by Henry Givens
CHAPTER NINE
Could you say that he was stunned? Could you say that he was shocked? For a few quick seconds, all Tom could do was stare at Olivia. From the eyes up and including the hair style, she bore an amazing resemblance to his wife Ellen. In those few seconds, myriads of memories ran through his mind. He thought to himself, ‘Ellen. From the eyes up she looks like my Ellen. She even wears her hair like Ellen. Wait. Nobody wears their hair straight down and pinned up on both sides like that anymore. Could she……no….no……Tom stop it! Stop it right now! Lots of people look like other people. She………can’t be.’
Tom saw the puzzled look on their faces and snapped out of it quickly. He held up his hand and apologized quickly, “Ooops. I’m sorry. I keep slipping back into my old Army days. It’s a habit I can’t seem to drop.” He tried hard to sound convincing. “I’m sure Fred still watches people out of habit from his days in counter-espionage. One of my main jobs in the Army was to identify……..uh, people so I’ve just gotten into the habit of looking at family resemblances.” Nervously, he looked down at Arthur who was still by his side and went on, “I was looking to see who Arthur looks like the most, but I believe he looks a lot like both of you. How about it? Who do people say you look like?”
Arthur looked at his mother and father as if trying to figure it out himself. “I don’t know. I never thought of it.”
Fred jumped in, “I’ll tell you what most folks say. They say you look like whichever one you’re with at the time. In other words, you look like a combination of both of them.”
Ryan agreed, “That’s true. The guys at the barber shop always tell me that. I’ll bring Arthur in and invariably someone will say that they thought he looked like his mother when he was at the grocery store with her. But, when he’s with me, they say he looks just like me.”
The dam was just about to break in the only female that was standing at that door. ‘He recognized it. He saw the hair style and he recognized it. Jesus, this is my grandfather alright. I know it but I’m just not sure. How can that be, Jesus? How can you know something and doubt it at the same time? If it’s him, open up all of our hearts and minds. And whatever fear is holding him, untie him from it.’
She too, had to break free from her own thoughts as the threat of a tear making its appearance prodded her into action. She stepped forward and took his arm away from Arthur and guided him into the house as she charmingly scolded everybody. “Look at us treating you like you were some door-to-door salesman. Come on into the house, Tom……? Uh……well, out of all the things Arthur said, he never told me your last name.”
“It’s Baxter, Mrs. Hollis,” he answered backwardly. “But, please call me Tom. I am not that hep on last names.”
As Fred came through the door he held up the bag with two loaves of garlic bread from the bakery. He announced, “Big Ed sent a couple of loaves of freshly baked garlic bread for the supper tonight.”
“Here I’ll take that,” Ryan said as he took the bag into the kitchen. “I’ll get a platter to put them on and some butter to go with them and be right in there.”
“Well, ….Tom,” she responded as she guided him to the spot she had reserved for him at the table. Naturally, Ryan sat at one end of the table and Olivia at the other. Who would have guessed it? She sat Tom right next to her so she could watch him more closely as they talked. “My name is Olivia. It’s a family name.” She noticed the glint in his eye as she said it. ‘He caught that,’ she thought to herself.
“That certainly is a lovely name for such a lovely lady,” replied Tom as he took the seat at the table that she offered.
“Thanks, Tom,” she replied. Quick like any mother would, she put her hand on Tom’s shadow, Arthur, and herded him to the other side of the table. In a typical mother’s voice she instructed him, “No, no, no, my son, my son. Take your place at the other side of the table by Wendy. You know that she loves it when you feed her. Besides, if I know you, you’d be right in Tom’s lap before the meal was over with.”
Ryan voiced before Arthur could say anything, “You know that’s the truth, don’t you, Sport?”
“Yes, sir,” Arthur replied with a smile. “Y'all know me a little too well.” Then as he stepped around to the other side and faced Wendy, he threw his hands into the air, did a little impromptu hip dance and said, “Wend-a-a-a-y-y-y!”
Wendy replied by raising her hands and did her best hip dance while sitting in the high chair. It looked like it must be a daily ritual between the two.
Everybody laughed and Wendy was tickled to be the center of attention. Ryan went to his place at the other end of the table and pulled out the chair for Fred. “Here, ya go, Fred. Sit right here by me. It seems like there will be two areas of conversation at this table, one at that end and one on our end.”
Olivia defended herself, “Just because we won’t be talking about fishing, doesn’t mean that you two can’t join in the conversation, big boy.”
“Well, what else is there to talk about? Do you know anything else more important than fishing to talk about over a good meal, Fred?” Ryan asked defensively.
Fred wisely made his statement, “Fred is outa this conversation. You two won’t get me caught in the middle of that again.”
After she sat down, she leaned forward on her elbows and said, “Ryan Hollis. I think you need to pray. But, before you do that, bless the food for us so we can be eating while you…………….think about some things you needed to be praying about.”
Arthur pointed his finger toward his dad and stated, “O-o-o, Dad, she got you.”
Remember that tear? Olivia was about to lose control of that one and three or four of his friends. She reached around to the buffet table behind her and plopped a box of Kleenex tissues on the table between her and Wendy. “These are for me,” she started as she pulled a couple and took care of the visitors to her face. “My hormones are working overtime on my emotions. I don’t know if Arthur……..spilled the beans or not….but there is a possibility that I could be expecting a little one…………….again.” She mockingly spat the last word toward Ryan with a smile and a shake of her head. She politely blew her nose and continued, “At this point in time, I could ….possibly be carrying Arthur’s brother.”
There was a big smile from Arthur.
“Or, I could possibly be carrying his…….sister,” she finished with a sideways glance in Arthur’s direction.
The smile left Arthur’s face and was replaced by an almost frantic look as he asked, “Aw, Mom. A sister? You wouldn’t do that to me, would you?”
While looking dead seriously at Arthur, she pointed her finger toward his father and replied, “Don’t look at me. Blame Mr. Studly over there.”
“Dad?” as he looked at his father for some kind of answer.
Ryan placed his hand on Arthur’s and said just as dryly as he could, “Son, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” He picked up his hand and asked the crowd, “Are we ready to pray?”
Arthur wasn’t. As the two guests and the mom did their best to hold back the laughter he quickly interjected, “Dad, no. Don’t ask the blessing until you answer…..”
There was no holding it back. The horrified look on little Arthur’s face and the dead panned expression on Ryan was more than they could handle. They broke out into almost uncontrollable laughter. And the pitiful why-are-you-laughing-like-that-at-me look was absolutely priceless.
As they calmed down, Tom opened up to soothe him, “Son, in my 82 years on this earth, I have learned one thing. Each child that God allows to be born is brought to the earth as a special blessing. You are a special blessing, little Wendy is another type of a special blessing and the…….”
“Possible,” Olivia reminded everyone.
“.......the possible child is a blessing, sent to us as a present from God. Each present from Him should be received with joy at the idea that they will be bringing with them a blessing from the Lord.”
Arthur looked at Wendy for a sec
ond. Again, she raised her hands and did her little hip dance. “Gee, Mr. Tom, I never looked at it like that. That makes it pretty exciting, then, doesn’t it?” he gushed.
Tom answered with a sigh, “Yes. I just wish that all of the parents that bring children into the world could see it that way.”
Ryan said, “Amen to that. Let’s bow our heads and ask the blessing.”
While Ryan was blessing the food, Tom thought, ‘That’s the third time I’ve called him Son. What gives? My nerves HAVE been over the edge today. Maybe my hormones are working overtime. I might have to ask Olivia to pass that box of tissues.’
After the blessing was finished, Ryan spoke, “Guests go first.”
Fred looked at Tom and quipped, “They must be talking to you. They treat guests with very gracious favor. Me? They treat me like an old worn out shoe.”
Olivia said as she brought the bowl of spaghetti noodles by Tom, “That’s because you ARE an old worn out shoe, you old goat.”
Arthur held a spoon up to his mouth as he announced, “Gather around, folks. The show is about to start. The two comedians have taken center stage.”
Ryan agreed with him, “Yep, my boy. No room for any intelligent conversation when those two get cranked up.” He brought a bowl of spaghetti sauce by Tom. “Take as much as you want, pardner. There’s plenty more in the kitchen.”
“Who are they talking about, Olivia?” Fred shrugged as he asked.
Olivia opened her eyes real wide and shook her head, “I-I-I-I don’t know, Fred.” She held the bowl for him while he dug out a portion. She put the bowl on the table and said, “Alright, it’s every man for himself, or lady as my case may be.”
Arthur pushed the bowl over to his father. They had always taught him to be very respectful to adults if he wanted to receive any respect from them. When Ryan had gotten a couple of good helpings, he dipped up a couple for himself. Without being told, he took the little bowl set aside for Wendy and put some in it. He held the bowl up between him and Wendy and blew on it to cool it. “Here, you do it,” he said as he held the bowl in front of her. She did her best to blow on it and then giggled as she looked around for approval.
Tom leaned over the plate and took a deep whiff of the spaghetti sauce. He sat back up in his chair, closed his eyes and began, “Tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, green peppers, onions.” Before he continued, he looked at Olivia for a sign that he was correct.
She looked at him, opened her eyes and tilted her head a bit as if asking, “And?”
“And ketchup………” Tom put his finger to his mouth as he paused to think. Then, he snapped his fingers as he finished, “And Worcestershire sauce, grape jelly and a hint of red wine. Plus there’s one other slight taste I can’t make out what it is.”
Olivia tried to keep a straight face as she sighed, “Oh just whatever Ryan ran over on his way home from work.”
As they all chuckled, Arthur remarked, “I knew she was going to say that. She always makes some kind of remark like that. I shoulda said it before she did.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t,” she winked at her son. She turned her attention to Tom and said, “No, I will not tell you what the other two ingredients are, but you are correct on all of them that you named. You must do a fair amount of cooking to be able to do that?” Then, she did a little fishing of her own kind, “Your wife must have taught you well.” She did notice that her statement caught him a little off guard.
He finished the bite that he had taken. This was going to have to be the truth, because Tom was not very good at lying. “Actually…….I have been without a partner since the war. Being away from home has….unusual ways of dealing with a marriage.” He breathed a sigh of relief. He had never wanted to hide anything in his life at all. But, this was just a little bit different. He hoped that they could not see how frantic he was feeling on the inside right now.
“Oh, Tom, I’m sorry to hear that. I certainly didn’t mean to,,,,”
Tom cut her off, “Now, don’t worry your pretty little self about that, sweet lady. It’s not the first time I’ve had to answer a question like that.” He looked straight at her and smiled a bitter-sweet smile. “I have come to learn that all things will have a way of working out for our good if we just let God maintain control. The journey hasn’t always been easy, but there have been a lot of precious moments in them.” He finished by saying softly, “And this one, today, is one of those moments.”
They had locked eyes for a brief five seconds. As Olivia gazed into his eyes she could tell that he was not making some off-hand comment. He sincerely meant it. No snow job here. Yet, there was something haunting in those eyes. She saw a deep well filled with compassion like she had never seen before.
A quickening from the Lord deep inside of her brought a line from one of Pastor Jim’s sermons. He had preached on the depth of Jesus’ love for all of mankind. In that message, he had quoted from Isaiah that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Pastor had pointed out that the sorrows Jesus must have experienced in His life before He started His ministry were the shovels that dug the overflowing wells of compassion that drove Him to heal and minister. If this Tom was not her grandfather, he was certainly a man that she would want her son to be around. She could see why Arthur had come home so excited about him.
You could have guessed it, couldn’t you? Olivia put her fork down for a moment and reached for a couple of tissues.
“My dear, I’m sorry if something I said…..”
“No, no, no. Hormones. Don’t anybody get upset. Nothing abnormal about it, huh, Fred?”
“Just eat your spaghetti and let her cry her eyes out if she wants to, Tom,” Fred chuckled as he strove to help Olivia out with her ruse. He realized that her emotions, too, must be on a roller coaster. Fred, himself, had had to catch himself getting choked up talking to Tom throughout the afternoon.
Fred began a chapter out of his life that Ryan and Olivia had heard a couple of times before. It wasn’t new to them, but it would be to Tom. Fred hoped that it would change the conversation a bit and give her time to pull herself together.
“Tom, I can remember, and very vividly remember, I might add, what a time we had when my late wife was pregnant with our second child.” Fred put his fork down, rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands over his spaghetti plate like a tent. He continued with a wry smile, “Fred Jr. was just barely two years old when Jolene found out she was carrying our second. At first, I thought that she was just a little cranky at being pregnant. But, the farther along she got, the more she just pure out old hated me.”
Olivia couldn’t help but giggle as Fred began the story.
“Now, I didn’t think it strange that I had to sleep on the couch the last three months of her pregnancy. What I DID think was strange was the way she would cook. For example, we would always have grits, eggs and bacon for breakfast. Those last three months, she would leave my bacon on the pan and let it burn before she would take it up and put it on my plate.”
Arthur and Ryan both began to chuckle. This was one of Arthur’s favorite stories. They knew what was coming.
“She would fix hers and Fred Jr’s just right. But, mine? She would turn the burner on high and almost smoke up the whole house. One morning, I got to the kitchen before it got good and burnt and I took them up myself. Boy howdy, that part Cherokee Indian went on the war path.”
Arthur’s giggle box turned over completely now. It was full-blown laughter. Fred knew that he always did at this part and he always embellished it just for him.
“Yes, sir. She raised that tomahawk egg turner over her head and chased me around the table four or five times. I kept yelling at her to stop. She kept swinging it at me. Finally, on the sixth lap, I turned around and snatched it out of her hands. I politely told her never to worry about fixing breakfast for me again that I would eat at the café. Well, sir, she let me know that that was just fine with her.
“But, the moment that Michael was born,
she began crying for me to come in the delivery room. She was back to her old self, MUCH to my delight, mind you. So a lady carrying a child can have any kind of feeling she wants as far as I'm concerned.”
Everyone at the table had a good laugh. Tom was the only one who had never heard it before. He commented, “I have heard some peculiar things in my life but that one tops them all.”
In between chuckles, Olivia admitted, “I’ve heard Fred tell that a time or two, but I have, also, heard it from others around town that knew them. My grandma was one of them.”
Supper quieted down for a few moments while they enjoyed the meal. Olivia got up and heated the other loaf of garlic bread for about half a minute. That little bit of time in the microwave awakened the fresh garlic smell and almost shouted at everyone at the table to grab a piece. They each took their turns at the butter dish so it would melt on the warm bread.
Of course, Arthur did his usual thing. He put a couple of forkfuls of spaghetti on his garlic bread before stuffing it into his mouth. As he licked off the abundant sauce all around his mouth, he noticed everyone looking at him. He uttered a perplexed, “What?”
Did they laugh at him? You betcha, but, he enjoyed the attention.
Ryan broke the delicious silence by asking, “Tom. Do you like to fish?”
“Oh, yes. I have on occasion. However, I haven’t had much of an opportunity for about ten, fifteen years or so.”
“Fred and I go just about every other weekend. Just happens to be this weekend is our turn to go. You wanna come along?” He looked over at his son and continued, “We might even be persuaded to let Arthur come, too. You know. Bait the hooks, take off the fish and all that manly stuff.”
Fred added dryly, “Use him as bait.”
“Well,” Tom hesitated, “let me see if I can get my little bit of business taken care of and I would be glad to." He glanced over at Mr. Special across the table and continued, “I had only planned on being here a couple of days, but one of this town’s infamous con men talked me into staying two weeks.”
Arthur giggled with glee as he looked from his dad to Tom and back.
Olivia was trying to find some way to politely scold him but was having a mental block. The most she could do was throw a concerned look Ryan’s way as if asking for help.
“Now before anyone says anything, he never twisted my arm,” Tom said as he watched their faces. “I volunteered my services to be his private tutor for a couple of weeks. Technically, I officially retired from church work last year and I’ve just about been loafing ever since. It would do me good to take a few weeks out of my loafing and get back into teaching again.”
Ryan asked with a smile, “Somehow I get the feeling that you did not spend your time teaching an Adult Bible Class.”
Tom looked at him and then he looked at Olivia as his face became one happy grin. He placed his fork down beside his plate and leaned back in his chair as if he was about to make announce that he was going to run for President of the United States. “Would you take the word of an 82-year-old man? My grandfather and my father pounded into my head that a man is only as good as his word.”
It was like electricity wriggled through every part of Olivia’s body. ‘Now I know it’s him. It’s got to be him. That was the Hollis trademark saying for ages and ages. Grandma Ellen used to talk about it every time she mentioned Tom. A man was as good as his word. She said he virtually lived by it.’ Without realizing it, she had been staring blank-faced at Tom. Her mind was running everywhere remembering the conversations she and her grandma would have about him.
Tom stopped and asked her, “You alright, Olivia?”
Olivia shook herself back to reality. “Oh,….I’m sorry. It is so fascinating that you JUST NOW retired from church work. Wow. So, tell us just what class did you teach?” Whew. She covered that one real quickly.
“For forty years, I taught…….the teenage class.”
Fred said, “Forty years?”
“Yep.”
“That is simply amazing,” Ryan added. “How in the world……teenagers?”
“It had to be God, didn’t it?” Tom declared with a chuckle.
Olivia looked at Arthur and said, “And my little boy gets to be his private student.” Then, she smiled at him and wrinkled up her nose.
Tom froze as an image from the past once again took foremost place in his mind. His right hand went to his heart as he said, “Oh, my God.”
Everyone looked at him in surprise. He turned white. His normally ramrod back turned to jelly as he slumped backward in his chair.