“I’ve got to go.”
“Wait, Josh. I want to thank you.”
“For what?”
“For spending time out here in this dirty old shop with Hank. He hasn’t been away from the television this long in years. If I’d known that’s all it took, I would’ve hired someone to come talk boats with him ages ago.” She still held on to his sleeve, and a note of desperation crept into her voice. “Maybe you could come back while you’re home? I could pay you to help Hank work on the boat.”
“I’ll see, Mrs. Hershberger.” Josh gave her a grim smile and patted the hand still clutching his sleeve. But right now...he couldn’t get away fast enough.
* * *
WENDY WENT THROUGH the rest of the week like a robot. She didn’t hear from Josh at all. After their last encounter, maybe it was just as well. Maybe it was for the better. She did the weather in the studio and on Friday did a remote from the bridge over Little Bear Creek. When she finished, she stood on the bridge and looked in the direction of the cabin. All she could see was part of the roofline and the chimney. No smoke was coming out.
At home, she sat on the back porch and considered her options.
Should she take the job at the local Miami station? She could go to sea as a broadcast technician. Somehow the thought of being at sea wasn’t appealing. Or there was that move to Burbank and being a spot producer.
The argument with Josh had bothered her more than she realized. Instead of appreciating what she had done, Josh had disapproved. He was an up-front kind of guy. He pulled no punches. He wouldn’t have sabotaged Joe the way she had done. But then, he wasn’t a reporter, either.
Maybe she should forget about following in her sister’s footsteps. Maybe she should just be happy where she was. Maybe she could have a boyfriend. She already had the dog.
She would do things Walt’s way for a while. She would interview Mrs. Hershberger for a nice piece about the beloved, retired teacher. Like her interview with Riley McAndrews, the piece would make people feel good. And maybe she could ask her about the weather in Antarctica. Walt would appreciate that.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE CAMERA WAS already set up, focused on the armchair perpendicular to the couch. She hadn’t widened the view so they both could be seen. Now, wandering around the old-fashioned living room while waiting for her hostess, Wendy peered at a photo on the polished surface of the upright piano in the corner of the living room.
Mrs. Hershberger was in the kitchen, having insisted on serving tea and cookies while Wendy interviewed her. In the photo, the slim young woman with dark curls wore a long white dress. The train draped around her feet like the petals of a flower. Mrs. Hershberger had been a beautiful bride. Next to her stood a broad-shouldered man in uniform.
Walt had agreed to the interview, although given Wendy’s previous experience, he was making no promises. But then, he had nothing to lose. She was conducting the interview on her own time. Sunday afternoon. Outside a freezing rain fell, but inside the house was warm and cozy. She ran her fingers over the ivory keys and found middle C.
“Do you play?” Mrs. Hershberger set a silver tray on the coffee table in front of the couch.
Wendy laughed. “I only lasted a year. Then I started playing soccer, and that was the end of piano lessons.” She perched on the edge of the overstuffed floral couch. She feared if she sat farther back she would sink so far into the cushions she wouldn’t be able to get up.
“There’s milk and sugar, if you like. I’m afraid I don’t have any lemon.” Mrs. Hershberger handed her a floral cup and saucer. “In my day, most girls took piano lessons. We didn’t have the availability of sports like they do now.”
Wendy added a splash of milk to her cup. “Really? I guess I never thought about it. Times have changed.”
“They have.” The retired teacher sat in the matching chair. “As much as I like having company, I’m not sure I have anything of value to share.”
“Let me be the judge of that, Mrs. Hershberger.”
“Call me Vera.”
Balancing her cup in one hand, Wendy reached up and turned on the camera. “Why don’t we start with why you became a teacher?”
Vera glanced up at the camera, then down at the cup in her hand. Wendy was accustomed to people being shy around cameras. Her job was to make them forget the camera was there. “Have you always liked children?”
“Actually, no.”
Here we go.
“Being the youngest in a family of six, I wasn’t accustomed to being around little ones. I planned to teach science at the high school level. I was in my third year at Florida State when I got a job working with a young boy who had been blind from birth.”
Wendy leaned forward. “Wait a minute. You’re from Florida? I thought you went to Penn State.”
“I earned my master’s at Penn State, and I’m originally from Delaware. That’s where I met Hank. We were childhood sweethearts, you might say.”
Forgetting how soft the cushions were, Wendy leaned back, sinking deep into the sofa. She glanced at the camera, wondering if her imitation of a turtle on its back was being filmed. Major editing would need to be done. Balancing her cup on the couch’s arm, she scooted forward. When she was once more upright, she retrieved her cup. Where was she? Oh right, discovering that there was more to the retired teacher than she had realized.
“You went to Florida even though Hank lived in Delaware?”
“Hank was in the Coast Guard and gone most of the time. We managed to see each other enough to keep the sparks flying.” She smiled. “I spent a summer helping Roger prepare for public school. After that summer, I changed my major to elementary education. I never looked back.”
Wendy was amazed. “Do you know what happened to Roger?”
The teacher nodded, a proud smile on her face. “He started his own software company. He’s asked Hank and I to come to Florida for years. First we were both busy working, and then after the accident...” Her enthusiasm seemed to deflate like air out of a child’s balloon.
Wendy’s mind buzzed. So many threads to follow. And she thought this interview would be boring. Then she remembered a conversation between Holly and Louise. “Did you go to Antarctica last year?”
The woman blushed. “Silly, isn’t it? Old lady like me.”
“Are you kidding? I think it’s fabulous.” Without even realizing she was doing it, she glanced around the living room at the out-of-date furniture.
“The senior class paid for the trip.”
Wendy felt heat from embarrassment creep into her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to...”
“We don’t have the money for trips like that. Last year’s senior class remembered me talking about wanting to do a trip when they were in first grade. Can you believe it? They did a fund-raiser for me. I was just flabbergasted. I wasn’t going to go, but Hank insisted. He said I might never have another opportunity.”
“You’re still interested in science, aren’t you?”
Vera nodded. “Now that I have time, I research environmental issues that have always fascinated me. The ocean, for one. Hank used to tell me such stories of the things he observed out at sea. I saw a story on the news the other night about a fish that can be trained to recognize a human face. That’s fascinating, don’t you think?”
Wendy nodded. She had seen the same show. Her sister had done an interview with a member of the British royal family earlier in the program.
“Wait a minute. She’s your sister, isn’t she?” Vera looked as if she had just put two and two together. “Rose mentioned something about your sister being a well-known reporter, but I didn’t figure it out until now. Your sister is Katie Valentine.”
Wendy set her empty cup on the table and picked up her tablet. She had just lost momentum. The death knell to any g
ood interview. Maybe she should stick to the weather. “Yes, Mrs. Hershberger—”
“Vera.”
“Vera. Katie is my sister.”
“I can see the resemblance. You’re both such lovely looking women. I just remembered. I have a photo album from my trip. Come with me.”
Putting the camera on pause, Wendy hefted it and the tripod, and accompanied her hostess to the kitchen.
“Have a seat.” She pulled a photo album from a bookshelf and laid it on the table. “This is the ship I was on. They converted a research vessel into a passenger cruise ship.”
Wendy pushed the On button. “When did you go?”
“January is their summer. We saw whales, fur seals, baby chicks. The Antarctica peninsula has long days. We could read a newspaper on deck at midnight.” She glanced out the kitchen window. “Oh my goodness.”
Wendy looked up at the sound of alarm in Vera’s voice and followed the woman’s gaze to the window. An elderly man in a wheelchair, clearly freezing from the icy rain, inched his way from a garage to a ramp leading into the house. She recognized the square jaw. The man in the wheelchair was the broad-shouldered groom in the wedding photograph. But now he was drenched.
* * *
“PLEASE, JOSHUA. It would mean so much to me.”
How could he refuse Mrs. Hershberger? The answer was he couldn’t. So for the remainder of the week he had been spending time with the teacher’s wheelchair-bound husband, putting two coats of paint on the boat. In between coats of paint, he had dusted off the weights and generally straightened up the man’s workshop. Almost five days had passed since he’d loaded up the pickup to leave. Maybe Hank would never put his boat in the water and skim across the lake, but at least when he sold it he would get the most money for it.
“I thought you’d be gone by now.” Brad Hunter stood in the doorway of Josh’s old bedroom.
“It’s not for lack of trying.” Josh stared at the collection of things in his closet. A baseball bat. Textbooks. Odd and ends of his teenage years. After the shock of seeing Hank Hershberger confined to a wheelchair, Josh had needed an escape. He had tried fishing, but couldn’t seem to relax. Today with the freezing rain, fishing was out. He had finally succumbed to cabin fever. With nowhere else to go, he had gone home.
“Or did you come back for your stuff? Like your mother wants to.”
Josh reached for his baseball mitt. He shoved his hand into it, feeling the soft leather against his fingers. Those innocent days were so long ago. He pounded his fist into the palm. “If you don’t mind, I’d just as soon leave everything right where it is.” He suddenly remembered his mother mentioning his father moving to Colorado with the girlfriend. Maybe he still planned to go, girlfriend or not. “You’re not moving, are you?”
“I thought about moving, but things didn’t work out.” His father shook his head. “Want a burger?”
Josh nodded. His father walked away, and Josh closed the closet door and followed him to the kitchen. “Don’t you get tired of hamburgers?”
“I’m not much of a cook.”
Josh sat. “Listen, I wanted to tell you something the other day.”
“That you can’t stand to be around me? Yeah, I got the message.” A cast-iron skillet dropped on the stove with a clang.
“No, Dad, that’s not it at all.”
The meat began to sizzle.
Josh pulled two more of the Valentines’ cherry sodas from the refrigerator and put the bag of chips on the table without asking his father. Waiting for the hamburgers to be ready, Josh noticed all trace of his mother had disappeared from the familiar kitchen.
“So what did you want to tell me?”
Josh stared down at his plate. Eight years he had kept the secret. Eight years he hadn’t told anyone what he’d done. “That night in May when I asked you for the car and you said no. Remember?”
Brad nodded. “You keep bringing that up. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Lots of parents refuse—”
“I took Dr. Reed’s car out.” He glanced up to see his father’s reaction.
His dad’s face was impassive. “You two took the car out quite a bit, as I remember. Dr. Reed liked you. That was part of the reason I let you handle the contract.”
“Dr. Reed was at a conference in Philadelphia that night.” Josh cleared his throat. “I took the car out alone.”
Brad’s eyes lit with awareness. “Uh-huh. You dent it up a little? I heard the doctor’s daughter is selling the car. You feeling a little guilty because it’s not mint anymore?”
Josh shook his head. “No. I mean, yes, I damaged the car some, but I fixed it.”
“Fair enough. No one will ever be the wiser. No harm, no foul.”
Josh pushed back his chair and walked over to the sink. He looked out the kitchen window. The bird feeder hanging in the maple tree in the backyard was empty. He wondered when it had been filled last. At the far end of the property was his father’s garage where all his lawn care equipment was kept. The garage was about the same size as Hank Hershberger’s. The two men were similar in a way. Physical men, with lots of hobbies and outdoor activities. “I hit somebody.” Behind him he heard his father reach into the chip bag.
“What are you talking about? When?”
“That night. The night I asked you for the car.” Josh turned and leaned back against the sink. He thrust his hands into his pockets and shut his eyes. “I hit Hank Hershberger.”
“Hey, man, where you been all weekend? I thought we were going to play a little ball.” Tony Gabriel slammed shut his locker door and turned to eye best friends Susie and Marcia as they walked past him in the hall. Tony couldn’t seem to make up his mind who he liked better so he flirted with them both.
Josh usually told his best friend everything. This time he didn’t. He had worked all day Sunday fixing the dent in the right front fender of the classic car. As long as nobody went into the garage until the paint dried, he was home free. “I had stuff to do at Dr. Reed’s.”
Tony knew Josh maintained the grounds at the mansion. “Your old man put you to work. That figures.”
Josh thought it a good story, so went with it.
“Hey, you hear about the hit-and-run?”
“What are you talking about?” Josh asked.
“Somebody hit Mrs. Hershberger’s husband Saturday night.”
“No kidding? That’s too bad. She’s my favorite teacher.”
“She’s everybody’s favorite teacher.” They walked across the hall and entered homeroom. Tony’s gaze immediately sought out Susie. He and Josh sat in the back of the room. Josh pulled out the book he was to be reading for English lit. Maybe he could get a chapter done. He was halfway through the chapter when he heard the words Last Chance Road. He looked up. The homeroom teacher stood at the door talking with the math teacher. He strained to listen.
“...always go on a walk right after supper, but she had papers to grade. She didn’t even know he was hit until Chief Stone came to the door.”
“I heard he’s in a coma. Not expected to live.” The math teacher looked over his shoulder toward his classroom across the hall. His eyes widened in alarm, and he rushed away. Josh could hear him admonishing the students to get back to work.
Josh’s heart seized. He had hit a deer. He was sure of it. He slipped a scrap of paper in his book and walked up to the teacher’s desk. “Did Mrs. Hershberger’s husband have a heart attack?”
The woman shook her head. “He was hit by a car. The scumbag didn’t even stop to see if he was okay. Just left him there in the road. Who could do something like that?”
His father stood frozen at the stove. “You didn’t know you hit him?” The burgers sizzled away, unnoticed.
Josh shook his head. “I thought I hit a deer. Did you know Hank?”
Josh straightened. “You don’t think I need to confess?”
“Are you kidding? You could go to jail.” His father checked the burgers, pushing them around in the skillet. “You know, I wondered.”
Josh peered at his father, who avoided his gaze. The hamburgers no longer smelled good. “You wondered what, Dad?” He should’ve talked to Matt back in Montana, or someone else here. Maybe Hawkeye would’ve given him a logical answer, one based on common sense.
His dad’s jaw tightened. He carried the skillet of burned meat to the garbage can, tossed it in and then walked over to the window. “Those birds are probably missing your mother.”
Josh kept his silence. Was his father really talking about the birds? Brad Hunter was a man who kept his thoughts and feelings inside. If Josh interrupted now, he might never know what his father had wondered about. And he had to know. So he waited.
Brad rattled the faucet. “I’ve been meaning to tighten this.” Then, as if his mind were made up, he walked over to Josh and rested his hands on his shoulders. “That weekend Hank Hershberger ended up in the hospital...you changed. I thought maybe it was because all you kids had his wife for first grade and liked her so much. But after a week or so, the other kids went back to normal.” He squeezed Josh’s shoulders. “You didn’t.”
Josh raised his head and met his father’s gaze. His voice was quiet. “Why didn’t you ask?”
“I hoped I was wrong. I thought maybe the change in you was because your mother and I weren’t getting along. I guess I should have asked. Maybe you wouldn’t have gone through all the turmoil you’ve had.”
Josh reached up and rested his hand on his father’s. “If it’s any consolation, I doubt it would have made any difference.”
An Allegheny Homecoming Page 14
