Page 30 of In This Moment
No, she wanted the one that sat framed on his desk. The picture where the photographer had caught them all mid-laugh. Jordy was looking at Leah, and Alexandria was trying not to let go of Darrell. Wendell’s arm was around Joanna’s shoulders and her head was tipped back.
Laughing the hardest of them all.
Wendell let his eyes settle on her, on the way he would always see her. The way he would remember her.
Three weeks later Joanna was coming home from the grocery store. A trip she’d made a thousand times. Same car. Same street. Same groceries packed in bags in the back of their family van. Only this time a reckless teen rounded the corner on the wrong side of the two-lane highway.
The police said Joanna never knew what hit her. “Life to life.” That’s what Wendell had said about his beloved at her memorial a week later. Joanna Quinn had gone from life to life.
Jordy had said it another way. “My mom had three miscarriages between having us kids. She always talked about her babies in heaven. Three babies there. Four babies here.” He had paused to dry his eyes. “She spent all these years here with us. It only makes sense that God would let her spend the rest of her time with her other babies. The ones in heaven.”
Wendell let the memory fade. He swiped his finger beneath one eye and then the other. He had this morning time with God in part because of Joanna. Because years ago she had once told him: Mornings were the best time to hear God. The best time to talk to Him.
Yes, he and the kids missed her. They still talked about her and laughed at things she used to say. But they weren’t without hope. One day they would all be together again, as a family.
Of course, the logistics of being a single dad to young children hadn’t been easy. God had been good to provide a constant help in Joanna’s mother. She had sold her house and moved in with them—taking the role of Joanna in raising the kids and tending to their daily needs.
Wendell had thrown himself into an even stronger faith—making sure he had his daily morning talks with the Lord, and doing everything in his power to live out his faith in the hallways of Hamilton High.
It was there that he first met Alicia Harris.
In the early years after Joanna’s accident, Alicia became his friend. She would stop by his office and talk to him about the happenings of the high school. They would walk to the baseball field and sit in the bleachers, and eventually the conversations grew deeper. Especially after Joanna’s mother died of cancer, leaving Wendell once again on his own with the children.
In their conversations, Wendell told Alicia about Joanna, how the two of them had fallen in love and about Joanna’s strong belief in God. Alicia would listen, and once in a while she would admit something Wendell only suspected. “I wish I believed the way Joanna did.”
Alicia was eight years younger than Wendell. She had spent her early teaching career helping her sick parents, and along the way she had missed out on the dating years. She had once dreamed of having children, but not anymore.
As Alicia and Wendell grew closer, Alicia admitted something to Wendell during one of their talks. Something she had never said before.
“You know what makes me most afraid?” It was a winter day, snow piled a foot high across the baseball field.
“What’s that?” Wendell angled his body so he could see her eyes. He could feel himself being drawn to her, pulled in by her kind heart and deep beauty. Her skin was a light brown, her complexion smooth as silk. The smell of her perfume filled his senses.
Alicia hesitated, as if by saying the words the reality might somehow be worse. “I’m afraid of being alone.” Her expression grew sad, sadder than Wendell had ever seen before. “My parents are gone. I have no family.” She shrugged. “Sometimes I ask God... is this all there is for me?”
And in that moment Wendell felt his feelings for Alicia deepen. Before he could stop himself, he had reached for her hand. “You won’t be alone.” He looked intently into her eyes. “You have me. You always will.”
But in the end that hadn’t been true. His decision to lead the Raise the Bar club had driven her away.
He looked at the clock on his desk and stood. It was time to head to school, time to face another day without Alicia. Maybe that was all this was, the bad feeling stirring in his soul. Maybe he was just feeling afraid, the way Alicia had felt back then. Not because someone might fire him or throw him in jail for talking about Jesus on a public school campus.
But because—once his children were grown—he might spend the rest of his days alone.
10
Cami was terrified to go to school, but she had no choice. Her sisters had gone to stay with an aunt across town. Until the trial was over, their father had said. So the twins wouldn’t be a part of the media circus that was bound to come. Already Cami had seen more people than usual driving by their house. A few of them definitely had cameras.
So her sisters were safe. But Cami still had to go to Hamilton High. She couldn’t stay away forever. She thought for a minute. Maybe no one at school knew yet. Could it be she’d only imagined her father’s phone call? Maybe he hadn’t called the press. He could’ve been talking to one of his friends from the airport.
But as Cami stepped off the bus and headed through the front doors of Hamilton High that morning, she was sure she was only kidding herself. Of course her father had made the call. He had contacted the newspaper, and sometime today everything about her life was going to fall apart.
And not just her life, the life of Principal Quinn.
Before she got halfway down the hall to her locker, Cami saw Jordy round the corner with a group of football players. She stopped and waited until he saw her. At the same time, the guys gave Jordy a slight shove, the group of them laughing.
“Don’t talk too long,” one of them said. “Can’t miss history class. Coach’ll bench you for sure.”
“I’ll be there.” Jordy grinned and gave the guys an elbow in return. These were his teammates and friends. Close friends. Some of the players who had been attending the Raise the Bar meetings for most of the past year.
