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It was Monte Fullmore. He was a good guy. He coached little league and made sure that all the kids got a fair shot at playing. He also headed the Chamber of Commerce in town and let Deke and the club know of any special event coming up so the Silver Sinners could do their part.
“No. Liddy’s here but not on the maternity ward.” I hedged. “You?”
“Nan just delivered our fourth. Another boy. He’s the one on the right. Bruiser weighs in at 10lbs 4 ounces.” He chuckled. “Good thing Nancy comes from tough stock. We’re going to bring him home in a few minutes. They’re just getting the paperwork ready.”
“Before you do that, Monte, I have a favor to ask you.”
Liddy
I was getting closer to the hills. I could see the mist begin to lift. It had been a while since I had felt that tug on my hand. And now, when I looked back, the shadows had gotten in the way of the path. I wasn’t sure any longer that I would be able to find my way home again. But that seemed to matter less and less. I felt lighter with every step, and now my feet barely touched the ground.
All of a sudden, I thought I heard something in the wind. I stopped and began to listen to the sweet sound of a baby crying. It was coming from behind me. I tried to turn around, but it was hard and I stumbled. There was that hand again. It reached out to me and pulled me backward. This time when it tugged at me, I followed. The baby’s cries got louder and louder the further back I went, and I held on to that guiding hand tighter than I had before. Soon the shadow of a man began to emerge through the mist. He held on to my hand securely as we passed by the Willow tree and the bent Joshua tree and the giant redwoods. We jumped over fallen logs and through narrow streams. The baby was closer now, and I felt my feet and my hands and my back getting stronger. The stronger I got, the more the mist lifted, and the more the mist lifted, the stronger became the hand that held me. Then suddenly, there was a pull stronger than before. I stop resisting and let the hand guide me. It brought me down a narrow, rose lined path to a grassy knoll. And there the sweet little baby was. Naked and fat and gurgling happily under an old apple tree. When I reached out to him, he reached for me, too. And when I held the beautiful baby in my arms the forest began to slip away. The trees and the woodland creatures, the brooks and the streams and the moss-covered path all began to disappear. And soon the shadow man who had led me out of the forest became easier to see. He was just a shimmer of light at first, but the more the forest faded, the more solid he appeared. I walked towards him until he held me and the babe tight in his arms while the mist swallowed us in a beautiful swirl of color.
And then everything was gone except the sound of his voice calling my name…urging me to come back to him. I felt his strong hand still holding on tightly to mine.
I opened my eyes and saw him.
Kid Harding had come for me after all.
Liddy
I am still trying to collect the bits and pieces of what happened to me. My brain and my memory are still a bit slow at times. And I am still trying to regain my strength. I can’t walk too far without losing my breath, but the doctors tell me that all of that will improve with time. I go to physical therapy three times a week and I try my best to be optimistic.
Kid is a wonderful coach, and he encourages me every step of the way. He’s also become a great cook and makes sure the baby and I get plenty of good food, exercise, and lots of rest. Everything is going fine with the pregnancy, and I am as big as a house.
Melody and Truly fuss over me constantly and have planned a gigantic baby shower for me next month. As for Melody and Crix, they still live next to each other and still argue like crazy. But every time Crix mows his own lawn, he mows Melody’s too, and Melody has him over for dinner every Thursday night. Truly told me the other day when she brought Boo home, it was Crix who answered the door.
Truly inherited some money from her Uncle Arthur a few months ago and in a surprising and unexpected move bought herself a food truck. She sells homemade tacos and cold soda at all the construction sites and is making a boatload of money. Whenever Lito rides into town he spends time with Truly. She describes their relationshipas friends with benefits.
Henry was unable to make bail and is spending his time waiting for trial in prison. Aunt Betty went once to see him but never went back. She refuses to speak about him to anyone but the FBI. who still come around once in a while to ask her questions. I gave them the little napkin full of the things that I had collected from the women who were held captive with me. They tell me it has been very helpful in identifying the victims. Someday I will ask. I will want to know more. I will want to know who they were. I will want to know their names and the names of their families. I will want to know what happened to them. But that is all too much for me right now.
Kid tells me that Deke was a great support to Betty during the time I was in the hospital. He has been helping her muddle through the legalities of Henry’s financial holdings. I’m not sure if Deke is hoping for their relationship to become more than that, but I know Betty is not ready. If he wants to hang around long enough for her to be ready someday then that’s up to him.
Emilie was released from the hospital right after Kid had spoken with her in the chapel. As soon as I felt strong enough, I asked Kid to help me find her. After we got her phone number, it took me three days to get up the courage to call her. I didn’t know if she would want to be reminded of what had happened to her or if she would want to talk to me. But I shouldn’t have worried. The minute she heard my voice, she cried like a baby. She told me she knew I was pregnant the first time I threw up the soup. When I told her that it was the news of the baby that saved my life, we both cried long tears for the life that had been spared and all the lives that had been lost.
It was the morning after that phone call, that Kid felt the baby kick for the first time.
Kid’s commitment to the Silver Sinners is a big part of our life now and I’m adjusting. I’ve started to make more of an effort to reach out to some of the other old ladies. To my pleasant surprise they are open, friendly, and lots of fun. It pleases Kid that I am trying and that makes me happy.
In lots of ways, Kid and I are still strangers. Although we have known each other for almost half our lives, we have spent most of that time either apart or arguing. But despite or maybe because of all of that, we wanted to make sure the baby had a stable environment. We decided to give this thing between us a real chance and got married in a small ceremony a few weeks ago. I am still getting used to wearing his ring on my finger.
Sometimes I still think of the old days and laugh at the way life throws us curve balls. Other times I hear Kid pull up to the house wearing his leather cut and riding his chromed-up Harley and I still worry. There’s a wildness in him that scares me. I guess we’ll just have to take it one step at a time.
“You ready, Liddy?” Kid calls out to me and I can hear the excitement in his voice.
It’s the morning of the big reveal. Kid has been in the baby’s room for the past week, painting and papering, sanding floors, and putting together the furniture. He’s been determined to do this on his own, which has been fine with me. I’ve been really tired lately, and besides the fumes from the paint and all the rest wouldn’t be good for the baby, or my still recuperating lungs.
“I’m in here!” I call to him from the kitchen where I had just finished making dinner.
When Kid walks into the room with his tight tee shirt, loose jeans, scruffy beard and that shit-eating grin on his face, I am struck again by how damn good-looking that man is. And for a moment, I forget that my ass is now as big as a house and my belly round as a beachball. A part of me, a big part of me, wants to jump his bones and forget all about the baby room reveal.
He pulls me by the hand and a faint memory comes back to me of being tugged back in time, but it is only a flash and it quickly goes away. We are almost at the threshold of the door now. He covers my eyes with his hands before we walk in.
“Okay. You can look now.” I hear him say. Then he uncovers my eyes with his hands. I stand stunned because the first thing, the very first thing I notice after the seven-foot stuffed giraffe and the mini hot air balloon wallpaper is the picture over the crib.
There it is hanging on the wall all dressed up in a new gold frame with the blue ribbon merrily hanging from its corner. Damned if it isn’t the painting from all those years ago. Not the forged one that hung in the Liberty Art Museum but the original with all its rips and tears. But somehow it has been glued all back together, and it looks beautiful just the way it is.
It’s a survivor…just like me and Betty and Truly and Melody and all of the rest of the Trailer Park Girls.
When I look at Kid he is absently rubbing the half-moon scar on his hand. He grins at me, and I grin back harder.
And in that moment, all the doubts and fears suddenly fall away, and I know that Kid and I are going to be just fine. It’s not going to be perfect or even easy. There will be some stumbles and rips and tears along the way. But with time and patience and a little glue to help hold it all together, I know that we can create something beautiful, and lasting and uniquely ours. And I can tell by the way Kid looks at me, that he knows it too.
