Elly in Love (The Elly Series) (37 page)

About an hour and a half later, the plane skidded to a stop in front of Pittsburgh International. Elly found herself standing alone in a massive terminal topped with spinning metallic works of art.
What on Earth am I doing? Have I just signed the death certificate for Posies?
Still, it was better than signing one for Dennis. She looked down at her phone: one hundred and six text messages, two voicemails, and one free song download. She began browsing the text messages from Snarky Teenager:
Found pink Asiatic lilies! Where is the contract? Never mind, found contract. Buying lunch for all designers, getting expensive paninis since you abandoned us. Tussie-mussies DONE.
Kim had sent her a long stream about Dennis, and Anthony had just sent a few encouraging words and Bible verses.

Keith jogged over, looking extremely attractive in his aqua-and-white plaid shirt. “I rented a car. Sewell is only about a thirty-minute drive away.”

“Good.” There was an awkward silence as they made their way to the rental car parking lot.

“So, how’s Cadbury?”

“Really? You’re going to ask about the dog?”

“Yes. I miss him.”

Keith squinted at her from beyond a sharp pair of aviator sunglasses that were really way too cool for him to be wearing. “Let’s see, how is Cadbury doing? Well, for starters, he’s depressed. He spends his days meandering around the house, trying not to feel sorry for himself and stalking you online. He isn’t eating very well, or sleeping very well. He likes to smell things that smell like you. You know, because he’s a dog. Sometimes he just stares at the phone wanting to call you, but he can’t, because he has paws.”

Elly looked over at Keith and saw a glimmer of pain cross his face, disguised as humor. “Then why doesn’t Cadbury just call me and tell me the truth? Why does Cadbury have secrets?”

“Cadbury isn’t ready.”

Elly lowered her eyes. “Then Cadbury can’t come home anytime soon.”

Keith paused. “Are we still talking about the dog, because I certainly hope Cadbury can go back to your house. He’s cute, but….”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. Sorry. I just need to find Dennis and then I need a giant glass of wine, and then I need to be back in my shop, dealing with the Lola Plumb’s wedding of the century.” Elly moaned. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“It will be okay. You always come through things with a certain grace.”

Elly watched a plane take off from the tarmac and roar overhead. “I don’t think this is going to turn out that way. Lola was counting on me. Gemma was counting on me. The business from this wedding was going to fund the new store. Everything is crumbling, but all I really care about is finding Dennis alive and okay.” That was the reason she had presented to Keith for his coming—she didn’t want to find Dennis swinging at the end of a rope
, such a horrible thought
. The truth was that no matter the situation, she was better with Keith beside her, a fact that she was just beginning to admit to herself. She wouldn’t be his mistress, but maybe, even though it broke her heart to look at him, she could be his friend. Maybe he would let her. If that’s all the love that they were allowed, she would take every ounce of it.

As the car approached Sewell, Elly was struck by how many abandoned buildings loomed overhead. “They’re all so empty.”

“This was once a steel town,” Keith said quietly. “Then the steel left.”

There were abandoned cars on the road. The streets were patchy at best. Here and there, she spotted nice homes or manicured parks, but they were few and far between the vast abandoned industrial parks and graffitied vacant homes. “What would it be like to grow up here?” murmured Keith.

Elly watched sadly as yellow papers blew down a street, swirled by the humid air.
She was sweaty, as always
. “It would be without hope.” She realized that those words defined Dennis completely. He was without hope. Even when he had lived with Elly, he was without hope. They approached Lincoln Street. “Turn here.”

“How do you know where he lived?”

“I just looked up his father’s name online, and then used the yellow pages to find the address.”

“Thank God for the Internet.” They continued to weave down a street that was overgrown with tall, mossy trees. The pavement ended and a dirt road began twisting away from the main thoroughfare. The car bumped and lurched over dozens of potholes. “Hurry,” murmured Elly. “Hurry, Keith.”

Keith looked like he was driving an ATV. “I’m trying.” He gripped the wheel. “You’re so bossy.”

“I’m not the one keeping secrets.” A bump launched them both upwards. “Just get there. Then we can find him, and we can go home.”

“Elly, I need you to know….”

“Stop!”
The sign for the development appeared above an out-of-control azalea bush. “Southern Valley.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It’s not,” said Elly as they rounded the corner. This neighborhood was even worse than the rest of the town. Small, dilapidated houses with tons of trash in the yard rose out of overgrown weeds and wild grasses. Barefoot children ran wild in front of the homes, staring at the car with suspicion. There was one nice house on the block, and a handsome man in his sixties was mowing the lawn as they drove past. Keith pulled the car up next to his house. Elly leaned out the window. “Excuse me, sir?”

The man looked out from below his camouflage hat. “Can I help you folks?”

“Yes, I am looking for Dennis Trager? Do you know him?”

The man jerked his head. “Oh yeah, I know Dennis. Saw him come this way early this morning, looking pretty weary. I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t even look my way. His house is gone, so I’m not sure where he was going—the train yard, maybe?” The man turned off his mower. “Musta had a bad day. He’s such a good kid, Dennis. When my wife was dying of cancer, Dennis would come over every day after school to bring in the mail for her, and sometimes even read the articles for her.”

This should have surprised Elly, but it didn’t. Dennis had a solid heart, it was just hidden away under layers of bitterness and insecurity. The man wiped off a thick layer of sweat with a bandana. “I don’t know what’s going on with him, but if he didn’t stop in to say hello, he’s in a right bad place.”

“And he lived just down the road?”

The man squinted. “
Did
live, yeah. That nasty house was torn down when it was foreclosed. It’s the last lot, the one that backs up to the yard.” He looked at the sky. “Best hurry. It’s gonna rain something wicked in a few minutes here. Best of luck to y’all. Tell him he can stop by for lemonade whenever he would like.”

“Thanks.” Keith drove the car slowly forward, where the houses became fewer, and the empty lots grew until it seemed they were just driving into a field.

“There!” shouted Elly. “Pull over!” A huge clap of thunder rolled overhead and Elly ducked her head. She jumped out of the car, her adrenaline racing as the wind whipped around her body. “Dennis? Dennis?” She was screaming out over an empty lot. Crumpled magazines, large pieces of wood, a stained toilet seat, and a disgusting floral couch that was currently occupied by a coiled queen snake were all that remained of Dennis’s home. Elly felt a tear make its way down her face. There was truly nothing left for Dennis. She thought she had understood, but she didn’t. She thought that she understood struggle, but she didn’t. Elly felt a light, hot rain on her face. “Dennis!
Dennis!
” Her voice rose in pitch as she walked around the empty lot, her heart pounding, her voice rising.
“Dennis!”

She heard a car door slam. Keith was pointing to something. “There! Elly, I bet he’s in there!”

She followed his finger to the train yard, where the gate bucked in the wind, its broken lock rocking on a rusty hinge. Elly forgot everything—the wedding, Lola Plumb, Gemma Reynolds,
BlissBride
, the new store, the crumpled note in her mother’s handwriting, and even Keith, her mind shedding everything else like an old, flaky skin. One thing mattered.
“Dennis! Dennis!”

She pushed her way through the gate. The train yard was everything that Elly loathed: humid, wet, sticky, dirty, all rolled into one depressing landscape that seemed to suck the very joy out of her. Rain hammered down on the sidewalk, the thick
plip-plop
sound echoed through the dilapidated yard and out through its gates
.
Elly leaned against the iron fence posts, wrapping her fingers between the sharp slots. She looked up at the gigantic empty cargo containers in front of her, stacked as though a drunken toddler had assembled them, rain dripping down her nose and over her lips. Warm rain and the hot wind lashed the damp curls around her face. She was unable to move, her fear paralyzing her from the ground up.
What if he never comes back? What if
…? She had another thought—this one much worse. Her fears welled up within her chest, drenching her along with the rain.
How did
they
get here?
Elly clamped her lips together to keep from crying.
Do not cry. Be the strength. Find him. Find him and tell him
.
He’s all you have.

The thunder rumbled overhead, cracking the air with its loud roar. She walked past container after container, each one coated in mud and bright-yellow spray paint, sporting tags and obscure cartoons characters. The open door of an empty cab groaned in the wind and Elly heard a rustling. Something darted out from the red train car in front of her. It was trying to move fast, but was ultimately unsuccessful and was more like a shuffle. All the air was pushed out of her lungs and Elly began running toward the shadow. He tried to outrun her, but it didn’t matter. For once in her chubby life, Elly Jordan was fast.

At the sight of his hair, her heart throbbed with relief, her fears running out onto the wet pavement, running alongside with the buckets of dirty rain. She felt the mud under her sandals, and the awkwardness of his body as she approached him. Finally, with a wheeze, he collapsed to his knees before her. Large sobs racked his shoulders. He clutched a tiny jade pineapple in his hand. “Dennis?”

“Don’t come any closer. Go away. I’m here to do something.”

“I’m sorry,” Elly whispered, the wind carrying away her words. “Dennis. I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand.” The certainty in her voice sounded like a gavel, ringing out across the empty park. “Please come home. You are my family.”

His eyes misted over as he looked away. “I don’t care. Nothing you ever say again will mean anything to me. Ever again.”

She crouched beside him, rain pelting down on them both. “I mean it. You are my family. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I should have been stronger for you. I should have paid more attention. And I didn’t. Can you please give me another chance?”

Dennis looked up, his bright-blue eyes startling under his plastered hair. “Do you even know that we are family? Isn’t that why you ordered that kit? Because you want to see if I’m really your brother? And if I’m not, you’ll kick me out and never talk to me again. It was better to just go.”

Elly’s heart broke. By leaving, Dennis had been protecting himself. Even this, this sad, forgotten place of his worst memories, was a better option than being rejected by the only person he knew in the world.

“I should never have ordered that kit. I don’t care if we aren’t really related, although my heart tells me that we are. I will never use it. You are my brother. Now, always. We have stuff to work on, but we’re family.”

His cloudy eyes met hers. “But I’ve been a dick. What if I mess it up again?”

“I’m sure you will. And so will I. I’m sure there are days where we will want to murder each other and will fight and yell, but that’s okay. That is what family does. What makes us a family is that we come back together when it’s over. We forgive. We can try harder.”

Dennis shook his head. “I’m not sure why you want to deal with a messed-up kid like me. I’m not … normal. I have issues.” He clasped his hands over his head. “You don’t even know.”

Hesitantly, Elly put her hands over his hands and lowered her eyes to meet his. “Then I will help you battle them. Every day. You are the only family I have, too. You can’t go anywhere, because
then I’ll be
alone. Do you hear me Dennis? You can’t leave me alone.”

Dennis’s eyes were confused. “You … need me?”

“Yes. Yes. I need you. I might not need
World of MageCraft
playing all night, but I need you in my life, because I need family, too. More than anything else, this is what matters. I didn’t realize it until now.” With a start, Elly felt her own tears running in the rain as she stared at her brother. Before her eyes, she saw his face transform from a stranger’s features into something familiar and comforting. She saw the beauty in him, saw the truth of his life and his innocent soul. Elly saw his face struggling to come to a decision.

Then Dennis Trager reached for her with a sob. “I’m broken!” he cried desperately. “I just don’t know what to do. Please help me!”

She didn’t know what to say, and so she just reached for him.

Elly loved him.

She wrapped her arms around him and together they sobbed in the rain, family at last.

Dennis and Elly walked out through the train yard gates and toward the car, where Keith waited in the rain. Both men seemed unsure of how to react to each other, so Keith simply nodded and said, “Good to see you, Dennis.”

“Yeah” sniffed Dennis, climbing in the car before reconsidering his words. “Good to see you, Keith, man.” It was an awkward exchange, but it warmed Elly’s heart.

Instead of sitting up front with Keith, she sat in the back with Dennis, not wanting to leave his side for the moment. Feeling bold, she wrapped her hand around his and gave a firm squeeze. “Let’s go home.”

She saw a slight smile creep over his face. “Okay.” As the car pulled away from the dusty road, Dennis leaned his wet forehead against the window, watching the past fade into a humid fog.

“We can stay longer if you want. We could rent a hotel here if you want more time to say goodbye, see your neighbors.”

Dennis shook his head. “I didn’t say goodbye the first time. This was enough. My parents aren’t here.”