Sweet Reunion (10 page)

Justin held the mic up to
his mouth and opened it to speak. However, in a move that was very
uncharacteristic of him, he got too choked up to continue and had to wipe his
eyes and get his emotions under control before beginning his speech.

 “Everyone here in town
knows my father,” he began, “I don't have to tell you what it was like growing
up with him.”  Unlike the chuckles from the crowd which had punctuated Henry's
speech, Justin's words were met with a tense, uncomfortable silence.

“One night when I was 16, I
got a call from a bartender at JT's Roadhouse to come pick up my father,
because he was too far gone and he was making a scene. Believe me, it was far
from the first call like that I'd gotten.

“I drove down to pick him
up, dread knotting up my gut, and just praying that he would have passed out by
the time I got there. He was a lot easier to get into the car when he was
passed out. If he was still walking around, he usually fought me trying to take
him, and sometimes it was messy. Spilled glasses, overturned tables. And people
always glared at me, looked at me with disgust, yelled at me as if I was the
one who was doing it. I was just a kid.

“At least at 16, I had a car
to push him into and drive him home. Before that, I had to herd him the whole
mile back to our house on foot. Imagine doing that as a 10-year-old.

“And the thing was, no one
ever offered to help me. No one ever gave me a sympathetic glance, even. Every
time someone saw me with my father while he was on one of his benders, they
treated me like I had some kind of disease and it was catching. Like I was a
leper.

“Not Parker, though. That
night when I was 16, the last night I ever drove down to collect my father,
Parker was in the back room at JT's Roadhouse, discussing some city business or
something with JT, and he heard the ruckus my father was making as I tried to
get him to go with me. He was yelling at me, pushing me, and shaking me off
every time I got even a bit of a hold on him.

“And on this particular
night, he took it a step further. When I grabbed him by the upper arm one time,
he used his opposite fist to punch me right in the jaw.

“That's when Parker
intervened. He tackled my father to the ground, then pulled him up by his shirtfront,
sat him on a stool hard, and told him he better not move a muscle. He had JT
call the Sheriff to come and take him in for assault.

 “And then he leaned down
close to him, and in a low menacing voice I never heard Parker use before that
time or after it, he threatened my father. He said that if he ever so much as
thought about laying a hand on me again, he'd kill him. Parker wasn't a violent
man, but in that moment, I believed him. I could tell my father did, too, and
that he'd remember it. I could see in his eyes that fear had sobered him right
up.

“That night, after the
Sheriff drove off with my father cuffed in the back of the car, Parker put his
arm around my shoulders and said, 'Son, you're coming home with me.'  And I
did. I started working for him at the resort. I lived in his bunkhouse.

“My father never laid a hand
on me again, in fact, I never even saw him again. That's not easy in a town
this small. But I think he was avoiding me because he was so afraid of crossing
Parker.

“I'll never be able to thank
Parker Jacobs for saving me, or put into words how much it really meant to me.
He was more of a father to me, ten times more, than my own father was. I'll
miss him forever.”

Justin opened his mouth like
he might have something more to say, but then thought better of it. He replaced
the mic and walked back down the steps, tears rolling down his cheeks, but with
his head held high.

Amanda sat watching him,
empathy and compassion fighting for space in her heart with shock. She had
never heard that story, had not known that was the reason that Justin had come
to live and work at Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures.

Of course she had known
about his alcoholic father, had known that his father could get hostile and
abusive. But she had never known that her own father had gotten in a physical
altercation with the man, had even threatened him! It was so unlike Parker, it
was hard to reconcile that scene with the man that she herself had known.

But it's true that he did
have a soft spot for Justin, and he did have an overwhelming hatred for
bullies, so she supposed that it made sense. Still, it was difficult for her to
picture.

She could only imagine that
the fact that neither her father nor Justin had ever mentioned to her a
happening which was so major was a significant indicator of how deep and sacred
that event was to the both of them. It had happened, and neither of them felt
the need to tell anyone or to discuss it. It was enough that it had transpired
at all.

--- ~ ---

As the afternoon progressed,
it started to become clear that the memorial service was going to last for many
more hours, if the constant stream of people wishing to share one final memory
of Parker were to continue unchecked.

When Pastor Harrison had
slipped down to kneel beside Amanda's chair during one of the tributes, his
opinion had been – and Amanda had agreed – that Parker's wishes would have been
to give anyone who had something to say the opportunity to speak, and let the
event naturally draw itself to a close when people tired themselves out.

Geoffrey, who had been privy
to this entire conversation, leaned down to Amanda and whispered furiously, “I
don't know what you're thinking about!”

Amanda looked at him, taken
aback, and replied, in the same furious whispered tones, “What do you mean,
Geoffrey?”

He angrily looked at his
gold Rolex, “Even if every other person in this stadium has so little else of
import in their life that they can sit around here all afternoon, you knew for
a fact that I have a plane to catch. And yet you sit right here and agree to
let this drag on indefinitely?”

Amanda looked like she had
been slapped. The color drained from her face, and her eyes shimmered with
unshed tears.

“Well, if this is such an
inconvenience to you, you can certainly leave,” she said shakily.

Geoffrey shook his head in
disgust, looking again at his watch, although this time it was clearly more to
make a point than to see the time.

“Who knows how long this
whole process is going to take? I have to leave,” he said, shaking his head in
annoyance, “I'll call you tonight from Boston.”

And with that, he stood and
strode purposefully out of the stadium, not once looking behind him or making
eye contact with Amanda.

Justin, who had been seated
in the row immediately behind Amanda, four seats over, had been in a perfect
position to hear the entire conversation, and see Geoffrey leave. Before
Geoffrey had even exited the stadium door, Justin had left his seat slipped
into the one next to Amanda, taking her hand and squeezing it. He was rewarded
with a grateful smile.

The process of letting
people give voluntary tributes to Parker took, as it turned out, close to five
hours. Amanda was amazed that people sat through it – with no food, no water,
and no shade. It was an amazing tribute to the love of an entire community for
a giving and generous man.

When the sky was just
beginning to turn brilliant shades of orange and purple at its edges and the
last person had finally spoken, Pastor Harrison called Amanda up to close the
service. She took a deep breath and walked up to the podium, knees shaking.

She took the mic and said,
“Hi, everybody, and thank you so much for coming. Thank you to the people who
saw my father everyday living here in town, and thank you to those who hadn't
seen my father in years and traveled great distances to say goodbye to him. I
know he held each and every one of you in his heart.

“A lot has been said here
today about how great my father was, how much he loved my mom and me, how much
he loved this town and how much he gave to it. I think merely the fact that so
many of you had such wonderful things to say about him – and that so many of
you have patiently waited the many hours that it took for all of those things
to be said – is the best illustration of that greatness that there is.

“But, when it comes to me, I
was his daughter. To listen to the things said here today, you'd think he was
perfect, and I'm glad that to many of you he was. But to me...I grew up with
him. As an adult, I saw him every day because I worked in the family business.
I probably knew him better than anyone else, warts and all.”

She smiled, “Yes, he did
have flaws. For instance, he was stubborn. Oh man, was he stubborn!”  She
paused to let the laughter die down, “But in the end, that's how I truly know
that he was great. I saw him at his best times, and his worst times. I saw his
strengths, and I saw his weaknesses. And I'm here to tell you that he was the
greatest person I've ever known.”

Amanda stopped and wiped her
eyes, and sighed, “There will never be a day that goes by, from now until the
day I die, that I don't miss him. But, getting bogged down and maudlin about
him would not have been what he would have wanted. In fact, the next part would
have been his favorite. The part where we're going to eat. And laugh.

“I had planned on hosting a
reception in my home immediately following the memorial service, but now it's
quite clear to me that – not only will my home not hold nearly all of you – but
I didn't even make close to enough potato salad.”  This drew a chuckle from the
crowd.

“But, rather than forgo
what, like I said, would have been my father's favorite part of the day, this
is my idea. I'm going to load up all the food from my house, and I'm going to
bring it to the Riverside Recreation Area. Since the public open area stretches
all the way down the banks of the river for miles in either direction, and it's
lighted, it's the only public space large enough to hold a gathering this size.

“You bring whatever you can
down as well, and we're going to make this a potluck memorial service slash
town festival. I think my father would have liked that. I think he would have
liked that a lot.”

--- ~ ---

As Amanda neared her car and
pulled her keys out of her handbag, Justin reached out and pulled the keys away
from her.

Amanda looked at him,
surprised, and reached up to try to retrieve them. “Hey! What the...”

Justin held them out of her
reach and shook his head. “No way, lady. There's no way in hell I'm letting you
drive after that emotionally draining afternoon. That was hours upon hours of
upheaval, and I would imagine it pretty much knocked the stuffing out of you.
I'll be driving.”

Although Amanda could hardly
deny the truth of this statement, she still took a small amount of umbrage at
his presumption. “Do you think I'm not capable of driving my own car?” she
asked testily.

Justin looked at her,
surprise written across his face in the form of a half smile, and shaking his
head. “Amanda, honey,” he said wryly, “I think you're capable of anything you
set your damn mind to. But just because you're capable of something doesn't
mean that you should have to do it. You always take care of everyone. Let me
take care of you for a change.”

Amanda took a deep breath
and felt all of the tension of the day seep from her muscles. Someone to take
care of her. Oh, yes, that sounded so nice. Someone to worry about the details
so she didn't have to. Someone to constantly keep tabs on her physical and
mental well-being the way she constantly had others' well-being in mind.
Someone who would ask her how she was, someone that she could talk to, someone
who would assure her that everything was going to be OK...oh, yeah, she could
definitely stand to relax into the idea of someone taking care of her. She
could luxuriate in it. It was so tempting.

But, she had to be careful
when she took into account the fact that the person who was offering to let her
lean on him was Justin. After all, when you've been on your feet for many long
hours, standing on your own, the temptation to lean against something which
seems strong and solid can be almost overwhelming. But what happens when you do
transfer your weight, even partially, from your own feet onto the seemingly
stable thing you're leaning on, and that thing suddenly disappears? That's
right. You fall right on your butt.

So, yes, while it may be
more tiring to just stand on your own two feet and continue doing so, it was
safer. There was a much smaller chance of finding yourself suddenly and
unexpectedly tumbling ass over teakettle, possibly down a hill, headed toward a
boulder or a tree...Amanda shook herself. She could mentally stretch this
analogy into any number of lethal conclusions, but what was the point?

The important thing was that
she remember, at all times, that she could under no circumstance give into the
temptation to start believing that Justin was going to be around in the future
to take care of her needs, either physical or emotional. Start depending on
that idea, and the next thing you know, he'd be gone in a flash, and she'd have
to live through the searing, unbearable pain of losing him yet again. Keep him
at arm's length, and she could buffer the pain of that inevitable grief.