“And what’s that?” he asked, hoping the eagerness didn’t reflect in his voice.
“I thought about it a lot last night. I think it means that all these things remind me of places and people from my past. The part of my past I can’t remember.”
“That sounds possible,” he agreed. “Maybe Miss Cora’s place reminds you of a house you’ve been to before. And she might remind you of an older woman you once knew.”
“Maybe. But it happens all the time. I wish those feelings would go away. I’m so confused.” Her frustration spilled over. “Why can’t I remember things from the past four years? Sometimes I feel downright helpless and lost. I just hate it!”
“Well, look on the bright side. You said those feelings began a few months ago, right? Maybe that means your memories are starting to come back. I’d be patient and give it some more time. ”
“I suppose you’re right.” She sighed deeply. Then she frowned and studied him.
Even with his eyes on the road he could feel her intense stare.
“But how do you explain the feelings I’ve had about you? Is it possible that even you remind me of someone I once knew?”
Caleb stared at her long enough that he had to swerve to stay in his lane. His heart beat faster. He wanted to cry out “Yes! Yes! I remind you of me!”
Showing great restraint, he smiled reassuringly. “It’s possible.”
They reached the downtown section of Baxter and turned onto Main Street. Grateful for the distraction, Caleb began the grand tour of his home town.
He showed Ellie the courthouse and other landmarks, the park down by the river, his former high school, and the pet store where he used to work. Although she didn’t mention it, he could tell she was experiencing more feelings of déjà vu. He prayed throughout the afternoon that their return to these familiar places would jog her memory of her past life in Baxter—and with him.
Around five o’clock they pulled into the parking lot of Edwards Drive-In to join B.J. and Allison for dinner. He was anxious for Ellie to meet them. Of all their mutual friends, she’d spent more time with them than anyone else.
If anything can bring back her memory, it’s B.J. and Edwards Drive-In!
Ellie was immediately smitten by Joshua Caleb. She held him and played with him as they waited on their order. Once they began the meal, she readily agreed with Caleb’s earlier assessment that the tenderloins at Edwards were the best ever.
On the ride back to Miss Cora’s, however, Ellie was unusually withdrawn. She stared silently out the passenger window and fiddled absentmindedly with her hair. She seemed to be lost in a world of deep thoughts.
As the two walked up to the old Victorian, Caleb asked if she’d like to sit on the front porch for a while.
As if in a trance, she headed for the swing without replying. He sat down next to her, and the two of them began rocking back and forth. Neither spoke for several minutes.
“Did you have a nice time today?” he inquired, gently breaking the silence.
“What?” His question seemed to jolt her from her thoughts. “Oh, yes. I enjoyed everything. Baxter is a lovely little town. And you’re very blessed to have such nice friends.”
She smiled, but he noticed that it was forced. Something was definitely troubling her. “You’ve been awfully quiet since we left Edwards. Is something wrong?”
She looked at him. “Wrong? No, nothing’s wrong, really.” She hesitated. “But something is bothering me. It’s those feelings. You know, the one’s we discussed earlier this morning. I’ve had them nearly everywhere we went today. They were especially strong when you took me to the high school and the Pet Palace. And when we went to Edwards, I could have sworn I’d been there before. Even your friends looked familiar. And that’s not all. I’ve gotten the distinct impression that people have been tiptoeing around me since we got here.” She sounded stressed about it.
Had the time come to tell her the full truth? Would she be able to handle it? He didn’t know what to do or say.
“I um . . . I think it’s what you said earlier. You might be starting to remember things from before. ”
“But why does everything here have that effect on me? What are the chances that everything and everyone in Baxter could remind me of different places and people from my past? That’s impossible. Unless . . . ” her voice trailed off. “Unless I’ve been here before.”
How should he reply to that? Caleb nervously ran his hand through his hair.
“What’s that?” Ellie leaned across him and stared at the artwork peeking out from beneath his forearm. She grabbed his arm and pulled it away. “It’s another heart. Like the one Miss Cora’s husband carved on this side.”
She read the inscription. “C.S and E.T. 4EVER. C.S. and E.T?” She looked puzzled. “Someone else carved their initials in this swing!”
He watched her and waited breathlessly. “C.S. Those are your initials, Caleb! And E.T.” She frowned skeptically. “You said I reminded you of someone you once knew. Someone else named Ellie.” She put her palm on her forehead as if trying to remember. “And that day you stopped me in the elevator, didn’t you say something about looking all over for her? That you thought she was . . . she was dead?”
“Yes . . . ”
Ellie’s voice rose in pitch. “Caleb, what’s going on? I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone or something! Am I . . . do you think I’m having a nervous breakdown?”
Caleb looked away, afraid she’d see the moisture in his eyes. He let the air he’d been holding in his lungs slowly escape. “No, you’re not having a nervous breakdown. This girl, she was . . . she meant everything to me. We were in love. We were going to be married.” He looked her full in the face. “But then, she was suddenly taken away from me.”
Ellie’s eyes widened. “No wonder you were so shocked to see me in that elevator! I can’t imagine what you were thinking at the time. Or feeling.”
Caleb didn’t reply. He was searching for the right words, ones to tell her that she was the other girl. The one who meant everything to him. The one he was in love with. The one he planned to marry.
“Caleb, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. You never mentioned this to me before.” She placed her hand over his.
Caleb looked away. “I . . . I didn’t know how to tell you about it.”
“You don’t have to,” she assured him. “I don’t need to know the details.” She squeezed his hand. “Caleb, whoever she was, I think she was very blessed to have someone like you in her life.”
Caleb’s eyes widened. He’d heard similar words from her before. He turned to her and shook his head vehemently. “No. No, Ellie, you’ve got it wrong. I’m the blessed one to have you in my life.”
Ellie brightened, and smiled shyly. “No, Caleb, you’re the one who’s got it wrong. I’m the blessed one to have you in my life.”
He caught the hint of playfulness in her voice. “Nope. It’s me who’s the blessed one,” he responded, breaking into a grin.
“No, I’m the blessed one,” she insisted, laughing out loud.
They looked each other squarely in the eye. “Well, aren’t we the blessed ones!”
The phrase escaped their lips simultaneously. Caleb stared at Ellie. Ellie stared at Caleb. Neither moved a muscle.
Then suddenly, Ellie grabbed her head with her hands.
He instinctively reached out and touched her shoulder. “Ellie, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”
After what seemed like an eternity, she looked up at him with a faraway look in her eyes. “I . . . I remember.”
“You what?”
“I remember. Caleb, I remember!” She shook her head. “It’s coming back to me.” Caleb waited anxiously. “My memory of this place. I remember Baxter. I used to live here. I remember going to high school . . . and working at the Pet Palace . . . and . . . and living in this house!” She looked around in wide-eyed wonder. “That’s my old bedroom upstairs.” Raising both hands to her face, she exclaim
ed, “I gave my life to Jesus in that room, didn’t I?”
Her face shown like an angel. He could only nod. The lump in his throat denied him speech.
“And that.” She pointed to the heart. “Those are our initials, aren’t they? You carved them there. With Henry’s pocket knife.” Her brown eyes were wide and shining and more beautiful than ever. “And you. I remember you.” She softly brushed his face with her fingertips. “You’re the guy in my dreams!”
Tears rimmed Caleb’s eyes. “Yes I am.”
He gathered her in his arms and pulled her tightly to him. The two clung to each other in a long, emotional embrace. He did not want to let her go, for fear she might once again slip from his grasp.
Ellie pressed her face against his. “Oh, Caleb, thank you for not giving up on me.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks now. He could feel their wetness against his face as they mingled with his own.
And he was not ashamed of them.
“I told you I’d always be here for you,” he whispered in her ear.
She pulled back and gazed tenderly at him with her beautiful brown eyes. “I just love a man who keeps his word!”
Placing both hands on the back of his neck, she drew him into a long and passionate kiss.
Ellie sat back in the swing and laid her head on Caleb’s shoulder. He put his arm around her and inhaled the intoxicating scent of her beautiful auburn hair. For several minutes, they rocked back and forth on the porch swing. Neither one of them spoke. Neither had to.
Ellie had a faraway look in her eyes. She finally broke the silence. “It’s so good to be back, Caleb.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “It’s so good to have you back, Ellie.” His voice cracked.
She looked up at him and smiled lovingly through watery eyes. Her lips brushed his cheek.
He returned her smile and her kiss. “Welcome home!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
FULL CIRCLE
CALEB OPENED THE FRONT DOOR of the old Victorian house at 401 East Pine Street and stepped onto the veranda porch. He yawned and stretched.
Patting his stomach, he announced to no one in particular, “That was one good Sunday dinner!”
He ambled around the corner and plunked down on the porch swing. It was a warm, sunny day in southwest Georgia, and the magnolias were in full bloom. The scent of lilacs and honeysuckle, and the sounds of cicadas and song birds filled the air. As he drank in the ambient tranquility of the moment, his mind began to drift.
Six years ago, on this very swing, Ellie’s memory had come back to her. For a moment, he allowed himself to relive the emotions of that incredible day. Soon after that, he’d proposed to her all over again with the same ring he’d slipped onto her finger the first time.
They’d been married three months later. It had been a beautiful, joyous affair, a testament to their undying love for each other, as well as to their Savior’s eternal love for both.
He suddenly chuckled out loud, recalling the wave of laughter that had swept through the church as he knelt with Ellie at the altar. On the soles of his black patent-leather shoes, compliments of the best man, the word “WA-HOO!” had been written in white paint.
His mind fast forwarded to when they’d received the news that Miss Cora had gone home to be with the Lord. Her funeral had been a celebration of a life well lived. The eighty-six year old widow had touched countless lives.
He stopped swinging for a moment and glanced around the porch, recalling the certified letter informing them that Miss Cora had willed her house to them. They had rejoiced at the news, and Ellie had cried over it. She had always wanted a house like this, and God had seen fit to bless them with the very one that held so many wonderful memories for both of them.
Not long after that, they’d moved back to Baxter. He reflected on how that decision had changed their lives. He was now working for the design firm he’d interned with after graduation, and Ellie was living her dream of having her own art studio in a small town. And the two of them couldn’t be any happier.
The front door of the house opened again, and an auburn haired little girl wearing a frilly yellow dress darted out onto the porch.
From his seat around the corner, Caleb could hear Ellie’s voice calling after the fleeing four-year old. “Savannah! Where are you going?”
“I’m going to sit with Daddy on the swing,” the little girl replied. She rounded the corner and climbed onto the swing next to her father.
“Swing me, Daddy,” she begged, patting his arm with her tiny hand.
Caleb put an arm around his daughter and smiled at her. “Okay, honey. But did you close the door?”
She squinted her big brown eyes. “I think so.”
“No she didn’t,” Ellie laughed, rounding the corner of the porch with a cup of coffee in her hand. She was very pregnant. “Savannah dear, you need to remember to shut the door behind you next time, okay sweetie?”
“Okay, Mommy. I will do it next time. I promise!”
Ellie eased herself into the padded wooden rocker that had been Miss Cora’s favorite and took a sip of her coffee.
“I like swinging with Daddy!” Savannah announced, with her feet sticking straight out in front of her.
Ellie smiled at her. “I know you do, sweetie. You’re just like me when I was a little girl. I used to like swinging with my mother, too. Only my swing was green and your swing is white.”
She watched Caleb rock back and forth with their daughter for a while. Savannah suddenly slid off the swing and lay down with her back on the floorboards.
Caleb looked down at his daughter in amazement. Four years old, and she was still unpredictable.
“Savannah, what in the world are you doing?” he chuckled, glancing at his wife and shaking his head.
“I want to push you, Daddy,” his precocious daughter replied. Instead of going around, she began scooting under the swing.
“Savannah! Get up off the porch,” Ellie scolded. “You’re going to get your Sunday dress all dirty.”
Savannah stopped halfway under the swing and lay there for a moment. “Savannah, did you hear me?”
The little girl ignored her mother’s question. “Mommy, there’s a heart on the swing.”
“Yes, I know, sweetie. There are two hearts, actually. One on each arm. Now, please get up.”
“No, there’s another heart on the swing.”
“What is she talking about?” He got up, pulled Savannah out from under the swing and dusted off the back of her yellow dress. “Another heart? Where?”
“On the bottom. I’ll show you.” She started to crawl under the swing again.
“Whoa, princess.” Caleb scooped her up and deposited her with her mother. “I’ll check it out myself.” He tipped the swing back so he could see the underside of the seat. “Well, what do you know, there is another heart under here.”
“There is?” Ellie struggled to get out of the rocker. “Let me see.”
“Hold on. I’ll unhook the chains so you don’t have to get up.” Caleb reached up and unfastened the S-hooks from the eye bolts screwed into the rafters. He tipped the swing over and laid it on the floor, turning it to face her.
There on the underside, was a heart, painted on the slats with what must have been a small artist’s brush. The white paint stood out in stark contrast to the dark green bottom of the swing.
Caleb stared at the initials. “Uh, Ellie . . . ”
“K.T. and E.T. BFFs,” Ellie read the letters out loud. “Who do you suppose that was? The people who owned the swing before the Williams?”
“Where did Miss Cora say they found this swing? Do you remember?”
“Um . . . she said they bought it at a garage sale. Somewhere near Chesapeake, I think. Why?”
“A green porch swing . . . bought about twenty years ago . . . near Chesapeake, Virginia. Does that ring any bells?”
Ellie looked at him. “K.T. and E.T. That must have been the people who . . . ” her voice tr
ailed off. Staring at the letters, she shook her head. “No. No, it can’t be.”
She glanced up at him. “Caleb, is that possible?”
“Katherine Thompson and Ellie Thompson.” He said it for her.
Ellie stared at him in disbelief. “BFFs. Best Friends Forever. That’s what my mother and I used to pinkie promise each other when she tucked me in bed every night.”
Caleb knelt down in front of his wife and gently took her face in his hands. “Ellie, this is the swing you and your mother used to sit on when you lived in Hickory.”
“I can’t believe it! Caleb, I’ve been sitting on that swing since our senior year of high school. And all this time, I didn’t know . . . ” Ellie was crying now.
“What’s the matter, Mommy? Why are you crying?” Savannah reached up and gave her mother a hug. “Don’t be sad, Mommy. It’s okay.” She patted her arm.
Ellie wiped her eyes and pulled Savannah tightly to her. “Thank you, sweetie. I’m not sad.”
Caleb got to his feet. “Would you like some more coffee?” he asked his wife.
Ellie nodded through her tears, and with a smile handed him the nearly empty cup.
He took it from her hands and disappeared around the corner of the porch. On his way to the kitchen, he made a detour into the living room. Standing in front of the fireplace with its smoke stained brick and dark, aged wood, he surveyed the items on the mantel.
The old German clock was still ticking faithfully and keeping excellent time. A small Bible lay beside it, a wrinkled brochure and a dog-eared bookmark peeking out from beneath its white cover. He stared at the large acrylic painting in the beautiful antique frame hanging above the mantel. Done in all sepia tones, it depicted an auburn-haired young woman and a tall young man, both wearing old fashioned turn-of-the-century clothing, sitting arm-in-arm on the porch swing of a large old Victorian house.
The artist had signed it in the lower right-hand corner, Ellie Thompson Sawyer. Attached to the frame was a brass plaque inscribed with the words of Jeremiah 29:11.
He read them out loud. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
A Future and a Hope Page 33