Page 671 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“They look nice.” Sydney placed it behind her back and tucked her feet under her legs. Stella’s home was becoming more and more of a refuge.She snuggled in the corner of the sofa and watched Stella enter the room, carrying a tray of lemonade and cookies. She rose. “Here, let me help you.”

“No, you just relax.”

Stella sat down in the love seat and Sydney noticed that there were shadows under her eyes. The tiny lines etched around her eyes looked deeper than she remembered. Sydney wondered how much stress her return to Stoney Creek had caused Stella. Guilt surfaced. This was the first time she’d ever even thought about it.

“Here you are.” Stella handed Sydney a tall tumbler of lemonade.

“Stella, I love you,” Sydney blurted.

Stella looked taken back, but pleased nonetheless. “Well, I love you too, hon. I’ve been worried about you.” Stella reached and patted Sydney’s hand.

“I don’t want you worrying about me. Everything will be fine.” Sydney sipped the lemonade. Her mind clicked over the events of the past few days. She told Stella that she suspected drug use at the mill, and she told her about the visit to LewisJackson. Now she second-guessed herself for doing so. She had no right to burden Stella with her problems.

Sydney looked up and realized that Stella was studying her with those perceptive eyes.

“Sydney, I know we’ve been over this before, and I hope you don’t think I’m nagging, but I want you to try to put this whole thing about Avery behind you.”

Sydney didn’t answer right away. She broke her eyes away from Stella’s and stared at some unseen spot on the rug. “You’re probably right,” she finally said. “It’s all one big dead end anyway.”

“Have you been to the cemetery yet?”

Sydney’s head jerked up. “The cemetery?”

“To visit your parents’ grave.”

Any reply Sydney could have mustered stuck like cement on her tongue, but her mind moved a million miles an hour. How could she put into words how she felt? Visiting them would make it all seem so … final. “No, um, I haven’t done that yet.” She cleared her throat.“I don’t think I’m ready to do that, but I did visit the old home place when I first got to town.” Sydney placed the tumbler on the coffee table and rose from the couch. She walked over to the double French doors and stood with her back facing Stella. After a few moments of silence, she continued in a low voice, almost as if she were talking to herself.

“When I went to see my … the house, well, thank goodness, there was no one home, so I walked around outside. There’s still a swing on the porch. I sat down in it.” She paused. “Then I saw a rocking chair in the far corner of the porch. It was in the same spot where Mom used to sit and watch me swing.” Sydney turned to face Stella. “I sat in the swing for a few minutes and closed my eyes. I could hear Mom and Dad laughing the way they used to before she got sick.”

Stella came up from behind her and opened the French doors. “Let’s sit on the patio.”

The metal scraping the brick seemed loud to Sydney as she pulled out a patio chair. The crisp autumn air splashed their faces and they sat in silence, watching the setting sun start its descent below the horizon.

Stella was the first to speak. “It’s such a beautiful sunset.”

“Uh-huh.”

“This is one of my favorite times of the day.”

Sydney’s response was automatic. “Oh,” and then, “yeah, it’s nice out here.”

“If you’ll wait a few seconds … there. Look at that.”

Sydney looked to where Stella was pointing.

“When the sun sets just right …” She stopped speaking until Sydney looked up and met her eyes. “When the sun hits the clouds just right, they burst with color, looking like puffy swirls of pink and blue cotton candy.”

“That’s exactly what Mom used to say!” It took her all of a second to realize that Stella was aware of that fact. “A cotton candy sky—that’s what she used to call it.” Sydney’s eyes grew misty and they lifted to the horizon. “We used to lie on our backs in the cool grass and watch the sunset together. Mom would reach and pluck it right out of the sky. She’d pop it in her mouth and then hand me a piece. Her description was so vivid that I swear I actually tasted the sugar melt in my mouth.”

“I remember.”

Tears pooled in Sydney’s eyes before making their way down her cheeks. She shook her head and used her sleeve to wipe them away. “Dad used to say that Mom saw the world through rose-colored glasses. After she was gone … well, I’m afraid I’ve never been able to look at another sunset and see that much color again.”

“Our parents lend us their glasses, and as a child, that’s how we see ourselves—through those glasses. You’re lucky to have had Susan’s, even for a little while.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

Stella cocked her head. “Do I?” She thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think it’s easy. Life is a hard road, most of it uphill I must say. But I do know one thing. All of the trials we go through make us stronger. We hate them, pray for their removal, but in the end, they often turn out to be our greatest blessings. I don’t ask the Lord to remove my mountains anymore. I just ask for help climbing them. Out of the greatest tragedy comes the greatest personal victory.” Stella looked at Sydney. “Are you listening to anything I’m saying?”

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