A Home For Christmas

by Diane Adams

  Alex accepted, taking note as he entered of the shabby condition of the interior. Everything was clean but had seen better days. Water damage darkened the ceiling in several places, and though a fire roared in the fireplace, the room felt chill and damp. After living so long under Jared’s influence, Alex couldn’t help cataloging what he saw, ascribing to each bit of damage or wear an estimate of what it would take to fix. A brightly lit Christmas tree, one that reminded Alex remarkably of the one he’d put up with Jared, stood in one corner, and an electric candle stood in each window.

  “Thank you.” Alex pulled off his gloves and offered her his hand. “Are you aware of what happened?”

  “I know what the police told me. Devon…” She looked troubled and glanced to where her grandson lingered on the stairs like a trapped animal. “Go back upstairs, Devon. I want to talk to Mr Douglas-Ross.”

  Desperation flashed across the boy’s face. “Grandma, please…”

  “Now, young man.” Her tone firm, she turned to lead Alex to the sofa without watching to see if the boy obeyed. Alex followed her but turned to watch as the young man cast a last baleful look in their direction before disappearing upstairs. “Have a seat. Can I get you anything? Tea…water?”

  Alex sat on the couch that proved to be comfortable despite its faded appearance. “No thank you. I’m fine, Ms Wright. Please, call me Alex.”

  “And I’m Pearl.” She sat on the end of the sofa away from him. She moved with stiff care, and he noticed a cane leaning against the far wall. She noticed where he was looking and gave him a tight smile. “I was in a car accident several years back, and my recovery wasn’t as complete as I would have hoped. Things are what they are, young man; there’s no call for the pity on your face.” Her voice was a bit sharp but softened when she gave a small laugh.

  “You are like my Devon, everything you think shows on your face. I bet you can’t keep a secret for anything.”

  Alex grinned at her. “That’s a bet you’d win. Jared says what I’m thinking always shows in my expression before I say a word. I hoped I’d grow out of it.” He shrugged. “I guess not.”

  “You said Jared is your husband?” Unfortunately, Pearl did not share his problem. Alex couldn’t get a read on her at all.

  “He is. We’ve been married nine months.” Alex managed to keep the defensive tone out of his voice, but apparently not out of his expression.

  Pearl’s laugh was a clear, pretty sound. “It’s fine, son, I wondered how honest you’d be with me. I know who you are. I saw the story they did about the two of you on TV after the rescue, and the police told me about you when they brought Devon home.” She hesitated and her inscrutable expression turned wistful. “Thank you for remembering him during the interview and for being so concerned about his welfare.”

  Alex remembered clearly doing the TV interview. The local news wanted to talk about the rescue and how they had taken in the baby they saved. The only thing Alex had seen was a chance to spread the word about Devon. They’d finally given him time to make a plea to and for the young man.

  “I’m not sure it helped. No one could find him. It was like he’d disappeared.” Recalling the fear for the boy’s wellbeing, Alex felt a little desperate for the story of how he’d been found.

  She leaned and patted his hand briefly before withdrawing her own. “Bless you. You’re right in a way. I have him home because he got caught stealing food at a convenience store. The employee called the police. At first he wouldn’t tell them who he was, but once they found out the whole story, the manager chose not to file charges. An officer brought him home.”

  “God, why didn’t he just call you? They were out there alone, starving. He didn’t even have a coat or shoes.” Alex’s jaw clenched. He couldn’t help his suspicion Devon had run away from home with the baby. It led directly to the question of why. He didn’t want to believe this gracious and kind woman abused them, but he knew it was possible.

  “Oh, dear, your face…” Pearl sighed. “I can only imagine what you’re thinking. I’d like to tell you what I’ve put together of the story. It’s not short. Are you sure I can’t get you a drink?”

  “I’m sure.” Alex leaned forward, his anxious posture the opposite of the woman in front of him, but he couldn’t relax, not with the children’s safety still in question.

  “My oldest son left as soon as he turned eighteen. He moved to Chicago. He thought the city had more to offer. He was never a fast thinker and never outgrew his susceptibility to the influence of other people. Unfortunately, it’s rarely good people who latch on to a person like my Andrew.” Her mask of control slipped again, the heartbreak she revealed obviously too strong to keep the façade in place. “He was there long enough to get into some trouble with the law and father a baby. He got shot in a drive-by. When it became clear how badly the injury disabled him, Devon’s mother disappeared and left him behind with his father. Andrew tried to stick it out. He had his disability payment because the gunshot cost him the use of his right arm. He had a string of live-in girlfriends who mothered Devon as well as they could, I guess.”

  She paused, her expression one of sadness. Pearl nodded at him, though Alex hadn’t said a word. “I see you understand. Andrew was very bitter when he was forced to return home, unable to hold a job. I tried to encourage him. Things take time and work. It took years for me to learn how to function without my legs as well as I do. He could have learned to compensate for losing the use of his right arm. He still had a good arm, even if using it was awkward. Retraining a limb takes a lot of work. Andrew never had been interested in anything that took much effort. The pain pills and complaining were easier than facing it, I suppose.”

  Alex kept his gaze on Pearl’s face with an effort. Her legs? He wasn’t rude enough to blurt out any of his questions, but his face must have betrayed him. Pearl stopped in the midst of her narrative to smile gently at him. She lifted one leg of her slacks above her sock and the soft brown sheen of an artificial limb met Alex’s gaze. “Both legs, thankfully below the knee. They were mangled beyond repair in the accident. It wasn’t something a person recovers from overnight. Andrew was in Chicago at the time, but thankfully my younger boy Mickey was able to help. I was in physical therapy for a long time, and I still have exercises to keep up my strength.

  “It’s up to me to be independent. When Andrew got shot, the bullet nearly took his arm off at the elbow. They saved it but he had extremely limited function. After that, he was even worse than he’d been. He never believed I was happy to have him home alive.”

  “What happened to him?” Alex asked quietly as he tried to absorb everything she’d told him. He hadn’t missed how she spoke of him in the past tense.

  “He killed himself a couple weeks before Christmas last year.” Pearl took a moment to compose herself. Alex knew the anniversary of a loss was hard; Jared suffered each year on the day marking the death of his father. He thought a first anniversary probably made the loss seem new, and he waited in respectful silence for her to continue. “Andrew healed physically from the gunshot wound as well as could be expected given his attitude, but the bullet had left a wound inside that never healed. My son had always been a troubled young man, and that bullet killed whatever chance there’d been that he’d ever change. He didn’t come home until he’d given up on healing, and there was nothing left of him but a hollow shell of a man.”

  Alex edged closer and patted her hand where it lay on her denim-clad thigh. He wished Jared was there. He’d know exactly how to comfort her. Alex just turned awkward when anyone started sharing strong emotion. He couldn’t bring himself to say any of the usual platitudes, so instead he squeezed her hand and asked, “What happened?”

  “Well, he met a girl.” Pearl took a deep shuddering breath, and somehow Alex knew that what came next was the hardest part for her. “For a little while it seemed to help, but she had her own issues and then she got pregnant. Andrew overdosed on his pain pills just a few days after she tol
d him.”

  “Was it because of the baby?” Alex kept his voice gentle. He couldn’t judge the man’s decision. He remembered all too well the hopeless abyss of depression he’d fallen into after his injuries. He’d always believed he was strong, but he really didn’t know what would have happened to him if not for Jared. Even with Jared it may have only taken one more thing to push him beyond the point of no return.

  “I don’t think so. His pain medications were prescribed monthly, but there were three empty bottles beside the bed. The police concluded he’d been hoarding them. So, he’d been planning to take his life for quite a while.” Pearl firmed her lips and dashed a tear from her eye. “Yevetta moved in with us for a while, but as I said, she is a very troubled young woman. When she was around five months pregnant, she suddenly announced the baby wasn’t Andrew’s. She was gone the next morning, and Devon with her.”

  For a moment sheer gladness that Sissy had escaped this place beat in Alex’s heart. He could thank Pearl for her time and leave. The baby’s mother was nowhere to be found, and this woman had no way to prove her relationship to her. Despite his instinct to haul ass, Alex couldn’t forget Devon’s panic for his sister’s life. “Why did she take him?” Pearl hadn’t said much about the boy during the story, but Alex filled in the blanks with his imagination. The pregnant woman was the closest thing he’d had to a mother.

  “Devon spent a lot of his youth taking care of his father. You can imagine Andrew hadn’t been a very nurturing parent, but Devon was fiercely loyal. He and I bonded after they moved in, but it was always his father before anything else. Devon left a note for me. He wrote that he didn’t believe Yevette about the baby. He was sorry to leave me alone, but someone had to take care of them. He was fourteen. I have no idea why she let him go with her.” Her voice held a puzzled sadness that Alex believed she’d felt that day reading the letter from her grandson.

  “I didn’t have the resources to search for him. Mickey tried to find them. She took a bus to Atlanta, of all places, but the trail went cold there. I didn’t hear anything else until the police called me to say they had him at the station. Well, you can imagine how he looked when the officer brought him home. Starved and half-frozen, but he had a very good winter coat. It swallowed him up in downy softness. There’s a good chance it saved his life. They explained about the fire and the shoplifting, but there aren’t any charges. Devon told us that Yevette started the fire in an empty room for him to keep warm and left him there with the baby. She said she was going to find food, but she never came back. He fell asleep, and when he woke up the room was on fire. He’s a child, and he ran outside before he thought. He has nightmares about leaving his sister in there. It’s going to be a long time before we know everything that happened to him in the last couple years and at least that long for him to recover.”

  “I’m so glad he’s safe now.” Alex’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I couldn’t stop worrying about him. I gave him Jared’s coat, but he didn’t even have shoes. He just ran away and I don’t understand why.”

  Pearl closed her eyes briefly. “Yevetta told him to never call me because the burden of taking care of him would kill me. It seems extreme, I know, but Devon…is easy to lead astray. One way to make sure he will do what you want is to create a threat to someone he feels he’s supposed to protect. He’s never had the chance to be a child.” Pearl nodded. “When he saw Mr Douglas-Ross leave with Cassie, he thought the two of you would bring her to me. It’s what he wanted, and he was afraid two kids would be too much for my fragile health.” The first sign of anger burned hot in Pearl’s eyes. “If I ever get my hands on that woman, it won’t be pretty. Anyhow, when he did finally get here, he was devastated to find out Cassie wasn’t here. I haven’t told him yet that I’m not sure we’ll ever get custody.”

  Alex’s eyes burned and his chest tightened at the thought of giving up Sissy. He’d left Jared at home rocking her in front of the living room fireplace. The curtains were drawn and the only lights were from the Christmas tree and the flickering fire. He’d smiled with sleepy contentment when Alex kissed him and said he was going out for a while. He hadn’t expected to find Sissy’s family, one that wanted her to come home.

  “Child Services hasn’t contacted us.” He waited impatiently, shifting in his seat, for Pearl to comment.

  “I’m not surprised. Without Yevetta it’s going to be difficult for me to prove that Andrew was the father. Devon remembers where she was born. Mickey is going to call about getting a copy of her birth certificate. I doubt Andrew’s name is on it.” She glanced back at the stairway for the first time, but it remained empty. Alex had been keeping an eye out for any eavesdroppers.

  “Have you considered a DNA test?” He nearly choked saying it, but he couldn’t see any point in delaying the situation. Sissy needed her permanent home as soon as possible, however difficult it was for the adults in her life.

  “Yes, but the test is expensive and what if…what if Cassie isn’t ours?” She sounded broken in a way she hadn’t about anything else that had happened in her life.

  Alex knew the answer to that; he didn’t need Jared there to tell him. “I can promise you one thing. No matter what the test results reveal, you won’t lose your granddaughter. Whether she lives with you and Devon or with us, you will remain a part of her life if that’s what you want.” Alex felt a twinge of conscience. His talk with Jared was going to be a filibuster. “We can call our lawyer. That should speed things up.”

  Pearl looked as if she couldn’t believe her ears. “You’ll do this for us, but why? You don’t even know me.”

  “We know Sissy.” Alex smiled, because of course that was enough. He glanced around the snug, worn house. “Honestly? I think you can count on this just being the start.”

  Making Decisions

  Jared smiled at the bright-eyed little girl sitting in the high chair he and Alex had purchased on their wild preparing-for-a-baby shopping spree. He was glad that Clark and his sons had put it together because the five-in-one chair might have defeated him. The infant seat with the tray was perfect for her. Safely strapped into her five-point harness, she batted at the toy suction-cupped to the plastic tray. Whenever she made the colorful wheel turn, she cackled with delight.

  “Dang.” Jared whirled back to the stove when the scent of scorched eggs drifted to him. He stirred them and tried to determine if he’d ruined the flavor. With Sissy just getting her appetite back, he didn’t want to put her off her food because of his inability to stop staring at her. He didn’t think he could be held responsible. When she lit up with a laugh, eyes crinkling at the corners and face split in a huge grin, she was irresistible by any standard. He used a fork to take a tiny bite and decided he’d saved them in time. He plated the eggs and set them aside to cool as he poured a glass of milk for himself and a sippy cup of water for her.

  So far there hadn’t been much luck getting her interested in baby food. Sissy liked her bottle and when she was hungry that’s what she wanted. Stevie had suggested trying her on some very soft table food. She warned them to take it slow and only introduce one thing at a time to watch for allergies. No adding salt or other spices, just the straight-up food. The idea of eggs without salt made Jared wince, but he decided to try. So far eggs and mashed potatoes were a hit. He’d mixed the rice cereal in with the potatoes, and today was going to try getting bites of rice cereal in between her bites of egg.

  Alex came in when they were about halfway through. Feeding always took a while since she’d rather play or be obstinate than cooperate. Jared waved with a spoon when Alex popped his head into the kitchen with a hurried. “I’m back.” Jared’s brow furrowed. Alex seemed out of sorts. Of course Sissy decided she needed a bite right that second and made no bones about letting Jared know it. With a laugh, he let the feeling go for the moment. He made a mental note to talk to Alex later and make sure everything was okay. Once he was sure Sissy had enough, he gave her the spoon to bang on the tray. Jared
started some lunch for him and Alex to eat. It’d be nice to share a meal while Sissy napped, and she always went down after her lunch.

  “Hey, want to get her a bottle and put her down for a nap?” he asked when Alex finally made a reappearance. Alex smiled at Sissy but went first to Jared to claim a kiss. He crowded close into his arms and the kiss lingered. He rested one hand on Alex’s hip to keep him from moving away.

  “Everything okay?” Concern flared and he studied Alex’s face intently. Alex shoved at his shoulder.

  “Stop, I’m fine.” He gave him another peck on the cheek. “Let me fix her bottle before she’s the one that thinks of it.” He flashed his grin and Jared let him go. He stepped away and washed his hands before he opened the cabinet. Jared watched him as he took out a clean bottle and a can of powdered formula. Alex didn’t seem to notice. He hit the switch on the electric kettle and started measuring formula into the bottle. “I got a call from Officer Rhoades this morning. They found Devon.” He sounded casual, as if he was commenting on the weather.

  Jared had moved back to the stove to finish fixing lunch. He knew his husband too well for the nonchalant act to work. He paused, a can of mushroom soup in one hand and the can opener in the other. He turned to look at Alex. The back turned in his direction wasn’t a good sign. “Any reason you decided to not tell me about it this morning?”

  “I may have gone to the police station and convinced him to give me the address.” He still hadn’t turned around. He turned off the kettle way before the water started to boil and poured the hot water into the bottle.

  “Alex, what aren’t you telling me?”

  “I had to flirt with him a little bit? No touching or anything I swear…” Alex teased as he measured formula into the bottle.

  “Alex Douglas-Ross…”

  Alex took a deep breath and turned to face Jared, though his eyes remained fixed on the bottle he was shaking. “I might have gone over there earlier.”