the following morning. Evelyn had agreed to drop her off
at the station at 6:30am for her seven o’clock departure. Evelyn was not a
morning person and so Nic had been grateful she had even offered. She would
only be spending two nights in New York. She had booked a room at the cheapest
hotel she could find on the internet, and she didn’t consider it cheap at all! She
would be using a credit card for the trip. She wanted to keep her small savings
account intact for when she had to move.
After double and triple checking that she had everything she
needed, Nic slid under the blanket in her bed and tried to sleep, but sleep did
not come. Her mind wandered back to when she first met Paul on her Caribbean
cruise several weeks before. He had come with his entire family for his
parents’ wedding anniversary. She had been coerced into accompanying her former
friend April for a girls’ vacation. She had not enjoyed herself at all and she
had not been nice to Paul. She was embarrassed now by her conduct. He had done
nothing wrong. In fact, he had been a real gentleman every time she had seen
him. And he had looked her up when he had come to Virginia to see his friends
because he remembered her telling him she lived in Norfolk. Yes, he had been
nothing but kind and friendly and she had been a jerk. He didn’t deserve her
treatment of him. She was ashamed and he may be dead and she would never have
the opportunity to apologize for her behavior.
Finally Nic drifted off to sleep in the wee hours of the
morning, but it wasn’t a restful sleep as she dreamed of Paul. She could see
him in the distance and she walked in his direction, but the further she
walked, the further away he became. When her alarm woke her, she was sad, so
very sad.
“This is going to be a great trip,” she muttered to herself
as she quickly got herself ready for the ten-hour train ride.
5.
Paul sat in his parent’s living room while his mother fawned
over him. She made him a sandwich and some lemonade. She fetched a blanket for
him in case he was cold. And then she sat next to him and held his hand while
he assured his parents for the umpteenth time that he was fine.
In reality, he had suffered a severe concussion in one of
the many explosions. He had protected the three hostages from the falling
concrete with his body and, had in fact, saved Carrie Lymon’s life. He was
black and blue over most of his body and had a couple of cracked ribs.
Fortunately the continual headache was finally starting to ease with the pain
meds he’d been given. But he‘d decided to keep all of that a secret. He was
alive and that’s all his parents needed to know.
In the early afternoon, his younger brother Tim arrived. He
hugged Paul and told him he was happy he was home. Tim had watched the news
reports and knew that Paul had been involved in the operation. It seemed
obvious to him that Paul would have been recalled for such a mission. He was
the best of the best.
Shortly after Tim had arrived, Paul’s older brother Andrew
stopped by on his way home from work. He wanted to make sure his mother was
okay. The older his parents got, the more Andrew worried about them and he
figured this event would have shaken up Maureen pretty brutally. He was pleased
to see she was fine and happy to see his brother all in one piece. He couldn’t
stay long as his nanny needed to leave early, so his visit was brief.
By dinner time, Paul had seen four brothers and Katy, his
sister-in-law. They all hugged him tightly and told him they were glad he was
okay. Paul just smiled and told them not to worry.
His oldest brother Matt and his family came for dinner.
Maureen found every excuse to see her grandchildren and this seemed like a
great one.
Janie handed baby Christopher off to his grandmother and he
snuggled into her bosom and went to sleep. Maureen immediately relaxed and
cradled her grandson all through dinner.
Ella sat by her Uncle Paul and chatted away about her
dolphin and how
Suzanne Woods Fisher, Mary Ann Kinsinger