“Oh my. That’s quite a tale.” Agnes said. She had waited to look at everything until he’d told his tale. He pushed the pictures forward, and the first one was of him and Wanda Perkins standing side by side, both dressed in white. When she sucked in her breath, he thought it was because of how ill Wanda had looked.
“I was there.”
“Really?” Christopher leaned forward in excitement.
“Yes, I played the organ. Donnie, go get my big white photo album with the gold lettering.” Christopher didn’t say anything as Agnes looked through the photos and when Donnie came back, he joined them at the table, and Agnes began her own tale.
“When Wanda became sick, it was devastating to everyone in the community. Several of the ladies would make dishes and take them over to the family. Others would take Fern or Douglas for a night or two,this was before she was admitted to the hospital permanently, and especially when Wanda took a turn and her parents spent the night at the hospital with her. When Pastor Jones was called in for last rights, or whatever, since we’re not Catholic, but he came back the next day to church, and he gave the announcement that Wanda might not make it through the next couple of days. He had already talked to you and your parents. He asked for us to do a heavy prayer for Wanda and her family.” She looked at Christopher with tears in her eyes as she remembered.
“Well, you talked to the Pastor about the ‘wedding,’ and because of Wanda, we all agreed.” She pulled the photo album to her and began flipping pages. “One of the men in the audience for lack of a better word worked for the local newspaper. He did a human-interest story.” She smiled when she found what she was looking for and turned the book. Christopher leaned in and saw the same picture he’d showed Agnes in a newspaper.
“A few weeks later, you and your family had already left by then, the story was picked up by a national paper, and several people came forward to be tested for bone marrow. A donor was found, and she had the bone marrow transplant or whatever they do. She got better, and two years later they moved. Several people tried to get ahold of you, but no one knew where you’d gone.”
“Remember, I was only five, Dad was in the service, and he’d been transferred to Japan. Mom and I went with him.”
“Ah, so that explains it. Unfortunately, about two years after Wanda got better, the family moved.Donnie, could you get my address book? The red one on the desk.” She watched as Christopher read the article and when her grandson came back, she opened it and showed him. “Here it is. They moved to Oregon. Here’s their address, but unfortunately, I don’t have a phone number.”
“Wanda didn’t die?”
“Oh no,” Agnes said. “Wanda got better, and they moved away from the hustle and bustle of California. Goodness, it’s been years since I talked to her. Maybe I’ll see if she’s on Facebook.”
“I don’t think she is,” Christopher said after he wrote the address down. “I checked all social media sites and didn’t find anyone with Wanda’s name, but then again, I never knew her parents’ first names.”
“Would you like a copy of this?” Agnes asked as she touched the newspaper. “I have a copier I can make a copy and of the other article where they made a call out for bone marrow.”
“Sure,” Christopher asked, and watched as Donnie left, but returned quickly.
“So why do you want to find this family?” Donnie asked, and Christopher rubbed his face and reached into his pocket and pulled the license.
“Three weeks ago, I was engaged to be married, I live in New York City, we went to apply for our marriage license, but the clerk said I was already married. When I saw this.” He pushed it across the table to Agnes and Donnie. “I told her that I was five and the bride was three, it was all done in fun. Well, not really fun, since it was the last wish of a dying child. She informed me that it was in the system and because it was, I had to find the woman and get adivorce or an annulment. When I told that clerk that I thought she’d died, then she said I needed a copy of a death certificate.”
“Oh my. Well, when she left here, Wanda wasn’t one hundred percent, but at least ninety and she wasn’t dead. Can I see that?” She took the license, and after putting her glasses on studied it. “But you were only three and five. And Pastor Jones didn’t use your real names. How this got filed, I don’t know. Wait.” She leaned closer and snorted. “I bet I know what happened.” She straightened and passed the paper back to him.
“Pastor Jones had an overzealous clerk during this time. He was a stickler for procedure, and every ‘i’ had to be dotted and every tee crossed. He wasn’t well liked by the parishioners either. I know he was anal in passing out the Sunday service papers. If a parishioner forgot one, he’d literally hunt them down and spout off about how many trees it took to print that one flyer. Really anal. I remember during choir practice once, Pastor Jones reprimanded him about his penchant for being so uptight. He only lasted six months at the church, the Pastor went to his teachers at the seminary school to tell them about his anal retentiveness. He was there through an internship through college. Never knew what happened to him.” It took everything Christopher had not to laugh at her expression.
“I would guess that he found out about the wedding and filed the paperwork. How he had gotten the signatures of your father and her mother is a mystery.”
“I asked Dad that, he said shortly after the wedding he was getting his affairs in order at the office andpapers were shoved at him left and right to sign. It could have been mixed in with them.”
“Could be, that guy was that sneaky. That’s all I know, I wish you luck in finding your ‘wife.’” She giggled as she used air quotes. “All I can say is that your best bet would be to go to Oregon. Hopefully, you can get this sorted out, and your fiancée back home will understand.”
Christopher stood and sighed. “Unfortunately, she broke up with me when she saw this.” He waved the license. “But later that same day, I found out she’d been cheating on me for months. I’m an investigator, and my partner saw her with someone when I was working on a different case. He did some investigating of his own. When I told him the engagement was off, he asked if she’d finally come clean about her affair. I went home kicked her out of my apartment, packed a bag, and headed to Chicago to talk to my parents, then came here.”
“I’ve been in California for almost two weeks trying to find someone who remembered the Perkins family or was even around when they lived there. But I swore that I had heard Wanda had died.”
“No, when she left here she was alive and well.” Agnes actually giggled then. “The last thing she did before they got in the car to leave was she took a pizza box to the neighbor and told them it was a gift for their son. I’d heard when they opened it, they dropped the pizza box onto the boy’s mother’s brand-new snow-white carpet.” She couldn’t continue because she was giggling so much.
“Let me guess.” Christopher grinned. “A mud pie and it was full of bugs and worms?”
“Yep. I take it you got one?”
“I did.” They ended up reminiscing for a couple of hours before Christopher took his leave and went back to his hotel. He called his parents with an update, and after ordering room service and showering, he settled in for a good night’s sleep. His dreams that night were plagued with memories of his time with Wanda when they were children.
Chapter 7
“Brian Carmichael!” Brandon yelled at his eleven-year-old son as he entered the house yelling for his father at the top of his lungs and slamming the front door behind him. Not only that, but he was running like the devil himself was after him. “Just because your mother’s not here this week, that doesn’t give you the right to act like you live in the wild.”
“Dad!” Brian stopped and dropped his backpack and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. “Give me a minute.” He wheezed and Brandon and his brother-in-law, Douglas, exchanged grins.
