The Pages We Forget (17 page)

“What are they?”

“Why don't you ask his mother,” Tammy interrupted. “If she wants you to know, she'll tell you.”

“Trevor?” June opened her eyes and saw Will leaning over the seat. “What's going on?”

“He was just asking me something,” Trevor answered.

“He was asking very personal questions about you,” Tammy told June. “Questions a reporter should be asking the source instead of her child.”

“You're a reporter?” Trevor turned to face Will.

“Sit down, Trevor,” June said, tugging at his shirt.

“Are you a reporter?” Trevor demanded.

“I'm a writer,” Will answered.

“Are you writing about my mother?”

“Trevor, please sit down,” June begged.

Trevor was never disobedient. He always did what he was told. Right now, he was downright defiant because he was trying to protect her. Willie and Joe weren't there and neither was his father, Bernard or Leatrice. He felt it was his job to look after June. His dad would expect it of him. “Are you?”

“If she'll talk to me, I am.”

“No, I won't talk to you,” June took over. “Now leave us alone.”

Trevor continued staring angrily at Will.

“Go ahead and sit back down, Trevor,” Tammy said. “He won't bother you anymore.”

Trevor settled back in the seat but kept a watchful eye on Will.

“Thanks again,” June said to Tammy.

“You're more than welcome.”

The alarm on Trevor's watch began to beep.

“It's seven-thirty,” he said. “Time to get up and start getting ready for Sunday school.”

“And time for Momma to wake up and find out we're gone.” June was talking to herself, but Trevor overheard her.

“Gramps doesn't know we're gone?”

“She does now.”

•  •  •

“She what?” Kathryn almost dropped the coffee pot on the floor. “Please say that again, because I don't think I heard you right.”

“She went to see Keith,” Alex obliged. There was a calmness in his voice that caught her off-guard.

Kathryn wasn't as accommodating. “Oh, my God. What is she thinking?”

“She had to go.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She needs to know, Mrs. Thomas.”

“Know what?”

“Why he ran away.”

Kathryn threw her hands up. “Junie! Junie! What are you doing? That was so many years ago.”

“Ten years ago.”

“So why is she still—”

“Because she needs to know.”

Kathryn sat on a stool and tried to gather her senses. “She told me she didn't know where he lived.”

“She didn't,” Alex said, pouring a cup of coffee. “I told her where to find him.”

“You
told her?”

“I need for her to do this. It's the only way she's ever going to get him out of her system.”

“But what if it backfires again and she ends up hurting even more?”

“Then I'll have to help her through it again.” Alex sat down, facing Kathryn. “Mrs. Thomas, I love Junie. I love her more than I love myself. I've loved her since the day I first saw her. I've always known that one day she would have to go back to him and make things right. I prayed every day that when the time came for her to go back, that I would be strong enough to let her go. I didn't think I would be, but I was. I let her go. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I kept telling myself that she was never going to be mine until she made peace with him. She has to find a way to let him go because I can't keep sharing her with him.”

“I understand that, but I don't think you know how strongly she feels about him. Her feelings for him were always too deep. It scares me how he makes her feel.”

“So you know how I feel. I've loved June for more than ten years
and regardless of what happens when she finds him, I'm going to keep loving her. I won't be able to stop loving her if she decides to stay with him. So, what am I supposed to do? Keep my fingers crossed and hope that he never takes the notion to walk back into her life? I can't keep living like that.”

Lucy Kaye walked into the kitchen. “Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning, Lucy,” Kathryn answered.

“Good morning, Mrs. Adams.” Alex offered her the stool beside him. “Here's a seat.”

Lucy Kaye sat down and immediately noticed the nervous look on both of their faces. “Where's Junie?”

“She's gone,” Alex answered.

“Gone?”

“To see your son.”

“Keith?”

“And she took Trevor,” Alex said.

“You didn't tell me she took Trevor!” Kathryn shouted.

“I was about to get to that.”

“Is she planning on telling him?” Kathryn started to ask.

“Planning on telling me what?” Bernard jokingly asked when he walked into the kitchen with a newspaper in his hand.

“We're talking about Junie,” Alex told him.

“I can't believe she's not up yet,” Bernard said.

“She's up, but she's not here.”

“Where is she?”

“She took a trip.”

“What kind of trip?”

Alex shifted on the stool and then answered, “She went to see Keith.”

“And you let her go?”

“She's a grown woman. Besides, I was the one who told her she should go.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“No, I haven't.” Alex stood and turned to Bernard, who looked dumbfounded standing in the doorway. “She needed to do this.”

“What she needs to do is get her behind back here and use the next two weeks to get herself together. She starts filming
For His Love
in two weeks.”

“She's not doing the film,” Alex informed him. “I've already asked Thandie to take over the role and she said she would.”

“Sounds like you already knew she was planning to skip town,” Bernard said.

“No, I didn't know.”

“Well, do you know when she will be back?”

“I'm hoping real soon.”

Bernard was getting more and more frustrated. “Who went with her?”

“Trevor.”

“That's it? You mean to tell me, you let her leave here by herself after last night? What in the hell were you thinking?”

“She wanted to go by herself.”

“Damn what she wanted!” He threw the newspaper on the counter. On the front page, there was a picture of June singing the last song of her concert.

“What a finale!” Bernard read the headline. “She's today's top story and the media is going to be behind her like crazy. There's no way you should have let her go.”

“I see you don't know Junie that well,” Kathryn said. She walked around the counter and put her arm around Lucy Kaye, who sat in tears over the latest twist of events.

“Where's Junie?” Leatrice said, walking into the kitchen. “Did she go?”

No one answered. No one had to.

•  •  •

“Hold on to me,” Trevor told June as they exited the plane at Atlanta International Airport. He put June's bag on his shoulder, placing his arm around her waist and led her into the terminal.

Suddenly, a camera flashed in their faces. Will was taking pictures of them. He continued snapping as he barraged her with questions. “Are you really through, June?”

“Damn you!” June shouted.

“Get away from us!” Trevor yelled at Will, trying to shield June from the camera. “Get back!”

As soon as Tammy walked into the terminal she saw June and Trevor trying to dodge Will and his intrusive camera. She rushed over to where Will had them cornered.

“June! Trevor! Come with me!” Tammy pushed Will back and shouted, “Back up off them, you asshole!” She put her arm around Trevor and took June by the hand and led them to a nearby door marked: Employees Only.

“He can't follow you in here,” she said and opened the door.

“I don't know how to thank you,” June said.

“You don't have to. I really do think he's an asshole.”

“So do I,” Trevor agreed.

“Tammy, I hate to ask, but I need one more favor,” June said as soon as the door closed behind them.

“Just name it.”

“We have to catch a plane to Jacksonville that is boarding now. Can you help us get there without having to go back out there? I don't want him to follow us.”

“Sure. Follow me.”

Tammy contacted a security officer and told him about June's predicament. The officer and Tammy led June and Trevor through a maze of hallways that were off limits to the public. Trevor stuck his hand in his jacket pocket. He had his cell phone, but he couldn't call his dad without June finding out, and there wasn't enough time to slip off from her and call him. He would have to wait until they arrived in Jacksonville.

(lyrics and arrangement by June)

After so many nights

spent mending my broken heart,

I became too afraid

to make a new start.

But suddenly,

I don't know what I feel.

I'm feeling so alive,

your love has got to be real.

CHORUS:

Can you promise me,

that you will always be,

right here,

beside me?

Is forever

what our futures reveal?

This time baby,

love has got to be real.

I'd given up on love.

I was watching out for me.

Until you came back,

and set my heart free.

Now, I don't understand

all these emotions I feel.

But I'm feeling so alive,

your love has got to be real.

CHORUS

Now suddenly,

I don't know what I feel.

But I'm feeling so alive,

your love has got to be real.

CHORUS

(repeat to fade)

I
t isn't hard to spot a woman whose heart has been broken. Smile at her and she coerces a smile back. Listen to her. She speaks but her voice doesn't carry. Stop and look at her. She's searching for something, but she doesn't know what it is she seeks. Watch her eyes though, because they will tell her story.

“Excuse me?” A small woman, who looked twenty years younger than her silver hair and AARP cap suggested, rolled a small gray suitcase up to June at Jacksonville International Airport. “Can I help you find something?” she asked. Her smile was warm.

“I'm trying to find Enterprise Rent-a-Car,” June answered.

“Well, you're going in the right direction,” the woman said. “It's just up the terminal.”

“Thank you,” June said and coerced a smile.

“You're welcome,” the woman replied and turned to walk off. She hesitated after two steps, then turned around and walked back to June. She looked over the rim of her glasses at June and smiled. “I don't know you, but I couldn't walk away without telling you that sometimes it takes the dark to bring out the light. My grandfather told me that a long time ago, back when I was a teenager. Back then, I didn't understand what he meant. Now, I'm an old lady flying up to Pittsburgh to see my first great-grandchild. If there's one thing that I've learned during this long life of mine,
it's that sometimes you have to go through a lot of grief and sorrow before you find that piece of happiness you're looking for.”

This wasn't the first time a stranger had approached June knowing what she had known since the morning Keith ran away: She was a woman whose heart had been irreparably broken. And, that she wasn't hard to spot.

“You're a beautiful woman, inside and out. I can tell. Love and happiness follow people like you,” the woman said to June. “Remember that and everything will be fine.”

June smiled and said, “I'll try to keep that in mind.”

“Don't just try. Do it.” The woman looked at Trevor and smiled. “Take care of your mother.”

He smiled and nodded his head.

“It's been nice talking to you,” the woman said and went on her way.

June wished she could be as confident about her own happiness, but she couldn't because she already knew from personal experience that some broken hearts never mend. She had found happiness again with Alex only to realize that his unconditional love couldn't erase the memory of Keith's touch that night or the tears in his eyes the next morning.

“I need to use the bathroom, Ma,” Trevor said as soon as they moved down the terminal.

“Can you hold it for a minute?”

“No,” he responded. “I have to go now. Please.”

“Okay,” June said and looked around for a restroom.

“There's one,” Trevor yelled and darted off.

“Trevor!” June called behind him, but he pretended not to hear her and ran into the restroom.

Trevor didn't have to use the restroom. This was his way of getting
away from June so he could call his daddy without her knowing. Trevor took the cell phone out of his jacket pocket and dialed Alex's phone number. He put the phone to his ear and waited for Alex to answer. He frowned and looked at the phone's display. He wasn't getting a signal. Trevor looked around the bathroom and saw that there was only one way out, which was the door he came through. He walked over to the door and opened the door slightly. He saw his mother standing with her back to the door. He eased the door open and slid past her.

June didn't see Trevor sneak out the bathroom because she was busy trying to distract attention away from her.