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We eventually separated, laughing at how much of a mess we were. Eyes red, shirts drenched in tears. But we were laughing because we were happy too.
“Sorry I missed it, Dad,” Cole said, peering around the bare space. “Looks like it was a hit, though.”
“I’m sorry too,” Jasper said. “Sorry it took me so long to come around.”
Franky felt around his pockets for his phone, instructing us all to gather in close for a selfie. “It’s okay,” he said, “because when I think back on this time,thisis the moment that I’m going to remember.” He held up his phone, held up the photo of his family. “This is the moment that will matter.”
Epilogue
Leland
The nightmares involving my mother returned with a vengeance after Cole’s round of twenty-one questions at the bar, and they had only gotten increasingly more frequent ever since Franky and Jasper made amends a few weeks ago. It was as if my brain was bored now that I had zero distractions, and it wanted to remind me that not everything in my life was perfect, and wouldn’t be until I’d dealt withthis.
I’d wake up nightly to shrill screams, then quickly realize the feral sounds were coming from me. Franky would towel me down, clearing the sweat away from the night-terrors attempting to drown me.
The dreams were always the same. Me free falling-toward the pavement, but before I hit the ground I’d be back at the windowsill again, beingpushedagain. It was a never-ending cycle of terror, and I’d reverted to not being able to get too close to a window that wasn’t on ground level. I wasn’t new to the nightmare, but it’d been a while.
The exhaustion was killing me. The dreams would hit within minutes of me falling asleep and then I’d be too terrified to go back to bed. Even Franky’s eyes were bloodshot and heavy, because he never let me suffer awake alone.
Last night Franky asked if I’d be willing to talk to someone. Someone other than him. I told him I’d talk to a damn wall if it meant making this go away.
By sunrise we each held a one-way ticket in our hand and were rushing to catch our flight.
Lockwood, South Carolina in the fall felt more like the final weeks of spring leading up to summer elsewhere. No wonder Franky had instructed me to pack light. He wouldn’t tell me much, just that this was where he’d learned how to be happy. The place that contained a few of the most important people in his life.
I rolled the window down, letting the breeze have fun with my hair as we took the scenic route from the airport. It was peaceful here. Green and lush, and quiet and homey.
We pulled onto a rocky backroad that opened up to the most beautiful lake I’d ever seen. “Makes sense why you loved it here,” I said to Franky, stepping out of the car, only now noticing the one-story cabin. As grand as the home was, the water was the real showstopper.
We reached the screen door and Franky knocked. The front door had been left open, so we could see inside. No one approached from within. “Are you sure they’re home?” I asked. Before he could respond, an elderly man with a cane appeared. Joe, I presumed. His confusion shifted to a pleasantly surprised smile.
“Well, look at this,” he said, then shouted to someone we couldn’t see. “Sarah! Look who’s here.” He managed two steps in our direction before a wheelchair came barreling past him, nearly knocking him over if it weren’t for the nearby wall.
Franky opened the screen door, stepping inside just as Sarah—Joe’s wife, according to what Franky had told me—came to a stop and threw her arms up at Franky, demanding a hug.
“How long you plan on being here?” Joe griped as he caught up to us in the entryway. He rubbed the hip he’d knocked into the wall when Sarah had zipped by him.
Franky chuckled, ending his hug with Sarah. “Don’t worry, not long enough to ruin your marriage.”
“She loves me more than you, you know?” he muttered, as if we all couldn’t hear.
“Oh,” Franky said, playing along, “I hear she can’t even stand me.”
We all laughed, Sarah included, who then granted Joe the kiss he’d bent down for and then took over the massaging of his hip. I’d never seen Franky this easy, this playful, this…him.Whatever magic this place possessed, I wanted it to work some on me.
“Oh! You brought a friend,” Joe said, his eyes crinkling at the corners. I stepped from behind Franky and said hello, bending to accept an embrace from Sarah.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” Joe asked, tone reprimanding. “And howdareyou give me this beautiful house that I can no longer live without. It’s too late to take it back, you know?” He’d said all of this in a rush, each question flowing right into the next, the last one ended with a finger pointed at Franky. It was clear these two cared for each other, and that Joe was happy to see him.
“I don’t want the house back,” Franky said, but Joe and Sarah’s adoring expressions said that he didn’t have to. They would have given it back or welcomed him to live there with them, without question.
“So,” Joe said to Franky, getting back to the topic of me. “Is this the young man you worked so hard on that lake for?”
“Yes,” Franky answered, simply kissing the spot above my brow where it creased in confusion.
“That’s nice,” Joe said, his grin bouncing between the both of us. “Well, stay as long as you like. We’ve got plenty of room here.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Franky said. “We’ll stay in the guest house, if that’s okay with you? Better view of the lake.”
