After the Loving

He found Fentress Sparkman propped up in bed reading the Bible that Russ had given him as a present the previous Christmas.

“How are you feeling, sir?”

“Some days, I feel pretty good, some not. I’m glad to see you. Telford sent me an invitation to his wedding. Did he marry a woman you like?”

“Yes, indeed, and he’s on his honeymoon right now. This is Velma Brighton. Velma, my uncle, Fentress Sparkman.”

Sparkman nodded his head. “Glad to meet you.” He patted the Bible. “It was good of you to give me this, Russ. I read it all the time. You and your brothers have made my last days happy ones.”

Russ grasped the frail hand that reached out to him. “It’s too bad we couldn’t have had a normal relationship all along, sir. I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can.”

“Don’t make it too long. Thanks for coming and bringing your friend.”

They told him goodbye and went back to the waiting room. Almost as soon as they sat down, he heard himself telling her the story of his uncle and his father. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” he said, “except maybe because it still surprises me, makes me wonder. That story had a strong effect on me—I pay careful attention to the way I treat people. A stranger, even an enemy, could be a close relative.”

He got up and walked toward the door leading to patient care. “What’s holding them?” He walked back to Velma. “All I have is that nurse’s word.”

Velma walked over to where he stood strung out with anxiety. “She’s a professional, Russ, and she deals with patients’ families all the time. She wouldn’t mislead us.”

He slapped his left fist in his right palm. “You’re right, I know, but it’s taking so long. How could she be so weak that she needs to rest for two whole hours?” He remembered to call Henry who he knew was worried about Tara and anxious for her well-being.

“How is she?” Henry asked as he lifted the receiver.

He told Henry as much as he knew. “It appears that she’ll be as good as new. I just didn’t want you to worry more.”

“Worry more? I never been so upset in me life. Thanks for letting me know.”

As Russ hung up, the door swung open, and the nurse wheeled Tara through it in a wheelchair. “Mr. Russ! Aunt Velma! They put a tube down my throat, they gave me this big bunny and these balloons, and when I get big, I’m going to play the piano for them.”

He raced to the wheelchair, stopped and stared at the nurse. “Can’t she walk?”

“Yes, but we always release patients this way.”

“Do you have a clerk or someone who I can pay?” he asked her.

“Fill out this form, and we’ll send you a bill. After you do that, she may go.”

He thanked the nurse, filled out the forms and lifted Tara from the wheelchair. He looked the child in the eyes. “If you ever give me another scare like this one, I’m going to tweak your nose.” Her giggles filled his heart with such happiness that he couldn’t help hugging her as he walked to his car with her in his arms and Velma holding his hand.

As he drove home, the thought occurred to him time and again that he’d learned much about himself in the last five days, all of it important and some of it life-changing.

After supper, when they had finally tucked the excited little girl in bed, he sat with Velma and Henry in the den musing over what he considered his odd behavior.

“Henry, I had planned to work on a project we have in Philadelphia, but what happened with Tara suggests to me that I ought to work here at home until Telford gets back. Drake can’t stay home. He has to leave for Barbados tomorrow.”

“Well, I ain’t what I used to be, and I haven’t driven a car in years, but Velma here can drive. You don’t have to change yer plans. We can manage.”

“I know I can count on you, Henry, and that you care as much for our home as I do. After all, it’s your home. But my mind tells me to stay here, and I don’t mind doing it. My computer and my brain are about all I need in order to work.”

Around ten in the morning, two days later, he looked up from his draft board and glanced at his bedroom window just as a silver-gray Lincoln Town Car turned into the circle that graced the front of Harrington House. A familiar car. He got up, went downstairs and opened the door at the first peal of the doorbell.

Jack Stevenson. “What can I do for you, man?” he asked Jack.

“I want to see Alexis.” He started past Russ, but didn’t get far before he felt the weight of Russ’s hand on his shoulder.

“What do you want with her?”

“It’s not your business.”

Same old Jack. “It may be her husband’s business. Would you like me to give him a message?”

“What husband? What the hell are you talking about?”

The pleasure he got from anticipating Jack’s reaction to his next words sent tremors through his body. “Didn’t anybody tell you? Alexis Harrington is on her honeymoon with Telford Harrington. As we speak, man.”

“You’re lying to me.”

“Sorry. It’s a matter of public record. Check it with the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Frederick, or with me, since I was best man and legal witness. You want to check it with Velma? I think she’s playing checkers with your daughter.”

Jack stared at him. “The big guy. He got her after all.”

“Nobody in this house ever doubted that they would marry. Uh… You want me to call Tara?”

“Naah. I’m…I’m out of here.”

“Really? Yesterday, just before I took Tara to the emergency room in Frederick General Hospital, she asked me if she could call Telford ‘daddy,’ and I told her she had a daddy. She said she only has to call you daddy when she sees you, and she doesn’t see you often. What do you think she should call her stepfather?”

“Damned if I care.” Jack moved the few steps toward the front door, but Russ had one more rock to toss and put his hand on the doorknob, effectively imprisoning Jack.

“I got your daughter to the emergency room in time for the doctors to save her life, but since it didn’t occur to you to ask how she is, I won’t tell you.” He opened the door, and with a sweep of his hand, invited the man to leave.

“I see we won’t be bothered with you in the future, buddy, and good riddance,” he called after Jack.

He went into the kitchen and related the incident to Henry. “There’s no telling how he might have behaved if I hadn’t been here. Jack learned months ago not to cross me.”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “Oh, his type is nothing to worry about. Just put his five-year-old daughter in front of him, and he’s ready to go.” He stopped kneading dough. “Alexis sent him an invitation to the wedding, but I guess he didn’t open it, probably thinking it was something about his daughter. She don’t need him. Tel’s her daddy, and has been since the day she came here.”

Russ stuffed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and leaned against the kitchen counter as memories of his mother flooded his mind. “I’ve often thought that there ought to be some kind of test for parenthood, or at least mandatory classes for people who bring children into this world. My mother and Jack Stevenson would have been prime candidates.”

Henry oiled a bowl, put the bread down to rise and covered it with a sheet of plastic. “It ain’t good to think like that, Russ. Miss Lizzie was one of those people that needed freedom. She loved her children, but she didn’t like being married and having to answer to another person.”

“I’m glad she bothered to give birth to me and my brothers, but if she did that, she should have accepted her responsibility to take care of us. Instead, she took off without warning whenever she felt like it. I remember waking up one morning and going in my parents’ room and asking my father where she was. He wiped a tear, didn’t look at me and said, ‘I don’t know, Son. I don’t know where she went.’ That was the day before I started first grade. She came back, and she left again. When Dad died, she came back and stayed, but I didn’t give a damn. I was eight.”

“I know. It affected you more than it did Telford and Drake. Since Mr. Josh died, your brothers and me are the only people you let get close to you. Best thing that could have happened to you, Son, was finding out how much Alexis loves her child. She come here that day, she told me later, with a total of thirty-eight dollars to her name right after she signed away twelve million in exchange for full custody of Tara.”

He released a sharp whistle. “I didn’t know it was that much. Jack Stevenson is a jerk. I don’t see how any human being could fail to love Tara. Well, if I’m going to stay home, I’d better get to work.” And he’d have to find a way to avoid Velma except at breakfast and supper when it would be impossible. As it was, thoughts of her interfered with his concentration, and that was a first.

His mind made up, he told Henry, “I think I’ll work in the office at the warehouse. Less distraction.”