Journey's Child

25

My mother woke me up by reaching back from the front seat and gently shaking me. "Gilly, wake up, we're at the cottage."

I sat up and looked around. Thad smiled at me, "You awake, Kiddo?"

"I think so," I replied, trying to cover a yawn with my hand.

"Gilly, let's go!" my mother said in an anxious half-whisper as she held the car door open.

Thad got out from the driver's side and slowly unfolded himself to a standing position. "I'll walk you in," he told my mother. She didn't argue.

"Thank you so much," she said after he made a walk-through of the cottage.

"No problem. I'm going to go down and see that he's left. You have my number, call if you need anything, okay?"

"Yes, I appreciate your help," she told him. "We had a wonderful time today."

"Lock the door," he said as he turned to leave.

After getting a glass of juice from the kitchen, I joined my mom in the living room where she stood looking out the window. Thad was walking back from the end cottage and gave my mom a thumbs up sign to let her know that Tom was gone.

When he had driven away, my mother turned and faced the inside of the cottage with new eyes. "Oh my, look at this place!" she exclaimed. "Gilly, can you find several grocery bags to put my notebooks in?"

"Aren't you going to write anymore?"

"Not in this mess. Look at the pile of papers! What was I trying to do?"

I stood and watched as she grabbed at the notebooks and began to pile them up on one of the chairs.

"Gilly, garbage bags, please."

"Oh yeah," I said, heading towards the cupboard under the sink. I was mesmerized as I watched my mother slowly continue to wake up from the evil spell that the accident had put on her.

We spent several hours organizing her papers. A lot of time was taken up by reading and talking about the stories she had written surrounding our family. She even had written about when she and my dad met. It was like picking up a picture album - once you start looking at the photographs, you can't put it down. We laughed and joked and sighed as we remembered what my mother called the family capsule. "It will always be in us where we can keep it safe and we can recall it when we want to remember."

"That's what Thad meant about our loved ones never really being gone." I told her.

"Yes," she agreed. "It's a sad lesson of life, but it can offer a ray of hope if we look for it." She put her arm around me and pulled me into a comforting hug. "We're 'Rainy Day People', Gilly - you, me, Thad and Sharon."

"What?" I asked.

"It's a song by Gordon Lightfoot," she explained. "Never mind, you're too young."

*

My mom cooked some chicken breasts and asparagus for dinner. We cleaned up the kitchen together, she washed and I dried.

I asked if I could go into town and look around at the emporium. She surprised me by suggesting that she walk in with me and we could get dessert at the diner.

"Great," I said. "Maybe we can walk over to the gallery and see Thad's painting."

"I would love to see it," she agreed.

As we walked down one of the side streets, I noticed that the weather had turned from the drab gray it had been when we first arrived here to golden and blue. I was beginning to get into the summer season just as fall was about to swallow it up whole.

At the emporium my mother bought me another book, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. She said that she had loved the series when she was my age. I was so happy to have her back the way she used to be, that I didn't even roll my eyes at her.

At Drakes Galley, we both had hot fudge sundaes. My mom laughed when I told her my idea that the same man had designed the whole town, "Of course, not Thad's house," I admitted. "It's really beautiful, Mom. It looks like something Dad would have made."

After our sundaes, we walked towards the art gallery. I was surprised when I saw Ben and Rory walking towards us.

"Hi," I said, relieved it was just the two of them.

"Hey," they both replied.

I introduced them to my mother, then we all walked together for a while.

"Where have you been?" Ben asked. "We haven't seen you around lately."

"Oh, I've been visiting with my friend, Thad Squire, the painter."

Both of their mouths fell open and they looked up at my mother for confirmation.

"He's a very nice and talented man," my mother offered in Thad's defense.

"Are you French?" Rory asked.

Here we go, I told myself. Fortunately, we arrived at the gallery and instead of answering him, my mother was struck with awe at Thad's painting.

"She's Canadian," I told Rory, who much to my pleasure, looked confused.

"Gilly, this is beautiful!" my mother gushed.

Instead of commenting back, I looked over at Ben and Rory and bragged, "We all went to the Sea Lion Caves today."

Once again, they didn't have anything to say.

"So where's Debbie?" I asked.

"She went with her mom to Eugene to shop for school clothes," Ben answered.

The thought of leaving in five days and starting junior high in two weeks gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach.

On our way back to the cottages, I told my mom, "It isn't fair that we're leaving right when I'm beginning to like it here."

"I know, Gilly, but in a few years, when you think about this summer, all of it will have been special and worth it."

Oh my, if only we had known the truth. If only we could have escaped the evil that was coming our way.

26

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