REAL LOVE
The year is November 4, 2005 my name is Taylor Anderson. I am 28, and I am happily married to David Reed, Which you will know later on in this story. We have three wonderful children, Megan the oldest and adopted, Tommy the only boy, bless his heart, and the baby, Emily.
It was 15 years ago when her life was changed, some good, and some destroying every ounce of happiness and flipped her life upside down and all around. Then it was 8 years ago when her life changed ours. I am writing this I guess as a dedication, or maybe just a way to let you know how great of a person she really was. I guess if I start anywhere, it should be from the beginning. The year was June 14, 1992…
It was a cool, dark, and stormy night, in the summer of June 1992.The rain gently fell against the metal tin roof, the moon was hidden behind large black clouds, that didn't seem to go away. Lightning flashed constantly but the thunder did not echo. The quite young family of five slept soundly in their beds except for Emily, the mother, was down stairs in the kitchen at this time of the night finishing the dishes. The lightning flashed and the thunder rolled for once.
"Mommy!" a loud shriek came from up the steps. Emily ran up the steps and half way up the steps embraced the young boy. She picked up the little brown, hair blue eyed boy.
"Mommy, don't let them get me, please!"
"Don't let who get you?" Emily said as she wiped the tears away from the little boys face.
"The monkeys, mommy, they were chasing me! They had sharp teeth and could fly!"
"Have you been watching the "Wizard of OZ" again?" the little boys face went from tearful to innocent real quick.
"I and papa did." Emily looked up in the "O lord" kind of way.
I knew you and your father were going to watch that movie again and you were going to get another nightmare!" she walked up the steps and placed the toddler in his bed. As she did, Ben started laughing, after a while of laughter Emily wondered what he was laughing at.
"Ben what are you laughing at?" Ben shook his head.
"Are you laughing at me huh, huh," Emily said as she tickled her young son.
"Ahhhh!" Emily screamed as she turned around to see only her husband behind her. She hit him as she said, "you know where to get me at, don't you?"
"Yep," he gave her a kiss on the cheek, "uh oh, I think we woke someone else up!" a knock indicated that someone else was woke up.
"Come in."
"Mommy, can I come in?"
"Why not?" Elizabeth was a tall girl for her age all the children were many years apart.
Ben was three years old, next was Matthew who was five years old, and Elizabeth was seven years old. The parents Larry and Emily were fours years different also, Larry is 26 and Emily is 22. Larry was a tall kind of chubby man with brown hair and a goatee. Now Emily was a short, rail thin, up topped kind of woman with blond hair and has green eyes. She had those, as her husband would call "child bearing hips," and always wore high heels, even her worn out high heels are her house shoes.
"Mama? What is that noise?" Emily looked around she saw the pictures shake.
"Oh lord, its Percy, brace yourselves." Emily grabbed hold of Elizabeth and Larry held on to Ben. The door flew open and the dog came running in through the room with a blast of wind.
"Percy! Sit!" Ben stood up and pointed his finger witch meant you had better listen to me! The puppy started to slide and hit the bed. He jumped up on the bed where the family sat.
"Okay Percy, get down." Larry pushed the Saint Bernard off the bed.
A knock on the door indicated that the last of the children was up
"Come on in Matt." The cute little blond haired, sleepy blue-eyed boy entered the room.
"Mommy what's going on? Why is everyone awake?" he crawled on the bed and in Emily's lap.
"The same thing you are doing up. Can't sleep"
"Mommy, can you sing us a song?" Ben said as Larry placed him in Emily's lap. Ben was in Emily's lap, and Matt was in Larry's and Elizabeth laid across on Larry and Emily's lap.
"Okay what do you want me to sing?" Elizabeth sat up and mentioned the song.
"The song you use to sing to me when I was Ben's age!" Emily thought about it a moment.
"She
was born in a place called Blue
Valley
at
the foot of the Tennessee
hills
with
the blue birds and blue bells
and blue mountain water, and the
sound of the blue whippoorwills "she moved Ben to her shoulder.
"But
there was no peace in the valley
her daddy, a cruel, ruthless
man
Used and abused her mind and her body
so her mama said run
while you can," she looked around the room trying to regain the
words to the song. Larry looked at her and smiled. Elizabeth
looked
up.
"Mommy, what is the story behind that song?" Elizabeth said as she wiped her eyes trying to fight the sleep that was trying to win her to sleep hard.
"Well that's the song that a friend of mine wrote for me when I was going through a hard time."
"Oh, what was her name? Do mommy's and daddy's cry?"
"Yes darlin, in their own way, they do cry, and her name was Dolly Parton" she looked at Larry and back down at the child laid across her lap, she played with his soft hair, gently as she sang the rest.
"So
at fifteen she took to the highway
Belongings and guitar in
hand
And she buried herself in her music
The one thing she did
understand
And she sings like a bird and she writes like a
poet
Her voice has that high, lonesome sound
She hurts, and her
songs are the best way to show it
So the Blue Valley songbird
keeps traveling around" Larry looked at Emily and just smiled,
the woman that didn't even want the little girl she had carried as
a teenager, fell in love with her children as they were born.
"She
hopes someday she will make it
And everyone says that she
will
When she comes to town, crowds flock around
To see the
girl from the Tennessee hills
She writes her letter back home to
her mama
In care of the preacher in town
They're sacred to her
so she reads them at church
And so her daddy cannot track her
down." Larry and Emily could not believe she remembered as much
as she did. Therefore, they finished the chorus, as it was suppose to
be.
"And
she sings like a bird and she cries like a baby
whenever she turns
off the lights
she's a whole lot lonesome and a little bit
crazy
from mem'ries and miseries and dreams gone awry. Blue dress,
blue shoes, a blue Cadillac
A band dressed in blue by her
side
Instruments tied to the top and the back
'Cause the Blue
Valley
songbird
is singing tonight. One nighters, honky tonks, years flying by
She
never made it, but Lord knows she tries
Expressing the feelings
she holds inside
And the Blue Valley songbird is singing
tonight
Oh the Blue Valley songbird is singing tonight and she
sings like a bird and she writes like a poet" Emily looked down at
Elizabeth who was slightly awake, but Ben and Matt were sound asleep.
Larry took Matt and placed him in his room, then grabbed Ben and placed him in the crib. When Larry got back from putting Matt down simply slipped into Ben's room one more time where Emily sat holding Elizabeth in her lap. Larry gently picked Elizabeth up and threw her over his shoulder gently.
"Larry please, becareful, don't wake her." Larry looked her in the eyes and gave her an "I know what I am doing" look.
"I will it took forever to get her asleep." Larry and Emily walked around the big oval hallway, and into Elizabeth's room. They placed her in the twin sized canopy bed, and as Larry did so, Emily held her head so it would not hit the headboard.
Emily slipped out of the room and went to Ben's room to make sure he was still asleep. She quietly turned on his night light. Emily looked at her young son and pushed back gently his brown hair from his eye's, and kissed his forehead.
"Mommy, can I have a cookie, and some milk?" Emily looked in the doorway and saw Larry standing there.
"No sweetie, not at this time of the night, but I can get you a glass of apple juice and a cracker if your hungry." Ben's nose crinkled up in a "that's nasty look."
Emily heard the half-asleep voice of the child, as she turned the radio slightly on.
"Thank you mommy." Emily smiled as she made her very past Larry standing in the doorway.
Emily walked down the spiral staircase. Her robe draped behind her, and her hand stayed on the rail. She wore a black, lace robe that was a little big for her short body; you could hear the clanking of her high heels on the wooden steps.
She walked into the kitchen and opened the cupboard; she stood on her tiptoes trying to reach for a sippy cup. She mumbled under her breath about being short, as she rinsed out the sippy cup and poured apple juice into the green and blue cup. She once again opened and reached in the cupboard this time to grab a bag of "chips ahoy" cookies. She took off her high heels to go up the stairs quietly and looked across the hall to make sure Larry was not at the doorway. She walked into the room and noticed that Ben was still awake.
"Now I will only give this to you, if you don't tell your papa." Ben's eyes lit up. She pulled two cookies from behind her back.
"Cookies! Thank you mama!"
"Shh, don't tell anybody now, this is mine, and yours secrete."
"Really, only mine and yours?"
"Yep, sorry honey there was no milk."
"It's okay, thank you mommy."
"No problem sweetie, good night."
"Goodnight mommy, I love you."
"Love you too bud."
It was around three o'clock in the morning by the time they got all the kids in the bed, and asleep, Emily lay there still, and awake.
"Honey, you awake?"
"Yeah, why?" He asked putting his arm around her waist. She let out a deep sigh, and turned to look at him.
"Well watching the kids tonight, and putting them to sleep, and doing just about everything else we did has me thinking..."
"What? What could bother you?" Emily stood up hoping that the words she was trying to say would just spew out of her mouth. A long drawn out pause indicated she was nervous.
"Well I am just hungry, that's all. Therefore, I think that I am going to go get a snack."
She put on her robe and walked back to the kitchen, she grabbed an apple from the refrigerator and rinsed it off and started peeling it in one long, curly, strip.
"Emily?" she turned around to see Larry in the doorway.
"What's going on? Something is different from usual." Emily smiled as if nothing was wrong.
"Well someone called me today."
"Really who?" Emily turned to see a young Child's shadow.
"Matt!"
"Matt?" she walked into the living room.
"Matt, what are you doing up?"
"I heard people talking and…"
"But..."
"But what?"
"What were y'all talking about?"
"I'll tell you later, let's get you up to bed."
"Oh, OK." Emily placed the toddler in the bed. She closed the door, and sat on the bed.
"Okay your father is going to kill me for telling you first… but I got a phone call from the doctor today..."
"What's wrong?"
"Well, mommy is going to have a baby."
"No way! Who knows? When are you going to tell him?"
"Shh, I told you not to say anything." She tucked him in and went back to the bedroom. Larry brought her apple and her glass of apple juice back up to their room.
"So who called you?" he said handing her, her apple.
"Well it was just someone in the medical field."
"Okay a doctor. What about it?" just then the alarm went off.
"I am going to get the kids!" Emily jumped off the bed.
"Get the kids in the nursery. Stay there until I come back. I mean it!"
"Larry becareful please!"
"I promise." Emily went into Elizabeth's room...
"Mama! What's going on?" Elizabeth's face was wet from the tears. Emily picked Elizabeth up and took her to the nursery on the on other side of Emily's room.
"Shh, sweetheart just stay calm everything is going to be fine." Emily stroked the young girl's hair trying to calm her down. Lightning flashed in the distance to reveal the shaken and scared look on a true mother's face.
"Now I am going to go get Ben and Matt and I will be right back. Do not open this door unless I tell you too."
"Mama? Where is papa?" Elizabeth asked as Emily started out the door. Startled Emily answered in the best way she could,
"He's fine." Thunder echoed the lightning as Emily made her way around. Elizabeth let out a terrified scream, "Mama!" Emily ran around the long and oval hallway her casting shadows on the wall that made her heart beat faster and the pounding in her head was almost unbearable. As she moved quickly and quietly towards her screaming children, "Ben" she cried as she picked him up and ran back into the nursery, where Elizabeth sat in a fetal position. The two children cried and begged their mother not to leave them as she ran to save the last of the children, but when Emily got there Matt was nowhere to be found. Emily could hear yelling and fighting in the living room.
"Mommy! Help Mommy!" Emily could hear matt's cry. She could feel this very uncertain feeling in her stomach like something is going wrong, she took her heels off as she slowly came around to the edge of the steps. Emily made her way swiftly across the long landing and down the winding and open staircase, as she reached the corner the struggle in the next room became apparent there was an unannounced shot, which took her by surprise as it embedded its self in the wall a fraction from her head
"Oh shit!" Emily looked through the kitchen; the expression on her face matched the face of the little boy who was being held to the ground against his will.
"Mama help!" Emily saw a tall man standing in the kitchen doorway. She grabbed the knife that was on the counter from the apple, which not just minutes ago, was being peeled, the man who was holding Matt turned around and noticed that something was unusual and odd about the room. Out of the corner of Larry's eye, he noticed Emily creeping up from behind the Island table.
"Emily! Get back upstairs! Don't get into this!" Larry begged as he fought off the person who had him pined to the ground.
"Emily I know about the baby! Just go upstairs!" Emily felt a presence of somebody behind her.
"Emily! Look out!" she turned around and the tall man grabbed her arm, she took her other hand and grabbed hold of the knife on the counter. A blast of determination went through Emily's body and she felt a sharp pain in her side yet she knew what she had to do to keep her boys safe.
Emily went behind the man holding her arm and turned around to face him she placed the point of the knife to his back hard enough that one slightest movement would or could kill him.
"Now get up, don't move, and call this shit off, and you just might be able to keep you insides." with a scattered breath he yelled out, "Alright guys, let's get out of here!" they all scattered and left the boy where he was. Lightning struck and thunder sounded as the very last man stood in the doorway of the house as he quoted, "All I am going to say is this is not the end of this." The last man slammed the door closed. Emily took the knife and cut the ropes from Matt's arms and legs.
"Mama, Papa!" Matt wiped the tears out of his mama's eyes and sweat from his daddy's face. They both embraced Matt.
"Now why couldn't you tell me you were pregnant?"
"I didn't know how, I was afraid you didn't want another child."
"If I could I would want twelve. We got the space..." they all looked around and started laughing. The smile that came across Emily's face was unbelievable. Larry's lip was busted and bleeding.
"Let's go put some ice on that hand and that lip." Larry took her hand and helped her to her feet. He noticed closely that something was wrong.
"Emily, your side is bleeding." she looked down and placed her hand where the bloodstain covered her clothing, her knees gave way and Larry kept his tight grip on her gently lowering her to the ground.
"Matt, go get some towels out of the closet now!"
"No, I want to stay right here with mama!"
"Matt! No! Please go!" Matt sulked.
"Matt, son, I am so sorry! I promise she will be fine." Matt ran upstairs and into the closet where they kept the colored towels from where they washed the dog.
While Matt was upstairs, Larry raised her shirt up to see what caused her side to bleed.
"Damn, how did that happen?" Larry pulled on the knife blade that was in her side. Emily groaned and gritted her teeth.
"Larry stop!" Emily yelled.
"Shh. It is okay. Just let me get it out."
"No stop!" Larry had to get it out he just didn't know how.
Matt hurriedly stumbled down the stairs with a stack of unfolded towels. Larry pulled down her shirt. Elizabeth a little shaken and nervous stumbled down the stairs.
"Papa? What can I do to help?"
"Sweetpea, call me an ambulance and keep Ben upstairs okay?"
About 20 minutes later, the ambulance arrived.
"Honey,
I'll be there as soon as I can." He kissed her forehead.
About
an hour later, Emily's friend Sarah came over to watch the kids.
Larry left, but some hours later, the news turned horrible.
