Chapter 52
Pulling up a chair, Francesca sat down next to her father. Tami smiled at her and said, "I want to tell you how this happened to your father. He was at a high school dance, when a young man came in and started shooting into the crowd. AJ was trying to reason with him when another boy snuck up from behind and tried to take his gun away. The boy with the gun spun around and shot him and grabbed that boy's date. He was holding the girl in front of him when the SWAT Team burst in. AJ yanked her out of the gunman's arm and protected her with his own body. That was when he was shot."
"What an awful thing to happen to those students. Papa was so brave. That girl is lucky to be alive, if the shot took Papa down it would have killed the girl."
"Yes, she is very lucky to be alive, and her mother is so glad that she is. The girl that he was protecting was my sixteen year old daughter, Sheena."
"Is your daughter alright? It must have been a horrible shock to see so many shot. It must be an awful thing to imagine your only child shot."
"Sheena is not my only child, I also have a twenty-one year old son, Andrew. In fact, when you arrived I was going upstairs and visit him awhile. I have been neglecting him since your father was injured."
"He was at the dance and shot also?"
"No, he was in an automobile accident a month ago on Easter. Your father saved his life also."
"My Papa the hero. He has always been such a brave man. I did not realize he was still such a man of action."
"He was at my home because a tree had fallen on my house during a storm. He had just finished cutting it off when Andrew came home and said some horrible things to him. Andrew went racing out in his car, AJ followed him, saw the wreck, and found Andrew trapped under his car. Risking his own life, he had to cut off Andrew's leg, to get him out before he drowned or bled to death."
"That must have been a traumatic experience for your son."
"Yes, and he's not dealing with it very well."
"Sometimes these matters take time to heal the body and soul."
"Yes, but I'm afraid that instead of being grateful that your father saved his life, Andrew just blames him for the loss of his leg."
"We will hope that this does not leave him a bitter young man, but make him grow into a stronger and wiser one."
"His career won't be affected by it since he is going to be a veterinarian. His greatest fear is that no woman will want him with only one leg.'
"Does he not realize that he can have an artificial leg?"
"They tried to fit him with one earlier this week, but he threw a fit and refused to allow them to put it on him."
"Does he not know that when a woman falls in love with him his leg, or lack thereof, will not matter?"
"A friend of your father's tried to convince him of that, but I don't know that it's done a lot of good."
"Then we will have to wait until he meets his soul mate."
"I'm afraid he won't even be looking, if he doesn't believe he can be loved."
"Yes, but once the woman that is meant for him, falls in love with your son, she will convince him in a way no one else could."
"I'm not sure I'm ready for my son to be sexually active, if that is what you mean."
"As old as you say your son is and you think he is still a virgin?"
"Until I know otherwise, that is what I am going to believe."
"In Italy we would consider him a very late bloomer. You strike me as a wise woman, yet, you live in a fantasy world."
"Not really, I just don't want to think of my babies growing up and leaving home. I bet if you ask your father, he would tell you he would like to think of you in the same way."
"Papa knows too much about my life to believe I am still a virgin, and yet he loves me anyway."
"And even if Andrew was sexually active I would love him also, while Sheena is a different matter entirely," Tami grinned ruefully.
To be continued…
