Page 109 of The Singing Trees
With a windup musical clown in her hand, Celia stumbled toward her, almost falling but then opening her arms. Her daughter wasn’t afraid of anything and had busted her knees up almost daily during her ambulatory pursuits.
As she lifted Celia up into her arms, she saw an intruder on the property that stopped her heart. There through the tall trees, at the start of the driveway, was a VW Beetle. Not just any VW Beetle. Thomas’s banana-yellow Beetle. The one he’d lent her, the one that had led her to freedom in Portland, the car that had swept her away on her first adventure, which would define the rest of her life.
The Beetle that she’d left in a driveway in Davenport with a note and a ring.
In the driver’s seat sat Thomas. He’d stopped the car fifty feet away.
She shook her head to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. How many times had her loony mind made up this scene? She wasn’t completely caught off guard, as she’d seen him earlier at the marketandhe’d invaded her mind every minute since, but still...was this truly happening?
That drive back home had been one long journey through the past, thinking of every day of their relationship, starting with that night at Fairhaven and then running into him at the game, then him winning over her family, the draft, the time she’d seen him before he left for Asia, and then that last time in Hawaii.
Never could she have imagined more love and pain all in one life—even as young as she was. Not that she was special, but what they had was certainly one of a kind. In the end, just like every other time she’d found herself flipping through the pages of their story, she wondered how it had all gone wrong. How something so beautiful could have been destroyed. Men cheated and relationships ended, but she’d thought their connection was different. She couldn’t believe that the rest of the world, the rest of the couples out there, had loved each other the way she and Thomas had.
“You okay?” Glen asked, approaching her. “Who is that?”
Annalisa was scared to death. Were she and Thomas really going to do this after all these years? Have a real conversation? Why had he driven up here? How had he found her?
She looked at Glen, who’d once tried and failed to replace Thomas. “I need you to take Celia down to the beach.”
He obviously heard the urgency in her voice and looked at her with concern. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Thomas.” That was all she had to say. Once they’d settled into friends, she’d told him about the roller coaster that was her time with him.
Glen looked at the VW. “Oh.”
He reached for Celia, who clung to Mommy’s neck. “Hey, C, let’s head down to the water, see if we can find any crabs.”
The Beetle started their way as Annalisa handed her over. Without another word, Glen rushed her toward the beach.
Thomas’s face came into view through the windshield, and her heart thumped like a gong struck in a tribal dance.
When he stepped out of the car, she said, “If you say you were in the neighborhood, I’ll throw something at you.”
He smiled, and she thought he seemed very happy, sincerely satisfied and in a good emotional place, which only served to make this day so much more difficult to experience.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” he said. “I was asking around town and heard wind chimes. Turns out you own a gallery downtown, and a set of wind chimes hangs in the entryway. I charmed the girl in there into telling me where you lived.”
“Oh, you charmed her, did you?” Annalisa said, falling into easy conversation, just like the old days despite the secrets she kept. She almost told him that she had made those wind chimes with their daughter but didn’t think that was the best way to break the news, or if she wanted to tell him at all.
“Actually, I told her I was your cousin.” Tapping into his inner Marlon Brando, he spun his hand in the air and said in his best Sicilian, “My name is Vito Mancuso. I’ve lost my cousin Annalisa’s address. Can you please help me? We haven’t seen each other in years, and I’m late to meet her.”
With more of his charming smile coming at her, Annalisa dipped her chin. “Vito, huh? I guess I need to beef up my security.”
After sharing a brief grin with her, Thomas glanced at Glen and Celia, who were headed toward the steps to the water and seemed to surrender to a rush of nerves. “Anyway, I’m sorry to show up like this. I...” Suddenly, he was as speechless as she.
Annalisa didn’t know why he was here or what the hell she was going to tell him. The years once again filled the air, and her love for him swelled.
Thomas looked around, fidgeting with his hands as if he didn’t know what to do with them. “I can’t go another minute without talking to you,” he finally said, jabbing his hands into the pockets of his khakis. “Shit, Anna, I miss you. I don’t know what happened. Mitch said something about another girl? You thought I met someone?”
Annalisa stared into eyes that were sometimes blue but today were green, still not knowing where to start. This supposed misunderstanding? Their child? The feelings they both so clearly still had? She could barely breathe as the idea that she might have messed up cast doubt on everything she’d done since finding that photo.
“Why don’t you come in?” she said with a trembly voice as she started to the front steps, gesturing for him to follow.
He looked relieved, like he was worried she might tell him to go. If he only knew...
As they reached the entrance, he asked, “Are you sure? I don’t want to—”
“Come in, Thomas,” she said, holding the door open for him. “We’ve got some catching up to do.”
