Come Rain or Come Shine (16 page)

‘So we got the license, and we've been waiting for the call, waiting for the mother to relinquish all rights. We didn't know if that would happen, but it finally did. She gave him up, Dad.'

‘Completely?'

‘Completely. Living in California. Right now he's legally an orphan. No legal ties to anybody, he belongs to the state. We have to wait a minimum of six months before we can adopt.'

It was a lot, to say the very least, to take in. ‘We'll be there for you, every way we can.'

‘We wanted to tell you, but we didn't know if it was going to happen. Forgive us for not telling you. I tried a couple of times early on, but couldn't. I hate that I couldn't.'

‘It's okay.' He regretted it, too, but any disappointment was completely overcome by one stunning reality:

He had a grandson.

He went searching for his wife, who was in the library with Olivia.

He and Cynthia held each other for a moment. Wonders never ceasing, joy without boundary.

She kissed his cheek. ‘Have you seen him?'

‘Just.'

He embraced Olivia, nearly speechless.

‘We just realized we're grannies!' said Olivia.

Cynthia wore a mildly dazed look. ‘I'm a
granny
! It seems only a couple of years ago I had acne.'

She and Olivia held hands and jumped around in a ragged circle.

‘Oops,' said Cynthia. ‘I forgot I can't jump around anymore.'

Olivia burst into laughter. ‘Me, either!'

‘I'm so happy to be your granny,' said the person squatting down. ‘You could call me Granny Cynthy or maybe Granny C.'

‘I already got a granny.' He had to tell people this because he could see they didn't know.

‘And now you have two more,' said the mom. ‘It's okay to have more than one granny. I promise.'

What would the new grannies do? His old granny had watched TV all day and all night with a lot of screaming and killing people. He hated screaming and killing people. His old granny made him eat his cereal dry and wear diapers till he was three. He had not liked anything about his granny, but he would not tell this to anyone ever. If she heard he had said something bad, she would come and scratch his eyes out. That's what she said she would do if he didn't shape up. He did not want his eyes scratched out; he wanted to see everything about his new life—for as long as it lasted.

Everybody was squatting down to talk to him. So he squatted down, too.

He really wanted to see the dad again; he was starting to forget what the dad looked like except for red hair. His real mom had red hair; he remembered that now.

A tall girl named Rebecca Jane squatted down and introduced herself and shook his hand. ‘We are not real cousins,' she said. ‘We're, like, faux cousins. Like, fake. But I think we should take cousins any way we can get 'em. I have a tree house I'm too old to play in if you'd like to come over and use it.'

‘Jack Tyler! Look at you all dressed up. I'm Doc Owen. Great to have you on th' place.'

He looked way up at Doc Owen, who had big hands and a big voice and did not squat down. ‘Just call me Uncle Doc. We'll go for a tractor ride when you get settled in, how about it?'

‘Oh, looky here!' said Violet Flower. ‘If you're not cute, ain't nobody cute. I don't suppose you'd stand up an' give me some sugar?'

He shook his head no and squeezed Roo really tight.

‘Come,' said the mom, and took his hand.

‘That was a circus,' said the mom.

They went to a door off the porch and she opened the
door and they went inside. There were two beds. One big and one little. A window was open; it was cool and dark in here. A table with a radio and stuff. And some clothes hanging and some shelves really high up with blankets and more stuff.

‘This will be your bed tonight,' she said. ‘You will sleep with . . .' They had talked at length with the counselor about this. They could wait and see what Jack Tyler decided to call them, or they could go ahead and set the standard themselves. They had no way of knowing whether this would work into what the counselors called a ‘forever relationship,' but that's what she and Dooley wanted and believed in and were praying for, so why wait?

‘You'll sleep with your dad.'

He nodded, dazed. It was like TV and not real. All the smells, the people shaking his hand and acting glad to see him, the dogs lying on the porch not going ballistic . . .

She sat on the side of the big bed and he sat on the side of the little bed.

‘Tomorrow your dad and I are getting married. Do you know what that is?'

He didn't exactly know.

‘We will be a husband and a wife. And you and your dad and I will share our lives right here on the farm with all the animals you're going to meet. We'll keep each other safe. We'll all be family.'

He tried to listen but could not. ‘Are you on TV?'

‘No. Why?'

He shrugged.

‘You can call me Mom. If you'd like that.'

He hung his head and shrugged again.

‘So let's put your bag on the bed now and your dad can put it on the shelf later. We have something for you.'

She got down on her hands and knees and pulled a box from under the little bed. She would save for later the toys the social worker said he would like—a wooden train and airplane, the cars—because right now, everything was too much.

‘Would you like to open it?'

He sank to his knees, holding Roo, and she helped him get the tight lid off the first box.

Look!' she said. ‘Jeans. And khakis. Even red plaid pants! Your dad picked those. And shirts. And pajamas. And . . .' She held up a new jacket. ‘To match your eyes. Would you like to try it on? You can take off your suit jacket.'

‘I hate this ol' stuff,' he said, ashamed, tearing off the suit jacket.

‘We can put it in the church sale and you'll never see it again!'

He dropped the old jacket on the floor and she helped him put on the new jacket. She thought this was like having a layette for a boy no longer a baby.

‘I think it looks great on you,' she said. ‘What do you think? Does it feel good?'

He nodded yes. He couldn't imagine having so much stuff with tags on it.

‘Tomorrow morning you can pick an outfit to wear to the family breakfast. And another outfit to wear when your dad and I get married.' She felt a kind of electrical current wink on inside when she used the
M
word.

She pulled out another box and sat back on her heels.

‘May I hold Roo while you open it?'

‘No,' he said, and fumbled the lid off with one hand.

He caught his breath. More than anything, he had always wanted boots.

He looked at her without meaning to and saw the expression on her face, the way she was looking at him, and thought he should say something but he didn't know what it should be. It was like there was a huge fight going on inside him. He wanted to lie down on the little bed and curl up and cry and cry and cry and at the same time he wanted to run and run and run and holler and laugh really hard. And hug the mom.

‘These boots is tight.'

‘They'll break in,' said the dad. ‘It takes a little time. They're actually a half size bigger. You'll grow into 'em before you know it.'

They had walked out to see the chickens and take a look at the cattle.

‘See out there at the tree line? Five heifers. Red Angus.'

He had watched
Sesame Street
when his granny was asleep
and could count pretty good. ‘One, two, three, five, six. I mean four, five.'

‘Good job! Whoa, look comin' here, Jack Tyler.'

He backed away from the fence.

‘It's okay. Stand close to me.' The dad touched him on the shoulder and he stood close to the fence again and close to the dad's leg, but his heart was beating fast.

‘This is Choo-Choo. Choo-Choo, this is Jack Tyler.'

It was big as a trailer, big as a building, big as a mountain, and was looking straight at him, flicking its tail.

‘You must never go inside the fence, okay? Never. This is a big bull and most any bull can be very dangerous. Okay?'

‘Okay.'

‘You know what dangerous means?'

‘Yeah.'

‘Never stick your hand through the fence to pet him. Also very dangerous. Okay?'

‘Okay.' He would never stick his hand through the fence to pet this scary huge monster.

‘Look at the musculature,' said the dad. ‘The way he's designed. The poise in this enormous creature is phenomenal.'

There was a happy look on the dad's face as the bull lowered its huge head.

‘Man!' said the dad.

He watched the dad for a time, then stood up as tall as he could in his new jeans and new blue shirt and new boots, and looked at the bull with long eyelashes eating grass.

‘Man!' said Jack Tyler.

He was heading up to pack for the trip back to Mitford tomorrow night.

At the foot of the stairs, Sammy gave a shout from the library, where he and Jack Tyler were shooting pool.