Book 2-Alex Bishop in Follow That Mystery

Alex Bishop in Follow That Mystery

                                                                             Continue Chapter 57                                    

                                                                    Family, Friends and Farewells

     The snows of winter finally melted, and the April rains came.  April and May passed quickly and soon it was the first week in June and Graduation Day.  Alex's mother Janeen was fussing with Alex's tie, trying to get it just right while he gave her frustrated looks.  Alex's sister Lyn was looking on and giggling at the expression on her brother's face.  Her boyfriend Spence wore a smirk and was grateful it wasn't he who was graduating.  Finally, after ten minutes, Alex couldn't take it any longer and said, "Mom!  It's fine.  Leave me alone."

     Janeen made one last tug on his tie and then stepped back to admire her work.  "I'm going to get the car washed really quickly,"  Alex's father Max hollered from the front door.  "Lyndell. Do you and Spence want to come with?" he asked.  "Sure," Lyn said, and then glancing at Spencer, who nodded at her.

     Max gave his wife a kiss and whispered something in her ear.  Lyn had a feeling he was telling her mother to stop bugging Alex; because Janeen stuck her tongue out at him.  He laughed, then he, Lyn and Spencer left.

     Janeen took a seat on the sofa and Alex sat down next to her.  "Spence is a good looking boy isn't he?"  "Yeah he is," Alex agreed.  "I'm been trying to find something wrong with him, but I have to admit, he's okay."  Janeen laughed.  "Believe it or not Alex.  Your approval means a lot to your sister."  Alex grinned and said, "That's nice to hear."

     "By the way," Alex started, "You look really pretty.  Pink is your color Mom."  "Well, thank you," she said, smoothing her dress.  Then his mother looked into his hazel blue eyes and at his sandy colored, soft spiked hair and suddenly the tears begin to flow.  "Ah, come on Mom.  Don't cry,"  Alex pleaded.  Like most guys, Alex hated to see a woman cry.  Mostly because it made him feel helpless.

     Janeen dabbed at her eyes with tissue, careful not to smudge her eye makeup.  "I was just remembering when you were small Alex, she told him.  He grinned. "Do you remember when you climbed our fence and went to meet me at the bus stop?  You must have been about three years old."  Alex laughed.  "I don't know who was more afraid of you that day.  Me or Dad."

     Now, his mother laughed too.  "When I got off the bus and saw you sitting in that mud puddle, having the time of your life....and when my heart started beating again,"  Alex laughed again. "I noticed you only had one shoe.  Why that bothered me at the time, I cannot tell you.  We never did find that shoe, did we?"

     "Actually, I did," Alex said sheepishly.  "You did!"  Janeen said in surprise.  "Yeah," Alex told her, "just before we moved here."  "What did you do with it?" his mother asked him.  "Promise you won't cry again," Alex cautioned her, as he rose from the sofa and ran off to his room.  When he came back, he was holding a very dirty child's shoe, and dropped it softly in his mother's palm.

     "Oh Alex.  I can't believe you kept this all these years," she said giggling.  "It was my first adventure Mom," Alex said simply.  "And definitely not your last," his mother said with a worried look on her pretty face.  But then she rallied and added, while laying the little shoe on a stand by the front door, "I am so proud of you Alex," she said, beaming at him.  "Not just because you're graduating high school, but also because you've graduated as a person.  I'm so proud of the man you have become."