Wyatt agreed, and they all went over there. After looking around for the right place to put it, he asked, "Do you want to hang it in your closet?"
DJ nodded and Riley declared, "Mom and Dad's jacket is gonna be friends with our jackets."
As he went back to the kitchen to finish his coffee, Wyatt thought about his own mother. She was only a shadow to him -- a wisp of blond hair, a flash of blue eyes.
After she left them, Wyatt remembered finding odds and ends that belonged to her. He used to keep whatever he found, hiding the bits and pieces stashed in a shoebox under his bed. One day he discovered that the box was gone. Either Lloyd or his dad must have found it and got rid of it. They did it without a word. Everything that once belonged to his mother was just gone.
That was so like them. Neither their father or Lloyd talked about her, so she kept fading from Wyatt's memory. By the time he was a teenager and he heard that she died, Wyatt had nothing left of her, just a painful longing inside him.
Now that he thought about it, Lloyd must have missed her too, but he didn't like talking about her. When he was explaining to Wyatt why she left, all he told him was that she said, "I can't do this any more."
Wyatt didn't understand. "Couldn't do what?" he asked his older brother.
"She couldn't be our mom any more."
Later on, when Wyatt left for Europe, he remembered what Lloyd had said to him. "I guess you turned out just like Mom. You ran off just like she did."
That hurt. The thought that he could have caused that kind of pain to anyone would always haunt Wyatt.
He couldn't dwell on that now. None of it could be changed. Wyatt made sure the kids were ready to go, the dogs had what they needed to stay behind, and they all headed into town for a morning of volunteer work. Some hard work should help clear his head.
The volunteers were organizing at Peach Tree Elementary, and DJ wasn't happy about that. "Why at the school?" DJ said and made a face that Wyatt caught in the rear view mirror as he drove.
"You don't like school?" Wyatt said.
"I don't know," DJ said and it seemed like he was worried about it maybe because he was starting first grade in the fall.
"It won't be that different. All the kids you know from kindergarten will be there. It will be fun," Wyatt told him.
DJ still looked unsure, but he seemed willing to give it a chance especially once they arrived and he saw other kids there and they waved to him and Riley. Gloria was there too, and Lara seemed to be in charge of telling people where to go. She held a clipboard in front of her and pointed to different groups. She wasn't a volunteer though, she worked for city hall. "Only chumps work for free," she had told him.
Already at work, some of the people were outside in a clearing behind the school next to the playing fields. There were tables being set up and planks of wood were being carried around. From what Wyatt heard, that must have been for some kind of raised platform or maybe one of the floats they were building for the parade.
Wyatt was ready to get to work too. Too bad Sam wasn’t there yet to sweat alongside him. After the breakfast shift at the café was over, Sam would be free to come and lend a hand.
While DJ and Riley went off to join the kids, Wyatt went to get his assignment from Lara who stood with a group of volunteers and consulted that clipboard of hers. After a bit, she had assigned everyone to different groups and only Wyatt was left. He tried not to take that personally. They just didn't know how awesome he was.
Seeing him standing there, Lara looked around then came up with an assignment for him. "You can work with Noreen. There she is with her gallon of coffee." Lara pointed her out coming over with a big mug of coffee in her hand. "There are some supplies to be carried into that shed. Noreen will tell you where it goes."
"And good morning to you too," Noreen said.
"Get to work, you two," Lara said and gave Noreen a mean smile as she left.
"Listen to her ordering me around. She's enjoying that way too much," Noreen complained.
After she was done glaring after Lara, Noreen took Wyatt out to the parking lot. She pointed out a white van. The back of it was open with boxes stacked inside. Noreen leaned in so she could read some labels.
"I guess spring is a busy time around here," Wyatt said as she tapped a box and he picked it up.
Noreen picked up another box and put it on top of that one, then grabbed one for herself. "This is not so bad, not like in the summer when the peaches are ripe and we have the Peach Pie Festival. And people also come here in the fall for the changing of the leaves. That's when they have the Golden Leaf Festival," Noreen said. She was leading the way to a shed.
"Another festival?" Wyatt said as he pushed the shed door open with his back and set the boxes on a shelf Noreen pointed out.
"Sure, one for every season. The winter festival was the last one," she told him. "And yes, you'll have to volunteer for all of them to set a good example for the kids."
As they went to get more boxes, Wyatt grumbled, but he was thinking that he wouldn't mind if he got to work with Sam in every festival for every season. Not that he minded working with Noreen either. He was just really looking forward to seeing Sam again.
Wyatt couldn't get enough of him. Anxious to see him, he was keeping an eye out for him, glancing toward the parking lot every few seconds.
