by Kira Blakely
“I see. Well, that’s understandable, but I still cannot believe that Sadie had all this. She dressed in old cotton housedresses and always looked like she was one step from the bread line.”
“Her strategy, completely.” He grinned at the clever old woman’s surprise. “She was a character, to be sure.”
I signed the paperwork and when he left, I locked the door and sat down to a table to look everything over and try to deal with the enormity of what had just happened.
I looked around the café, at the grill where she’d taught me to fry steaks that enticed people from fifty miles away. I remembered her leaning over the fryer and showing me how to coat the catfish and deep fry it just long enough that it was cooked inside and the batter was completely brown and delicious. The walls were filled with pictures of her posing with all sorts of celebrities who had stopped by over the years, lured by the reviews of her cooking.
Perhaps that was the greatest gift she had left me; the confidence to know I was not just a blog writer, but a woman, a mother, a chef, and someone who could take of herself and a young child. She had taught me independence. I knew I would never forget her round face and twinkling eyes or the sound of her voice as she made up stories about her childhood. She had, indeed, been a character.
I stepped behind the counter and made Dirk and myself some dinner. We had catfish and hush puppies and lemonade from freshly-squeezed lemons. For dessert, there was peanut butter pie. It was a meal, and a day, to be remembered.
Chapter 33
Finn
My cell buzzed, and it was my attorney. I was a little puzzled, as we’d concluded the restructuring of the businesses more than a year before.
Jerry had ended up at Joliet State Prison, although it was a short stay. He was found dead in the prison yard one winter night, a knapsack made from a prison shirt lying next to him. Some of the inmates admitted to hearing him brag that he had connections who were going to get him out of there. It seemed his “connections” had come through. At the same time, his “connections” had found it distasteful to deal with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the SEC. It involved some small matter of tax evasion and racketeering.
They had disappeared from my life and more than that, I knew Elspeth wasn’t connected to them. She would have never emailed me if she had.
I answered the call and Walter Jameson’s voice was stern and professional. “Finn, how are you doing, my boy?” Walter was a good forty years my senior, so he had earned the right to call me a boy.
“Good to hear from you, Walter. I wasn’t expecting you to call. Is something wrong?” Concern and anticipation fought for control in my head.
“Nothing to do with your business, Finn, but I’m sure you remember that other matter we spoke of?”
I drew a blank, but only momentarily. “You mean Elspeth?”
“Yes, indeed. I’ve had my feelers out, and it seems there was a probate transfer of some property, a restaurant, to be exact. The beneficiary is a Miss Elspeth Alexander.”
Emotions ricocheted through my head. She was alive, apparently living comfortably and selfishly, the best of all was that she was unmarried.
“Text me that address, would you, Walter?”
“Be happy to, son. Be happy to.”
I was airborne within the hour, bound for West Virginia.
Chapter 34
Elspeth
Old Injun Joe, as he was known locally, was regaling those in the café with a story of the biggest catfish ever caught, and supposedly he’d been holding the pole. There was a general exchange of rolled eyes. People preferred to think of him as more of a storyteller than local historian. Either way, he got the attention he loved, and I continued to pour second and third cups of coffee.
Dirk was playing in his playpen and to my surprise, this had become quite a draw. Other townspeople with young toddlers would put their children in the playpen with him. While the little ones played, the parents could freely and quietly eat without squalling from the highchairs.
The café was doing well, and I was considering opening a second at a nearby location. I had finally gotten up the courage one weekend to take the old car I’d bought from the used car lot in town and drive to my mother’s house. She wasn’t there, but it didn’t take long to discover from old neighbors that Earl had gotten drunk and passed out on the railroad tracks. The 7:09 from Columbus was on time that evening, and Earl had finally hit something that was big enough to run him over.
My mother had moved to Michigan and was living with her cousin. I’d taken a long look around town and then left. As I passed the city limits, I knew I would never come back. I wasn’t even sure how to contact my mother. I’d never gotten a chance to meet that part of my family and while I thought they lived in northern Michigan, I was lost when we crossed the bridge so I was no longer sure. It didn’t matter, anyway. Mother was fine and safe, which let Dirk and I be the same. There only remained one human I’d left behind, and my heart ached every time I thought about him.
I heard the bell ding over the door, snatched up the coffee pot, and came around from the counter with a menu in hand. The sun was behind the customer, blinding me, but there was something oddly familiar in his stance. He’d come in and simply stood there, unmoving. I walked closer, assuming he wanted to be seated and was waiting for a hostess.
“No hostess on duty. You can sit anywhere you like,” I said.
“Hello, Elspeth.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew that deep, melodious voice from the nights he had held me, encouraging me to trust him, to let him keep me happy and to not worry about the future.
“Finn?” The dam broke, and a huge sob escaped me as the coffee pot slid out of my hand to the tiled floor, shattering in the pool of brown liquid.
He came toward me, and the sun lost its advantage. I’d instinctively bent to pick up the glass, crying hard as I piled shards into my hand and used the towel that was always looped over my apron to sop up the liquid.
“Here, let me,” came that voice again. It was like hearing your own heartbeat.
“No, no, you’ll cut yourself,” I cried.
Annabeth appeared—she’d been working at the café with me since I’d inherited it.
“Elspeth, sweetheart, what is going on?” she asked, noting my crying and the tall stranger with expensive clothing standing before me. She became defensive on my behalf. “Who are you?” she demanded of him.
He moved, and the sunlight left his face. She looked into his eyes and searched his face. Suddenly a smile broke out over her features and she nodded. Turning around, she walked to the playpen and lifted Dirk with a stuffed donkey clutched in his hand. She came toward us and held him out to Finn.
I rose to stand and watched as Finn took Dirk, handling him as though he was more fragile than the glass that lay all over the floor.
I looked at Annabeth, and she shrugged and grinned. “I told you… I have the second sight,” she said simply and I nodded. “Even if I didn’t, it would take a fool to miss that the child is the son of the father. Go on, you two. I’ll clean this up and take care of things. You go for a while, no?”
I nodded my thanks and untied my apron, laying it over the counter. I turned and walked out the back entrance of the café. Finn and Dirk followed.
There was a stream running at the back of the property. Next to it stood an old willow tree. We’d cut the branches short enough to form a sort of canopy under which sat chairs and a picnic table. It was the most peaceful spot in the world to me. I led him there, and he held Dirk in his lap as we sat at the table.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he began.
I nodded. That much was obvious.
“How have you been?” he asked, and I could hear nervousness in his voice.
“Fine,” I laughed and gestured at Dirk.
“He’s beautiful,” he said quietly. Annabeth was absolutely right, and I hadn’t seen it until that very moment. Dirk was a replica o
f his father.
“You?” I was still choked up and couldn’t manage any more words.
“I love you.”
“Oh… my god… Finn, I love you, too. I never expected to hear your voice again, and never ever those words.” I’d begun to cry again, and although he was holding on to the baby, he managed to put an arm around my shoulders.
I wiped my eyes and watched the stream rolling over the stones, smooth from their touching one another for so many years. I reached to touch Finn’s cheek, stroking it tenderly.
“Why did you leave?” he asked quietly.
I needed a minute to compose myself. Finally, I opened up. “Finn, we both know that we come from different worlds. I guess you made me feel safe, because I’d begun to have nightmares, only they were pieces of my memory coming back to me. I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t say anything. Then you left for Chicago and that night, it all came flooding back. I knew my people were the kind you’d never notice—you probably donated shoes to us when you were a kid in school. My mother wasn’t married when she had me, and a series of men passed through our doors. She needed them… to survive,” I stuttered and looked away with embarrassment.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said in that rich voice.
“I remembered finally how it was that I ended up in that shack—well, at least up to the part where I’m guessing Earl hit me with something.”
“Earl?”
“My mother’s man at the time. He was a mean one, that Earl. Drunk and abusive – wanted his way with me and I fought him off. He was driving me up to my mother’s cousin. She was staying there, and he was going to pick her up. I’m from southern Ohio, and I knew I had to go along or he’d slug her all the way home.”
Finn growled beneath his breath. “Was?”
“He’s dead. I know it sounds like a corny country song but he passed out on a railroad track – well, you get the rest. Anyway, I think he probably drove around that curve by the shack and came up from the back. I guess he was intending to knock me out or kill me or something, I don’t know. He’d been drinking, and I’m sure he was the one who started the fire. Thank god you were there, Finn.”
Dirk was restless and trying to crawl off the table, but Finn held him firmly. “Go on.”
“Well, there’s not much more. Except to say that we are light years apart, and I was holding you back. You didn’t owe me anything, and I owed it to you to clear out of your life and let you marry some nice socialite who would hostess your tea parties and holiday dinners—someone who wasn’t me. That’s when… that’s when I realized I was pregnant and that was the final straw. I had become my mother all over again, and you deserved better.”
“I had the best. I had you,” he said quietly, and I noticed how much more reserved he’d become. He was a broken man.
“I’ve been following you…on the Internet, you know,” I told him. “I see you more or less went into seclusion. Was I any reason for that?”
“What do you think?”
“Oh, crap, Finn. The lady in me wants to say politely that I hope I didn’t play a part in that, and the woman in me wants to hear that you missed me so much, business wasn’t worth it anymore.”
“The woman would be right,” he whispered and leaned forward to kiss me, hard. Dirk’s baby hand was trying to push us apart, and I realized he was jealous.
“Dirk, this is your daddy,” I said and heard an exhale of relief from Finn. I looked at him in shock. “Surely, you never thought…” I let the sentence hang there, feeling ill at what he was thinking.
“I didn’t know, Elspeth. I found the test kit you threw away. The timing… the loss of memory… I just didn’t know for sure.”
My mouth was hanging open in dismay, but I realized he had a valid point. There really was no way for him to know—I didn’t know myself until the memories came back.
“Come home with me,” he said simply.
“Well… I…”
“Will you marry me, Elspeth?” he asked. “Will you and Dirk be my family?”
I threw my arms around him as tears washed down my cheeks. I nodded against his face, and he laughed, dabbing at my tears with the back of his hand. Dirk looked at me in fear, and suddenly his face crumpled into tears as well.
“I guess this is what they call a tearful reunion,” Finn joked and we laughed.
“Finn, I’ve made a life here. I have the café and the people have become my friends…”
“Do you want me to move down here? I will, if that’s what you want.”
I thought of the lake house and of Dirk. Was this really the best place to raise him? As Finn’s son, he was heir to quite a fortune, and he needed to be prepared for that. I had to admit I missed the water there, and I’d lain in bed more than once and pictured the three of us sitting at the edge of the shore, building sand castles.
“I love you, too, Finn. Yes, we’ll come with you. I happen to know what to do with the café.”
Chapter 35
Finn
We were married by a preacher from one of the small churches in her town. It seemed right. After all, the only friends she had all lived in that one little cluster, and they all wanted to be there to wish us well.
Elspeth wore a simple white dress with flowers woven into those mahogany locks that drifted lower than I’d remembered. She looked like an angel who had dropped from heaven.
Dirk was in our wedding, holding us each by the hand as he tried to walk around beneath that willow tree. Annabeth came to get him as I pulled Elspeth against me and kissed her at the end of our ceremony. I’d bought her the biggest diamond I could find, and even in West Virginia, that was nothing to sneeze at.
As the townspeople congratulated us, I had my hand on her ass. I couldn’t wait to be alone with her again but she insisted that we wait until we were back at the lake house. She said it had sentimental ties for her, and if that’s the most she ever asked from me, she would be the best wife in the world.
Elspeth had signed over the café to Annabeth who, with tears in her eyes, laughed and hugged my wife like a sister. I invited her to bring her son and come up to visit us. Elspeth seconded the invitation and made her promise.
We three boarded the company jet that evening after all the festivities had died down. She watched from the window and even though we were far too high to make out anything on the ground in the darkness, she waved and cried simultaneously. I promised she could fly down to visit any time she liked.
Dirk learned to swim, and we enrolled him in an appropriate pre-school. A year later, Miriam was born and a year after that, Katrina. I started new Internet companies so I never needed to leave my family behind again. Elspeth was content to be a mother… and my wife.
“Elspeth?” I asked her one night as we were watching an animated movie with the kids for what seemed like the fiftieth time.
“Yes?”
“One question I’ve never gotten answered.”
“Which is?”
“That first day, when we were skin to skin in the Escalade and we, well, you know…” I skipped the starker words within earshot of the kids. “Why did you let me do that? I know you well enough to know you weren’t the type.”
“Yes, but I had no idea if you knew me. There you were, all protective and touching me. I just assumed I was supposed to do that with you.”
“Really?” I asked, amazed.
She nodded. “And I thought I was the one who was lost. You were in charge the whole time.”
THE END
Epilogue
Elspeth
We had returned to the scene of the crime.
We’d brought up the idea numerous times, especially when the weight of parenting three young children became a bit cumbersome and we needed a break. I’d pleaded to wait until we found a competent nanny we could trust. Finn had completely agreed.
Her name was Gabby, a proud product of Sweden who ruled with love and a stern stubbornness that could withstand even our willful brood.
The company jet flew us to Traverse City and Jay, Finn’s friend from the original night, was waiting with his Land Cruiser at the airport. He’d visited us a couple of times at the lake house and I liked his teasing manner. He was one of the few people Finn allowed to mock him and get away with it. I knew they went way back.
“I’m looking forward to showing you my place, El,” he said, excitement in his voice. “I was out on the lake yesterday, and we pulled in a great catch of salmon. Do you like fish?” he asked, suddenly thoughtful. “Well, if you don’t, I can knock off Snuggles and fry her up—assuming you like to eat cat?”
“Ewww! Jay!” I protested, the image intensely revolting.
“What’s the matter? Not preggers again, are you?” he continued to tease me.
Finn said nothing, allowing Jay’s radar to capture me for the time being.
“We’re only spending one night, Jay,” Finn finally spoke up as the playful banter, at least playful in Jay’s opinion, dwindled.
“I know. Wish you’d stay longer, but I get it. Must feel good to be just the two of you again. Sorry I couldn’t order in a snowstorm.”
“No, thanks,” I put in. “I’ve had enough snow for a lifetime, thank you.”
Jay glanced sidelong at Finn and said nothing. I realized that Finn may still harbor some anger over Earl, but I wanted to shrug it off and forget about him. I let it go.
We pulled up to a house that I would never have suspected appealed to Jay. Like Finn, his people had money and this building looked more like a fisherman’s hideaway. It badly needed painting, was a one-floor hodge-podge of buildings linked together and an entire salvage yard lying about. I spotted boat motors, car motors, motorcycle frames, and even a claw-footed bathtub that was bravely trying to stand on only three remaining feet. I must have had an alarmed look on my face as Finn turned around, and his eyes told me to remain silent.
