Previously Loved Treasures (Serendipity #2)(23)

“So where is your young man?” Laricka asked.

“Oh, we’ve parted ways.”

Laricka’s eyes grew round and big. “After living together?”

Caroline nodded, but before she was forced to explain her grandma came to the rescue.

“Enough about him,” Ida said. “Did you know Caroline is writing a novel?”

Doctor Payne raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Now, that really is impressive.”

“I like novels,” Harriet volunteered. “Mostly detective stories and trashy stuff.”

“I doubt that you’d like mine.” Caroline laughed. “It’s a love story.”

“Love story?” Max echoed. “Well, if you need any help with research—”

Ida looked across with a frown that silenced anything else Max had in mind.

~

After lunch they all settled in the parlor. For Caroline it would have been the living room, but for Ida it always was and always would be the parlor. “Sit here,” she said, guiding Caroline to the high-backed leather chair. “It used to be your granddaddy’s favorite spot. He’d sit there to read the evening paper, and before he was halfway through he’d fall fast asleep.”

“I know the feeling.” Wilbur laughed.

One story led to another; then mid-way through the afternoon Ida disappeared up the stairs and returned with a stack of family albums. Page by page Caroline saw her daddy change from a baby to a child and ultimately to a young man. He was not yet twenty when the last picture was taken, younger than her by nearly a decade. In that picture there was no brimmed hat. His face was bathed in sunlight and his smile bright, eager looking almost. It was the same person but not the daddy she had known. There was no anger, no bitterness.

Caroline studied the picture and wondered what had changed him. Was it her? Was he simply not ready to be a father? She could still hear Joelle’s voice telling of the good times they’d had in their early years together. What changed?

Caroline looked up at Ida. “I know it’s asking a lot, but I would love to have this picture.”

“It’s yours.” Ida pulled the picture from its corner mounts and handed it to her.

“Thank you, Grandma.” The word fell from Caroline’s lips easily, not at all forced or awkward as she thought it might be.





Caroline





Looking at those pictures was fun, in a strange sort of way. It was like a story of the world before I was born. In the picture of Daddy’s christening Grandma looks younger than me, and Big Jim has a puffed out chest like he’s the proudest man on earth. You could sense how in love they were and how much they loved that baby. Looking at the picture made me feel sort of sad. Not sad they were happy, just sad I wasn’t part of those good times.

I don’t remember one day of Mama and Daddy being happy together. I’m sure there was a time when they were happy and in love, but somewhere along the line whatever love they had fell by the wayside and meanness slipped through the door. I can’t say who was at fault, and the sorry thing is I doubt either of them could either.

Seeing Daddy smiling as he did in those pictures makes me think he wasn’t at all the way I remember. In Grandma’s photographs he looked like life was a party and he was going to be the first one there. I wish I could have known him back then. The only time I remember Daddy being real happy was the day he left. He was wearing a big smile when he turned around and waved to me one last time. After that he just kept walking.

Mama started crying before Daddy was out the door, and she kept right on crying ’till the day she died. Whatever happiness Mama once had most likely left town with Daddy. Being she was so crazy in love with him, I’ve got to believe they met when he was that happy-go-lucky guy in Grandma’s pictures.

I think back on all those years when it was just me and Mama, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe she was once a smiling-faced, happy-go-lucky person too.

I don’t know much about Daddy because he was gone for most of my life. But the saddest part is I never got to know much about Mama either, because after Daddy left she closed up like a clam and quit living.





Settling in…





It was after six o’clock when they closed the last picture album and Caroline heaved a great sigh. For as far back as she could remember her daddy had been little more than a shadowy figure in the background of life, a tall man with a brimmed hat that shaded his eyes. But as Ida moved through the pictures and retold stories of James in his youth, he became flesh and blood. In her mind’s eye Caroline could see him young, vigorous, and driven by wanderlust.

“James always wanted to travel,” Ida said. “He made a list of places he was one day gonna see.”

“What places?” Caroline asked.

“Australia was one of them. He used to say it was a wide-open land made for adventurers like him.” Ida gave a soft chuckle. “Of course, he said the same thing about China and Paris, France.”

“Did he ever go?”

Ida shrugged. “I hope so. I’d hate to think he had all those dreams and didn’t chase after any of them.”

“Mama told me when Daddy left he was headed to Mexico.”

“So I’ve heard,” Ida answered. She tried to remember if Mexico was one of the places James planned to visit. She could picture the list but it was blurry in spots, vague and unyielding.