Sue didn’t look any different to me at all, except that her hair was now a soft silver, and maybe she was a little more supple and fuller figured.
“Well.” Sue’s voice was husky, and tears filled her kind eyes. “You turned out to be quite the handsome man. Not that I’m surprised.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek and let me go.
No sooner had Sue released me than Chuck stepped up and grasped my hand. “Good to have you home, son. Quite a blessing.” Chuck had aged drastically since I had last seenhim. He had always been a thin man, but now he was bordering on skeletal. With the exception of a few long wisps of hair on the very top of his head, he was bald now, and his wrinkled skin hung loose around his face. His green eyes that matched his youngest daughter’s, however, still sparkled as much as they ever had.
“Now, you guys. Let the poor boy breathe. He barely got here more than a minute ago, and we haven’t let him have so much as a second to reground himself.” A tall pretty brunette gently pushed past Chuck and laid her hand on my cheek as she looked down to smile at me. “Brooke, how I’ve missed you.”
“Hi, Della.” I smiled back at her. “I’ve missed you too.” Delphina, Donnie’s twin sister, had always been one of my favorite people. She was pretty in an earthy, motherly kind of way, much different than her younger sister. She and Donnie were about as different as twins could be. Their only real similarities were their height and their black eyes. Della had always been an old soul. Even as a child, she’d been calm and serene, and even though she was the same age as Donnie, she, like Sue, had felt like a mother figure to me.
“Now,” Della continued, “if you can stand it, there are four other people you must meet before you can sit down and breathe.”
I nodded at her. “Okay.”
She motioned over to the kitchen table, and for the first time, I realized there was a man there. “That is Nolan Ash, my husband.” She looked back at me and winked. “Which makes me Della Ash now.”
Nolan was a mountain of a man, at least six five, and looked like he was the entire defensive line all rolledinto one. He gave a small smile and slightly nodded in my direction.
In a mock whisper, Della glanced back at me. “He’s even more quiet than Dad is, believe it or not.” Nolan’s cheeks flushed slightly. “And that beauty on his lap is our youngest daughter, Savannah. She just turned one. She’s been in a mood all day. Be glad she’s sleeping at the moment.”
Holding a small girl, Zephyra waltzed over beside Della. “And this little thing is Willow.”
The little girl’s face was framed with blond ringlets. She smiled a gapped-tooth smile at me and held up her hand, all five fingers extended. “Hi, Cousin Brooklyn. I’m five years old. I’m gonna be an actress when I grow up.”
Della looked over at me. “We’re going to need your prayers with this one. She’s the spittin’ likeness of Zephyra. Lord help us.” She chuckled and then raised her voice. “Blaire! Blaire, can you come in here a minute?”
After a few seconds, a thin, lanky little girl came through the kitchen door, holding a puppy.
“Blaire, I’d like you to meet your cousin Brooke. Can you tell him hi?” Della smiled at her daughter and stroked the back of her hair.
The little girl looked up at me with wide brown eyes. “Hi.”
I squatted down to be more on her level. “Hi, Blaire. It’s great to meet you. How old are you?”
“Seven.” Her cheeks flushed. She seemed to have inherited her daddy’s disposition.
“Wow, you’re tall for seven. I’m jealous!” I smiled at her again, trying to not scare her. “Who’s your little friendthere?”
She held the puppy out so I could pat his head. “This is Duncan. He’s a corgi. He’s only ten weeks old. I got him yesterday.”
“Well, Blaire, he is the cutest dog I think I’ve ever seen. I love his big pointy ears.” I stood back up after petting Duncan again. “Wow, Della, your daughters are beautiful. I can’t believe it. I’ve missed so much.”
“You’re here now. That’s all that matters.” Della gave me a quick hug and then stepped away.
Soon after, we were all sitting around the table eating homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits. Everyone fell silent as the meal began, for which I was thankful. My mind was reeling with all that had changed. I found myself wishing once again that I had been born into this family, and wondering how my life would have been different.
Sue’s older brother, Rob, had married my mom right out of high school. After several years of unsuccessfully trying to convince him to have a child, my mom went off of birth control without telling him. When she told him she was pregnant, he demanded she get an abortion. In Sue’s version, my mom loved me too much to have me aborted, so she refused to do what my dad told her to do. Knowing my mom as I do, I’m sure the real reason was that she refused to do anything someone told her to do unless it was her idea first. All Mom got for her stubbornness was a husband who left in the middle of the night and never contacted anyone again, and a child she resented.
Sue always seemed to feel somewhat guilty for her brother’s actions. He had been a troublemaker when he was growing up, always getting into one scrape or another,even getting in trouble with the law on a few occasions. Their mother and father always remedied the situation, saying that he was just being a boy, and he would grow out of it. He never did. Grandma and Grandpa had been more than willing to accept me as the replacement for their lost son.
Like my mother’s obsession for New York, Sue was fascinated by Greek and Roman mythology, an interest that was not seen as very appropriate by the older church folk of the town. She picked names directly from Greek mythology or ones she felt were worthy of Greek gods and goddesses for her children. Their first child, Xanthus, died in his sleep at only a few months old. Some of the people in the church said it was because Sue had picked such a blasphemous name. Sue, confident in her faith in God, refused to accept that God would kill her child because of his name. To show her faith, she continued the name trend with the rest of her children. Even as little kids, Dionysus and Delphina both hated their given names and would only respond to their nicknames. Only Zephyra relished her name. She refused to let anyone shorten it or call her anything else. Sure enough, the rest of Sue’s children had lived and were Sue’s validation that she had not caused her eldest son’s death. I think, in some way, having me around helped replace the loss of her son and her brother.
My mouth was full of mashed potatoes when Zephyra squeezed my leg under the table. “Well, Brooklyn, I know Donnie has got to spend time with you and catch up, but that isn’t really fair for the rest of us. You know how Donnie is—‘If it ain’t my story to tell, it ain’t right that I tell it.’” Her accurate imitation of Donnie’s slow drawl earned her a biscuit smacking her on her check.She yelped in vivacious delight, picked the biscuit up off the table, and threw it back at Donnie.
He was about to throw it back when Sue interrupted. “Come on, you two, behave, at least when we have guests.”
Donnie winked at her. “Mom, Brooke’s not a guest. He’s family.” Without looking away from his mom, he flicked his wrist, and the biscuit smacked Zephyra square on the forehead, this time crumbling into pieces over her plate.
“Not fair, Donnie! I wasn’t ready!” Zephyra leaned forward to grab another biscuit off the platter, when Della reached over and lifted the biscuits off the table and began passing them around the table in a show of offering them to everyone.
