In Another Time

by Cate Buchanan

  Josie turned around and said, “Well, aren’t you going to stay? I’m sure she’ll want to see you.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. I feel like she should be with her family now anyway. I don’t want to be in the way. Sadie knows where I’m staying.”

  “I tell you what. Why don’t you come over tomorrow, say around one o’clock and have some cake and ice cream with us? We’d love to have you there. I’m sure Lala would want you to come, too. Please?” she implored touching her hand to his sleeve.

  “Thank you for the invitation. But, please, have Sadie call me. If she thinks it’s a good idea, I’ll come. I certainly need to speak with Lillian to clear up things, but I’m not sure if that will be the best time. Lillian thinks I’m a figment of her imagination. I don’t know how she’ll feel when she learns that I’m really here. Maybe she needs a little time to decide if she even wants to see me. Please let Sadie know I’ll be waiting for her call one way or the other.” He covered her hand with his and patted it, then slipped through the noisy crowd and out into the night.

  *****

  With a wrinkled brow, Josie watched him leave wondering why Lala wouldn’t want to see him. He’d said they were old friends so his behavior baffled her, but she didn’t have time to mull over it. There was a slew of people waiting to be served.

  Coming from the breakroom, Sadie looked over the crowd until she spied Josie delivering an order to a table at the front. She walked up, leaned in close and whispered, “Josie, have you seen Sam?”

  “Yes. He left the breakroom right behind me. He said you know where he’s staying and asked that you call him and let him know if you think Lala’s feeling well enough to see him. He thinks she needs a little time to be alone with her family first, and he’s worried about her health after her fainting spell.”

  “So, he just left? Without waiting to see if she was okay? He said he came here to see her. You’d think he’d have the decency to hang around and talk to her. Something’s not adding up. I think I’ll pay Mr. Evanston a visit tonight,” Sadie huffed out the words.

  Josie shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “You know him better than I do.”

  “Ugh, this has been quite the week from…well, you know!” Sadie sighed and rolled her eyes before stomping back to the breakroom.

  Chapter 27

  Aftershock

  Walking back to the inn, Sam was so shaken, he didn’t know what to think or do. Twice he’d slowed his pace and thought he’d go back to Comfort & Joy. One of those times he’d actually stopped and turned back, but he’d only taken a few hesitant steps before stopping again and swinging back in the direction of the inn. All he’d wanted to do was take Lillian in his arms and never let her go again. He couldn’t believe it was her. Seeing her had totally caught him off guard. His head was swimming with the magnitude of what had just happened.

  Lillian was alive! She was here! But she thought he wasn’t real.

  His emotions were all over the place.

  As soon as he’d grasped that it really was Lillian’s voice he’d heard in Comfort & Joy, he was afraid that he might pass out, too. His heart had been beating so fast, and he’d felt weak in the knees, so he’d stayed seated until he could gather enough nerve to stand and turn to face her. Then as he rose and whispered her name and she’d fainted, all his strength had come rushing back to him. He just knew he had to be the one to carry her out of view of the nosy, gawking crowd. His impulse to protect her had overruled his fear of her rejection of him.

  *****

  Sadie grabbed her coat off the back of the chair where she and Sam had been sitting and hurried back to gather Lala.

  She couldn’t believe the way the night had turned out. Her plan to put Sam on the spot and find out if he was, in fact, her grandfather was foiled. She didn’t even get an entire question out of her mouth before she recognized Lala hugging Aunt Joy. Then when Lala had seen Sam, Sadie thought how lucky it’d been that she and Aunt Joy had been standing so close to her when she went down, or she could have really been hurt.

  She thought that maybe in the next few days she’d bring up the subject of a checkup at the doctor’s office to Lala, just so they’d all feel better about her seemingly fragile state. Of course, she’d looked as though she’d seen a ghost. Forty-five years was a long time not to see someone, but it shouldn’t have resulted in Lala passing out, although flying all day couldn’t have helped either. Lala, like most people, didn’t particularly like airplane food, so she probably hadn’t eaten all day. Even so, Sadie thought it’d be wise to have her doctor check her health.

  “Okay, Lala. Let’s get out of here and get you home. Here, let me help you to your feet. Stand up slowly now, okay?” Sadie encouraged as she and Aunt Joy took Lala by her elbows helping her stand.

  “Sadie, can you stay with Mother tonight? I don’t think we should leave her by herself,” Joy asked.

  “Now, I’m just fine, sweetheart. Although, I would enjoy the company,” Lillian replied smiling sweetly at Sadie. “It’s only seven o’clock, but it’s been a long day. I think I’m good for a cup of tea and some talk before bed though,” she added. With tears swimming in her eyes she looked at each of them. “I’ve truly missed you all so much.”

  “We’ve missed you too, Mother. I don’t want you staying up too late, though. Blacking out the way you did tells me that your body’s just exhausted. There’ll be many more days for chatting about your trip and our filling you in about what you’ve missed here. Don’t overdo it tonight, promise?” Joy prodded as they walked toward the front of the café.

  “Okay, okay. I promise. I’m feeling a little weak anyway, and having Sadie there will help. As soon as we get there, I’ll get ready for bed. We’ll be fine.”

  “I have a quick errand to attend to but I’ll tuck you into bed first,” Sadie informed them. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes. Then we can talk in the morning before heading over to Aunt Joy’s birthday party, okay?” Sadie said helping Lala get comfortable in the front seat of the car.

  “That’s fine, dear. I’ll probably be asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. The tea usually does the trick.” Lillian offered.

  “See you in the morning, Mother. Get a good night’s rest, okay? I love you, and I’m so glad you’re home.” Joy pecked her on the check and then closed the car door. She continued waving until the car turned the corner and drove out of sight.

  *****

  Joy placed her hand over her heart, looked up at the twinkling stars and whispered, “Oh, Bash. I miss you so much, my love. I hope Mother’s okay.”

  After giving herself a few moments to get composed, she walked inside and started helping the staff get orders ready to be taken out to the stream of customers that just kept coming through the front door.

  Chapter 28

  “Here we are, Lala,” Sadie said pulling into the driveway. “Just give me a second, and I’ll come around and help you up the steps. Do you have your key, or do I need to use mine?”

  “My house key is on the ring with the car key, dear. I can manage to get up the steps. Will you carry my bags in, please?” Lala said smiling sweetly across the front seat.

  “How about I help you up the steps then come back and get your bags? You have no business climbing steps unaided after your fainting spell,” Sadie insisted and Lillian acquiesced.

  Once inside the house, Sadie walked Lala to her favorite chair then went into the kitchen and ran the water for a few seconds before filling a glass for them both. Sitting across from her grandmother she asked, “You doing okay, Lala? You’re still a little pale. I'm worried about you.”

  “Oh, honey, I’m fine. I’m just a little tired.”

  “Let’s sit here for a while and talk, then I’ll get your bags from the car. I’ve really missed you!”

  “Sweetheart, I’ve missed you too. I had the best time! I have so many pictures to develop and share with everyone. We saw some of the most amazing places.” Then, studying Sadie
’s face she asked, “Is everything all right, dear? You seem a bit troubled.”

  “Well, your fainting spell has me a bit worried, but I’m okay. It’s been a crazy week is all. I have a lot to tell you, but you’re tired and we’ve got lots of time to talk later. I’m just so glad that you’re home. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve missed you,” Sadie said. Rising from her seat, she walked over to Lillian, leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “Let’s get you upstairs so you can get ready for bed. I’ll put the tea pot on, run out to the car and get your bags, and when the tea’s ready, I’ll bring it up and we can drink it in your room. How does that sound?”

  “Lovely, dear. It sounds just lovely. I am feeling quite tired.” Lillian yawned and patted Sadie’s arm.

  By the time Sadie helped her up to her room, gathered her luggage from the car, brewed the tea and carried it up the stairs to her room, Lillian could barely keep her eyes open. Sadie tucked her into bed, kissed her forehead, and said, “I’ve got to run out, but I’ll be back in just a little bit. Goodnight. I love you.”

  Lillian’s eyes fluttered and she said, “I love you too, dear. ‘Night. I’ll see Sam in the morning.” Smiling, she turned onto her side and began breathing deeply.

  *****

  Driving to the inn, Sadie couldn’t get it out of her mind. Had Lala really said, “I’ll see Sam in the morning”? She wasn’t sure if she’d heard her correctly. Lala had said she’d imagined that she’d seen someone she used to know, so maybe telling her that Sam really was there might not be as difficult as she thought it was going to be. Still, she had fainted when she’d thought she’d seen him.

  Sadie walked through the inn’s sprawling front doors and over to the reservation desk where Joshua was attending to some paperwork behind it.

  “Hi, Joshua. Is Mr. Evanston in?” she asked smiling.

  “Well hello, Sadie. Long time, no see. How have you been?” he asked sincerely.

  “I’m good. A little tired. Midterms this week, you know,” she intoned.

  Shaking his head knowingly because he and his wife Celia were both retired professors, he replied, “Oh, I’m sure you did great. When do you get your grades?”

  “Fall break is Monday and Tuesday, so I’ll find out Wednesday. It sure makes for a long weekend,” she uttered.

  “Yes, it does. I remember grading all those tests,” he said with a chuckle. “But I’ll bet you did just fine. Now, about Mr. Evanston, I think he came in earlier while I was in the back. Let me ring his room.” Joshua raised his eyes and bobbed his head before saying, “Good evening, Mr. Evanston. Miss Connelly is here to see you. May I send her up? Okay. Okay,” he said nodding his head and looking quizzically at her. When he hung up the phone, he didn’t look directly at Sadie which she thought was odd. “Um, Mr. Evanston requests that you only come up if you’re going to be amenable to what he has to say. He also asked if you’re alone. You are alone, aren’t you?” He looked past her to the front door of the inn.

  “Why yes. You don’t see someone standing beside me, do you?” she replied, perturbed.

  “I didn’t know if someone was outside parking your car or had slipped into the parlor while we were visiting. Mr. Evanston’s voice sounded a little strained, which I thought was strange. He seems like such a pleasant man.”

  “I’m sorry, Joshua. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I have a pretty good guess who he thought the other person might be, but I’m alone. I’m the only one he has to deal with tonight,” she said solemnly.

  Joshua came out from behind the desk and asked her to follow him. He led the way up the stairs and a few steps down the hall to the first guest room on the right. Gently, he tapped on the door and said, “Mr. Evanston, it’s Joshua. I have Miss Connelly with me.”

  Sadie drew a deep breath and gathered the nerve she needed to face Sam and ask the questions she desperately wanted answers to.

  Sam slowly opened the door and veered around it until he could verify that Sadie had come alone. Then he swung it open and invited her to join him inside.

  “Joshua, will you bring us a bottle of bourbon and a couple of glasses. You do like bourbon?” he said looking at Sadie.

  “I do, but please, just a cola for me. I’m driving,” she said nodding at Joshua.

  When Joshua left, Sam closed the door and looked wearily at Sadie. “Please, have a seat. That reading chair is very comfortable.” He pointed to the chair next to the bed.

  “Nice room. Joshua and his wife did a great job restoring this old place,” Sadie commented as she admired the antique furnishings and other quality decor in the room.

  “Yes, it’s quite comfortable,” Sam agreed. “Is Lillian all right?” he asked tightly.

  “She’s asleep. She was exhausted,” Sadie replied.

  An uncomfortable silence followed as they waited for Joshua’s return. Sam sat at the desk and nervously shuffled some papers around on it. Finally, Joshua tapped on the door. He walked in and set the drinks and glasses they’d ordered on top of the desk then slipped quietly out of the room.

  Sam poured Sadie’s cola into the ice-filled glass and handed it to her then poured the bourbon straight up into the other glass.

  “Now, before all the commotion broke out this evening, you said you had some questions for me. I assume that’s why you’re here?” He sat in the desk chair and crossed his long legs waiting for her response.

  “Well, yes, that, and I now have a couple new questions to ask you. Is that okay?”

  “Certainly, let’s get to it,” he responded sipping from his glass and patiently waiting for the grilling to begin.

  “Well, I guess my first question is why are you here to see Lala after forty-five years? I mean, surely, there were many times you could’ve come back to see her before now. I know you live in California and all, but still.”

  “That’s a fair question, and I also think it will help you to better understand why she fainted tonight when she saw me. You see, Sam Evanston has been dead for forty-five years. So, when she saw me, she probably thought she was seeing a ghost.”

  Chapter 29

  Revelations

  “Dead? Where’d she get the idea that you’ve been dead all that time? Assuming you really are Sam Evanston, that is,” she remarked skeptically.

  Sam continued, “Yes, I’m Sam Evanston, but for forty-four years I was Sandy Evans.”

  Sadie’s brows furrowed and she said, “What? Why did you change your name? Did you want to hide from Lala?”

  Sam sighed, drew another sip, and continued. “No, nothing like that. You see, during an airstrike in World War II, I suffered a head injury which caused me to have pure retrograde amnesia. In other words, I lost all my memories from before the injury.

  “For several days I went in and out of consciousness before I was transported from the hospital in England to the Army hospital in Long Beach, California. After I got there, I remained unconscious for almost two weeks before I came to, but my mind was literally a blank slate. I was scared to death. I could barely speak because I’d lost my ability to put words together to make sentences, and later, I could only stand for a few seconds on wobbly legs because I’d been bedridden for over two weeks. I had to learn everything again. Things that as adults we take for granted.

  “The day I woke up, an orderly stepped into my room and noticed that my eyes were open. His eyes grew wide and he ran to get a nurse. She rushed into my room, checked my vitals, then gingerly took my hand and asked if I could tell her my name. I was completely bewildered. I didn’t know who I was, where I was, what had happened to me, what year it was, nothing. I knew absolutely nothing. Terrified, I looked into her eyes and shook my head from side to side. She bent low to my face and softly whispered that my name was Sandy Evans. The name meant nothing to me. She pulled back for a moment, sighed, and I caught what I realize now was a look of guilty relief on her face. Then she looked at me so sorrowfully, took my hand and added that I was her husband. Her eyes were s
o soft and sad. How could I not believe her? Later that week on one of her daily visits, she told me that we had a son, Donald, who was almost a year old. I was completely perplexed. How could I forget my own wife and son? How could I forget who I was?”

  Sadie sat staring incredulously at hearing how Sam had been tricked.

  “Over the next few days, she filled in more details of our life. I didn’t remember any of it. Nothing sounded familiar. But I know now that it hadn’t been my life to remember.

  “Days later, upon my urging, she’d told me what had happened during my mission. Of the ten-man crew on my plane, one had perished. She said the commanding officer of the base in Los Angeles had called her to his office and told her the circumstances of the accident and that her husband, Sandy Evans, was alive but had sustained a serious head injury and was unconscious. He also told her that the only soldier who’d died was Sam Evanston, that her husband had received the head injury while trying to save his life.

  “Telling me all of that, she’d burst into tears then, and when I asked her why she was so distraught, she said that she was just so grateful to have me back alive.

  “I felt so awful, and I was extremely angry with myself. Not only couldn’t I remember Jeanette and my son, I couldn’t remember the brave, young soldier who’d died. Nothing. My mind was a void, a dark chasm of nothingness.

  “For another week I lay in that hospital bed every day straining to conjure up memories of my life before the accident. Blankness. Nothing came back to me. I couldn’t remember my childhood. I didn’t know what my mother and father looked like. I didn’t even know if I had any siblings. Everything I learned about my life, I learned from Jeanette. I had no memories of my own. I didn’t recognize anybody, not even myself.

  “Over the next couple of weeks, I also learned from her that I’d never known my biological parents or if I’d had any siblings. She said I’d been adopted when I was a year old by a farming couple in Oklahoma who couldn’t have children, and that when I was only three years old, my adoptive father, who’d been hard of hearing due to a childhood illness, had been out driving one day and at a railway crossing hadn’t heard the train’s whistle warning him not to drive across the tracks. He’d been killed instantly. Jeanette shared with me that I’d told her about another boy they’d adopted who worked on the farm. I think she said his name was Everett. But he wasn’t really my brother, and I didn’t remember any of them, so I had only Jeanette and Donald to cling to.