Page 16 of Love Story
“Mmmm. Even if you have, I like it.” She didn’t seem in a hurry. They still had five minutes until Cole and Ashley would be there. She moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a covered plate of fruit. “Have you heard from Kendra lately?”
“This morning.” John was thankful for the connection his family had with Kendra Bryant. She was the recipient of his daughter Erin’s heart, and last Christmas Eve she and her husband, Moe, had met the whole Baxter family. The meeting hadn’t been easy, but since then Kendra called once a week, just to update John. “She and Moe found a church they like. Their marriage is doing much better.”
“How amazing.” Elaine looked happier now, more like herself. They would get through these weeks and everything would be okay. John followed Elaine as she gathered her purse and the fruit and her bag with the unfinished quilt. When they were at the door she turned to him once more. “We have to keep praying for them. Kendra and Moe.”
“Definitely.” John heard the sound of a car and looked out the door in time to see Ashley and Cole pull up. “They’re here.”
Elaine waited long enough to greet Ashley and Cole. John watched her, the easy way she had with both of them. Elaine and Ashley had come so far from the days when Ashley was so very troubled by John remarrying.
When Elaine was gone, Ashley cast John a wary look. “Is she okay?”
“She is.” John moved toward the oversized chair beside the fireplace. He put the stack of photographs on the end table. “Elaine thinks this is important.” He smiled at Cole. “I do, too.”
“Good.” Ashley’s smile was marked with empathy. “I’ve been thinking about her. This can’t be easy.”
“It’s not.” John hugged her. Cole was rummaging through his backpack. Only Ashley could hear him. “We’ll get through it. We talked this morning.”
Ashley hugged him again. “Thanks for doing this. It means the world to Cole.” She met his eyes. “And to me.”
“Same here.” John smiled at her, as they both took their seats. Cole pulled a notebook, pen, and a single piece of paper from his backpack. “I’ve been looking forward to this.” He sat down and opened the notebook. “I printed a list of questions.”
“Great.” John’s heart beat a little faster than before. “Where should we start?”
Cole positioned his pen over his pad of paper. “First, I forgot to ask you about an ancillary character.” He looked up at John. “That means secondary.”
John smiled. “Got it.”
“I need at least one ancillary character to get an A.” Cole raised his brow. “Someone besides family.”
“Okay.” John thought for a second. “Well, near the end of the story you’ll hear about this one man, he was a Vietnam vet. He could be an ancillary character.”
“Wow!” Cole checked his notes again. “That sounds perfect. We get extra credit if we interview that person.”
“Hmmm.” John could still picture the man, the deep lines in his forehead, the way he had been full of life and zeal for God. As if he’d never been a part of the war at all. “I lost track of him a very long time ago. But you could try!”
“Yeah, maybe Facebook.” Cole took a deep breath. “All right, Papa. How bout we start at the beginning? Like when you first met Grandma.”
A quick laugh. “Good idea.” John leaned forward in his chair.
Where do I begin, Lord?Memories and thoughts swirled in his head. Nothing about their beginning had been easy—for John or Elizabeth.
Ashley sat next to Cole on the couch across from John. She hugged a pillow against her stomach, the way she used to do during family movies when she was a teenager. Her eyes looked nervous, like she wasn’t quite sure what was coming.
And she wasn’t. John was positive about that. Ashley and her siblings knew only the basic time line of their parents’ story. They knew nothing of their crazy sad love story or how their beginning was so painfully difficult. Or how easily they could’ve missed coming together at all.
Cole was perched on the edge of the sofa, pen poised over the open notebook. “Okay. Ready.”
An idea hit John. He had planned to start with the dance, the night he first met Elizabeth. But that wasn’t really the beginning. It wasn’t the place where their stories started. John’s mind raced. “Maybe I should talk about our early history. My life and your grandmother’s life—before we met.”
Cole stared at his notes for a minute. When he looked up his eyes brightened. “I’d like that. My teacher wants context. I can’t write about your beginning without knowing the stuff that came even earlier.”
Ashley leaned back, her arms still folded over the pillow. She was here as a spectator, clearly glad for the up-close seat to any story John might tell. Any reservation Ashley had shown before must’ve been linked to her concern for Elaine. Now that the story was about to begin, she was as interested as Cole.
“Well, neither of us had it easy in the years that led up to us meeting.” John could see that better now. His kids and grandkids had never known the hardships he and Elizabeth had lived through. He was grateful to God for that.
John drew a deep breath. “My parents were both dead by the time I met your grandmother. And I had no siblings.” John could remember how he felt, living without a family. “My dad died in the Korean War when I was just nine years old. My mom passed away about three years later from pneumonia.” He paused. “But everyone said she died of a broken heart.”
Cole was writing as quickly as he could. After half a minute he looked at John. “I didn’t know that.”
