The House on Sugar Plum Lane

by Judy Duarte

  If there’d ever been any question in Maria’s mind of whether Eddie was a decent guy, whether he’d make a good husband and father, there wasn’t any longer.

  She tried to tell herself that she was too heavy-duty for him, that he could—and should—find another woman. But right now, as he prepared to mow her yard and planned to take her son under his wing, she found herself backpedaling. Reconsidering.

  She couldn’t help thinking that Eddie was different. That he might give a single mom with three kids more than a second glance. And she hoped that he would.

  He’d invited Danny to baseball practice last Saturday, but she hadn’t found a sitter and wanted to observe the first time. She had no idea how she’d pull it off, but she was determined to go next Saturday, even if she had to call the church and ask if they could find someone to sit with Ellie and Captain for an hour or two.

  As Eddie started the lawnmower and Maria headed back to the house, Amy drove up and parked in her driveway.

  Maria hoped her new neighbor didn’t think that she was trying to get a landscape freebie on behalf of the Davilas.

  So she waited for Amy to climb out of her car, then went to meet her.

  As Amy shut off the ignition, she noticed Maria in her front yard and waved. Then, after sliding out from behind the wheel, she opened the rear passenger door for Callie.

  “Good morning,” Maria called out as she approached the shrubs that separated the two yards.

  “It is, isn’t it?” Amy scanned her surroundings, taking note of the warmth of the sun and the melodious sound of birds chirping.

  “Is Sara here?” Callie asked Maria. “And can she come over and play? I brought my Candy Land game today.”

  Maria smiled. “She’s inside, picking up her toys. But yes, she can play as soon as she’s finished.”

  Amy glanced at Maria’s porch, where an elderly couple sat in rocking chairs. She wondered if the old woman was the one who had talked to Callie the other day.

  “Do you have company?” she asked.

  “Not exactly. That’s Ellie and Captain. They’re my boarders.”

  “Ellie?” Amy froze in mid-step. The world around her—the birds, the mower—seemed to grow silent. “Ellie Rucker?”

  Maria nodded. “She’s been staying here.”

  “I didn’t know….” Amy, her mind reeling, tried to make sense of it. “I thought she was in long-term care.”

  “Well, in a sense, I guess you could say that she is. She won’t be going home again. Her grandson had been making arrangements to take her to live with him until he was forced to put her in long-term care. I offered to let her stay with me until he was ready for her, but then he had his first of several heart attacks. And since Ellie was doing okay, I continued to keep her.”

  “You’ve had her all this time?”

  “Yes, and it’s been working out okay so far. But I know it’s only temporary. I hate the idea of her going to a convalescent hospital, but we’re not going to be able to put that off much longer.” Maria tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I suppose I should have mentioned something when you first moved in, but Barbara didn’t want the new tenant to bother Ellie with any problems that might come up, although, after meeting you, I realized you wouldn’t do that.”

  Amy was still trying to wrap her mind around the knowledge that her biological great-grandmother sat on Maria’s porch. She wanted to meet the woman, even if she wasn’t sure what to say. Or how to introduce herself.

  “Would you mind if I talked to her?” Amy asked.

  “No, not at all. But don’t expect much by way of a conversation. Some days are better than others, and this one hasn’t been very good.”

  “Mommy?” Callie patted Amy’s side. “Can I go inside and help Sara pick up her toys?”

  “If it’s okay with her mom.”

  “Go ahead,” Maria said.

  As Callie raced into the house, Amy walked to the sidewalk, then cut across a patch of Maria’s lawn, which Eddie had just finished mowing.

  “I hope you don’t mind that Eddie’s over here,” Maria said. “He wanted to do me a favor.”

  “No problem. I think he’s getting paid for the job, not by the hour.” Amy paused before approaching Ellie, who was stooped, even while sitting. Her curly white hair was combed, and she wore pink lipstick, a dab of blush, even a bit of mascara. Amy assumed that Maria had applied the makeup; Grandma Rossi sometimes had trouble getting hers on straight. And it warmed her heart to think that someone cared enough to take the time.

  As Amy neared the porch, she tried to imagine this Ellie as the young bride who stood beside Harold in the black-and-white photograph on the mantel. The woman who’d taught herself to play the accordion by ear, who’d written her innermost thoughts in journals and created not only watercolors, but quilts, afghans, and hand-crocheted tablecloths.

  But as Ellie stared blankly, Amy wasn’t having much luck with the imagery.

  “Mrs. Rucker?” Amy asked.

  At the sound of her name, Ellie looked up. “Yes?”

  “I’m Amy Masterson.”

  Ellie frowned, her gaze dulled by confusion. “I don’t know you.”

  No, she didn’t; but Amy knew her. Better than she or her family might guess.

  The elderly man who was wearing a Panama hat and sitting in the other rocker leaned forward and asked, “How are you related to Ellie?”

  “I…uh…” Amy hated to lie; it went against everything she believed in, everything she’d been taught. So she struggled for an answer that wouldn’t be too far of a stretch. “Actually, we’ve never even met.”

  “I’m sorry for the assumption. It’s just that you look a bit like her daughter, Barbara.” The old man grinned, his brown eyes crinkling. “Kind of like a fair-haired second cousin, I suppose.”

  Suddenly feeling rude, Amy reached out her hand to the man, felt his gnarled fingers grasp hers. “I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself to you.”

  “No,” Maria interjected. “I dropped the ball. Captain, Amy is our new neighbor.” Then she turned to Amy and grinned. “This dapper gentleman is Bertram Saylors, although everyone calls him Captain.”

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Amy gave his hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it.

  “The pleasure is mine.” The charming old man, his skin as weathered as a piece of leather that had been left to the elements for a long time, beamed.

  “Captain and Ellie have been friends for years,” Maria said. “A few weeks ago, when he stopped by to visit, he mentioned that he was going to have to give up his apartment and that he wasn’t sure where he’d be moving. He thought he’d feel better living in an intermediate care facility, and I offered him our spare room. Now he lives here.”

  The screen door swung open, and the girls bounded out.

  “Can I take Sara to the other house now?” Callie asked. “We’re going to play the game, and she gets to go first.”

  Before either of the mothers could give them the go-ahead, Ellie bent forward and clasped Callie’s arm. “Angel?”

  “I’m not Angel,” Callie said. “Don’t you remember?”

  “Of course. I’ll never forget you, honey. Now you go on inside and get your jacket. It looks like rain today.”

  Callie’s gaze sought Amy’s, silently asking, What do I do? And Amy’s heart twisted.

  It didn’t seem fair. Why couldn’t she have found Ellie sooner?

  But life wasn’t always fair.

  Amy carefully withdrew her daughter’s arm from the elderly woman’s grip. “Thank you, Ellie. I’ll make sure she stays warm and dry.” Then she reached into her purse, pulled out the keys, and handed them to Callie. “Why don’t you and Sara unlock the door? I’ll be right behind you.”

  As the two girls dashed off, Maria nodded toward the house. “I’d better get inside and finish the breakfast dishes. I was sidetracked earlier this morning and want to get some work done and the house picked up before Pastor Crai
g comes. He usually stops by to see Ellie and Captain after he’s made his hospital visits on Wednesday.”

  “You’ve certainly got your hands full,” Amy said, realizing that Maria had taken on a lot for a single mom.

  “There are some rewarding moments,” she said.

  Something told Amy they were few and far between.

  “Maria is a special lady,” Captain said. “But she doesn’t get out very much.”

  “Yes, I do,” the petite brunette countered. “Well, on occasion. My friends, Walter and Hilda, sometimes come by and sit with Ellie and the kids. They also run errands for me, but they’re on vacation and won’t get home until next week.”

  “If you need someone to give you a break,” Amy said, “just let me know. I’d be happy to help out whenever I can.”

  “Really?”

  The offer had rolled off Amy’s tongue without her giving it any thought, but she nodded. “Yes, really.” Maria had no idea there was a biological connection, and Amy wasn’t going to mention it now, but looking out for Ellie seemed like the right thing to do.

  Maria bit down on her bottom lip, then asked, “I don’t suppose you’d be able to stay at the house for a couple of hours on Saturday, would you?”

  “Sure. What time?”

  “From about ten until noon?”

  “That works for me.”

  “You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

  Amy smiled. “I think it’s wonderful that you’ve tried to keep Ellie in a loving and familiar environment. There aren’t many people who would.”

  “Well, it seems to me that you’re one of those people, too.”

  Was she?

  Amy had no idea why she’d gotten so involved. She supposed it made her feel better about what she was doing.

  And maybe it would help ease some of the awkwardness when Maria found out that she and Amy weren’t neighbors at all.

  Chuck didn’t remember much about how he got to the hospital. He was told that he’d been brought in by an ambulance, but that entire afternoon was pretty much a blur to him now.

  Apparently, while getting off the bus, he’d passed out for some medical reason unrelated to the cancer and fell. But then he’d cracked his head on the curb, and he’d gone down for the count.

  When he finally came to, he was lying on a gurney in the ER and some woman was asking him the typical questions needed to admit him: name; address; date of birth; religious preference; nearest relative; whether he had insurance or not.

  He answered each one truthfully. Well, everything except next of kin. He didn’t know where Brandon was living nowadays—even if he’d wanted to give them his name. But he didn’t see any reason to do that. Too much time had passed since they’d last seen each other, and there was too much murky water under the bridge.

  But almost everyone had a family, and Chuck had spent enough years without one. He hated to make it sound as though he was alone in this world, which wasn’t the case any longer. He had tons of close friends, most of whom either worked at or frequented the soup kitchen.

  So Chuck had told the woman from the admissions department that Craig Houston, the associate pastor of Parkside Community Church, was his nearest relative.

  And hey, that wasn’t such a big stretch. Biblically speaking, they were brothers—joint heirs in the family of God, right?

  And now here he was, banged up and as weak as a newborn kitten. He reached up, felt the bump on his noggin, fingered the stitches that held the gash together. It still smarted, and it was also the least of his troubles, but he needed to get out of here. The hospital bill was going to be outrageous, and there was no way he’d ever be able to pay it on his wages.

  A knock sounded at the doorjamb that led to the busy hall, and when he turned to see who it was, he spotted Pastor Craig.

  “Hey, Chuck,” the fair-haired young minister said as he entered the hospital room. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner, but my wife and I were out to dinner when the call came in. And we didn’t check our messages until morning.”

  “Young love, huh?” Chuck offered him a smile. He remembered those days, back when he and Marianne were first married. “Lucky you.”

  “My wife is pretty special. But it wasn’t a romantic dinner. We went out with friends last night. Do you remember Ramon Gonzales?”

  “Is he that fella who works with that youth baseball league?”

  “Yes.” Craig crossed the shiny tile floor and took a seat in the chair next to Chuck’s bed. “But how about you? What’s going on?”

  Chuck made an attempt to laugh it off. “Tripped and fell while getting off the bus. I wouldn’t be surprised if the transit district made me wear a football helmet next time I tried to get on board. Either that or ban me for life.”

  For life? That wouldn’t be all that long, Chuck supposed. The doctor had come in earlier today with the test results. The numbers hadn’t made him too happy, and he’d been talking about a bone marrow transplant. But Chuck wouldn’t agree to one of those.

  What was the use? His liver was shot already. And since the odds were stacked against him, why go to all that time and trouble and expense?

  A simple cost/benefit analysis had been enough to tell Doc Williams that ol’ Chuck was going to pass.

  Pass on the test, pass from this life. Hey, how about that? He was getting clever with words in his old age.

  But what difference did it make?

  His best bet for a matching donor would be in finding Brandon and asking him to submit to a test. But Brandon could be anywhere these days. And even if he was up for a reunion, he didn’t feel like looking him up.

  Okay, call him a coward. As long as Chuck didn’t meet up with his son, he wouldn’t have to face the fact that Brandon had probably written him off for good.

  God might have forgiven Chuck for his failings—he truly believed that, too.

  Trouble was, Chuck hadn’t forgiven himself.

  And then there was the question that had been niggling at him for years, the question a simple little blood test would answer—if Chuck had ever found the guts to pursue it.

  Was Chuck truly Brandon’s father?

  Chapter 11

  Eddie stood on one side of Maria’s freshly mowed lawn and threw the baseball to Danny. The boy wound up and pitched it back.

  “You’ve got a good arm,” Eddie told him.

  “You think so?”

  Eddie nodded. “In fact, I think you should join my brother’s baseball team. They’re practicing again at Mulberry Park on Saturday at ten o’clock. Are you interested?”

  “I guess, but it depends on what my mom says. And I have a feeling she’s going to say no.”

  “I’ve been talking to her about it, and we might be able to work something out.” Eddie glanced up at the porch to see if Maria might have come outside again, but she hadn’t.

  The elderly couple remained, but the man had leaned back in his chair, his fingers clasped and resting on his chest, his eyes closed and lips parted. Snoozing, Eddie suspected.

  He seemed like a nice enough guy. It was obvious that he wanted to help Maria out with Danny, but Eddie figured his ideas about strict discipline might be making matters worse.

  As Eddie tossed the ball back to the boy, he asked, “How good are you with a bat?”

  “I’m okay. But I don’t get much chance to practice.”

  Eddie had to reach to snag the next throw. “Does that bother you?”

  “A lot of things bother me. Mostly, it’s hard being the only guy living here.” He shot a glance at the elderly couple on the porch. “Well, I’m not exactly the only one, but you know what I mean.”

  Eddie had a pretty good idea what he was getting at. “Do you miss not having your dad around here?”

  Danny caught the ball Eddie had just thrown, but held it in his mitt. “He was never around all that much anyway. But he was nice to me. And a lot of times he would say, ‘Come on, Danny. Let’s you and me go to the stor
e or to the post office,’ or things like that. And we’d leave Mom and Sara at home. I know he did something really stupid and got himself in big trouble. And that sucked for all of us. So I guess I don’t miss him. But it would be nice to have a dad around, like my friends have.”

  “I can understand that,” Eddie said. “But you’re lucky in some other ways.”

  “How’s that?”

  “You’ve got a mom who loves you.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Danny wound up and finally threw the ball back. “But she’s always giving me all these chores to do. And when…” He looked up at the porch. “Well, the more people who move in here, the more work she has to do and the more help she needs. I know a lot of kids who don’t have to do any work at all. They just get to play all day. And they get to go fishing and join Boy Scouts and stuff like that.”

  “I know what you mean. My old man was the gardener on a big estate, and he had way more work than one guy was able to do alone. So my brother and I had to help him. There were a lot of times we had to miss out on fun things because we had to work on a Saturday.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  “You know what, though? I learned a lot.”

  “Yeah, but at least you got to learn things like using tools and lawnmowers and stuff like that. I have to learn how to do dishes and the laundry. And how to clean the house.”

  Eddie chuckled. “So you think that some jobs are for men to do and others are for women?”

  “Yeah. Don’t you?”

  “You ought to see my brother Ramon. He and his wife Shana are foster parents to a couple of boys who play on the baseball team. And there are a lot of nights when Shana has to work late, so he cooks dinner and cleans up the kitchen. The boys, Luis and Carlitos, help out, too. In a way, a family is a team, Danny. Sometimes you play left field, and other times you have to cover third base. That’s just the way it is.”

  “That makes sense,” Danny said. “So do you cook dinner for your wife?”

  “I’m not married, but if I was, I’d help out doing whatever I needed to. And that won’t be hard because my mom taught me some of the basics in the kitchen.”