Love Comes Home (5 page)

“I could.” Graham plucked a grass stem. “But he wouldn’t be no Poe either.”

“I guess you’re right. Some things can’t be replaced.” To keep from thinking about what she couldn’t replace, she asked, “Where’s your fishing pole?”

“You haven’t been over here at the pond for a while, so I figured I’d give you first crack at the fish today.” Graham leaned back on his elbows. “Besides, this old sun is making me too lazy to fish.”

“Sammy used to say that.” Tori kept her eyes on her cork. She was surprised when a smile lifted up her lips and no tears raced to her eyes at the memory. “But he wasn’t really lazy. Just bored with not catching anything. Then he’d be throwing rocks in the water or making grass blades whistle.”
Or kissing
my neck
, she added silently.

“The boy had a surplus of energy. That’s for sure.”

“I miss him so much.” Tori sighed.

“You’re supposed to. That’s the natural thing.” Graham looked out at her line. “You’d best pull that in before it gets hung up over in that moss.”

Tori reeled in her line. She was right. No worm. She dug through the dirt in her can for another one. “This is why Kate hates fishing. Worms.”

“She don’t have any fondness for them. That’s for sure. Even Lorena can’t change her thinking on that.”

Tori cast her line back out in the pond. Silence fell over them as they watched the cork. The sun seemed to be dissolving her bones and it felt fine.

“It was good seeing Preacher Mike last week,” Graham said after a while. “I thought maybe they’d be back Sunday what with Lorena singing at church. The girl was some disappointed.”

“I know, but Evie had reservations at a fancy hotel. To celebrate Mike being home. You know Evie.” Tori watched the soft ripples slide across the pond. “She likes things going according to plans. Her plans.”

“Evangeline does like keeping her ducks in a row.” Graham plucked another grass stem.

“Mike’s not a duck.” Tori glanced over at Graham.

“No, course not.” Graham studied his grass stem. “But he’s always wanted Evangeline to be happy.”

“He joined the Army. That didn’t make her happy.” Tori checked her line. Still not the first tug on her hook. The one she let get away might be her only bite. “Actually she didn’t seem all that happy last week when she came home.”

“So you think she might have a happiness problem.” Graham stuck the stem in his mouth.

“Kate says Evie was worried about Mike being restless when she thought he should be happy at home with her.”

“Sounds like happiness problems going around. But could be Mike just needed to see some Rosey Corner trees.” Graham spit out a piece of the grass. “That car Wyatt found for him should help. The boy looked happy as a kid at Christmastime when they took off for Louisville Thursday.”

“I’m thinking about getting a car.” She kept her eyes on the pond.

“Are you now?”

“Kate says she’ll teach me to drive after Jay gets home. She thinks she’ll have more time then.”

“She quitting at the paper?” Graham sounded surprised.

“Sort of. Two of the men who worked there are due back from the Army. Kate’s pretty sure they’ll give her job to one of them. She’s hoping to work until Christmas.”

Christmas. Tori hoped she could dig up some Christmas spirit for Samantha this year. Last year every bit of her joy had been smothered from knowing Sammy would never be with her at Christmas again.

“She won’t like giving up that camera, but it’ll be good to have her back home in Rosey Corner.”

“It won’t be the same.” She glanced over at him almost as if hoping he’d tell her she was wrong.

But he didn’t. “Nothing ever is. Just look at you, still a kid
to me but with a baby of your own.” Graham smiled over at Samantha. “Things do have a way of changing.”

“Everything’s changed for me.” Tori fastened her eyes on her cork again. “With Sammy gone.”

“That’s one of those hard changes. Sammy gone.” He reached over and gave her arm a little pat.

“Now you’re going to tell me life goes on.” She couldn’t keep a hint of irritation out of her voice. She’d heard that over and over in the last year.

“Nope, those words weren’t in my head at all.” He moved his hand from her arm to Chaucer’s head. The dog’s tail thumped against the ground. “But it does. The sun keeps coming up. The little ones keep growing and us old folks get older.”

“You’re not that old.”

“Not that young either.” Graham blew out a breath. “But I don’t have any happiness problem. Here with the sun on my shoulders, two pretty girls for company, and an old dog at my feet. Ahh, I know a happy moment when I feel one.” He looked over at her. “Happy will come visit you again too. Sammy would want that for you.”

“I know.” That was another thing people kept telling her.
Sammy wouldn’t want you crying all the
time.
Even Sammy’s mother told her that.

A breeze lifted her line and she reeled it in a bit. When Graham stayed silent, she glanced over to see if he’d dozed off like Samantha, but he was staring up at the red oak leaves above their heads.

“The leaves will all be gone soon,” she said.

“Till next year. That’s the way of nature. To everything there is a season.”

“Ecclesiastes.”

“Yep. The words of the preacher, the son of David,” Graham said.

“I’d just as soon skip over winter.” Tori looked back out at the water.

“But the ground gets thirsty for the snow. Besides, little Samantha will be big enough to like snow this year. You can teach her to make snow angels.” He smiled over at Tori and then looked back up at the tree.

“If I don’t, Lorena will. I’d better get Mama to order her some boots.”

“I was up at the store awhile ago. That Clay Weber stopped by.” Graham kept his eyes on the tree. “He asked after you. Seemed sorry you weren’t there to wait on him.”

“Sammy and Clay were friends.” Relief whispered through her that she hadn’t had to find a way to say no to whatever Clay would have asked her to do.

“The boy had a right hard time after his daddy died.”

“He didn’t have to go the Army.”

Graham switched his gaze from the tree to Tori. “That wasn’t his choice. He got in line with the other boys.”

“I know.” Tori stared out at the pond until the water shimmered. Sammy used to tell her if they stared like that long enough, they might see a fish jump out of the water and stick its tongue out at them. She kept her eyes on the pond. “Do fish have tongues?”

“I reckon they have fish tongues, but nothing to compare with us or Chaucer here. Never had one lick me or give me the raspberry.” Graham threw away his grass stem and sat up straight. “Hook that one nibbling on your bait and we’ll see.”

The little fish, barely big as her hand, had something that
passed for a tongue, but nothing it could ever stick out at her. She worked the barb out of its mouth and let it slide back into the pond where it flashed toward the deeper water. She wouldn’t be catching that one again anytime soon.

She stared at the spot where the fish disappeared. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way, Graham.”

“There’s more fish in this old pond, Victoria girl. Some you can catch with hardly any bait at all. Good fish.”

Samantha picked that moment to open her eyes. When she saw Graham, she let out a squeal and scrambled to her feet. Chaucer jumped up to lick her face. Graham called him back, but Samantha giggled and reached for the dog.

Tori didn’t bother baiting her hook again. Fishing was over for the day. That was all right. She really didn’t care whether she caught another fish right now anyway.

6

J
ay felt a hundred pounds lighter when he climbed down off the ship in New York after the long voyage home. His number had finally come up to be transported home. Red Cross volunteers lined the dock in the cold December wind to welcome him and the other soldiers home with coffee and doughnuts. It didn’t matter that the coffee wasn’t exactly hot anymore. It was coffee served to him in America by an American woman that he could drink with his feet back on American soil. At last.

Not exactly home yet, but a lot closer than he’d been for a long time. A few men kissed the ground when they got off the ship, but Jay wanted to wait until he was on real home ground. Rosey Corner ground.

Rosey Corner. A smile curled up inside Jay at the thought of walking down that road again. Home. So what if he’d only lived in Rosey Corner a few months and never owned any kind of house there. Before Pearl Harbor and the Army, he’d just borrowed a bed from Graham Lindell. Then after he married Kate and they went back to Rosey Corner until he had to ship out, they stayed with her aunt Gertie.

Home was more than a house. It was a place in a person’s heart. A place to belong. A place he’d been hunting since he was a kid.

He and Kate hadn’t had much privacy sleeping in Gertie’s front parlor, but Kate had an apartment now in Lexington. As soon as he had his discharge papers in hand, he looked forward to a little privacy with her there. His insides went soft at the thought of her in his arms.

But he’d be glad to have his feet on Rosey Corner ground again too. To see Birdie running to greet him with Scout chasing after her. He could hardly believe the long-legged girl in the pictures Kate sent him was his Birdie. A kid could change a lot from ten to fourteen. He wondered if she’d think she was too old to hug him now. He hoped not. He wanted to do a bunch of hugging when he got back to Rosey Corner to see Kate’s family. His family now.

A funny feeling, thinking about having a family. He’d left behind his own family a long time back. Then just when he was ready to embrace a new family in Rosey Corner, the war tore him away from them. He spent some lonely nights huddled down in cold foxholes, not sure he’d see the sun come up, wondering if the Lord had something against him having family. Seemed like things kept separating him from the people he loved. But he wasn’t the only soldier far from home.

Not so far anymore. Just a few more days until he’d hold his release from the Army. They sent him to a discharge center in Virginia where they counted up his service months and the times he’d seen action. He could have gotten points for kids, but he was just as glad that hadn’t happened yet for him and Kate. He needed to get used to being married first. He had no doubt Kate would be a wonderful mother, but he did have
some doubts about the kind of father he might be. His own father lacked plenty in that department.

The Wednesday before Christmas, he finally had his discharge papers in hand and a train ticket to Lexington. Home for Christmas. The train didn’t leave until the next morning, but he saw no need to rent a room for the night. After the places he’d slept during the war, the depot was practically a luxury hotel.

During a slow time between trains, the ticket agent struck up a conversation with Jay. “How about I get you on an earlier train? My son’s waiting for transport from the Pacific and I wouldn’t want him to have to cool his heels at a train station on the way home.” He studied Jay’s ticket, then ran his finger down the train schedule. “Let’s see. Lexington.” He glanced up at Jay. “You got somebody waiting for you there?”

“My wife.” Saying that sent a thrill through him.

“No kids, huh?”

“Not yet. We were only married a few weeks before I went overseas.”

The man looked up and winked. “One of those whirlwind romances, eh?”

“I guess you could say that.” Loving Kate had made him feel like he was in the middle of a whirlwind often enough.

“Well, let’s get you home to that anxious bride of yours.” The man found Jay a new ticket. A little farther in miles since the train went to Cincinnati, then back to Lexington, but with an earlier departure time.

He should have slept on the train, but he couldn’t. He kept picturing how Kate would look when he surprised her by getting to Lexington hours earlier than she expected. Happy, excited, bursting with life. That’s how she looked when they
exchanged vows in Georgia with her father standing up with her and a nurse from the infirmary standing up with him. Backwards maybe in the best man and bridesmaid way, but it worked for them. He had a feeling that was going to be their way. Maybe not always by the book, but a way that would suit them.

On the ship home, in spite of the cold, he’d spent time up on the deck, looking toward the west. Toward Kate and his future. He wasn’t going to be afraid of it. He’d been afraid enough the last few years. And not just during the war. Before that, he’d been afraid to allow anybody close to him. Afraid they’d let him down. Even more afraid he’d let them down.

The same bit of Scripture that had circled in his head then as he stared out at the cold ocean waters ran through his head again in time with the train wheels.
Perfect love
casteth out fear.
Kate quoted that verse to him back when he’d been so timid about revealing his heart to her. It took some searching, but he had finally found and marked the verse in the pocket Testament he carried through the war. First John 4:18. But the love John was talking about was the Lord’s perfect love.