Before the Fall

Chapter 4





“Ashley, can you come over and play?”

“I don’t know, but I could ask my mommy.”

“Will she let you?”

“She might.”

“Tell her pleeeeze, coz I’m really, really lonesome,” Bree said with a big sigh into the telephone.

“Okay, wait a minute,” Ashley responded as she set down the phone to go ask her mother.

Bree waited patiently, but when Ashley didn’t come right back, she began to doubt that her plan was going to work.

“What are you doing, Squirt?”

Bree jumped and almost dropped the phone. She turned to face her father. “Um…”

“Squirt!” Brian said making his displeasure clear.

“I … I was talking to Ashley.”

“About what?”

“Um…”

“One more ‘um’ and you will spend the rest of the afternoon in your bedroom,” Brian warned. “Tell me the truth.”

“I asked her to come over to play,” Bree said in a very small voice.

“Did you ask me or your Daddy if that was all right?”

Bree stared at the floor, but she shook her head.

“I didn’t hear you.”

“No, Dada.”

“Then I don’t think Ashley will be coming over.”

“But…”

“Bree, Bree, are you there?” a voice called from the phone.

Bree handed the phone to her father.

“Ashley, Bree called you without permission,” Brian said into the phone.

“Oh,” Ashley replied. “My mommy said she had to speak to you or Mr. Justin before she would take me to your place. I guess I won’t be coming over, huh?”

“Not today, Ashley, but maybe later in the week,” Brian replied.

“Okay, Mr. Brian. Bye.”

“Bye, Ashley,” Brian responded before hanging the phone back on the wall. He turned to face his daughter who continued to stare at the floor, gently moving her foot back and forth over the surface of the slate beneath her. “What do you have to say for yourself, Squirt?”

Bree perked up when her father called her Squirt. That usually meant that she wasn’t in really big trouble. He would have called her Briana Victoria if that was the case.

“I wanted somebody to play with,” Bree said with her best sad face painted on.

“What about Patrick?”

“He’s getting ready to go to baseball camp.”

“You could get ready to go to soccer camp,” Brian suggested.

Bree shook her head. “I don’t have nuffin to get ready.”

“Clothes?”

Bree shook her head again. “We have to wear our soccer uniforms.”

“Oh,” Brian replied. He was fresh out of suggestions. “I should send you to your room for a couple of hours,” he added as an afterthought.

“I don’t want to go there.”

Brian stifled a chuckle and cleared his throat. “How about you come outside and help me do some weeding?”

“’Kay, Dada.”

‘That was too easy,’ Brian thought. He really should punish his precocious daughter. He started walking through the sun porch heading outside. He knew Bree was following him. “You know you need our permission to arrange play dates, don’t you, Squirt?” he asked as he stopped at the door of the sun porch.

“Yes, Dada.”

“Then why did you call Ashley without permission?”

“I don’t know.”

“I think you do know.”

Bree frowned. “I called Ashley coz there’s no girls around here to play with and Gus isn’t here yet and Patrick was busy and nobody would do nuffin with me.”

Brian sucked in his lips as he looked at his daughter standing in front of him with a severe pout on her face. “Sometimes it’s lonely here for you, isn’t it, Squirt?”

Bree looked up into her father’s kind eyes. “Yes, Dada,” she whispered.

“Just ask us first before you take matters into your own hands.”

“’Kay, Dada.”

“Come here, Squirt.” Brian squatted down and Bree ran into his waiting arms. “We love you, Bree. We want you to be happy, but there are rules to be followed.”

“I know, Dada,” Bree replied squeezing her father as hard as he was hugging her.

“You don’t have to come to garden with me if you don’t want to,” Brian whispered in her ear.

“I want to Dada,” Bree said kissing her father’s cheek. “I love gar-gar.”

“So do I,” Brian said as he stood up and took Bree’s hand. “Let’s go get those wascally weeds, and I’ll tell you all about a new business I’m thinking of starting.”

“’Kay, Dada,” Bree said happily. If she couldn’t play with Ashley, gar-gar with her Dada was the next best thing.



*****



When Justin arrived home from an art supply run to Harrisburg, he found his husband and his daughter digging in the garden.

“What are you two up to?” he called to them.

“Nothing.”

“Nuffin,” came the replies.

Justin shook his head. Sometimes those two were too much alike. “Come in here and have some cookies and milk with me.”

“Yay! Cookies!” Bree yelled standing up and wiping her dirty hands down the sides of her pink pants.

Justin groaned at the sight, but couldn’t help but chuckle when Brian stood up and did the same thing. He gave Justin an evil grin. They really were a pair.

“Get in here before you make more of a mess than you already have,” Justin said shaking his head at his very bad husband.

Brian crossed the yard and reached Justin first, giving his husband a warm kiss. “Gar-gar dirt is the best,” he said with a smirk.

“Yeah, the best,” Bree added. She stood on tiptoes to give her father a kiss too.

“You two haven’t gardened together in quite a while,” Justin observed as they headed for the kitchen and the cookies he had bought at the bakery in Harrisburg.

“It’s been too long, hasn’t it, Squirt?” Brian asked.

“Yeah, too long.”

“Go get cleaned up, Bree,” Justin advised. “What brought on the gardening spree?” he asked as Bree ran to her room to wash up.

“Our daughter gets lonesome sometimes.”

“Wha…what? Lonesome?” Justin asked with a frown.

“She really wants a girl around here.”

“But…”

“I’m not suggesting another child. I’m just stating a fact,” Brian said quickly. “I think Bree needs to do more things with us, or we need to get her those piano lessons … or something.”

“Okay,” Justin said uncertainly. “Let’s really start looking for a piano and the person who can teach her.”

Brian nodded before going to wash up too.



*****



“Jackie, is that you?” Claire asked from the vicinity of her kitchen sink.

“It’s me, Mother. Were you expecting your other son?” John joked.

“Not today. He seems to know when you’re about to visit so he hides. I think he’s intimidated by you,” Claire replied, not skipping a beat.

“And why would he be scared?” John asked as he snuck a homemade cookie out of the cookie jar then kissed his mother’s cheek.

“Because you always steal his cookies.”

“That’s not me,” John said as he took a large bite then stole another. “That’s your husband.”

“Ah, well that explains it,” Claire said as she shook her head then got John a small dish for the purloined cookies. She then got him a tall glass of milk.

“Thank you,” John mumbled with his mouth full.

“Now that we have your identity established, what brings you by today? Not that I’m complaining, mind you, I love it when you visit. I miss not having you and Bobby nearby.”

“You just miss me working on the house and around the farm.”

“And you just miss my cookies.”

“Mom.”

“I give as I get and you’re avoiding my question.” John sighed. “Jackie, what is it? You know you can tell me anything.”

“I know, Mom. For as long as I can remember, it’s always been you and me. I just don’t know how to tell you.”

“Does this have something to do with Samantha Howard?” John nodded. Claire studied her son’s face. “Did she tell you that her daughter was yours?” John stopped in mid chew to look at his mother.

“Jackie,” Claire began as she sat in the chair next to her son. She gently removed the cookie out of John’s hand and placed it back on the plate. “Sweetheart, I knew that baby couldn’t be yours.”

John swallowed hard. “How?”

“Timing and I saw pictures of the baby. Back then, Samantha’s parents were very proud of their married daughter and their new granddaughter.”

“Mom, it wasn’t the dark ages; it was the eighties,” John stated knowing why his mother emphasized the word married.

“Jackie, the eighties in a small town where everyone knows where everyone’s dirty laundry is kept. I was an unmarried mother with a teenaged son. It didn’t matter what decade it was.”

“But how did you know that I wasn’t the father?”

“Because I recognized a premature baby when I saw one. Remember I used to earn extra money helping old Doc Adams with his rounds. I saw lots of preemies born to some of the indigent farmers.”

“I remember. As bad as we sometimes had it, they had it worse.”

“That’s why Steve would hire as many as he could during planting and harvesting seasons. Jackie, if Grace was yours, I would have welcomed her with open arms, but she’s not. It might have been wishful thinking on Samantha’s part. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wanted that baby to be yours. I remember hearing that she had a rough pregnancy. Her mother couldn’t afford to fly to California to be with Samantha. And Samantha was young. Young women sometimes have a difficult time.”

“I’m sorry,” John said with tears in his eyes. He slid off his chair, kneeling on the floor in front of Claire. John buried his head in his mother’s lap.

“Jackie, you have nothing to be sorry about,” she said as she gently stroked her son’s hair. “You’ve always been very responsible.”

“Mom, you don’t understand. I think I may have wanted a daughter.”

“Oh honey.” Claire hugged her son as he sniffled into her apron. “You and Bobby have a beautiful child. You can still have another child.”

“I’m fifty-three years old,” John informed his mother as he sat back on his chair.

“So. You’re a young fifty-three and Bobby’s only forty-six. You can adopt or find a surrogate.”

“No thank you, I barely have the energy to keep up with the two of them as it is. Throw the princess into the mix and I’m exhausted. I have no clue how Brian and Justin keep up with her.”

“Vitamins.”

“What?”

“Vitamins. I asked Justin one day when Bree was having one of her more precocious moments. He admitted that he took vitamins and got Brian to take them too. Stress can deplete you.”

“Hmm, so I’ve heard.”

“And you’ve been extremely stressed lately.”

“Yeah. I got the definitive results about Grace the day of the PRIDE parade.”

“But that was only a week ago. Jackie, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I didn’t want you to worry unnecessarily. I was worrying enough for everyone.”

“Bet Brian was ready to do battle,” Claire commented making John laugh.

“Yeah, he was ready to take on the world on my behalf. As it was he had a little fun with Samantha.”

“Oh don’t tell me.”

“Yup, he pulled the ‘I look enough like John to fool people’ routine. Had the poor woman going for a while until we rescued her. But it’s all over. Samantha has her proof and so do I. Although sometimes I wish...”

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”

“Yeah, and be careful what you wish for. I know, Mom.”

“Have you considered adopting an older child like Emmett and Drew have?”

“Not really, but maybe I should discuss it with Bobby. I know Bree would love to have another little girl around the cottage. There are far too many boys in her life.”

“Maybe you should suggest it to Brian and Justin,” Claire said with a twinkle in her eye.

“For a Christian woman, you have a lot of the devil in you.”

“I learned it from my son.”

“Your other son you mean, the one who’s afraid I’ll steal all the cookies,” John said as he popped a whole cookie into his mouth.

“How’s your thesis coming along?” Claire asked as she got her son more milk.

“It’s coming along nicely. If I’m lucky I get to defend it in November. If it’s accepted, I’ll be Doctor John by Christmas.”

“Oh Jackie!” Claire threw her arms around him. “I’m so proud of you,” she said as she kissed his cheeks. “I wish Patience and Aidan were still alive. They’d be so proud of you.”

“You’ll just have to be proud enough for them too. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being the best mother a guy could ever have.”

“I’ll always be there for you, you know that.”

“I know.”

Mother and son shared a few more hugs and kisses.

“Here, take these home before my other son eats them all,” Claire teased as she emptied the contents of the cookie jar into a large plastic bag then handed them to John.

“Thank you, they won’t go to waste,” John assured Claire.

Before he left, John slowly walked out of the kitchen through the dining room into the living room. He looked around his childhood home. Some things hadn’t changed.

“Grandma’s vase,” he murmured as he gently touched the colorful vase on the mantel.

“She loved it,” Claire mentioned.

“Grandpa Aidan’s old pipe. Grandma hated when he smoked.”

“I know. Aidan would go hide in the barn to smoke it, but of course Patience could smell the tobacco.”

“I think I remember that,” John said with a thoughtful smile.

“Mom, what’s under here?” John asked. There was what looked like some sort of sideboard pushed into the far corner of the room. It was covered by an embroidered cloth. “This has been in this corner forever.”

“That’s Aidan’s old upright.”

“A what?”

“You don’t remember, do you? Aidan played the piano. Not very well but he tried. But then as he grew older his arthritis prevented him from playing. Patience had embroidered this coverlet and it’s been in that corner ever since.”

“Why don’t I remember it?”

“You never showed any interest in music other than listening to heavy metal, and you were busy on the farm and at school. Once a month I’d wash the coverlet then put it back. You were probably in school at the time and never noticed what was under it.”

“I guess I thought it was just another sideboard. It never occurred to me to look underneath. You know Bree really wants a regular piano. That little pink thing went over like a lead balloon.”

“It’ll need a major cleaning and tuning but I can’t think of anyone more deserving. And I think Aidan would approve.”

“I’ll talk to Brian. Maybe we can surprise Bree on July 4th. She can entertain the family.”

“She’d love that.”

“Yes she would. And I love you,” John said as he planted one last kiss on his mother’s cheek. “Much more than your other son does,” John teased.

“Oh you,” Claire said as she waved a dish towel at her son. “Out. Now. Before I sic my other son on you.” John laughed as he took his cookies and ran out the door.



*****



“Hey,” Gus called as he walked into the loft with their dinner.

“Hi. Mmm, that smells good,” Ray said as he sniffed the air.

“Yeah, Emm outdid himself.”

“I thought you were going to the diner,” Ray said as he got out the dishes and utensils while Gus unpacked their food.

“I was then I thought I had a few extra bucks in my pocket, why not spend it on something more than diner food. Although, Lacy has really improved the food. I was just in the mood for something more creative so I went to the bistro.”

“Whatever the reason, this is really good,” Ray said as he bit into something unidentifiable but scrumptious. “Gus, when do we go to the cottage?”

“I was thinking we’d go up next week before Pop has his 4th of July bash.”

“Didn’t we just have a Memorial Day bash?”

“Seems like it. But knowing Pop, he’ll have another barbecue.”

“You mean, knowing Justin and Emmett, your dad will have another barbecue.”

“Yeah, that too,” Gus said. The boys laughed then resumed their meal.