Chapter Two This Is Your Mom
"Are you ready to do this?" Tad asked Dixie as they stood outside the Martin household.
"I've been ready for years," Dixie assured giving his hand a squeeze.
Tad turned the key and hoped heartily that nobody was waiting in the foyer to ambush him with questions about his whereabouts. The wish was granted. "Okay," he whispered, ushering her in the house. "Coast is clear."
"Uh Tad?" Dixie hissed. "You mind if I go freshen up before I go and see your family?"
"Yes of course," he nodded. "I'll call you down when I've uh…prepared them for us." The truth was Tad himself was still getting over the shock himself.
"Oh thank God," Krystal sighed when he appeared.
"Thaddeus Martin where in tarnation, have you been?" demanded Opal as she sprang from the couch. "You had me worrying ten years off my life, and I cannot afford it!"
"And I'm sorry about that Mama, really I am but…"
"But what?" asked Opal. "What on earth has your boxers in a twist?"
"Look," Tad sighed. "I've got something to show both of you but before for I do you have to promise me that you'll brace yourselves."
"Uh-oh…" Krystal muttered.
"No, no, no, no! It's good it's good! Believe me it's really, really good," he promised. "So good, in fact that I don't think words are going to cut it, so this is something you need to see with your own eyes." He stepped aside as Dixie came down the staircase. Both Opal and Krystal froze.
"It's all right," Tad told them. "It's not a trick. It's really her. Dixie's back."
"Hello," Dixie said smiling nervously. "Hello Opal."
Opal was (for what Dixie suspected was the first time in her life) at a loss for words as she stepped forward to face the newcomer. When she finally spoke there was a quaver of disbelief in her voice. "Is it—really you?"
"Yes, yes it's really me,"
"You're…?"
"Alive," Dixie supplied grinning. "Yeah."
"Oh my goodness!" Opal breathed because she couldn't think of anything else to say as she wrapped her arms around Dixie who gladly returned the embrace. "Oh my goodness. Oh I prayed for this, that you'd come back. But I can hardly believe it."
"Dixie was in Oak Haven when the fire started," Tad explained as both women wiped their eyes. "She got away and that's when I found her."
"Well we really found each other," said Dixie, leaning tiredly against Tad.
"Wow!" Krystal was having difficulty picking her jaw up of the floor as she came forward. "Wow. I can't…Well sit, sit both of you. You're looking tired as anything." She moved the basket of laundry off the couch
"Go ahead and sit," Tad urged and Dixie timidly took a place on the empty cushions
"Well where on earth have you been all this time," Opal turned to her eager for information "You couldn't have been at Oak Haven."
"I'm sorry," murmured Dixie softly. "But I'm not exactly sure."
"Well were you in a hospital?" Opal pressed. "Or in Switzerland, or at the bottom of another—"
"Ma," Tad broke in. "Take it easy on her okay?"
"Well I'm just trying to understand."
"I know, we all are. But Dixie just got back okay. So let's take this slow all right?"
He looked at a Dixie and she nodded in gratitude. "Thank you," she whispered as the door in the foyer was thrown open.
"Daddy!"
Dixie startled looking up in time to see Opal and Krystal exchange an apprehensive look. "Kate?" she mouthed. Krystal nodded as the nine-year-old sprang into the room stopping only to put her bag on a nearby chair before tackling Tad in a hug.
"Daddy, camp today was amazing! It was so fun—"She stopped abruptly as her eyes fell—mystified and unblinking—on the unfamiliar woman. Dixie approached, grinning.
"Easy," Tad warned placing a comforting hand on Kathy's shoulder. "Kathy, come here a sec honey." He placed the footstool between the two women and lowering himself onto it, took Kathy by the hand. "This," he said pivoting the two of them to face Dixie, "is your mom. See you weren't imagining things the other day. You really did see your mother in the park."
"You look just like your pictures," Kathy whispered slipping her hand from Tad's grasp and reaching out to Dixie who stroked her knuckles gently as if she were a glass doll that might break. "Daddy put a picture of you on my bed-table and we prayed to you every night. He said you were my angel, my very special guardian and that you and Aunt Julia were smiling down on me."
"My beautiful, beautiful little girl!" Dixie sniffled. Kathy reached up and wiped some of the tears away with the pad of her thumb. She curled up next to her mother on the couch and Dixie was silent for a few minutes soaking up the embrace that Greg Madden had taken from her all those years ago. "Oh, you have no idea how good it is to see you! Would you look at that smile?" Dixie chucked her daughter under the chin, and Kathy grinned more broadly.
"Why didn't you come home sooner?" she wanted to know.
Dixie caressed one of the Pocahontas braids Cara had put in Kathy's hair that morning. "I'm sorry baby," she sighed. "I would've come home to you in a second if I could've! I would." The answer seemed to satisfy Kathy as she moved on rather quickly.
"Daddy told me all about you." she informed.
"He did?" Dixie smiled at Tad over their daughter's head. Despite all their history it gave her a warm feeling to know that Tad had kept her memory alive.
"He said that you had the prettiest singing voice. And you made the best cookies in the whole world, chocolate chip with no nuts.
"Your
"And guess what he calls me?"
"I give up," Dixie laughed.
"He calls me 'sunshine' 'cause he told me how you liked to sing that song to JR when he was little."
"Do you mind if I—if I called you that?" Dixie asked. "Not all the time or anything but would that be okay with you?"
"Sure," Kathy chirped. "Can I, can I call you 'Mommy'?"
Dixie looked up at Tad who shrugged smiling not that she needed his approval but could use his encouragement after all she'd been through lately.
"I think I would like that more than anything yeah." Dixie said. Kathy squealed and Dixie gladly took her in her arms. "You give the best hugs do you know that?"
"She's not bad," Tad joked, "And now she has the best mommy in the world to practice on."
I want to know all about you. Tel me about your friends, your school, your life. I want to know everything."
"Wait Dix," Tad laughed holding up his hands. "We can get into that after we have a little something to eat. I mean you must starving by now."
"I am!" Kathy cried.
"Why am I not surprised?" Tad said in a tone of mock surrender.
"She is your child." Dixie laughed.
"Our child," Tad corrected. "Can you do me a favor Kathy, babe and go get the lemonade, I'll be right behind you."
"Kay."
"Thank you," he called turning back to Dixie. "I will be right back, all right? Don't move!"
"Okay. I'm not going anywhere I promise," she chuckled as Tad proceeded to moonwalk out of the room.
"Lemonade," Krystal sang putting the pitcher on the coffee table.
"Oh thank you but I'm not very thirsty right now," Dixie admitted sheepishly.
Krystal nodded. "That's all right, I'll just put in down right here and you can help yourself. I hope you're able to at least nibble on a chicken finger though… for Kathy's sake."
"Kathy," Dixie smiled. "She's…she's incredible."
"The best," Krystal agreed. "And she's upstairs right now calling all her friend to tell them her mommy's back…Spike and Emma Lavery, the Montgomery girls, and AJ…I've never seen her so happy."
"And some of that credit goes to you,"
"Me no…"
"Krystal please, I really want to thank you so much for taking care of Kathy while I was away. I can't tell you how grateful I am to you."
"Well it was my pleasure. And this one made it pretty easy." Krystal added as Kathy came bounding down the stairs. "How you doing sugarplum? Your daddy will have dinner ready in a few minutes all right?"
"Can Mommy come up and see my room while we wait?"
"I would love that."
"I think that's a wonderful idea," Krystal agreed. "Just try not to pull your momma's arm out of the socket, all right?"
What would you like Dixie to find in Kathy's room that sparks memories of JR as a child? Leave it in the reviews and I'll take the best suggestions Happy reviewing aarent