Far Country (35 page)

           
Steve nodded to Richard and turned grateful eyes on his pastor.  “Thanks,”
he said simply, and quietly followed Richard back to the dining room. Steve
looked around the room. Bowls of half eaten ice cream lay melting in dark
puddles of hot fudge. The balloons, meant to be signs of celebration, now
appeared mocking and garish to his wounded spirit.  And Grace.  She
sat in her grandmother’s lap, still red eyed, and hiccupping, but quiet.

           
Steve sat on the chair next to her. He spoke softly. “I’m so sorry that we
scared you tonight, honey,” he apologized solemnly. “If we had known what Uncle
David had told you, we would have waited, and explained it better. I would
never want to hurt you, Gracie. Please believe me.”

           
Grace studied him through her huge gray eyes. She sniffed once and wiped her
nose on her sleeve. “Uncle David told me that my daddy was driving the car, and
he killed my mommy,” Grace told him stubbornly. “Why would my Uncle David lie
to me?”

           
Steve sighed. The nightmare of that night was never going to end, he thought
tiredly. At last he nodded. “Uncle David told you that, because that’s what he
believes,” he told Gracie.  “I was driving the car, but we had an
accident.” Steve pursed his lips and  thought for a moment. “Remember when
you played with the ball in the house last week, and you broke the window?” He
asked her.

           
Gracie hung her head and frowned. She didn’t want to be reminded. She nodded
slightly. “Gracie, when you threw the ball, did you want to break the window?
Did you do it on purpose?”  She shook her head vigorously.

           
“It was kind of like that,” he explained.  “I drove the car and we had an
accident. Your mommy and I both got hurt, but she never got better. Your Uncle
David was very mad with me, and he still hasn’t forgiven me for hurting your mommy.”

           
Gracie studied him again, and she frowned slightly. “Did you tell him you were
sorry?” She asked seriously.

           
Steve nearly laughed out loud at the childish answer to all life’s mistakes.
“Yes, I did, many times. But Uncle David is still mad at me, even today.”

           
“But if you say you’re sorry, he’s supposed to forgive you,” she protested.

           
“I wish he would someday, but hurting your mommy is a much bigger accident than
breaking a window. Uncle David is mad and sad. He’s not ready to forgive me
yet.”

           
“Gracie, I loved your mommy. We wanted to get married and have lots of
beautiful babies, just like you. I am very proud and happy to be your real
daddy, and I promise I will never do anything to hurt you.”

           
Slowly, a tiny smile tugged at the corner of the little girl’s lips. 
“You’re really my daddy?” she asked timidly.

           
“Really,” he agreed with an answering smile. Suddenly, she reached for him and
Steve gathered her into his lap, reveling in the wonder of holding his daughter
in his arms at last.

           
Steve and his mother sat at a table inside the McDonalds, watching Gracie as
she clambered through the chambers of the giant
Playland
Activity Center.

           
Lora Williams was making steady progress on the road to becoming a proud
Grandmother, but she was still trying to settle on her grandmotherly title.
Should it be a more formal title, like Nana Williams, or simply Nanny? Or,
something more southern, like Mama Lora?    She and Gracie were
making a game out of it, and tried a new title possibility at every meeting.
Gracie giggled whenever she hugged her “Granny Go-Go”, or wheedled her “Sugar
Mama” into taking her out for ice cream. Today, she was simply “
Nanaloo
”.

           
She thought that she might be kind of partial to this version, but she had
promised Gracie when they had officially met and realized the problem, that she
could make the final choice. With the child’s imagination, though, Lora
Williams suspected the game could last for a long time to come!

           
No matter, Lora was captivated by her new granddaughter, and had even gone out
and bought a digital camera and printer.  Pictures of Gracie now papered
her refrigerator. The best ones she had framed, and they had joined the other
family photos on the piano. 
            Steve’s old
toy box had been cleaned out and set up in the spare bedroom, which now sparkled
in a fresh coat of Gracie’s favorite shade of purple, eased by white eyelet
curtains and bedspread.  A couple of trips to the Toys R Us in Wilmington
had quickly overfilled the old toy box. There was no doubt that ‘Princess
Gracie’ was now in residence at the Williams’ house.

           
Steve and his mother watched contentedly as Gracie progressed through several
tubes, and waved gaily from the bubble window at the top of the slide to make
sure her audience was still watching.  Moments later her feet shot out of
the slide and she ran to the table for a drink. Steve watched his black haired
daughter adoringly.  “Can I have my hug?” He asked, holding open his arm
in invitation.

           
Gracie grinned and wrapped her small arms around his neck, planting a sticky
wet kiss on his cheek. “There!” She said, taking another gulp of her
soda.  “A hug AND a kiss, Daddy.  That will keep you happy until I
get three more slides.”

           
Steve gave a mock sigh. “I guess I’ll survive.  But if you want three more
slides, you’d better get moving. 
Gramma
wants you
home early tonight.”

           
Gracie grinned joyfully.  “Uncle David comes home tomorrow!” She
exclaimed, hopping off of Steve’s lap and dancing around the table in
anticipation.

           
Steve forced a smile and nodded. “Yep, he sure is, so you need to be rested up
and ready to celebrate!”

           
“He’s been gone for-
ev
-
er
!”
She sighed dramatically.

           
“It has been a long time,” Steve agreed. “So go slide some more already, ‘cause
we don’t have all night.”

           
Gracie raced off to the
Playland
entrance and Steve
slumped moodily back in his seat.

           
His mother watched him sympathetically. “Maybe he’s regretted everything that
happened.  Once he finds out that everyone knows what he did, he may be
relieved to have it out in the open, and ready to put it all in the past,” she
offered encouragingly.

           
I bet that the only thing he regrets is not finishing me off last summer.
Steve
thought with a grimace. He smiled at his mother though. “Yeah, mom. It could be
possible, I guess,” Steve conceded, in an attempt to reassure her, than from
any hope that David would have changed.

           
“You don’t believe that, though,” she said flatly, not fooled by his words. He
glanced at her tiredly. “He called me a murderer, mom.” Steve reminded her. “I
saw his face that day. If Pete and Chuck hadn’t held him back, he would have at
least beaten me to a pulp, and I don’t think he meant to stop with that.”

           
Lora Williams was silent for a minute, trying to reconcile Steve’s boyhood best
friend with a man that was willing to lie and hurt, possibly even kill, her
son. “That was right after Sarah had died, though, Steve,” she reminded him.
“Perhaps it was grief for her death after such a long time of suffering, and he
will be calmer now. Surely, for Gracie’s sake…” her voice trailed off
uncertainly.

           
Steve stared unseeingly at the
Playland
. “When the
Bolton’s talk to him tomorrow, they will tell him that we know how he lied to
keep us from meeting, to keep me from Sarah, and to keep me from finding out
about Gracie. They will also tell him that the papers have already been drawn
up, giving me full custody of Gracie, although she will continue to live here
for the next school year, at least.”

           
He turned his head to look at her. “Their hope is that he will see that it is
pointless to deny what he did, and that Gracie’s future has already been
settled. He will realize that we are all family now, and it is in everybody’s
interest that we all get along.” Steve took a final slurp of his milkshake and
crushed that paper cup in his hand. “Then we’ll be one big happy family again.”

           
“But that’s good, Steve,” she told him enthusiastically. “Once he knows you
have all moved on, he should realize that he needs to move on as well.”

           
Steve rolled his eyes at her determination to see a happy ending to tomorrow’s
meeting. “I don’t know mom,” he said doubtfully. “David’s been angry an awfully
long time.  It takes something really big to help you see past that much
anger, and I don’t know that he will want to let go of it.”

           
“Well, he loves Gracie, from everything I’ve heard. It won’t take him long to
realize that Gracie loves you too, and doing anything that will hurt you will
hurt her. David’s a smart boy. He’s not going to want to do anything to hurt
Gracie, surely.”

           
Steve smiled at his mother’s eternally optimistic spirit. “I wish I felt as
sure as you do,” he told her. “I’ve been praying for a change of heart for him,
but frankly, I don’t expect any miracles.”

           
Now his mother rolled her eyes.  “Ever since you fell off that cliff,
you’ve gotten big into religious nonsense,” she scolded him.

           
“That’s because when I landed, God was waiting for me,” he explained to her
patiently. “You don’t meet God every day, mom.”

           
“You don’t fall off a cliff every day, either,” she retorted. “How do you know
that it wasn’t simply a hallucination?” She challenged him. “You were down
there by yourself an awfully long time.”

           
Steve grinned. “Believe me, you know when God talks, mom. Even if you decide to
ignore Him, you know.”

           
Mrs. Williams looked uncomfortably at her watch.  “Call Gracie down, it’s
time we got her back to Lee Ann and Richard,” she announced abruptly.

           
Sighing slightly at her refusal to hear anything that had to do with God or
church, Steve walked over to the
Playland
, and peered
up into several passages before spotting Gracie near the top. He pointed at his
watch and waved for her to come down.  Gracie disappeared from the
Plexiglas window and a minute later, she shot down the spiral slide on her
belly. Steve scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder.  Grace
squealed with indignation as she hung half upside down with dangling arms on
Steve’s back.

           
“Let me down, Daddy!” She laughed, pounding his back ineffectually with her
small fists.

           
"Not until you answer me a very important question!" Steve
laughed.                   
                                   

           
Gracie paused, letting her hands hang straight down. "What question?"

           
"Do you love me, Sarah Grace?" He asked her softly.

           
"
Yeess
!"

           
Steve pulled her up and held her in his arms so he could see her red and
laughing face. "Really?" He asked her softly.

           
Grace wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Yeah," she
said with a happy smile. "I do love you, Daddy."

           
Steve hugged her in return. He couldn't believe the thrill that went through
him every time he heard her say 'Daddy'.  He doubted he'd ever get tired
of that word!

           
"I love you, too. Gracie. Don't ever forget that. I love you more than
anything in the world."

           
Gracie grinned. "I
know
that!"

           
Steve sighed and set her down on the ground. Gracie skipped back to the table
where her grandmother waited, and Steve watched her go with a worried frown.
The last few days had been almost idyllic. He couldn't help but think that David's
homecoming would ruin everything...

           
 
You don't KNOW that!

           
That was true. Richard seemed confident that, once confronted with the facts,
David would listen to reason.  With a sigh, he prayed that Richard was right,
and that David would accept that Steve was now a part of Gracie's life, and
that it was time for the two of them to make peace over Sarah's death. He
supposed
it was possible...

           
David sat at the restaurant table with Gracie, nearly asleep at this late hour,
cuddled peacefully in his lap.  His parents sat across from him, their
faces sober and pleading at the same time.  On the table, the remains of a
steak dinner marked the completion of his ‘Welcome Home’ celebration. 
Well, the celebration was over! His parents had just shared with him some
incredible news...
Steve Williams was alive! Not only alive, but back in
Jacksonville and playing the part of the proud father!