked at Scott. “So who implicated you?”
“Yeah, I was wondering that too,” Holly said. “Do you know?”
Scott winced. “All I know is that I walked into the meadow near the fork in the river that morning and saw a man lying there bleeding. I started to walk over to see if he needed help, when I heard someone coming. Well, it looked to me like the man was already dead and I know enough about incriminating circumstantial evidence to know that I was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I hot-footed it out of there. I guess someone saw me running away.” He squeezed Aggie’s hand and winked at the others. “The rest, as they say, is history.”
Just then, Adam approached Michael, out of breath. “I’m going to get that bucket I saw on the inside porch, okay, Dad?”
“Bucket?”
“Yeah, in that room where we keep our boots and jackets. I saw a bucket on a shelf in there. Cassie and I want to collect more of those small pine cones for our special wreaths.” He put his hand across his mouth. “Oops. I mean, we just want to find some pine cones, okay?” He grinned. “I almost spoiled our surprise.”
“Okay, son,” Michael said. “I’m sure it’s okay.”
When Adam returned a few minutes later, he had a puzzled look on his face. “Uh-oh, Dad—look what Cassie and I found.”
“What?” he asked.
He took on a serious tone. “Looks to us like a stash—you know, like the stash Rags has at home.”
Savannah quickly turned toward Adam. “Oh no. Let me see that.”
When the children moved closer to her, Adam started pulling things out of the bucket. “Earbuds. Are these yours, Savannah?”
She shook her head and tried to look into the bucket.
“A wallet, sort of.” He opened it. “Oh, there are fishing hooks in here.”
“Yeah, look how pretty they are,” Cassie said. “They’re made with feathers.”
Savannah reached into the bucket and pulled out a candy bar. “An Abba Zaba!” she exclaimed.
“What’s this?” Cassie asked, grasping what appeared to be a piece of clothing. Suddenly, she dropped it like a hot potato. “Oh no,” she said, pulling her hand back.
“What is it?” Holly asked, reaching for it. “A bra.” She put her hand over her mouth and star
ted to laugh. “Oh no, didn’t that fisherman guy say someone from around here was missing a brassiere?”
“Yes,” Savannah said, “… but how?” She looked down at the cat, who was tethered nearby. “There’s no way,” she insisted. “But who else would do this?” She winced and said, in a scolding manner, “Rags.”
“Oh, is that his name?” a woman asked, as she walked up. “I wondered.” When Rags approached her, she began petting him. “He’s friendly, isn’t he?” Before Savannah could respond, the woman said, “Yeah, he’s visited me most every night since I’ve been here.”
Savannah furrowed her brow. “He has?”
“Yes.” She stood and offered her hand. “I’m Lois. I’m staying at a friend’s place up yonder.”
“Hi, I’m Savannah. This is Holly.” She glanced at the others, who were deep in conversation, and decided not to disturb them.
Suddenly Lois gasped. “Wait!” she called out to Adam and Cassie. “What’s that you just took out of the bucket there? Let me see that.”
“What, these?” Adam asked, holding up a couple of things in his hands.
The woman moved closer and barked, “That’s my doily. And Tiffany’s toy kitty. Where did you kids get this stuff?” she demanded.
Hearing this, Michael leaned forward in his chair. He chuckled. “Now, just a minute. I think we can clear up this mystery rather quickly.”
Lois glanced at Michael, then focused on the bucket. “Your children have some of my things in there,” she complained. “I’m also missing a scarf—a pink bandana.”
“Well, Lois,” Michael said, “I can guarantee you the children did not take your things.”
“How can you be so sure?” she screeched. “There it is in that bucket they have. Let me see that. Is my pink bandana in there?”
Reluctantly, Cassie reached into the bucket and pulled out a scarf. She asked meekly, “Is this it?”
“Yes,” Lois said, grabbing it from her, her eyes flashing with anger. “So how did you children get your hands on these things?”
“Well, if you’ll let me explain…” Michael said, sounding a bit impatient. When she looked at him, he picked up Rags and put him on his lap. “Did I hear you say this cat has been visiting your place at night?”
