All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (59 page)

She opened the door and stepped in, then started
laughing even more. Henry was standing beside an immense cat tree with a big
red bow on top. Aaron, Beryl and Andy were on the couch with wrapped gifts in
front of them.

"We've all been in on this," Lydia said. "I
think you'll find everything you need to incorporate these two little kittens
into your life."

Polly's eyes filled with tears as she hugged her
friend. "I can't believe how fortunate I am. Eight months ago I was trying
to figure out what next to do with my life and now here I am with all of you as
friends, animals filling up my house and a home that is more than I ever could
have dreamed of. Thank you all."

She turned to Brad and Lee, "Have you met
everyone?" They nodded and she continued, "Thank you for bringing me
these little guys." Brad held the basket out to her and she put it on the
floor. The kittens looked around and scrambled out of their basket, making
their way onto her floor. Beryl tossed her a lightweight package which, when
she opened it, was found to be a soft, bright purple mat. She put it in front
of one kitten,
who
made his way to it, flopped down and promptly went to
sleep.

"Well, I guess he has been working hard making
his way up here," she remarked. His sister followed him, curled up in
front of him and went to sleep as well.

"Now what do I do with them?" Polly asked.
"I don't want to move them and disturb '
em
!"

She stood back up and laughed. "Where's Obiwan?"

"Oh!" Henry said, "Just a second. This
will disturb them for sure!" He opened up the bedroom door and Obiwan
bounded across the room toward Polly, coming to an abrupt stop in front of the
two kittens. Polly knelt down and reached her hand out for him to sniff. He
sniffed her hand,
then
began sniffing at the kittens. He nosed them once or
twice and they didn't respond to his attention. Finding
that they were uninterested in him, he began trotting
around the room, looking for attention from anyone who would give it to him.

Jason had followed him out of the bedroom. "Oh,
you've got kittens, too! This is the best place, ever!" he said.

"It sure is," Polly responded. "Now,
would you mind babysitting all of them while we go back downstairs and finish
up the evening? Maybe your Mom would even let you and Andrew
spend
the night in my apartment with all of the animals."

"Really?
Would you ask her? That would be awesome! Andrew is
over watching the McKenzie kids sleep, but he will love these kittens!"
Jason said.

"I'll ask. I'm sure it will be alright,"
Polly said. "Thanks for taking care of them. Did you get some food from
downstairs?"

"Bruce brought us food and cookies. He's a nice
guy," he replied.

"Thank you and I'll see you later,” Polly said as
she placed her hand on his back. “Check in on your brother, will you?"

"I will!"

Everyone went back downstairs. Brad and Lee made their
way in and found some people they knew, so they sat down and helped finish
decorating a tree.

Jeff found Polly and said, "I think it's time to
wrap up the evening and get everyone headed home. Have you looked outside
lately?"

She looked out the window and smiled. Great big
snowflakes were glinting in the lights lining the driveway as they fell from
the sky. "It's beautiful!" she said. "But, you're right. Let's
do this. Do you have any more cards with names on them?"

"Just two more," he replied.

"Alright, I'll head for the stage." Polly
made her way onto the stage and the musicians wound down as she approached the
podium. She turned and smiled at them.
Such beautiful music for a beautiful evening.
"Thank you," she mouthed, then stepped
forward.

"Excuse me!" she said into the din filling
the room,
then
waited. It took a few moments, but soon the room had
quieted enough for her to speak.

"I hope you've all had a wonderful evening. If
you'll look outside, we're having our first snowfall of the winter. I think
it's a perfect way to end this evening. Before I say goodnight, though, I want
to talk about the Christmas trees you've been decorating. This evening, we've
had thirteen recommendations for people who should get a decorated tree. Some
of these people have received more than one
recommendation
and I think that's wonderful. We will begin delivering them tomorrow. As for
the rest of the trees, we're going to draw names from those of you who signed
up at your table. We'll deliver them to you as well and hope you have a very
merry Christmas!

"Jeff Lyndsay, who has introduced himself to many
of you, has been hired to act as my manager and associate here at Sycamore
House. All of this is his work and I look forward to working with him as he
creates extraordinary experiences for anyone who chooses to use Sycamore House
for events in the future. He'll come up in a moment to announce the winners of
the Christmas trees.

"I'd also like to thank Sylvie Donovan and Hannah
McKenzie who put together all of the food for tonight. Do you think I should
hire them as caterers?" At the room's applause, Polly smiled and winked at
Sylvie.
"Done.
Now, you need to find reasons for me to have them in to cook, alright?"

"There are many more people I know I should thank
tonight and my heart is filled with gratitude. I can't tell you how thankful I
am to be back in Iowa and find myself surrounded by such wonderful people. If
there was ever a question as to where my favorite place on earth to live was,
you've all answered it."

Polly looked out over the room and her eye was caught
by movement in the light from one of the doors. She looked a little more
closely and realized she knew who had just walked in. She beckoned to Jeff, who
came up to stand beside her at the podium.

"And now, we'll finish up by announcing the
winners of the Christmas trees. I hope you all have a safe trip home, a very
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

Applause followed her off the stage as she looked
around for Lydia. She was nowhere to be found, so Polly walked out into the
foyer and over to the kitchen. Hannah and Sylvie were standing beside the
coffee maker, both with steaming mugs in their hands.

"Hannah," Polly said, "Where's Bruce?"

"Oh, I think he ran upstairs again to check on
the kids. This has been a terrific evening. It never occurred to me that I
would be so relaxed, but Aaron's news for us this evening drained all the
stress out of my body. Even if we don't have a place to live or jobs to go to,
I feel like we'll be fine," Hannah replied.

"Hannah, Bruce's parents and brother just walked
in," Polly said.

"What? What? How do they even know we're
here?" Hannah cried out.

"Well, I might have told them," Polly said.

"I was part of that telling, too," Lydia
said as she came up behind Polly. "So you saw them walk in?"

"I did. Bruce is upstairs with the kids. What
should we do?" Polly asked, then said, "Look at me. I'm shaking. That
old man still scares the crap out of me."

"Well, if you're shaking, then I'm going to fall
apart," Hannah said. "But what did you guys do?"

"We might have driven over to Story City
yesterday to see if we could talk him into being a decent human being,"
Polly responded.

"But, I might have sent him over the edge,"
Lydia chimed in.

"The old man was a jerk to you and just because
he's mean and bitter doesn't mean you sent him over the edge. He was already
there before we arrived on the scene," Polly declared.

She shrugged her shoulders and looked at Hannah,
"We might have exacerbated the situation with him, but Bruce's mother,
Shirley, was the one we told about the party. She knows everything. Well,
except that the Sheriff has cleared you guys. But, she was willing to listen
and seemed to want to help."

Lydia said, “I suppose we may as well confront the
dragon. We certainly don't want to make Bruce do it by himself.
So, upstairs or down here?"

"Don't you think it would be better upstairs? We
can ask Jason to go over and stay with the kids and do it in my apartment, where
there are plenty of places to sit and no one will have to witness this
happening."

"Hannah, why don't you run upstairs and give
Bruce a heads up so he isn't sideswiped."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm
totally sideswiped."

Lydia patted her on the shoulder, "We're looking
for another Christmas miracle here, Hannah. I think it's going to be alright."

Hannah left the kitchen. Sylvie stood there with her
mouth open.

Lydia laughed. "Whoops, sorry, Sylvie. Didn't
know you were getting caught up in all of the insanity, did you?"

"Umm, no?
I guess I'll stay here and keep the ruffians at bay
downstairs. But, you have to tell me everything later, alright?" Sylvie
said.

"It's a deal." Lydia said, "Ready to
beard the lion in your own den, Polly?"

"No, but I suppose I don't have a choice. I
walked into it and this is the only way out." Polly threw her shoulders
back, rolled her neck and walked out into the foyer. Shirley McKenzie saw her
coming and rushed up to greet her.

"I don't know how things are going to go, but I
talked Lyle into coming over tonight to meet Hannah and see his son," she
said as she approached.

"Then, let's go upstairs to my apartment,"
Polly said. "That way they can see each other without a room filled with
people looking on."

Shirley McKenzie said something to her son, Kevin, who
looked up and smiled tentatively at Polly. He was several years older and they
had only seen each other a few times when she was at their house with Bruce and
Marsha. He nodded as if to assure her that things would be alright,
then
spoke with his father. All Polly heard from him was a
grunt. There was no sign on his face that he was going to be pleasant about
things, but at least he was here. She figured that was a start.

The family followed her upstairs and she showed them
into her apartment. The kittens and Obiwan were nowhere to be seen, so she
peeked in her bedroom. Jason had gotten them all up on the bed and wonder of
wonders, they were snuggled together sound asleep. The evening was filled with
little miracles! She hoped they would stay that way for just a while longer. Quietly
pulling the door shut, she turned around as people began entering her home.

"Please, find a seat,” she said and gestured to
the living room. “I'll go across the hall and get Bruce and Hannah. Lydia?"

Lydia picked right up and said, "Can I get
anything for anyone to drink?" They all shook their heads no. As Polly
left the apartment, she saw Lyle sit down in a chair he had pulled away from the
dining room table, essentially separating himself from the rest of his family. This
wasn't going to be an easy evening.

She knocked on the door and Bruce answered it, holding
Hannah's hand. Jason and Andrew were sitting on the floor quietly playing with
some video games they'd brought.

"Well?" she asked, "Are you ready for
this?"

"Not really," Bruce said. "This was NOT
the way I'd planned to see him again."

"Well, he's here. I think that says something,
don't you?" Polly asked.

"I suppose so,” he moaned. “Ugh. I'm sick to my
stomach,"

"I know. Just don't think about it and once this
starts it will all be over soon enough. The worst part is getting it started,"
Polly said.

"Okay. Hannah? Are you going to be alright?"
Polly could see that he was squeezing her hand pretty tightly, her knuckles
were white.

"I'm fine. We'll be fine. If he doesn't want
anything to do with you, we'll figure it out," she said.

"Alright then, let's go."

The three walked back across the hallway and into
Polly's apartment. Shirley jumped up off the sofa and ran to hug her son. Hannah
hung back until Shirley pulled away and said, "Hi, I'm Bruce's mother. I'm
glad to finally meet you." When Hannah put her right hand out, Shirley
didn't wait, but hugged her as well. She took Bruce's hand and pulled him with
her to the sofa.

Kevin McKenzie stood up and stopped him on the way,
"Bruce, it's good to see you man," he said.

Bruce's eyes were wary, but he said, "Good to see
you too."

Lydia and Polly made their way back into Polly’s
kitchen, trying to stay out of the way of the family reunion. Bruce sat beside
his mother on the couch and Hannah sat on his other side, holding his hand.
This time it was her grip that threatened to cut off his circulation. His
mother had a firm grip on the hand closest to her and all of a sudden, she
began to weep. It wasn't a quiet, pretty weeping and soon grew into loud,
choking sobs. She turned into her son and as he took his hand out of hers and
wrapped it around her shoulders, she threw her arms around him and held on. Hannah
released his other hand as he wrapped his arms around his mother.