A Father's Promise

by Marcia Evanick

  Sydney chuckled as she stepped away from the fake trees. "Georgette should have something a bit smaller." Glancing at the woman behind the counter who was waiting on a young couple purchasing a small table-and-chair set, she waved.

  The woman smiled in recognition and waved back. He couldn't help noticing the wonderful table set. The table was hand-painted with a scene of Noah's Ark and an assortment of animals. Each of the four chairs had a different back in the shape of an animal. There was an elephant, giraffe, tiger and monkey chair. Trevor would love it. He looked around the crowded shop and sighed. He was in trouble. Trevor would love just about everything in the shop.

  * * *

  Ellis wasn't surprised when an hour later he and Sydney drove to the police station to collect her father with the entire orangutan family taking up half the back seat of his car. Two-By-Two didn't have any single, unattached orangutans. The pleasant and most accommodating owner, Georgette, had assured him she could order him one and that it would be there by the end of the week. He had decided not to wait and ended up with the entire family instead.

  He knew Trevor would love them all, but he also knew he was appeasing his own guilt for being away from his son. He couldn't help it. He needed to be near Thomas St. Claire until the results came back. There was no law that could force Thomas to become his son's bone marrow donor if there happened to be a match.

  Sydney had teased him unmercifully about being a marshmallow the entire time he was paying for his purchases. But she had been the one to insist on helping him carry the hairy creatures to his car. They had received more than one knowing yet sympathetic look on the way down the street to where he had parked.

  The post office had been their next stop. He took two minutes to write Trevor a little note and then mailed him a package containing the two coloring books, crayons and the ABC Jungle book. It also contained two other books he had picked up at Two-By-Two.

  He had offered to wait in the car while Sydney went into the station to get her father. She had refused his offer and urged him to accompany her. It seemed their little shopping expedition had put her more at ease. He wasn't sure if it was because she now considered him a marshmallow or if it had been his charming personality.

  He pulled open the heavy brick-red-colored door and allowed Sydney to precede him into the station. He hadn't been picturing what the inside of the station would look like. If he had, Mayberry's jail from "The Andy Griffith Show" would have sprung to mind. He wouldn't have been far off.

  Coalsburg's police station was the modern equivalent, only on a larger scale. The desks were huge battleships of gunmetal gray and each one was equipped with a computer terminal. A fax machine sat on top of an antique oak file cabinet, competing for the space with an overgrown plant. The floor was checkered in black-and-white tiles worn thin along the heavier-traveled paths. Tucked against the back wall were two cells that were empty. No Otis character was sleeping off his previous night's excesses.

  Gathered around one of the scarred desks were three police officers, Thomas and two elderly citizens, all competing to get a word in edgewise during the animated conversation. By the smile stretching Thomas's mouth, he would say this morning's visit was a success.

  "Hey, Sydney, your dad says he's been a good patient, hardly giving you any trouble. Is that true?" yelled one of the officers.

  "Every word of it." Sydney hurried forward. "I'm back, Dad."

  "So I've heard." Thomas glared for a moment in the direction of the officer who had just yelled before turning back to the direction from which her voice had come. "Is Ellis with you?"

  "I'm here, Thomas." He stood next to Sydney and nodded to the men in the room. Each one of them was giving him a suspicious look, as if trying to figure out not only who he was but what he was doing here with Sydney. He wasn't going to satisfy their curiosity. His business in Coalsburg was personal as well as private.

  "Hey, Pete and Harvey, think back a good thirty years." Thomas was directing his question to the two older men dressed in regular clothes. "Remember Cathy Carlisle? She was the minister's daughter who took off right after she graduated from high school."

  "Cute little thing, but shy, right?" answered one of the men.

  The other man snapped his fingers. "Now I remember her. She was a looker, in a quiet sort of way." The man's smile slowly faded. "Her parents were real protective of her, if I recall. I remember my younger brother, Paul, had a crush on her bad in high school, but her parents wouldn't let her go out on a date."

  Thomas waved his hand in Ellis's direction. "Well, Harvey, this is Ellis Carlisle, Cathy's son."

  "Really, wow!" said the man whose younger brother had had a thing for his mother. "She got married and had a kid? That's good. How is your mother, Ellis?"

  "She passed away twelve years ago." Didn't the man pick up on the fact that his mother had never married? After all, his last name was still Carlisle. When the two men spoke about his mother as a girl, they didn't tell him anything he hadn't already known. He knew his mother had been beautiful when she was young. But he didn't know Harvey's younger brother had been denied a date with her. It was a strange feeling to think about his mother as an object of unrequited love. It was strange to even imagine her dating.

  "Sorry to hear that, son," Harvey said. Pete echoed his words.

  "Yes, well…" He didn't know how to respond to their expressed sympathy. His mother never once mentioned their names, or even Paul's. He just hoped Sydney or Thomas didn't reveal the reason for this visit. "She once told me about living in Coalsburg and she mentioned Thomas's name, so when I found myself in the area with a few days off, I figured I'd drop in on him."

  "Mentioned Thomas's name, did she?" Pete chuckled and elbowed Harvey in the side.

  "They lived right next door to each other, didn't they, Pete?" Harvey said.

  Thomas looked flustered as some of the officers started to chuckle. "Hey, that's the boy's departed mother you're chuckling about. Show some respect," snapped Thomas in a tone of voice that demanded instant obedience.

  The knowing smirks died immediately. "Sorry," mumbled a few of the officers as they all seemed to study the tips of their shoes.

  He was thankful, yet wasn't surprised by Thomas's support. He was beginning to know the man and with that knowledge grew crushing doubts. The Thomas St. Claire sitting in the police station defending his mother's name wasn't the type of man to get an innocent eighteen-year-old girl pregnant and then force her and their unborn child out of his life. It was a devastating thought. One he couldn't bear to think on.

  He glanced at the officers. "No problem." All of the officers were too young to have even known his mother. Not a one of them could have been born when his mother lived in Coalsburg.

  "Did you find what you were looking for, Ellis?" asked Thomas, who seemed to know that he didn't want to discuss his mother or the past any longer.

  "Not only did he find one, Dad, he found an entire family." Sydney moved over to stand next to her father and lightly placed her hand on his shoulder. "The three of them take up half of his back seat and the baby clings so sweetly to the mother." Sydney's hand squeezed his shoulder gently.

  "Three of what?" asked Harvey.

  "Orangutans," replied Thomas with a straight face.

  "Orangutans?" sputtered Pete.

  Ellis willed himself not to laugh and spoil the moment. Thomas and Sydney had set it up perfectly. The police officers looked ready to pull their guns. Pete's eyes grew to twice their normal size and Harvey appeared to be having a hard time saying whatever word was still lodged in his throat. He met Pete's gaze and slowly nodded. "Yes, orangutans. A male, a female and their offspring."

  "Holy sh—" The baby-faced officer glanced at Sydney and flushed a dull red. "I mean, holy cow! You got real orangutans in your car?"

  "It's a Mercedes," muttered Thomas as if that was the real shocker.

  By the expression on the men's faces, Ellis would have to say Thomas had indeed outshocked t
hem. Having three orangutans in a car was one thing, but having them in a Mercedes was totally something else.

  "A real Mercedes?" squeaked a young officer.

  Ellis had to chuckle at that one. He'd never heard of a fake Mercedes. "Yes it's a real Mercedes."

  "No way," said another officer, who was dressed in a light blue shirt instead of a navy one like the other two officers. Ellis guessed he was the chief, though he still looked a little wet behind the ears. "No one in his right mind would put three orangutans in a car, let alone a Mercedes. Plus, there's the other obvious fact."

  "What's that, John?" asked Thomas.

  Ellis got the feeling he'd just stepped into the middle of a pop quiz, and he had to wonder if that had been Thomas's intention all along.

  "The nearest orangutans are probably in the Philadelphia Zoo and there was no way Sydney had time to drive there and back since she dropped you off." John puffed out his chest and grinned like a little boy who had just aced his history exam.

  "So where did he get the orangutans?" Thomas's questions weren't done yet.

  "He never said they were real orangutans." John squinted his eyes at him. The man reminded him of a twelve-year-old boy trying to imitate Clint Eastwood. Any moment now John was going to pull his gun and growl, "Go ahead, make my day." "I'll say they are stuffed orangutans and he bought them from Georgette's store."

  He smiled and nodded his head at the chief's deductions. They were right on the money. "Very good." Thomas beamed like a proud father. "Of course, I taught him everything he knows." Thomas reached up and covered Sydney's hand.

  The other officers looked slightly embarrassed for believing the story in the first place. The younger of the two said, "We knew they couldn't have been real monkeys."

  Pete and Harvey rolled their eyes while the chief shook his head and tried to boost his men's morale. "I know you didn't, but even if you did, it can be expected. We don't get too many monkey cases around these parts. Once in a while we get a dog bite or a cat stuck up in a tree, but never monkeys riding around in a Mercedes."

  While everyone chuckled at the young chief's attempt to console his fellow officers, Thomas patted Sydney's hand once more. "Are you ready to take me home now?"

  "Sure, Dad." Sydney glanced at the chief and silently mouthed the words thank you.

  John shook his head and glanced at Thomas as he stood up. "Now that you're out and about, Tom, are you going to stop in for a visit from time to time? You know you are always welcome."

  "I might just do that," Thomas said as he took hold of Sydney's elbow and said his goodbyes to the other men.

  "Good." John walked with them to the door. "You used to use me as a sounding board, remember?"

  "Two heads are usually better than one." Thomas chuckled at some distant memory.

  "I could use that second head around here on plenty of occasions, Tom." John reached out and touched Thomas's arm. "I miss you around here. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

  Thomas seemed taken aback by John's offer. "You wouldn't mind some blind old fool sitting in on some cases?"

  "You are blind, Tom. I can't argue that," John said. "As for age, I guess that depends on who's looking at you. To a five-year-old, I'm old. As for being a fool? I never once thought you were a fool." John's voice cracked. "The department could still use you here, Tom." John's voice broke completely on his next sentence. "I still need you around here."

  Thomas nodded twice before turning and walking out into the sunlight.

  Ellis was moved by the touching scene, but not as much as Sydney had been. He watched her face as tears streamed down her cheeks. But she didn't sniffle or make a sound as she escorted her father to the car. Instead, her straight white teeth sank into her lower lip.

  He stood silently by as he opened the door and Thomas got into the front seat of the Mercedes. Sydney hastily wiped at her tears as soon as her father was settled. She stood back as he reached for the door to the rear seat. But instead of opening the door, he stood there and waited until she raised her questioning gaze to him.

  Soft green eyes brimming with emotion stared up at him. He felt as if someone had placed his heart within a vise. He had no words of comfort for her. The tears she was shedding were partly in joy, not sorrow. Tears would do her good. But the one thing he couldn't stand was to see her anguish as she gnawed her lovely mouth.

  Without saying a word, he reached out with the tip of his finger and slowly smoothed the rough indentations on her lower lip. Heat sparked in his fingertips. He watched as her eyes widened and her breath seemed to hitch in the back of her throat. She felt it too. Whatever was happening between them wasn't one-sided.

  It was all he needed to know for now. He was a patient man. He knew how to wait for what he wanted. He wanted Sydney, and he wanted her bad.

  With a touch as light as a summer breeze, he stroked her moist lip one last time and promised himself that the next time he reached for he mouth, it would be with his own.

  Chapter 5

  « ^ »

  Sydney looked at the pictures of Trevor spread out across the kitchen table and grinned. Ellis carried a complete chronological photo record of his son in his wallet. The pictures started when Trevor was one day old and as bald as a cue ball and ended at an endearing photo of him with Mickey Mouse taken last month at Walt Disney World. She could follow his growth from his first tooth, to his first steps, to his first bike ride without the help of training wheels.

  With each new photo she felt the strings attached to her heart yank a little tighter. Trevor was absolutely adorable and to think this big-brown-eyed boy had a potentially fatal disease was unimaginable. But it was true. All she had to see was the anguish in Ellis's eyes to know it was true.

  She glanced across the table to Ellis. "He's adorable."

  It was eleven o'clock and her father had already retired for the evening. Between the morning appointment at the medical lab and then the visit to the police station, Thomas had done more today than he had in the past six months. Her father had looked tired, but it had been a healthy kind of tired. Despite her concerns about Ellis's presence in their lives she was thankful to him for shaking some life back into her father even though she wholeheartedly disapproved of his method.

  Ellis smiled. "Thanks." One of his long fingers tapped the picture taken at Walt Disney World. It was a full color portrait of Trevor, his brown hair falling over his forehead, laughter in his eyes, and a space between his two front teeth. "He has his mother's coloring."

  She didn't need a degree in genetics to figure that one out. "He has your chin and nose though." She could see a lot of Ellis in the small boy. Trevor Carlisle will be a heartbreaker when he grows up. If he grows up. She could feel the moisture start to build around her eyes. "He doesn't look sick."

  Ellis stiffened and started to gather up the pictures. He meticulously made sure they were in chronological order before inserting them back into his wallet. "When he got sick, pulling out a camera was the last thing I thought about." Ellis stood up and slipped the wallet into the back pocket of his jeans before sitting back down. "I don't know of any parent who would want to carry around a picture of their child when they had been sick."

  She could tell by his tone of voice that she had just offended Ellis. "I didn't mean I expected to see pictures of Trevor lying in a hospital bed hooked up to machines or anything, Ellis. It's just that … I don't know." She nervously toyed with the silver cross hanging around her neck, a gift from her mother and father.

  "I'm out of my league here, Ellis. I know more about begonias than I do kids." She wanted him to know she hadn't meant any disrespect. "When you offered to show me Trevor's picture, I guess I was expecting to see a critically ill child, because that's how I've been thinking of him. I didn't expect to see this laughing little boy on the back of a pony or exploring Walt Disney World."

  The stiffness in Ellis's back lessened. "You don't have to apologize, Sydney. I understand." His fingers started to crush the p
leated border of the place mat sitting in front of him. "To too many people who knew Trevor, he stopped being a little boy and became an illness. To those who just met him, they learned of his illness first and almost never got to see beyond that."

  "But…"

  "I know, Sydney. You haven't had a chance to meet Trevor, so I'm not criticizing you. It's only natural that you would think of Trevor as some sickly child, not as a little boy who wants a pony, macaroni and cheese for dinner every night of the week and a bedtime story before he goes to sleep."

  There was so much pain behind his words. So much love. So much fear. "You love him very much, don't you?" She already knew the answer to that question, but she wanted Ellis to talk about Trevor some more. He needed to talk about his son, not about his son's illness. She knew Trevor's mother wasn't in the picture any longer. She also knew Ellis's mother had passed away and that he had no brothers or sisters. It made her wonder whom Ellis talked to when his fears became monsters in the night. Her heart was telling her no one. Ellis and Trevor were alone in the world.

  Ellis gave her a funny little look as if to say her question didn't deserve an answer. "The night he was born the doctors placed him all scrunched up, blotchy and bawling into my arms and suddenly my world was whole. He stopped crying the moment I held him and stared up at me with these big, really dark blue eyes." Ellis shook his head in wonder as if it had just happened yesterday. "I thought his eyes were going to stay that color, but they didn't. In a few weeks they were brown. A deep rich brown so full of life and promise that at times I swore he knew the answers to all the questions in the universe."

  She smiled at the picture he had painted. She could almost see him standing there in hospital-green scrubs with his chest all puffed out with pride and wonder, holding his little son in his big capable arms. "Name one of your favorite things about Trevor. What's the one thing he does so well?"