Riiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnggggg
The Brown's telephone rang just as Amy and Eva were pouring the brownie batter into a pan.
"I wanna get it!" Eva shouted, running toward the opposite side of the kitchen where the phone was mounted on the wall.
"Eva, wait a second, you still have brownie mix all over your hands!" Amy called after her. Amy's long legs took two steps for every one of Eva's, and she managed to grab her daughter by the wrist.
"Mommy, they're gonna hang up!" Eva protested as her mother forced her to stand still while she wiped the small hands with a dish towel. As she did so, Amy took the phone off its cradle and handed it to Eva.
"Hello?" The little girl waited a few seconds for the caller's response, and then shrieked with excitement. "Grandpa Andy! I'm fine, how are you? Oh, she's right here. " Eva took the phone away from her ear and handed it to her mother. "Grandpa wants to talk to you."
"Hey, Dr. Brown." It was funny, she and Ephram had been married for fourteen years, and yet, Amy had never been able to bring herself to call Andy by his first name. Ephram experienced the same thing with her father, so she supposed that some things would just never change.
"Good morning, Amy." Andy said cheerfully. "I'd been wondering what you were up to. Did Ephram leave the kids home with you?"
"Only Eva. He decided to take Will along to listen in on the practice. So, naturally, we girls are making brownies." Amy answered, sliding the brownie pan into the oven as she spoke.
"Sounds like fun. Ephram never did understand the value of a good brownie." He paused to hear her laugh.
"You're right about that. I'm pretty sure he was always partial to crumb cake."
Andy chuckled in response."Anyhow, I was just calling to see if you and Ephram and the kids wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow. Nina's making lasagna, and there's always too much for just she and I."
"Why not? We're free tomorrow night. Besides, I think after tonight we could probably all use some of Nina's lasagna." She dreaded having to tell him this, but Ephram had asked her to call him about it anyway.
Andy was confused for a second at the sudden change in her tone. "Why's that?"
"Dr. Brown, Ephram decided to tell Will about Madison. That's why he took him to Denver today. He wanted to be alone with him so he wouldn't be interrupted." She waited a few seconds, but he wasn't responding.
"Dr. Brown? Are you still there?"
"I'm still here." He confirmed, but he sounded as if someone had given him a sedative. "Why now? Did he find something? Was he asking questions?"
"He asked Ephram about his middle name, and then he started asking where it came from-" She sighed in frustration. "Ephram thought it would bebetter to let him know the truth."
"Do you know if he's said anything about...?" He trailed off suddenly, and Amy swore that she could hear a slight catch in his voice.
"I don't know if he said anything about your part in it. But you've got to understand. It wasn't fair to do this to him anymore, Ephram knew that."
"I know. And I know it's not right of me to hope that Will won't be angry at me. I just don't want this to end up like what happened with Ephram and I when he was young. I don't want to hurt him." Andy ran his hand through his now-greying hair, much the same way Ephram did when he was nervous.
"I know you don't, and Ephram doesn't either, but it's a risk. If he doesn't take this well then we can only hope that one day he'll forgive us." She tried to be sympathetic, even though she herself felt guilty.
The doctor winced when she included herself in the situation. "Amy, he hasn't got any reason to hold this against you. You were only trying to be supportive."
"No, Dr. Brown. I had just as much of part in this as you and Ephram did, and I choose to go along with everything. But it doesn't matter now. What's done is done and we can't keep worrying about what's going to come out of it." She rarely spoke to her father-in-law that way, for she had a great respect for him, but she needed to tell him that.
"You're right, Amy" A thought came to him then. "You're a very smart woman. As a matter fact, you almost remind me of Julia, in some respects."
"You've told me that once before." She said. It took a while for her to place the conversation, and suddenly the memories came flooding back to her.
Amy quietly closed the door that lead from the garage to the Brown's living room, hoping that her footsteps wouldn't wake the baby. As she crossed the living room into the kitchen, she found Andy standing near the sink, running tap water into a glass.
"It's late." He commented, turning to face her. "I figured that the three of you would be asleep by now."
"Ephram's working the night shift, and Will was hungry, I just put him back down a few minutes ago." It had been almost two months since she and Ephram had gotten married. They lived most of the time in the Brown's garage, which had been renovated into three rooms. One for she and Ephram, one for Will, and a small living room. However, the garage was too small to have added a bathroom or a kitchen, and (much to Ephram's displeasure) they had to use the kitchen and bathroom in the main house.
"Oh." He nodded, clearly a bit unsure of how to make conversation. Since Amy and Ephram had married, she had been working at regaining at least some peace between the father and son. It wasn't easy, though. For Ephram, pure bliss would be equivalent to the day that he and Amy had saved enough money for an apartment of their own. The only time that Ephram and Dr. Brown talked was when they were forced to, all the while Amy tried to maintain common ground.
"I just wanted to brush my teeth before I went to bed." She explained, indicating the toothbrush in her hand. "Anyway, I'd better hurry. I have class in the morning, so I've got to get some sleep."
"Yeah, you should probably get to bed." He echoed, then he picked up his glass and turned toward the stairwell.
She watched him take a few steps. This was hard. And not just for her, but for all of them. She and Ephram were both juggling classes as second year students at Colorado State University, part time jobs (she was a waitress at Gino Chang's and he was a cashier at Everwood's supermarket), and shifts taking care of and spending time with a fifteen-month-old Will; Ephram would never accept any of his father's offers to watch the baby while he and Amy went out for an evening, and Andy only ever saw his grandson was when he was brought to a doctor's appointment, or on the rare occasion when Ephram was at work and Amy brought Will into the main house out of sheer pity for her father-in-law.
Amy knew that her new husband's line of thinking was as such: If Andy didn't want him to know about his son in the first place, then why should he get to spend any time with the baby now that Ephram had custody? It hurt him, but from Amy's standpoint, there was nothing she could do but wait for Ephram to forgive his father.
"Dr. Brown." He stopped halfway up the staircase. "I know how hard this is, but he'll come around. You're still his father, and he knows how sorry you are about this. It's just, he needs time heal."
"I know he does. But more than I hate the guilt I feel from all this, I hate to see him hurt. I always have. Except, up until all this happened, I could never tell when he was hurt from when he just plain hated me. He has every right to keep me from seeing Will, and truth be told, this was the least I expected him to do."
She smiled sadly in agreement. "I remember, when Bright and I were little, we'd get into fights, and I'd stay mad at him for hours. He'd get really upset about it, andmy grandfather used to tell him: ' When you chop down a tree, you can't expect it to be fully grown again by the next day. It returns to its original height in its own time.' I never really understood what that meant, until now. "
He couldn't ask for more than that. "Amy, I'm glad you and Ephram decided to get married. Even if he never forgives me, at least I know he'll be happy. You're an intelligent young lady, and what you've told me just now, it reminded me of the kinds of things my wife used to say."
"Thank You, Dr. Brown." She smiled again andturned away, having suddenly remembered how late it was.
"Good Night, Amy."
"Good Night." She continued her path to the bathroom, knowing that things between Ephram and his father would be all right. Someday, they'd be all right.
Yes, that's the new chapter. Hope you enjoyed, please review :) Tessie