Last chapter of this story!
Fire, Death, and Family Chapter 10
"Daddy—ready!"
"Daddy, flowers, now!"
"Sunflowers, I want sunflowers."
"Not the ones with bees!"
"I want blue ones to match my eyes." This came from Annie, one of the twins and the only girl to get what her mother called "the girly gene".
Sara and Gil separated enough to look downward as three faces smiled up at them, feet dancing in bright plastic shoes.
"What's next, Mom?"
Eli's question caused Sara to turn in his direction just as the baby joined in the noisy commotion, clearly saying "Da-da," reaching arms to his father. The baby was picked up and with giggles and tumbling excitement, little girls, along with their father and baby brother, exited the house.
Sara and Eli worked on repairing the cake. As they spread the sweetened whipped cream around the cake, Eli said, "We don't have to tell Sister Deborah do we?"
Sara smiled. "No, we won't tell her. It was very nice of her to bring a cake and we'll have to tell her how good it was." Sara knew Eli wanted the neighboring nuns to think well of him. She watched as the little boy spread fluffy white cream across the top of the cake. "You are a good boy, Eli, and your sisters look up to you to do the right thing."
He nodded as he worked on the cake. "I made them promise not to tell."
"And they didn't tell, did they."
"No." His bright eyes looked up from the cake. "It was wrong to make them promise, wasn't it?"
"I love you, Eli." She placed an arm around him and hugged him. "Promises are a good thing, but we must be careful what we promise."
She started singing words to a familiar song. Eli joined her. After several lines, he stopped.
"Wait, Mom." Sara stopped singing. "We need new words—we need to sing 'As long as there's the seven of us', not just two."
"You are right." They started singing again.
Grissom heard the two harmonizing voices as he held a finger to his lips for quiet. "Mom and Eli are singing; let's listen," he whispered. The girls hushed, making the same motion to each other as they entered the house with hands full of flowers, trying to be quiet so they could hear the song.
"You've got to laugh a little, cry a little, until clouds roll by a little. That's the story of, that's the glory of love. As long as there's the seven of us, we've got the world and all its charms…"
Attempted silence lasted only until the children entered the kitchen and saw their mother and brother putting the last swirl of frosting on the cake. Giggles and flowers, eager words, delighted squeals and running feet filled the room.
Grissom held his infant son and quietly finished the words of Sara's song—"That's the story of, that's the glory of love"—as he watched his wife and children—his family.
The End!
(Here's recognition to Benny Goodman and Bette Midler for above lyrics!) This is the seventeenth story of our version of Sara and Grissom. Thanks for reading and your kind reviews!