Three Weddings and a Bar Mitzvah

by Melody Carlson

Kendall blew her nose loudly, then looked up with a hopeful expression. “Do you think it’s possible to pray in reverse?”

  “Pray in reverse?”

  “You know, pray backward. Instead of praying for something in the future, you pray for it in the past? Like could I pray for Nana to be okay with God now?”

  Megan considered this. “Well, God isn’t limited to our earthly clocks and calendars, so it might be worth a try.”

  “Will you pray for her too?”

  Megan thought this sounded a little strange, not to mention childish, but then she remembered a Scripture where Jesus tells his disciples to have childlike faith. Maybe that was what Kendall had. “Sure,” she told her. “I’ll be happy to pray.”

  “Right now?” Kendall asked eagerly.

  “Why not?” Megan reached for Kendall’s hands and they both took turns praying “in reverse” for Nana to have come to faith before her life ended.

  “Amen,” said Megan when it seemed their backward prayer had ended.

  “Thank you so much!” Kendall hugged her again. “I still miss Nana, but I feel better. And now I better get over to Kate’s house. My dad mentioned they’re having some kind of a family meeting regarding Nana. Not that I was invited, but that’s not going to keep me from going.”

  Megan laughed. “You know, I think you and your Nana had a lot in common, Kendall.”

  “Really? How so?”

  Megan considered her words carefully. No way did she want to insult Kendall or her deceased grandmother. “Well, you both have very resilient spirits. You’re both witty. And you both have style.”

  Kendall stood a little straighter as she patted her tummy. “Thank you.”

  Kendall had just left when Anna came home. Once again, she was carrying a large, elegant bouquet of roses. Only these were red.

  “Are those for tomorrow night’s shower?” Megan asked curiously.

  “No way.” Anna shook her head. “These are my roses.”

  “Who sent them?”

  “Edmond.”

  Megan blinked. “Really?”

  “But he didn’t send the yellow ones.” She set the bouquet on the dining room table. “Those were from Chelsea, a friend at work. I’d helped her with something.”

  “Okay, I get that.” Megan studied Anna. “But Edmond sent these? I assume you know what red roses symbolize, right?”

  Anna nodded with a big smile, then began to explain how Edmond had kidnapped her from her desk and taken her to lunch at a very nice restaurant, where he explained everything and apologized for hurting her, then swore that Lucy meant nothing to him.

  “He said he wants us to start all over again.” She sighed. “Then these roses showed up at my desk this afternoon, and the card simply said, ‘To Anna with love, your Edmond.’”

  “And how do you feel about all this?” Megan asked, although judging by Anna’s expression, she was over the moon.

  “I told him that I’d like to start over too.” Anna beamed at her.

  “That’s fabulous news. I’m really happy for you.”

  “I’m still kind of in shock.”

  “Kendall’s had a bit of a shock too.” Megan used this segue to break the news about Kendall’s grandmother.

  “Oh, no!” Anna put her hand over her mouth. “Poor Kendall—and right before her wedding! How is she doing?”

  Megan filled in more details, even mentioning the praying-in-reverse thing. “I wasn’t really sure, but it seemed like it couldn’t hurt. And Kendall felt better.”

  “That’s kind of like lighting candles at church for people who’ve passed,” Anna said thoughtfully. “I think it makes perfect sense.”

  Lelani and Emma came in, and Megan and Anna took turns sharing both the happy and sad news with them.

  “Wow,” Lelani said as she sat Emma down on the floor to crawl around. “That’s overwhelming. I don’t know whether to celebrate or sob.”

  “For now we should probably focus on Kendall,” Anna suggested. “Having a family member die just a week before your wedding—it won’t be easy.”

  “What can we do to help her through this?” asked Lelani.

  “Just be her friends and love her.” Megan felt Emma tugging on her shoelace and bent down to pick her up. “What could be better than that?”

  “Nothing that I can think of,” said Lelani.

  “I agree.” Anna nodded.

  Megan felt exceedingly thankful for her friends, but she was also aware that the death of Kendall’s grandmother probably meant that she and Anna would each need to find other places to live at the end of the month. In fact, she suspected that the family meeting Kendall had just crashed was related to her grandmother’s estate, including the house on Bloomberg Place, which would probably be sold now for sure. Really, it seemed this was the end of an era. Change was roaring down the railroad track like a freight train, and there was no way Megan could stop it.

  In her room, Megan flopped down on her bed and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and consciously pushed away her doubt and fear as she imagined herself lying in the hand of God … trusting him to care for her … believing that he could keep her safe … and that he would keep her from falling.

  Twenty-six

  Kendall

  “Oh, Kendall,” Kate said as she opened her front door with an empty pitcher in her hand. “We didn’t expect you to come.”

  “Why not?” Kendall made her way past Kate and into the house. “She was my grandmother too.”

  “But this is more of a business meeting.” The implication was clear—no children allowed. When it came to Kate, Kendall would always be treated like a child.

  Kendall just shrugged. “Don’t worry, I think I can handle it.”

  “Fine,” Kate turned away. “Everyone is in Eric’s den. I’m just getting some more iced tea.”

  Kendall reminded herself of what Megan had just said—about how she and Nana were similar—as she opened the door to the den. “Hello, everyone,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

  “Kendall,” said her dad, “I didn’t know you were—”

  “So this is Kendall,” said a man who was seated at Eric’s desk with a folder of papers in front of him. “I’m Darren Walberg.” He stood and extended his hand. “Your grandmother’s attorney.”

  “Nice to meet you.” She forced a nervous smile.

  “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  She swallowed hard. “Thanks. I’m going to miss her.”

  “Have a seat, Kendall,” her dad said as Kate began refilling glasses with tea. “Mr. Walberg was just starting to go over some legal things.”

  The attorney cleared his throat and picked up a piece of paper. “And now for the actual will.”

  As Darren Walberg read, Kendall’s mind wandered. She remembered all the times she’d spent with Nana as a child—times when her parents and older siblings had been eager to get rid of her, in essence dumping her with her grandmother so they could go off to do things she was considered too young for. But what they hadn’t realized was that she and Nana formed a bond that the rest of them missed out on. They had played cards and watched goofy TV. Nana had let Kendall dress up in her old clothes and jewelry, and sometimes they’d go into the kitchen and cook something totally crazy, inedible actually, mixed up from a wild bunch of ingredients. Then Nana would let Kendall stay up as late as she liked and sleep in even later. And the next day they would go shopping and Nana would buy something that her mother and sisters would say was in bad taste. Not that Kendall would care.

  “Why does Kendall get the house?” Kim was asking now. “I mean, we all knew that Nana allowed Kendall to occupy it, since Kendall didn’t really have any place else to live. But to leave that property to Kendall alone? I don’t und
erstand.”

  “The house has actually been in Kendall’s name for more than a year now,” Darren Walberg told Kate.

  “It has?” Kendall frowned at him. “You mean officially and legally? Not just that I was getting to use it?”

  “I mean officially and legally.”

  Kendall shook her head. “No one told me.”

  “Your grandmother didn’t think it was necessary to tell anyone. She had given the property to you through a trust that was set up with me. It was just her way of cleaning some things up before she went into the nursing home.”

  “Oh.” Kendall tried to absorb this information. The house really did belong to her. It had for some time. Oh, she had sort of pretended it was hers, and she had wished that it was hers, but in her mind it still belonged to Nana. Perhaps it always would. “So I can do what I like with the house?”

  He held up what looked like a deed. “It’s your house, Kendall.”

  She nodded. “So I can keep it if I want? It won’t have to be sold? And my friends can continue living there?”

  “Like I said, it’s your house.”

  The others began to talk among themselves now, questioning Nana’s mental faculties, discussing the fairness of Kendall getting the house, as well as some of the other portions of the will—things that Kendall had missed while daydreaming. Kendall stood and walked out of the room. No one really seemed to notice.

  But by the time she reached the front door, Darren Walberg was at her side, handing a business card to her. “Let’s set up an appointment for next week,” he told her. “I know you’re getting married soon, and it might be wise to take care of this first.”

  “Thank you.” She forced a smile through her tears.

  He smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Your grandmother was quite a woman, Kendall. She thought the world of you. And no matter what anyone might try to tell you, she was of sound mind when she signed the house over to you. There will be no way to dispute that.”

  “Thanks.” Kendall tucked his card into her purse, then left. Part of her felt hurt and betrayed by her family, but another part wasn’t terribly surprised. Besides, she reminded herself as she drove back toward Bloomberg Place, she had another kind of family to go home to now.

  Kendall tried to wear her party face at Lelani’s big shower on Saturday night, but underneath it all she felt sad and tired. When Mrs. Mendez began to serve refreshments, Kendall quietly let herself out and drove to the RV park where her parents’ motor home was parked. She wasn’t sure if they’d be there or not, but she wanted to talk to her dad.

  She parked in the guest parking area and walked over to the spot where her parents had set up camp. She was about to knock on their door when she heard loud voices through the open window. “She was my mother,” her dad declared, “and if I want to feel bad, it’s my business.”

  “Fine!” her mom shouted back. “Go ahead and be a big baby. See if I care.”

  “Sometimes you are made of ice!” he yelled.

  “Go to—”

  “Shut up! Shut up!”

  Kendall backed away from the trailer, turned and ran to her car, got in, and leaned her head into the steering wheel. She could remember times when her parents had fought like this before. Often, she felt responsible for those fights. If only she were more mature, more responsible, more grown-up, she’d always thought, perhaps they wouldn’t fight so much. Was that why they were fighting now? Or were they upset, like Kate had been, to learn that Nana had given her house to Kendall? If that was the case, they could have the house. Kendall didn’t want it. She reached for her phone and dialed Killiki’s number.

  “How are you doing, sweetie?” he asked kindly. “Did you go to Lelani’s shower?”

  She tearfully told him about what she’d just heard and how upsetting it was. “I don’t want to be the reason my parents are fighting anymore,” she sobbed. “I just want it to stop.”

  “Oh, Kendall,” he said gently, “you can’t make them fight and you can’t make them stop. Don’t you see that?”

  “All I see is that they’re unhappy and it feels like my fault.”

  “It’s not your fault. You have to accept that. Remember what our last counseling session was about? How we have to take responsibility for our own feelings? That means you can’t blame someone else and you can’t take the blame either.”

  “I know that in my head, but it doesn’t feel true.”

  “I wasn’t going to tell you this, Kendall, but I changed my flight.”

  “You changed it?” Kendall felt alarmed. Was he going to cancel the wedding?

  “Yes. I’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon at four. That way I can be with you for your grandmother’s funeral on Monday.”

  “Oh, you did that for me?” She wiped her tears with her free hand.

  “Of course, Kendall. I want to be there for you. Don’t you know that?”

  “Thank you!” she cried. “I’ll be waiting for you at the airport, Killiki. At four?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I love you!” she said happily.

  “I love you too. And remember, you’re not the reason your parents are fighting. They’re fighting because they choose to fight. Understand?”

  “Yes.” She nodded eagerly. “Thank you!”

  It was just past noon on Sunday when Kendall called her dad. “I don’t know if you want to talk to me or not, but I—”

  “Why wouldn’t I want to talk to you?”

  “Well, I was feeling kind of like the misfit at the family meeting on Friday, and I sort of assumed—”

  “Oh, Kendall, don’t you know what they say about that assume word?”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that one.”

  “Of course I want to talk to you.”

  They agreed to meet for ice cream, and when Kendall was sitting across from her dad, she started to realize that some of her assumptions, at least about him, were a little off base.

  “I couldn’t be happier that my mom gave her house to you, Kennie. And I’m not a bit surprised. You were always her favorite.”

  “So there are no hard feelings?”

  “Of course not. Not with me anyway. I can’t speak for anyone else.”

  “Like Mom?”

  “Oh, your mom might’ve expected some sort of inheritance, but we don’t need it, Kennie. We’re doing just fine.”

  “What about the rest of the family?”

  “I’m sure some of your siblings are jealous. Not much we can do about that.”

  “I guess not.” She looked down at her ice cream.

  “Let’s see a smile on that princess face,” he urged.

  She attempted a small smile for him. “I’m still missing Nana. Remember how she loved going out for ice cream?”

  He held up his ice cream cone now. “Here’s to my mom and your grandmother, Kendall. She was a little quirky, but she was a good woman, right?”

  “Right.” She held up her cone and clicked it against his. “Here’s to Nana.”

  “You know, Kennie, of all the grandkids, you’re probably the most like her.”

  “That’s what one of my roommates said too.”

  “Did they know her?”

  “Sure, we had her over a few times.”

  “Good for you.” He shook his head with a sad expression. “I was surprised at how hard it hit me when I heard she died.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “And I’ve been feeling guilty.”

  “Why?”

  “I never visited her at the nursing home. Not once. I’m sure she was lonely there, and I feel terrible about that.”

  “But she had lots of friends there, Dad. I met a lot of them.”

  “Did you go there much?”

>   “I wish I’d gone more.” She bit her lip to keep from mentioning how Mom had kept her from going there recently. “But really, she did have friends there, Dad. And I think she was fairly happy most of the time. She did get tired of being cooped up now and then.”

  “Who wouldn’t?”

  “Nana was actually kind of unhappy the last time I saw her, Dad. She was sick and weak and they were sedating her—”

  “They sedated her?”

  Kendall nodded. “I felt so bad for her about that. I mean, I realize she was a little upset, and the nurse said she’d get well sooner if she rested and everything. But it bugged me a lot. In fact, I wanted to figure out a way to bring her home, you know, to live in her house. I started talking to live-in caregivers, and two of my roommates were willing to help her in exchange for rent.”

  “You tried to put all that together?” He looked truly stunned.

  “Yeah. I even talked to a social-services person, who was going to send some papers for Nana to fill out so that her house could be used to pay for her care.”

  “Wow, Kendall, that’s impressive.”

  She frowned. “Except that it never happened.”

  “Still, that you would even spend time and energy trying to help Nana is wonderful. And here I thought all you had on your mind was your wedding.”

  Kendall actually laughed. “Trust me, Dad, I am not nearly as into this wedding as it might appear.” She glanced at the clock over the ice cream counter. “Which reminds me, I have to pick someone up at the airport.”

  “Let me guess? Could this someone be Killiki?”

  “How did you know?”

  “You should’ve seen the way your eyes lit up.”

  “I’d invite you to come along”—she grinned—“but I kind of want to see him by myself first. It’s been awhile.”

  “I understand totally.”

  “Besides, you can meet him tomorrow.” She reached for her bag. “At Nana’s funeral.”

  He nodded somberly.

  “I wish Nana could’ve met him.”

  “I’m sure she would’ve loved him, Kendall.”

  “Yeah. I know.”