Wings and Faith

by Joy Redmond

  Don held up his hand. “I don’t judge, Sis. That’s not my job. I don’t approve of the arrangement, but I don’t have to answer for it. I’ll take them over to look at it and if they want it, then I’ll help you get them moved in. You sure don’t need them shacked up in your house around the little ones. Abbie is going on twelve. She knows what’s going on. Maybe they’ll get married before Tina is old enough to know they’re living in sin.”

  Don yelled from the front door, “Anne, don’t bring anything in here. We’ll take everything over to the apartment. I just rented it to Kati and her boyfriend.”

  Anne called back, “I just heard. I can’t believe that you’re going to rent to an unmarried couple, but—” Anne didn’t finish her sentence and Mandy was glad.

  Five hours later, the apartment was spic-and-span and all of Kati’s, Tina’s, and Tim’s things had been loaded and taken over to the apartment.

  “The utilities are in my name, so you don’t have to make a deposit for them to be put in your name. But if the utility bill isn’t paid each month along with rent, I will disconnect them. I’m not made of money and I’ve done all I can to help you,” Don said.

  “I’ll pay them, sir. Thank you,” Tim said, and held his hand out.

  Don shook hands, but he didn’t have a happy look on his face.

  Mandy kissed Tina. “Nana will be over to see you every day. I know you won’t understand why Nana isn’t with you every night, since she has been since you were four months old, but I’m not out of your life.” She hugged Tina tightly. “And you didn’t understand a word I said.”

  Mandy stood Tina on the floor. She hugged Kati, who stood stiff as a board. “I love you. Someday, when and if you ever have the sole responsibility of paying bills and keeping your child or children clothed and fed and a roof over their heads, then and only then, will you understand. You’ve been provided for all your life. You have no idea about working and paying bills.”

  Kati barely whispered, “I love you too. Just don’t forget to come see Tina. She’ll cry for you.”

  “I said I’d come by every day. She’ll adjust quicker than you think.”

  Mandy went home and sank into the soft cushions of the couch. She stroked Fluffy. “I never thought I’d ever say this, but I’m glad Kati is out of the house. And as much as I love Tina, it’s nice that she won’t be destroying everything in her path. She’s broken every doo-dad that I was foolish enough to set out. Now I can redecorate and enjoy my home. And Abbie will be happy that Tina isn’t in her room getting into all her things.”

  She closed her eyes, wondering if she’d see something that would let her know what was going on with Tony. He hadn’t called, and every time she called her parents they said he was out. She kept her eyes closed for a few more minutes, waiting. No visions. No vibes.

  She continued to stoke Fluffy’s ears. “I miss Tony, but he’s become a stranger to me. I can’t seem to communicate with him anymore. He’s on a path of destruction. All I can do is what I did with Kati. I’ll just be ready to help him pick up the pieces when his world falls apart. And that reminds me, I’m tired of mother’s weekly phone calls, crying and fussing because I haven’t been to see her and Dad. So, next weekend, Abbie and I will make the trip.”

  Fluffy howled and jumped from the couch. “Calm down. You don’t have to ride in the car. You can stay home. I’ll put a big bowl of food and water on the porch. You can stay out there for two days and one night. You’ll be fine.” Fluffy calmed down and lay at Mandy’s feet.

  It was then that Mandy realized that nothing strange had happened since Fluffy had mysteriously found his way home. She got up from the couch and took a tour of her home. She had painstakingly hung her mother’s beautiful oils in every room of the house. Her three favorites were hanging over the bookcase in her bedroom. She had used sturdy wall hangers and all pictures were secure.

  Abbie couldn’t sleep that night and she came into her mother’s bedroom carrying Fluffy. “Mama,” she whispered. “Fluffy is acting funny. It’s like there’s something in my bedroom that he doesn’t like. Can we sleep with you?”

  Mandy scooted over and they got into bed with her. They were in a sound sleep when a loud crash and the sound of shattering glass woke them. Mandy jumped out of bed and flipped on the ceiling light. Fluffy made a beeline down the hallway. Abbie sat up in the middle of the bed, her eyes wide. Then she and Mandy gasped. The three oil paintings over the bookcase had fallen, knocking over the doo-dads on the top shelf, and they were shattered on the floor.

  Mandy pulled at the wall hangers. They were secure. She checked the wires across the back of the paintings. None were broken.

  Abbie said, “IT is back, Mama.”

  Mandy hugged her tightly and said, “I think you’re right. But IT just likes to play tricks so there’s nothing to fear.”

  “Fluffy knew IT was in my bedroom,” Abbie said.

  “I can’t argue with that,” Mandy answered, wondering if IT was trying to tell Abbie something.

  Fluffy was crying to go out on the back porch, so Mandy went down the hallway, opened the sliding glass door and let him out. She watched him make three laps around the porch, ignore his litter box, then he wanted back inside. She made sure the latch was hooked on the screen door.

  She went back inside and locked the sliding glass door. She went back to her bedroom where she found Fluffy lying on her pillow. “Get over on Abbie’s pillow and don’t be slapping me in the face with your tail all night. I don’t know what’s come over you.”

  Fluffy crawled over on Abbie’s pillow and Mandy crawled back into bed. She had just dozed off when suddenly she was startled by the sound of the screen door banging. She got up and headed to the back porch. The door was opening and shutting as if somebody was slamming it with great force. She hooked it again, then headed back to bed.

  Before she reached her bedroom, the banging started again. She wasn’t going to stay up all night and play silly games with IT. The screen door opened and slammed shut three more times, then stopped.

  The next morning, Mandy went into the kitchen, glanced out the window over the sink, and she could see the screen door was hooked. She smiled and said, “It was nice of you to hook it back.”

  After the coffee had brewed, she went to the front porch and picked up the newspaper. Then she poured a cup of coffee, and headed for the back porch. She opened the sliding glass door, stepped out onto the back porch, and stood a few minutes, looking upward, soaking in the beauty of the majestic mountains that surrounded her. She inhaled the fresh mountain air which filled her soul with jubilation.

  Then she looked down and her eyes bugged out and she gasped. There the in the center of the outside table was a long-stemmed red rose. She picked it up and let the sweet fragrance fill her nostrils. She had never smelled a rose with such a sweet aroma. It was intoxicating.

  She sat down and continued to sniff the rose and she pondered. She didn’t have any rose bushes. Her neighbors didn’t have rose bushes. Who had delivered a long-stemmed red rose? What did it mean?

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  A month passed and there wasn’t another happening after the rose. Tony started coming for weekend visits, Tim brought Kati and Tina, and they ate the evening meal together. I’m still feeding them but I enjoy it so much I won’t worry about the extra groceries. As long as I have food, my children will be fed, she said to herself as they ate, laughed, and enjoyed the meal.

  Mandy was glad she didn’t have to pay a babysitter for Abbie, and she didn’t have to worry about her. Abbie and Karen, who lived across the street, were still best friends. They knew the rules and they obeyed. Mandy always called home at noon. Abbie always answered the phone, and she would tell Mandy what she and Karen were doing.

  One Friday afternoon, Mandy came home from work and found Abbie and Karen sitting out on the screened-in back porch. Abbie was telling Karen about Fluffy and how he had managed to unlatch and latch the screen door, then jump i
nto a deep box. Fluffy meowed as if he were laughing. Mandy’s heart warmed. Then she heard the doorbell. ‘Well, for heaven’s sake. The kids are here early,” she said and went to the door.

  The wooden door was open and she gasped when she saw Lee and Teddy standing in front of the storm door. She ran across the floor and flung open the door, then she flung her arms around Lee’s neck. She hugged him tightly, then hugged Teddy. “My goodness! You two are the last people on earth I expected to see.” She peered around them. “Where’s Maylee and Jimmy?”

  “Well, let me come in and I’ll tell you,” Lee said.

  “I’m sorry. I lost my head there for a minute. Come in,” she said, as they stepped into the foyer. “We can go into the living room, or we can go to the TV room.”

  Lee walked into the kitchen and pulled a chair from the end of the table, and Teddy pulled a chair from the other side. “We’ll be fine here. Do you have any beer?”

  “No. I don’t keep beer. This is a dry county or I’d make a beer run. I’ve got—”

  Before Mandy finished her sentence, Lee looked at Teddy. “Go out to the car and bring Daddy a couple of beers out of the cooler.”

  Mandy pulled out a chair and sat as close to Lee as she could. “I can’t believe you’re here. It’s so good to see you.” Shivers ran through her body. This is more than a surprise visit. Something is wrong, she thought, as Teddy set two beers in front of his daddy and Lee popped a top.

  “I’ve been transferred to Colorado. Maylee and Jimmy are taking turns driving and they’re going to drive it straight through. I wanted to swing by here and see you and Don before I head out.”

  “Well, I hate to know that you’ll be that far away, but I know when you’re in the Army, you’ll be sent all over hell and creations. I’m just glad you and Teddy came by. And you came on the perfect day. Don, Anne, and their two kids are coming for supper, and so are Kati and Tina. We’ll all be together for a meal. This is awesome!” Mandy felt her eyes tear up but she fought them. She just reached over and patted Lee’s hand. Another goodbye. Will I ever get used to it?

  “What time is everybody coming?” Lee asked.

  “In a couple hours. I need to start cooking but you sit right there and talk to me while I get the food going.”

  In her excitement, Mandy forgot about Abbie being out on the porch. She walked over to call her and saw the back porch was empty. “Well, I guess she went over to Karen’s house. She’ll be back—”

  Abbie came bursting through the front door and ran into the kitchen, crying out, “Uncle Lee! When did you get here? ”

  Lee pulled Abbie into his lap. He laughed, hugged Abbie, then said, “So what’s going on with you? You’ve become a young lady. Do you have any boyfriends? Do you kiss them nasty boys?”

  Abbie pushed on Lee’s chest. “No. I hate boys!”

  “That’s my girl,” Lee said.

  Mandy saw Lee’s eyes tear up. Then she noticed that Teddy was just sitting quietly as if he had no emotions to show. He just takes things in stride. Being an Army brat has to be hard on him. He’ll be a senior in high school this coming year and it must hurt him badly to leave his friends.

  One by one, the family arrived and hugs and kisses were exchanged. When it was time to eat, Don said, “We’ll hold hands and I’ll say the blessing.”

  Mandy swallowed the knot in her throat. “This is the first time we’ve all three been together at the same time since—since I can’t remember.”

  “Since Daddy died,” Lee said. “Ten years ago next month.”

  “I guess that’s right. Daddy’s death and the funeral is all a blur to me, but I do remember all of us being there.” She cleared her throat. “Well, tonight is a happy reunion and we’re going to laugh and tell stories about each other. You know we’ve got a lot of them. We can all remember the mean things we did to each other when we were little and living in that old shack on top of the hill in Canoe Cove.” She paused. “That seems like a hundred years ago now.”

  By eleven o’clock, Don and Anne said their goodbyes, and one by one the rest of the family left.

  “Sis, I’d like to stay all night if you have room for me and Teddy,” Lee said.

  “I’ve got plenty of room. There’s a double bed in the back bedroom and I have a pull out couch in the TV room. You know I never want to see you go.”

  The next morning, Mandy fixed a big breakfast, then they said their tearful goodbyes.

  Mandy stood on the front porch and waved until Lee’s car was out of sight. “Godspeed,” she whispered. “I love you.”

  Mandy felt her heart cracking and she was fighting her tears when the phone rang. “Hello,” Mandy sweetly said.

  “Hi, Mandy. This is Jordon Gilliam. We met at your brother’s house a couple years ago. I hope you don’t mind that I called your brother Lee, and he gave me your phone number.”

  “Well, hello, Gill. I remember you,” Mandy said, and her heart began to pound as she listened intently as he explained how he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind since he had met her that Christmas, two years ago. His voice sent chills through Mandy and she could picture those beautiful blue eyes and that hypnotic smile. He went on to tell Mandy that he was divorced now and he would love to see her again.

  Mandy didn’t know what to say. She felt as if her life was complete and she really wasn’t interested in getting involved with a man, but he was tugging at her heart strings. They talked for an hour and the more she listened, the more she wanted to see him. She finally agreed that he could pay her a visit the following weekend. After she hung up, she was as giddy as a school girl.

  Tony wasn’t coming down the following weekend. Kati had talked Tim into taking her and Tina to Kentucky for a visit, and Abbie had weekend plans with Karen. It was the perfect time for Gill to pay a visit.

  Late Friday night, Gill showed up with a bouquet of red roses. Red roses, Mandy thought. Was the red rose on the porch table a sign that love was coming my way?

  When their eyes met, Mandy was all a flutter. Gill came into the house and Mandy took the roses and put them in a vase with water. Then they went into the TV room where they talked until the wee hours of the morning. Gill said all the things a woman wants and needs to hear.

  The next day they went to Chilhowee Mountain and took the two-mile hike to the breathtaking waterfalls. It was the most romantic day of Mandy’s life. That night they dined at a posh restaurant with candlelight and soft music. She was gaga over him.

  Gill seemed to be smitten with Mandy too. When it was time for him to head back to Georgia, Gill said, “This has been the most wonderful weekend of my whole life. Would you drive down and visit me next weekend? I’d love for you to see my house. I live on Lake George in Midway, Georgia.”

  “I’d love to,” Mandy said. “Abbie will be twelve next Saturday and her daddy is coming down to get her on Friday. She’s going to go to Kentucky to spend a week with him and her grandparents. That’ll work out perfectly!”

  Mandy wasn’t sure she could make it through the following week, but Gill called every night and her heart grew founder with each call. That Friday, Billy picked up Abbie, and Mandy made sure she didn’t smell booze on his breath before she let her daughter get into the car with him. Abbie was very excited and she had made arrangements with Karen to catsit Fluffy.

  Mandy kissed Abbie goodbye and her heart hurt a tad as she watched Billy drive away with her baby, but the thought of getting on the road and spending the weekend with Gill took the hurt away.

  Gill had told Mandy to meet him at the Waffle House in Richmond Hill because it was difficult to find his house. The five-hour drive seemed to take two days. Mandy saw the exit for Richmond Hill, and she saw the Waffle House just as she came down the ramp.

  She went inside the Waffle House and looked around but didn’t see Gill. She took a seat in a booth by the front window, ordered a cup of coffee and anxiously waited for him. Just as the waitress brought her coffee, she saw Gill get out
of a silver pickup. Like a flash of lightening, Mandy jumped up, ran outside and was in his arms. Gill hugged her tightly and gave her a deep kiss. Mandy wanted to stay in his sweet embrace forever.

  They went inside and Gill ordered a cup of coffee.

  After they drank a few cups, Gill told Mandy to follow him and stay as close as possible. “It’s like an obstacle course driving down the many small roads once you reach Lake George.”

  Mandy followed and finally, Gill turned into a circular driveway. The lawn looked as if it had been manicured, and the two-story house looked like a mini mansion. “Wow!” she said, as she parked behind Gill’s truck and got out of the car.

  Gill hugged her again, then they went into the house arm in arm, tingles running through Mandy’s body.

  It was a lovely house but Mandy got an eerie feeling the moment she walked into it. She dismissed the feeling, blaming it on being giddy. Then she felt cold hands squeezing her shoulders.

  I’m just a bundle of nerves and I’m moonstruck. I never thought I’d ever feel this way again. If that’s you, Dr. Melton, I know you’re gone, and I grieved for you, but don’t mess with me. I deserve to find love. Ours was forbidden. Be happy for me. Please.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The next morning Mandy awoke and found Gill propped on one elbow, staring at her. She fluttered her eyes. “Oh. I couldn’t figure out where was for a minute.” She reached up and patted his face.

  “Are you ready to start the day? I’ve got it all planned.”

  “I’ll be ready as soon as I pee, brush my teeth, and get dressed. I’m anxious to get the day started.”

  Gill showed her around the small town of Hinesville and introduced her to several of his friends. Mandy was used to accents but the people of South Georgia seemed to have a language all their own. When they reached the outskirts of Hinesville on their way back to Midway, Gill pulled into a parking lot of a motorcycle shop. “Come on. I want to show you where I work.”