“It’s okay, Mom. I’ve waited this long. One more day isn’t going to matter.”

She wiped her hands on a towel and smiled at me. “Do you want anything else to eat?”

“No. I’m full. Thanks.”

“I’m going to make you a haircut and dentist appointment.” My mom turned off the stove and left to make the calls.

“So do you have a job or what?” I asked Ben. “It’s the middle of the day.”

“I’m in college. It’s winter break.”

“You went to college? Where?”

“University of Iowa. I’m a sophomore. You gotta come visit me. What about you? What are you gonna do?”

“I promised Anna I’d get my GED. After that I have no idea.”

“You gonna keep seeing her?”

“Yeah. I miss her already. I’ve been waking up next to her for three-and-a-half years.”

“Dude, if I ask you another question will you please not punch me?”

“Depends what it is.”

“What’s it like being with her? Is it true what they say about older chicks?”

“She’s not that much older.”

“Uh, okay. So anyway, how is it?”

“It’s incredible.”

“What’s she do?”

“She does everything, Ben.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 49 – Anna

My hairdresser, Joanne, walked into Sarah’s living room.

“There are reporters downstairs,” she said. “I think they took my picture.” She shrugged off her coat and hugged me. “Welcome home, Anna. Stories like yours are why I believe in miracles.”

“Me too, Joanne.”

“Where do you want to cut her hair?” Sarah asked.

I had already taken a shower and my hair was still wet so Joanne had me sit on a stool in Sarah’s kitchen.

“What happened here?” she asked, examining the ends of my hair.

“T.J. had to burn it off when it got too long.”

“You’re kidding,”

“No. He worried he was going to set my whole head on fire.”

“How much do you want me to cut?”

My hair hung to the middle of my back. “A few inches. And maybe some long bangs?”

“Sure.”

Joanne asked me questions about the island. I told her and Sarah about the bat that had been stuck in my hair.

“It bit you?” Sarah looked horrified. “And T.J. stabbed it?”

“Yes. Everything turned out okay, though. It didn’t have rabies.”

Joanne dried my hair and smoothed it with a flat iron. She held up a hand mirror and I checked out my reflection. My hair looked healthy now, with smooth ends.

“Wow. That’s a big improvement.”

Sarah tried to pay, but Joanne wouldn’t accept any money. I thanked her for coming to the apartment.

“It’s the least I could do, Anna.” She hugged and kissed me. After she left I said to Sarah, “If we can get out the door without being mobbed, there’s someplace I really want to go.”

“Sure,” Sarah said. “I’ll call a cab.”

The reporters screamed my name as soon as Sarah and I opened the door. They were waiting on the steps and we pushed past them and slid into the waiting cab.

“I wish your building had a back door,” I said.

“They’d probably be out there, too. Fucking vultures,” Sarah muttered.

Sarah gave the driver an address and soon we drove through the entrance of Graceland Cemetery.

“Can you please wait?” Sarah asked the cabdriver.

A few snowflakes swirled in the gray sky. I shivered but Sarah seemed oblivious to the cold, not even bothering to button her coat. She led me to the grave where our parents, Josephine and George Emerson, lay side-by-side.

I knelt in front of the headstone and traced their names with my finger. “I made it back,” I whispered. Sarah handed me a tissue, and I wiped the tears pouring from my eyes.

I pictured my dad in his silly bucket hat covered with fishing lures, teaching me how to clean fish. I remembered how he loved to fill his hummingbird feeder and watch the tiny creatures zoom in for a drink, hovering in mid-air. I thought of my mom, and how much she loved her garden and her home and her grandchildren. Sharing my adventures in the classroom with her over Sunday morning brunch wouldn’t happen now. She would never be able to give me advice, and I’d never hear either of my parents’ voices again. I bawled, letting it all out. Sarah waited patiently, giving me time for the catharsis I desperately needed. My tears finally tapered off, and I stood up.

“We can go now.”

Sarah put her arm around me and we got back in the cab. She gave the driver another address and we went to David’s parents’ house to pick up the kids.

Joe and Chloe stopped playing when we walked into the room. I probably seemed like a ghost to them. Sarah had kept my memory alive but the aunt they thought was dead was now standing in the living room. I knelt down next to them and said softly, “Boy did I miss you guys.”

Joe came over first. I hugged him tight. “Let me look at you,” I said, holding him at arm’s length.

“I’m losing all my teeth,” he said. He opened his mouth and showed me the gaps.

“You must be keeping the tooth fairy pretty busy.”

Chloe, slowly warming to her long-lost aunt, ventured a little closer and whispered, “I’ve lost some, too.” She opened her mouth wide so I could see her gaps.

“Geez, your mom must have to put all your food through a blender. You guys are toothless.”

“Aunt Anna, are you gonna live at our house now?” Chloe asked.

“For a while.”

“Will you tuck me into bed tonight?” she asked.

“No, I want her to tuck me into bed tonight,” Joe argued.

“How about I tuck you both into bed tonight?” I hugged them to my chest, fighting the tears.

“Are you guys ready to go home?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah!”

“Then kiss grandma and let’s go.”

Later that night, after I put both kids to bed, Sarah poured us a glass of red wine. Her cell phone rang and she handed it to me.

“Hey. How are you?” T.J. asked.

“I’m okay. Sarah and I went to the cemetery today.”

“Was it hard?”

“Yes. I really wanted to go, though. I feel a little better now, after visiting their graves. I’ll go back again. What did you do today?”

“I got a haircut. You might not recognize me.”

“I’m going to miss that ponytail.”

T.J. laughed. “I’m not.”

“I just put the kids to bed. It took two hours because I read them every book they own. Sarah just poured us some wine and Stefani’s coming over. What about you? Any plans?”

“I’m going out with Ben if we can shake the reporters.”

“How is Ben?”

“Still running his mouth.”

“Have you been to the doctor yet?”

“I go tomorrow.”

“I hope the appointment goes okay.”

“It’ll be fine. Have you gone yet?”

“Tomorrow. Then the dentist in the afternoon.”

“Me too. Remember when I took my braces off?”

“I forgot about that.”

“I’ll see you on New Year’s Eve, Anna. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Have fun tonight.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 50 – T.J.

I opened the door when Ben knocked. His eye had swollen shut and turned purple and blue.

“Shit. Sorry about that,” I said.

“Eh, no biggie. You’re lucky I’m so easy-going,” he said.

“Frankly, that’s your best quality.”

“A bunch of guys from school are home for Christmas break. You up for a party?”

“Sure. Where?”

“Coop’s. His parents left for the Bahamas this morning.”

I grabbed my coat. “Let’s go.”

At least twenty of my former classmates were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in Nate Cooper’s living room when we showed up. Rock music blasted from the stereo. Everyone cheered when we walked in the door and a bunch of guys shook my hand and slapped me on the back. I hadn’t seen some of them since before I’d started treatment for Hodgkin’s because I missed so much school that year. It was weird when I realized everyone had graduated but me.