

## The Ghostly Hideaway

## By

## Doris Hale Sanders

### ©copyright 2005

### Double DD Publishing

### 2638 Tar Springs Rd.

### Cloverport, KY 40111

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any means now known or hereafter devised without the written permission of the above-named publisher is forbidden.

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.

### Published 1-17-2013

### ISBN # 978130118977

### Smashwords Edition

### Chapter One

### The Betrayal

_It's my fault; I should have suspected something._ The trouble was he had known Norman Jones since they were both children. The two of them had graduated from Fairmont High together and had subsequently gone into business as partners. And it was a most lucrative enterprise, too. The town of Fairmont, North Carolina had a lot of new construction going on as well as a great deal of remodeling work, too. Edward had been extremely proud of Wroe and Jones Contractors and equally proud of the work they did. They had even been written up in the local trade journal and some of their work had been photographed and praised in glowing terms.

That sure had ended with a bang, the bang of a judge's gavel. He was totally flabbergasted when the police came for him. He had known the police officers, all three of them; had gone to school with one of them and to church with the other two.

"Come on, Hank. What kind of joke is this?" Edward had asked in an almost teasing voice.

"I'm afraid it's no joke, Ed. You're accused of grand theft; the unlawful taking of articles valued in excess of one thousand dollars." Hank sounded as if he hated to be confronting him.

"Who am I accused of stealing from?"

"The customer whose home you were remodeling: Joe Mills." Officer Bill Jenkins slipped on the handcuffs and began to hustle him out to the car.

"But Bill, you know I wouldn't do that. What makes them think _I_ did it, anyway?"

"Because they found your fingerprint on the key that was left in the door. Now I shouldn't even have told you that; just forget that I did."

They had gone as far as the front sidewalk when Penny saw the police car out front with the lights flashing. She thought there might have been an accident or something. When she saw the four men heading for the police car, she called out to them.

"Hey, where are you going? Eddie, dinner's almost ready. You can't run off right now." When the officers turned around, she saw that her husband was in handcuffs.

"Penny, call Frank Niles and ask him to meet me at the police station. There's been a big misunderstanding somewhere."

Penny couldn't believe her eyes. What could they possibly have arrested Eddie for? She called their attorney and Frank assured her he was on his way out the door. After that, things had got out of hand in a hurry. They had executed a search warrant and when they looked through his work truck, they found a silver coffee urn wrapped up in a towel and stashed in his toolbox.

Even though Edward screamed "frame-up" to high heaven, (didn't everybody?) the grand jury took only thirty-five minutes to indict him. Edward kept trying to decide who might have wanted to frame him for this. He couldn't figure who in the world would want him to be blamed for theft. Was it remotely possible that one of the other local contractors had needed that job badly enough to try to discredit him? Of course, any whisper of dishonesty on his part would ruin his reputation, maybe permanently. Whoever was making him look guilty could do irrevocable damage to his and Norman's business. He didn't know what in the world to do. He just knew he was innocent; but how on earth would he prove it?

They let him out on bail but he still had no idea what to do to start to clear his name. Then his attorney told him the prosecution claimed to have an eyewitness—someone who saw Edward stealing the items from the house. That certainly had him puzzled. Only the person who framed him could claim to have seen him doing something he knew he hadn't done. When the trial began, they called the fingerprint expert who swore the print on the key left in the door did indeed belong to the defendant. The police sergeant told how the search warrant had turned up the silver coffee urn belonging to Joe Mills hidden in his work van. Joe Mills swore that the item belonged to him and that numerous other items were also missing from his house, at least twenty thousand dollars worth.

"Call your next witness, Counselor," the Judge instructed.

"The prosecution calls Norman Jones, Your Honor."

Edward had expected that the defense might call Norman as a character witness, but why would the prosecution call him to the stand?

"Mr. Jones, can you tell us what happened on the evening of March 14?"

"Well, I had decided to go to the Mills residence where we had been working and see if the owner was home. Edward and me, we had a couple of questions that needed answering about the work we were doing. We needed to know if he wanted new trim put up in the room we were remodeling or if he wanted us to try to piece together the trim that was there and put it back up.

"When I got there, I was surprised to see Edward's work van parked about half way down the block under some trees. Then I noticed someone coming out of the house carrying a large bag that looked quite heavy and heading toward Edward's truck. I stood there with my mouth hanging open and watched as Edward carefully placed the bag in the back of the truck and pulled away from the curb."

Speaking of mouths hanging open, Edward's was at this point. This was his friend, his partner, his long-time buddy telling lies about him and it would probably be enough to get him convicted of the crime.

"What happened next?"

"I simply couldn't believe what I was seeing. So I followed him. I thought maybe somebody had stolen Ed's truck and his keys and, well—I didn't know what to think. As I said, I followed him. I saw him go to the bus station and while I watched, he rented a locker and put the bag in the locker. But before he put it in the locker, I saw him rummage around inside the bag and take something from it and put it under his coat. After he locked up the storage compartment, he went back to his truck. I continued to follow him. I still couldn't believe it was actually Ed and he had a baseball cap on that pretty well hid his face.

"I followed him back to his house and he was in the back of the van for a few minutes and then he went into the house. I could see him through the front picture window when he got to the living room and took off his cap. I'm sorry, Ed, but it was definitely you." Norman looked at the defense table and sadly shook his head.

Well, he knew now _who_ was framing him but he sure didn't know _why._ Edward could tell them why his thumbprint was on the key. Norman had claimed to have lost his key and asked to borrow Ed's key to have a duplicate made. This was no spur-of-the-moment thing; Norman had planned it. It sure looked as if it would work, too. How could he discredit his ex-friend? Penny knew when he went to bed the night of the incident; but he had no way he to prove that he didn't get up later and do what Norman said he did. Norman had to have planted the coffee urn in his truck, too, but he could think of no way to prove that, either. Ed was flat-out screwed unless he thought of something fast.

"Ask him what time he is supposed to have seen me doing these things," he whispered to Frank when it was time for cross-examination.

"Mr. Jones, during what period of time is my client supposed to have done these things you claim you witnessed?"

"Well, I'm not sure exactly. It was sometime between nine o'clock and midnight." Norman looked somewhat unsure and Attorney Niles jumped on it.

"Can't you be a little more specific than that, Mr. Jones?"

"Well, it may have been closer to ten o'clock."

"Is that when you first saw him or when he was supposedly renting a locker at the bus station?"

"I guess that's when I first saw him."

"You're sure about that, now? Ten o'clock when you saw his truck on Center Street and you saw him coming out of the Mills house? That's your statement, now?"

"Yeah, ten o'clock. That's when it was. I'm sure, now. Positive."

"And that would have made it ten-fifteen or maybe ten-thirty when he got to the bus station to rent the locker."

"Yeah, it would have taken fifteen or twenty minutes to get from Center Street to Elm Street where the bus station is."

"He went home after that according to you and went into the living room and the lights were on in that part of the house. Is that your statement?"

"Yeah."

"Did you see anybody else in the living room when Mr. Wroe got home?"

"Yeah. His wife was in there and they talked a few minutes, turned out the lights and, I suppose, they went to bed."

"Okay, according to you, Mrs. Wroe was still up with lights on in the living room at around eleven or a little after. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, I suppose. I'm not completely sure of the time, though."

"Very well. Let's review your testimony. You saw him coming out of the Mills house at ten o'clock and you saw him rent a locker at the bus station at around ten-thirty. You were positive, you said, about that. Right?"

"That's right."

"Okay. Now Mr. Wroe lives on Second Street. How long would you say it would take to get from Elm Street to Second Street?"

"Well, it's about twenty-three blocks. I'd say probably thirty to thirty-five minutes, taking traffic and traffic lights into consideration."

"Okay. That would mean, counting the time you said he spent poking around in the back of the van, it had to be after eleven when he got in the house. And you said they talked a few minutes before they turned out the lights. That would mean, would it not, that Mrs. Wroe was still up in the living room after eleven and probably closer to eleven-thirty? Is that not a logical conclusion, Mr. Jones?"

"I suppose so."

"Thank you, Mr. Jones. No further questions, Your Honor."

"The prosecution rests, Your Honor"

"Very well. Court is in recess until nine o'clock on Monday morning. We're adjourned." Judge Carwile banged his gavel.

When the clerk called court into session on Monday, Ed was feeling considerably better.

"Is the defense ready to proceed?" the Judge asked.

"We are, Your Honor. I call Joe Mills to the stand."

"Remember, Mr. Mills, you're still under oath."

"Are you the owner of the property from which the items were stolen, Mr. Mills?"

"Yes, I am."

"Can you tell me where you were and what you were doing at fifteen minutes before ten o'clock the night of the robbery?"

"Yes, I was on the telephone talking to Edward Wroe about the trim in the new sun room. There had been some trim in that room and Mr. Wroe was asking if I wanted to re-use it or if they should buy new trim."

"How long were you on the phone with Mr. Wroe?"

"We talked for about forty minutes. I remember thinking I was going to miss the eleven o'clock news if we didn't finish soon. I told him I didn't want them to try to reuse the old trim. After that, it was necessary to decide what kind of trim I wanted them to put up in the room. He had a list of widths, finishes, styles and the prices on each. It required quite some time to go through all that."

"Thank you, Mr. Mills."

"Your witness, Counselor."

"No questions, Your Honor."

"You may step down."

"I call Nick Pullium, Your Honor."

After Mr. Pullium was sworn, Attorney Niles got down to business. "Would you tell the court where you are employed, Mr. Pullium?"

"I work the night shift at the bus station."

"And were you working on the night of March 14?"

"Yes, I was."

"Was it a busy evening, Mr. Pullium? Did you have many customers—say, between ten o'clock and midnight?"

"No incoming buses were scheduled during my shift and only one outgoing and it left at nine o'clock. No people were in the station at all until the red-eye arrived at two the next morning."

"But another witness said he had seen my client rent a locker from you at about ten-thirty that night. Are you sure no one rented a locker between ten o'clock and midnight?"

He consulted his records that he had brought with him. The last locker I rented was on March 10. There just isn't much demand for that service these days."

"Okay. Let's review. You had no people in the bus station between nine o'clock that evening until two o'clock that next morning. Is that correct? And you didn't rent a locker to my client during that time period. Is that also correct?"

"Both statements are correct."

"No further questions."

"No questions of this witness," the defense attorney said.

"I call Mrs. Penny Wroe, Your Honor."

"Come forward and be sworn, Mrs. Wroe."

"Mrs. Wroe, I call your attention to the evening of March 14 of this year. Can you tell me, please, approximately at what hour you and/or your husband retired on that specific night?"

"We usually go to bed at ten-thirty. That evening Eddie was on the phone with Mr. Mills until about ten-forty-five. We went to bed, both of us, immediately after he ended his business call. No lights were on in the house after eleven o'clock."

"You're quite sure of that?"

"Yes, Sir. Eddie was in bed with me at the time he is accused of committing this crime. He couldn't have done what that man said he did."

"Thank you, Mrs. Wroe."

"No cross, Your Honor."

"I call the defendant, Edward Allen Wroe."

"Mr. Wroe, can you account for your fingerprint being on the key found in the door at Mr. Mills' property?"

Ed gave his explanation about the 'lost' key.

"Can you confirm your conversation with Mr. Mills during the time frame as he stated?"

"Yes, I can and I do."

"Have you ever rented a locker at the bus station?"

"No, I have not."

"Did you steal any property of any kind from Joe Mills?"

"No, I did not."

It took the jury only forty minutes to find the defendant not guilty. When the police subsequently went to pick up Norman Jones for further questioning, he had apparently left for parts unknown.

Edward had tried to pick up the pieces of his life and go on; but, even though he had been judged innocent, people still didn't seem to want to trust him in their homes. He guessed he couldn't blame them but it sure did 'put a hurtin' on him' as his Granddaddy would have said. He had spent a great deal of his life's savings defending himself in court. Also, carpenter work is actually a two or three-man job. He finally just gave it up.

He and Penny had talked about going back to Kentucky for a long time. Penny had lived in Kentucky until she was six and she thought of the Bluegrass State as her home. In fact, she was fairly sure she still had some aunts, uncles, or cousins back there. Since her mother and dad had died in an auto accident when she was eleven she had had no contact with any of them. Her mother's sister, Genevieve, had taken her in and cared for her as if she were her own. All she knew about her father's family back in Kentucky was that for some reason they—or at least most of them—hadn't approved of his marriage to Anna Lou Starnes. But that hadn't stopped Jimmy Langley from doing what he wanted and he was madly in love with Anna Lou Starnes. He couldn't see why Anna Lou's having grown up in a trailer court had anything to do with their wanting to get married. Of course, he understood it somewhat better when Anna Lou's father and two brothers had ended up with life sentences in LaGrange Penitentiary after having been convicted of murder in the first degree. He agreed that it had hurt Anna Lou badly but it still had nothing to do with his love for her or hers for him. Sure, her sister, Genevieve, had become pregnant before she was married but she had still made a good life for herself and her husband and all her kids were happy, healthy, and well-adjusted people. Jimmy's mother, Gertrude Langley, had agreed with him. And if she ever wished Jimmy had chosen a well-educated college girl from a well-to-do family, she had never said so. At least not to him.

They had tried to stay near their Kentucky roots but his family around Lexington had totally ostracized them. His mother was the only one who had seemed to accept Anna Lou. However, Gertie had been ill for several years and when she passed away, they had no reason to stay there any longer. Finally, when Jimmy had been offered a good job in North Carolina, he had taken Anna Lou and their six-year-old daughter, Penelope, and moved there. Genevieve, Anna Lou's only sister, had stayed in Lexington for awhile but after corresponding for a couple of years, Anna Lou managed to persuade Genevieve to move to North Carolina near where they lived. Most of this information, Penny had learned from reading letters that her aunt had written to her mother before she had also moved to North Carolina. Her mother had saved the letters and Penny had read them over and over.

One of the few memories Penelope had of her father was of an incident that happened at suppertime one evening. Her mother had told her to wash her hands before she ate and she had rebelled. Her reasoning had been that her daddy hadn't washed his hands. "See that dirt on the back of his hand? He didn't wash it off. I'm not going to wash my hands until he gets his clean," she had replied stubbornly.

"But, Penelope, that isn't dirt," her father had explained patiently. "That's what's called a 'birthmark' on my hand. Come on, we'll wash our hands together and you can see it won't wash off." He had let her put soap on the back of his hand and she had scrubbed and scrubbed, but he had been right; it really wouldn't wash off. And while she couldn't truly remember his facial features, she still vividly recalled the dark brown birthmark on the back of his right hand. She did have a picture somewhere, old and faded, but the birthmark had been visible even in that picture.

Now Penny—Aunt Genevieve had shortened the Penelope to Penny—and Ed were planning to move back to Kentucky. Somehow, she thought her mom and dad would approve of that idea. Just as there had been nothing to keep Jimmy and Anna Lou in Kentucky at that time, thirty-some years later there was nothing to tie their daughter, Penny, and her family to North Carolina now. With Edward's business almost non-existent, that certainly wouldn't be worth holding on to. Chrissy had just graduated from high school and it was two years until the twins would start school. Therefore, they had no compelling reasons to stay. They made the decision, then, to sell their house, head for Kentucky, and look for adventure. Someone should have told them: _Be careful what you wish for—it just might happen!_

### Chapter Two

### Lost In The Rain

The Wroe Family made their way across Tennessee without mishap. They stopped in Nashville—well it was just a few miles south of Music City at a town called Smyrna. Edward had managed to get tickets to see the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night and even though they couldn't get close to the stage, it was still exciting. They got to see a couple of their favorite country music singers—Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers and they even sang one of their favorite songs: "Islands In The Stream."

On Sunday, they crossed the Tennessee – Kentucky border and took the toll road that goes by Bowling Green and ends at Owensboro. About the time they got to Owensboro, it started to rain. And not just a light drizzle but a total downpour. They weren't sure of the number of the exit they meant to take. They weren't really sure where they were going; but they exited off the bypass and were soon disoriented and— even though Ed didn't want to admit it—completely lost. Actually, since they had nowhere in particular they had to be at any specific time, they weren't too concerned. Finally, though, they came to a fork in the road and took a left turn. It seemed okay for a short distance but soon the road began to narrow to something like a bare country lane. The asphalt turned to gravel and the gravel became a muddy path—with no place to turn around. Deep ditches on both sides of the dirt road were filled with muddy rainwater run-off.

Now they were somewhat worried. Penny was almost frantic when she checked the gas gauge and saw they were almost on empty.

"What on earth will we do if we run out of gas, Ed?" Penny wanted to know.

"I don't know; but we'll think of something. Weren't we looking for adventure? Truly, I didn't think about that pulling the big trailer behind us would take so much extra gas."

Andy and Candy, the four-year-old twins were asleep but Chrissy heard their conversation. "At least it's stopped raining and it isn't dark for two or three hours, yet." Chrissy was trying to look on the bright side.

"What's that up ahead? I can see what appears to be a building of some kind through the trees." Penny was peering through the dirty windshield that the wipers couldn't quite clean when they made their half-circle swipe. About that time, the engine coughed a couple of times and glugged its way to a shuddering stop. Then with what seemed like a tired sigh, the engine died completely. Looking at the gas gauge, Penny saw that it had dropped down even below the big red 'E."

The lack of motion and the sudden silence woke the twins. "Did we get there?" Andy asked sleepily.

Candy rubbed her eyes. "Where is 'there?' I don't see anything. We can't be 'there' because 'there' has to be somewhere and this looks like nowhere to me." Not too well phrased perhaps, but accurate nonetheless. This looked like nowhere to all of them.

"I still think I can just make out the shape of a building through the trees. Let's go for a walk and find out—what do you say? Let's begin our adventure." Penny opened her car door and undid the childproof locks on the other doors. "We'll follow the 'yellow mud road.'"

Of course, the first thing Andy did when he got out of the car was to stomp in the middle of the deepest and muddiest puddle he could find. And, again, of course, Candy wrinkled her nose and shrieked. "Mama, make him stop that. He's getting my clothes all wet and dirty."

Penny grabbed a hand from each twin and they started on down the road. Ed locked the doors and he and Chrissy followed them. When they got to the bend, sure enough, an old three-story house with tall pillars and a wide verandah was standing there.

"It looks like a cross between a plantation house and a haunted castle," Chrissy exclaimed. "Those spiral things at the top look almost like turrets, don't they, Mom?" Actually, that was a pretty apt description. The house had once been painted white and the shutters were still a faded green. Some of the shutters at the front of the house were open, some were closed and a couple were hanging askew where the hinges had pulled loose. A swing was attached to the porch ceiling at only one end with the other end swaying slightly as one corner balanced on the floor. The yard looked as though it hadn't been tended in a very long while and the flowerbeds that still showed some color were choked with weeds.

As they approached the house, their first thought was that it had been completely abandoned and was vacant; but Chrissy spied the mud-caked footprints on the verandah steps and across the floor toward the door.

"Look, Mom, someone has been here not too long ago. The muddy footprints would have been washed away with wind and rain after a week or two, wouldn't they?"

"I suppose that's true. Oh, and I can see a light on in the hallway inside near the door. That's great! Maybe they have a phone, too, so we can call the auto club to bring us some gas."

Ed stepped to the door, knocked and when nothing happened, he knocked more loudly.

"Did you see that curtain move at the upstairs window, Candy?" Andy was sure he had seen it move as though someone looked out and then moved back. "Knock again, Dad. Maybe they didn't hear you. They might be deaf or something."

After knocking loudly several times, however, still no one came. While they were standing there, it began to rain again; not quite the downpour it was earlier but enough to soak anyone caught out in it.

"Maybe they're in the back and can't hear us. You all wait here and I'll go around to the back door and see if anyone's back there." Edward took off in a run around the side of the house and discovered a side door near the back of the house. He started to knock on that door but realized the door was slightly ajar. He still knocked, but again nobody came. The door appeared to open into the kitchen area and he could see a light in that room, too. He didn't know what to do. They were fairly well sheltered on the porch but they couldn't stay there all night. After knocking several more times with no results, he opened the door wider and called, "Hello, is anyone home?" into the kitchen. Still no answer. He stepped inside and looked around. Maybe someone was hurt and needed help. He noticed several dirty dishes stacked in the sink but they didn't smell. That meant they hadn't been there a really long time. The room to the right of the kitchen door where he had entered appeared to be a pantry with ample food supplies. To the left was the dining room. Directly ahead of him was a doorway into a hall and he opted to take this direction. Just inside the door, he saw a telephone on the wall. He picked it up and put it to his ear. There was no dial tone. Well, so much for calling for help. He passed two closed doors on each side of the hall before he reached the front door where his family waited.

"Listen! I thought I heard someone in the house." That was Penny. Ed opened and closed the nearest hallway door.

"I heard a door close!" Chrissy enthused. "Somebody must be coming. I hope Dad comes back around, soon. They might think he's snooping around or something."

Edward was having a good time playing tricks on his family until he heard a door close with a loud bang on the second floor. Suddenly, he was rooted to the spot and stood looking up the stairway for someone to come down and want to know what the hell he was doing in their house. He continued to stand there for several moments but nothing else happened and no more sounds emanated from the upper regions. He sneaked back down the hallway and then walked with a heavy tread toward the front door.

"Somebody's coming to the door." That was Candy.

"I hear them, too." Andy chimed in. "It must be whoever moved the curtain upstairs. It sure did take them a long time to get down to answer the door.

About that time, the door opened very slowly and Ed was grinning widely as the door creaked and groaned as if on cue. "Well, hello, there. Do come in," Ed laughed loudly at the shocked looks on the faces of his wife and kids. The laughter was short-lived, though, because at that precise moment, the upstairs door banged again. Five pairs of eyes stared in apprehension at—nothing. Again. As they were about to relax, the front door banged shut loudly behind them. Finally, they were able to shake off the shivers and make their way back to the kitchen.

"There's plenty of food in the pantry, Penny. And the electric stove looks as though it would work fine. Any way there're dirty pans that seem to have been used for cooking. I don't know what we should do. Do you?"

"I'm not sure we have much of a choice. We either take shelter here and wait for the owners to come back or we spend the night in the car after we get soaked to the skin getting there. That doesn't seem to be much of a choice, do you think?"

"I suppose we can offer to pay for whatever supplies we use or any inconvenience we might cause. I can wash up the dirty dishes. That should be some incentive to let us stay." Chrissy set about stacking the dishes and running water in the sink.

"There's a freezer in here in the pantry, too," Penny said as she opened the lid, "and I see some frozen hot dogs we could boil for supper. We will eat crackers with them unless we find some buns or bread."

The twins were happy. "Yay, hot dogs."

"But I need mustard with mine." Candy opened the refrigerator and immediately spied the mustard jar. She preferred the kind you squeeze on the hot dog but this would be fine.

"Chrissy, wash this pan next, Honey, and I'll use it to boil the wieners in."

While the rest of them were working in the kitchen, Ed decided he would look around. At the immediate end of the hallway a door opened into a half bath and laundry room combined. In that room was a stool, a lavatory, a slop sink, a washer and a dryer. He opened the first door on the right as he started down the hall toward the front door and found a small sitting room. In that area, he saw a fireplace, some overstuffed chairs, a few extremely dusty tables, a sewing basket, and a rocking chair. A few braided rugs on the floor and a few pictures with cobwebs woven over them completed the décor.

On the opposite side of the hall, the door opened into a well-stocked linen closet. Sheets, blankets, pillowcases, tablecloths, quilts, extra pillows, towels, washcloths, and other linens were stacked neatly.

The next room on the right served as an office/library with a desk and chair, a couple of filing cabinets, and some straight backed chairs. The bookshelves that lined three walls of the room were filled with all types of books from dictionaries to Tom Sawyer to Modern Romances and Shakespeare. Several volumes that looked like legal reference books were piled on the floor.

On one side of the front door was a formal living room and on the other side was an informal family room. Both contained couches, lounging chairs, dusty tables and paintings festooned with cobwebs. In the family room were an old-looking television and a huge fireplace while the living room across the hall contained a piano and a large Persian-looking rug.

Ed looked long and hard at the stairway before he ventured up the steps to the second floor. Four of the rooms on this floor were bedrooms with two bathrooms opening into the hall, which ran the full length of the house as it did on the first floor. The bed in the front bedroom was unmade and articles of men's clothing were strewn around on the floor, the chairs, and the furniture. The closet contained an area devoted to women's dresses and accessories none of which was out of place. The other end held a few pieces of men's clothing and several empty wire hangers. Hanging on the closet doorknob was a sloppily hung, out-dated suit. Dust had accumulated on the shoulders of the jacket and the pants had, in addition to the three pleats on each side of the fly, many wrinkles, and the deep cuffs on the pants were partly wrong side out. The once-white dress shirt was yellowed with age and was in a heap on the floor beneath where the suit was hanging. One dresser seemed to hold only neatly folded women's things. The one on the opposite wall had open drawers with men's under garments hanging here and there across them.

At the back of that second-floor hallway were the steps that went up to the third floor. The other three bedrooms appeared to be 'spare' guest bedrooms; however, they were fully furnished with beds, dressers, chests of drawers, and other necessary furniture.

"Ed, are you upstairs?" Penny called. When he answered in the affirmative, she continued. "The hot dogs are ready."

Chrissy had also found some cans of soup and the meal was quite simple but filling. While they ate, Ed told them what he had found while he was exploring. They were eating in the dining room because the kitchen table was too small for the five of them. Penny had found a fire ready to light in the dining room fireplace and since the dampness had seeped in from the outside, she had decided to light it not so much for warmth as for cheeriness and to dispel the musty dank smell.

"Only one bedroom is in use. The others look as though they haven't been used for some time. There are sheets, blankets, and other bedclothes in the linen closet in the hall, so we shouldn't be without a place to sleep. We may want to go up there and do some dusting and cobweb sweeping before bedtime. If it quits raining, I'd suggest opening the windows and letting them air out, too."

They were startled again by the slamming of a door on the second floor; but it sounded like it came from the doors near the rear of the house instead of the front as it had before.

"Does anyone know anything about getting rid of ghosts?" Penny laughed nervously.

As night began to fall and no one came to see who was in the house, they began to think about going to bed. Penny and Chrissy had cleaned up the supper mess and Ed and the twins had gone to see if the television worked. Surprisingly, it did get a decent picture on three different stations and two or three more that were somewhat fuzzy. But it beat nothing all to pieces.

Chrissy and her mother were somewhat nervous as they climbed the stairs to see about preparing the beds for sleeping. Nothing except dusty coverlets was on any of the beds other than the one in the room that had been used most recently. They did sweep down many of the cobwebs and dusted what they could in all three rooms. They decided not to disturb the front bedroom and leave it as it had been when they arrived earlier. They had decided that the bedroom on the other side of the hall from the one that someone had been using would work well for Ed and Penny. The one next to it on the same side would be good for the twins. It even had twin beds in it. The room across the hall from the twins should work fine for Chrissy. They went back downstairs to get armloads of bed linens to make up the beds they would use. The two of them managed to turn over the mattresses and spread fresh sheets and blankets on them.

It was still raining cats and dogs outside so they would all need to 'borrow' something to sleep in, since no one had wanted to get out in the rain to get their suitcases out of the SUV.

While they were making up the bed that she would sleep in, Chrissy made the remark, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if one of our ghost friends would go get our suitcases for us?"

Penny laughed, "I don't think we'll hold our breaths, though, do you?"

They went back downstairs and sat for a while in the family room watching the T.V. with the others. When the news and weather went off, they decided it was bedtime.

"I wonder if it's still raining," Ed murmured and went to look out the front door on the way up the stairs. "What in the—? Where did these come from? These look like our suitcases; but I would have sworn I locked the car."

"I saw you lock the car, Eddie. But these are definitely our suitcases. Did one of you all go after these? You couldn't have; we've been together all evening. I just don't understand this at all."

"Mom, don't you remember? I said I wished one of our ghost friends would get them for us. I guess they did." Her laugh sounded somewhat strained and nobody else seemed to find much humor in her statement either. Eventually, though, they locked the downstairs doors and, taking the luggage, went up to bed.

The next morning, they all declared they had slept soundly with no disturbances during the night. The sun was shining through a foggy haze but shining, nevertheless. Ed walked down the muddy road to check on the car and the trailer. Everything was locked and looked undisturbed just as they had left it except for the suitcases. He had forgotten his jacket that he had hung over a chair back in the kitchen with the keys in the pocket so he couldn't get in to check anything but it all seemed to be fine.

He reported this to the others when he returned and then checked his jacket pocket in which the keys still resided. "Well, I wish we had some gas for the car so we could drive it on up to the house. It would make it a lot handier to unload stuff, wouldn't it?"

Penny agreed. "If you had your lawn mower out of the trailer, you could improve the way the yard looks. Maybe if we've made enough improvements when the owner returns he won't be too mad about our staying here.

"I guess I could push the mower that far. After breakfast, I'll take the keys and go get it."

Penny made pancakes for breakfast along with some frozen sausage she found in the freezer. They had located some syrup and margarine in the refrigerator so they had another good meal. While Penny and Chrissy cleaned up again, Ed took the keys and went back up the road to get the mower. He unlocked the driver's door to check that everything was as they had left it and was about to go to the trailer and unlock it when he noticed the strong smell of gasoline. He looked at the gas gauge and then stood with his mouth hanging open in total disbelief. _It's almost half full! The gas tank is almost half full!_ He was sure any minute he would wake up and all this would have been a dream. But when he turned the ignition, the engine roared to life. He slowly closed the car door, put it in gear, and pulled on up the road to the front of the house. He was still shaking his head when he went back into the house.

"Penny, let's be damn careful what we wish for around here."

"You sure weren't gone very long. Did you get the lawn mower already? Wait, where are we going?" Ed was still nearly speechless with surprise. He pulled Penny by the arm to the front door and pointed to the vehicle parked by the front gate.

"Oh, it did have enough gas to get it up the lane this far. Well, that's just wonderful!"

"Penny, it's got at least five gallons of gas in it. The gas tank is almost half full."

"Oh, it can't be," she laughed. "We drove at least a hundred and fifty miles since we stopped at the filling station. And I had been watching the arrow creep down to empty for the last ten or twenty miles. When it stopped the arrow dropped down below the empty mark. There's no way it can have that much gas in it."

Ed took her by the hand, led her out to the SUV, and again pointed to the gas gauge. Penny felt her knees go weak and if Ed hadn't been holding her, she wasn't sure she wouldn't have fallen.

"This is so weird. It's unbelievable! Chrissy wished for our suitcases and there they were. You wished for gas in the car and it's got plenty. This isn't possible." By this time, the kids were out there and Andy decided it was his turn to ask for something.

"I wish I had a hambur—"

Penny slapped her hand over his mouth. "We mustn't do that. There's no telling what might happen if we ask for too much," she cautioned. "I think somebody is being awfully nice to us. Let's see if we can make enough improvements around here to show them we appreciate their kindness in helping us."

Ed got the mower out of the trailer and began cleaning the yard. Penny found a broom and was sweeping the porch when the twins yelled from around on the side of the house where none of them had been before.

"Look what we found," they exclaimed in unison when the rest had followed them around the house. A small chicken house stood in the corner of the yard with hen's nests and roost poles. Some of the nests had eggs in them and several hens and a rooster were scratching in the yard...

"Now we can have eggs for breakfast," Candy said excitedly.

Ed had thought he heard a rooster crow earlier while they were still in bed, but figured it was probably his imagination. Yes, the eggs would sure come in handy. Chrissy found a small box in the car and they gathered the eggs, took them into the house, and put them in the refrigerator.

"We'll need to break them in a saucer before we cook them to be sure they're not too old to use. There's no way to know if they're fresh or not. Well, I think there is a way to tell, but I don't remember how to check. I was thinking last night that it sure would be nice to have some eggs—but I didn't say it aloud. Honestly, I didn't. I promise I never said a word about it." Penny wasn't sure what was going on, but it was absolutely getting stranger and stranger all the time.

They worked outside almost all of the day and by nightfall, the front yard at least looked presentable. A few flowers that hadn't been choked out by the weeds were growing and when the dead blooms had been picked off and the weeds pulled, the flowerbeds looked much better. All the mud and dirt, dead leaves and sticks that had accumulated on the porch had been removed and the shutter and swing that had been hanging had been repaired.

Some canned chili with cheese grated on top had been warmed up for their supper and tasted fine after their afternoon's activities. Chrissy offered to clean up the kitchen and Candy stood on a chair by the sink and 'helped.' Penny wandered into the office/library and finding a clean rag in the linen closet began to do some dusting. She cleaned the desk and the tops of the wooden file cabinets, the other tables, and wooden chairs. In addition to the big office-type desk in the middle of the room, an old-fashioned roll-top desk stood against one wall. She began dusting this and, as curiosity reared its head, she found herself rolling up the lid to see what its contents might be...

Inside she found a big checkbook with names on it: _Clifton C. Coy and/or Lorraine M. Coy. "These_ must be the people who own this property." Somehow, she almost felt like an intruder for the first time. Not knowing their names made it easier to dismiss them as actual people. But now she knew whose place they were occupying. She saw one more important-looking book. She picked it up and saw that it said 'JOURNAL' on the front of it. She glanced inside even while she told herself she shouldn't look at something that was sure to be quite personal. It looked like a man's handwriting and sure enough at the bottom of the first entry, it was signed: C.C.C. The entry was dated almost three years previous. Penny shoved it back in its cubbyhole and hurriedly pulled the lid back down.

She was still thinking about it when she went up to bed; but she hadn't shared its discovery with the others. She wasn't just sure why, but she hugged the knowledge to herself for the time being.

As they climbed the steps to their bedrooms, Candy yawned sleepily and said around her yawn; "Wouldn't it be nice if we had some fresh milk for breakfast. I sure do miss our milk." Nobody even noticed what she had said or that it was almost a wish.

Until morning. The first thing they heard when they awoke—or perhaps that's what awakened them—was the rooster crowing. The second sound was somewhat unfamiliar for city people but they recognized it from television shows and commercials. It was a cow mooing. When they went out to look, it was standing near the back porch with its bag and udders distended with milk. It took some trial and error but Ed did manage to get her milked. The nearly two gallons of milk looked rich and creamy and they were all anxious to try it. It turned out to be delicious.

"I wonder who this cow belongs to. She looks well fed and cared for. I guess someone will come looking for her after awhile. But we've got one bunch of milk to enjoy, don't we?"

"I don't know who it belongs to, Daddy, but I suppose I wished for it last night. I didn't really mean to wish for it. I was just thinking out loud, I guess. Anyhow it sure does taste good."

But as the days went by, no one came to claim the cow or the house and the Wroe family was beginning to feel right at home. They put the cow in a stable in the barn and fed her corn from the crib that was built into one end of the barn. The chickens continued to provide eggs and the twins shelled corn to feed them, too. They had seen absolutely no one except each other since the night they had become stranded there.

Ed began to explore beyond the fences around the house and barn. He discovered a small orchard that was also in dire need of tending. Some pests were beginning to invade some of the fruit trees and having found some pesticides and sprayers in a floored storage bin in the barn, he began to spray and tend the trees. It looked as though there could be apples, peaches, and pears in the fall.

Inside the house, Penny took careful stock of all their food supplies as well as cleaners, laundry and bathroom supplies and other necessities. They had enough of everything to last for maybe a couple of weeks yet, but after that, it would be necessary to find a store and replenish their larders. They had almost no meat left but the canned vegetables were still plentiful. They could become vegetarians if it came to that.

She had begun to sneak into the library whenever she felt she had some time without too much chance of interruption. She was fascinated by the journal Mr. Coy had kept. She had begun to read it from the beginning and she was determined to read it as it was written: chronologically—without peeking at the end. She had checked the date on the last entry, however, and noted that it had been written only three days before their arrival. Mr. Coy had begun writing in this book on September 19, 2002, almost three years earlier. Today she was reading December 24 of that first year.

*

Well, tomorrow is Christmas and I don't have a gift for Lorraine. There just wasn't enough money. Our social security checks that go directly to the bank barely cover the electric bill and our food. I'm glad I had them take out the electric bill automatically when it comes due. That saves us a trip to town every month especially in weather like this. I hope we stay well. It would be awful if we had to try to get to the doctor or hospital. God has given us a lot of gifts, so I guess we just need to turn Christmas into another Thanksgiving and forget trying to give each other things. We both have birthdays coming up next month. I'll be eighty-two and she'll be eighty. I'll have to make a way to go to town just in case there's some news from the sheriff about our great-niece, Penelope. If she's still alive and if he can find her. We've had so many happy years here in our Kentucky Hideaway, Lorraine wants Penelope to have this place when we're gone if we can find her. Lorraine wants so much to see her if possible before she dies. And so do I. She was such a cute little girl. The sheriff had found out enough to know that our nephew and his wife died in a car wreck nearly thirty years ago and that our great-niece, Penelope, had been brought up by her mother's sister. The sheriff is going to check further thinking that she might have taken her aunt's last name. They might even have adopted her. Well, time to turn in. Goodnight. CCC

*

Moisture formed in Penny's eyes as she finished reading. "Just think how many years they had together and they still felt the need to be considerate and caring toward each other."

"Who are you talking to, Mom?" Chrissy had caught her and Penny decided it was time to share the journal with the rest of her family.

"I found this in the old roll-top desk. It's like a diary, sort of; it's just a few thoughts about each day as it ended. It's very sweet. The man who lived here before we came wrote it, I guess. I wonder where he is."

"What do you suppose the 'CCC' stands for?" Chrissy wondered.

"It stands for 'Clifton C. Coy' and his wife's name was 'Lorraine.' I found a checkbook in the old desk, too."

"Mom, I think it would be nice to start at the front and every night read the journal entry for one day aloud to the whole family. What do you think, Mom?"

"I agree. I think that would be a nice way to remember the people who had kept this place. Without them, we wouldn't have had a place to stay. Yes, I like that idea a lot!" Before long, though, they were reading two or three and sometimes four days' entries in the evenings. They would become so caught up in the lives of the Coys that they felt they actually knew them. It was obvious that they were a devoted and loving couple who cared about each other deeply.

Chrissy was daydreaming that night after they went to bed. "I wish we had some pictures so we could know what they looked like. I'll bet Lorraine was beautiful. Maybe someday I'll have somebody who will love me that way."

When Chrissy awoke next morning, she had completely forgotten about her wishes from the night before. But someone (or some thing) hadn't. On the night table by her bed was an old dusty family picture album. It was open to a page that showed a bride and groom in clothing from the nineteen thirties or forties. Chrissy was thrilled by the picture album and it took her a few moments to notice the little bouquet of forget-me-nots beside it. When she did find them, she had the oddest little fluttering in her stomach; and she didn't know what to make of it. She found a small coffee mug and with water from the bathroom, she watched the wilting flowers come back to life. But how on earth did they get there? How had the picture album materialized on her nightstand? She sat on the edge of the bed and thought about all the strange happenings since they had arrived. They had wished for their suitcases—and they had appeared on the front porch. They had wished for gas in the SUV and they had found it with almost half a tank. They had wished for eggs and milk and discovered the hen house and the next day the Jersey cow showed up. But all of those things had happened _outside the house._ Now things were happening _within the house._ And they always locked the doors when they went to bed. What in the world was going on? How on earth could these events be explained? How were their conversations and their wishes being overheard and fulfilled?

Chrissy had no answers, but she took one more long, lingering, look at her little bouquet of forget-me-nots and taking the album she hurried downstairs. The rest of the family was as dumbfounded as she was and as fascinated by the pictures. In those photos, they could watch the years go by and see the changes in Clifton and Lorraine. One photograph of Lorraine showed plainly that she was pregnant. Though they looked quickly through the rest of the pages, and then, again more slowly and thoroughly, there was never a picture of a baby.

Toward the end of the book, they found a snapshot of an older woman, a young man, and a small girl. But it was obvious it was not the Coys. From the journal entries, Penny deduced that it was probably their niece, Penelope, and her father and maybe his mother. At least that seemed the most logical assumption based on family resemblance and apparent age differences.

Then Chrissy brought up the question that was bothering her. How did the picture album get on her nightstand? They all looked at each other in bewilderment. This had to mean that someone (or, again, some thing) had been in the house while they were all asleep with the doors locked. This made them think again of the suitcases that had been retrieved from the locked car. None of them wanted to think about ghosts but the car _had_ been locked and the house had been fastened up tight, too. Ghosts were a figment of the imagination, weren't they? Or were they? Who could have heard their wishes? Who could have known how to fulfill those wishes?

As if on cue, one of the doors on the upper floor banged loudly startling everyone so that they jumped as though they were shot. Of course, they didn't believe in ghosts. But how else could it be explained? Chrissy still didn't tell them about the forget-me-nots. She didn't see how knowing about the flowers could shed any light on the situation. They continued with their daily routines but each of them was keenly aware of the questions in their minds about the inexplicable events of the two weeks since fate had stranded them there.

### Chapter Three

### The Intrusion

"Hey, Dad," Andy was excited. "Is tomorrow really the Fourth of July?"

"Yep, it sure is, Son. However, we can't have much of a celebration. We won't have any fireworks, firecrackers, or anything like that; and we won't have hot dogs since we've already eaten all those. However, we'll have a good time. We brought the grill, we had some charcoal and lighter, and we can look in the freezer and see if there's any meat in there to grill. If I had a shotgun, I'd see about killing some wild rabbits to grill. I saw some the other day but I couldn't get them without a gun. Anyway we'll have a good time."

A week had gone by since the picture album magically appeared in Chrissy's bedroom. Nothing had happened since that time that couldn't be explained logically; but there sure wasn't any simple answer to that riddle. It bothered Ed a lot to think that a person had been in his eighteen-year-old daughter's bedroom without any of them being aware of it. He thought it might be easier to blame it on a ghost but he just couldn't bring himself to accept the ghost theory.

He wondered, too, exactly where they were. He had taken the atlas out of the car but he couldn't be positive which exit they had taken off the U.S. 60 By-Pass and after that, the rain had made it a total blur. He wasn't even sure he could find his way out to the main road, whatever that road was. It would be almost laughable if it weren't so serious. He was going to have to take a nice long walk and see if they had any neighbors at all. They hadn't seen anyone since they'd been here and that was almost three weeks. It had been over three weeks since Mr. Coy made the last entry in his journal. That meant no one had come around to see about him, either, for that long. Surely, they weren't that isolated. At any rate, they needed to know. Maybe he'd do that right now. They had just had lunch and he knew several hours of daylight remained before dark.

"Penny," he called, where are you?"

"I'm here in the pantry. I was checking to see if we had any meat left in the freezer to use for our Independence Day celebration. I can't find a thing that looks to be meat. I guess we'll just have to become vegetarians until we can go to a store. I know Mr. Coy was having the electric bill paid automatically from his bank account, but I'm almost afraid to put too much in the freezer when the electricity could be turned off at any time for non-payment. It seems that someone would have come looking for him by now, doesn't it? It sure does worry me. This is a nice place, I enjoy living here and there doesn't seem to be anyone who would tell us to get out; but it still makes me think, what if?"

"I've been thinking along those lines myself and I came in to tell you that I'm going for a walk and see if we have any neighbors that I can find."

"That sounds like a good idea; but be careful and don't get lost. I'll expect you back long before dark."

"Okay." Ed picked up a good-sized stick from the fencerow to use as a walking stick and struck out across the field. The road they came in on had ended in front of the house. He had walked about a half-mile, he estimated, when his route suddenly became a steep hill through dense woods. The wooded area was crowded with trees and he had to turn sideways to get between some of them. When he finally reached the top of the hill, he could see a wagon trail that amounted to nothing more than a set of ruts running along the top of the hill. He began to follow the rutted trail that was a great deal easier than having to push himself through the trees. He looked behind him and tried to keep in mind the direction he was going in order to be able to retrace his steps. Only the tops of Coy's house and barn were visible from here, but the road began a gradual descent at that point and they were soon completely out of sight. He estimated, but it was definitely a guess, that he had traveled almost a mile. If he didn't find a house or some people soon, he would turn back. With the uphill climb and the dense woods, it had taken quite a long time to get this far.

Finally, he did see a structure of some sort up ahead and as he got closer, it did seem habitable. It was a large house, three stories tall and when he knocked on the door an elderly lady in a dust cap and apron opened the door—but she wasn't smiling.

"Who in the world are you and where did you come from. I hope you don't expect me to invite you in with all those burs on your clothes and the muddy shoes."

"Ma'am, my name is Ed Wroe and my wife, my three children and I are staying at the Coy's place down under the hill. Do you know where that is?" He sure did hope she did; maybe she could tell him.

"I don't know anyone named Wroe or Coy," she said crossly. "You look pretty tuckered out. I can get you a drink of water and you can set there on the front steps and rest if you want to. Oh, my name is Lydie Thorne. I live here with my grandson, Johnny. He ain't to home right now. Prob'ly out huntin'. Wait here." She returned after a short time with a glass of water and offered it to Ed.

"Thank you, Miz Thorne," Ed said as he drank thirstily. "I wonder if you could tell me what the name of the nearest town is. We got lost getting to the Coys' and I'm not sure which way to go to get some supplies."

"Why are you askin' me? Why don't you ask the Coys?" With that, she shut the door firmly in his face after she had grabbed the drinking glass from his hand.

_That wasn't very friendly,_ he was thinking as he began to walk back along the muddy road. _I guess it was a fairly reasonable question, though, come to think of it._

On the long walk back, he did think of one other approach. They would look through the desk and the filing cabinets for invoices and bills. Some of them should have business addresses on them. That wouldn't give them directions, but if they knew the name of the place, they could ask people how to get there.

When he got back home, he was tired, muddy, hungry, and thirsty. And it took almost an hour to get all the burs and stick-me-tites off his clothes. He told the family about the unneighborly neighbor lady (he wasn't sure 'lady' was an apt word, either) and they all laughed. Then he made the suggestion he had thought of on the way home about checking any bills and invoices they could find for the names of nearby towns and they got into it at once. They found several businesses with Fordsville addresses and a few from Hartford so that helped some. He got the atlas from the SUV and looked up these towns on the map of Kentucky. They didn't appear to be too far apart and not that far from Owensboro.

After a quick supper, they all retired. Chrissy went to sleep staring at her beautiful little bouquet. No matter the good care she gave them, they were still beginning to die and it upset her terribly.

"You're still beautiful to me, little forget-me-nots," she said aloud. "I think when I can't keep you alive any more, I'll press you in a book and let you dry. That way I can still keep you."

Next morning two more incomprehensible events occurred. Two dressed rabbits were in a pan of water on the kitchen table and Chrissy had a new bouquet. These flowers were lilies of the valley, the little white bells on a slender green stalk with the long, green leaves. Whoever brought them had brought a cup of fresh water from the bathroom and set them again on her night table by her bed. A heavy book from the library downstairs was there also and the forget-me-nots were neatly pressed between the pages. That was just something so sweet that she simply could not ascribe it to any other than a wonderful, living person. "Thank you," she whispered, breathlessly.

"My goodness Edward, when did you do this?" Penny had found the rabbits when she came down to fix breakfast.

"Do what, Penny?" Ed was coming in from milking the cow.

"Where did you get this meat? It looks like rabbits or something. I didn't know you had been out hunting; and where did you get a gun?"

"I don't have a gun and I didn't do this." Ed was incredulous.

"How did these get here, then? Oh, Edward, it's happening again. This is so unfathomable; so totally unbelievable."

"It sure is mysterious. Andy asked me yesterday if today would be the fourth of July and I told him it would be but I didn't know if we would have any meat to grill or not. They must have heard me when I mentioned that if I had a gun, I'd kill some rabbits to grill. And here they are. It sure is wonderful, but it sure is a puzzle."

Penny was thoughtful for a moment. "Ed, I'm going to make another wish. I truly wish—"

"Are you sure you want to do this, Penny? You may have been right when you cautioned the children about wishing for something frivolous."

"This isn't frivolous, Ed. I wish whoever was doing these nice things would let us know who he is so that we may be properly grateful."

"I can certainly agree with that and yet if he prefers to remain anonymous, we shouldn't force him to reveal himself, should we?"

"I know we don't any of us want to believe in the supernatural, either. But we still can't begin to explain how things like the picture album materialized inside the house even with it locked. Or how the suitcases were taken out of the locked car. We can't prove it wasn't ghosts any more than we can prove it was. I just don't know what to think any more."

That afternoon, they cooked the rabbit on the grill and added some barbeque sauce. It was absolutely delicious. They mentioned several times how much they appreciated their benefactor regardless of his ectoplasmic status.

It was fully dark before they finished eating and they were about to go inside when they heard the first 'blop-shoo' of a fireworks display. They swiveled their heads until they saw the flash and heard the boom of the first thunder-ball explode in the sky somewhere in the general direction of the Thorne Place, Ed thought. In a few seconds, they heard the detonation of the second thunder-ball. After that, the sky was illuminated by a fireworks display as grand as almost any they had ever seen. The red pinwheels, the blue and gold stars, the scarlet wands that faded into green and ended in little bursts of light at the ends of each spoke, the golden rays that ignited into little twisting, twirling 'worms' hissing and sputtering until they faded into nothing. They were beautiful and the pyrotechnic show sure did finish off their Fourth of July picnic perfectly.

The next evening they continued their routine of reading from the journal. They had completed the first two years of the journal and were starting on the third. The first entry they read began the tale of the illness of Lorraine. Three days after that they read about her death. Her grieving husband had written:

*

My beautiful sweetheart, how could you leave me? We've been together sixty-two years and now you are gone from my life. My darling, how can I go on without you? How can I continue my life when you, my life, my reason for living, have faded away into only memories? Even the long time we had together was not long enough. Only eternity would give us the length of time we need to be a part of each other. You are a part of me still, my sweet one; you are my heart, my will to go on, my only thought and my only desire; except to be with you again. Oh, that God would let me come to you now but I know that will only happen when my life is no longer needed here on earth. I pray that will come soon.

I buried you, Lorraine, in the little graveyard on the hill near the big spreading oak tree beside the baby we wanted so much. Perhaps in death you can hold him and love him as you were precluded from doing in life.

Rest in peace, my beloved. I shall have no peace until I can be with you again. Our Kentucky Hideaway is so lonely without you. CCC 15 January, 2005

*

Everyone had been deeply affected by the words of anguish written by the hopeless old man. This was evidenced by the break in his voice as Edward read the passage, the tears flowing freely down the faces of the three girls, and even Andy's lips trembled as he said, "That sure was sad, wasn't it, Daddy?"

Suddenly, from upstairs came the sounds of someone sobbing her heart out. They all five heard it and unconsciously looked to be sure everyone was still in the living room and not upstairs. The weather that had been so perfect the night before for the fireworks display had turned nasty during the day and now they could hear the wind rustling and complaining through the trees outside and it looked as though the rain might fall as splashing teardrops any minute.

The rain came and the wind increased in velocity and volume until the elements drowned out the heartbreaking sounds from upstairs and when their noise finally abated, the sobbing sounds from upstairs had ceased. No one was anxious to go up to bed that night, but when no more sad sounds were heard for some time, they finally went up to bed.

The whole family seemed subdued and less than cheerful the next morning, but they resumed their routine.

"Chrissy, what do you think about cleaning up the Coys' bedroom today? We have most of the rest of the house in good shape; dusted, vacuumed, walls wiped down, windows washed (inside and out on the first floor) and draperies and curtains cleaned. We've cleaned the upholstery the best we can, cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer, taken everything off the shelves in the kitchen and pantry and cleaned them. We've scrubbed the stove and the oven and even scrubbed the porches. Your father has worked on the outside of the house, repairing the front and back steps, the swing and the shutters, and he's even done some work to the storage shed, the hen house and the barn. That bedroom is the only thing that hasn't been cleaned. I don't see any reason to leave it any longer, do you?"

"No, I don't, Mom. I say, 'Let's do it.'"

Right after breakfast, they took the vacuum, dust cloths, cleaning rags, window cleaners and went to work.

"One thing I keep wondering about is why there are no windows on this side of the house. I looked at it from the outside the other day and there're no windows at all on this entire side."

"That is odd. It makes it awfully dark particularly in your bedroom, Chrissy. You don't have any outside view anywhere. It's a good thing you're not claustrophobic."

They picked up all the dirty clothes in the Coy's bedroom and Chrissy took them down and started the washer. They stripped the bed, made it up with fresh linens, and put the coverlet back on it. It looked really nice. They washed the windows, (the two at the front of the house), vacuumed, dusted; and took the curtains down washing them carefully by hand because they looked extremely fragile. When they got the curtains back up to the windows, all the clothes folded and put away and all the drawers shut properly, the room looked especially nice. There was one corner that seemed quite dark and melancholy, but they didn't have an extra lamp to set there. Instead, they set an old rocker in that corner and left it alone.

When Ed got home, he agreed that it did look much, much better and he thought the spirits, ghosts, or whatever would have to agree. Penny had even gone to the fencerow out near the storage shed and picked some sprays of honeysuckle and put in a vase in the room and it seemed to cheer it up a great deal.

That evening, Penny was again looking through the picture album that had been left on Chrissy's nightstand earlier. For reasons she couldn't fathom, she kept returning to the picture of the older woman, the young man, and the little girl. Her attention was drawn again to a shadow or something dark on the back of the young man's left hand. It looked almost identical to the mark on her father's hand but it had been his right hand and this was a left hand. _Oh, now wait a minute. A picture was a mirror image, wasn't it? That spot would be on the right hand. Oh, now that sure is weird, isn't it?_ Penny lifted the album to get a better stream of light and suddenly the picture was shaken loose from its place in the album and fluttered to the floor landing on its face. Chrissy saw it drop and went to pick it up for her mother.

"Oh, Mom, look! It has writing on the back. It says 'Gertrude, Jimmy, and Penelope.' And it's dated '1970.' Mom, what is it? You're as pale as a sheet!"

Ed had been watching "Law and Order" on the television but he turned toward the others when he heard the panic in Chrissy's voice. "My God, Penny, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

Penny still sat with her eyes glazed and her mouth hanging open. She didn't blink or move at all when Ed waved his hand in front of her face. Ed grabbed her shoulders and shook her, hard. As she focused her eyes on her husband, she fainted dead away. Chrissy ran after a washcloth and wet it with cold water and brought the first aid kit with the smelling salts. After washing her face and passing the smelling salts under her nose, she revived, but she didn't know for a few minutes why she had fainted. As the memory came back to her, she pointed at the picture that once again had fluttered to the floor. Chrissy picked it up once more and Penny whispered, "That's me," pointing to the little girl. And that's my Dad and my Grandma Gertie. The names and date are on the back and I had already noticed the birthmark on the back of Daddy's hand. The Coys are or were my aunt and uncle."

"Are you sure, Penny? Are you positive these people were your relatives? It's just not reasonable to believe that we stumbled by accident onto the property that was owned by your relatives."

"It's true, Eddie. There's no other possibility. Why on earth would they have that picture of us if they weren't related? Grandma Gertie or Daddy had to have sent the picture to them. And as far as it being an accident that we found this place, I'm not sure I believe that it was a coincidence. I felt something really weird the first time I saw this place. I'm nearly positive I've never been here before and yet things seemed almost familiar somehow. I can't explain it; but someway or other I think we were meant to get 'lost' and 'find' this farm. I'm thinking the spirits that seem to inhabit this house actually want us to be here. Oh, I know I'm not making any sense but there doesn't seem to be any other explanation."

A couple of nights later, Chrissy, whose room was next door to the one the Coys had used, was awakened by a commotion that seemed to come from that room. She hated to admit it but she was afraid to go see what was happening until morning. When it was daylight again, Chrissy slipped from her room to the door leading into the Coys' bedroom and opened it slowly. She was totally amazed by what she saw. Some of the clothes they had folded and put away were once again in a heap on the floor; the rocker had been re-positioned back to the middle of the floor as it had been. The bedclothes were mussed and while it had no indentations where it would appear somebody had slept there, it looked as though it had been turned down ready for someone to sleep in.

Chrissy's gasp of surprise and consternation had aroused her parents from across the hall and they had come in to discover the disarray, also. After discussing the phenomenon most of the day, they were no closer to solving the mystery than they had been in the morning.

That evening after supper, they had brought out the journal and were about to begin reading another segment of it when a knock sounded on the front door. They weren't sure whether to answer it. They wondered if someone was, in reality, at the door or if it was another paranormal event. Ed went to check, however, and found the County Sheriff waiting there. Ed invited the sheriff into the living room and introduced his family.

"I don't want to trouble you," Sheriff Lampton said as he took the chair Ed offered, "and I'm sure Mr. Coy has already retired for the night; but seeing the lights on and the improvements that have been made, I was sure there must be someone else here. Cliff hasn't been able to fix things around here for several years. You said your name is Penny. I'm sure that means you're their niece, Penelope. I'm truly glad there's someone here to look after him and his place. Is he as well as usual, do you think?"

"As a matter of fact, Sheriff, we haven't seen him since our arrival a few weeks ago. It was raining extremely hard when we got here and after knocking several times with no answer, we found the back door unlatched and just came on in. We could see lights that had been left on in the house, and we assumed he would be home soon. When he still didn't come in after some time had elapsed, we thought he might be visiting a neighbor, or perhaps in the hospital or something similar and we had no idea where to begin to look. We weren't even sure where the nearest hospital is or even the nearest town. We had become completely disoriented on our way here in the pouring rain. We had never been here before and we weren't even sure we had found the right place." Ed had made the best scenario he knew how to make and still be honest.

"When he still wasn't here after a week, we began reading Uncle Cliff's journal thinking it might give us a clue as to his whereabouts. As we understand from reading it, his biggest concern was the death of his wife, Aunt Lorraine. He seemed terribly distraught still over losing her." Penny didn't see that it should be necessary to tell anyone that she had only recently realized that it truly had been the home of her relatives.

"As far as anyone in town knows, Penelope is Cliff's only living relative; she and her family, of course. Sheriff Lampton inclined his head toward Penny and got up preparatory to leaving.

"Sheriff, could you tell us the best way to get to town for some supplies? There are a few things that we are beginning to need very badly." Ed tried to make sure he didn't leave the same impression he'd had on Mrs. Thorne.

Sheriff Lampton explained the best way to get to Fordsville.

"Do you think we should start a search party to see if he is around here, maybe at a neighbor's? We also wondered if he might be in the hospital or something."

Sheriff Lampton suggested that he do some checking back in town and if they had no word about him or from him in the next few days, they would indeed need to make a search of the local area. The sheriff said his goodbyes and went on his way back down the muddy road.

A couple of days later, Chrissy heard someone whistling out about the storage shed. She stepped out on the back porch to see if what she had heard was spirit or flesh and saw a young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with a beautiful golden retriever at his heels. He was undoubtedly the best-looking 'ghost' she had ever seen in the almost nineteen years of her life. When he removed his cap as a form of respect, she could see that his hair was an almost fiery red and the freckles on his face tried unsuccessfully to hide the deep, deep dimples in each cheek. As fate would have it, her parents had made the trek into Fordsville to get supplies and see if the sheriff had any information about Uncle Cliff. It would probably be an hour or longer before their return.

"Hello, colleen, my name is Johnny O'Reilly. I live with my Grandmama up on Thorne Hill. I had been seeing lights on in the house a good bit later than Old Mister Coy usually stayed up and I thought I'd see if we had new neighbors I wanted to meet. Now that I've seen you, the answer is definitely 'yes.'"

"We are the Wroe Family," Chrissy blushed as she took his hand. "My father is Edward; my mother is Penny; I have twin siblings, Andy and Candy; and my name is Christina although everyone calls me 'Chrissy.' We came up from North Carolina to see Mama's Aunt and Uncle but we haven't seen either of them since we got here. We're extremely concerned. Oh, where are my manners? Would you like a glass of tea? I'm afraid that's all I have to offer at the moment."

"Tea would be wonderful." Johnny knew her folks were not at home. He had seen them leave so he didn't even think about trying to beguile his way into the house. Well, maybe he _thought_ about it but he certainly wouldn't do it.

She returned in a short while with two tall glasses of frosty cold tea. They sat side by side on the back steps and enjoyed simple conversation for the better part of an hour. Neither of them, later on, would have a clear memory of what they had talked about. However, they were sure it was a wonderful conversation. Chrissy did remember being introduced to JoJo, the Golden Retriever. JoJo had shook paws with her, had even let Chrissy scratch her ears, and pat her on her silky, golden head.

"Do you think it would be out of line if I came by again to see you and meet the rest of your family?" Johnny asked.

"Oh, I think that would be very nice indeed. I know they would all enjoy meeting you and JoJo."

When it was time for Johnny to go and he was about to go out of sight, he turned, took off his cap again, and waved to her and JoJo barked good-bye. Chrissy was still on cloud nine when her parents and the twins got home. Nevertheless, she helped unload the back of the SUV and even managed to get excited about all the goodies they had brought home. Penny and Ed had bought a bunch of treats they hadn't had for a long, long time. Finally they got everything in the house and put away. Then they decided to rest a few minutes.

"What did you do to occupy the time while we were gone?" they asked Chrissy.

Chrissy blushed prettily. "Well, actually, I had a visitor after you left."

"Who on earth came to visit?" they asked.

"He was the grandson of the woman you met up on Thorne Hill, Daddy. His name is Johnny O'Reilly and he has a Golden Retriever named JoJo. He was the one who put on the fireworks display we enjoyed on July 4. I thanked him for setting them off where we could watch it, too. I told him it was a terrific show. He said he was glad to know someone other than he and his grandmother had appreciated it."

"What is a gold 'triever?" Candy wanted to know.

"I know what it is," Andy spoke up. "It's one of those 'tectors that finds stuff that's under the ground. Did he find any gold or anything 'round here?

"A Golden Retriever, Kids, is a beautiful breed of dog. It has curly golden hair and is usually quite friendly," their Dad explained.

"She _was_ friendly. She let me pat her head, rub her fur, and scratch her ears. She even barked 'good-bye' to me. Johnny said Aunt Lorraine had loved her and he had brought JoJo here to see her often when she was alive and Uncle Cliff enjoyed seeing her, too."

Penny was somewhat concerned about the young man being at the house when Chrissy was alone. "Where did you two do all this talking?"

"He sat on the porch steps while I fixed us a glass of tea and then I sat there, too, and we drank our tea and talked. You know I wouldn't have invited him into the house when you all weren't here, Mom."

"I know you're a good girl, Chrissy, but you haven't dated much and I just didn't want him or anybody else talking you into things or taking advantage of you."

Candy and Andy suddenly remembered one of the treats they had bought at the store.

"Can we have some ice cream, Mama?" Candy was prepared to pout if necessary.

"It's been a long, long time since we had any, please, Mommy." Andy was just as anxious.

"It's _'may'_ I have, not 'can' I have," Penny corrected and the twins immediately revised their request.

"Let's see, it's a little over three hours until time to eat. If I let you have ice cream now, will you still eat a good dinner?" Of course, she knew what the answer would be.

"Yes, yes," they yelled in unison.

"I want strawberry." That was Candy.

"I want chocolate." That was Andy.

"Vanilla for me, and I'll help you fix it." Chrissy loved ice cream, too. And she appreciated a great deal the change in the topic of conversation.

That night they finished reading Uncle Cliff's journal. The last entry was dated June 15, 2005.

The chest pains I've been having were worse this morning and my breathing gets more and more difficult. I still miss Lorraine so terribly much. I believed that in time I would become accustomed to her being gone, but it only seems to get harder and harder to accept that I will never see her again on this earth. I want more than anything to be with her. Of course, when Johnny came by I tried to be as cheerful as I could... I realized he would be concerned if he knew how depressed and fragile I feel.

This evening I am going to try to make it up to the graveyard to visit Lorraine and Baby Cliffie's graves one last time before I get past going. I need to say goodbye to them and tell them it won't be long before I'll be joining them in that Great Beyond. The weather is beginning to look fierce and I should probably stay home; but somehow, I feel I must go. CCC 15 June, 2005

*

"Poor, poor Uncle Cliff," Chrissy sighed, "he sounds miserably unhappy! I wonder if something did happen to him when he went up there. Have you ever seen a small cemetery, Dad, when you went for your exploration walks?"

"No, but I did see where a huge old oak tree had been apparently struck by lightning and it had fallen. I think maybe we need to make a family excursion up there and see what we can find right after breakfast in the morning."

"I wish we had some way to let the sheriff know what we're planning so he could come and help." Penny was very concerned with what they might find. "But with or without the sheriff, I do think we need to see if we can at least find the graveyard."

Everyone agreed.

### Chapter Four

### Lost And Found

Next morning they ate breakfast and prepared to leave the house in search of the cemetery or Uncle Cliff. Before they could get started, however, a van pulled up out front. Sheriff Lampton and five members of the Ohio County Rescue Service alighted and came around to the back door.

"Good morning." The sheriff introduced the others with him and Ed indicated his family and their names. They looked up when they heard whistling and saw Johnny coming across the cow pasture.

When Johnny got there, Chrissy introduced Johnny to her family and JoJo introduced herself to the twins. She wiggled her head under their hands demanding to be petted. Chrissy turned to introduce Johnny to the sheriff but soon realized that wasn't necessary as he spoke to Johnny in a familiar way.

"Hi, Johnny. Are you continuing your friendship with Clifton's family?"

Johnny assured him that he was.

"We were about to set out on a search for Clifton. Would you want to go along?"

"Is there any way I might be able to help?"

"You just might, Johnny, if you know the location of the little cemetery where Aunt Lorraine is buried."

"Oh, yes, and sure I do. Shall I point or lead the way?" Johnny winked at Chrissy and she was thrilled with his Irish brogue.

"If you have the time, we would appreciate a guide. We're trying to see if we can find a sign of where Uncle Cliff might be. Sheriff Lampton has made inquiries in town as to his possible whereabouts and no one seems to know."

"When did you last see him, Johnny?"

"It was the middle of June, Sheriff. I didn't think he looked well; but he assured me he was fine."

"Uncle Cliff's journal mentioned Johnny's visit. It said he wasn't feeling well but he tried not to worry Johnny about it."

"Well, let's go see what we can find, people. We men will go look and the rest of you should wait here if you don't mind." Johnny had already taken off in the direction he figured Mr. Coy would have taken to go to the cemetery.

In less than an hour, they were all back. Ed looked at Penny. "We found him, Honey, and as we feared, he's gone. Since he died alone, there will have to be an investigation by the coroner and a coroner's inquest, I suppose. But it seems pretty cut and dried. He was at the gravesite, lightning hit the old oak tree, and it toppled over on top of him. Until the tree is removed, there won't be any way to tell if he died before the tree fell or because of the falling tree. But, at any rate, he's out of his misery and we can be glad of that even though we're sorry to have lost both of them."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Wroe; but it does look as if he died instantly either of a heart attack or when the tree fell, so I don't think he suffered. We'll go on back to town, get the coroner, and bring him back out here. We'll get this finished up as soon as possible. My condolences, Mrs. Wroe."

"Thank you, Sheriff; all of you, thanks." Penny didn't have to pretend to be upset. With the reading of his journal, they had all come to think of him as one of their own even before they knew he actually was. Therefore, the tears were genuine and the sorrow a true emotion.

Later that afternoon, the coroner confirmed the cause of death as a heart attack. Tests showed that he had been dead, possibly for several hours, before the tree struck him as it fell. It did pin the body down and prevent predators from attacking the body. Insects alone had had access and, therefore, the deterioration of the flesh had been slower and undisturbed by wild birds and animals. Even after almost a month, the remains could still substantiate that the cause of death was a heart attack. It was determined no inquest would be necessary and the body could be released for burial immediately.

"I know Uncle Cliff would certainly want to be buried next to Aunt Lorraine." Penny was as sure of this as she would have been if she had heard him say it. "I'm afraid we know almost nothing about his friends and acquaintances here. Are there other people whom we should notify of the burial? I don't think we need a formal funeral unless he had more friends than we're thinking he probably did. The body, of course, would not be viewable so if no one objects, I think we'll have only a graveside service."

"I'm in agreement. I would suggest you talk to Bro. Mosser at the Baptist Church about the service. I believe that's where they went to church when they were able to go. I'd be glad to suggest he come see you if you'd like me to."

"Thank you Sheriff. That would be much appreciated. I guess we'll need to talk to the undertaker, too, and arrange for a coffin with all the accessories, flowers, and everything. He'll also need a good monument. The makeshift one that was there was broken to bits by the falling tree, they said. It will need to be a triple headstone—one for Aunt Lorraine, for Uncle Cliff and for Baby Cliffie, or actually one headstone with all three names. I'll have to do some research somewhere to get exact dates of births and deaths. I have a general idea but nothing definite."

"I'm sure you would be able to get those dates at the library or the health department, Mrs. Wroe."

"Thanks, again, Sheriff."

Penny began a more thorough search of the old roll top desk. She somehow felt freer to look than she had before she knew for sure Uncle Cliff was dead. She had no trouble thinking of the old man as her uncle. Even though she had never really known him, it seemed as though she had. She did feel quite close to him after looking through the family picture album and reading his journal. And there was apparently no one else to care. She had been searching for no more than half and hour when she discovered their birth certificates and some other papers in the back of a drawer. They were fastened together with a rubber band that snapped in two as soon as she barely touched it. As she went through the little bundle, she also found dates for Baby Cliffie's short life. He had lived just three days. Also, in the little handful of documents were Aunt Lorraine's death certificate and another official-looking paper. As she unfolded it, she saw that it was Clifton Coy's last will and testament.

As she read it, tears formed in her eyes. She read:

*

I, Clifton Calhoun Coy, being of sound mind, do hereby bequeath my entire estate and all the worldly goods that I possess to my niece, Penelope Langley, if she can be found. If she cannot be located, then I care not what becomes of any of my belongings, except that I want Johnny O'Reilly to have my old shotgun. He knows where it's hidden. The only other thing I ask is that I be laid to rest in a grave beside my lifelong sweetheart, Lorraine, and our baby and that the little graveyard be shown the respect and reverence a final resting place deserves. Witness my hand this 14th day of June, 2005.

*

Tears were flowing freely now and Penny could almost feel the hopelessness in the last official words written by the old man. The will was signed but it hadn't even been witnessed, a testament to his lonely and solitary existence as well as his last wishes. Penny wished fervently that they might have arrived early enough to alleviate some of that loneliness before the end came.

The next few weeks found the curtain closing on the Coy family. Almost no one came to the funeral but the Wroes' readings in Clifton Coy's journal didn't mention many friends. It seemed that they had pretty much lived as hermits for the last several years, keeping almost exclusively to themselves. Johnny and his dog were about the only visitors that were referred to at all.

When the monument was set, the little graveyard looked most presentable and Ed and Johnny built a picket fence around the site. Penny made weekly trips up the hill to put fresh flowers on the graves from the flower beds she was sure Aunt Lorraine had made and loved.

As autumn approached, the fruit in the little orchard began to ripen and Ed carefully picked the apples and peaches and a few pears. They gathered almost two full bushel baskets of apples, carefully wrapped each apple in newspaper and put them into a flat box to store under one of the beds. Those with bad places, she turned into apple jelly. The cool, dark space there should let them keep until Christmas. The peaches were peeled and put into freezer bags with sugar and put into the big freezer in the pantry. The pears they ate as they ripened except they froze a few packages of them in freezer bags. They expected an even better crop by next fall if Ed could take care of them better next spring.

Occasionally, Chrissy would wake up in the morning to a beautiful little bouquet of flowers and she still didn't know how they got there; but somehow they always made her think of Johnny. The bouquet was especially pretty this morning. And then she remembered: she was nineteen years old today. With so much going on for the last several weeks, it was entirely possible that no one would remember that it was her birthday. She still couldn't begin to explain how Johnny got the flowers on her nightstand and maybe it wasn't even him doing it. She wished she could wake up and catch whoever or whatever was leaving them for her. At any rate, they were beautiful; but she still hadn't mentioned the flowers to her family. Somehow, they seemed too personal to share with anyone else...

She went downstairs after she got dressed. It sure was going to be another hot August day. She wondered—.

"Surprise! Happy Birthday!" Everyone was singing, 'happy birthday'; even Johnny was there and they had hung the family room with balloons and streamers and a birthday cake was arranged on the coffee table with plates, forks, napkins and everything. Chrissy was truly surprised and extremely pleased. She truly didn't expect them to remember much less to plan a surprise. She was so touched, she had to turn her head and wipe the tears from her eyes.

"We didn't know what to get you for your birthday, but here are your gifts, Chrissy. Open them." Her mother was excited for her.

"Oh, Mom, the beautiful winter jacket is great and I did need it. Now, what on earth is this big one?" Chrissy began tearing paper and soon revealed the shiny, cedar hope chest her Dad had made for her. It would hold a lot of stuff she thought as she opened it to see inside. A small foldout compartment was fastened into the lid and as she shoved it up to fold into the lid, she saw some things had been placed in the bottom of the chest. She pulled them out and was suddenly crying.

"Oh, Mom, this is one of the quilts Grandma Langley made, isn't it? And this is the only one you had that Grandma Gertie made; both of them are completely hand sewn. And where did this one come from? Did I see this among the things in the linen closet? I'll bet Aunt Lorraine made this one. And there's still another one. Oh, Mom, this is one you made when I was just a little girl. I must have been about Candy's age. You can't imagine just how proud I am of all of them; and Dad the chest is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I never expected to have anything this nice. Thank you so very much." As they were hugging and kissing, the third floor ghosts slammed the doors—not once but three times. "I think that says the ghosts approve, too."

"We made you a card, Chrissy." The twins needed some attention, too.

"Oh, I want to see it; right now! Oh, how wonderful. You even made the envelope, too, didn't you? Let's see inside. Did you write all this yourselves? I didn't know you could do this good! 'Happy Birthday, Chrissy. We love you so much!' And it's signed, 'Andy and Candy.' Thanks a bunch. It means much more since you did it yourselves."

"Well, of course, Mom helped us but she let us do the writing as she showed us how."

"It's, really special and I'm going to keep it in my hope chest right here in the little top drawer where I'll keep all my special treasures from now on."

Candy and Andy were pleased with themselves as Chrissy hugged and kissed them as she had her folks.

"Oh! Thank you all for remembering. Thanks for all the work you did to celebrate and to make my gifts and give me a special day. Can you believe I'm nineteen years old?"

"No, I can't! It seems it's been no more than a couple of years since I was changing your diapers." Penny was about to cry, too.

"Oh, Mom, you don't have to bring up things like that! That's embarrassing!" Chrissy couldn't quite look at Johnny; she was too mortified.

"Well, at least I haven't brought out the pictures of you without your diaper on the white chenille bedspread." Everybody laughed; Chrissy, too, but it didn't seem quite as funny to her as it did everybody else. This time she did look sideways at Johnny. He was laughing, too, and Chrissy turned several shades of red.

"May I help you take your beautiful chest up to your room, Chrissy?" It was apparent that Johnny was feeling somewhat left out, too.

"Sure, I'll appreciate it a lot." They got it up to her room and set it at the end of her bed and then Johnny gave her the card he had bought the week before when Ed had mentioned that Chrissy's birthday was coming up.

"This isn't much but I wanted to let you know I was thinking about you on your birthday. Happy Birthday, Christina Marie."

Chrissy opened it and the front of the card said, 'To Someone Very Special, Happy Birthday." Inside it had a tiny bouquet of for-get-me-nots that looked very much like the first flowers he had left for her. It said, "I know this is a special day/When dreams can all come true/But it couldn't be as super/As extraordinary you." He had signed it: "With Love, Johnny."

"Thank you, Johnny. I'll treasure this, too." She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Then she put the card in the little tray in her hope chest where she had said she'd keep all her special keepsakes.

It did turn out to be a truly special day and everyone enjoyed it very much, especially Chrissy and Johnny.

The middle of August, Ed and Chrissy went to Fordsville for supplies. While they were there, Ed also arranged for telephone service at the farmhouse. He hadn't thought there should be a problem since there had been service there before. He went to the post office to check on getting mail service, too, and was told they would bring his mail to the junction where his drive left the main road if he would put up a mailbox. He now had a telephone number and an address.

His next stop was at the Rural Electric Co-op where he changed the electric bill into his name.

He used the public pay phone to notify the Social Security Administration that Clifton Calhoun Coy had passed away in order that his social security account could be closed. He had picked up all the mail from the post office that had accumulated since Uncle Cliff's death and he got his social security number from the bank statement.

While he was near the phone, he decided to try to find out how things were going in North Carolina. He called the man who had been his employee and friend in North Carolina and talked to him for a few minutes. Ed was anxious to know if his ex-partner had been found and prosecuted for the robbery Norman Jones had framed him for. Bill Blass had informed him that the police had received a tip that Jones had been spotted in Chicago, but when they found where the suspect had been living, he had just left. Nevertheless, they were still on his trail. Ed gave him the number where he could be reached at home as soon as it was connected and asked Bill to keep him updated on the situation.

Chrissy made one stop of her own while her Dad was on the phone. She went into a little gift shop, bought a small vase, and managed to zip it up inside her purse. She wanted something pretty to put her magic flowers in when they mysteriously appeared. They were so special to her that she wanted a vase for them instead of the old, discolored mug.

When Chrissy and her dad got home that evening, they found Johnny there with JoJo and the twins were having a wonderful time playing with the beautiful dog. Johnny volunteered to help unload the groceries and things they had brought back from town. One of the things he helped unload was a mailbox and post.

"Hey, Mr. Wroe, are you going to start getting mail service? Do you need help putting this up?" Johnny was anxious to help. It gave him an excuse to see Chrissy more often.

"Yes, I am and I would sure appreciate your help, Johnny."

It rained the next day and it was Friday before they could get the mailbox installed. While they were working on getting it up, a neighbor Ed hadn't met came by and Johnny introduced them.

"Mr. Tinsley, I'd like you to meet Edward Wroe. Mr. Wroe, this is Frank Tinsley. The Tinsley Family would be your nearest neighbors on the west. Mr. Wroe is living in the old Coy house."

The two men shook hands and liked each other right away. "Did you buy the old Coy place after Cliff died?" Mr. Tinsley asked.

"No," Ed explained. "Mr. Coy was my wife's uncle. After his heart attack, the place passed to her."

"Mr. Wroe has been doing a lot of work to the old house. You'd hardly know it was the same place. Right now, he's putting in new kitchen cabinets. He does beautiful work." Johnny knew Ed was sort of looking for odd jobs to do and he had also heard Frank say that he needed new kitchen cabinets.

"I'd love to see what you're doing, Ed. I've been wanting some new kitchen cabinets, but I don't have the tools or the knack for it." Mr. Tinsley took the bait just as Johnny figured he would.

"Well, why don't you and your family come over this afternoon and see what I'm doing and stay for supper. We'd love to get to know our neighbors. I think Uncle Cliff was almost a hermit; but we would really enjoy company." He hoped Penny wouldn't kill him for inviting them without giving her much notice. "You may come, too, Johnny. You won't let me pay you for your help so the least I should do is feed you." Of course, that suited Johnny just fine. Maybe he and Chrissy could squeeze in some time in the front porch swing.

Penny was quite pleased to have company and she fixed a delicious meal. She fried some pork chops, made mashed potatoes and gravy, put together a wonderful salad and Chrissy baked a fabulous angel food cake for dessert.

Frank and DeDe (her name was Cordelia but she insisted on the shorter version) were delightful guests. Penny remembered seeing them at the graveside service for Uncle Cliff but they hadn't stayed around after the service was over. Their son, Devon, was eight and while somewhat boisterous, was still nice. Two-year-old Maria was absolutely a joy. Her sweet personality made everyone fall in love with her.

Frank fell in love with Ed's cabinetry, too, as did DeDe.

"Ed, do you think we could get you to give us a bid on fixing some cabinets for us?" The Tinsley's seemed extremely excited about the possibility.

"I'd be glad to," Ed told them. He was excited, too. He had made a good-sized dent in the funds from selling their house in North Carolina and he needed to make some money.

"What type of wood do you want your cabinets made from?" Ed knew that would have to be part of the bid estimate.

"How about if I furnish the materials and you provide the labor and expertise? I work as a logger. I could get some lumber sawed and planed for the project and you have the tools to do the rest. It would likely be oak or walnut. We're working virgin woodland, right now, so it could probably be my choice."

"That would be perfect."

"Hey, you know what? I could get some lumber for you pretty cheap, too, at least compared to lumberyard prices. Would that be something you'd be interested in?"

"Of course. There are still several projects around here that need to be done. I could use some good lumber."

While the men talked business and drank coffee in the dining room, the women went into the family room and Johnny and Chrissy wandered out to the front porch swing.

"I enjoy listening to the way you talk, Johnny. Is that an Irish brogue?"

"My father was Irish. He met my mother, Janet Thorne, when he came through here with a crew working on electric lines. They stayed in this area a little over six months and when it was time to move on, he found he couldn't leave my mom. He asked her to marry him and when her folks said, 'no' they eloped. They came back a couple of years later to see Grandmother when Great-grandpapa died but she had become terribly bitter at Mom. So they left again and went back to Ireland. I was born there and that's where I grew up. A couple of years ago, I decided I would come back and see if I could mend some fences with Grandmother. She tolerates me but she still can't forgive my mother. When things got too unpleasant up there at Grandmama's, I'd come down and visit with Mr. and Mrs. Coy. I'm still trying, though. Maybe one day before it's too late she'll ask them to come for a visit."

"Oh. I don't know what to say, Johnny. That's too sad and sweet at the same time."

"You're sweet, too." He had already stretched his arm across the back of the swing behind her and while he was talking he let it drop across her shoulders. Now he pulled her around to face him and brushed his lips tentatively across hers. She hadn't objected so he deepened the kiss until he felt her hand come up to tangle softly in his hair. The tickling sensation in her stomach startled her and made her draw away slightly; but then she was kissing him back and wishing the moment would never end.

"Oh, here you are!" It was Devon. "I wondered where you'd gone. I thought maybe you'd want to play a game with me. The babies don't know how to play anything," he said disgustedly.

Chrissy and Johnny looked into each other's eyes and sighed but went on into the living room and Chrissy got out a game called "Aggravation" which she thought Johnny would recognize as her way of saying Devon was an aggravation and they could continue their experiments later on. They hadn't played long when Mr. and Mrs. Tinsley decided it was time to go. Maria was already asleep and Devon had school the next day. It had been a nice evening, though, especially for Chrissy. She had stayed awake looking at the ceiling and daydreaming far into the night still feeling the thrill of Johnny's lips on hers. As she was finally dropping off to sleep, she thought she heard something on the third floor, but she still drifted off into deep sleep. Ghosts didn't scare her much anyway these days.

The following week, Ed and Penny took the documentation Penny had found in the old roll top desk and gave it to a lawyer. After Attorney Horace Lee had looked at all the paperwork, he asked the Wroes how he could help them.

"We'd like to be able to have the property in our name so that we would be responsible for the taxes, the insurance, and all that. The only problem is I haven't discovered a way to actually prove I am Uncle Cliff's niece. The will says 'Penelope Langley.' Parsons was the last name of my Aunt Genevieve who raised me after my parents died. They adopted me in order for me to have insurance coverage under Uncle Jack's work insurance. I don't have anything to show that 'Langley' was ever my last name. I go by 'Penny' now rather than Penelope, too, and that makes it even more difficult. If that gets to be too much of a problem, of course, we can simply let things remain as they are, pay the taxes and other obligations, and leave it in Uncle Cliff's name. We're hoping you can advise us the best way to handle this."

"What I would advise is to go ahead to probate with the will. If someone else should appear and register a claim for the property, we'll start worrying about proof at that point. If they don't, the records will show that you inherited the property from your uncle."

"That sounds wonderful Attorney Lee. Can you give us an idea how long this will take?"

"Anywhere between ninety and one hundred eighty days. With no complications, you should have a deed in your name within the next three months."

### Chapter Five

### Keeping Up With the Joneses

Things had been going fairly well, he thought. He had received enough money from the stuff he had stolen from Joe Mills to buy a half interest in a remodeling business. Moreover, who on earth would ever think of looking for Norman Jones in Kentucky? Particularly a small out-of-the-way place like Dundee. Bill Weedman hadn't asked any questions at all when he showed up with the money to invest in the business. They had put the partnership agreement in the name of Victor N. Jones which was his full name. He was known as Norman everywhere else but now the 'Victor' worked to help hide his identity.

After the incident at the bar in North Carolina, he had had no choice but to get the hell out of Dodge. Sally Denham hadn't had any right to come on to him as she had, get him all worked up and then try to say 'no' at the last minute. He honestly had not had any idea she was only fifteen years old or that she had been a virgin before that night. Of course, he had had too much to drink, too, but that wouldn't have been considered an excuse for rape. He couldn't even have tried to claim the sex had been consensual; with her that young, it would still have been statutory rape.

He felt really bad sometimes for framing Ed Wroe, his life-long friend, for the robbery, too. However, he had had to give himself time to fence the stolen property and get enough of a stake to relocate where nobody would find him. Besides, he was sure Ed could talk his way out of it or at least convince the jury there was reasonable doubt of his guilt. The cousin in Chicago had enough "connections" to be able to help him fence the stolen stuff. However, he couldn't get a job, because it would be too easy to locate him if he used his social security number.

He and Bill had a good job coming up that should last through most of the winter. Bill had asked him to come to Fordsville and see if he could find the particular drawer and door handles their customer wanted for the cabinets they were installing in the apartment building that was being built. If he couldn't find what he needed in Fordsville, he'd have to go on to Owensboro and try Lowe's Lumber or Home Depot there. Yeah, things were going pretty good. He didn't even have to pay his ex-wife the ridiculously high spousal support her lawyer had talked the judge into the last time she took him to court.

_Oh, there's the lumberyard and supply store and a parking place right up front. Whoa! Wait a minute. There's an SUV that looks exactly like the one Ed drove. It even has that silly diamond-shaped sign that said "_ Twins on Board" _that Norman had given him when they found out they were expecting two babies instead of one. Oh, shit! It has North Carolina plates, too. That couldn't possibly be Ed's vehicle. Could it?_ Norman drove on past but parked almost out of sight nearby. He sat hunched down in the seat and watched the front door carefully to see who came out to drive away in the car. _There come two men out the front door and it looks as if they're heading for the SUV with the North Carolina plates. No that one isn't him; too muscular and too short. But, damn, the other one IS Ed. How can that possibly be? Surely I'm imagining it's him. Maybe it's just my guilty conscience. No, it is definitely Ed. Now what on earth am I going to do? I wonder where he's living. He could be here in Fordsville or in Hartford or in any one of a dozen other little towns. Or even in Owensboro._ How would he be able to avoid running into him if he didn't know where he lived? He sure didn't want Ed to see him. After having framed him as he had, he couldn't blame Ed for turning him in and he sure couldn't afford to let that happen. And he had just been congratulating himself on how well everything was going.

Norman made a hasty decision. He'd follow him, but he'd have to stay at a safe distance behind him. It looked as though they were heading out of town, so he began to tail them. The weather was lousy; it had been drizzling all day and now it began to come down by the buckets full. He could barely make out the taillights up ahead. As he rounded a sharp bend in the road, they disappeared completely. Fearing he might lose them altogether, he sped up and thought to catch up with them any minute. When he had gone several miles without any sign of them, he decided they must have turned off somewhere, but where? He turned around in someone's driveway and retraced his route driving relatively slowly. The rain had diminished somewhat but he still almost missed the turn-off. A mailbox on the right said, "The Wroe Family" on the side of it.

"He lives back that road," Norman reasoned. He probably wasn't in town often. Did he dare take a chance on meeting him face to face at some point in time? If he stayed out of Fordsville, could he count on not being discovered? What other towns would Ed be likely to frequent? Actually, there wasn't any way to know, was there? What should he do? He couldn't just walk away. He would have to have some money for another fresh start. He knew Bill Weedman didn't have the funds to rescind their partnership agreement and give him his money back. What kind of bad luck would have him and Ed relocating to the same damn area? He wondered if there was any way he could talk to Ed, apologize, and convince him not to turn him in. No, he didn't think he could afford to take a chance on trying that.

_Oh, shit._ Looking at his watch, he realized that the lumberyard he was supposed to go to in Fordsville would already be closed before he could get back there. _The one in Owensboro stays open a half hour later but it'll be closed, too, before I could get there._ Now what was he going to do about that? What could he tell Bill as to why he didn't get the stuff he needed? Damn, when things went wrong, they went all the way wrong. Just when he thought things were looking up. Maybe he could pretend he had car trouble. Or maybe a flat tire. He'd have to think of something.

He sure couldn't tell him the truth. "Oh, I just saw a guy that I framed for grand theft because I had raped a fifteen-year-old girl and had to get out of town." No, that wouldn't go over too well. Bill wouldn't think too highly of that—particularly since he had two daughters who were teenagers. Well, he'd damn sure have to come up with something.

On the way back to Dundee, he finally came up with something he thought should work. "I'm sorry I'm late. The store in Fordsville didn't have what we needed." That would keep him from having to make another trip there and run the risk of seeing Ed again. "Then the car started making a funny noise and I decided I shouldn't go on to Owensboro. But, wouldn't you know it?—on the way home, it quit making the noise and now it's running fine again."

"Of course, I'm disappointed. I had thought we could start attaching handles in the morning. But if you couldn't get them, you couldn't get them."

"If you want me to, I can stay here and work while you go to Owensboro tomorrow and see if Lowe's has them."

"Well, I guess that would be alright." He thought Norman was being nice. He didn't realize that Norman was afraid to go anywhere right now for fear of running into Ed again. He'd have to go back there some night, though, and see exactly where Ed lived.

### Chapter Six

### Ghosts A-Plenty

"There it is again," Penny was considerably unnerved by all of this door slamming. "I'm going up there. Right now." She suited the action to the words and climbed the stairs quickly. She went into all the rooms and checked in each closet, cubbyhole, and corner. No one was there. She couldn't feel any drafts that would cause the doors to shut by themselves. While she was in one of the bathrooms, the door across the hall slammed again. Chrissy had been coming up the stairs when it slammed. She stifled a small scream but still forced herself to go on up the stairs.

"Where are you, Mom?" she called. She couldn't truthfully say she wasn't spooked but she wasn't afraid, either. "Mom."

"I'm in the bathroom across from your room, Chrissy. Did you slam a door before you called out to me?"

"No, it banged as I was coming up here. Mom, I think there's something you should know. I probably should have told you a long time ago." Chrissy pointed to a fresh bouquet of flowers on her nightstand. "I found the first little bunch of flowers on my nightstand the same morning I found the picture album. Ever since, they've been magically appearing two or three times a week. They have all been simple little clusters that you could find growing wild or in a flower bed—nothing extravagant or sophisticated. I liked getting them and it seemed so romantic. It felt a little more special if I kept it a secret. You're not mad at me, are you?"

"No, but it might have been better if you'd said something. I can't say I feel good knowing someone or something has been in your room in the middle of the night while you've been asleep. You don't have any idea how they've been getting there, do you?" Penny was aware that Chrissy and Johnny were interested in each other and he visited fairly often these days.

"No, I sure don't, Mom. I remember one night when I was about to drop off to sleep, I thought I heard something in the Coy's bedroom. However, I went on to sleep and nothing else happened that night. At least nothing that woke me up. I don't know what's going on. I really don't. I guess it is a little sinister, though. If they can get in to leave flowers, I guess they could do anything else they wanted to, too."

About that time, they heard JoJo bark and Johnny's whistling and so did the twins. Andy and Candy forsook the cartoons they had been engrossed in and ran out to play with JoJo. At almost the same time, they heard the SUV pull up out front. That meant Edward was home from working at the Tinsley's place.

Chrissy blushed when she asked her mom not to say anything about the goings-on in front of Johnny. "I'd be embarrassed if he knew I'd been getting flowers in the middle of the night. You understand, don't you, Mom?"

"Okay, but as soon as Johnny leaves, we'll put the little ones to bed, and we'll discuss this thoroughly."

"Thanks, Mom."

Penny went directly into the kitchen and put supper on the stove to warm up before she put it on the table. Then she heard it again. The door that slammed this time, though, sounded as if it came from the third floor. They hadn't done a thorough job of searching up there. Maybe that was the next step.

Johnny stayed for supper.....again. It was getting to be a habit but they didn't actually mind a great deal. He was a very likeable young man; they weren't sure but that he and Chrissy were getting too friendly, too fast. However, they didn't think it would be likely to get too serious. After a while, it was Andy and Candy's bedtime so they put them down for the night and Johnny and Chrissy slipped off to the front porch swing. Penny began telling Ed about the doors slamming and about Chrissy's flowers that showed up on her nightstand two or three times a week. That troubled Ed as much as it had Penny.

"Do you think he," Ed nodded toward the front porch, "could be doing that? He is obviously quite taken with Chrissy, but I don't know. I don't like the idea of him or anyone or anything else being in Chrissy's bedroom when she is asleep—or even if she's not asleep."

"I think we need to talk to her and try to figure some things out. Moreover, another thing I think we need to do is to do a thorough search through the third floor. We've gone up there; but we've never done a systematic investigation."

"I agree." Ed went to the front door and turned on the porch light. "Chrissy, it's time to call it a night. Johnny, if you still want to help me at the Tinsley's tomorrow, I'll see you about seven in the morning."

"I'll be here Mr. Wroe. Goodnight. Goodnight, Chrissy. I'll see you tomorrow, too."

When Chrissy came inside, they began to discuss the unnatural events that had been happening including her flowers.

"Dad, I promise I have no idea how the flowers get there. They're always there when I wake up in the mornings; but I've never seen anyone or any—. "At that moment, they again heard a door slam but far enough away it sounded as though it were on the third floor again.

"Get the flashlights, Penny, we're going up there. I hope it didn't awaken the twins." But all seemed quiet as they went up the stairs to the second floor. They walked as quietly as possible down the hall to the stairway that leads to the top floor. They tried to balance their weight near the ends of the steps being as stealthy as they could. When they reached the top of the stairs, they noticed the door at the entrance was open a crack. Ed opened it gently and stuck his head inside; the beam from the flashlight slithered from side to side throwing eerie shadows everywhere. He flipped on the lights in the hallway and the three of them tiptoed down the hall looking in each room they came to in turn. They were about to open the last door when suddenly they felt a drafty chill and the entrance door at the other end slammed shut. Penny and Chrissy both emitted a little startled scream and Ed even gasped audibly.

"Where in the hell did that gust of air come from? Let's go back through each room and see if there's a window open or something that could have caused the door to close." They went on into the last room and checked that room thoroughly finding nothing amiss. Only two bedrooms were up there on one side of the hallway and on the other side was only unfinished storage space. No light fixtures had ever been installed in the storage area but they did a fairly extensive search with the flashlights. They carefully went through the other bedroom and the closets in each as well as the bathroom on that level. They found absolutely nothing. When they were about to open the door that had slammed at the head of the staircase, they stopped abruptly. Ed put his finger to his lips in a shushing gesture and motioned them to turn off the flashlights and he flipped off the hallway lights. They stood so they wouldn't be seen as they watched the door slowly open on creaky hinges. Ed had his hand on the light switch and when the door was fully open, he pushed the light switch up, and everybody screamed. The activity above their heads had alarmed the twins and when they hadn't been able to find their parents or their sister, they had sneaked upstairs to see what was going on. The screams, though, gave way to giggles, the giggles turned into laughter. However, the laughter suddenly became cries of terror. The cold gust of wind seemed to rush past them—or through them—and once again, the door slammed shut in their faces.

It was a solemn and sober quintet who went back down to the first floor. They huddled together on the couch, rubbing their hands up and down their own arms trying to dispel the icy cold effects of the third floor experience.

"D-Daddy, do you th-think that was a g-ghost up there?" Andy was shivering and his stammering was completely out of character.

"Oh, don't be silly, Andy, there's no such things as ghosts; right, Mama?" Candy's teeth were chattering.

Chrissy pulled an afghan off the back of the couch around her shoulders and said nothing. She was thinking about her flowers and wondering if she would be finding any more on her nightstand. As much as she had enjoyed them, she wasn't sure she wanted any more magic flowers.

Ed and Penny did their best to reassure the kids, but that wasn't easy when they felt they might need some nerve pills themselves. Even though they didn't sleep well, no more manifestations disturbed them during the remainder of the night.

The first thing Chrissy did when she opened her eyes the next morning was check her nightstand for flowers. It was empty. The only things on it were a lamp, a clock, and a box of tissues. A few moments later, her mom knocked on the door and poked her head in to check also and she looked relieved at the absence of flowers.

Johnny came in and had a cup of coffee with them before going with Ed to help with the cabinet building at the Tinsley's place. The twins came down while they were still drinking their coffee.

"Where's JoJo, Johnny?" Andy wanted to know.

"JoJo is about to have puppies, Kids, any day, now."

"Oh, how many baby puppies will she have?" Candy asked excitedly.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

"I wish JoJo had been here last night. Maybe she could have catched the ghost before it scared us nearly to deaf." Andy still wasn't feeling too confident.

"Ghost? Where was a ghost?" Johnny asked.

"Oh, ever since we've been here, we hear doors slamming and we've had some other peculiar events that are certainly difficult to explain: things appearing without us knowing how or why or by what means. I'm sure eventually we'll figure everything out, but last night was unnerving." Ed tried to sound matter-of-fact. "Well, I guess we'd better be underway, Johnny, if we're going to get anything done to those cabinets today."

Two weeks later Ed and Johnny had the job done and some totally satisfied customers. They had also been asked to make a bid on another job. The Ohio County Board of Education was taking bids on various facets of the new school building that was under construction. Ed had told his family that Johnny was learning exceptionally fast and was as good a helper as he had ever had. He'd also offered to hire Johnny for the new job if they were the successful bidders and if Johnny was interested. Johnny had declared he really enjoyed the work and could certainly use the money. Ed had estimated that the new job would probably take about three months to complete. Johnny had said the only thing he would need to do was to get up some wood for his grandmother before cold weather. Ed would need some firewood also so they decided to work together to get the wood for both families. The deal was set.

Ed and Johnny started to work on getting the wood for winter fuel while they waited to see if they would get the job they had bid on. The sealed bids would be opened on September 15 and as soon as they had that decision, they would be able to plan their winter's schedules. Ed was pretty confident that his bid would be low because of the good deal Frank Tinsley was offering Ed on the lumber from Frank's property. He could pass his savings on to the customer and that let him make a lower bid on the job. There would be a supplies cabinet in each classroom of the school that was being built as well as cabinets and storage bins in the kitchen and pantry of the school lunchroom. Various other cabinets were located in different areas of the school and Ed had studied the blueprints carefully before making his bid. Actually, he had done a similar job in North Carolina and he remembered the costs involved with that work and that helped, too.

On the day of the bid opening, Ed and Johnny were genuinely excited. Johnny had already decided he would give Chrissy an engagement ring for Christmas and this was his chance to earn the money to pay for it. Of course, Johnny had the money his Grandfather O'Reilly had left him in his will. It amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars but Johnny still felt it would somehow mean more if he earned the money himself. His Grandmother Lydia didn't even know he had the money even though he had used some of it to fix little things around her house up on Thorne Hill. Their needs there were simple and he enjoyed hunting and fishing to provide meat for them for food.

As soon as they had announced that Ed Wroe was the successful bidder on the cabinetry, Ed told Johnny that they should celebrate and that he had something important to discuss with him. They went down to McAfee's Restaurant and ordered hamburgers and tater tots. They ate most of their celebration meal in silence and then Ed got serious.

"Johnny, I've decided I don't want you to work for me any more."

Johnny was totally devastated. "But Ed, I thought you said I had been working well and doing a good job! You asked me to come with you today to see if 'we' got the bid. Why would you suddenly want to fire me?"

Ed grinned mischievously. "Because I want you to be my partner," he announced. "You've learned very quickly and you're such good help, I don't feel right about not sharing the profits with you. I want you to be my partner, that is, if you want to, Partner." Ed held out his hand and Johnny took it enthusiastically.

"Man, you had me worried there for a minute," Johnny said, getting a long breath. "I'd love to be your 'Partner in Crime,'" he said in jest.

"Oh, don't say it that way." Ed was remembering his last partner. "I guess it's about time I told you what happened with my last colleague." Ed took a newspaper clipping out of his billfold and placed it on the table between them. "This guy worked with me, side by side. We went to school together and I thought he was the last person in the world who would do something to hurt me. I considered him a friend. However, as you can see from the story, Norman stole around twenty thousand dollars worth of property from our last customer and framed me for the crime. I was arrested and tried and Norm testified that he saw me take the stuff. When my attorney proved I hadn't done it, Norman skipped town, went to Chicago or somewhere, and left me to face the consequences. Moreover, even though, I was found not guilty, my reputation sustained enough damage that I decided it would be better to leave town and ply my trade in a new place. That's how I ended up here. I thought maybe you should know what I had been accused of before you agreed to join the firm of Wroe and O'Reilly, Contractors."

"Hey, that was a hateful thing for somebody you thought of as a friend to have done to you. He sure doesn't appear to be the kind of guy who would do something like that." Johnny studied the picture and the police description. His age, it said, was thirty-nine; he had sandy hair and moustache; blue eyes; five feet eight inches tall and weighed one hundred seventy pounds. Under distinguishing marks and characteristics it listed a tattoo of a hammer on his right forearm and that he walked with a noticeable limp. He also, it said, wore glasses.

"I know. I still have to wonder why he would have done that to me. Well, that's water under the bridge. We'll just start from here, Johnny. Okay?"

"This says he has a limp. Was he in an accident or something?"

"No, it was a birth defect. I guess he always felt sort of left out. He didn't feel he could compete in sports or anything. Except for me, Norman never had many friends, I guess. As I said, though, this is a new day and we start from here."

"Okay. There is something I need to talk to you about. I plan to ask your daughter, Chrissy, to marry me in the spring and I wanted to know that you didn't have any serious objections. I haven't mentioned it to Chrissy yet, and I wanted your blessing before I do."

"Johnny, I think my daughter would be a lucky girl to have you for a husband and I'm sure Penny will feel the same way. Just think; I've gained a partner and a prospective son-in-law all in one day as well as what should be a lucrative job. Congratulations to both of us." Ed clapped Johnny on the back and they got to work deciding what materials they would need first.

A few days later, on Sunday afternoon, Johnny asked Chrissy to go for a walk with him.

"I've got something to show you and somebody I want you to meet."

Chrissy looked at her dad for permission and Ed with a twinkle in his eyes nodded his assent.

"Can we go, too?" Andy and Candy asked in unison.

"No you _may_ not; not this time," their parents insisted.

Johnny and Chrissy began walking toward Thorne Hill hand in hand.

"I also have something to ask you." Johnny kissed Chrissy as they turned toward each other. "I've grown to love you more and more. More than I ever thought I'd love anybody. I've put a down payment on a set of rings and I want to give you the engagement ring for Christmas. This is a sweetheart ring that I hope you will wear until Christmas." He had taken the little square box out of his pocket and now he offered it to her. "Will you be my sweetheart for the rest of my life and my wife, eventually? I love you and I'll always be good to you and try to make you happy. Do you love me just a little, Honey? Will you at least think about it?"

"I don't think I could ever love you 'just a little,' Johnny. I already love you so much my heart is about to burst. Yes, I'll be your sweetheart, now and I'll be proud to be your wife, too. Oh, Johnny, I'm so happy! I was so afraid maybe you didn't feel about me the way I did for you."

"I think I've been in love with you from the first moment I saw you." Johnny hadn't told her, yet, that the first time he had seen her had been on the front porch that first day when they ran out of gas.

### Chapter Seven

### True Confessions

Johnny had stayed awake and walked the floor the night before wondering how much he should tell Ed and his family. It had started out as sort of a prank. He had been on his way down to see if Old Mister Coy had come home yet when he saw the car stalled on the road and the family of strangers walking down the road to Clifton's house. He figured he owed it to Clifton to make sure nobody burglarized his place while he wasn't there or take advantage of him if he had come back. He had watched as they entered the house unbidden and then Johnny had sneaked into the secret passage that Mr. Coy had shown him a few years earlier. It was built right on the side of the house with a sloping floor that led to the second story and on up to the third floor as well. A secret door was hidden back in the darkest corner of the Coy's bedroom and the grill in the floor allowed heat to enter from the first floor and the person listening above to hear every word that was said on the first floor. When he had heard the women talking about the suitcases and how they wished they had them, he had sneaked down to the kitchen, got the car keys out of Ed's pocket, went up the road to the stalled SUV and brought the suitcases back to the porch. Afterward, he put the keys back in Ed's pocket. He had thought of it as a prank, but then he didn't quite know how to tell them, so he just kept it to himself. The same with the five gallon can of gasoline he had put in the gas tank. He had to work hard not to laugh aloud as they puzzled about who, what, and how it had been accomplished.

He had also known where the Coy's family picture album was kept and had left it and the forget-me-nots on Chrissy's nightstand. She had looked absolutely beautiful and innocent lying there asleep and he had wanted badly to wake her and hold her in his arms. But, of course, he knew he had to wait. He had been out behind the storage shed when he had heard Andy and his Dad talking about meat for the barbeque and had decided to get the rabbits for their July 4 celebration. He thought the fireworks had been a nice touch, too. As he was setting them off, he could almost see the reflection of the stars in Chrissy's eyes. She still had stars in her eyes and he knew now they were there shining with love for him.

They had been climbing steadily when they suddenly came in sight of a large house and several outbuildings. Johnny stopped before one of them and unbuttoned the door. He stepped inside pulling Chrissy with him. The light was dim inside but as her eyes adjusted Chrissy could see a shape in the corner and could just make out JoJo lying there wagging her tail. Johnny spoke softly to the dog and patted her head as they knelt beside her.

"It's alright, JoJo, we won't hurt your puppies. I just want to show Chrissy how tiny and sweet they are. Okay, JoJo? That's a good girl." Johnny reached to the edge of her belly and pulled out one tiny little fur ball that squeaked weakly as Johnny placed the squirming puppy in Chrissy's hand. The puppy began to root around trying to find her mama's nipple to feed on. Instead, it latched onto Chrissy's little finger and began to suck hungrily. Chrissy stroked its soft almost white fur tenderly.

"Oh, they are precious! How many puppies did she have?"

"She had three and they all seem healthy. When they are old enough to be weaned, I'm going to see if your Mom and Dad will let the twins have one apiece."

"Oh, they will be thrilled!" JoJo began to whine softly and exhibited some signs of anxiety. Johnny reached for the pup and put it back gently beside her. The mother dog sniffed the puppy and began to wash it gently with her tongue.

"Maybe we can bring Andy and Candy next time to see them when the puppies are older and JoJo won't be quite as protective. Now, I want my grandmother and you to meet each other. Will you come into the house?"

"Yes, I suppose. Do you think she'll like me? I'd just die if she doesn't."

"You need to know, she doesn't actually seem to enjoy much of anything these days. After her daughter eloped with my dad and moved to Ireland, she became very bitter. Please don't be too hurt if she doesn't seem too overjoyed to meet you. Okay?"

Mrs. Thorne looked up as the two of them walked into the kitchen. "Johnny, where is our other milk cow? I know we had three and I can only find two."

"I know, Grandmother. I loaned it to some friends of mine and she's being well taken care of."

"You're sure they're feeding her good and keeping her milked morning and night? You know she'll be ruined if she isn't kept on a regular schedule."

"Yes, Grandmother."

"Well, are you going to introduce your girlfriend or not? I assume she's your girlfriend since you haven't turned loose of her hand since you came in here." She still sounded cross and irritable, but she hadn't ordered Chrissy to get out or anything, which let Chrissy breathe easier.

"Grandmother, this is Chrissy Wroe, the girl I plan to marry sometime next spring. Chrissy, this is my grandmother, Lydia Thorne."

Chrissy blushed prettily and offered her hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Thorne." We just came from seeing JoJo's puppies. They're such sweet little balls of fur. And JoJo seems so proud of them."

"Well, sit down girl so I can get a look at you without breaking my neck looking up. I guess if you're going to marry my grandson, you may as well call me 'Grandmother.' You are a pretty little thing, you seem to have good manners, and you like animals. Those are all points in your favor. I'll have to have more time, though, before I decide if you're good enough for my grandson." Her voice was somewhat gruff but she almost smiled.

They visited a few more minutes and they said their good-byes. "Will you come back and see me again, Chrissy?" she asked and Johnny almost gasped in surprise.

"Of course, Grandmother. I'll be back real soon."

Johnny could talk of nothing else except his grandmother's seeming acceptance of Chrissy. "I can't believe she treated you so civilly. She almost smiled at you and asked you to come back. That's absolutely unbelievable, Chrissy. I am so glad she likes you, Honey."

"Me, too." Chrissy was elated.

When they returned to Crissy's house, she talked a mile a minute.

"You all should have seen the puppies! They are the sweetest little things. They're so tiny and nothing but little balls of fur. They don't even have their eyes open, yet. They are absolutely adorable. And Mama, I want you to go with me next time we go to see Grand—Mrs. Thorne. She appears to want to be disagreeable but she can't quite make herself. I think she's lonely, that's what I think. Anyhow, she asked me to come back soon. One of the puppies, when I held it in my hand, it nuzzled my hand and found the tip of my little finger and thought it had found its mother's nipple and she tried to suck on it. It was so sweet. You could tell JoJo was not too happy about me getting too close to her babies, but she was still gentle and when she began to whine and get nervous, we gave the puppy back and left quietly so we didn't get her too upset. She's a good little mother, though, and she wants to protect her babies—"

"Chrissy, —" Her mother tried to get a word in edgewise.

"But she was really patient and sweet with—"

"Chrissy, can you be quiet for just a minute, please, dear?" her mother asked with a very serious look on her face.

"I was just telling you about my afternoon. I thought you'd be interested, but if you're not I can go back outside or something." When Chrissy turned as if to go, her mother reached out, took her left hand and turned it to expose the Sweetheart Ring that Johnny had given her.

"I think I'd rather hear about this, if you don't mind."

"Oh, that." Chrissy blushed furiously and snatched her hand away. Johnny took her hand gently in both of his and looked at the four pairs of eyes waiting for an explanation.

"I've asked Chrissy to be my wife and she said 'yes.' I have an engagement ring and a wedding band ordered and they should be here before long." He looked at Candy and Andy and lightly asked, "What would you think of having me for a brother? When Chrissy and I get married, you'll be my little brother and sister. I think that'll be fun."

The twins were still somewhat shocked by the whole thing. They didn't completely understand what 'wife' and 'marriage' was all about but they did think they would enjoy having Johnny for a big brother.

Chrissy was still waiting for whatever would be forthcoming from her mom and dad. She had turned nineteen only a few weeks ago but she was still worried about her folks' reaction to Johnny's proposal.

Her mother's smile finally shone through and she hugged Chrissy. Johnny and Ed shook hands and Ed said, "Welcome to the family, Son." Of course, Chrissy and Penny both had to blow their noses and, as if on cue, a door slammed loudly upstairs.

"Well, apparently somebody doesn't approve of the idea, the way the door is banging," Penny laughed.

"Oh, but maybe, that showed their approval. Maybe it was meant as applause. Was that what it was?" She looked up and sure enough, the door banged again. Everyone laughed but somewhat nervously.

Johnny was still debating if he should tell the Wroe family about the part he had played in stirring up "ghosts" but, for sure, he hadn't been up there making noises that time.

A couple of weeks later, Chrissy and Penny walked up the hill to visit Lydia Thorne. "Mom, she asked me to call her 'grandmother,'" Chrissy told her mom. "I didn't want you to be surprised and I'd feel funny calling her Mrs. Thorne after she specifically asked me to use 'grandmother.'"

"Yes, of course, Honey. You should certainly do as she asks on that. It would be disrespectful if you did otherwise"

When they arrived and knocked on the door, Lydia opened it with her usual frown in place but her face brightened considerably when she saw Chrissy. She wasn't smiling and bubbly but she did look fairly pleasant and when Chrissy introduced her mother, Lydia shook her hand affably and invited them in. Chrissy had been so nervous she had barely looked at the room when she had been there the first time. While Lydia poured them all coffee, Chrissy took time to notice the neat, clean kitchen. There was nothing fancy about it, but, apparently, she had a place for everything and everything was in its place. The linoleum on the floor was worn but no dirt was visible anywhere. A small pot of begonias was blooming brilliantly on the windowsill that faced the east. There was also a large pot of purple African Violets beside it.

"This coffee is delicious," Penny said sincerely. "Do you have a secret? I seem to detect a hint of another flavor to it but I can't tell what it is."

This time Lydia did smile and Chrissy almost gasped. Lydia had a beautiful smile. It completely transformed her face and showed more than a hint of the beauty that had obviously been something really special in her youth.

"Yes, there's a secret ingredient that I add; but I've never told anyone what it is." Lydia seemed almost shy about it. "I think I want to share it with you, though. I add just one square of a Hershey's Candy Bar to a pot of coffee. It gives it a slight mocha taste, I think."

"Absolutely, that's it! And thank you for sharing that with me. I will start doing that at home, too, if I can hide the candy from the twins. That could be a problem, though," Penny laughed.

"Oh, you have more children than just Chrissy?"

"Yes, I have twins that are almost five years old: a boy, Andy Ray and a girl, Candy May. Would you like to meet them sometime? We're all almost as much in love with your Johnny as Chrissy is."

"I've been alone for a long time," Lydia spoke hesitantly and Penny was wondering if she would feel that two rambunctious children that age would be too much for her. "I think I've grown lonely and fed up with only myself and Johnny for company. Yes, I think I'd like that very much." Her face brightened again as she spoke decidedly. "When can you bring them to see me?"

"Lydia, I have an even better idea. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving and we'd love to have you come to our house for our Thanksgiving meal....that is, if you'll make the coffee."

Different emotions and changes came across her face as she thought about it, "I haven't been off this Hill since my husband died eight years ago. I never thought I would. I had expected to live and die right here; but—yes, I'd love to come for dinner if you're sure you want me."

"Of course, we want you, Lydia. We're going to need to get started planning Chrissy and Johnny's wedding anyway as soon as they set a date. Oh, I've been lonely, too, without any other women to talk to and visit with. This is going to be fabulous! I'm so excited."

"I am, too, Grandmother. We'll be a real family." Chrissy knelt down by Lydia's chair, threw her arms around her, and kissed her cheek. All three women had tears in their eyes when Penny and Chrissy left a short time later.

"We'll see you next Thursday, Lydia."

"I love you, Grandmother."

"I—I'll bring some pumpkin pies for dessert. They have a secret ingredient, too. We'll see if you can figure out what it is." Lydia had wanted to say, "I love you, too." However, it had been such a long time since she had thought she was capable of loving anyone, she had to think about it a while before she would feel comfortable saying it. Of course, she was fond of Johnny but she hadn't thought about actually _loving_ him. Nevertheless, she could almost feel the ice around her heart beginning to thaw and she found herself wanting to believe she might be able to love again after all.

Chrissy and Penny chatted excitedly all the way home making plans for their big meal on Thursday. When they arrived back at the house, they had even more to celebrate. Johnny had stayed with the twins while Ed went to town and when he came back he had stopped by the mailbox and found a big envelope from Attorney Lee inside. It contained the deed to the house and one hundred thirty-three acres.

"I didn't realize that much acreage went with the house. This is a nice-sized farm, isn't it?"

"And it's completely ours, now, Ed. We have a place that we love that belongs to us. I can hardly believe—"

"You've got to be kidding!" Chrissy had been extremely excited about Grandmother Lydia planning to come there for Thanksgiving, she couldn't wait to tell Johnny first thing. "You're sure? You're absolutely sure she agreed to come here for a meal? That is unbelievably wonderful. What did you do to her to get her to agree?" He picked Chrissy up and swung her around and around in celebration.

"She's going to make pumpkin pies to bring." Chrissy was bubbling over.

"Now do me," Candy said lifting her arms and Johnny obligingly whirled her around, too. Next, he tackled Andy, wrestled him to the ground, and tickled him until they were both breathless.

"Honey, I've got to go home," Johnny kissed Chrissy fervently, turned to Penny, and hugged her. "I can never thank you all enough for breaking through Grandmother's shell and giving her back to me. I do need to go home, though, and make sure she's okay. I sure do hope she doesn't change her mind. I'll see you all tomorrow. Bye."

"I didn't mean to take away from the importance and excitement over the deed and it all belonging to us, now. That is exciting and I'm truly pumped up about it. Johnny had talked to me, though, about how much he wished that his Grandmother did have friends and would stop being a total recluse; but he didn't really believe it would happen, no matter how much he wanted it. He had said he didn't expect her even to come to our wedding; but now she's agreed to help us plan it. Everything is wonderful!"

None of the Wroes would have felt quite so confident or happy if they had seen the stealthy figure that crept around the bend in the road and stood looking at their house for a long, long time that night. Norman didn't know what in the world he was going to do. That was definitely Ed's SUV setting out front. He sure as hell didn't want to go to jail and he knew if Ed saw him, that would be exactly where he was headed.

He wondered where in the world Ed had got the money to buy that huge old house. _It just isn't fair,_ he was thinking, _for Ed to have a three-story house and a big farm and me to have nothing. Haven't I always worked hard, the same as Ed? And, now if I can't take care of this problem some way, I'll have to take off again and this time I'll have absolutely nothing; not a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. I just can't let that happen! But what can I do? There has to be some way to fix this, but I'm damned if I know what._

Then in his mind's eye, he suddenly saw that big old house erupting in orange flames. He could almost see the smoke and fire as they engulfed the entire house. The colorful red and gold and orange tongues of fire flicking and flying, licking, tasting and then devouring everything until the whole structure came crashing onto itself and eliminating immediately all his problems. They would all be gone. There would be nobody left who could point a finger at him for any of his crimes. Hey, that could work. But could he actually set Ed's house on fire knowing that his wife and children as well as Ed might be burned alive? He shivered in the November chill but part of the feeling was the excitement of thinking about doing a deed like that. Could he do that? If he didn't do something, how long would it be before his past crimes were exposed? Rape, burglary, perjury. Any one of which could net him a long time in the penitentiary. Would arson really be any worse? However, that arson could lead to murder, too. Nevertheless, again, it was either him or Ed, so it would be sort of like self-defense, wouldn't it? This man had been his friend since first grade, though. He couldn't do that. Could he?

After a while, he turned and walked back around the bend in the road, got in his car and went back to his motel room in Dundee.

This wouldn't be the last time, though, that Norman considered arson and homicide as a solution to his problems.

***

Ed and Johnny went to work on Monday and the work was going well until they ran out of finishing nails. Johnny volunteered to go to the lumberyard and get some. He found what he needed at the store and waited in line to pay for them. Something was strangely familiar, he thought, about the man just ahead of him in line. When he reached around behind his back to get his billfold to pay for his items, Johnny noticed a tattoo of a hammer on his right forearm. That rang a bell, but he couldn't remember from where. When he walked out of the store, he noticed he was walking with a slight limp and suddenly it hit him. That was part of the description given in the newspaper article Ed had shown him about his former partner. While he did wear glasses, though, he didn't have a moustache. Of course, he could have shaved it off to help hide his identity. He sure did look similar to the picture of Ed's ex-partner. The same partner who had framed him for burglary and testified against Ed in court. He looked to be in his late thirties; his hair was too black to be natural and was pulled back in a ponytail. Johnny hurried outside to his car and watched as the man he was almost sure was Norman Jones got into a white Honda and drove out of the yard. The door on the passenger side was dented deeply and the back bumper was missing altogether. He found a piece of paper and a stub of a carpenter's pencil and scribbled down the license plate: JEA-915 and it was a Kentucky plate.

Now Johnny didn't know what to do again. Should he tell Ed what he had seen or keep it to himself and try to investigate on his own? He hated to get Ed upset when this guy could turn out to be somebody who had been born and raised here and just happened to resemble Norman Jones. He finally decided not to worry Ed until he was sure he had cause for concern.

Thanksgiving finally arrived and Johnny pulled into the driveway at Ed and Penny's house at precisely eleven o'clock. Everyone ran out to meet them and Chrissy and Penny helped Lydia into the house. Johnny and Ed each carried in a pumpkin pie that looked delicious and smelled even better.

Andy and Candy had been warned in the strongest possible words to be on their best—very best—behavior and they were trying to keep their natural high spirits under control at least most of the time.

"Sit down right here, Grandmother, and let me take your coats and gloves. I'll go put them in the living room until later."

"Are you warm enough, Lydia," Penny asked and Lydia assured her that she was. Everybody, including Lydia, was all smiles. It was obvious that Lydia was a trifle nervous but everyone was determined that she should have a good time and soon she seemed completely at ease.

"Dinner will be ready in about a half hour. Chrissy, dear, you need to mash the potatoes while I make the giblet gravy. Andy and Candy, you need to go wash your hands and peel the hard-boiled eggs. Quickly, now. Johnny, would you please bring in another load of wood for the fireplace in the dining room and Ed, we need another load of wood for the family room and the living room as well."

"What can I do, Penny?" Lydia asked.

Penny grinned at her. "I told you I would need you to make the coffee, if you will. There's the coffee pot; the coffee and filters are in the cabinet above it. And the 'secret ingredient' is in the drawer below it. Take care the kids don't see you get it out. We may need more coffee later."

They both chuckled and Johnny, as he was coming through the back door with the load of wood, almost dropped the whole bunch when he heard his grandmother's laugh. He sighed happily and went on into the dining room, shaking his head in amazement at the change in her. He still had a difficult time believing it, but it was something he was most definitely happy to have the chance to get used to.

As they took their seats at the table, they clasped hands around the table and Ed asked the blessing. "Dear Father, we are very thankful today for many different things. We thank You for Johnny and Chrissy's new found love; we thank You for a new friend and neighbor, Lydia; we thank You for making this place our home; we thank You for the chance to work and earn our daily bread; and dear God, we thank You for this meal and the hands that prepared it. Keep us all in Your love and protection. Thank you, Father. Amen."

The meal was scrumptious and everyone enjoyed it immensely. After they had gone into the family room, they noticed that Candy and Andy were conferring in whispers over near the fireplace.

"What are you two whispering about?" Penny wanted to know. "I think I've told you that it isn't nice to whisper in public, haven't I?"

"Yes, Ma'am, but we have a question for Mrs. Thorne, if it's alright."

"I suppose it will be okay unless it's something too personal."

"That's what we were trying to decide—if it was too personal."

Lydia spoke up. "We're all friends, here, so ask whatever you want to, Kids."

They looked at their mother and waited for her nod of approval. "Well, since Johnny and Chrissy are getting married and we're all going to be sort of related to each other and—" Candy began.

"And since we don't already have one and Chrissy will—" Andy took over.

"Well, we were wondering if we—"

"—if you could be our grandmother, too?" They both looked hopefully at Lydia who by this time was smiling brightly through unashamed tears of joy.

"I think that is undoubtedly the most wonderful idea anybody ever had. Yes, yes, yes. I want very much for you to call me 'grandmother' and I will be proud to have such wonderful kids for my grandchildren. I think this is absolutely the happiest day of my life." Of course, there were hugs all around and more sniffing than at a snuff-users convention. The box of Kleenex was passed around and used generously.

Before long, Johnny and Chrissy had wandered off to the living room and were busy making plans of their own. After a while, they came back to the living room and said they had an announcement.

"We've set a date for the wedding." Johnny started.

"We want to get married on February fourteenth if that works for everyone. And do you think we could have the wedding here in the living room? We thought Daddy could walk me down the stairs," Chrissy looked up toward the upper regions of the house, "if the ghosts will allow it, that is." Everyone laughed but each of them rather expected a door to slam or something. Lydia looked a little nervous but they had explained to her earlier about the weird events that had taken place since their arrival.

"I don't know of anything that would keep that date from being perfect."

"I have one question," Lydia said hesitantly. "Will that leave enough time for your parents to get here from Ireland?"

"Oh, Grandmother, you truly won't mind if we invite them? I was so afraid their being here would make you uncomfortable. Chrissy, now I know our wedding will be absolutely perfect."

"It's high time I put all that nonsense behind me. With any luck, I still have a good-sized chunk of life yet to live and, by golly, I'm determined to live it. Just think, I've got two new grandchildren now, a new granddaughter come February, and who knows, maybe one of these days I'll even have a great-grandchild to spoil. If it's alright, I'll practice on these two." Lydia reached out for Andy and Candy and pulled them close. Chrissy and Johnny were looking at each other being a bit embarrassed but with enough warmth that they didn't actually need the fire in the fireplace. "We'll get in touch with Bruce and Janet as soon as possible so they have time to plan."

"This is just too good to be true. You've made me so happy, Grandmother."

"Oh! Enough, already. Hey, did anybody figure out the secret ingredient in my pumpkin pies?" Lydia was desperate to change the subject. Her new attitude was something she still hadn't become accustomed to and she wanted to go slow.

"Hey, I almost forgot about that." Penny was thinking about it. "I tasted nutmeg and cinnamon, I'm sure."

"Sugar," the twins said in unison.

"I'm figuring milk and butter," Ed guessed.

"Maybe cloves or allspice," Chrissy suggested.

"Pumpkin," Johnny laughed.

"So far you've got the recipe down pretty good. But you still haven't come up with the magic touch." Lydia was obviously enjoying this. "I think I may as well tell you. I use equal parts of regular field pumpkin and striped or crookneck pumpkin. I think it gives it a milder or softer taste."

"It was soft, alright," Candy chimed in.

"And delicious, too," Chrissy agreed. Everyone laughed. "Maybe Grandmother will share a bunch of her recipes with me as a wedding gift. Wouldn't that be wonderful, Johnny? It would take me a while, I know, to perfect them as she has, but I could have the basics from her and that would be a great start."

"I'll tell you what, Chrissy, why don't you come help me and you and I will fix dinner at my house for all of us? Maybe we could do Christmas dinner for everyone up on Thorne Hill."

"Oh, Lydia, are you sure that won't be too much for you to do? After all you are over fifty, I think and that's quite an undertaking."

"It's been thirty years since I thought about being fifty but if Chrissy will help me, I can give her a sneak preview of those recipes she seems to want so badly. Yes, I'd like that very much. Will you do that, Chrissy?"

"Of course, Grandmother, if you're sure you're up to it. I'd love to help and I'm sure we can put our Johnny to work, too." Chrissy squeezed his arm and he grunted in mock pain.

Later on, Chrissy went with Johnny to take his grandmother home and they took their time getting back home. It was a long way around by the road that went up to Thorne Hill. They were almost to the bend where the Wroe's SUV had run out of gas when Johnny stopped the car and pulled Chrissy into his arms.

"Just think, Sweetheart, in a little less than three months, we'll be getting married. Then you'll be mine and I'll be yours for the rest of our lives."

"Oh, Johnny, I already belong to you in my heart. I love you more than you can imagine. I always thought my Mom and Dad had a perfect marriage and I was just waiting until I could find someone who I thought could be the other half of a perfect marriage with me. I wasn't sure I could ever find that someone but I'm so glad I did. That first day I saw you coming across the yard, whistling, I thought you were the cutest guy I'd ever seen."

"You talk too much, Baby. Be quiet for a few minutes" He effectively silenced her with a deep, intimate kiss and though the late November chill was quite uncomfortable outside, the sparks that were flying inside the car made it seem warm and cozy. Johnny worked his hand up under her jacket and cupped her small firm breast, caressing it gently. Chrissy gasped audibly when he rubbed his thumb across her already taut nipple. His other hand was massaging the quivering muscles of her stomach and working its way lower. Her hands were tangled in his unruly red hair and her tongue was tangled with his in their own little dance of love.

He swallowed her moan of pleasure and pulled her closer. As his fingers touched her pleasure center, she cried out in an ecstasy she had never felt before. "Oh, Johnny! What are you doing to me? I've never felt this way before, ever. I'm not sure what to do, Honey. I don't want you to stop, but I've never—been with a man before and I'm kinda scared."

It cost Johnny, big-time, to put on the brakes but he suddenly realized that Chrissy was as innocent as he had first thought she was. And he just couldn't see the woman who would be his wife being taken for the first time in the front seat of a car. So he backed off, got several long, uneven breaths, and shifted his winter clothing that had become uncomfortably tight in several spots.

"Oh, Johnny, please don't be mad at me. I didn't mean to—" Chrissy was very close to tears.

"It's okay, Sugar. I didn't realize—everything will be fine. Just give me a moment to change gears."

It was at that moment that Johnny sensed movement in the road behind them. The other car's lights had been extinguished and the only thing visible was the brightly burning tip of a cigarette. _Oh, shit,_ he was thinking. _I hope that's not Ed back there. But this is a dead-end road; who else could it be? Where would Ed have gone, though, at this hour of the night? It couldn't have been Ed anyway because this driver was smoking._ He saw the back-up lights come on when the other driver put the car in reverse. Johnny knew there was a wide spot in the road just at the bend and he threw his car in gear, slid around in the road, and headed in the other direction. The other car had got turned around and was speeding away. Johnny couldn't get close enough to get a good look at the license plate before it got out of sight. But he did see that the rear bumper was missing. It was the same white Honda Civic that the man he was sure was Norman Jones had been driving.

It was becoming more and more difficult for Johnny to convince himself he was justified in withholding this information from Ed. What in hell would Norman Jones be doing sneaking down the dead-end road to Ed's place with his headlights off at this time of night? It was after eleven o'clock. Speaking of that, it was past time he should be getting Chrissy home, too. Her folks might be genuinely worried about her.

"Johnny, what on earth is going on, anyway? Why did you turn around and go after that other car and what was he doing sneaking up behind us? You've been so quiet. What are we going to do now? Oh, Honey, I've messed up everything, haven't I? I'm so sorry. I do want to belong to you all the way. It's just that I got scared and—"

"Chrissy, Baby, everything is absolutely alright. I've been quiet because I was worried about that car that came up behind us. I think I may know who it was and if I'm right, the guy is undoubtedly up to no good. And I don't know what to do about it. Don't say anything just yet to your folks. Let me think about exactly how it needs to be handled. Okay? Don't worry about us, Sweetheart. We're fine and we will finish what we started tonight; but I definitely want it to be right for you, too. I love you more than you can possibly imagine. Now, give me a little kiss and go on in. Just a little kiss, Babe. I don't want to have to take more than one cold shower when I get home. Goodnight, my love, and lock the doors when you go in."

When Johnny got the car back home, he was still worried about what might be going on at the Wroe place. He decided to make a quick trip back down the hill on foot and make sure everything was okay there. As he was coming down the hill, he had a clear view of the road to Ed's house all the way from the mailbox to the house. And, sure enough, he could see car lights pulling up to where he and Chrissy had been parked. Johnny turned off his flashlight and made his way carefully and quietly past the house and through the little wooded area almost to the road where the white Honda was again parked. No lights were visible in the house, which probably meant everyone was asleep.

He watched the man he was now positive was Norman Jones as he sat in the car looking toward the house. After a few minutes, Jones got out of the car and used a match to light a cigarette. He stood and puffed on it for a few minutes, then tossed it away and went back to the trunk of the car. The trunk lid obstructed Johnny's view but when Jones closed the lid, he picked up a plastic jug from behind the car and started down the road toward the house. He was close enough to hear liquid sloshing inside the jug.

_He's planning to burn down the house with the whole family inside. What should I do? If I tackle him and I can't stop him, there would be nothing to keep him from doing his dirty deed._ Then he remembered Old Man Coy's shotgun in the root cellar. Ed hadn't found the root cellar, yet; but Johnny knew exactly where it and the shotgun were hidden. He had to hurry but he also had to be quiet. If he frightened Jones away, he might come back when Johnny wasn't there to stop him. On the far side of the hen house in the back corner of the yard still overgrown with weeds, Johnny found the root cellar door and opened it quickly. Just inside were the shotgun and the box of shells. He pulled them out and loaded the double-barreled shotgun then slipped silently toward the front of the house.

Oh, God! He could smell the kerosene and he could just barely make out Jones' shadow as he moved forward to add more fuel to another spot along the house. At that precise moment, a window on the third floor at the front of the house descended with a loud noise which caused Jones to straighten and look up. Johnny turned on his flashlight and shined it in Jones' face, blinding him.

"Hold it right there!" He spoke loudly hoping to awaken Ed. "I've got a gun and I know how to use it. Put down the can of kerosene and step back away from it! Do it now!"

"Who the hell are you? And what business is it of yours what I do?" Jones set the jug down but he hesitated to move back and Johnny decided that one shot would serve two purposes: it would let Jones know he meant business and it should awaken Ed so he could call the sheriff.

"Right now, Mr. Jones!" Norman still didn't move back so Johnny pointed the gun up in the air, pulled one trigger and watched as Norman took several steps backward. Almost immediately, the lights came on inside and in another minute, Ed appeared at the front door. When Ed turned on the porch light the panorama it revealed would have been funny if it hadn't been so serious. Norman Jones was on his knees begging not to be shot; Johnny O'Reilly was holding a shotgun pointed at the wet place between Norman's legs where he had pissed himself when the gun was fired and halfway between them was the jug of kerosene that told the tale of intended activities.

"Ed, call the sheriff and tell him we've got a prisoner for him. He's a wanted felon who was in the process of trying to burn your house down around you and your family."

"Penny, call Sheriff Lampton and tell him to get here as fast as he can. I'm going to give Johnny a hand." As Ed stepped off the porch, he could see for sure that the man blubbering on his knees was indeed his erstwhile friend, Norman Jones. "How in the hell did you get here, Norm? And why would you want to do something like this? I'm still trying to figure out why you framed me for robbery and now I find you trying to kill me and my whole family. I can't believe this." Ed was careful not to get between the two men but he did want answers. "What did I ever do to you to make you want to hurt me? I gave you a job; I made you a partner. I tried to be your friend when you didn't seem to have any. I need to know why, damn it, why?"

"Oh, think back, Ed. In school, who was the smartest kid in class? You were. Who was the 'athlete of the year'? Edward Wroe. Who were all the girls after, hot and heavy? It was always you, Ed; always you—not Norman Jones; never Norman Jones; always you. And even though we were 'partners', you were always the boss. You were the one who negotiated terms and prices with the clients. You had the nice normal family life while I had the divorce and the support payments. When I went over to Stokes County to find a little romance for myself and Sally Denham had come on to me, I thought maybe my luck was changing. She took me right up to the edge and then tried to back out. I had been cheated out of too much already and the idea of having a virgin was too much to give up. So I took her anyway and, of course, she called it rape. That meant I had to get out of the area, pronto. Of course, I needed a nest egg to be able to leave and I figured I had some time since Sally had no idea what my name was or where I lived. But I knew it was a matter of a short time before they found me. I stole the stuff, and blamed it on you. Hell, you had everything else; I figured you might as well have the criminal record, too. When I moved here, I was sure this would be the last place anyone would ever look for me. Then one day in Fordsville, there you were. I knew if I was ever to have any peace and security, I had to get rid of you. Besides, I wasn't through getting even with you. Not nearly through. I'd have had my revenge, too, if this idiot with the shotgun hadn't shown up when he did. Damn it! Damn it. Damn it!" By this time, Jones was blubbering again.

Ed turned and walked slowly back to the porch where his whole family were huddled together, shivering with cold and fright. He turned to Johnny and suggested he bring the prisoner into the house before everybody froze to death.

They came into the family room and Penny poked up the fire and added some wood to the fireplace.

"Chrissy, will you get a garbage bag and spread it over that chair, there so it won't get wet while Norman sits in it?" They all sat silent with Johnny still holding the gun on the prisoner until the sheriff showed up about fifteen minutes later and took Jones into custody.

"What's the charge, Johnny? Since you're holding the gun, I'm assuming you made the citizen's arrest."

"Sheriff Lampton, I caught him in the act of distributing kerosene in various places around the house. I heard him admit to rape, grand theft, perjury, attempted arson, and attempted murder. I'd be glad to show you the kerosene can he was using to make the area more inflammable and I'm sure you'll find his fingerprints on the can."

"It would have made such a pretty blaze. All those beautiful orange and yellow, and red tongues of flame shooting up high into the sky. And it would have been such sweet revenge. Why, Ed, why did you have to move to this part of Kentucky? You just had to ruin my life, as you always have, didn't you? "Norman unexpectedly made a lunge toward Ed before the deputy could restrain him and knocked Ed to the floor. His wrists were handcuffed behind him so Norman began to butt his head against Ed's face. He tried to bite him on his nose, too, before they could regain control of him.

"Get him out of here, Ken, put him in the back of the cruiser, and leave the restraints on. Take him on into town and lock him up tight. I'll be on in a few minutes." Norman was taken out kicking, screaming, and cursing every breath.

When everything was quiet again, Sheriff Lampton looked at Johnny. "From the beginning, Johnny, and don't leave anything out."

Johnny began to tell the story but he was pretty sure there were two or three things he would be leaving out. "Well, when I was bringing Chrissy home after we took Grandmother back to her house, we stopped out on the road and talked a few minutes. Uh....While we were talking, we noticed this car coming up behind us with its headlights off. —Well, I guess I need to start back farther than that— Ed had shown me the clipping and newspaper picture of this man who he said had been his partner back in North Carolina. Ed told me how this guy, Norman Jones, had framed him for robbery and skipped town before they figured out Ed was innocent.

"I had seen a man in town a few days ago who looked a lot like the man in the newspaper clipping. He walked with a limp and the picture of a hammer was tattooed on his forearm. I got the license number of the Honda he was driving and had asked the girl at dispatch to see if she could find out who owned it; but she hadn't had time to get back to me.

"Now back to the car that pulled up behind us. When he realized the road wasn't deserted as he expected, he gunned the car backwards and turned around to leave. I swung my car around and went after him. I got close enough to see that the back bumper was missing just like the white Honda I had seen before. Then I turned around again, brought Chrissy home, and drove back to my house. But I couldn't rest thinking about what if that car had decided to come back.As I walked back over the hill, I did see car lights on this road out of sight of the house and then the lights went off. I hurried on down here and saw him when he took the jug of kerosene out of the trunk of the car. I knew he had matches because I saw him light a cigarette. I knew I had to stop him if he was planning what I had every reason to think he meant to do. I knew where Cliff Coy had kept his shotgun. Lorraine wouldn't let him keep it in the house, so he kept it in the root cellar by the hen house. I ran to the little underground building, got the gun, and loaded it and when I got back near the front of the house I saw him saturating little spots around the house with kerosene. I told him to stop, set the jug down, and step back. He set the jug down but he wouldn't step back; so I fired one shot up in the air hoping to stop him and wake Ed to call you.

"After Ed came out Jones cursed at him and tried to explain his actions. It was obvious that Jones had always been jealous of Ed and resented that Ed had always seemed to have better 'luck' than Jones did. Jones' envy seemed to cry out for revenge and this was apparently his stab at retribution. He was also concerned that if Ed discovered his whereabouts, he would turn him in. He figured he would never be safe since his hideaway had been endangered by Ed's relocation here to this area. Mrs. Wroe called you, we brought him inside so, with his wet clothes, he wouldn't freeze and you know the rest. I think that about covers everything."

"Do you have anything to add, Mr. Wroe?"

"Only that I'm shocked and stunned by what happened. And I'm eternally grateful to Johnny for his diligence and good work in stopping Norman from accomplishing his goal. I'm still dazed thinking that right now my family and I could be dead, burned alive, by that crazy man if not for Johnny. Thank you, Johnny, even if I do realize you were parked and making out with my daughter when this started." He grinned slightly at the look that passed between the two young people and the blush that bloomed on Chrissy's face echoed the embarrassment on Johnny's. "Since you've already put a ring on her finger and set your wedding date tonight—oops!—last night, I guess I won't be too upset."

"Sounds as if 'congratulations' are in order, Johnny, and best wishes to you ma'am. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a reward coming to you for the capture of the wanted felon, Johnny. Well, I'll be going to make sure Mr. Jones is totally subdued and incarcerated properly. Good luck to all of you and goodnight."

"Thanks, Sheriff Lampton and goodnight to you."

Since the excitement was all over, the twins had piled up on the couch and were totally out of it again. The four adults looked at each other and the two men hugged their ladies. The sighs were long, deep, and tremulous.

"Oh, by the way, I'm sure glad somebody left a window up on the third floor. It slammed down at the exact moment when I needed Jones to look up so my light would blind him when I shined it in his face."

"I haven't been on the third floor lately and I didn't leave a window up when I did go up there." Penny's response was echoed by Chrissy and Ed. "I don't think either of the twins is strong enough to raise those windows and as far as them falling down, they seemed almost swollen shut. The one time I tried to raise the windows, I had a hard time getting them up even an inch or two. I guess we'll have to blame the ghosts, again, right?"

Johnny looked up to the ceiling and tipped his hat in gratitude to 'whatever or whoever.' "Thank you," he said solemnly. Guilt pricked his conscience and he decided it was time for confession. He straightened his shoulders and let out a long breath. "Ed, and all of you, there's some other things I need to tell you, too. I probably should have said something a long time ago. It started out as a joke but I let it go too far and then I felt silly about it."

"What on earth are you talking about, Johnny?"

"Well, I had been on my way down here when you all ran out of gas on the road. I was worried about Mr. Coy and I decided to make sure that he wasn't being exploited or possibly robbed by strangers. I came on down and made sure he still wasn't here. He hadn't been home for two or three days and I was very concerned about him. There's a secret passage on the west side of the house and I made my way into it and I listened to you all talk. I'm ashamed to say, I've done that many, many times since you came here. Again, I was trying to protect Mr. Coy and then it turned out to be fun to hear you make wishes and be able to fulfill those wishes. I sneaked your car keys out of your pocket and got the suitcases out of the car. I went and got a five-gallon can of gas for your empty gas tank. I found the picture album for you and, Chrissy, I left the flowers for you.

"I realize I should have told you all this before but...well, anyway, I loaned you some chickens and eggs and the milk cow was one of ours. I heard you sounding sad about the Fourth of July so I killed the rabbits and dressed them for you and sneaking through the secret passage, I left them on the kitchen table. I did the fireworks hoping you would enjoy them. When I open the outside door to the secret passage, sometimes it creates a draft that will cause some of the doors to bang shut.

"I heard you the night you read Mr. Coy's journal entry about Ms. Lorraine's death. I heard the sadness in your voices down there and figured one of you had come upstairs because I heard crying on the second floor. I decided I'd better go on home.

"I don't know what else to say except I am sorry about deceiving you and eavesdropping on your conversations. I should have told you, Ed, that I thought I had seen Norman Jones when I first saw him at the Lumberyard but I was going to investigate some on my own and then tell you. Anyhow, please accept my apology. I sure would hate to mess up our friendship at this point."

After this long speech and his sincere apology, Ed didn't have the heart to be mad at him. "I'm sorry, too, that you didn't tell us all this a long time ago. You've explained away some of the weird goings-on around here; but there's a lot of questions that haven't been answered. One of them is the crying you mentioned. We heard it, too, and we were all in the family room. I guess we need to thank you for all the stuff you did for us. But, where in the hell is that secret passage? I want to see it."

"Come outside and I'll show you and take you through it. Will Candy and Andy be all right on the couch? I'm sure they will, we can hear them clearly if they wake up."

Ed, Penny, and Chrissy followed Johnny outside and he took them around the house on the side next to the henhouse. "If you've noticed, there aren't any windows on this side of the house and that's because of the passageway. Right here at the end of the porch, there's an indentation on the side of the wall that looks more like a dent but when you stick your fingers into the dent, it opens the door. You can't see the hinges and the opening is narrow and completely disguised." Johnny shined his light inside to reveal the steeply slanted floor of a passageway about thirty inches wide. When they had followed it upwards, they saw what looked to be a regular door in front of them. When Johnny pushed it open, they went through the doorway and found themselves in the Coy's bedroom.

"You really crossed me up when you cleaned this room and put the rocking chair back in this corner. I almost fell on my face when I opened the door and bumped straight into it. I was afraid you had decided to start using it and that would have messed up my entryway. I mussed it up some hoping you might change your minds."

"Over in this closet at the western end, there's another secret door to a passageway that leads to the third floor." He opened this door and once again, they followed the upward slanting hall that opened into the third floor bathroom right at the top landing where the third floor stairway door was situated. "And that's it," Johnny finished.

"Well, that does explain a lot of it but definitely not all of it," Penny sighed. "Ed, I think we need to close this off completely. There could be other people who know of the secret entryway and I don't think we need anybody else having access to our home. When Johnny wants in, he can come through a regular door, now. And while we appreciate what Johnny has done for us, there's no need for that any more."

"I think we can all agree on that, Mrs. Wroe. I wouldn't want to take the chance that someone could get in and maybe harm my Chrissy or the twins while they were asleep. Oh, I need to show you exactly where the root cellar is, too. There are some potatoes and other things in there that you can use. However, that can wait until morning. Well, actually, I guess it is morning but we all need to get some rest, I suppose."

"Yes, since this is the Friday after Thanksgiving, we hadn't been scheduled to work so maybe we can sleep in a little while. Nevertheless, the cow will need to be milked fairly early."

"That's true and so will mine. I'd better be heading home. Chrissy, will you walk me out, please?" Johnny took her hand and they walked out the kitchen door while Penny and Ed went up the stairs and to bed.

"Honey, you're not mad at me are you?"

"How could I be mad at you, Baby? You saved my life at grave danger to your own. For all you knew, Mr. Jones could have had a gun, too, and would use it to keep himself from being caught. I'm still almost in a state of shock but I'm certainly not mad at you. Oh, by the way, thank you for all my flowers. Some way I must have sensed they were from you because my first thought each time I found fresh ones was of you. I love you, Johnny." They kissed and were both suddenly not cold any more even though they looked up and realized it was snowing.

"I want you, Chrissy, and I love you, too. There's a theater in Hartford. I have no idea what's playing but would you like to go to the movies tomorrow night?"

"Yes, that would be great."

"I'll pick you up about six o'clock tomorrow night." Johnny kissed her lingeringly and took off for Thorne Hill. Neither of them realized how hard it was snowing.

### Chapter Eight

### Some Dreams Come True

Chrissy went upstairs and climbed into bed pulling the covers over her head. She didn't even turn the lights on and as she got warm she was asleep almost immediately.

She dreamed. In her dream, someone was calling to her. "Christina! Christina! Where are you, Christina?" As she awoke in her dream, she could hear the voice calling and it seemed to be coming from far away. When the voice swam closer, she could see the colorless eyes as they came through layers of fog-like cotton. Then she could see the rest of the apparition, as it appeared to seep through the wall of her room and continued to swim toward her. It seemed she was sleeping in the Coy's bedroom and the door in the corner from the secret passageway suddenly burst open and Johnny was there, wild-eyed and disheveled. His clothes were smoking and his eyes looked like coals of fire. He reached for her and the apparition appeared to knock Johnny back against the passageway door. Suddenly she was floating high in the air and the apparition was wrapped around her like a cloak of protection. Johnny was screaming her name and jumping up toward her as she floated near the ceiling. The apparition pulled her out of reach and Johnny couldn't seem to grasp onto her. She began to struggle. She loved Johnny and she wanted to be with him. As she struggled, the warm cocoon that was the apparition released her and she began falling toward the floor and when she actually awoke, she had kicked off all the covers and she was shivering with cold and fright.

She sat up on the edge of the bed and remembered everything that had happened in the night: the shotgun blast that woke her, the smell of kerosene that assaulted her nostrils, the accusations by Norman Jones, the sheriff taking him away, Johnny's admissions, and the tour of the secret passageway. No wonder she had had a nightmare. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and it said it was almost eight o'clock. There beside the clock was a small pot of begonias the same color as the beautiful one on the windowsill at Johnny's Grandmother's house. Now, wait a minute. How did that get there? Surely, Johnny hadn't come through the secret passageway again. Not after last night.

Chrissy yawned, stretched, and went to the bathroom. She showered hastily, put her pajamas in the clothes hamper, put on her robe, and went back to her room to get dressed. She didn't know what she wanted to wear; she had no idea what the weather was doing. She didn't have any outside windows. She knew now it was because of the secret passageway. However, she did know it had to be cold because of the temperature in her room.

When she got downstairs, she was amazed to find that snow covered everything. Snow was piled up on the tops of the fence posts and even under the veranda roof, snow was piled up on the porch swing several inches deep. Her dad came in with a load of wood and the snow had pushed its way over the tops of his boots. He estimated a snowfall of about twelve inches with drifts up to two feet high—maybe more in spots. He said the temperature was only thirteen degrees, and that meant it wouldn't be melting very fast.

Chrissy suddenly remembered that she and Johnny had had a date to go to the movies tonight. She was extremely disappointed that wouldn't be happening. She didn't know whether to expect him even to be able to come to see her today. When the phone rang, Chrissy wasn't even interested in answering it. But she was sure glad she did.

"Hi, Sweetheart. Are you snowed in?"

"Where are you, Johnny?"

"At home. Surprise! Grandmother had told me to order a telephone and they just got it turned on this morning. They installed it the day before Thanksgiving but I didn't tell you. I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, you sure did. And, yes, I'm figuring we're both snowed in. I'd say it means we'll have to cancel our date, too."

"Yeah, we'll have to at least postpone it. I'm afraid I can't get up your lane even though the main roads will probably have been plowed by this afternoon. I could, more than likely, manage to slide down my hill in the car, but your road would be a problem. I thought, though, that I'd maybe put on my snow shoes and walk down to your house in a few minutes if that's alright."

"Oh, absolutely, Honey. That would be fantastic. We'll probably end up playing board games with the twins, but at least we'll be together."

"Right! I'll see you in a little while. I love you."

"I love you, too. Bye."

When Johnny arrived about a half hour later, she asked the question that had been bothering her since she got up. "Honey, where did the potted plant come from that I found in my room this morning?"

"You had flowers again this morning? I guess you must have more than one secret admirer, huh?" Johnny was teasing and Chrissy knew it but she blushed anyway.

"Johnny, come on!"

"Come on and what? Kiss you? Okay, with pleasure. Or maybe I shouldn't be kissing you. Maybe you'd rather have your _other_ admirer kiss you."

"Johnny! I want to know how those flowers got there!"

"Okay. Grandmother wanted you to have them and we brought them down in the car. Once, when I pretended to go to the bathroom, I went and got them out of the car and took them up to your room. I'm sure you were too tired to notice them last night when you went to bed—or rather this morning, when you went to bed. Do you like them?"

"Oh, I love them! It was so sweet of Grandmother to fix them for me. But I won't be able to leave them up there. There's no light. I'll bring them down here and put them on the table in front of the window next to the piano in the living room. There it'll get plenty of light and I'll remember to water it and take care of it. Thank you, Johnny, and thank Grandmother for me, too! Now, you may kiss me."

They spent a while, as Chrissy had expected, playing games with Candy and Andy. About one o'clock, though, after they had finished their chili and grilled cheese sandwiches, they decided it was warm enough to go outside and build a snowman. The whole bunch went out to the front yard and played in the snow. Penny showed the twins how to make 'snow angels' by lying on her back and moving her arms and legs to the side and upwards. The part of North Carolina where they had lived had very little snowfall so the kids had never seen this much snow on the ground. They also built fortresses of snow—the men on one side and the girls on the other side—and they had a brutally hilarious snowball fight.

Then they built their snowman. They started a small ball of snow and rolled it across the yard until they had a huge snowball. They did the same thing again only left it somewhat smaller and stacked it on top of the first large one. One more still smaller ball of snow was set on top to serve as its head. They found two small walnuts to serve as the snowman's eyes, put a carrot in the middle for its nose and inserted some small pebbles in a nice curved line to serve as a smiling mouth. A couple of sticks served as his arms. Penny went into the house, ran upstairs into Uncle Cliff's room, and found an old hat for the snowman's head and a scarf to wind around its neck and their snowman was complete. Or so they thought.

Johnny went on home soon after that. He wanted to get home before dark and he still needed to carry in some extra wood for Grandmother. He called Chrissy before he went to bed to tell her 'goodnight' and to tell her he loved her.

Next morning was Monday and Ed called Johnny to tell him that they wouldn't try to go in to work at the school that day because of the slick roads. The kids wanted to go out and play in the snow again and they went out to the front yard to check on their snowman and see if he had started to melt yet. A short minute later, they came running back into the house.

"Mom, guess what?" The twins were talking almost in unison.

"I don't have to guess," Mom said a little crossly. "I know two kids who are not going to run in and out of the house tracking in snow and fanning the doors and letting out the heat."

"Okay, we won't. But we had to tell you. Come on into the family room and look out the window and look close at the snowman. Please, Mom. Hurry!" Penny could tell they were extremely excited about something, so she went to look.

"What in the world is that sticking out of the snowman's face right below his nose?" She could see it but she couldn't tell what it was.

"It's a pipe, Mom! Did you or Dad put it there? I don't think Johnny would have come all the way back down here last night to do that, do you?"

"Oh, I can see, now. It's a corncob pipe. I seem to remember seeing something similar to that in the storage shed one time, but I sure don't know how it got stuck in the snowman's mouth." Ed was puzzled, too. "And, no, I didn't do it and I'm with you; I don't think Johnny would have come all the way back last night nor would he have come back down here this early this morning. I guess we'll have to blame it on the ghosts again."

When Johnny came later around noon, he confirmed that it had been too cold to make that trip last night or that morning. It was just one more inexplicable event to wonder about.

The next morning, Ed decided it should be possible to get the SUV out and make it to town. The first stop Ed and Johnny made was at the sheriff's office.

"How's the prisoner this morning Sheriff Lampton? We'd have been here sooner, but we got snowed in for a couple of days." Ed thought surely he would still be in jail.

"Well, he's not too happy, right now. We received notification a few minutes ago that North Carolina plans to extradite him to stand trial there for rape, perjury, grand theft, and fleeing the jurisdiction among other things. Anyway, it appears he will stand trial there first. When they're through with him, we'll bring Mr. Jones back to stand trial here for attempted arson and attempted homicide. Therefore, as I said, he isn't too happy. Do you want to see him?"

"I don't think so; not until I have to. When I think about that he fully intended to kill me and my whole family, I still nearly go crazy. Are there any papers you need us to sign or whatever?"

"Yes, I need you, Ed, and Johnny, too, to write up a statement of the events as you remember them beginning on Thanksgiving night and carrying through until Friday morning. There're a couple of desks in here where you can write out all the information, please. When you've finished, I need you to date and sign them in front of our notary public. Judith is our notary; let her know when you're ready. That's all I'll need until he comes back from North Carolina."

"Okay, Sheriff, we'll do our best." It took Ed and Johnny almost an hour to write down their statements and get them signed and dated as requested. When they were finished at the sheriff's office, they went by the school to see if everything was okay there. The work was coming along exceptionally well. Ed was nearly sure they would be able to finish it all in a couple of weeks. That would let them complete the work by the middle of December as he had originally thought. As they were about to leave, they were confronted by a strange man.

"Excuse me; I'm looking for Ed Wroe."

"You've found me. Is there something I can do for you?"

"My name is Bill Weedman and I own Weedman and Jones Contracting. I found the guy who was my partner at the jail this morning when I went in to the sheriff's office to file a missing person's report. Victor Jones came here in February and offered to buy into my cabinetry business. I was in dire need of some capital and he assured me that carpentry was his trade and that he had several years' of experience. Vic—I understand now his full name is Victor Norman Jones—had references from two other places where he said he had worked. I'm guessing now they were forged since his partnership with you appears to be the only job he ever had. Anyway, we drew up the papers and became partners. He was a good, knowledgeable worker and I thought we had a good thing going.

"I couldn't believe it when Sheriff Lampton told me what he had done and tried to do. I had no idea he was that kind of person or that he was capable of doing the things of which the sheriff said he was accused. I just wanted you to know that I certainly do not condone his actions and I want no more dealings with him at all. I'm hopeful that you won't hold his actions against me. Do you think we could be friends or at least not be enemies?" Bill held out his hand and Ed immediately shook with him.

"I, too, resent his actions but you must remember he was my partner before he was yours and I have known him most of my life; so I could hardly blame you for being fooled by him. He fooled me first and worst. So, certainly, no hard feelings between us. Incidentally, this is my new partner and future son-in-law, Johnny O'Reilly." Bill and Johnny shook hands, too, and they all went their own ways.

They had received their payment as contractors from the school for the last month they worked. They went by the bank and got the check cashed. Since they had no outstanding invoices to pay, Ed deposited his part into his checking account and Johnny took his pay by the jewelry store and paid off the balance on the rings he got for Chrissy. He had planned to wait until Christmas to give her the engagement ring; but he wasn't sure now if he'd be able to wait that long to give it to her. He could get her something else for Christmas. He didn't know what but he could surely think of something. Anyway, a plan was forming in his head and he thought he could put it into action. Yeah, he thought he could.

When they got back to Ed's house, they all talked for a while. Ed told the others that Norman Jones would be extradited back to North Carolina to face charges of rape, grand theft and all the other.

"Man, I'd love to see him get what's coming to him for framing you for stealing that stuff." Penny declared.

"Yes, so would I," Ed agreed. "But by the time they get around to his trial, it could be about the time for Chrissy's wedding and I sure wouldn't want to get that all messed up. We can go watch the trial when they bring him back here to be tried for attempted arson and attempted homicide."

Ed also told them about Bill Weedman, the guy who had been working with Jones before he was arrested. Ed told them how nice he had acted and that they parted friends with Weedman.

The twins weren't too interested. They wanted to go out and play in the snow again. Of course, they wanted Chrissy and Johnny to go, too.

"You two go ahead and we'll be out in a few minutes." Chrissy and Johnny had something they wanted to discuss with Ed and Penny.

"Mom, the twins' birthday is coming up in short time," Chrissy said after Andy and Candy had gone out, "and Johnny and I were trying to think of something special to do for them.

"Yeah, we thought it might be fun for them if we took them to the McDonald's that's on the corner just before the by-pass in Owensboro and let them eat whatever they wanted and then play in the play room until they were tired." Johnny was excited for them. "There's the newest Disney cartoon movie, too. " Herbie: Fully Loaded," is on at Malco Cinema Twelve, the theater way out near the Mall on Frederica and the afternoon matinee starts at three o'clock. We could take them on to see that. When that's over, we could take them on over to Towne Square Mall and let them see Santa Claus and maybe get some ideas on what to get them for Christmas. Don't you think that would be a nice birthday treat for Chrissy and me to give them?"

"Oh, I think they would be in Heaven, Johnny. And you would both enjoy it, too."

"No, no, we meant the whole family, too. We were even planning on having Andy and Candy insist to Grandmother that she come, too. She has been down here once and she went with me to Fordsville to get groceries one time. However, this would be a truly unique experience for her. I'm not sure she's ever been to the movies and she has probably eaten out but I know it's been years and years. If you approve of the plans, the next question is: Do we tell them and let them look forward to it or do we surprise them on their birthdays?"

"Oh, my. That is a question. It would be fun to surprise them but the anticipation might be almost as much fun as the actual trip." Ed wasn't sure.

"Which would be better for Grandmother Lydia? Would she be more likely to consent to go on the spur of the moment or would she maybe be more inclined to agree if she had time to plan for it?"

"Actually, I think the twins can talk her into it, regardless of when she's asked. Thinking about it, though, it might be simpler for me to just bring her from home instead of having to go back for her." Johnny had about decided his vote would be to tell them now. It was terribly difficult to keep secrets anyway!

"I vote we tell them," Chrissy agreed.

Ed and Penny looked at each other and nodded. "We agree. How about we tell them about McDonald's and let them look forward to that and then surprise them with the rest of it?"

"Oh, that would be perfect!"

"Let's tell them right now!"

They had been talking earnestly and no one had thought to keep an eye on the kids. Unexpectedly, from behind them, Candy piped up; "Tell who, what?"

"Yeah. We wondered what was taking you so long. Now what did you decide you were going to tell somebody about?"

Ed, Penny, and Chrissy looked at Johnny and motioned for him to tell them since it was basically his idea and he planned to foot the bill for all of it.

"Well, we had been thinking that it wasn't long until there would be a birthday in the family."

"Ours!" It was amazing how often they spoke in unison.

"What would you think about it if the whole family went to McDonald's in Owensboro and let you two play in the play room and eat whatever you wanted?"

"Great!" Andy was unbelievably excited.

"Wonderful." Candy was ecstatic. "You said 'the whole family.' Does that include Grandmother, too?"

"It sure does, if you can talk her into going. It may take some talking, though. It's been years and years since she's been that far from home."

"Can we call and tell her now?" Andy wanted to know. They were excited enough that Penny didn't even bother to correct his grammar that time.

"Absolutely. Here let me dial the number for you. And remember to let your sister talk some, too. Okay?"

"Sure. Okay. Oh, hi, Grandmother. This is your favorite grandson named Andy. How are you feeling?"

"Just fine, Andy. You sound excited. What's going on?"

"I am. Johnny has just told us that he plans to take the whole family to Owensboro to McDonald's for our birthdays."

"Well, that does sound exciting for you. I know you'll have a great time!"

"But, Grandmother, we want you to come with us and have a great time, too!"

Lydia hesitated. "I don't know Andy. That's a kinda long trip for an old woman like me. I'd probably be slow enough that you'd have a better time without me."

Candy grabbed the phone. They could all hear her through the phone. "Grandmother, we won't have a good time at all unless you come, too. We'd probably be crying instead of having a good time." She only exaggerated slightly.

Chrissy took the phone. "We all want you to come, too, Grandmother. We won't be in any hurry at all, so you can't slow us down."

It was Johnny's turn. "We promise we won't make you go down the slide in the play room more than once, Grandmother. We truly do want this to be a family outing." Lydia chuckled. It was a sound that Johnny was still getting used to hearing and he was loving every minute of it.

"We really will enjoy it more if you're with us." Penny added her bit.

"That's absolutely right." Ed shouted from the couch.

"Well, I guess I'll have to give in. I can't argue with all of you. Besides this will be the first birthday my grandkids will be celebrating since I've been 'in the family.'"

Lydia heard a chorus of approval but she had one more question. "Okay when is this momentous milestone to be celebrated?"

Andy took the phone again. "Our birthday is December 13. I guess that's when we'll go, right, Johnny? But it's not our 'first' birthday. It's our fifth birthday?"

"Correct, Andy." He took the phone again. "We'll talk more about it when I get home, Grandmother. Bye, bye for now and we're all tickled you're coming with us." Johnny hung up the phone and turned to Ed and Penny. "Chrissy and I had planned to go to the movies the night it snowed and we couldn't. I thought if Chrissy still wanted to go out and you all don't mind, we might go ahead and go tonight. Is it okay?"

"I don't have any problems with that. But don't be late getting home. It's still nasty enough out that we'd be especially worried if you were late." Penny had waited for the nod of approval from Ed and voiced her concurrence.

Johnny looked at Chrissy and the stars in her eyes spoke for her. It would be the first time they were going to be alone since Thanksgiving night when all hell had broken loose with Norman Jones and the almost fire and everything.

"The movie starts at seven and it should be over by nine so we should be home no later than ten. And we sure wouldn't want to worry you. Chrissy, let's go out and play for about an hour with the kids. After planning their birthday party, they'd probably forgive us if we didn't but we told them we would. Then you can get ready and we'll go. Okay? There's one other stop I want to make, too. I think we'll have time."

It was fine with Chrissy and that's what they did.

When they got to Owensboro, Johnny pulled into a place that sold mobile homes. He told the man in the little office they were interested in a three-bedroom trailer. They looked at several but they found one they both just adored. It had two and a half baths with a sunken tub with a whirlpool in the master bath. A gas fireplace was located in the living room with a built-in entertainment center with a plasma television screen and a complete sound system. It was fabulous and Johnny made arrangements to buy it on the spot. He contracted to have it set up, a well dug, a septic system put in, electric pole set and everything. He insisted in the contract that it be set and livable no later than February 10 of the up-coming year. He explained that they would be married on February 14 and it had to be ready for them before that time.

"Are you sure you want to spend that much money without thinking about it for a while? Buying a home is a big step."

"Oh, are you thinking about backing out of marrying me? If you are, we do maybe need to reconsider. If not, what's to think about?"

"Hey, Baby, you're stuck with me. I'll sue you for breach of promise if you try to back out. It is a beautiful home, Honey. If you're sure we can afford it, I'd truly love it. Where are we going to have it set?"

"There's a level five acre field about half-way between Grandmother's place and your dad's. I thought that would be a good location. Will that be alright?"

"I think I know where you mean. It's about where you gave me the Sweetheart ring, right?"

"Precisely."

"Oh, Johnny, that's so romantic. I love you very much."

Instead of taking the by-pass, Johnny continued on Second Street and pulled into the parking lot at the Executive Inn.

"Where are we going, Johnny? I thought you said the theater was way out the by-pass."

"Now, think about it. Did I say we were going to the movies, Chrissy?"

"Well, you said we had planned to go to the movies earlier and we'd go tonight. And you said what time the movie started and ended. Right?"

"Yes, but I didn't say that's where we were going. Baby, we started something in the car on Thanksgiving and, unless you don't want to, I'd like to finish it tonight. I love you, Sweetheart, and I need you to be mine, completely."

"Oh, Johnny, I want to belong to you, body and heart and soul. I won't lie and say I'm not a little scared but it's what I want, too. And I love you, too, Honey!"

Johnny was sweet and gentle and when the evening was almost over, Chrissy loved him even more than before. They were sitting on the edge of the bed still kissing and preparing to leave.

Before they left the room, Johnny took a small square box out of his pocket and opened it to show Chrissy her engagement ring.

"I had meant to wait to give this to you for Christmas, but you're truly mine now, and I belong to you completely. I want you to have this as a part of this night to remember." He knelt down in front of her and said earnestly, "Chrissy, I love you more than anything in the world and I will for the rest of my life. Will you be my sweetheart and my bride and my wife for all of time, my love?"

"Oh, yes, Johnny." He slipped it on her finger, kissed her lovingly, and held her tight. "It's beautiful and you're wonderful, Johnny. Thank you for making this the most wonderful day of my life."

"The most wonderful, so far, Chrissy. I plan for you to have a lot more wonderful days even better than this one; although, this one will always be extremely special to me, too. Now let's get you home before your folks are worried. I love you, Christina Marie O'Reilly (almost O'Reilly)."

They got home about fifteen minutes before ten o'clock and Ed and Penny were waiting up as she expected.

"How was the movie? Did you have a good time?" Her folks noticed the flush on both their faces and they didn't think it was just from the cold.

"I don't really know, Mom. Was there a movie? After Johnny gave me this," she held out her hand so they could see her ring, "I didn't see much of anything else the rest of the evening but the ring and Johnny." Penny ooohed and aaaahed over the ring and her parents understood—or thought they understood—the starry eyes and flushed faces.

And then they were both talking at once telling them about the new trailer they had bought.

"It is the most beautiful home in the world, Mom. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it."

"Now don't fall too much in love with it, Chrissy," Johnny said. "I plan on living there while we build our house. We'll do something else with it and live in our new home when it's completed."

"Oh, oh, a new house, too? Oh, Johnny, I'll never get used to all this."

The next few days went as fast as lightning for Ed, Penny, and Lydia; but there's no way it could come fast enough for the young people and especially the twins. It seemed as if their birthday would never ever get there. Of course, Johnny and Chrissy couldn't wait to be together all the time. Nevertheless, it did arrive and Saturday, December 13 was a day to be filled with unbelievable excitement for everybody.

Lydia was still torn between looking forward to the "family outing" and being somewhat apprehensive about getting that far from home. It had been such a long time since she had had much of anything to look forward to; but since Chrissy and Penny had visited her the first time, she had found more and more things to enjoy. She had been working overtime to get as many of her recipes as possible copied into a scrapbook that she wanted to give Chrissy for a wedding present. She had asked Johnny to get the blank scrapbook for her to work with and she was relatively sure he would probably figure out what it was for but when he had asked, she had told him that nobody needed to know that right now but herself. She was finding old magazines and cutting out pictures to put in with the recipes and she was adding little flowers and ribbons here and there. She hoped Chrissy would enjoy it as much as she was enjoying making it for her.

She had thought a few times about begging off from the trip but when she said something about it to Johnny, he had a fit. He told her how disappointed the twins would be and it was for their birthday and asking Lydia had been their idea, he told her, so she just had to go. She said no more about staying home.

The following day, they saw the grader and the backhoe begin work on preparing the ground to set the mobile home on. Chrissy and Johnny walked over there and watched a while. They didn't stay too long, though because it was still quite cold. The ground was solid but not completely frozen so it was workable. Another crew had begun putting in the septic system and still other workers were preparing to dig a well. Everything was in the works if the weather would hold.

### Chapter Nine

### Happy Birthday To Everyone

Ed and Penny had made a special trip to Hartford to find something extraordinary for a gift for them. Their birthday was close enough to Christmas; they felt they had to work hard to make their birthday even more exceptional. They got Andy a new suit and Candy a new party dress. Both of them would probably serve as clothes to wear to Johnny and Chrissy's wedding, too, but they would still be enjoyable. They got a Leap Frog Learning Game for each of them, a reading one and one for math. If things went the way they hoped, they would put the twins in kindergarten next fall and they didn't want them to be behind the other kids who had gone to head start. Their other gift was a hand held electronic game that Chrissy suggested. Penny had to go into the library and lock the door in order to be sure she didn't get caught wrapping them. Ed had made each of them a beautiful toy box, too, to keep all their toys in. Penny had them all locked up in the library so they would be a surprise. The toy boxes would set at the ends of their twin beds as the hope chest Ed had made for Chrissy's birthday set in her room.

Of course, the kids were up early and got dressed without being told. It was almost nine o'clock when Johnny drove up out front with Grandmother.

They brought out all the gifts and let them see them. They were thrilled with all their stuff. Andy made noises about the "monkey suit" but he did look cute in it and he knew it. Candy looked like a real little princess in her pretty dress and Penny took pictures of the two of them in their new outfits.

They liked their toy boxes, too. Candy said her toy box was going to be her hope chest like Chrissy's. Johnny and Chrissy showed the kids how to play their games and then it was time to take off for McDonald's. They took their Leap Frog games along to play with on the thirty-minute trip.

They decided it would be handier to ride in the big Buick Rendezvous because they would have three rows of seats. Ed and Penny would ride in front; Grandmother, Johnny, and Chrissy rode in the second seat, and the twins had plenty of room in the back. They spent some time deciding what they were going to eat when they got to McDonald's. Andy said he wanted a Big Mac, large fries, a Coke, and a large chocolate milkshake to finish up on. Candy decided she wanted McNuggets, fries, an apple turnover and ice cream.

"As we told you, you can eat whatever you want, but you eat all of whatever you order before you start playing," Chrissy reminded them. "And, Grandmother, you remember not to overload your stomach or you might get sick going down the slide later." Everyone laughed. The kids toned down their orders considerably when they understood they couldn't play until they'd eaten. They still hadn't told the kids they were going to the movies or the mall. That was still going to be a surprise.

It was almost two-thirty when the kids finally decided they were tired.

"We are tired but we're still not ready to go home." Andy didn't want the fun to end.

"May we sit here for a little while and maybe have some ice cream or something before we leave?" Candy didn't want the day to be over, either.

"Well," Grandmother winked at Johnny, "I guess we could go see a movie or something, couldn't we, Johnny?"

"Oh, oh, oh, could we; could we?" The twins were especially thrilled about that.

"Well, I guess we could go see, "Herbie: Fully Loaded." Isn't that what's playing, Chrissy?"

"It sure is."

"Man, oh, man! What a birthday!" Andy could hardly believe it.

Neither could Candy but she was delighted. It was a Disney cartoon movie and everybody laughed until their sides hurt. Grandmother Lydia insisted it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.

"Well," Penny said, "I guess we could go over to the mall for a while."

"Shopping?"

"Yuck." Those were the little one's reactions.

"Well, you never know. We might find something interesting." Ed couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"Well."

"Okay." The twins reluctantly agreed.

The traffic was at a crawl when it was moving at all on Frederica Street out near the mall most of the time, but it seemed even worse than usual tonight. The huge parking lot was full to overflowing, too. Ed circled and circled and was about ready to give up when a parked vehicle indicated that it was leaving by putting the car in reverse and the back-up lights came on. Ed had barely enough room to sit still while it backed out and let Ed slide right into the vacated spot. It was fairly close to the door, too, which was wonderful because of Lydia.

They managed to get her inside the mall and luck was still with them. Someone was waiting to return a wheel chair and Johnny rented it quickly for Lydia. She tried to insist that she didn't need it, but she was already breathing hard from walking in from the parking lot.

"It's still almost two weeks until Christmas. I wonder what all the crowds are about." Chrissy remarked innocently. But when they got to the center of the mall and the kids could see through the group of people gathered around, their eyes got as big as saucers.

"Look, Candy! It's Santa Claus."

"Yeah, that's why there's a bunch of people."

"Can you believe we're getting to see Santa? This birthday gets better and better."

"You knew this all along, didn't you, Johnny. You all planned this, right?"

"Yeah, we confess. We thought seeing Santa would be a special event for your birthday celebration. We told you about the trip to McDonald's so you'd have something to look forward to but we also wanted to surprise you. The movie and mall visit we kept a secret for you. Are you happy? Has your birthday been a happy one?"

"It's been terrific." "Fantastic!" They both shouted.

"You'd better get in line if you want to tell him what you want for Christmas," Lydia teased.

"Do we really have time to do that, too?"

"I thought just seeing Santa was our surprise. Oh, dear, I didn't think to bring my wish list, but I think I can remember most of it. Let's get in line, Andy."

"Yeah, Sis, I'm with you. Man, this is great!"

"Grandmother, do you see any stores you'd like to visit while we're waiting for the kids?" Chrissy wanted Lydia to have a good time, too.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do, Chrissy. Could we go into J.C. Penny's and look around some."

Chrissy wheeled her in and Lydia went crazy shopping. She bought a new Christmas tablecloth, napkins, placemats, a bunch of decorations and a new dress for herself. Next, she went to the clothing section for children and bought a new Disney sweatshirt for each of the twins.

"You didn't have to do that, Grandmother." Chrissy didn't know if Lydia could actually afford to do that or not.

"Don't you worry about that, girl. I do what I want to. It's been a long time since I had a chance to spend any money, I'm afraid it might evaporate if I don't use it." Lydia chuckled again and the sound still thrilled Johnny. "I'd like to come back before Christmas, maybe just us ladies, and get a few more things."

"Absolutely, Grandmother, we'll make plans to do that. I still need to do some shopping for Christmas and I'm sure Mom does, too. Have you heard from Mom and Dad O'Reilly whether or not they will be able to come for our wedding? Johnny said you had called them several days ago."

"Oh, I'm surprised he hasn't told you. Yes, they do plan to be here and several of the others, too. I am looking forward to their visit. I haven't seen my daughter for more than twenty-five years. I have two grandchildren I've never seen and it's all been because of my stubbornness. However, I'm sure planning to make up for all of it that I possibly can. I'm all through sitting up there on that hill and feeling sorry for myself. I still have a lot of living to do and no one knows how long they have to do it in; and it's all because of your love, Chrissy. I'll always be grateful to you for that."

"I've been blessed with a bunch of new people to love and the first and foremost, of course, is Johnny; but you sure do come in a close second. I know I'll love the rest of his family, too, and I hope they'll like me." They hugged each other and got out the Kleenex.

"We seem to do a lot of this these days, don't we?" Lydia was smiling through her tears.

"And it's great!"

The twins were asleep almost before they got out of Owensboro after they talked to Santa. It had been a wonderful day and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it tremendously. Actually, though, Lydia was asleep almost by the time the twins were. With the two kids and Lydia all asleep, Johnny and Chrissy almost had the back seat to themselves and they enjoyed the ride home as much or more than the rest of the day.

After everybody got home and everybody was asleep—everybody, that is, except Johnny and Chrissy—Johnny called Chrissy and he repeated the news that his parents were planning to be at their wedding. Then he told her the even more wonderful news: they were planning to come for Christmas, too.

"They're planning to arrive on Christmas Eve and stay until Valentine's Day and our wedding and probably for another week or two while we're on our honeymoon. I am especially grateful that they'll be here with Grandmother while we're gone. Grandmother will be so thrilled to have them and we won't have to worry about her being alone while we're on our honeymoon!"

"Oh, Baby, you said the magic word, 'honeymoon.' I can hardly wait. Do you think there's a way we can slip off before Christmas when your folks arrive? I want to make love with you again. You're a fantastic lover, Johnny! I love the way you hold me and kiss me and touch me tenderly in all the most erotic places."

"If you don't stop talking like that, one of two things is going to happen. I'll have to hang up and go take a cold shower or put on my clothes and run down over the hill to your house and make wild, passionate love to you on the couch in the family room with your folks just upstairs."

"Well, while I like the second idea much better than the first, I guess we'd better hang up and get some sleep. We have a lot of things to do in the next few weeks. Probably the most important will be ordering our wedding invitations. We need to start making out a list of people to send invitations to so we'll have an idea how many to order."

"You're right, but if we get started on that now, we won't get any sleep at all tonight. I guess we'd better say goodnight. I love you so much, Johnny."

"I love you, too, and I just wish our wedding was yesterday. I mean, I'm looking forward to it but—well, okay, goodnight, Sweetheart. I'll see you tomorrow—or actually, later today. It's after midnight, Hon. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight. Okay let's hang up."

"You hang up."

"No, you hang up."

"Okay, we'll hang up together. One, two, three, hang up."

"You didn't hang up."

"Neither did you."

"Oh, for the love of Pete, Johnny, we're not thirteen."

"Now wait a minute, are you in love with Pete or with me."

"What?"

"You said, 'for the love of Pete.' I just wanted to know which one of us you're in love with."

"You, Johnny. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." About a half hour later, they finally hung up and went to bed. But Johnny did take a cold shower before he could go to sleep.

### Chapter Ten

### Happy Holidays

Several days later Chrissy and Johnny were making wedding plans and they looked out toward their home site and gasped in surprise. Their mobile home was being set on the concrete foundation they had watched them pour earlier.

"Oh, Johnny, they've about got our trailer ready for us."

"It will still be a good while before it's all ready but they are getting along with it quite well."

"I can hardly wait until we can live there. It will be so perfect, Honey."

"As soon as they get some steps up to it, we'll take everyone over to see it."

"Oh, yeah. That will be special.

"Well, this job is in the record books, Johnny, and I for one am extremely proud of it. We did a good job and finished almost on time, despite the big snow storm the last of last month." Ed was proud of the work they had turned out and the school board had expressed their approval with a two hundred dollar bonus for each of them.

"Thanks, Ed, for firing me as a helper. I'm enjoying being your partner and I'm proud of what we've done, too. With this behind us, it's time to concentrate on the holidays and the wedding. Man, oh, man—to use Andy's phrasing—I'm really nervous about that.

"The next thing Chrissy and I need to do is decide who we're going to send invitations to and then order the invitations. Of course most of my folks already know about it but I want them to have the invitations, too."

"Penny and I talked to my family in California and told them they would be getting invitations and my dad and my brother and his family are all planning to be here, barring illness or bad weather. There are a few people in North Carolina I think Chrissy will want to invite, as well as Penny's aunt and her family."

"You're not helping much with my nerves," Johnny said, laughing, "but I'll be glad if everyone can come to celebrate our love. I'm going to make your daughter very, very happy, I promise."

"I have no doubts, Johnny. I'm happy she found you or you found her or however it came about."

Later on after supper Chrissy and Johnny settled in the living room and made lists of family and friends. They determined they would probably need to buy fifty invitations. Chrissy's guest list went like this:

Mom and Dad and the twins

Uncle Jack and Aunt Genny Parsons

Webster and Faye Parsons

Mattie Parsons

Emily Parsons

Grandpa Fred Wroe

Uncle Robert and Aunt Carla Wroe

Cousin Megan and Cousin Bobby

Millie Dillard (high school friend)

Sara Board (high school friend)

Mr. and Mrs. Enright (NC neighbours)

Mr. and Mrs. Harper (NC neighbours)

The groom's list was somewhat longer:

Mom and Dad, Sean and Kathleen

Grandmother Lydia Thorne

Grandfather Patrick O'Reilly

Grandmama Keara O'Reilly

Uncle Paddy and Aunt Callie O'Reilly

Rose, Jimmy, Buddy, Colleen & Nancy Ruth O'Reilly

Uncle Francis and Aunt Adrianna Nolan and little Frankie

Uncle Chuck and Aunt Kattie Carter and Charlene, Joey, and Doreen

Uncle Morgan and Aunt Polly O'Reilly

Uncle Al and Aunt Dorrie Grantland and little Betty Ruth

"I thought we might want to ask Sheriff Lampton and the Tinsleys, too."

Chrissy agreed and they added:

Frank and DeDe Tinsley and Devon and Maria

Sheriff and Mrs. Owen Lampton

"We'll need to talk to the minister, too, Johnny, and make all those arrangements. Valentine's Day will be here before you know it, Honey."

"I can't wait, Baby. There's something else I want to talk to you about and that's our honeymoon. What do you think about going to Ireland and seeing where I grew up and I can introduce you to all my friends and let them see what a beautiful wife I have?"

"Oh, Johnny, I think that would be beyond my wildest dreams. Go across the ocean! Would we fly or go by ship? Oh, this is terrifically exciting! What part of Ireland are you from? You've never talked about your homeland. I want to hear all about it."

"We'll fly, of course; it would take too long to go by ship. Well, it's a small town in County Galway called 'Athenry' and it's only a short distance from Galway. There's a big old castle there that was built back in the 1200s. It has a moat and three towers, and we can go tour through it. I could see the top of the towers from my bedroom window a short distance to the west of where I lived. You can still see some of the walls that were built around the town about a half-century later in the late 1200's, too. I want us to take a boat ride on Galway Bay and watch the moon go down. It's simply gorgeous; it looks as though it melts into the water and then flows through the surface and dances on the waves in celebration of its love affair with the sea."

"Oh, that sounds unbelievably awesome and romantic!"

"Do you kids know what time it is? It's almost eleven o'clock. Don't you think we should all call it a night?"

"I'm sorry, Dad, I had no idea it was that late. We've been working on wedding guest lists and the time just flew by."

"I'm sorry, too. We'll say 'goodnight' and I'll be gone."

"I'll be glad when we don't have to say goodnight and go to different houses to sleep."

"It won't be long, Honey. Goodnight for now. I love you, Christina."

"I love you, too. Goodnight, Jonathon.

Chrissy was going almost every day up to Grandmother's to help her get ready for Christmas. She also made a point of stopping by a minute coming or going to see how things were going with their mobile home. She and Grandmother made candy, cookies, and pies and Chrissy helped her do a bunch of cleaning. They wiped down walls, cleaned windows and facings; they dusted and vacuumed; they took down all the drapes and curtains and washed them; they removed crocheted spreads from furniture, washed and starched and ironed them and put them back on; they put clean sheets, pillow cases, blankets and quilts on all five of the beds; and they plugged in air fresheners all over the house. Some of the rooms hadn't even been opened for months and months and months.

Lydia had almost decided not to do the bedrooms yet and wait until after Christmas and closer to their wedding date; but Chrissy said, "We'll be extremely busy a little later. Don't you think they'll still be fresh enough in February, if we do them now?" And Lydia had conceded the point and now it was done.

The three bathrooms had to be scrubbed from top to bottom and they had got out the good towels and washcloths and washed them, dried them and hung them up. Lydia decided she needed a few more bath towels and she put that on the shopping list, which had become pretty long and was getting longer every day.

They took all the good china and crystal out of the china cabinet, washed every piece of it, and set it on the sideboard to sparkle.

"Of course, we won't need all of it for Christmas. Let's see, there'll be seven of us for dinner and there's a place setting for twelve; but it looks pretty setting there, doesn't it?"

Chrissy agreed that it did look beautiful. Grandmother still wasn't aware that Bruce and Janet, Sean and Kathleen, Johnny's parents and siblings, would be there on Christmas Eve.

They had put all the leaves in the dining table and put on the new Christmas tablecloth and all the placemats Lydia had bought when they were in Owensboro for the twins' birthday. Then Lydia carefully removed a box from the center drawer of the china cabinet and opened it to reveal a set of twelve gilt-edged crystal napkin holders in the shape of angels.

"Oh, Grandmother, those are without a doubt the most beautiful things I've ever seen. They look so fragile and delicate with the gold edged wings and, look, each of them holds a book that serves as a handle to move them with. The ring itself is attached to the wings in the back and whatever color napkin you put through the ring looks as though it's almost absorbed into the clear crystal. They are _so_ lovely."

"This sets them off, too, don't you think?" Lydia said as she lifted an angel centerpiece from its wrappings. The angel was about nine inches tall with a place for candles on each side of the crystal figurine. Lydia placed two red tapers in the holders on either side and put a candle ring with holly and red berries and lots of greenery around the whole centerpiece.

"Those are absolutely perfect, Grandmother. You'll have the prettiest table in the country if not in the whole world. Mom will be speechless. Where on earth did you get them?"

"They were a gift from Great-Aunt Ruth Remington. Grandma Wesley was my maternal grandmother and Aunt Ruth was her sister. Because Mama had named me for Aunt Ruth, she gave them to me as a nativity gift. They had been in her family for three generations. She said the thirteen angels would be good luck and would watch over me. I think I've only used them twice but I've cherished them all of my life. I wanted to use them one more time. She was never married and her money passed to me when she died as well. I've never used any of it. George made a decent living and he always said I might want to use it for something special sometime. Of course, it's drawn interest all these years. I don't know exactly how much it amounts to right now."

At least Chrissy could quit worrying about whether or not Grandmother Lydia could afford to spend what she wanted to. Chrissy was humming Christmas songs while she cleaned the silverware and put around the place settings. They had already cleaned the chandelier over the table and the refracted light glinted and gleamed on everything. The whole table was extraordinary!

It was only a week before Christmas when the ladies made time to go to Owensboro for their last minute shopping. Everything was so crowded it was pathetic. Johnny had gone with them to help with carrying the packages. Ed had opted not to go. He was quite busy in the workshop he had set up in the storage shed and he was being very secretive about his activities. He had even put aluminum foil over the windows so that no one could see inside and he kept the door locked even when he was inside. Everyone surmised that he was doing something for Christmas but nobody had any idea what or for whom; not even Penny.

They had used Ed's Rendezvous to go shopping because with the third row seats folded down that left bunches of room for the boxes, bags and parcels full of goodies they came back with. They had separated the packages when they loaded stuff into the SUV so they already knew what went where. They put all of Penny's things in the library and that door was locked immediately. Chrissy and Johnny took Grandmother and all her things home. Chrissy liked how sneaky Johnny had been about buying gifts for his family.

"Look, Grandmother, at this set of crystal vases," he had said. "Don't you think Mom would love these?"

"Yes, they are lovely. I wish they could have been here for Christmas, too, but I'm sure glad they can come for your wedding."

"I think I'll get them and wrap them up and we can have Christmas for them when they do get here." Johnny knew she would feel bad when they showed up Christmas Eve and she had no gifts for them. "Dad loves to smoke a pipe. I'll bet he would enjoy this set. What do you think Kathleen would like, Chrissy? She's seventeen now so she's near your age."

"Here's a set of three cashmere sweaters that I think are beautiful. Do you know what size she is?"

"The last pictures they sent—about six months ago—she looked about the same size as Mom and she's about your size. What size do you wear?"

"I guess about a size thirty-four in a blouse. Is Sean about your size? I'll bet he would love this leather jacket."

"What do you think, Grandmother?" When they turned around, Lydia was nowhere in sight. They were a wee bit concerned and began to look all around to see where she had got. They were on the verge of being totally alarmed when they found her nearly a half hour later in front of a gift wrap counter loading gaily wrapped packages onto her wheel chair.

"Grandmother, we were getting worried about you. We thought you were right there with us and when we turned around you were gone."

"Listen, Kids, I've been taking care of myself for longer than the two of you put together have been alive. I think I can do it for a few more days. Anyway, how am I supposed to shop for Christmas with people sticking to me like glue?" They noticed one of the tags on a package had Sean's name on it and another had Janet's name. Johnny realized she had taken his suggestion and he was glad.

When they had carried in all the packages—all of them wrapped at the store—they began to bring in the groceries, decorations, and everything else. Lydia took an electric candle and set it in one of the front windows and Johnny and Chrissy put one in each of the other three windows. Next, they climbed the stairs and decorated the windows on both the second and third floors. Soon all the windows had a lighted candle.

"Let's go out front and see how it looks," Chrissy suggested. When they had run out past the front porch and saw how terrific it looked, they went in and urged Lydia to come look, too.

"It does look 'welcoming' don't you think? I want lights wound around both of these bushes on either side of the front door, too, and I bought a wreath for the front door. That should make it almost say, 'Come in and join us at this happy season.' I didn't know I had missed this so much; this celebration; the decoration and all the trimming and everything. I feel like I'm alive again after being in hibernation like a cross old bear."

"We're going to need a Christmas tree, too, Johnny. Where shall we put it, Grandmother? We'll have a better idea what size to get if we know where it will be set up."

"Come, I'll show you. If we put it in that corner between the front window and the side window, it will show up from both sides of the house. You'd be able to see it coming up the road from the side window and when you've turned the bend down there coming up the driveway you can see it from the front window. Okay?"

"It's perfect, Grandmother."

Chrissy had never realized how much their house and Grandmother's house were alike. They were both three stories high with a wide front porch at the front and on both sides of the house. Where the Thorne house had dormer windows, though, theirs had two turrets with curved fronts in the front center on both the second and third stories. Grandmother's house had windows on all four sides, though, and looked much more like a southern plantation mansion. The west side of the Wroe house, though, had only blank walls because of the secret passage.

"This house looks like a picture postcard, Grandmother," Johnny said as he threw his arms around her and hugged her tight. "I've never thought of it that way before; probably because we never use the front rooms at all. We've mostly used just the kitchen, the breakfast nook, and our two bedrooms. Mom will be proud to see it looking as grandiose as when she was a young girl. She would tell us kids about what a showplace it was and what wonderful parties you had here. She would tell us about the graduation party you gave her when she graduated from high school with all the streamers and lights indoors and out where you had set up a dance floor and had music for her and all of her friends. She dearly loved this place. I know she'll be happy to see it again. You and Chrissy have done a wonderful job of fixing it up and cleaning it up for her homecoming. Thanks to both of you."

"I—uh—I wasted many, many years. I wish—"Lydia had trouble saying what she wanted to say but they understood anyway and they both urged her to sit on the couch and they sat on each side of her while the tears flowed. Only moments later, though, she wiped her eyes with her fists and smiled up at them, brightly, if somewhat watery. "But that's in the past and the past is gone. We're going forward! I love you both so much. Now, since we've got a lot still to do, we'd better get to it."

On the Friday night before Christmas, Johnny and Chrissy had a night out planned. Johnny wanted to take her out to dinner and there was a play at the Theater Workshop they wanted to see. They did go to dinner at O'Charley's and then back to the Executive Inn Rivermont for an evening of love. It was only their second time together but it was even more special than the first. Chrissy had been especially apprehensive the first time. This time she was looking forward to their time together and they had a thoroughly enjoyable evening to say the least. They knew this could very well be the last time until after their wedding. With Sean and Kathleen there, it would be difficult if not impossible to get away by themselves. And they made the most of it. They still kept their intention of being home by eleven. When they got back to Chrissy's, no lights were on in the house, and they spent a few more minutes in the car before she went in.

"Just think, Hon, my folks get here tomorrow. It's been almost three years since I've seen them and I never expected them to be here unless Grandmother passed away. Now I'll have them all together again with everybody happy. If I had wished for a gift for Christmas, that would have more than fulfilled it. Speaking of Christmas gifts, I wanted you to have this to wear tomorrow."

"Johnny, we said my ring would be my Christmas gift. What's this?"

"Open it and find out," Johnny suggested.

"My goodness, Johnny, are those diamonds? Real diamonds? Oh, Baby, I've completely run out of superlatives. This is—this is—what can I say? Thank you so much!" He clasped the necklace around her neck and the three gems sparkled against her chest.

"The three diamonds are for 'yesterday, today, and forever' and that's when I'll be loving you." He kissed her tenderly and was about to open the door when she remembered her gift for him. She dug it out of her purse and gave it to him.

"It's nothing even close to what you've given me but it comes with all my love."

"And that's worth more to me than diamonds or gold or anything." He opened it and smiled to see that it was also a neck adornment—a gold chain. She, in turn, fastened it around his neck, they kissed again, and she went inside.

Christmas Eve dawned cold and cloudy. Not too many people were up around there, though, who saw the dawn. Ed had been up late the night before. In fact, it was after four o'clock when he had crawled in bed. He had had to wait until Chrissy and Johnny got home to start taking things out of his shop and setting them up. As soon as Chrissy went in the house—he nearly froze waiting—Ed began to carry things out to the front lawn. He was really pleased with his efforts as well as being proud of the new stuff he had tried. For the last several months, he had been doing research and creating patterns for what he wanted to construct. Now he carried out the little rough shelter that would house the manger. When the manger was in place, he carefully placed the small hand-carved Baby on the hay he had purchased from Frank Tinsley. The other figures were one-dimensional cutouts of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and all the animals. He had two sheep and a baby lamb; a donkey; two oxen; and three camels. In addition, two angels appeared to hover above the shelter where the manger set and in the center at the back was a small pipe, at the top of which rested a large star. He had fashioned the star from wire and screen mesh for the center. When a button was pushed, the star seemed to shine of itself and spotlights located some distance away illuminated the whole scene beautifully. The cutouts were all painted meticulously on both sides and the full effect was stupendous. Ed had every right to be proud.

When he finished, he got in his work truck, loaded up more stuff, took it to Lydia's house, and set up the same scene for them. He was almost afraid he would be caught setting it up but he had no interruptions and finished his work by about three-thirty. The only thing left to do was the wiring work so that it would actually light up. He'd have to go inside to do that. He planned to do that later in the morning after he could figure everyone would be up. He wanted it to be working properly before Johnny's family got there that evening.

About nine o'clock he dragged himself out of bed. Penny hadn't waked him. She knew he had worked late last night; she didn't know exactly what time he came to bed but she knew it was quite late. After breakfast, he took his electrical tools and walked up the hill to Lydia's house. Johnny was at the back of the house coming in with a pail of milk when he got there. Through the window, he could see that Lydia was at the stove cooking. He got Johnny's attention without Lydia knowing he was there and told him to take the milk in but without alerting Lydia, he needed him to come out the front door and help him with something. A couple of minutes later Johnny emerged from the house and nearly dropped in surprise.

"It's great, Ed. Did you do this all by yourself? The painting and all, too? I didn't know you could do anything like this. It's unbelievable! They look completely authentic and the Baby; it's not just a cutout; you hand-carved this. It's superb, Ed."

"I didn't know if I could do it or not. But I found pictures and made patterns and well, there it is. It looks even better lit up. Can you help me run the wiring? I'd prefer that your Grandmother see it for the first time when it is lit up." In about twenty minutes, the star and the spotlights were shining brightly. Then Johnny went inside to get Lydia. When they came back out, Ed was nowhere in sight.

Lydia was totally entranced. "Who in the world did this?" she asked incredulously. This is fabulous!"

"This is Ed's gift to us for Christmas, Grandmother. He wanted it to be something unique that he had put his own time and effort into and this is it. I had no idea he was doing it. It is great, though, isn't it? And it will be even more spectacular after dark. With the lights on it will probably show up from a long way off. I'd say it might be visible from the main highway but certainly from halfway up our road."

They finished breakfast and Lydia called Ed and Penny to say how much she loved the nativity set. Penny was thrilled with the one at her house; but she hadn't known that he made one for Lydia, too. He was such a sweet man. And she knew he had put many hours of work into it—painstaking, backbreaking work. She was definitely surprised and delighted with the most unique and thoughtful gift.

That afternoon Johnny was having a really difficult time disguising his excitement in knowing that his folks would be there soon. They had expected to arrive around six o'clock and they had insisted they would stop for something to eat before they came.

"Grandmother, would you mind if we eat a few minutes early this evening? I don't know why my system wants food this early but it does. I don't want a lot; just a sandwich would be fine if you can eat this early. I might go down to Chrissy's for a few minutes if you don't mind. I guess I'm feeling a wee bit restless."

Grandmother agreed to eat early, by five-forty-five they had eaten, and Johnny had cleared the table and put everything away. He had gone to the living room and checked to be sure that everything was still as it should be. The Christmas tree they had cut, set, and trimmed did look gorgeous and he had all the gifts they had bought under the tree, including his special gift to Grandmother. He had purchased a round-trip ticket for her to go to Ireland with his folks when they went home. He had wanted Lydia to see what a happy home his mother had in Ireland and some of the sights that were his birthright.

Johnny slipped on his jacket and went outside. It was already dark and he wanted to see if the Christmas scene Ed had made looked as magnificent after night as he was sure it did. Then he wanted to lure Grandmother outside so she'd be handy when his folks came. He went in, got her coat, and entreated her to come out with him.

"Grandmother, let's go out front and look at the Nativity Set and get a good look at it after dark."

"Okay, but I thought you were going to Chrissy's," she said as she put on her coat. Johnny looked at his watch: five minutes before six. He hoped they were on time.

"I may after a bit but I do want to get a good look at our Christmas gift at night." He did hope he was timing this right. He was so anxious and excited he could hardly contain himself.

He opened the door for Lydia and they walked out on the front lawn with him steadying her so she wouldn't slip. He felt something on his face and, looking up, he realized it was snowing. _Oh, please, don't start snowing until they get here. Oh-oh! I see a car turning into our driveway and starting up the hill. Thank goodness, Grandmother is engrossed in the scene. She hasn't noticed the car lights, yet. I can hear the car engine, now. She'll be hearing it any second._

"Johnny, what is that noise? Is it an airplane—? Why, it's a car coming up the driveway. Who would be coming to visit on Christmas Eve?"

"Well, maybe it's Santa Claus, Grandmother. Who knows?

"Is that the Wroe family coming up here? Is _that_ why you wanted to get supper over with early?" She slapped at him playfully and her mother's laughter was the first thing Janet heard when she alighted from the car and started toward Lydia.

Johnny had told her only that he had every reason to believe that she would be welcome to come for a visit. As far as she knew her mother's inhospitable, dour personality needn't have changed that much. Therefore, she was stunned to hear her mother's merriment when she started up the walkway.

"Come in, come in; I wasn't expecting you tonight but you know you're always wel—Johnny, that isn't Penny. That looks like—but it can't be—. Is that you, Jan? Is it really you?" Lydia swayed from the shock but then she was rushing toward her with her arms open wide.

"Janet, it is you! Oh, I had wished that you could be here for Christmas and here you are. I've missed you, Baby Girl! I'm so sorry for all the—"

"Mama, I'm thrilled to see you, too, and there's no need for apologies. Let's just let the past stay right there in the past. We have a lot of present and future to enjoy and I'm thinking we're going to enjoy it thoroughly. Mama, this is your grandson, Sean. I named him Sean _Thorne_ O'Reilly so that there would be something of our family legacy to carry on. This is Kathleen Lea. I named her after me. I figured if 'Lea' was good enough for you to name me, it would be good enough for _my_ daughter, too. You remember Bruce, Mama."

"These are the rest of my grandchildren. You're all grown up, already. And, of course, I remember Bruce. Could a contrite old woman have a hug and a peck on the cheek?" Lydia reached for him and held on tight.

"Hi, Mama! Just _try_ to keep me from hugging you! I swear you haven't aged a year in the last twenty-five. Johnny, I think your Mom needs a hug from you, too. Then you can help me bring in the luggage and stuff."

"Let's get Grandmother in the house before she catches cold and I'll come back and help, too." Sean was somewhat uncomfortable with all the sentimentality; but he was glad to see that his Grandmother, who had been portrayed to him as grumpy, grouchy, and totally unforgiving, seemed to be in a good mood.

"You realize, I'm going to have to cry, don't you, Jan? It's just a simple necessity for something like this. How long has Johnny known that you would be here tonight? I may have to murder him and dismember the body. He could have told me."

"It would have been worth it, Grandmother, just to see how surprised and happy you were." Johnny had been coming in as she spoke. "As to how long I had known, about a month or six weeks, somewhere in that neighborhood. We wanted to surprise you. Does it matter which room I set up for whom?"

"I would like Janet and Bruce to have the room that was Janet's when she was a child. I think the room on the third floor would be nice for Kathleen and the other room on the second floor should work fine for Sean. I can hardly believe you gave Sean your maiden name, Jan. I figured you'd hate that name after—oops! In the past. Keep reminding me, Janet. I'm an old lady; I forget easy. I do agree, that there's no need to rehash everything but I do feel that I owe you an apology or explanation or something."

"Mama, I understand you were afraid of losing me; but I loved Bruce and I had to follow my heart, just as you had to follow yours. Now, enough already."

"You sounded exactly like Grandmother when you said that, you know? Just exactly. It was uncanny how many times she has reminded me of you, Mom, and sometimes I've missed you so much I could hardly stand it. Nevertheless, you're here, I'm glad, and I am so anxious for you to meet my Chrissy and her family, too. Chrissy will be here in the morning to help put together our Christmas meal and her folks will be here to eat with us. Chrissy and I will have our whole family here. Now I'm getting sentimental."

"Gee, Bro, it sounds like you've really got it bad for this chick. I'd love for you to meet my girl friend, too. She's studying dentistry there at Dublin where I am, and we may sometime set up shop together; don't you think that would be just too neat? Her name is Marcie. She has a fantastic figure," he made the hourglass moves with his hands with emphasis on the top half of the figure, "big blue eyes and hair so blond it's almost like white honey."

"Sounds super, Sean. I'm anxious to meet her, too. Maybe we can get together for a double date when Chrissy and I get over there on our honeymoon."

"Hey, Son. You're planning to come home for your honeymoon? What does your girl think of that?"

"She is so looking forward to it. And I am, too! It'll be especially good to set foot on the old sod again." His brogue was out in full force this evening. Then the phone rang and Johnny answered it. "Hello."

"I know I shouldn't be bothering you, but we were anxious to know your family arrived alright. You can just say 'yes' and hang up if you need to."

"Yes, but I'm not hanging up and you're not bothering anybody. They got here at six o'clock as they expected. Tell your dad everybody loves his Christmas scene. I love you and I'll talk to you before I go to bed, if it won't wake anyone if I call."

"It'll be fine, Sweetheart. I love you, too. Bye."

The Family O'Reilly talked far into the night trying to catch up on everything they had missed in the past time lost. Finally, they convinced themselves that they would have more time tomorrow if they got some sleep tonight.

Next morning, Johnny was up early to get the milking done before anyone else was up. When he brought in the pail of milk and strained it through the usual cheesecloth to get any extraneous matter out of it, he saw there was still nobody up, so he took off to walk Chrissy up the hill. This, he knew, would be the only chance they would have to talk privately probably for several days.

When he and Chrissy got back to Lydia's, the others were stirring and Lydia was ready to start breakfast. Chrissy walked in, and after introductions, immediately began getting out skillets and pans and locating the necessary utensils. She let Lydia do the actual cooking because she knew instinctively that Lydia's family would enjoy the meal more if Lydia cooked it; but whatever Lydia needed to work with, Chrissy had it immediately ready for her. Chrissy poured the cooled milk into gallon jugs and set them in the refrigerator. She washed up the milk pail and the crock they had cooled it in; rinsed out the strainer cloth and took it out to hang on the line. When Lydia started to make the biscuits, Chrissy had the buttermilk, the soda, baking powder, and salt ready to mix into the flour. Grandmother began to mix it and Chrissy handed her the butter to use as shortening. When Lydia was finished with it, Chrissy put it back in the refrigerator. She got out the flat pan, covered it with shortening, and set it ready for Lydia to place the biscuits on when they were ready. While Grandmother washed her hands, Chrissy set the biscuits in the oven for her. Grandmother smiled her thanks at Chrissy and Janet was fully aware of Chrissy's competent and quiet helpfulness.

Of course, the introductions had come first as each member of Johnny's family appeared. He enthusiastically performed the necessary commentaries and each time he smiled at Chrissy proudly. It was easy to see that they were very much in love. Even unsentimental Sean seemed impressed by Johnny's obvious devotion to her and Kathleen couldn't believe how much more mature Johnny was than when he left only a few years before.

After breakfast, Kathleen volunteered to clean up the kitchen and Chrissy insisted on helping her. They chatted quietly while they were scrubbing counters and washing and drying dishes.

"You know, I think it's going to be totally neat to have a sister after all these years. I like you Chrissy and I'm glad you're marrying my brother. I had thought I might be a wee bit jealous; but you have such a sweet personality and I'm sure we're going to get along beautifully."

"Well, I'm sure glad you feel that way, because I have a favor to ask of you. Would you be one of my bridesmaids at the wedding?" Chrissy smiled at Kathleen as her mouth dropped open and she began to stammer.

"You want me to b-be in your wedding? I-I'm amazed. I m-mean I assumed you would have your own f-friends and relatives who you would have already asked. You're sure you do want me—?"

"I truly do want you if you would like to; there would be no hard feelings if you don't but I think it would be really neat if you would."

"Oh, Chrissy!" Kathleen took her wet hands out of the dishwater and hugged Chrissy excitedly. "Oh, Chrissy!"

"I guess that must mean 'yes'. Right?"

"What in the world are you two in here squealing and dancing around about?" Janet was curious. The two girls had barely spoken to each other and they were behaving as though they had been best friends for years. "Kathleen, you're getting Chrissy all wet. Now, what is going on?"

"Kathleen has agreed to be a bridesmaid at our wedding. I perhaps should have asked you if it was okay first, but I didn't think of it before. You don't mind, do you? I would like her to stand up with us."

"Well, I do think that is a nice gesture, but I'm sure you have friends and family you'd prefer to have. Did Johnny talk you into this?" she asked rather suspiciously.

Johnny had heard enough to understand what was happening. "I had no idea she was going to ask Kathleen; but if she did ask her, it's because she wanted her. Rest assured I'm not talking Chrissy into anything."

Janet realized she was about to get off on the wrong foot with her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. "I'm sorry Chrissy. If you're sure you want Kathleen, we would all be honored for her to participate. What colors will you be using for your wedding, Chrissy?"

"Do you think we could harmonize pink and burgundy or maroon? I thought maybe a black tux and a white dress for us and maroon tuxes for the other men and pink dresses for the girls. Do you think that could be pretty?"

"I think that would be lovely if you chose your shades of maroon and pink carefully."

"Maybe you and Mom can help me with that. But I shouldn't be bringing up that sort of thing today. This is Christmas and I think, Grandmother, it's probably time to put the turkey on and I want to watch you carefully."

"So do I." Jan and Kathleen spoke together.

But the turkey had to wait until introductions were made again because Ed, Penny and the twins had arrived. Everybody seemed to be getting along great and Chrissy breathed a sigh of relief and a fervent 'thank you.'

Everybody working together under Lydia's directions soon made light work of getting the Christmas meal together and ready to eat. It was about four in the afternoon when they were ready to eat. They couldn't decide if it was lunch, dinner, supper or something else but they had no trouble at all deciding it was absolutely delicious.

The meal was most enjoyable all round with conversation and high spirits flowing freely. Chrissy had been right about her Mom's being enthralled with how beautiful Lydia's table looked. Janet said she had seen the angel napkin holders but she didn't remember their ever having been used when she was home. She couldn't recall even seeing the angel centerpiece. It was exceptionally magnificent with the candles glowing and the greenery around it.

"Kathleen, what do you want to do when you finish high school?" Lydia still had a lot of catching up to do. "Do you have a career in mind? Do you want to further your education and pursue a profession or vocation of some sort?"

"I've always thought I wanted to study veterinary medicine, Grandmother. I love horses, especially, but actually all kinds of animals. Mama loves to tell everyone how I used to carry home stray cats and birds with broken wings and try to 'fix' them."

"I think that's a wonderful aspiration, Kathleen," Chrissy said. "I'd be proud to have both a dentist and a veterinarian in the family. You never know when they might come in handy." Everyone laughed.

"How long before you can hang out your shingle as a dentist, Sean?" Ed asked.

"Only two more years until I graduate; but I'll probably need to work as an apprentice with another dentist for a few years before I go out on my own. When we're ready, my girlfriend, Marcie, and I plan to open a clinic together."

"I tell him it takes a lot of love to run both a home and a business with the same partner. That's an awful lot of 'togetherness.'" Janet's motherly concern was showing.

"True love can overcome a lot of problems, but that might put a real strain on a relationship." Penny concurred.

"Who's ready for dessert?" Lydia asked. She was concerned that this little discussion could cause some problems, too, so she decided to de-rail this particular subject.

Andy and Candy had been behaving so nicely everyone had almost forgotten them. "We are! We are!" When it was dessert time, they for sure didn't want to be ignored.

Lydia's dessert was a little unorthodox for a Christmas, but she remembered that Janet had dearly loved her cherry cobbler. At the last minute, she had thrown one together and it was just out of the oven piping hot. She got out the ice cream and Chrissy helped her serve it. The entire meal had been a remarkable example of cuisine at its most palatable. The cherry cobbler a la mode however was totally out of this world. Andy expressed his approval enthusiastically if totally understated.

"Hey, Grandmother, this is goo-oo-ood."

Candy was busy stuffing her face and she didn't even take time to agree.

"I'll bet I know what the 'secret ingredient' is in this, Lydia." Penny was stuffing her face, too. "It's black walnut kernels, isn't it?"

"You got it that time, Penny. Along with equal parts of white and brown sugar. Do you really like it?"

"I love it."

"It's even better than I remembered it, Mama, and I remembered it a lot. I tried to make it a few times but it wasn't as good as yours was. Now I know why. It needed brown sugar, too."

The ladies hurried to straighten up the table and pile the dirty dishes in the kitchen so they could open the gifts. Johnny insisted on handing out the presents and he chose them carefully so that only one person would be opening a gift at a time and everybody could watch. Chrissy and Johnny had put the gifts they had given each other back in the boxes and re-wrapped them so everyone could see them. Everyone agreed the necklaces were beautiful. Of course, everyone was surprised with the gifts Grandmother had bought for each of them.

"Mama, how did you know to get something for us? You seemed really surprised when we came?" Janet was curious.

"Oh, that smart-aleck over there," she pointed to Johnny, "said he was going to get something for you and we could give them to you when you came. Of course, I didn't know when you were coming but it sounded like a nice idea even if you didn't get them until February. Oh, I just thought of something! Your being here now isn't going to keep you from being able to come back for the wedding, is it?" She knew how important it was to Johnny for his parents to be there for the wedding.

"We'll have to be here for the wedding if Sean is going to be best man and Kathleen is going to be a bridesmaid." Bruce commented with a twinkle in his eyes. "But we couldn't afford to make two trips, so I guess you're stuck with us until after the wedding. Can you put up with us for that long, Mama?"

"Oh, it's Kleenex time again. I'm going to cry for sure. That's the most wonderful news yet." Lydia blew her nose noisily.

"Wow, I'm glad to know it's good news. You had me worried for a minute. We say we'll be here for more than a month and Mama immediately begins to blubber. We're looking forward to it, Mama. We love you."

When the hugs had been hugged and the tears all wiped, Penny spoke up. "We want you to come to the house for dinner at least one evening during that time. We definitely want to know Chrissy's other family, too."

"Sure, I'd like to show the engineer my workshop. And I've got a sick chicken that could use a veterinarian's touch. And, Sean, I've got this tooth right here—. "Everybody laughed so hard Ed had to stop.

"We'd better get back to these gifts because there's a couple I need to give out before dark. I think this is your last one, Grandmother. It's from Bruce and his family and me and Chrissy. Open it, quickly."

Lydia tore open the envelope and looked at the contents blankly. "Well, I'm sure it's wonderful, but what is it?"

"It's a round trip ticket to Ireland, Mama. We arranged for Johnny and Chrissy to use our house for the first week of their honeymoon. Then, you and we are going back to Ireland to help them celebrate the second week. I want you to see why I fell in love with my adopted country. There are castles with moats, crumbled monasteries, and city walls, Galway Bay, as in the song you used to sing me to sleep with and all the other things that make it special. Please say you'll come, Mama."

"What would happen to my cows and chickens and flowers? My pipes would all freeze. I'd love to do it, but there's no way I can leave in the dead of winter. Maybe I could make it a little later in the spring."

"I'm not trying to talk you out of going, Lydia, or into it either. We'd miss you a lot; but if you want to go, I'll take care of your livestock and your plants and everything. I don't mind in the least."

"There, Grandmother, now you don't have an excuse not to come." Kathleen was truly looking forward to her coming.

"Oh, well, I don't know. Well, okay, I'll do it. I said I was going to live the rest of my life. By Henry, I'll go," Lydia announced.

"Alright! Now can we go outside for a few minutes? I've got something out there that I can't bring inside."

Everybody put their coats on and they were soon assembled on the back porch.

Johnny had disappeared but he came from behind one of the buildings with two beautiful blond puppies with ribbons pasted hastily on top of their heads. "This one's name is Dandy." He pointed to the one with the blue bow. "This one's name is Brandi." He indicated the one with the pink bow. "Brandi belongs to Candy and Dandy belongs to Andy."

The twins stood there for a moment with their mouths open and their eyes wide. Then they rushed forward and began to wrestle with the dogs. They giggled uncontrollably as the pups washed their faces with long wet tongues. Finally, they calmed down a bit.

"Johnny, do you mean these are our dogs to keep forever?"

"Can we really have them and take them home to be our dogs?" Then they turned to their Mom and Dad. They nodded to the kids and they were in seventh heaven.

"You still have one more Christmas gift at home from Mom and me," Ed said. "I built them each a doghouse so they can get in out of the weather and stay warmer. Your Mom made them some beds to put in so they could lay on them instead of the cold ground."

"Oh, thank you, thank you."

"This is the best Christmas ever."

And the entire group agreed wholeheartedly.

### Chapter Eleven

### Celebration And Tribulation

Johnny had seen a New Years' Eve celebration advertised in the _Owensboro Messenger_ and he was wondering how he could manage for him and Chrissy to go. The tickets were fifty dollars each and they would probably go quickly. Only a hundred tickets would be available since Red Lobster had a limited amount of space. The place would be closed to the public and only couples could attend. They insisted the guests had to be sixteen or older but, of course, drinks would be served only to those at least twenty-one. They had spent most of the few days after Christmas getting everything squared away—all the gifts put away and putting away almost all of the decorations at both places. The young people had walked back and forth between Chrissy's and Johnny's homes and had enjoyed playing in the snow. On Wednesday, Johnny and Chrissy had spent nearly the entire day addressing and mailing their wedding invitations. There had been a lot of consulting with their respective Mom's to get all the addresses they needed; but they had finished all of them and they were all on their way. They had bought fifty and had sent forty-two of them. Now Johnny felt they were due some fun. He had been wracking his brain to try to come up with blind dates for his siblings so they could all go to the end of the year party. Bill Weedman had a daughter who would be about the right age for Sean and Frank Tinsley's brother could be Kathleen's escort. He made some phone calls and invited them over for a visit to meet his family and his fiancé and his plans worked out perfectly.

Ed had been talking to Bill about possibly joining forces and bidding on a job in Hartford. He knew Johnny would be out of the country for a while on his honeymoon. And the job really needed at least two experienced cabinetmakers to do it properly. Johnny believed the friendship would be furthered by the social interaction between Bill's daughter and Ed's partner's brother.

At last, it was all set: Phillip Tinsley would escort Kathleen and Sean would squire Paula Weedman and with Johnny and Chrissy, the six should have a night to remember. It was agreed that none of their group would be drinking at all since most of them were underage. They knew they could have just as much fun without drinking anyway and no one would have a hangover in the morning.

As soon as the plans were concluded, he called Red Lobster and made the arrangements. Sean and Kathleen never realized that Johnny had set up the whole thing so they would have dates and he and Chrissy could have a night out.

They did have a fantastic evening. The price of the tickets entitled them to a full meal starting with a salad and their famous garlic and cheese biscuits. They had their choice of any seafood entrée on the menu from shrimp to lobster, to crab, or clams or salmon or tilapia or even rainbow trout. They all declared it was the best seafood they had ever tasted. The desserts were absolutely sinfully rich and delicious and the portions were generous enough that almost everybody went home with a 'to-go box' full of leftovers.

They had live music and had cleared an area in the middle of the restaurant to serve as a dance floor. When the band took breaks, they turned on the karaoke machine and they had a load of fun with it, too. At a few minutes before midnight, they started singing "Auld Lang Syne" and at the stroke of midnight, everybody was kissing and toasting the New Year. The O'Reilly-Wroe group toasted with their champagne glasses filled with ginger ale but hearts still intoxicated with love and feelings of companionship and good cheer.

When the doors were unlocked at twelve-thirty, Johnny, Chrissy and their group went home. Both Kathleen and Paula spent the night with Chrissy and Phillip crashed on the couch at Johnny and Sean's place. Of course, Johnny and Chrissy would have preferred other sleeping arrangements but they had at least been able to spend the evening together.

The next order of business for them was to make final decisions about who would be in the wedding party. Chrissy had asked Paula Weedman to be one of the bridesmaids. She had called her Aunt Genny's house and talked to both Mattie and Emily Parsons and they had been quite pleased that she had wanted them to be in the wedding. They were almost the same as her mother's sisters; she was a little older but when Aunt Genevieve had adopted Penny at the age of eleven, she became a foster sister to Aunt Genny's kids. And, of course, until she and her family had moved to Kentucky, Chrissy had almost grown up with them. Chrissy had grown more and more fond of Kathleen and she had decided to ask her to be maid of honor instead of just a bridesmaid. Of course, Andy would be the ring bearer and Candy would be the flower girl.

Sean would be Johnny's best man and he had asked Phillip Tinsley to be a groomsman. Two more friends from Fordsville, Paul Trent and Steve Bernard had said they would be honored to be in his wedding. With that, the wedding party was decided. One other change had been made; the wedding had originally been planned to happen at Chrissy's house; but with more people planning to come than they had anticipated, they had decided to have it at the Fordsville Baptist Church at two o'clock on Valentine's Day. And so their invitations had indicated. Her colors were set with maroon and a harmonizing pink for the attendants and Johnny in black and Chrissy in white.

On January 9, Grandmother and the O'Reillys came to dinner at Ed and Penny's house. After a most pleasant dinner, everyone retired to the family room and Johnny and Chrissy explained the complete arrangements they had made for the wedding. When the full list had been read and they asked for approval, doors slammed upstairs three times. Janet was really startled.

"What on earth was that?" she asked. "Isn't everybody down here?"

"Everybody is down here. But when we asked for approval, I guess the ghosts decided we needed theirs, too. Uncle Cliff and Aunt Lorraine who lived here before us called this their 'Kentucky Hideaway.' We've begun calling it our 'Ghostly Hideaway.' We've been totally unable to explain away logically more than a few of the things that have gone on here. Since we became accustomed to the noises, they don't bother us anymore, so we decided to just co-exist and forget it. It sure was startling at first, though." Penny tried to explain their 'other' residents. "After all, they _were_ here first."

At any rate, the wedding plans were all approved and Janet and Penny made plans to go dress shopping the following day.

Ed went out to pick up the mail from the mailbox right after they left. Going through the mail, he found an envelope addressed to Johnny but in care of Ed at Ed's address. The return address was from a sheriff back in North Carolina but from neighboring Stokes County rather than from Fairmont. Ed couldn't figure what it would be; he'd give it to Johnny as soon as he saw him.

While they were gone, Ed got a call from his friend, Bill Blass, in North Carolina. He had called to tell him that the trial date for the Norman Jones case had been set for January 25. The prosecution thought they had a slam-dunk; the girl he was accused of raping had already picked him out of a line-up, as had several others who had been in the bar the night they had left together. Jones' attorney had said they would be 'mounting a vigorous defense.' But nobody had figured out what kind of defense he could possibly 'mount.'

Ed thanked him for calling and asked him to continue to keep him updated. If the trial hadn't been very close to the time for Chrissy's wedding, he would probably have gone to see the outcome for himself. He still found it exceedingly hard to associate the things Norman Jones had done with the man he had grown up with, worked with and called 'friend.' Nevertheless, there could be no doubt that he had tried to burn his home with him and his family still in it.

He was telling Penny about the call when she got home. "You know, Penny, when the wedding is over and the kids have left on their honeymoon, we could go for two or three days and maybe see some of our old friends in Fairmont. The trial would probably still be going on and we could see some of that, too. With the visit and the trial both, it would be worth making the trip, don't you think? Lydia had said she wouldn't be leaving until a week after the wedding. We could maybe get Bruce to come down and take care of our stuff until we got back just as we will theirs while they're gone. What do you think?"

"It just might work. If Bruce can take care of Lydia's livestock and everything for the week, he should be capable of doing ours, too. They could take the cow and the dogs back up on the hill; we could leave the furnace on low so the pipes won't freeze and the only thing down here that would need doing would be taking care of the chickens and gathering the eggs. I like that idea a lot. It would be good to see everybody again. Of course, I'll see several, such as Aunt Genny and her brood but there are others who won't be here that I'd love to see, too. Let's talk to them and see if they think it would work."

"We could talk to Johnny about it first and see what he thinks."

"That's a good idea, too."

Chrissy had spent the day at Lydia's with Johnny. When he brought her home that evening, they discussed the possible plan with him.

"Do you think it would be alright to broach the subject with Bruce, Johnny? If you think it would be asking too much, we don't have any real need to go. I just thought it would be a nice trip for us."

"I think Bruce would feel gratified that you would be comfortable asking him. He already feels they will be imposing on you to take care of things on the hill while they're gone even though you volunteered to do it. This way he can feel that he'll be reciprocating and it won't be such an imposition."

"Okay, I can understand that. I still feel weird about asking him, though."

"Let me bring up the subject and I think I can guarantee he'll volunteer just as you did. Would that make you feel better?"

"Yes, it would. Thank you, Johnny. You know I may forgive you one of these days for taking my little girl away from me."

"Hey, I'm going to make her so happy, you'll never regret that she's with me."

"I know you will, Johnny, but we sure will miss her around here."

"We sure will, but I guess I would have to untie the apron strings some time or other." Penny had tears in her eyes but she held them back.

"Oh, changing the subject and I think it's about time, this letter came for you today. I have no idea what it is or why it came here instead of directly to you." Ed handed Johnny the letter from North Carolina.

"I don't have any idea, either. I don't know anyone in North Carolina. Is this the county you came from?"

"No, Fairmont is located in the next county over from Stokes."

"Well, I guess the easiest way to find out is to open it." When he opened the envelope, a piece of paper fell out and he began reading the letter that was inside.

*

Dear Mr. O'Reilly,

When Victor Norman Jones was formally charged with rape in the first degree, he had already fled the jurisdiction to avoid prosecution. There is an organization in our county called "Stokes County Victims Rights Advocates" who routinely offer rewards for the apprehension of suspected felons. In this case the fee amounted to One thousand, five hundred dollars.

It is my understanding that you single-handedly apprehended this suspect and turned him over to your local sheriff. I am therefore proud to enclose a check made to you in the amount stated. I sincerely commend you for your courage and tenacity in getting this suspect behind bars.

Use the funds in good health.

Sincerely,

*

It had been signed by Arthur Monahan, Sheriff, Stokes County, North Carolina.

Sure enough, when Johnny picked up the piece of paper that had fluttered to the floor, it was a check made out to him in the amount of fifteen hundred dollars. Johnny was shocked as was everyone else.

"Well, Chrissy, we need to go to town in the next day or two and open our joint checking account and this will be our first deposit." Chrissy blushed but she was genuinely proud of her courageous husband-to-be.

When Johnny got home, it wasn't long before he called Ed. "Hey, Ed, Bruce and Sean say, 'Why can't they come down and take care of things for you for a few days so you would be able to make the trip to North Carolina?'"

"You're sure they don't mind, Johnny?"

"It was their idea, Pop. Just tell them when you're leaving." That was the first time Johnny had called Ed, 'Pop' or 'Dad' or anything similar to that. However, Ed liked it.

"Thanks a lot, Johnny and thank them for us, too."

"Oh, by the way, they have the steps up at the trailer and the electricity is on and the water is hooked up. The septic system still lacks some but I thought we might have a 'viewing' tomorrow evening for the whole bunch of us. Chrissy and I want to see it again and we wanted all of you to see it, too."

"Wonderful. What time, Johnny?"

"Maybe around seven? I think that should work. Okay?"

"Sure. We're anxious to look at it."

So, those plans were made.

Plans were being made in North Carolina, too. But they were of the sinister type. Harry Denham was an unhappy man. He had never been the jolly sort but lately his frame of mind had been even worse. That son of a bitch had raped his baby girl. She was only fifteen—well, she was sixteen, now—but she was due any day now to have her own baby. She had not only been raped but she had got pregnant, too. That raping bastard, Norman Jones, didn't deserve to live and now they were talking about letting him out on bail.

Harry had begged and pleaded with Sally to have an abortion and Sally might have been persuaded, but Lynn had kept poking at her telling her it was a sin to have an abortion; telling her it was murder; convincing her that she should have the baby. Then it was too late for an abortion and she had no choice left. He had finally broken and ended up slapping his wife silly. He hadn't actually injured her but she had a fat lip through which to spout her, what he considered, 'fanaticism.' He'd spent a night in jail and Lynn had sworn out a restraining order against him. Of course, he'd had to move. Now he was barely putting in his hours at the local auto repair shop and staying drunk most of the rest of the time. That is, until they had caught the man who had raped his little girl.

At that point, he had straightened up his life. He drank some on weekends but he wanted to have a sure eye and steady hands, so that when the opportunity came, he'd be ready. And the chance would come; it had to; he didn't think he could live with it otherwise. Sally was due any day now. In fact, it had already been a couple of weeks over nine months since she'd been raped. However, the doctor said the baby would get here when it was supposed to. He couldn't deny he was anxious to see his first grandbaby. But it still wasn't right that Sally would have to deal with it at the tender age of sixteen. Lynn would probably do most of the care giving, though, if he knew Sally.

The phone rang. Harry picked it up. "Hello."

"Hello, Harry?"

"Yeah."

"This is Lynn. I told you I'd call you when the baby came. We're at the hospital. The doctor says it should be born within the next couple of hours."

"Thanks, Lynn. I appreciate that you called. Tell my baby girl I love her. Okay?"

"Okay."

Harry would go to the hospital but he had some other business to take care of first. He had oiled it, cleaned it, and shined it up, especially the scope, and it was fully loaded. His Savage thirty-ought-six was ready and he was ready, too. He had decided. Norman Jones would take his last breath before the offspring of his raping loins took its first one. He realized he'd probably get caught and probably pay with his own life; but his little girl would be avenged and that was the main thing. He had convinced himself of that. He was no good to anybody anyhow so what did it matter? In fact, what did it matter? Raping her was bad enough but forcing her to have his child; that was unforgivable. And he would pay for that. He'd see to it.

He put his deer-hunting rifle on the racks across the back window of his pickup where it stayed most of the time. It wasn't concealed and that way, they couldn't do a damn thing about its being there. Then he drove slowly toward the courthouse. He still had almost a half hour. Jones' bail hearing wasn't until one o'clock. He parked his old beat up pick up truck a scant block from the courthouse. The truck was easily spotted if anyone had had cause to be watching for it. He had put it together himself from parts gleaned from salvage yards. It had taken him almost five years to get it the way he wanted it. Of the two front fenders, one was gray and the other was red. The hood was a bright, school bus yellow. Both the driver and passenger doors were black but the frames around them were white on the left and green on the right. The bed on the truck was a bright blue and the tailgate was white with a generous sprinkling of rust spots not only on the tailgate but the entire body. It was what was under the hood, though, that Harry Denham was proud of. He had souped it up big-time. It had a double-barreled carburetor with dual exhausts. It had a push-button, electronic ignition system and he had put a first class supercharger in it. He had enhanced its suspension system, too. It's 'get up and go' definitely 'got up and went.' He had bragged he could outrun any vehicle in the county if not the state.

It was quite noticeable; but he knew nobody was looking for it—yet! He had parked the truck in the last space before the yellow line for the corner and he had crowded that some. He didn't want anyone blocking him in. He got out and headed for the alley behind the stores facing the street that went past the courthouse. The buildings on this side of the street were all connected except one and there was about a three-foot walkway between two buildings about midway of the block. He climbed the communications tower that was fastened on the back of one of the buildings. It wasn't easy carrying his rifle, but he managed it. He leapt across the walkway and landed on the building facing the courthouse. It was five minutes before one o'clock. By the time he got into position, the police car was pulling up out in front and the officers were taking Jones out of the car to walk him into the courthouse.

Harry lay prone on the rooftop steadying his rifle on the foot high ledge that ran the full length of the front of the building. As Jones emerged from the police car, Harry took careful aim and pulled the trigger. Jones never knew what hit him. That was the one thing he regretted: Jones would never know that it was Harry Denham repaying Norman Jones for having raped and impregnated his daughter. He crumpled to the ground and the officers who had been in charge of him began to look around to try to see what had happened. About all they knew right then was that the back of Jones' head was missing.

Harry remained quiet for a few minutes knowing they had not yet determined that the single shot had come from three stories up rather than street level. Then Harry did the military crawl he had learned in the service where your seat end got hung on barbed wire if it stuck up too high. When he got back to the communications tower, he climbed back down carefully and strolled back around the corner, put his rifle into its rack across the back window and drove slowly away. It was twelve-thirty now and he hoped Sally had had the baby by now so he could see it before, well, before whatever was going to happen happened. He headed for the hospital and when he got there they had just finished cleaning up the baby boy, put a diaper on him and placed him in the little hospital bassinet. It looked sort of weird; a black baby in a white bassinet. But he was looking at the wrong baby. That couldn't be Sally's baby; it had all the distinctive features of an African-American. Its nostrils were large and flared; its lips were thick and he had lots of woolly, curly, black hair. It was a cute little baby, but it couldn't be Sally's baby. He watched, though, as Lynn was escorted into the nursery and the nurse took the little black baby from the bassinet and put it in Lynn's arms. But that was impossible! Norman Jones was a white man and he had impregnated his daughter when he raped her,—hadn't he? If he wasn't the father, that meant he had just assassinated a man who, he supposed, had raped his daughter but he certainly had not been the father of the baby she had been carrying. Maybe he had been completely innocent. Maybe Sally had made it up to account for having been pregnant.

His mind was whirling fast enough that he was almost dizzy. He didn't know what to think or believe and he certainly didn't know what to do. It wouldn't take the police long to figure out that he had done the shooting. His truck would have been recognized near the scene. He hadn't thought to pick up the shell casing that had been ejected from the gun when he fired. It could be traced back to his gun in the long run. He knew if he stayed there, he was headed for jail and probably the electric chair. He had no choice; he had to run. He couldn't have handled the fights with Lynn and Sally anyway. So he took off and headed south on Interstate Seventy-seven. He had no idea where he was going—just "away" and as fast as he dared. He knew he would call attention to himself if he drove as fast as that V8 would carry him. He set the cruise at eighty-two, knowing that state troopers usually gave motorists the benefit of the doubt for seven miles over the speed limit, which at the moment was seventy-five. He was almost to Rock Hill, South Carolina when he saw two state trooper vehicles coming up fast behind him. His first instinct was to press the accelerator to the floor and take off; but he resisted the impulse. They pulled up directly behind him and turned on the flashing blue and red lights. That was the moment he knew running was his only chance and then not a very good one. He had known when he decided to shoot Jones that he would probably be caught but he wasn't going to death row without a fight. His speedometer registered one hundred fifty miles per hour and the needle was trembling at the edge of one hundred forty-five. He was rapidly outdistancing the troopers and he was feeling pretty good about his chances of getting away when he saw a road block set up ahead. Now what must he do? He could try to crash through it, go around it, or stop and be taken into custody. He thought about a U-turn but the other troopers were still back behind him. He was trapped. At that point, his choices were all taken from him. A tire blew out and, at that speed, he had no chance. The truck skidded, turned over, flipped seven or eight times, and burst into flame while sliding down the highway on its top.

Bill Blass called Ed the following day when the story hit the news media. The pictures of the wreck were horrendous, he told Ed.. Harry Denham, who was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, was believed to have been the perpetrator of a murder earlier in the day. His truck had been seen in the vicinity of the courthouse where accused rapist, Norman Jones, had been killed with one shot to his head. Jones was shot while exiting the police car on his way to a bail hearing. Harry Denham was the father of the alleged rape victim.

Ed agreed with Bill that the whole set of circumstances was a sad situation. It was also reported that the alleged rape victim had given birth that same day to a child who had been supposed to be the result of the rape.

At any rate, Ed's thoughts of going back for the trial were no longer valid. Since he would see many of the folks they would want to visit with at Chrissy's wedding, going back just for a visit didn't seem really worthwhile. He wasn't sure if he should go back for Norman's funeral or not. He thought Norm's mother was still living but whether Ed's being there would mean anything to her or not, Ed had no idea. After talking it over with Penny, they decided to cancel or, at least postpone, their trip.

It was almost as difficult to accept that Norman was dead as it was to understand all the bad things he had done. There was one thing for sure; he had paid dearly for his wrongdoings. He had paid with his life and that was the ultimate price.

### Chapter Twelve

### Happily Ever After

The days were flying by or they were dragging slowly depending on whom you asked. The days were very busy—everyone agreed on that. It was February 7 and only a week until the wedding. Penny's family from North Carolina would be here tomorrow. They would need to schedule trips to Owensboro to get Mattie and Emily fitted for their bridesmaids' dresses. Kathleen and Chrissy had already had their first fittings as had Paula Weedman. The guys had had all their fittings, too, and their tuxes were reserved along with their shoes and accessories.

The rest of Johnny's family would arrive in only two days. Arrangements still had to be made for the rehearsal dinner and decorating the church and the basement for the reception. Their picture had been in the _Ohio County Times-News_ announcing the wedding and inviting local friends to the "celebration of love." Chrissy sure did hope everything would go nicely and according to plan.

"Honey, where do you think we should have the rehearsal dinner?" If Chrissy sounded tired, it was because she was. She was too excited to sleep well at night and her days were extremely full.

"I'm thinking Red Lobster. They were very nice when we were there New Years' Eve. How many of us will there be?"

"Well, let's see. I have four attendants and so do you. That's eight. The twins make ten. Our parents make fourteen. You have three grandparents and I have three; that takes it up to twenty. Oh, by the way, I talked to Mom and she and I agree that Aunt Genny and Uncle Jack should be treated as grandparents since they did raise Mom. Paula's sister, Flora Mae, will be singing, "Wind Beneath My Wings" and she and we would make twenty-three. Is that it?"

"Aren't we supposed to include the minister and probably his wife? What about the pianist?"

"Sure. That takes it to twenty-six. I wonder if we can get a group rate. That is quite a group. Why didn't we elope? All this is surely getting to me, Baby. I know. I know. Our folks wanted this and we'll be glad someday we have this to look back on. But right now, I sure do wish our wedding was yesterday."

"Oh, sure; and so do I." His voice was full of Irish brogue and sex.

"Oh, Johnny, I know where your mind is. But I agree. It seems as though it's been forever. Hold me and kiss me. I love you." They were getting pretty heated up and then on the third floor, where nobody was supposed to be, a door slammed.

"I guess the ghosts are reminding us that Dad is just out in the shop and Mom and the twins will be back from the grocery soon."

"Of course, you never know what minute Sean or Kathleen will walk in, either."

"I still need you; so much."

"Only one more week, Baby. Only one more week."

Penny and the twins got home a few minutes later and Chrissy and Johnny helped unload the car and put all the stuff away. Chrissy went up to the third floor to check on everything up there. They had bought air mattresses and put them on the floor of each of the two top bedrooms after they had cleaned the rooms thoroughly. They had been spread with clean sheets, pillows, and blankets. There were enough quilts and blankets to make some pallets on the floor, too, for the children who were expected. The third floor bathroom had been scrubbed and stocked with toilet tissue and facial tissues, plenty of towels and washcloths, soap, shampoo and all the amenities. Everything had been done that Chrissy and her Mom could think of to make their expected guests comfortable. Chrissy, Candy, and their cousin, Megan would occupy one of the queen-size air mattresses on the third floor. Cousins, Mattie and Emily, would occupy the other air mattress on the floor of that room. Andy and his cousin, Butch would have the other third floor bedroom.

The four bedrooms on the second floor all had clean linens and blankets. They had boxed up all of Uncle Cliff and Aunt Lorraine's clothes and things from the drawers and closet and put them in the storage area on the third floor. They had decided the Coy bedroom would be a good place for Uncle Bob and Aunt Carla Wroe from California to sleep. Uncle Jack and Aunt Genny would sleep in Chrissy's bedroom. Ed and Penny would keep their own room. Uncle Webster and Aunt Faye would have the twin's room and they would fix a pallet for Jenny.

Grandpa Wroe had had knee surgery some time back and stairs were somewhat difficult for him; therefore, they had turned the sitting room on the first floor between the bathroom and the library into a bedroom for him. That took care of all of Chrissy's family who were coming to the wedding.

There wouldn't be room for all of Johnny's family at Lydia's house if everyone came who said they planned to come. Johnny and Chrissy were talking about finding a place for everyone to sleep.

"Johnny, would it be terrible to let them stay in our trailer? There are three bedrooms and the living room couch. That would sleep seven. That might make it unnecessary for anybody to have to stay in Owensboro. Do you think that would be alright?"

"Sure, Baby, if you don't mind that other people will have stayed there before we do. I had sort of looked forward to us being the first to live there, but I guess that would be rather selfish."

"They wouldn't actually be living there. They'd just sleep there and come up to the house for meals and everything. I know what you're saying. I'd have preferred it being ours alone but this is special and they will be coming all the way from Ireland for our wedding."

"Let's do it. I wish we could sneak over there and make love just once, though, before anybody else stays there. Maybe we can arrange that just for a couple of hours."

"That would be wonderfully special. I just can't wait to be Mrs. Johnny O'Reilly."

"We'd better change the subject again, Sweetie. I'd hate for your folks to come in the house and find me in a cold shower. That might be preferable, though, to finding us taking care of the alternative." They both laughed and hugged and sighed in resignation.

"Okay, let's decide about your relatives and who will sleep where. It will be a lot easier to get everyone settled when they get here if we know where they'll need to put their luggage."

"Sure. Okay, my parents will stay where they are. Of course, Grandmother will keep her room. "Sean and I might as well stay where we are and my cousin, Frank, can bunk with us. There's the one bedroom on the first floor and I think it will be easier for Grandpa Pat and Grandma Keara to stay in that room rather than going up the steps."

"That sounds good. How many more couples are coming?"

"Well there're Uncle Jim and Aunt Callie; Uncle Francis and Aunt Adriana; Uncle Chuck and Aunt Martina and all their collective offspring. Uncle Jim and Aunt Callie could have the room next to Grandmother's and the younger kids could stay in the room next to the stairs where their parents would be able to watch after them. That would be Colleen, Nancy, and little Doreen if she wants to or she could stay down in the trailer with Uncle Chuck and Aunt Martina, whichever they prefer. I figured Aunt Doris and Uncle Al and Baby Betty Ruth could be comfortable on one of the air mattresses on the third floor next to Kathleen, Rose and Charlene."

"That would leave the room across from them for Jimmy, Buddy, and Joey. The only leftovers to go to the trailer would be Uncle Francis and Aunt Addie at the far end; Uncle Chuck and Aunt Martina and maybe Betty Ruth in the middle bedroom and Uncle Morgan and Aunt Polly in the master bedroom at the other end. Did I get all those names right? I'm trying hard to remember all the names and who they go with. When they get here day after tomorrow, all I'll need to do is put the right faces with the right names. There're so _many_ of them! And did we get a place for everybody?"

"There is a bunch of them alright but I do believe we got a place for every one of them. Oh, I'm so glad they could all come. It's going to be a real problem, though, keeping them all fed."

"Yes, I know and I'm going to need to stick around the house here a good part of the time to help Mom with all the cooking and cleaning she'll be doing, too."

"Well, Mom will help Grandmother, of course, but I am worried it might all be too much for her. So far, though, she seems to be enjoying it."

"Will you be able to come down and meet all my family when they get here? We're expecting them right after suppertime tomorrow evening."

"I'm planning to be right here. I guess I'd better go on home now, though. I have to show my dad about feeding the livestock and milking the cows. Okay? I'll see you tomorrow. I love you, Baby."

"I love you, too. Call me later, okay?"

"Sure and I will do that."

One long, lingering kiss and he was on his way home.

Chrissy's alarm clock woke her early and she put clean linens on her bed and straightened the room for company. She took all her personal things to the third floor bedroom where she would spend the few days until her wedding. _Her wedding day,_ she was thinking. _In only six days, I'll be a married woman. I'll be Mrs. Chrissy O'Reilly. Cheeze, I'm nervous. Am I truly ready for this? I hope I'm not making a mistake. Can I really spend the rest of my life belonging to one man and be happy? I've never actually been anywhere or done anything with anybody else. How do I know for sure if this is truly what I want? I know I'm happy when I'm with Johnny; but what if we get tired of each other? I don't believe in divorce. Have we been close enough to know if this is what's right for both of us? What if he gets tired of me? What if, eventually, we have different interests and want different things in life? What about children? What if we can't agree on how they should be brought up or what values they should be taught? What will we do in our spare time? Other than making love,_ she thought and blushed.

_I do love him, though, and he makes me happy. I know he respects me and wants me to have all the things I've always dreamed of having. What in the world would I do with my life if I didn't marry Johnny? But that's sure not a reason to marry someone. I love him, I love him, I love him. I do want to marry him. Everything will be fine. I just know it. This is definitely what I want. There aren't any real doubts. I'm just nervous, that's all. Oh, well, back to work. We're going to Ireland._ What a wonderful thing for her. She still couldn't believe it!!!

Candy interrupted her thoughts. "You said I needed to get my room ready for company, so I'm bringing my things up here like you said. Which room did you say would be mine up here?"

"Right here with me and cousin Megan will be here with us, too. Cousin Mattie and Cousin Emily will be sleeping over there in that corner. You know, I'm glad we're going to be a little closer than usual for a few days before I leave. I'm going to miss you kids very much, you know?"

She caught Candy to her and hugged her tight. Soon they were both sniffling and Chrissy reached for her box of tissues. "I think we should have bought an extra case of tissues. At the rate we're going we might need them."

"It won't seem right without you here any more, Chrissy. Can I come over and stay at the trailer with you when you get back from your moon honey? "She still hadn't mastered her use of 'can' and 'may.'

"That's 'honeymoon,' Sugar. And, yes, you may come over to visit sometimes. And just think; you'll have my room here, now, and you won't have to share a room with Andy any more. That'll be good, won't it?"

"Yeah, Mom says I'm getting 'most too big for that anyway; but I'll still miss you."

"I know, Baby, but I'll still be around and I'll always love you and you'll always be my favorite sister." More tissue time. One thing they were definitely going to need was a trash can.

Chrissy had almost the same conversation with Andy a short time later. He didn't want her to leave, either.

"Why couldn't you just marry Johnny and still stay here with us. Maybe he could move in here with us, too. That would maybe be real neat."

"Andy, Honey, when two people get married, it means they will start their own home and their own family. If we stayed here, we'd still be part of this family and that's not the way it's supposed to be. Do you understand?"

"I guess, but I'll miss you, Chrissy." His eyes were bright with tears and one or two slid down his cheeks as hard as he tried not to let them.

Chrissy hugged him as she had Candy and told him the same that she'd told Candy.

"I'm not going to love you any less just because I'll be living over in the trailer. And I'll definitely want you to come over and see us real often. Okay?"

"Okay, I guess. May I bring Dandy over to see you, too?"

"Oh, I'd be disappointed if you didn't?"

Chrissy spent the rest of the day getting things ready for their expected visitors. They hurried through supper, cleaned up the kitchen, and did some last minute straightening up and cleaning. Then the excitement started.

"Ed, there's a car in the driveway. I can't tell who it is yet, but it's got North Carolina license plates, I think."

"It looks like Genny and Jack, I think. Yes, it is them." They were out at the gate by now. "Do come in. Hello!"

"My goodness, Mattie, is that you? And Emily, you've grown up so much in just a year. Come on in. It's almost too chilly to stand out here."

"Penny, are you sure you have room for all of us? Webster and Faye are right behind us with Jenny."

"If they're right behind you, we may as well wait out here for them—oh, and there they are! Oh, it's wonderful to see all of you, again."

"And there's our little girl, Chrissy! And I'll bet this is the lucky groom. Welcome to the family, young man."

"Thank you Uncle Jack and how are you Aunt Genny? And, yes, this is Johnny." And there were hugs, hugs and more hugs.

They finally finished all the introductions and they did manage to get in the house before they all froze. Andy and Candy took Jenny into the living room to play games and all the grown-ups gathered around the fireplace in the family room to talk and get warm. About the time everyone got thawed out, the group from California arrived and had to be greeted Grandpa Fred seemed rather tired but he insisted he wouldn't have missed his eldest granddaughter's wedding for all the tea in China.

"Not for all the tea in China and then some," he reiterated. "I just wish your Grandma Marcie could have lived to see this happy day. Mister O'Reilly, you do plan on making her happy, do you not?"

"Yes sir. I wouldn't make her unhappy for all the tea in China and India put together."

"Right answer! Right answer, young man." Everyone laughed.

"Don't pay any attention to Gramps, people. He's getting a little senile in his old age," Uncle Bob declared, which prompted another round of merry laughter.

Chrissy asked the young people if they wanted to carry their luggage upstairs and she and Johnny went with them to show them where they would bunk for the next few days and where the bathrooms were and where all the supplies were kept. They had all talked for a while and the two families had got acquainted. Soon, Ed and Penny noticed everyone was beginning to yawn and they suggested they all get a good night's sleep and continue to get acquainted and re-acquainted in the morning.

"Penny and I are planning breakfast about nine in the morning if that suits everyone."

"That sounds wonderful." "Fine." Okay." "Sure." The assents were unanimous. They spent the next hour getting everybody settled and in bed.

Chrissy explained to Mattie, Emily, Candy, and Megan that she would be up to bed just a little later. She told them she and Johnny needed to make a few more plans regarding their wedding. Then Chrissy and Johnny took off in a fast jog for the trailer that would soon be their home. When they got there Chrissy reached for the doorknob to open the door.

"Just a minute, Christina. The bride gets carried over the threshold. Remember?" Johnny picked her up and carried her through the door, kicking it shut behind them, and on into the master bedroom. He put her gently on the bed and slowly began to undress her. His fingers shook slightly as he nervously unbuttoned her blouse. She in turn helped him out of his shirt and then nerves were forgotten as they reveled in the textures, tastes, and touches that brought the height of pleasure to each other. They spent only a couple of hours there but they had made it their home. The home belonged to them and they belonged to each other.

Johnny walked her back to the Wroe house and saw her inside. When she got to the room on the third floor, everyone was sound asleep, so she quietly slipped into bed and lay there in the dark entirely too excited and happy to sleep. Johnny went back to the room he shared with Sean on Thorne Hill and also lay awake thinking of the life he and Chrissy would have together. Each of them somehow knew the other was awake, as well, and their thoughts were as one.

The next morning, despite the loss of sleep, they were both awake early. The folks from Ireland were supposed to be there around noon. All twenty-two of them had managed to book the same flight, which was amazing in itself. They had also arranged to rent a van through Enterprise that would seat fifteen passengers. They also rented a larger sport utility vehicle that would seat seven comfortably and would also make local travel easier.

As expected, the two vehicles pulled up in front of the house on Thorne Hill a few minutes after twelve o'clock. Of course, Lydia had never met any of them before, but she tried hard to make them all welcome and comfortable. If she was a little overwhelmed, nobody realized it except for Johnny and Chrissy. Chrissy had excused herself from the visitors at her house after breakfast and the chores had been finished. As she had started for Thorne Hill, she went by the trailer and made sure everything was in order from when they left the night before. They hadn't turned on any lights because they might be seen from the Wroe house if anyone had been looking that direction. And the bathroom windows at the rear of the house all looked that direction. She found nothing out of place but she smoothed out the coverlet on their bed and daydreamed a little more, then hurried on up the hill and visited with Grandmother Lydia until the rest of Johnny's family came. Introductions and getting everybody settled took the better part of an hour.

"Our plane got in a little early and we went on down to O'Charley's and ate lunch. When we told them we were from Ireland, they gave us a nice discount on our meals," Grandma Keara explained.

"They should have given you a big group rate discount, too." Johnny made everybody laugh. "Don't you all think I did good finding a girl as pretty as any Irish lassie could be?"

Grandpa Patrick was quick to agree. "She is indeed a bonnie lassie, Johnny, my lad. I don't quite understand how you managed it with you as ugly as homemade sin, but it's apparent you did." He winked broadly at Chrissy and had her blushing.

"I do have a favor to ask," Chrissy spoke up, nervously, "I knew you all wouldn't get here in time to be wedding party members with fittings and all that to be done. But I would like to ask Rose and Charlene to help with the serving at the reception." She looked all around the room and smiled encouragingly at the two girls whom she was almost sure were Rose and Charlene.

Johnny spoke up. "We would also like to invite Jimmy and Frank to help with the ushering in of the guests and seating them, if you would be so kind."

The chorus of assents assured them of their willingness to serve.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I thought maybe Colleen would want to make sure that everyone signs my wedding registry. Would you do that, Colleen?" She had made sure she knew which one was Colleen when she was first introduced so she could ask her personally. Johnny had told her that Colleen would be genuinely proud to be chosen to do that.

Colleen blushed shyly but smiled and agreed to participate.

"I guess the next thing is getting the luggage in and in the right rooms."

"Listen, Johnny, I don't feel right imposing on Mrs. Thorne. Why don't several of us see if we can get reservations at a hotel in Owensboro? You can't possibly have room for all of us, anyway." Uncle Jim was concerned about that despite Johnny's assurances that they had it all worked out.

"You can't see it from here but Chrissy and I have a mobile home to come back to after our honeymoon. It's parked just over the hill and there's a gravel road back to it. It has three bedrooms and there's room on the floor in the living room, too, if we want or need it. There're eight bedrooms in this house so there's no need at all at all for anyone to go to a hotel. Besides we want you here so we can visit."

"Indeed we do." Lydia insisted. "I'm anxious for all of us to get acquainted and become good friends. Please, Johnny, you and Bruce and Sean help them get the luggage in and into their rooms, while I check the ham I have baking. I think we're going to have ham sandwiches and potato chips for the evening meal if that's alright for you all. I do have some sliced turkey if anyone would prefer that and there are greens for a salad or dressings for the sandwiches, too."

It took nearly an hour and a half to get everything where it belonged but everyone assured Lydia they would be quite comfortable.

"Sure and you can't know how much we appreciate your hospitality, Mrs. Thorne." Johnny's Aunt Callie was sincere.

"Please, call me Lydia or Grandmother. ' Mrs. Thorne' sounds so formal and I want us to be friends."

"'Grandmother' sounds fine to me, Grandmother. Okay, everyone?"

Everyone chorused, "Grandmother" and after that, she was called only by that name.

The next two days were spent getting acquainted. The weather turned unseasonably warm and an impromptu picnic was put together and the two families converged at Chrissy's house for more 'getting acquainted.' The puppies, Dandy and Brandi, had to be penned up to keep them from spoiling the picnic but they were still happy with all the leftovers they were given by the overfed picnickers.

Ed even got out the horseshoes and taught the visitors how to play the game. There was enough wind to make kite-flying fun for the younger ones, too. They had a game of croquet going in the front yard. Everyone had a wonderful time. And, of course, the food was terrific.

Chrissy and even Johnny were becoming more and more nervous, though. Johnny reminded everyone about the wedding rehearsal the following afternoon at three o'clock and the dinner at Red Lobster just after that at five o'clock. Since almost everybody was scheduled to be a part of the wedding, Chrissy had suggested to Johnny that they include the entire group. The way they counted, there should be about forty-five altogether. Therefore, everyone was invited to both the wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.

When they gathered at the church, the two ushers, Frank and Jimmy practiced seating the guests and asking each individual if they were a part of the bride's family or the groom's family. If they were just friends, the ushers were instructed to seat them on the bride's side since there would be more of the groom's family there. After all the aunts and uncles were seated, it was time for the grandparents to be seated and last of all the parents.

The groomsmen and the groom fanned out to the left of the minister. Then the pianist began to play and the bridesmaids filed in one at a time with the maid of honor coming in last and arranged on the minister's right. The best man was on the immediate left and the maid of honor on his immediate right. The flower girl, Candy, came up the aisle strewing imaginary flowers with Andy following close behind her carrying an imaginary pillow with the rings attached.

"If it's okay, I want to stand next to Johnny, 'cause he's gonna be my new brother." Andy was quite vocal about it.

"You have to stand where you're told, Andy. He's gonna be my new brother, too, but _I_ can't stand next to him. I've got to be on the girls' side."

When that was all straightened out to the amusement of the congregation, and Andy's chagrin—he did indeed have to stand at the end of the line of men—it was time for the bride to come in with her father. Andy did feel some better, though, when the minister said he must stand in a line with the _other_ men.

Chrissy's knees were shaking so badly she didn't know if they would hold her up—and this was only the rehearsal. She didn't know what would happen tomorrow when it was the real thing. _Tomorrow._ Tomorrow it would all be over and she and Johnny would begin their lives together.

The rest of the afternoon and the meal at Red Lobster was mostly a blur. Chrissy was looking forward to going home and trying to relax. Then she and Johnny got the surprise of their lives. They had barely noticed when most of the men got up from the table and left. When they returned, they had their arms full of boxes, packages, bags, and parcels in colorful wrappings and tied with big, beautiful bows. She remembered wondering foggily whose birthday it was.

Everyone shouted "surprise" as they began to pile the gifts on a nearby table. Chrissy and Johnny suddenly realized the families had planned a surprise wedding shower.

"How wonderful!" Chrissy and Johnny murmured together. "All this, for us?"

"You all shouldn't have done this. Your being here was all the present we expected."

"Open them." "Open the gifts." Everyone was shouting at once. Aunt Doris had a paper and pen and informed them she would keep track of who each gift was from. Chrissy appreciated that very much because she would want to thank each family for their gift and she would have had no way in the world of remembering who gave her what.

They received coffee pots, can openers, electric blankets, sheets, towel sets, dishes, pots, pans, and silverware. There was a laundry basket with detergents, fabric softeners, bleach, and every other kind of cleaning supply imaginable. They opened gifts of canned vegetables, fruits, meats, coffee, tea, and all kinds of staples. They found boxed pasta, bread mixes, macaroni and cheese, sacks of sugar, flour, meal and more. Chrissy declared they wouldn't need to buy anything else for at least six months.

Grandma Keara had made them a crocheted bedspread and an Irish blessing she had cross-stitched that would hang over the door.

There were so many other things, they were scarcely able to believe their eyes. Almost the last gift she opened was from Grandmother Lydia. Chrissy was totally entranced. The recipe book that Lydia had worked on continually from the day Johnny and Chrissy had set their wedding date was a treasure for sure. It was passed around the room and all the ladies declared their envy of Chrissy at having such an heirloom and the recipes all sounded delicious.

Finally, the last package had been opened, or at least, so they thought. Then Kathleen handed her a package she had kept hidden.

"This is from your maid of honor, Chrissy. May you have many happy years together." When she opened it, she found a very flimsy, diaphanous gown and peignoir.

"Okay, Chrissy, model it for us," Grandpa Patrick yelled above the catcalls and ooohs and aaahs. Of course, as they intended, Chrissy and Johnny were both embarrassed to tears, almost. However, it was a beautiful set and the bride and groom were both looking forward to the following evening when she would wear it—at least for a few minutes.

***

February fourteenth dawned cold and clear. Excitement filled the air and Chrissy and Johnny both admitted to nerves as raw as hamburger meat.

Penny started the day in a tizzy; she suddenly remembered Chrissy had to have something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Grandma Keara had taken care of the "something old" the evening before. She had given Chrissy a beautiful Irish linen handkerchief she had carried at her own wedding when she and Grandpa Patrick had married back in 1955. It had also been carried by her grandmother at her wedding when she married Christopher O'Hurley. In the corner of the snowy white handkerchief was a perfect "O" complete with the apostrophe embroidered in royal blue floss.

Now for "something new." She had just bought a new pair of pantyhose. That should take care of that. Grandpa Wroe had the answer to "something borrowed." Grandma Marcie had had a beautiful diamond and pearl wristwatch that he told Chrissy he would like her to wear for the wedding; but he didn't really want to part with it permanently just yet. So that could be something borrowed. Now, all she needed was something blue. At her own wedding, Penny had worn a blue garter. Chrissy could wear that. She had bought a maroon garter to match her colors; but she could wear two of them. She could tell Johnny to throw the maroon one and Chrissy could give the blue one back to her. That would take care of it. Alright!

Even the ghosts 'slammed' their approval. Someone wanted to know why a door would be slamming three times in a row. Penny had to explain again about the ghosts and their manifestations. Everyone was intrigued with the idea.

Genevieve showed up as Chrissy was getting dressed and gave her a small square box.

"What's this, Aunt Genny? You and Uncle Jack gave me a beautiful set of silverware last night."

"I didn't have enough money to get your mother anything especially nice for her wedding, so this is sort of a 'make-up gift.' Any way I wanted to get something personally for you. The silverware was for both of you for your home."

Inside the box, Chrissy found earrings that matched her necklace Johnny had given her for Christmas. She hadn't had anything that nice to wear and she had about decided to leave her ears unadorned; but these were just what she needed.

"Oh, Aunt Genny, thank you so much! They're just perfect; that's what they are—absolutely perfect. I'm so nervous, though, you'll probably have to put them on for me, please."

It was the ideal finishing touch and everyone insisted she was the most beautiful bride they had ever seen.

Johnny actually got tears in his eyes when he saw her walking down the aisle toward him on her father's arm.

"Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" Bro. Mosser asked.

"Her mother and I do," Ed answered, according to tradition and the rehearsal.

"So do we," Andy and Candy answered, too.

There were amused murmurs from the congregation before the ceremony continued. They had decided to do the "unity candle' rite and while Flora Mae sang, "Wind Beneath My Wings" each of the mothers, Penny and Janet, came forward and lit the candle on each side of the middle one. Then the bride and groom took another candle each and taking flame from the ones their mothers had lit, together they lit the center one signifying the union of the two families. It was a beautiful ceremony and everything did go well.

After it was over, it was picture time. The photographer got pictures of all the families and every aspect of the wedding itself, including the kiss after Bro. Mosser pronounced them husband and wife.

The reception went well, too, and more gifts needed to be opened from friends and other well-wishers. Several of the friends and neighbors from Fairmont, North Carolina came and, of course, they brought gifts. The Tinsleys, Sheriff Lampton and his family and several others of their acquaintances from the surrounding area came to wish them well. Chrissy still found it very difficult to relax. She kept thinking: _It's over now; we got through it. There's nothing to be nervous about, now. Relax, darn it! But in a few hours, we'll be taking off for Ireland—on an airplane. I've never flown before; will I get airsick? Did I put the Dramamine pills in my purse? I'm Johnny's wife, now. I'm Mrs. Christina O'Reilly. Why can't I relax?_

The next announcement didn't help her nerves a bit.

"It's time for Johnny and Chrissy's first dance as a married couple. Everyone join in after they've had the spotlight for a few bars." Sean started the CD player and the strains of the "Anniversary Dance" began. Johnny took Chrissy tenderly in his arms and waltzed her around the room. Then her father cut in and Johnny danced with Penny. Bruce cut in and Johnny danced with his mother. Finally, everyone was dancing and changing partners until every person at the reception was exhausted.

Next came the toasts. Several of the Irish toasts had the whole group in tears from laughing so hard. It was a truly fabulous time.

"What time does your plane leave, Johnny?" one of his uncles asked.

"Take-off is scheduled for five o'clock in the morning," Johnny answered.

"Which means you'll need to be there by four. If you're going to get any—sleep, that is,—you'd better get going. You're staying at the Executive Inn Rivermont, right?"

"Yes, and you're right. We had better get going. Our bags are in the car."

"Yes, and thank you, again, to all of you for everything. Grandpa Fred, here's your watch back and it is beautiful. Thank you for letting me wear it."

"You're more than welcome, Chrissy. Give an old man a kiss and you and Johnny come out to California and see us."

They said good-bye to their parents and the rest of their grandparents. Lydia cried like a baby when they left but she managed to wait until they were out of sight. She loved those two as if they were her own.

While they were being pelted with birdseed (they had opted for birdseed rather than rice because of the danger rice posed to the birds) Grandmother had handed Chrissy an envelope and kissed her again. When they had driven out of sight, Chrissy opened the envelope. It contained Five thousand dollars in travelers' checks and a note. The note read:

*

My darling granddaughter, Chrissy,

You can't possibly know how much you mean to me. You literally gave me back my life and I can never repay you for that. The money is a small token of my love and it is for you. Do what you want to with it. It is yours.

One other gift I have for you. I didn't want to give it to you in front of all the others because some of them may have thought—well never mind about that. When you return, the thirteen crystal, Christmas angels will be at the trailer waiting for you. Don't fuss at me. I want you to have them, use them and enjoy them. Will you do that for me, please?

I love you, Chrissy.

Grandmother

*

As they pulled out of the parking lot with the rows and rows of tin cans rattling behind them, the sun was settling in the west and their future looked bright ahead.

### Epilogue

Chrissy couldn't believe how lucky she was. Exactly one year ago today, she had become Mrs. Johnny O'Reilly. They had come home from their honeymoon in Ireland and had been blissfully happy in their trailer home. But now, their home was under construction. The frame was all up and they were ready to put it under roof. They had designed the house themselves, deciding where each room would go and how large or small it would be. They had planned the location of each window and door and exactly how they would be positioned.

One of the things they had planned first was a built-in hutch with lights in it and red velvet at the back. It would house the Christmas napkin holders and centerpiece that was indeed waiting for her when they got home from Ireland. The solid glass front would show them off spectacularly. Chrissy knew the crystal pieces would always be one of the most prized of her possessions.

In the bottom of that hutch she planned to put her picture albums—the one with all her wedding pictures in it and the other one with all the pictures they had taken in Ireland on their honeymoon. Oh, that had been such a glorious time! She could still almost see the hillsides covered with pink and purple heather blooms. You could almost believe the legends they told of how beautifully the tiny little bell-blooms would ring when the fairies breathed on them. She had half expected to see a leprechaun pop out from behind a tree and tell her where his pot o' gold was hidden. Of course, the pictures they took on Galway Bay didn't half do it justice but in her mind's eye, she could still see the molten gold of the moon as it disappeared beneath the shimmering waves of the bay.

Going through the castle there at Athenry, you could hardly keep from expecting a knight in shining armor to come riding in to rescue a damsel in distress. For sure, Johnny was her 'knight in shining armor.' He seemed to make it his purpose in life to fulfill her every wish and dream—the same way he had started doing when she and her family had first run out of gas near the big old house that had since become her family's home.

Now, tonight she had the opportunity to make one of Johnny's dreams come true. Of course, she would have to wait until Ramon went to bed. He usually retired fairly early, though. He didn't seem to sleep too well; Chrissy had heard him moving around quite a lot during the night. She had seen him turning quickly to look behind him several times as if he were afraid of being attacked from behind or something. He was a good worker, though, or at least that's what Johnny and her dad had told her.

Ed had hired Ramon while Chrissy and Johnny were out of the country. Ed had needed someone to help him and Ramon needed a job badly. Ed had checked Ramon's credentials and confirmed that he had his green card and was a legal resident. Ed had interviewed several applicants for the job and, in the end, he had chosen Ramon.

"Why.....you choose me?" His accent was bad but he knew enough English to make himself understood most of the time.

"Well, it's like this, Mr. Mendez," he told him trying to be honest with him. "Of all the workers I talked to most of them had holes in the seat of their britches. You had holes in the knees of your jeans. I figured that meant you spent time on your knees either working or praying. Either way, I didn't think I could go wrong hiring you."

Ramon Mendez had smiled, shrugged, and gone back to work.

That evening, when Johnny and Ramon came in from working on the house, Chrissy had supper ready for the three of them. She had used her cookbook Grandmother Lydia had made for her and made one of her salmon loaf recipes. After he added a half a cup of hot sauce to his portion, Ramon declared it delicious. Johnny liked it, too, but without the extra hot sauce.

When Ramon bid them goodnight, Chrissy did make Johnny's dreams come true and then she told him the good news.

"In about seven months, Sweetheart, you're going to be a father."

