by Mark Bentsen
“Little John seems like a good kid. Why would he get mixed up in something like this?” Bonnie asked.
“For about a decade we’ve had an unsolved murder on the books in Cardston. The rumor around town was that Willy did it. Little John said Sonny told him he had evidence that would convict his father, sending him to prison for life. And he would turn it over to the RCMP unless he helped him. So he did. But, the sad part is that Willy had a solid alibi the night of the murder, and I’ve always known that. Because at the time he was serving a six month sentence for drunk driving in Missoula. He never told his family and everyone thought he was hiding from the law.”
“Will Little John go to prison?” Bonnie asked.
“It’s too early to tell. I think all depends on the charges filed against him. But I’m afraid his football scholarship is history.”
“I’ll do what I can to help Little John. He treated me with respect and I can appreciate the fact that he was doing it for his father,” Bonnie said.
Ernest nodded and turned to Luke. “And I want to say I’m sorry for the way I treated you in Cardston.”
Humbled, Luke said, “If I’d have been in your shoes, I would have done the same thing.”
“Paul kept finding this evidence, and it all pointed to you. Never in a million years would I have suspected him to be on the wrong side of the law.”
A question nagged at Bonnie. “We came up here because I was asked to fill in at the photography workshop for a man who was killed in a freak accident. Could they have had anything to do with that?”
“They could have, but from what I understand, the house blew up and everything burned. I don’t think there was enough of it left to collect any evidence. Unless Sonny confesses to it, I don’t think we’ll ever know.”
Detective Burnet stepped into the room followed by a stocky man in a black suit. The detective said, “Olivia is doing fine. Mrs. Townsend is at the hospital and would like you to come by when you can.”
“We’d like that,” Bonnie said.
Luke and Lauren nodded.
“A limo is out front. This is DeWayne, he’ll take you over,” he said, gesturing to the man in the black suit.
As they rode to the hospital, Bonnie held Luke’s hand. She was nervous about meeting Kim. Even though they saved Olivia, it was Bonnie who put her in danger by kidnapping her.
The limo stopped at the entrance to the hospital and DeWayne said, “Olivia is on the third floor, room 3066.”
They all went inside and found the elevator across from a waiting room. Bonnie pressed the button and the elevator opened immediately. As they stepped on and turned around they saw a television mounted on the wall where a news program was just beginning. A bespectacled anchor started his lead story. “The kidnapping of Olivia Townsend ended today in a dramatic rescue here in Calgary. The daughter of billionaire Kim Townsend was kidnapped two days ago and—”
The elevator door closed and began its ascent. Bonnie’s stomach began to tighten and when the elevator stopped at the third floor, she took a deep breath. The door opened they stepped out and started down the long corridor.
When they came to room 3066, Luke knocked softly and stepped back. The door was opened by Kim and her expression was difficult to read. She looked into the eyes of each of them, one by one, settling on Bonnie. Bonnie tried to smile, but the muscles in her face wouldn’t work right. The only thought in her mind was that she kidnapped this woman’s child. Her chin began to tremble and though she tried to keep a stiff lip, tears began to flow.
“I’m sorry,” was all she could get out as she stood in front of the woman. A warm, sympathetic smile spread across her face and she opened her arms wide. Bonnie went to her and Kim held her in a tight embrace. Through her sobs, Bonnie tried to continue. “I didn’t want to but—”
“I know,” Kim said, her voice also breaking. “You did what you had to do. It was the right thing. You saved my daughter’s life and that’s what’s important.”
Tears streamed down Bonnie’s cheeks and she was afraid to let go. Finally, Kim stepped back and Bonnie wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. She sniffled and said, “This is my husband, Luke.”
Luke extended his hand, but Kim ignored it and embraced him warmly, too.
“And you’re Lauren,” she said and hugged her, too.
Their attention turned to the sleeping child in the hospital bed. She looked so small as she lay sleeping soundly. Her pretty blonde hair now clean and combed, hung perfectly across her shoulders.
“The doctor said the kidnappers gave her a sedative to make her sleep, and with everything that’s happened today, she probably won’t wake up for a while,” Kim told them. “But she’s going to be okay.”
They heard a knock on the door and Kim stepped over and opened it. Bonnie could see a woman in a dress standing outside. They spoke in whispers and the woman left.
Kim returned and said to Bonnie, “Would you come with me?”
Kim took her hand and they stepped out of the room into the hallway.
“There’s someone I want you to meet,” Kim said as they walked.
Deep in Bonnie’s soul she knew who it was. Her heart started pounding so hard she felt it might burst. When they stopped at the door labeled Conference Room, Kim tapped twice before pushing the door open. Inside a woman with shoulder length red hair stood with her back to them. She was talking to someone sitting on the sofa.
“Tammy?” Kim said in a soft voice.
The woman turned to Kim then to Bonnie.
For the next moment neither woman moved. They searched the other’s face like it was an old friend they hadn’t seen for years. They stepped closer and for Bonnie it seemed like time stood still. She marveled at the same emerald green eyes she had seen in the mirror her entire life. Tammy had the same auburn hair and the same little, turned up nose. And now, seeing her up close, in person, Bonnie knew they were identical twins.
Tammy wiped a tear from her eye, then slowly reached down and took Bonnie’s hands in hers. Both women stood in amazement, trying to grasp the reality of the moment.
“Bonnie,” Tammy said in a shaky voice. “I’m glad to meet you.”
“Me too,” was all she could get out as she fought to keep her voice from breaking.
“I want you to meet,” Tammy said, as she turned and watched the woman on the sofa stand up, “our mother, Anita Owens.”
She was thin, like them, and beautiful like her father had always said. Her hair was red, flecked with gray and cut just above her collar. Bonnie saw where she and Tammy got their upturned noses. Anita Owens came around the sofa and took Bonnie’s hands in hers and stared deeply into her eyes. Her smile was warm but Bonnie could tell she was nervous. For a few seconds, neither of them spoke. Then she dropped one hand and took one of Tammy’s. She looked from one to the other before taking a deep breath.
Their mother glanced toward the heavens, then said, “For years I prayed for this day, but I thought it would never come.”
Bonnie wanted to say something but wasn’t sure what. She waited as this woman, her mother, tried to find her voice.
After a long breath, she spoke with trembling lips. “I know you have a million questions and I’ll answer them all. But first I want to tell you a story that will answer a lot of them. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” Bonnie said in a small voice. She glanced at Tammy who was also nodding.
She motioned toward the sofa. “Do you want to sit down?”
“No, I’m too nervous to sit.”
“Me, too,” Tammy said. The twins stood facing their mother as she started to speak.
“In 1970, I was a junior at the University of Georgia and engaged to the most wonderful man in the world. The war in Vietnam was raging and my fiancé, Nathan, unfortunately drew a low number in the military draft.” She glanced at Tammy who gave a slight nod. “He loved his country and was honored to serve it, so he left college and joined the Army. They told him after boot c
amp he would be left for Vietnam. I was devastated. Of course, I didn’t want him to go, but he assured me everything would be okay. I told him I didn’t know what I would do without him. So, before he left he said his roommate would be there if I needed anything.
“I didn’t know his roommate very well, but after Nathan left, his roommate would call every week or two to check on me, like he promised Nathan he’d do. Sometimes, if I was lonely or worried, we’d go get a burger or go to a movie. I liked him, and before long we became good friends. We began to spend more and more time together. It didn’t take long before we were inseparable.”
She paused and looked at Bonnie. “I never meant for it to happen, but Kurt and I fell in love.”
Bonnie’s heart skipped a beat at the name. “My father?”
“Yes,” she admitted, nodding her head. She paused and collected her thoughts. “I decided to tell Nathan it was over, that I was in love with Kurt. He came home a week before he shipped out to Vietnam. And it was just like he’d never been gone. Nathan was home for five days and the time we spent together was glorious. I realized I was still deeply in love with him.
“When his leave was over, Nathan went off to Vietnam. I never did tell him about Kurt and me because I was still in love with him. But I was in love with Kurt, too. And he was hurt and confused and couldn’t understand. I didn’t know what to do because I couldn’t choose between them. I told Kurt I needed some time alone to try to figure things out. Six weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.
“When I told Kurt, he was ecstatic and wanted to get married immediately. But the due date was close enough that Nathan could be the father, too. There was no way to be sure.
“When I told Nathan he was on cloud nine. He couldn’t wait to come home and get married. But Kurt wasn’t about to give up. He begged and pleaded for me to marry him right up to the minute they took me into the delivery room.
“Well, none of us expected twins, but there you were. The most beautiful babies I’d ever seen in my life. Kurt was extremely proud, but he couldn’t stand waiting for me to make a decision. I was released from the hospital five days later and Kurt took me home. He told me he wouldn’t wait any longer. I had to choose either him or Nathan. I told him I couldn’t. He told me he would make the decision for me. He said the only fair way to do it was for him to get one of the twins and Nathan would get the other. And if I wouldn’t marry him, he would leave.”
“Oh, my,” Bonnie said. “So, he took me, and left?”
Anita lowered her head and nodded. “He was convinced it was the right thing to do. I never thought he’d leave and not come back. But he did.”
Bonnie tried to imagine what it must have been like, but she couldn’t.
“So, what did you tell Nathan?” Bonnie asked.
“Nothing. Nathan never knew I had twins, and it was too much to tell him while he was in Vietnam. I decided, for the moment, all I’d tell him was that he had a beautiful baby girl named Tammy. He came home about six months later and we got married.”
“Did you tell him then?”
“He was only here for four days and was so happy. I just couldn’t do it. I decided I’d tell him when the time was right.”
“But, how did you... I mean, didn’t other people know?”
“Not really. We had kept my pregnancy a secret, and it was late summer when you were born. Kurt and I were the only ones who knew. As for family, my parents were divorced and I wasn’t close to them. Kurt’s family was back in Texas and his father was a preacher in the Church of Christ, so he didn’t want to tell him. Nathan’s family was from Iowa and all they knew was that he knocked up some girl in college. After we got married, I got to know them, and that’s who Tammy knows as grandparents. But no one ever knew Tammy had a twin sister. Not even Tammy.”
“What happened then?”
“Nathan went back to Vietnam and was killed four months later. He only got to see Tammy once.”
“How sad,” Bonnie said, clasping her hands to her mouth. “What did you do? Did you try to find Dad, or Kurt?”
“No. It just wouldn’t have been right. Nathan’s family was wonderful and they were my family. They’ve always been there for us.”
Anita watched as Bonnie struggled with this information. She had a million things she wanted to know, but there was one question at the top of the list. She looked deep into her mother’s eyes and asked, “Did you ever find out who our real father is?”
Anita looked from Bonnie to Tammy and said, “As far as I’m concerned, your father is Kurt and your father is Nathan. That’s all we will ever need to know.”
“What did you do then?” Tammy asked. The girls watched their mom try to open up the tear-soaked tissue in her hand.
“I couldn’t stay there anymore, I needed to get away. I moved to California where I got a job teaching in Santa Barbara. When Tammy was about three I got married again, hoping it would help me move on. But I guess I wasn’t ready. We divorced less than a year later.
“All these years I’ve carried this secret and I’ve never been able to get over it. Every time I met a man, I just couldn’t... you know, tell him. I dated on and off over the years, but I guess I just never gave any other man a chance. I never did get involved with anyone again.” Anita raised the tissue and dabbed the corners of her eyes. “I decided that when Tammy was old enough, I’d tell her what really happened. But I kept putting it off, and putting it off...”
Tammy wrapped her arm around her mother’s shoulder and looked at Bonnie. “What did your dad tell you about your mother?”
Bonnie closed her eyes tight and tried to find the right words. She looked at Anita, and said, “He told me... you died of breast cancer.”
Tammy looked at Bonnie, a hurt expression. “Why would he do that?”
“I’m not sure, but I think he wanted me to love my mother as much as he did.” Bonnie noticed their puzzled expressions and said, “I don’t know. Maybe if he would have said you were divorced, I would have always wondered why you didn’t have custody of me. Was it because you didn’t want me or what?”
Tammy and Anita nodded. Each understood what she meant.
“He always talked about how much he loved you. If anything ever came up about my mother, would always say good things. He’d talk about how pretty you were, or how much he missed you. I think he wanted me to feel the same way.”
“Do you hate me... for what I did?” her mother asked.
She grabbed her mother by her shoulders and stepped closer. “I’ve loved you all my life. The only thing I have ever hated was the fact that you weren’t here. But now you are and I can start sharing my love with you.”
As Anita pulled Bonnie close, she could feel the love she had missed all those years.
Bonnie pulled away when she heard the door behind her open. Luke stood in the doorway and Bonnie motioned him over.
“This is my husband, Luke. And this is my mother, Anita Owens and my sister, Tammy.”
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to meet you,” he said. “This is absolutely amazing.”
“Yes it is,” Tammy said, looking at Bonnie.
“Bonnie had always said she wished she had known her mother,” Luke said. “But I never thought it would happen.” They were all silent as they looked from one to the other. “Kim’s about to leave and I thought you would like to talk to her before she goes.”
Arm in arm they walked out of the conference room and Anita said to Bonnie, “I heard your dad died recently.”
“Yes, after a two-year battle with cancer.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope he didn’t suffer.”
“Not really. At the end, the doctors had him on so many drugs, he was out of it most of the time,” Bonnie thought about his last week in the hospital, and the last conversation she had with him. Goosebumps rose on her arms as she looked at Tammy and Anita.
“But something really strange happened the night he died,” Bonnie said as Tammy and Anita s
topped to watch her recall the memory. “The doctors had him on strong painkillers. The last few days he was in bed and very restless. At times he’d ramble on and on, most of it incomprehensible and sometimes I could tell he was hallucinating. Most of the time, he didn’t even know I was in the room. But the last night, just before he died, I had been asleep on the sofa for several hours. I woke up and saw him sitting up in bed. He was watching me. His eyes were focused and for the first time in days his speech was very clear.
“He said, ‘Bonnie, you know your mom isn’t really dead. She’s out there and she’s looking for you. I think you should go find her.’
“I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said, ‘Where will I find her?’ ”
“He said, ‘Might try the west coast somewhere. She told me she loved the beach.’”
“I said, ‘But, I don’t know what she looks like. I’ve never even seen a picture of her. How will I know her?’”
Bonnie looked from her mom, to Tammy. “He said, ‘You’ll know it’s her as soon as you see her. She’ll be with your sister.’”
* The End *
Mark Bentsen
I was raised in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, the third of four brothers. Our dad was a citrus farmer and the summer after each of us turned twelve we went to work for him on the farm. It was hard, tedious work, but it convinced us we didn’t want to do that the rest of our lives. After high school I went to college at Texas Tech University where I got my degree in Range and Wildlife Management. I had dreams of being a wildlife biologist, but unfortunately the jobs were scarce and I settled for a job with a wholesale nursery. That was in 1975 and I’m still there today. It’s been a great career with a wonderful company. I started writing fiction about six years ago and hope to do it for many more years. My wife and I live in Austin, Texas, not far from our daughter, son-in-law and three grandsons.
I will donate twenty percent of the profits of this novel evenly between The Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin, Texas, and Meals on Wheels.