Mending Hearts (17 page)

“
Yes, thank you. I would
like to be close to Raelynn tonight. Are you sure it’s all
right?” 

“
Yes, I’m
sure.” 

The grandparents all drive us home; I am not
surprised that after today they want to be as close to Rae and
James as they can be. As soon as we get home, we carry the kids
upstairs. Each child gets a bath as their mothers help them. I lay
out pajamas for Raelynn and James. Molly and Emma are both very
quiet and I wonder if they are in shock.

“
I’m going to sleep with
James,” Emma says.

“
Ok, do you need
anything?” 

“
No, thank you.”

She begins to cry and I cup her face. “Baby,
it’s all over. They’re safe.” 

“
Your hand, what happened to
your hand?” 

“
It looks worse than what it
is. Let’s get you to bed.” 

Emma lifts my hand and kisses it softly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice your hand. Are you all
right?” 

“
I am, Baby.” She cries and
I wipe away her tears. I pull the covers back and she climbs in bed
behind James. He lies on the edge with a bucket nearby. I hear
Molly crying from the other room. I kiss Emma and go and check on
Raelynn.

I bend down and kiss Raelynn. 

Molly sniffles and I look over at her.
“Alec, she is so lucky to have you.” 

“
Thank you, I love her so
much,” I say as I brush Raelynn’s long brown hair away from her
face. 

“
We made a beautiful
daughter together, didn’t we?”

I smile and say, “We sure did. There’ll
never be anyone else like her.” 

“
I’m sorry that I screwed
everything up. I don’t know what happened to me. Look at what I
almost threw away.” Molly cries and I’m
speechless. 

“
Molly, the most important
thing is that now you’re getting better. You made a mistake and you
learned from it.” 

“
I’m trying, I really am. I
have so much guilt. I don’t know how or why you and Emma can be so
nice to me.” 

“
Molly, do you need some
water?” Bridget asks from the hallway. 

“
No, mom, I’m
fine.” 

“
I’m sorry, I didn’t know
Alec was in here.” 

“
It’s fine, Bridget, I was
just leaving. Good night, Rae,” I whisper as I kiss her again.
“Good night, Molly.” 

I quickly shower and walk
downstairs to find the grandparents are still here. The house
smells of coffee and bacon
. I love coffee
and bacon.
The grandpas are all sitting
around drinking coffee and talking. I walk into the kitchen to get
a cup of coffee and the grandmas, who know that people have to eat,
are gathered around the island cutting lettuce, tomatoes, and
frying up bacon.
BLT’s, my favorite.
If politicians ever made bacon illegal, I might
try a BLT made with Beggin’ Strips. With all that has happened, you
wouldn’t think that I would be thinking about jokes about BLT’s,
but I am. I get a cup of coffee and Gene, Danny, Sam, my dad, and I
all walk outside. Danny thanks me for what I did. With Max gone and
James being his only grandchild, I know how frightened he must have
been. To lose your only child and then to think you may have lost
your only grandchild… I don’t want to think about it. They want to
know what exactly happened today, so I go into grave details about
the events of the day and what I heard when I walked near the
cafeteria. I tell them I was there to pick up James since he was
sick. My eyes tear up when I think about Raelynn hiding under the
tables with the other scared children and how she wet herself from
fear.

After we eat and everything is cleaned up,
the grandparents start leaving. The grandmas are all reluctant to
leave as the grandpas gently persuade them to go. I have to smile
at the thought of Raelynn and James having four sets of
grandparents.

“
What are you smiling at?”
Bridget asks. 

Everyone looks up and my smile gets even
bigger. “Rae and James have four sets of grandparents. Do you know
what a blessing this is for them?” 

I watch as four sets of couples look around
the room at each other. Dad laughs and says, “Well, I guess they
do.” Everyone leaves and I lock up the house. I don’t sleep
upstairs, I sleep on the couch instead. I guess I feel like I can
watch over my family better from here. 

The next morning, I wake James up from his
sleep and medicate him with his antibiotic and Phenergan. Emma is
in bed beside him, lying there awake.

“
Good
morning.” 

She smiles at me and says, “Good
morning.” 

“
Do you want some
coffee?” 

“
No, I’m going to lie in bed
with him for a while longer.” 

“
Ok.” I lean in and kiss
her. I go and check on Raelynn and Molly. They are also still
asleep. I make coffee and sit on the couch. I don’t turn the TV on
because I don’t want to see the news. My hand hurts more today than
it did yesterday, so I take some Tylenol for the
pain. 

While I’m having my second cup of coffee,
Molly and Emma both walk down the stairs together. 

“
The coffee smells too good,
I tried to resist but I couldn’t,” Emma says. 

“
I was going to stay in bed
with Raelynn, but I don’t think she’ll be waking up anytime soon,”
Molly says. 

“
I think it’s a good idea to
let her sleep as long as she can. Did she have any nightmares last
night?” 

“
No, she slept all night.
That medicine must have knocked her out.” 

I follow Molly and Emma into the kitchen and
watch as Emma hands Molly a coffee cup. We sit at the island
together and talk about yesterday.

“
This is exactly why we
wanted to homeschool Raelynn,” Molly says. 

“
It is definitely the main
reason. There are pros and cons to everything. It’s hard to know
the right thing to do,” I say as I take a drink of my
coffee. 

“
Max died before we could
even have this conversation. But after yesterday, I don’t feel
comfortable sending the kids back to school.” Emma looks to Molly,
then at me, and takes a deep breath. “What all do you have to do to
homeschool your child?” 

“
You have to have so many
hours of class time a day and you and the kids whom you teach have
to pass annual tests to make sure you are capable of teaching them
and that the kids are learning as they should.” Molly looks at me
and Emma and adds, “I researched it before my life took a nosedive
to hell.” 

“
I never even considered it…
until now. This stuff happens a lot and you can’t prepare your kids
because every case is different. Do you run or do you hide? How do
you prepare small children for that?” Emma asks. “I don’t want to
have to prepare them for this kind of stuff. We shouldn’t have to
sit with our kids and tell them what to do if a gunman enters their
school. They are only five and seven years old.”

Emma cries and I hug her. “Emma, yesterday
was an eye opener for all of us. I know this stuff happens, but I
never thought it would happen here,” I say.

Emma makes omelets and we talk about other
things while we eat. Molly tells us she is doing great since she
got out of rehab and she regrets everything about the last year and
a half of her life. She tells us she’ll never fall into that
downhill spiral again. She says how much she loved getting the
glittery cards from James and Raelynn while she was gone. She
laughs and says that she still has glitter in her suitcase, dresser
drawers, and in her makeup case.

I say that, before yesterday, I didn’t
realize how many grandparents James and Raelynn had. We all laugh
and Emma said she and Molly already talked about this. “They are
very blessed to have so many. It’s nice that Max’s parents have
accepted Raelynn, and it’s nice that Molly’s parents have also
accepted James.” 

Emma shares that this week she was reminded
just how precious life is. She vows to be a better friend and to be
there more for the people who need her and to be the best mom,
girlfriend, and daughter that she can be. She shares about Angel
and the twins and about how she feels she let life consume her and
take her away from what is most important. 

The buzzer sounds, alerting us that someone
is at the front gate. I answer it and buzz Bridget through. She is
here to pick up Molly and take her home. I go upstairs to check on
the kids as Emma and Molly wait on the front porch for Bridget.

Emma

Bridget pulls up with Alec’s mom in her car,
and my mom and Max’s mom are in the car behind her. Another car
pulls in and it’s Brooke. I look at Molly and then back at the
cars. As they get out of their cars, I say, “Hi, we didn’t expect
to see all you guys.” 

“
We know, I hope it’s all
right we all came. Maybe we should have called first, I’m sorry,”
Bridget says, apologetically.

“
No, please, you don’t have
to apologize. You guys are always welcome. The kids are still in
bed.” I hold the door open for them to walk
through. 

“
Good, we’re here on
business,” my mom says as she walks past me into the
house. 

“
What’s going on?” I ask
Brooke. 

“
I have no idea. Your mom
called me here for a meeting.” 

Molly walks into the house before me and
says, “Business? Now that sounds serious.”

Alec walks down the stairs and smiles when
he sees everyone. “Good morning,” he says.

Molly, Brooke, and I remain standing, unsure
of what we should do. 

“
We would like to talk to
you guys. The kids are still asleep?” Doris asks. 

“
They are. Do you want to
talk here or outside?” Alec asks.

“
We want to be able to hear
the kids if they wake up, so here is good,” Cheryl
says. 

“
Please have a seat.” Alec
motions with his hand for everyone to sit. Molly, Brooke, and I
remain standing as we are clueless as to why the formality. “Molly,
Brooke, and Emma, sit,” Alec says and we do. Alec sits on one of
the stairs and Molly, Brooke, and I sit on the floor
together.

Once everyone is seated Bridget says, “We
want you all to listen to us before you say anything. Is that
clear?”

“
Yes, of course,” Alec
says.

Bridget looks over at me, Brooke, and Molly.
“Girls?” 

“
Not even a peep,” Molly
says. 

“
Have you seen the news yet
this morning?” Bridget asks. 

Alec speaks up and says, “No, we don’t want
the kids walking in and seeing it.” 

“
That’s a wise decision. We
have been watching the news since we got home last night. The
incident at the school is on every news station, including CNN and
Fox News.”

Doris adds, “They are
comparing yesterday’s shooting to the Sandy Hook Elementary School
shooting, in which 20 first-grade children ages six and seven were
killed on December 14
^th
, 2012, and the Columbine High
School massacre school shooting
 
that occurred on April
20
^th
,
1999, in which two teenaged boys killed 12 students and a
teacher.” 

I shiver when I remember both of these
school shootings. Molly and Brooke wipe away tears as Alec listens
intently. 

“
We don’t want our
grandchildren or Brooke’s children going back to public schools. We
came up with a plan and before you say no or tell us it won’t work,
we want you to listen to us,” Millie states.

Alec nods.

“
We all spent the night
together researching home schooling and the qualifications it
requires, and we came up with a plan. We want to homeschool the
kids. There’s four of us here and we all can qualify to do it. We
don’t work outside the home and we have the time to devote to it,”
Cheryl says as she watches Alec.

Doris says, “We can get the books and
supplies we need in the next few days. Bridget and Millie are state
testing today, and Cheryl and I are scheduled to test tomorrow. We
have to pass a state test to qualify to homeschool. Fortunately, we
can test in Tampa.”

“
May I ask something?” Alec
asks.

“
Yes, go ahead,” Millie
says. 

“
Where would you do this? I
mean, where will you teach the kids? You’ll have four children
ranging from five to seven years old: our kids and Brooke’s two
kids. You’ll need room for them to play and run,” Alec
says. 

Good thinking. I didn’t
think of that. Four children could destroy a house,
I think to myself.

“
We thought about that and
we think we found the perfect place. It’s centrally located to all
of your jobs and if we can get it at an affordable rate, it’ll be
perfect for a school house,” Millie says and everyone smiles. “It
even has a playground.” 

“
It sound too good to be
true. Have you considered the cost of running a place like
that?”

Bridget says, “We have.” 

“
You’ll have rent,
utilities, and the cost of all your supplies.” 

“
We know,” Doris
says,

Alec asks, “Where is it and how much are
they asking?”

“
It’s Emma and James’ old
house. It’s sitting empty and it will be perfect. It has a kitchen
to prepare meals in, it has different rooms to teach different age
groups and activities, and it has the jungle gym in the fenced-in
backyard.”