Chapter 7
After leaving the cemetery everyone was invited to a luncheon held by the members of the Roberts' church, it was being held in the community room there. It wasn't until mid-afternoon when AJ finally drove them home.
They arrived at Harriett's and were greeted by all three children rushing down the stairs to welcome them home. AJ scooped Allison into his arms to kiss her and the next thing he knew he was being ushered right back out the front door he had just come in through. "Harriett what are you doing? I was going to pay the sitter and then get dinner started," AJ protested, finding himself and his daughter on the front porch.
"No, I'll take care of that AJ," Harriett told him giving both him and Allison a kiss on the cheek. She added, "You go home and see to your family as I need to do…"
"But Harriett…" he tried to interrupt.
Only to be cut off by her saying, "AJ, I'm alone now and I need to find a way to live with that. I've leaned on you enough and I need to get back on my own two feet now. Please go home. I appreciate all you've done for us, but I need to do this for myself now. I'll be back at work on Monday."
"No! You take all the time you need there's no need to rush back."
"You don't understand, I need to keep my mind busy or I'll go crazy. I need to be back at work. So go home now and I'll see you on Monday."
As they will, days passed into weeks and weeks slowly passed into months. AJ and Allison were still frequent visitors at the Roberts' residence Allison and Harriett's twins loved to play together. Other friends still stopped by from time to time but they became busy with their everyday lives and Harriett and the children did find a new routine without Bud. He was still missed and thought of often but as it will, life was going on without him.
Through all this time, as in the days before Bud's funeral, Victor Galindez was a surprising visitor. He continued to come around, checking on the family to see if there was anything that they needed. A couple of times he took the two boys to ball games and they could talk of nothing else for days afterwards. He would also find time to play catch with AJ and Jimmy if Harriett didn't have anything for him to do around the house.
One day he was even roped into a dolly tea party by the twins. When Harriett caught him sitting in their room in one of their tiny chairs drinking from a tiny teacup filled with imaginary tea she laughed like she hadn't in months. Tears of mirth streaming down her cheeks, and even though it did his heart good to hear her laugh like that, Victor swore her to secrecy about the event she had witnessed.
When the embarrassment had faded a bit and he had gained her promise not to say anything, he grinned at her and said, "It's good to hear you laugh Harriett, that's something that's been missing around here."
"It has been a long time hasn't it? Thank you Vic for giving me a reason to laugh like that."
"You're welcome Harriett. I'd like to be able to make you laugh like that more often."
Giving him an odd look she asked, "Why Vic? And while we're at it, could you answer a question that's been on my mind for a while now?"
"What's that?" he asked with an unsuspecting smile.
"I'd like to know the real reason that you've been spending so much time here. Don't get me wrong, we all love having you here, especially when the girls need an extra person at their tea parties…"
"We weren't going to mention that ever again, remember?"
"As long as you tell me why you've been around here so much…"
Looking at the twins that were able to hear every word even though they seemed totally focused on their tea party, Victor asked her, "I would be happy to answer that and any other questions that you have, but could we go somewhere we could talk in private?"
To be continued….
