The Finding Tree

Chapter 10 - The Finding Tree

Two years and a day had come and gone, without a visit to the lake house.

Janey was adrift in the wake of her parent's divorce. She saw them in all their flaws and shortcomings and loved them still, but had realized that somewhere along the way they must have forgotten that she was around. They were both fighting for themselves, or in Tom's case, against himself.

Marcie had scheduled weekly therapy sessions for Janey, but those never took the place of a warm hug and a mother's loving touch, two things which never came. She had only seen her dad twice since the final event; once in court, and once when he came to pack up his office at the house in town.

Tom was a wreck that day, and she could tell he was spiraling when he came to the door with a box for his things. Marcie let him in without a word, then disappeared down the hall.

He'd lost weight, his limp was worse and his hands shook all the time.  A sour unwashed smell clung to him, and his eyes were sorrowful and red-rimmed from either lack of sleep, booze or worse. He was sort of sober, but not completely... Janey just knew these things. It was like looking through a window at the weather. His climate was obvious to her.

"Dad..."

Tom turned and looked at his daughter. His face crumpled and she could tell he was trying not to cry.

"Janey, I gotta pack honey... your mom wants my stuff out."

"But, dad.." she followed him into his office and silently watched him stuff pictures, books, journals and files, coffee cups and papers in his box.

Tom sighed, "It's okay, I don't mind leaving. You'll be better off without me around any way."

Janey broke. "No, NO," she wailed. "I don't want you to go...I love you, please don't go."

She ran to him attaching herself to his torso and felt her tears soak into the stale fabric of his shirt.

Gently, he detached her from his body and kneeled down, so he was looking up at her face.

"Janey.. I gotta fight this battle on my own, honey. You can't fight this one for me. And I'm so sorry I never really was there for you when you were young. All I've ever done is tear you down, and bring you pain. Your mama and Richard will look after you, and maybe some day, when I can get my shit together I'll... I'll look you up and be strong enough to be your dad again. But until then..." He slapped his thighs with his open palms and then scrubbed at his eyes with the same motion.

After a moment he brought the heels of his hands away from his face and gripped Janey's shoulders. "Until then, I love you, too baby doll... I always will, but unless I can fix this, fix my shit...I can't be near you. I'll always make things worse"

He crushed her in a quick hug, then pulled away and looked down refusing eye contact. He walked out the door with his cardboard box, not looking back once.

His face was an echo that her heart would never forget.

Marcie had truly moved on by then. She and Richard openly dated. He was a lawyer, and helped Marcie navigate the legal minefield that separated her from her ex-husband's estate. In the end, Marcie got a significant portion of the Cameron assets that were Tom's to wield, including the lake house.

Tom didn't contest anything, including Marcie's full custody with no visitation, But he did object to Marcie's intent to sell the lake house citing that it was Janey's inheritance. Even Mabel's will noted that the property would be left in trust to her first female great-grandchild, after Tom.  His brother had two sons, so in fact this was Janey's house, and the documents proved it.