Thank you for all of your feedback and support! I know this one is crazy emotional, so I appreciate you putting on a brave face, and sticking with it! And I promise- I'll make all of your tears worth it! Thanks again! :D
Marilynn and Tony took their dessert out to the front porch, and sat together on the porch swing. Tony could feel the gentle caress of the evening breeze in his hair, and the last bit of the languishing prairie sun on his cheeks. Once again, he smiled at the peacefulness of the farm, so far removed from the hustle and bustle of home. But he couldn't help but remember all of the times he and Pepper had sat together, in this very spot, enjoying the quiet, with her in his arms, watching their children play in the yard, H.A. pushing Ginny on the same tire swing that Pepper had swung on when she was a little girl. If he closed his eyes, he knew he could probably still feel her there with him now. It wouldn't be hard, he was sure.
He felt a lump form in his throat from the memory, and cleared it loudly. "Okay, Marilynn. Time for the official Tony Taste Test," he said jovially, bringing himself back to the present, as he forked a big bite of pie and put it into his mouth. Instantly, he moaned with delight. And Marilynn giggled with glee.
"Ohhhhyeahhhh!" he cried, forking another bite. "This is awesome. Really. You've outdone yourself."
"I'm glad you like it, darlin'," she said happily, putting a forkful from her own plate into her mouth.
They ate a few more bites in happy silence, Tony almost finishing the whole thing in record time. He gazed out to the pasture beyond the fence line in thought as he chewed. "You know," he said after a moment, swallowing the last of his pie. He turned to face his mother-in-law. "There's something I've had on my mind since the funeral that I've wanted to talk to you about."
Marilynn looked at him with a curious gaze. "And what is that, Mr. Tony?" she asked inquisitively.
He smiled briefly at her use of her nickname for him, but then frowned a little, trying to find the right words. "Well," he said. "It's about what you said when you called what happened to Pepper and Ginny the Potts Curse. I guess I didn't pay much attention to it when you said it at Pepper's funeral, but it just..." he sighed. "It just made me start thinking when you said it again at Ginny's, you know? You said it began with Cal..."
Marilynn nodded. "Yes," she said. "The doctors determined that he had some kind of genetic condition that had surfaced, causing weak veins, and the risk of a massive aneurysm early in life. Cal was the first to go. He was only 52 when he died, honey. His brother was next, at 47. That was young enough, if you ask me. But for Virginia to die even younger? And now our sweet little Ginny? If that isn't a curse, I don't know what is," she explained.
Tony furrowed his brow in thought, and pursed his lips. "How about Cal's father? Or grandfather? How young did they die?" he asked.
Marilynn pursed her lips, and thought for a moment. "You know, I don't recall their ages exactly. But, as I remember, they both lived nice long lives, well into their 80's."
Tony looked at her in surprise. "Their 80's?" he said, astonished.
She nodded. "That's why the doctor's figured this was something that had been passed down, generation to generation, and that we just had the unlucky fortune of having to incur its wrath. Both Cal and his brother were as healthy as horses when they died. Wasn't any reason for their passing. Not that anyone could find, other than this blasted curse."
Tony stayed silent for a moment, trying to process what Marilynn was telling him. He worked his jaw and shook his head. "It doesn't make sense," he muttered. "How could they call it genetic if Cal was the first one in the family to experience it?"
"They told us they'd traced it back to his Great Grand Daddy," she said. "Said he'd died at 50 from no apparent cause but a sudden brain aneurysm brought on by a head injury."
Tony frowned. "And...that's it?" he said skeptically. "It hardly seems like that would be proof enough to call something genetic," he replied.
Marilynn shrugged, and shook her head. "I don't know, darlin'. I'm no doctor. And back then, there was no way to validate what they were saying. So we just believed what we were told, I guess."
Tony shifted his gaze back to the pasture, working his jaw again in thought, until he heard Marilynn speak, bringing him out of his pensiveness. He smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry. What was that?" he asked her.
She smiled kindly. "I said, 'do you want some more pie?' " she asked.
Tony smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm good, thanks. It was wonderful, though," he replied. She nodded and smiled, standing to take his plate from him. He graciously handed it to her, and Marilynn left him on the porch to take the dishes inside to the kitchen. A few moments passed, and soon she returned with what looked like a photo album.
"Have you ever seen pictures of Cal's brother?" she asked, retaking her seat on the porch swing next to him.
Tony furrowed his brow and shook his head. "I'm not sure. I don't think so," he said.
"Well, Cal was the more handsome of the two brothers,I have to say. But maybe I'm biased," she joked. Tony gave her a warm, understanding smile as she opened the cover of the album, and began to thumb through it. He caught glimpses of familiar photos he'd seen in the past of Pepper and her family when she was a little girl. "Hey, I know that face," he said fondly, stopping Marilynn to point out one of Pepper sitting on the same porch they were on now, licking an ice cream cone. She was in denim overalls, with the bottom cuffs rolled up, and had on a polka dotted shirt. Her long red pigtails stuck out on either side of her head, and Tony chuckled at the same smattering of freckles on her cheeks that he remembered her having as an adult. Her big blue eyes were looking at something to the side of her, out of the frame, but she had her tongue sticking out, licking a large and quickly-melting vanilla ice cream cone, evident by the dribbling down her chin, and the hand she was holding the cone with.
Marilynn laughed. "Oh, yes! I'd forgotten about that one!" she said. "I remember I kept telling her. 'Ginny? You've got to lick faster, or that ice cream will turn to soup!' And then she'd tell me, 'I am, I am, mama! It's fine! Stop being a pest!' " They both laughed at the memory.
"Funny, I remember her telling me the same thing many times," Tony replied. "Though, in her defense, I genuinely was being a pest." They laughed again.
"How old was she there? Eight? Nine?" Tony asked.
"Uh...seven, I believe," Marilynn replied.
"Oh," Tony said softly. He frowned suddenly, and he gritted his teeth to keep the sudden quiver in his chin from being noticed. "Same age as Ginny," he murmured, trying to smile through the tears threatening to well up in his eyes.
Marilynn gave him a sympathetic look. "Oh, honey," she said, putting her arm around her son-in-law, and hugging him. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to stir up your hurt. We don't have to look at..."
Tony shook his head, and waved a hand to dismiss her words. "No, no," he assured her. "I love to look at old pictures of Pepper. It's just sometimes these things hit me, you know? Out of nowhere. And I'm powerless against them. "
"Well, the wound is still so fresh, darlin'," Marilynn reasoned. "I can understandhow badly your heart hurts."
Tony quickly swiped at a couple of tears that had escaped his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. He sniffed loudly, and gave her a broken smile. "I miss them so much," he said.
"I know you do," Marilynn said in quiet understanding.
Tony's breath caught in his chest in a sob. "And my little girl! Why did I have to lose my little girl?" he said, his voice cracking. The tears came on like a flood now, and his shoulders shook as he put his face in his hands. Marilynn just stayed silent, rubbing his back to comfort him.
"You take all the time you need," she assured him. "This kind of pain doesn't fight fair, does it?"
After a moment, Tony brought his eyes up, and took a deep breath, looking out to the distance in front of them. "No," he said. He swiped at more tears, and shook his head. "No, it doesn't." He took another long moment to steady himself, and then spoke again. "You know, I never thought I could be a good dad to a little girl. When Pepper was pregnant with her? And we found out we were having a girl? I went into panic mode for a few days," he said. Marilynn smiled at him warmly, and Tony smiled back. "But you know what? She was my princess, Marilynn. All I wanted to do was keep her safe from the world, and make sure she was well taken care of." His smile quickly faded, and his chin began to quiver once more. "Turns out in the end, though, I couldn't save her. I couldn't..." he said, his voice choking off with the onslaught of new tears. He gritted his teeth again, and his breath caught in his chest as he brought his fist to his mouth, trying to stifle the display of emotion.
"Tony, you can't blame yourself for what happened. It was beyond your control," Marilynn explained. "It's just God-awful that you had to lose two people you loved so close together because of it. But you know what? I bet Virginia couldn't be prouder of the daddy you turned out to be. Just look at how H.A. is coming along! He's such a wonderful young man. And we have you to thank for it."
Tony smiled bashfully and flicked his eyes to her. He nodded. "He's pretty great. I'll admit that," he said.
Marilynn smiled lovingly. "You're darn right he is," she said. "Just like his papa."
They smiled at each other, and Tony patted Marilynn's hand that was resting on his shoulder. "Thank you," he said gratefully. "I needed that."
"I know," she said. And they chuckled.
Tony sniffed loudly, and wiped away his last remaining tears. He pointed at the photo album still resting on Marilynn's lap. "You, uh...wanted to show me Pepper's uncle?" he said.
"Oh! Yes!" Marilynn said, quickly thumbing to the right page. "Here," she said, finding a photo of Cal and his brother standing on the shore of some lake somewhere. She held the album up for Tony to take. He took it from her, and examined the photo.
"Boy, they bare a strong resemblance, don't they?" he said. Both men were very tall and husky. They had dark auburn hair, and big blue eyes. Tony smiled to himself at the similarity between the brother's eyes, and his late wife's. He flicked his eyes from the photo to Marilynn and back again. "You know, I always thought Pepper got her eyes from you," he said. "But Cal's eyes look an awful lot like Pepper's, too, don't they?"
"That was always a debate in our household. But Cal and I finally settled on her having his eye shape, but my eye color," she explained, chuckling. "And for my other daughter, it was the opposite. You know. Just to make it fair," she joked.
Tony smiled, but then furrowed his brow. "Your other daughter. Elizabeth, right?" Tony asked, remembering that Pepper had mentioned her in passing a few times, but they had long ago become estranged.
Marilynn nodded. "Yes," she said, regretfully. "No one knows where she is now, I'm afraid."
Tony stayed quiet for a moment, weighing whether or not he wanted to ask the question that had popped into his mind. "Do, uh..do you ever wonder if...if she's..." he stammered.
"What? Going to die young? All the time, honey. But with her it would probably be for a whole other set of reasons. I'm sorry to say she messed her life up with drugs something fierce. So, if she's not dead by now, at the rate she was going when she left, it won't take long."
Tony frowned. "I'm sorry," he said softly.
Marilynn shrugged, and smiled wistfully. "What can you do but hope that by God's grace, she finds her way back. However, I long ago accepted that no one can decide to do that but her. So, " she said, patting his knee. "I've made my peace with it."
Tony looked at her with admiration for a long moment. "You're a strong lady, Mama Potts," he said finally, giving her shoulder a playful nudge with his own, and smiling. She smiled back at him.
"Well, honey? All I can say is life is messy," she said. "It's complicated sometimes, and simple at others. It's sunshine one day, and pouring rain the next. The sooner you stop expecting it to be all one way and not the other, and just embrace the messiness, the better off you are, I say."
"Good advice," Tony said thoughtfully.
"Mmmm hmmm," Marilynn replied with a soft smile. Then they both fell silent in their thoughts, casting their glances out to the horses eating in the pasture, their tails lazily switching back and forth, with everything cast in the soft pinkish glow of the waning daylight.