Page 79 of Reckoning

* * *

When they finally left The Hall to spend the night with his Barton grandparents, Tate’s head was spinning. He was never going to remember all the names or the familial connections. But the next morning was one for more surprises, this time for Abel and Lilith.

Tate was outside with his grandpa David, helping feed chickens and gather eggs. As they were working, David kept watching Tate when he wasn’t looking, wanting to ask a thousand questions and wondering where life was going to take him. He knew it would never be here, and he was curious about everything.

“Your mama says you graduate at the end of the upcoming semester.”

“Yes, sir,” Tate said, and kept refilling the water bucket to put in the chicken house.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” Then when David saw the sudden smile on Tate’s face it said it all.

“I do. Her name is Briar Lowe. She was just awarded a four-year scholarship, all expenses paid, to Tulane University, in New Orleans. She also graduates early as I do. We’ve been planning our paths for years. We’ll be going in different directions for a while, but she’s always going to be home to me.”

David nodded. “That’s good, grandson. You have a real good head on your shoulders.”

Tate grinned. “Old soul.”

David chuckled. “After breakfast, your granny Retha and I want to take you all to Granny Barton’s house. It’s where I was born, and where Lilith spent a lot of her childhood, learning her granny’s ways.”

“I saw it in a vision months ago. Mama is gonna cry so many happy tears,” Tate said.

David paused. “Uh…you saw us…you know…?”

Tate shrugged. “She was fretting some time back about needing to find a place to live when her and Dad moved back here. All I said to her was that there was a house already waiting. I didn’t know who it belonged to, or how she was going to come by it, but I saw it. We drove past it on the way to The Hall, but I didn’t say anything. And you need to know it is going to be the blessing she needed.”

“Well, I’ll say,” David said, took off his straw hat to scratch his head, put the hat back on, and then grinned. “Anyway…I’m getting hungry and we need to get these eggs back to the house.”

Tate saw pieces of his mother in his granddaddy’s face. It was a good feeling. Then he smiled. “I’m pretty much always hungry, so I’ll be right behind you.”

A couple of hours later, they got in their respective cars, with David and Retha leading the way to Granny Barton’s house.

Lilith could hardly sit still. “It’s going to be bittersweet, going back to Granny’s house and her not in it, but I’m anxious to see it again. Daddy said he and a bunch of kinfolks have been helping him paint and repair off and on for about a year.”

Tate listened as they drove without offering any conversation. He didn’t want to lie, so the easier way out was to say nothing.

A short while later, they turned off the road and went up the driveway to the house. Lilith’s parents got out and went straight to the house to unlock it, then waited. As soon as Abel and Lilith reached the front door, David handed them the house key.

“From this day forward, this house is yours. It was your granny’s last wish, to keep it for Lilith. She swore the day would come when Abel would bring you home.”

Lilith gasped, then started to cry. “Oh, Abel! Oh, Daddy! I don’t know what to say! Thank you! Thank you!”

Abel reached for her hand. “We didn’t see this coming, but it is such a blessing. Let’s go check out our new home, darlin’. And Tate, get in here and claim a bedroom. This is going to be your landing place from now on. Wherever you go in life, you’ll know where to come when you need a place to lay your head.”

Tate followed them in, witnessing the delight and wonder at the heirloom pieces left for them to use. The antique pie safe. A walnut sideboard. A handmade rocker made of ash wood sitting beside the fireplace, and a beautiful stone hearth that his mother said was made of Tennessee marble, a kind of metamorphized limestone, that had been cut from a nearby quarry long ago. And all the while he was aware he was just an onlooker. This was not the place where he would put down roots, but getting his parents out of Star Ridge was everything. His mother’s homecoming was a long-awaited and well-deserved event.

* * *

Three days later, they were on the way back to Star Ridge. They’d spent the last night with his Bandy family, and during the ongoing conversation, something they’d said about Tate’s near-death experience when he was a child reminded him that Mr. Autry would have an answer for him, one way or another, when he got home.

The closer they got to Star Ridge, the more antsy Tate was getting. He’d sent Briar a text to let her know they were on the way home, but Briar wasn’t the only one waiting for him.

The return of Dan Stennett’s son made national news, and the interview Stennett gave about Tate Bandy’s part in saving his son, coupled with the warning Tate had given Amy Wall from TV station KSDK, had dropped a nineteen-year-old boy into the national spotlight. Now the media wanted more. Interviews. Photos. Background. Verifying rumors that his gift came through his father’s bloodline. Like vultures, intent on picking a carcass clean.

* * *

They were about a mile outside of Star Ridge.

Lilith had gone quiet.