Miracles Retold (7 page)

“I’m fine!” Grace grasped
Lon’s hand. “Lon, at the dog park, I found one of my nieces. She
lives right here. You have a cousin! Right here in
town!”

“What?”

“She’s married and has a
daughter and the nicest retriever. I got her phone number. This is
the best day!”

Lon didn’t know what to do
or say, so he just hugged Grace. Benji walked over and nudged his
way in between them. Grace laughed.

Lon looked at his mother
and shook his head. “I didn’t know you could smile so
big.”

As his family chattered
about his new-found cousin, Lon scratched at his stubble.
Good things come in threes,
he thought.
And, apparently, so can
miracles
.

- - - - -

Over the next two hours,
Annie, Grace, and the kids worked to find out if Benji was a
missing dog. They took Benji to their vet to have him scanned for a
microchip implant, but he didn’t have one. Hannah designed flyers
on the laptop, printed them out and went with Annie and Ryder to
area shopping centers, dog grooming shops and busy intersections to
post the flyers. Grace called the local animal shelter to see if
anyone was looking for a dog that fit Benji’s description. Then she
checked pet-finding sites online.

When Annie finally looked
at the clock, she realized they had worked through lunch time, and
everyone was hungry. She drafted the kids to help make sandwiches
for everyone. Hannah wanted to eat outside, so in the spirit of
letting the kids decide what to do that day, Annie led the family
to the patio. Angel watched them from a window.

“What’s next?” Annie
asked.

Her family looked at her
with blank expressions.

“Don’t you have something
you need to do?” Hannah asked.

“Well, I still haven’t sent
out holiday cards,” Annie said. “But I’d much rather spend the day
with you. Whatever gets left unfinished, well, it just will not be
done.”

“Did you know you can send
Christmas cards right from a website?” Grace asked.

“Ooh, Mom, I can design a
card online,” Hannah said. “I love doing stuff like
that.”

Annie raised her eyebrows.
“Well, you did a great job with Benji’s flyers,” Annie said. “Sure,
go ahead. You take care of that, and I’ll sneak off and do
something fun for a change.”

“Not without me?” Hannah
asked.

“Let’s go to the skate
park,” Ryder said.

“I want to go to the bounce
house place,” Carter said.

“Skate park, skate park,
skate park!” Ryder chanted.

“Ice skating at the arena,”
Hannah said, looking at her brothers.

“You guys have it all
wrong,” Lon teased. “Clearly, on a day like today, we should be out
fishing.”

Grace waved her hand. “I
saw on the news about a festival, the Winter on the River. There’s
a carnival, then at night a lighted boat parade.”

“Oh,” Annie said, “we went
a few times. Remember, Lon, you won Hannah that stuffed wiener dog
at a game? And Ryder rode his first roller coaster
there.”

Carter raised his hand.
“Did I go?”

“Yes,” Annie said. “But you
were really little and couldn’t do much. I think you sat on my lap
and we went down the giant slide together. You also got cotton
candy all over yourself!”

Carter smiled. “Let’s go! I
want to remember it again!”

The women backed up Carter.
Lon conceded his fishing trip idea, but only if he got to pick next
time. Ryder wasn’t won over until Lon promised to take him to the
skate park the next day. So after lunch, the family got ready to
go.

The festival was busy, but
not too crowded. All the kids got wristbands that let them ride as
many rides as they wanted. Annie and Lon ran into other people they
knew. Benji, on his new leash held by Grace, seemed fine around the
groups of strange people. After the rides and games at the
carnival, the family stayed past dark to watch the boat parade.
Staking a claim on a spot along the river with portable chairs and
blankets, the family watched the boats glide past on the black
water. Each craft was decked in decorations and strings of lights.
Boat passengers waved or played music for everyone watching from
land. When the last boat had passed by, Annie looked at Carter,
resting in her lap, and saw he was asleep.

Returning home, Annie
heaved Carter’s sleep-stilled body onto his bed to take off his
shoes. When had he gotten so big and heavy? His little face looked
so peaceful that Annie didn’t want to disturb him by changing him
into pajamas. She pulled a blanket over him and kissed his
cheek.

Carter rolled his head to
the side, but didn’t open his eyes. “There are miracles,” he
mumbled.

Annie smiled and brushed
his hair off his forehead. She stared at the features she had
memorized: the shape of Carter’s eyelids, the curve of his nose,
how his upper lip swept into a bow. His features had lost their
baby-ness, and he was often more serious than a child should be,
but the cherubic aura remained in his face.

“You’re right,” she
whispered back.

Good Things

The sand was gritty and
cold as it landed on Annie’s arm.

“Carter,” she said, “I see
you’re making a fantastic tunnel under your sand castle, but can
you please toss the sand that way?”

“Sorry, Mom” Carter said,
pausing his digging with a bright orange shovel. “I did it
axeldentally
.”

“I know.” Annie grabbed
her youngest child and kissed him despite the grains of sand that
now dusted him from head to toe. She gave his little shoulder a
squeeze when she remembered how she had almost lost him. Just
thinking about the frightening search for Carter almost made her
heart stop again. Annie took a breath and eased back onto the beach
blanket next to Grace in a beach chair, and told her mind to turn
off all negative thoughts. It was Christmas. And her family was on
the beach on a sunny, crisp day with three new family
members
—
and two
dogs.

Annie watched Lon and Ryder
playing some form of football with Lisa’s husband, Carlos. Then she
squinted to look for Hannah, who was slowly walking the shoreline
with Maia. Benji padded alongside the girls.

“Hannah and Maia have
become fast friends. That was so nice of Maia to invite Hannah to
go to the concert with her
—
she was so excited, especially after worrying
that she and her childhood friends are drifting apart. Mom, tell me
again,” Annie said, turning to Grace, “Lon and Lisa are first
cousins, right? So what are the children?”

“First cousins once
removed,” Grace said.

“It would be great if you
could write down a simple family tree,” Lisa said. She was sitting
on Grace’s other side. “It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just
so we can fill in the blanks.”

“Well, sure. I’ll do my
best to remember,” Grace said. “What I can’t write down, I guess we
can look up online. There’s probably a YouTube tutorial for
that.”

Lon flopped down on the
sand next to Annie. “Hit me with another piece of pecan pie,” he
said. “It’s a holiday; I can indulge.”

“That’s the idea,” Annie
said, reaching into the cooler.

“Oh, can I have some
cheese?” Ryder asked.

“I want some too,” Carter
said.

“I could go for another
sandwich,” Carlos said.

“As long as we’re digging
through the cooler,” Grace said, “I’d love another
drink.”

“Me too,” Annie and Lisa
said at the same time.

After getting out more food
and drinks, Annie said, “This was a great idea you had to come to
the beach today, Lon. This is such a perfect Christmas: a wonderful
church service last night, watching the kids get excited over
presents this morning, and relaxing on the beach the rest of the
day.”

“With my long-lost cousin!”
Lon interjected. “Thank you, Lisa and Carlos, for joining
us.”

“Thanks for inviting us,”
Carlos said.

“And Mom,” Annie continued,
“none of this would have happened if you hadn’t made friends with
Benji.”

Grace looked down, then out
to the gulf. “And that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t had a
stroke,” she said. “So I suppose something good has come out of
something bad.” Everyone was quiet for a moment.

Then Annie said, “I don’t
know why we don’t come to the beach once a week.” She looked at
Lon. “We wouldn’t even have to load up the cooler with a lot of
food.”

“But we could!” Grace
said.

“Yeah!” said
Ryder.

Benji bounded into the
group and trotted up to Grace. Hannah and Maia weren’t far
behind.

“And here’s my little
hero,” Grace said. “Did you smell food?” She rubbed Benji behind
his ears. “I don’t know if we will get to keep you or if someone
will claim you, but you’re with us for now.”

“He has to be ours by now,”
Carter said.

Not to be left out, Lola
sat up. She had been sleeping next to Lisa. Maia scratched Lola’s
chin, and Lisa gave her a treat.

“Do you think the dogs know
how to play fetch?” Hannah asked.

All the kids ran off to try
to find out.

Lon put his arm around
Annie. “This is the best Christmas our family has had,” he said in
her ear. “We needed this, to slow down and relax. You’re right, we
should come back to the beach more often. After all, it’s where our
family started, when I asked you to marry me on the beach. Good
things happen on the beach. You and me, our family Christmas, and
this.”

Lon pulled Annie’s missing
engagement and wedding rings out of his pocket and put them on
Annie’s finger next to her grandmother’s sapphire.

Annie gasped. She shook a
little. Then her eyes started to tear up. She opened her mouth but
couldn’t speak. She looked from Lon to the rings and back
again.

“Ryder found them in the
attic hidden inside an old toy, when we were putting up the
lights,” Lon said. “We wanted to keep it a surprise for
you.”

All Annie could do was nod
and wipe away tears.

“Who knows what other good
things will come when we make time to spend together?” Lon
said.

Annie kissed Lon and
nuzzled into his neck. “Let’s find out.”