by LL Helland
Chris was already fast asleep, so his mom removed his shoes and socks and pulled the covers up under his chin. As she reached for the light switch, she saw Chris’s foot hanging out of the covers. There was a fish tattoo on his right big toe. She gently covered his foot and said, “Your great-grandmother has gotten you a tattoo exactly like your father’s. What was she thinking?”
Just then, Patrick stuck his head in. Anna lifted the covers so he could see the tattoo. Patrick shrugged. “He can cover it with a Band-Aid while he’s at school.”
Anna said, “What must go on in that woman’s house! I know she means well, but I don’t know if we should send them anymore.”
Patrick gave her a hug. “She was a big part of my life when I was growing up, and I turned out all right.”
Anna smiled. “You go on to bed. I want to check in on Jon.”
Before she turned out the light in Chris’s room, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Thomas’s old cage sat on the floor on the other side of the bed, and she could see something in it. At first she thought Chris had brought some disgusting thing home from Great-Grandmother’s house. But when she looked into the cage, it looked like Thomas. How could that be? The rat lay on his back on top of Chris’s old shirt. He had the same white marking on his nose, and the crumpled right ear.
Anna knew that Thomas’s cage had not been out earlier, because she had checked each room to make sure it was clean and ready for the children. She would have to ask Chris about Thomas the next day, but she wanted to go see Jon before he fell asleep.
She sat on the edge of Jon’s bed. He was already asleep. Jon seemed so grown up, but he needed to learn so many things. She wanted him to be happy, but it seemed like that would only happen if he was wealthy. How could she explain to him that family and friends have to be a part of his life or he would become very lonely? She did not see him ever getting married or having a family.
She leaned down to kiss his cheek. He opened one eye. “Hi, Mom, it’s good to be home. How much did I weigh when I was born?”
“You weighed eight pounds, one ounce, and you were twenty and a half inches long. Why do you ask?”
“No reason—just curious.” She tucked him in as if he were five and left his room.
It took a few days for the Hellandback family to get back to normal. In the morning, Trisha still complained about her wrist, so her mom took her to the doctor for an X-ray.
Chris had to comment on that. “Trisha, you should have just put your wrist through the X-ray machine at the airport. Would have saved a lot of time and money.”
Trisha’s wrist was broken. The doctor said that type of break comes from a twisting motion. Trisha told the doctor that she had had trouble with her luggage handle. It twisted her wrist when she brought her bags downstairs at her great-grandmother’s house. She knew it had really happened when Godfrey dragged her out from under the bed, but how could she tell her mother and the doctor that?
When they got back from the doctor’s, Trisha started sorting through her luggage to do her laundry. In her bag, she came upon a silver box. Had Granmama put that in there? Anna walked in as Trisha opened the box to reveal the brooch.
Mom said, “Trisha, what a beautiful piece of jewelry! It looks like an heirloom.”
Trisha rubbed her cast. “It has a lot of history behind it.”
Her mother noticed her arm was bothering her. “Trisha, would you like something for pain?” Anna felt terrible that she had not taken Trisha in the night before, but she had never dreamed her wrist was broken.
“My wrist is fine. I’m just a little tired, so I think I’ll lie down for a nap.” Trisha carefully placed the brooch on the pillow beside her.
Her mother thought that was odd. “Be careful not to get stuck with the pin Trisha.”
Trisha had already looked on the back. The clasp had been removed, so now the brooch could only be worn on a chain. If she fell asleep, Trisha did not know if she would wake up in Scotland, in Godfrey’s house, or home in Boston. She could not keep her eyes open any longer.
Anna went downstairs, and the phone rang. None of her children attempted to get the phone, so she ran to get it. A nice woman named Linda insisted on talking with Jon. Anna did not want to wake him, but he did need to eat. This woman’s call sounded important, although Linda had not told Anna what she needed to speak with him about.
Half asleep, Jon answered the phone, instantly recognizing the voice on the line.
“Jon! This is Linda. I believe we have a bad connection. I can hardly hear you. I see you have found another secretary.” Jon looked at his mom, glad she had not heard that one. Then he thought, Bad connection? We are in two different realities. I think that the connection is pretty good.
Linda continued. “I wanted to thank you, when I left that day after seeing you to the elevator.”
Jon said, “You mean pushing me down the elevator shaft?”
Linda said, “What? I can’t hear you.”
“I’m sorry for interrupting you, Linda. Please continue.”
Jon’s mom was saying, “Is that a young lady you met in Scotland? Maybe she could come visit you here in Boston.”
Jon gave his mother the okay sign while he listened to Linda.
“Anyway, Jon, I left that day. As I was leaving the building, Mr. Little asked if I needed a job. He had quit working for Mr. Windbag. Anyway, to make a long story short, Mr. Little and I are getting married. I wanted to call and thank you. I know it’s been a while since we last spoke, but I wanted you to know. It took a long time for me to find you. It’s as if you fell off the face of the earth.”
Jon could not figure out the time thing—he thought he had just left Linda a few days ago.
“I’m very happy for you, Linda. You were my best assistant.” Actually, she was the only assistant he ever had.
Mom gave Jon a strange look and mouthed “assistant?”
“Please keep in touch. I would like to hear from you from time to time.” Jon did not know if that would even be possible, but Linda and Mr. Little were two very nice people, and he hoped he would work with people like them in the future.
Anna closed the door quietly and left him to his phone call. She went to see what Brittany was doing.
For the first time, Brittany felt eager to get back to school and study hard. She could not wait for her science classes. She thought about what she had learned in the past week, her feet dangling over the edge of her bed. When she got tired of that, she walked over to her dresser and found the bag with the colored rocks from Chad. She poured the stones out into her hand and watched as they lit up the room. Trisha almost woke up, so Brittany quickly put the stones back into the small bag. She did not know if she would ever need to use them, or if she would ever see Chad again. How would she ever get in a situation where she needed the stones? She did not know the answer to that question, either. She did know that summer was over, school was about to begin, and she had better get her laundry done. She got up.
Mom was standing at the door to Brittany’s bedroom, looking excited. “You got a letter from Johns Hopkins University, and it’s down on the kitchen table.”
Brittany raced her mom downstairs and quickly opened the letter. The letter stated that her science project that had been submitted by her science teacher was the winner of a twenty-five-thousand-dollar scholarship to their university. The letter went on to say that they hoped she remained interested in the field of bacteria and viruses and how to kill them. Brittany did not really know if she would continue being interested in that field, but she still liked science.
Chris was up now, eating a bowl of cereal. Anna came into the kitchen. “Chris can I get you something else to eat?”
“No, Mom, I’m fine.”
Titan came running into the kitchen, barking and trying to tear through the screen door. He wanted to take on the big dog that was invading his territory.
Anna laughed, “Titan, maybe you need to go visit Granmama f
or a week?”
Chris gave the big dog some lunchmeat. “Yeah, Mom, that would be great. I think Titan would love it.”
As Anna shut the door, the dog slowly walked back down the street. She thought she heard someone say, “Until tomorrow, Chris.”
Anna finally went to wake Trisha up. “You’re going to sleep your whole day away.”
“I’m getting up now, Mom. I want to go to the corner store and get some photos developed.”
Trisha looked around her room at her vampire posters. She now felt differently about them. The human form was still eye candy, but she no longer thought about the dark side of vampires. Sometimes dark and dangerous guys are just that. They are great to look at, but hell on a relationship.
Anna yelled up the stairs, “Trisha, do you want a bite to eat before heading out?”
Trisha came running down the stairs with her camera. “No, Mom, I’ll get something at the store. I’m going to wait around for my pictures.”
Trisha ran to the store and handed her disposable camera to the clerk. “I’ll just wait in the store for my pictures.”
Trisha thought it was taking forever. Finally, she heard “Trisha, your photos are ready” over the loudspeaker. She could hardly pay the woman behind the counter fast enough. Trisha wanted to open the envelope at home. She did not want to cry in front of people when she saw Advarika. She ran all the way home and up to her room. Relieved that Brittany was gone, Trisha slowly opened the photo envelope and looked at the pictures. She had taken only one picture, but a whole roll of pictures had been developed. She could not believe what she saw—they were all of Advarika and Mrs. Toddles. Some showed Advarika as just a baby raccoon, and others showed different stages of development. The last picture was the one she had taken of the portrait at their great-grandmother’s house.
Trisha looked at the pictures for hours. Eventually, her mother called her. “Trisha, it’s time to go to your doctor’s appointment. The doctor wants another X-ray, just to make sure it’s healing properly.” Trisha tucked the pictures in her dresser, under her socks, and went to the doctor’s.
It was slow going in the Hellandback household for a few days, but once everyone adjusted, things became routine. At dinner one night, Dad asked if they wanted to go back to visit their great-grandmother in Scotland next year or perhaps even at Christmas time. Patrick was not aware of the difficulty his grandmother was having keeping things straight. If he knew, he would not have sent them again.
All four of the Hellandback children yelled, “Yes!”
Anna did not understand the children’s enthusiasm, but Patrick did. “Best life education you will ever get.”
And with that, everyone’s life was back to the daily race of just living life in Boston.
One day, Anna looked out the front door to see Chris walking home from a friend’s house with the big dog that used to torment him walking right beside him. As Chris climbed the front steps, he said, “I guess the dog and I have come to an understanding. Do we have any lunch meat?” Chris walked toward the kitchen to get a dog treat for his new friend.
Anna looked at the big dog. He was smiling a doggie smile, and it looked like he even winked at her.
Anna noticed that Thomas roamed the house, though he went up to Chris’s room at night to sleep. She did not mind. He was a very clean rat and never bothered anyone, except for Titan. Titan would sit for hours trying to look under the stove or refrigerator. Or he would jump up, trying to look high on top of the bookcase. Everyone knew that he was looking for Thomas. Titan was a good dog, but he had a strict one-animal-per-household policy. He wanted no other pets in his house or on his walkway. Anna seriously considered sending Titan to visit Granmama in Scotland. She seemed to have done wonders with the children, and Anna wondered what she could do with a four-legged child.
With life truly back to normal, the constant noise in the Hellandback household would be deafening to some, but Anna liked it. She did not know if she could part with all four of her children at the same time again.
Anna’s morning quiet ended as the children came down the stairs for the first day back to school. Titan barked, Trisha could not find her phone, Chris was looking for his other lacrosse glove, Brittany misplaced her calculator, and Jon couldn’t find his wallet. He wanted to show his friends his driver’s permit. Anna sighed, smiled, and began her busy day.
Chris ran by his mother and into the kitchen. “Chris, you are going to be late.”
“I’m fine, Mom. I just wanted to get a piece of lunchmeat for that dog. He’s waiting for me just outside our door.” Chris grabbed some meat, and out the door he went, walking to school with his new four-legged friend.
Things were getting better all the time for the Hellandbacks. Anna thought that they could all go to Scotland for Christmas. It would truly be another great adventure.
The End
BIO
I live in San Antonio, Texas with my husband and two grown sons'. The eldest graduated from MIT Cambridge 2007, and our youngest is a junior at TCU Fort Worth. My twin sister and niece also live in San Antonio. I'm a Registered Nurse by education, and a writer by passion. I started off writing Historical/Romance/Fiction and then made a huge jump to juvenile/fiction from the suggestion of my twin sister. The four main characters are based off of real individuals. Chris is really like that, and he does have ADHD and is funny. Jon is brilliant and very serious about the world and making money, and he's a great athlete. Chris and Jon both have a love for lacrosse. Trisha is petite, and pretty, and she was born with two left feet-LOL. Brittany is more of a Tomboy and drives herself hard.
Update: I have a new ebook coming out soon, Redwine Hill: The Secrets at Primevil Asylum. I’m grateful for my friends and of course my editor Susanne Lakin. Susanne is not only my editor, but also my friend. My favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice, favorite food, sunflower seeds. Favorite musician: Josh Groban, Tracy Chapman, and Luke Bryan’s song: Don’t want this night to end.