Finding Eliza (2 page)

“You’re absolutely correct, Gran. Your style is definitely beautiful,” Lizzie agreed. “However could I have doubted you?”

Gertrude smoothed the bodice of her charcoal gray peplum jacket. How she managed to keep her 1950s style current was beyond Lizzie. Her grandmother could wear a pencil skirt and look fabulous. Gertrude’s silver hair stood perfectly coiffed. Her dainty red and black plaid hat set at the perfect angle to finish the ensemble. It was Georgia at the start of football season after all. Everyone had their colors out to support the boys in Athens, even the ladies. Every year Lizzie’s dad would take her up to The University of Georgia for the first home game. The Georgia Bulldogs were their favorite, and nothing could compare to being between the hedges at Sanford Stadium for that opening kickoff. Lizzie hadn’t been on campus once without her father, and watching it on television just wasn’t the same.

“Will you be joining me and the ladies for our meeting tomorrow night?” Gertrude asked.

“I told you that I’d think about it, and I have. I just don’t think this is the right week for me to start something new.”

Lizzie had been trying to find a way to put her grandmother off yet another time. As much as Gertrude loved genealogy, Lizzie just couldn’t find a passion for it. Grandma Tru had been trying since Lizzie was a teenager. Everyone always told Lizzie to live in the present and let go of the past. Getting involved with a hobby based in that nightmare felt counter-intuitive. It was like giving a junkie a fix. Maintaining the present while looking back was difficult and dangerous without the proper preparation. Lizzie was certain that she could say with complete honesty that she was definitely not prepared. Discussing the past now of all times would only remind her of all she had lost the day of her parents’ accident. It was fine to remember those days while sitting in a park. Looking back at the past through death certificates and headstones was something else altogether.

“I’ve just got so much to do at the center. You said it yourself. The kids need me.” As a volunteer adviser for the Clarette County Youth Center, she spent her days reaching out to at-risk kids. Labeled at-risk when her parents Elton and Grace died, she had a special bond with the kids there. She could understand what many of them were going through despite the differences in their stories. It was a match made in heaven.

Lizzie threw an angelic grin at her grandmother hoping that the point would land with the appropriate effect. It, unfortunately, did not.

“I’ve decided that I’m not taking no for an answer this time. You’re coming, and that’s that,” answered Gertrude.

“But Gran…”

“No ‘but Gran’ this time, young lady. You will accompany me to the church tomorrow for our group. End of discussion. The Gals will love to see you.”

Whoever decided that Southern women were sweet and soft spoken hadn’t met Lizzie’s grandmother. Gertrude could be feisty when she liked. At times the only thing genteel about her was the look of her wardrobe, especially when it involved Lizzie. Gertrude learned to take the bull by the horns when raising that child. Many believed it was the only way they both had survived the adventure.

“You do remember that I’m not a child anymore, right?” Lizzie snapped before finishing the last bite of her sandwich.

Straightening her hat, Gertrude started walking toward the park entrance. “I’m sorry dear. I didn’t hear you. My ears are seventy-seven years old, you know.” Her grandmother always knew how to play the age card when she needed it to work to her own advantage. “I’ll see you tomorrow night. Give my love to Jack.” Blowing a kiss into the air, she was off.

Lizzie watched her grandmother cross the road and head toward the church. She couldn’t help but say a silent prayer for Pastor Aldrich. She doubted that her Gran was in the mood to haggle over remodeling ideas any longer. Gertrude left the park armed and loaded for bear. She had accepted the challenge of convincing the board that the chapel was going to be re-decorated to her liking. Brushing the crumbs off her jeans, Lizzie stood to look around the park one last time, saying goodbye to the memories of the past.

Chapter Two

After working all day with the children at the community center, Lizzie was glad to head for home. As she turned onto her long and winding dirt driveway, she felt the weight of the day slide off her shoulders immediately. A happy sigh of relief escaped Lizzie’s lips as her home came into view just up the hill.

Not long after they married, Lizzie Hines and Jack Clydell purchased their twenty-five-acre slice of small town heaven. It wasn’t filled with modern conveniences like the newer houses recently built in town. The walls held bumps and bruises left behind from a lifetime of memories created by the first owners. Still, the home they nicknamed Clydell Manor represented paradise to the newlyweds.

Hidden away behind the rusted red gate and overgrown flowering bushes, the home sat a half-mile from the road. Lizzie had just enough time to unwind and release the stress of the day as she made the bumpy transition from the road to her front door. Elegant dogwood trees lined both sides of the dirt and gravel drive. Grandma Tru believed that dogwoods brought protection to the families they surround. Whether there was truth to her story or not, Lizzie found peace in the beauty that met her each time she entered or exited the property. She usually preferred to walk among them on stressful days, but she welcomed a drive through the micro-grove all the same. After an emotional afternoon of time travel in the park, the dogwoods’ presence brought a smile to her face. Today’s memories were good, but they took a toll on her emotions. A slow drive through the trees’ deep scarlet and purple fall colors helped Lizzie could transition from past to present before hitting her doorstep.

Polite friends would refer to their home as “lived in” or even rustic. In truth, the Clydell farmhouse was just old. Though it still needed a little bit of work, the white wooden structure was in better shape than when the couple took ownership. Lizzie and Jack loved the feel that the rough wood and asymmetrical boards brought to the home. The large wrap-around porch felt as though it kept the world at bay. The heavy wooden shutters that framed each window further met Lizzie's need for protection.

Over the years, the renovations made were small in comparison to other houses of this age. A screened-in porch added to the rear of the house gave them a place to sit on rainy days while improvements to the barn and outbuildings took care of damage and decay. They didn't long for updated floors or added features. They chose to reinforce the foundation that was already laid by generations past. It didn’t matter what others thought about their choices for function over design. Their horses were happier for it, and that was all that mattered to the first-time homeowners.

Their little farm was perfect for their life. Slow, quiet, and filled with warmth, Lizzie needed the grounding that it provided. Jack was all too happy to allow her to put roots down in any manner that pleased her. Luckily the home that pleased Lizzie was a home that pleased him as well.

Lizzie pulled her vintage 1963 Suburban in front of the house. The high polished chrome and navy blue paint showed every speck of dust it picked up from the drive home. She and Jack shared a love of classic cars. He loved the process of restoration; she loved driving down a country road in a machine as heavy and hulking as a mid-century vehicle. Rolling down the manual crank windows brought back memories of warm Sunday afternoon drives when she was a child. She’d trade a sunroof for a vintage automobile any day.

Jack’s 1960 Ford F-100 was already parked at the side of the house in its usual spot. The sight of the big, red truck made her smile. She remembered how hard he worked to restore it. Jack’s dad had given the body to him when he was in high school. While his friends rallied for a down home rat rod project, Jack would hear nothing of the sort. He built his Ford with blood, sweat, and summer jobs on any farm that would have him because only original parts would do for his baby. Jack would work all day in the fields just to work on the truck by flood light for hours late into the night. Lizzie had to admit that it was a beautiful piece of machinery, even if it was a Ford.

Sliding off the hot bench seat of the Suburban, Lizzie leaned on the door and stretched her back before walking toward the house. “Hey! Anyone home?” Lizzie called as the screen door bounced back against its frame. She tossed her worn brown leather satchel onto the kitchen table. The pass-through window between the kitchen and the living room let her see that Jack had already helped himself to dinner. He was sitting on the couch in the living room waiting for her, remote in hand.

“Hey, babe. I talked with Miss Tru this afternoon,” he said as he chewed another bite of sausage supreme from Luigi’s. “She mentioned that she found you in the park having lunch by yourself again. I thought it might be a good night to just sit back and relax with some pizza. Want to be my date?”

Jack was so kind to her. He always knew exactly what she needed. Jack had been a young fifteen-year-old boy when her parents passed away. Even though the two grew up just a few streets apart, Jack didn’t pay Lizzie any mind because of their three-year age difference. The summer her family name headlined the town newspapers changed everything. Like other small town country boys, Jack had been driving his dad’s truck around their farm for years without worry. Never before did he consider driving to be a threat. Hearing about a car accident that claimed the lives of two adults in the community was a shock to him. Like Lizzie, he lived his life in complete innocence before the Hines’ accident.

Jack came to the funeral with his parents to pay his respects to the lone survivor, a young Lizzie Hines. Seeing how sad and broken she was after greeting mourners at the viewing, he decided to stay behind a while in case she needed a friend. He wasn’t sure why at the time, but Jack would later say he felt drawn to the sad girl that he barely knew. That decision would be the start to a romance that was still going strong twenty years later.

Dropping onto the couch, Lizzie tossed off her boots and propped her feet up on the massive wooden coffee table. Snuggling her head against Jack’s shoulder, she felt him wrap his strong arms around her. He still worked on his dad’s farm on his days off as the County Sheriff’s Deputy, and his body showed it. Jack was a handsome man whose personality drew people near just as much as his deep brown eyes did. A quiet night at home with Jack and pizza, her two favorite things, was exactly what Lizzie needed.

“So, tell me. How were the little hoodlums today?” Jack quipped.

“Stop calling them that!” Lizzie smacked him with the first accent pillow she could grab off the couch. She knew he was teasing, but it still got her riled up, which is exactly why he said it.

“My
kids
were great. We spent the morning hanging out in the park with the younger kids until it got too hot. The older kids were focused for once after school. We breezed through their homework and spent the rest of the day just hanging out at the center. It was great to have some downtime to talk. A good time was had by all. I need to spend more time with them like that. I want to find an activity that we can do together that will get them interested in something other than video games. I think that I could build a better connection with them if we had time to just chat outside of something loud or structured.”

“You know you do good work with them, right?” Jack turned to look Lizzie in the eyes as he always did when he wanted be sure she would hear him. “You need to think about going back to school. Imagine what you could do with a degree.”

“Don’t start in on that right now. I’m happy being the one that volunteers and gives back. Don’t make it a job or I’ll hate it.” Lizzie knew he was right, but change wasn’t in her nature. “Besides, all I do is show them that someone loves them. I don’t need a degree to do that.”

Just leave me to what I know
,
she thought.

Jack was always encouraging Lizzie to go back to college. It wasn’t that he thought that she needed more education to be complete. He simply wanted her to have everything that she desired in life. She carried a look in her eyes that showed she longed for more even if she didn’t know what ‘more’ meant.

Lizzie knew that he was just trying to help her fill a void he saw in her life. After her parents’ accident, money was tight for Grandma Tru and Lizzie. Her grandmother had plenty of money tucked away for a comfortable life in her retirement. Adding in college costs would destroy that. She couldn't allow Gertrude to make that sacrifice. Lizzie could have taken on student loans but she wasn’t one to accept debt if another option existed. She never wanted to leave something behind if there was an accident that prevented her from paying. Jack’s position at the Sheriff’s Department allowed them to live a debt-free life. They liked it that way. Lizzie wasn't keen on introducing more bills now while life was pleasant.

“So, tell me about you and The Gals,” Jack chuckled. Switching off the television, he shoved another slice of pizza into his mouth before turning to face his wife. He couldn't wait to hear the story of how Gertrude Hines had won yet another argument against her granddaughter.

“Gran seems to think that I’ll be joining her and the ladies at church on Tuesday.”

“Gran is right. I’ve already made plans to have dinner with the guys that night so you won’t be able to use me as an excuse.”

Jack knew how Gertrude and Lizzie’s relationship worked. Although she could give her grandmother a tough time, everyone knew who held the reins in that family. It wasn’t Lizzie.