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“Yes sir,” I said. “Our Jeep ran over an IUD. Blew the car to hell and took two men with it. Then we were ambushed. I got out of there with shrapnel and bad memories.”
“Sorry to hear that, son,” he said.
“Me too. Every day,” I said.
“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked. “Water? Soda? Beer?”
“I appreciate it, but no,” I said.
He nodded, and I felt like we had gotten somewhere.
“So I guess you want to know why no one lives there,” he said.
I nodded, and he proceeded to tell me his story. Apparently, he hadn’t kept the house out of spite after all. It was an attempt to hold on and force his family to come back together. A pipe dream, he called it, but one he hung on to for dear life. He wanted his family to come together over the property, not spread apart.
When he asked why I was interested, I told him about Allison, about how hard she worked. About how she had escaped from an abusive situation and wanted to pursue her dream. About how she saw so much potential to bring life to the house and the land and make it something that would be loved and adored.
I must have said something right. He and his wife exchanged glances, and when Maurice looked back at me, it was with warmth in his eyes. And a knowing grin.
“Sounds like you’re a man in love,” he said. “Drove all the way out to Dallas to find me just so you could pitch for her to buy the house?”
“Maybe,” I said, unable to help the grin on my face.
“Hold on to that,” he said, looking back at his wife. “You only get two families. The one you’re born with and the one you choose. You need them both. I only have the one, and I miss the other every day. Hold on to what you have.”
When I left later that afternoon, I had a lot to think about. The meeting was extremely impactful, and a thought that had crossed my mind was now sitting heavily on my heart. My sister had lived in Dallas for some time. I didn’t know exactly where, but I knew it was in the area. I texted her for the first time in years and asked her where she lived. She responded almost immediately, and I put the address in my GPS.
Rather than surprise her that day, I went to a hotel nearby and spent the night, texting her that I wanted to see her the next day. She said we should meet up at a coffee shop near her work just a few blocks from the hotel, and I agreed. When the morning came, I felt the weight of years of missing my own family slide away as I pulled her into a deep hug.
Our reunion was brief but meaningful, and I made sure she understood that the house in Murdock was always open to her. She promised to come see me sometime soon, and I told her I would hold her to that. As I left, heading back to the hotel, I checked my email. It would still be a few more days in Dallas before I could even think about going home, but it would be worth it in the end. Things like that took time.
Almost a week had passed since I’d left Murdock and Allison. So much time that I didn’t expect to spend tracking Maurice down, so much time going through the things that needed to be done after meeting up with my sister. It had flown by in some ways and dragged on in others. I just couldn’t wait to be home and in her arms again.
When I finally did get back, I could tell something was up. Allison’s stuff wasn’t in my place, even though she had a key. I went over to her place and opened the door, hoping to surprise her. Instead, she was sitting on a couch that was new and looked wildly comfortable. The living room looked lived in, like she had gone about not only decorating the place but occupying it too.
She had a cup of tea in her hand, and when I came in, she stood to kiss me, but then sat back down quickly. She looked like she was sick.
“I missed you,” I said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not feeling well,” she said.
“I can tell,” I responded. “What’s going on?”
“I have to tell you something, but I don’t know how you are going to react. But you deserve to know,” she said. Suddenly, I realized her eyes were puffy and red, like she had been crying. I wondered how long she had sat on the couch, looking out the window at my car after I got back. How much of that time had she been crying? “I’ve thought about this a lot, and I know that this is something I want for myself. But I need you to decide what you want.”
