Page 68 of Two Weeks
Ashley had studied the calendar, and depending on when Elise had her baby, there was a chance her two-week window could be the last two weeks Cole would have at home before leaving for Liberty. Which meant the final days before Cole moved might not turn out how she pictured them, either.
Whatever happened, Cole was going to be crushed when summer ended. He loved Elise that much.
It was early Saturday morning. Ashley had set her alarm for seven o’clock—way before the rest of the family would be awake. She wanted to finish Cole’s graduation video, the one she’d been putting together since the start of his senior year. She had a few more edits to make and it would be good to go.
They’d play it tonight after the ceremony, when everyone in their extended family and many of Cole’s friends gathered to celebrate. But before Ashley could work on the video, there was something she wanted to find.
At the top of her closet were two boxes filled with things that meant the world to her. Things she couldn’t bear to throw away. Not ever. She pulled them down one at a time and took them to the living room. So she wouldn’t wake anyone. She sat in the nearest chair and opened both of them.
At the bottom of the first one was the one outfit she’d kept from Cole’s childhood. It was a pale blue sleeper covered with red choo-choo trains. Cole had worn it as often as he could the year he was three. Ashley lifted it from the box and ran her thumbs over the soft fabric.
“Cole, you were just this little. Where did the days go?” She pressed the pajamas to her face and breathed in. They no longer smelled of him, of course. Over the years the outfit had picked up the smell of cardboard and dust and time.
Time most of all.
She rifled around the bottom of the container and found a small red and blue toy train, the colors worn off in spots. Much like the trains on Cole’s well-worn pajamas. Ashley gave the wheels a gentle spin. The toy still looked the way it had all those years ago when Cole was a child.
How her oldest son loved this little train. Ashley smiled. Cole would make tracks with his blocks across the living room floor so he could take the train over water or snow or whatever his imagination came up with. And sometimes he would take the train airborne, when the ground was too limiting.
Ashley could still feel his little hand in hers on their walks through the neighborhood. She studied the toy. Cole had brought this train with him everywhere, especially to the park. So he could run it down the slide and take the tiny imaginary passengers for a ride on the swing. This train was part of his daytime routine until he was five.
When kindergarten interrupted his baby boy days.
Once more she held the pajamas and train to her face, then pressed them to the spot over her heart. If only she could have one more day back then. Back when these were everything to her little boy. The way they still were to Ashley. With tender care, she set the items back in the box. Souvenirs of Cole’s childhood.
She would love them forever.
There was one more thing she wanted to find. She searched through the second box, sorting through stacks of papers and kids’ artwork. What she wanted was the book of letters her mom had written to them before cancer took her. Not long after Ashley and Landon’s wedding, her dad put the letters together and made a copy for each of the kids.
It took less than a minute to find it. She lifted the book from the box and set it on her lap. On one of the pages was a poem Ashley’s mom had written for Luke the night before he married Reagan. Then, when her cancer returned, her mom had taken the poem and changed the ending. So it would be more fitting for the rest of the kids and grandkids.
Ashley didn’t want to read it today. Didn’t even want to open it. Finding it was enough. She set the book aside and closed up the boxes once more. After she returned them to the top shelf of her closet, she tucked the book of letters onto a shelf in the cupboard above the family computer. So that she could easily get it and read it to Cole at the end of the summer. In Cole’s last hours at home.
Before he drove off to his new life—wherever that would be.
•••
ALL SEMESTER ASHLEYhad been charting the lasts. When they drove onto the school grounds, she checked off another. Last time they’d come to Clear Creek High School with Cole still a student.
Janessa skipped up beside her as they walked from the SUV to the football stadium. “Mama.” She looked worried. As if her seven-year-old heart didn’t like the idea of endings. Not where her big brother was concerned. “Does this mean Cole’s grown up?”
Ashley felt her heart overflowing with emotions. Was it really 2019? Already? She took a full breath. There was no other way to answer Janessa’s question. “I guess maybe it does.”
“So soon?” Janessa furrowed her brow. “I thought he still had a few more years.”
“I keep thinking that, too.” Ashley loved her little girl. The two were so much alike. Janessa was still finishing second grade. But Ashley didn’t dare tell herself they had forever. Cole’s cap and gown told her the truth.
Children don’t last.
They kept walking. Landon and Devin were a few yards ahead, and Cole had gotten here an hour ago. “Well.” Janessa started skipping again. “I wish Cole had more time at home. I don’t want him to move away.”
“I don’t, either.” Ashley took hold of her little girl’s hand. “Let’s go get good seats.”
“Yay!” Janessa dropped the sad conversation and ran with Ashley up the steps and into the stadium.
Everyone was coming to support Cole today, to cheer him on for reaching this milestone. He wasn’t just graduating. He would walk with honors for his nearly perfect GPA. Even this past semester with everything going on Cole pulled off straight A’s.
Ashley set out programs to save seats on two rows. Five for her brother Luke’s family, and five for her brother Dayne and his wife and kids, all of whom had flown in from Los Angeles yesterday. Four for Brooke’s family and four for Kari’s, since Jessie was graduating also. Plus her dad and Elaine.
