Chapter 2: The Kids Run Away
By Eric 'Erico' Lawson
Angelwood Elementary
Bellwood, California
March 15th, 1993 C.E.
3:45 P.M.
It was a Monday, and Sandra Tennyson was already on edge when she got the call from Lili asking her if she could pick up both of the kids from school because of an appointment that got rescheduled. Nothing good ever happened on a Monday.
Still, she agreed, and then Lili had called the school to let them know that Sandra would be getting both of the children. She loved her niece to pieces, and she and Ben were inseparable. Thinking about those first weeks at school still put a smile on her face. They'd refused to be split apart, and in the end, their teachers had decided it would just be easier to let them stay in the same class than having them constantly trying to sneak into the other's room.
Going through the pick-up lane was a chore, but the waiting was worth it when the kids came running out with their tiny backpacks, grinning up a storm. Ben was a bundle of energy that dashed like a rocket, and he kept Gwen's hand in his own, pulling her behind him while the two laughed, paying no attention to the traffic monitor in the orange reflective vest that yelled at them to slow down. Sandra just sighed and rolled her eyes as they hit the side of her minivan, then got out and walked around to hug them both and open up the door for them.
"You don't have to run, Ben, I wasn't going anywhere." She pointed out, helping them climb in and buckle up in the second row of seats. "How was school today, you two?"
"Great, Aunt Sandy!" Gwen chirped up, her green eyes bright. "Can I stay over tonight?"
"Yeah! Can she, mom?" Ben quickly added, and the two worked up their eager pleading faces.
"Not on a school night." She said to them firmly, intent on not giving into them. They kept the stares up and she sighed as she finished helping Gwen get buckled in. "But, I think we could probably let you stay for dinner. I'm sure that your mother wouldn't mind that." She conceded, and the two cheered.
Sandy rolled her eyes as she shut the side door and walked back around to the driver's side door. She was a soft touch with the two of them, and they knew it. Besides, she was making tuna fish casserole with potato chip topping tonight, there was bound to be extra. Lili might appreciate being able to have a meal with Frank alone for once.
"...and then we can play superheroes, and…" Ben was still talking when she opened her door and climbed in.
"I get to wear the cape!" Gwen insisted.
"Nuh uh, s'mine!" Ben countered with a pout.
"Pleaaaaase?" Gwen asked, turning her pout on him. Ben crossed his arms and tried to frown at her, but he cracked in seconds and shook his head.
"Okay, okay." He surrendered.
Sandra looked at the two of them, now five years old, in her rearview mirror and grinned. Ben's cousin had him wrapped around her finger, all right. She almost felt sorry for him.
"Hey, mom, can we have juice and animal crackers when we get home?" Ben asked her suddenly.
Sandra sighed and shook her head as she drove out of the pickup lane and turned onto the street.
She almost felt sorry for him.
Ben's House
4:40 P.M.
The casserole had another 30 minutes to go in the oven and Sandra was working on the salad when the doorbell went off. She looked up the stairs as she passed by, listening to Ben and Gwen playing and occasionally letting out a high-pitched laugh or shout, then smiled and went to the front door.
It was Lili, naturally, and Sandra gave her a smile and stepped to the side. The red-haired woman looked particularly exhausted, and was already wearing a scowl. Wonderful. Still, she made the attempt. "Hi, Lili. How are things?"
"They've been better." Lili growled out, walking inside. "The tree pruners who were supposed to come out canceled, but they waited until an hour after their appointment to let me know about it."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sandra consoled her as she closed the front door. "The kids are upstairs playing." She chuckled a bit, wanting to change the subject to get Lili to relax. "They wanted to have a sleepover."
"On a school night?" Lili scoffed, marching to the bottom of the stairs. "Gwendolyn! Honey, it's time to go!"
The noises of the kids playing stopped, and Sandra joined Lili at the stairs. "That's what I said." She laughed. "But they did talk me into letting Gwen stay for dinner."
"There you go again." Lili muttered under her breath as she pressed a hand to her forehead. She pulled it down and looked at Sandra crisply. "Thank you, but no. I've inconvenienced you enough today, I think."
"Oh, it's no trouble." Sandra insisted. "Dinner's already in and cooking, and it seems like you've had a horrible day. Why don't you and Frank go out for dinner, or stay in and relax? Gwen can have dinner with us and then you can pick her up afterwards."
Lili bristled at the idea and turned to face her. "I'm a capable mother, you know. I don't need you looking after my little girl for me."
Sandra recoiled at the blow, and the last bit of her tolerance wore itself out. She snapped back at the woman with everything that a Monday could give her. "Hey, I was just trying to be nice for once, Lili. And if you didn't need me looking after your little girl then why did you bother asking me to pick her up at all?"
"Because I…!" Lili started, but froze, and so did Sandra as they looked up the stairs and saw Ben and Gwen standing at the top of the steps, glaring at them. Gwen was even crying a little, it looked like, and Ben's tiny hands were balled up into fists and shaking.
Sandra exhaled. "Ben, honey? Can you take Gwen to your room for a while? Your Aunt Lili and I need to have a talk out in the garage."
"Stop it." Ben hissed at them. "Just stop it."
"Ben!" Aunt Lili snapped up at him. "Don't you talk back to us that way, young man!" And that just set Sandra off all over again. Fuming, she grabbed the Other Woman by the wrist and stormed back into the kitchen, forcing Lili to stumble and keep up with her or get her arm pulled out of her socket.
She opened the door to the garage and let go of Lili's arm, half-expecting Lili to storm away from her. But Lili was apparently in the mood to fight after all; she slammed the door shut and took up position opposite of her beside the chest freezer.
"The hell do you think you're doing, yelling at my son?" Sandra snarled at her. "You don't have the right to do that."
"Oh, and you have the right to just decide that Gwen can stay over for dinner without checking with me first?" Lili snapped back.
"I was trying to do something nice for a change!" Sandra threw her arms up in the air. "Apparently that's a big goddamned deal with you!"
"It is when you're just trying to prove that you're a better mother than I am!" The dark red-haired woman hissed. "I'm so sorry that I inconvenienced you with asking you to pick up Gwendolyn. Trust me, that's one mistake I'll never make again!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Sandra shrieked. "Do you end up lashing out at everyone who tries to do something nice for you? Are you that damaged? Of course you'd have to be, with parents as stiff and stuck up as yours are!"
Lili sucked in a breath of air like she'd been punched in the gut, and her eyes went wide. Her hands twitched at her sides, like she wanted to hit Sandra, and she almost expected Lili to take a swing at her.
"If I wasn't a Lady…" She growled out. "I would make you eat those words, Sandra."
"No, you're not the kind to hit people." Sandra simmered, shaking her head. "You just use your words, all of the time, putting others down, putting yourself above them. Because you're perfect, and it's never your fault, and the world would just be so much better if we all did exactly what you wanted us to do. I only hope your daughter takes more after Frank than she does you, because if she's really your daughter, she's going to end up just like you are. A miserable wreck of a woman wondering why the world hates her!"
Lili sucked in a sharp breath at that, then spun around. "We're leaving. And from now on, you stay the hell away from my daughter. I won't have her growing up to be a wild hellion like your son." She jerked the door to the kitchen open and started in, and Sandra, seeing red, followed her.
"My son is not a hellion!"
"You have no idea how to be a proper mother, you parent from books." Lili shouted over her shoulder. "You think I'm a terrible mother?! At least I still talk to mine!"
Lili reached the steps going upstairs and stormed up, and Sandra just stood there at the bottom, watching with burning eyes and listening with sharp ears for Ben to so much as cry out once. Lili would drag Gwen away and didn't usually bother with Ben, but they were both so mad, if That Woman did something to hurt her son…
Silence. "Gwendolyn! Stop hiding and come out this instant!" Lili's resonant voice carried through the house, and Sandra blinked. Gwen was hiding? But hadn't the kids been up in Ben's room, playing?
Lili appeared at the top of the steps, frowning, but without the wild fury of before. She started down, still calling out loudly. "Gwendolyn Rose Tennyson, this is no time for games! We are leaving, and you…" She was halfway down the stairs when her voice choked off and her hazelnut-flecked green eyes widened. Sandra stared at her for a moment, wondering what had surprised her so, and turned to follow the woman's gaze.
Her heart stopped when she turned and saw the front door, wide open.
But...no, she had shut that door. Why would…
No. "No." Sandra whispered. "Ben? Honey? Gwen? Kids? Where are you?" She didn't dare walk to the front door, she couldn't...she didn't want to…
"I'll...They…" Lili stammered, all of her thunder and fury evaporated for quiet fear.
"Check the rest of the house." Sandra got out, already moving for the kitchen. She didn't wait to see if Lili complied, she just got back and saw…
A chair shoved up to the counter that she'd walked by before and hadn't seen. An open cupboard.
She didn't remember what happened after that. The next thing she remembered was running outside, Lili beside her, and the two of them screaming for their children who had disappeared.
Rest-Full RV Campground
5:52 P.M.
Max Tennyson had found some measure of peace in his retirement. He still bounced around from place to place, but his pace was unhurried now. Now he had all the time in his life that he wanted, but he didn't have his Verdona to share it with. He did have his sons though, and their wives (His daughters). And he had two wonderful grandchildren that he hadn't seen enough of. But maybe he could change that, Max thought, as he stared at a map of northern California laid out over the dining table of his old RV. He still talked with his boys regularly, and he'd been warming them up to the idea of another camping trip this summer, something for about three days maybe.
May was around the corner, and maybe they could all go up to Verdona's pond. He usually just went by himself. It would be good if he wasn't alone for once. And he'd been meaning to teach Gwen how to fish. If he could get Carl and Sandy to sign off on it, they could make a full day of it.
His stomach growled at him, and Max sighed and got up off of the bench. A look at his watch confirmed that it really was getting late. He didn't feel like running out for a bite to eat, but he could probably rustle up something decent in the icebox with what he had left. A grilled salmon and cheese, maybe…
Then his mind stopped running through dinner choices when he heard a soft knock on the side of the RV. One of the neighbors? A couple of days ago, Mrs. Jenkins had introduced herself and asked for some lighter fluid, then invited him over to dinner with her and her husband. It was hard to turn down free hamburgers. Of course, they were gone now, but there was always some other traveling retiree passing through that needed something, and they were full of stories and news. It was almost as good as going there himself.
Max went over to the side door and opened it with a smile, wondering what new neighbor was going to introduce themselves tonight…
His smile froze on his face when he looked down and saw his grandchildren standing there, Ben was sniffling and trying to be strong, and Gwen's lower lip was quivering under red eyes. She was still wearing her school uniform, Ben had changed into one of his shirts, and his jacket was flung over her shoulders. He had his bookbag hanging off of one of his arms, and the other gripped her hand tightly.
"Ben? Gwen?" Max whispered, and stumbled outside to kneel down and pull them in close for a powerful hug. Gwen broke apart as soon as his arms went around them, and his shoulder got soaked with her tears. "Honey, what's wrong? What happened? Where'd you two come from?"
"We ran away." Ben mumbled into his other shoulder. "Can we stay with you, Grandpa?"
"Of course you can." Max shushed them, and he picked them both up with just the barest creak of complaint from his knees. It was the work of seconds to bring them inside the Rustbucket, and he set them down on the floor. "I didn't know you were coming." He said carefully, moving to fold up his map and gesturing for them to sit down in the dining nook. They never let go of the other's hand, he realized, as they made their way over after him and climbed up onto the bench seat opposite of his. "Why are you running away?"
"...Are you gonna be mad at us?" Ben asked, and Gwen whimpered a little and tried to hide her face in her cousin's chest. Max's breathing hitched a little at the sight of his granddaughter crying and his grandson looking two seconds from it himself.
"No. Never." He quickly got out, and reached a hand across the table, palm up. "I just want to know what happened. I promise you two, I'm not mad at you. I just wasn't expecting to see you."
"Our moms were fighting." Gwen mumbled, lifting her head away from Ben just enough to be heard clearly.
"Again." Ben muttered, and the scowl that Max's grandson wore was one that he had no business wearing. "They always fighting."
"Always?" Max raised an eyebrow, questioning. Ben's glare deepened. He believed in what he was saying. Max swallowed down the burst of fear that caused. "Well. How'd you get here? Did you two walk all the way from your house, Ben?"
"Yeah." The boy sniffled, and set his bag down on the table. Max reached for it and zipped it open, and found two empty juice boxes and the wrapper from a small package of peanut butter crackers. "I was smart. We took food."
"Yes, you did." Max agreed, changing his voice from concerned to serious. Ben wanted to be serious right now, and Max could match that. "I don't think you packed enough, though."
He looked down at the table and shrugged, then pulled Gwen closer against him. "Had to go." Ben said softly. "Too much yelling."
"Why can they fight?" Gwen asked, wiping her nose on the sleeve of Ben's jacket before finally turning the same dark green eyes of her grandmother on Max. They were red, and still full of tears, but he still froze for an instant as the reminder of his wife hung there in front of him. "Mom says yelling and fighting's bad. How come they can do it and we can't?"
"Adults forget the rules sometimes." Max breathed out, putting his own pain aside. Right now, his grandkids needed him. He was damned if he'd ever fail Gwen and Ben. "It's wrong when they do. And they need to be reminded about that sometimes, just like kids do."
"Do they fight because of me?" Ben asked, miserable. Max blinked rapidly, and he could see the same question in Gwen's eyes as well.
"It is not your fault." Max declared, and he got up from his seat and moved to kneel beside the table, setting his hands on their shoulders. "Okay? Your moms love you, both of you, they love you more than anything. If they get mad at each other, it's not because of you. It is not your fault, Ben, and it isn't yours either, pumpkin."
"Really?" Gwen sniffed.
"Really." Max said, and leaned up and over enough to hug them both again. "Now. I was just thinking about getting dinner started. Are you two as hungry as I am?"
The two kids fidgeted a little and looked at each other, and Ben finally looked up to his grandpa and nodded once, definitively.
"I don't have a whole lot in the fridge. How do you two feel about pizza? You want some pizza?" Max asked with a smile. He was relieved that they both started smiling again after that, with Gwen nodding eagerly.
"Haw'iiin!" She declared, and Ben made a face. Max laughed. "Okay, pumpkin. Hawaiian, huh? And you, sport?"
"I 'unno. No pi'apple." Ben grumbled. Max winked.
"No pineapple. How about sausage and olives?"
"Bwack olives?"
"Sure."
"Okay." Ben nodded. Max grinned and looked over to his small TV hooked up with massive rabbit ears over by the folded up bunks.
"Hey, how about I pull a bunk down so you two can get comfy and watch a little TV while I get the pizzas ordered? And I think you two deserve some hot chocolate. Walking as far as you did? That's something."
They cheered at that, and Max laughed, relieved at how quickly they could bounce back from almost falling apart crying. They were strong, his grandkids. They felt safe, they felt loved, and they were with their grandpa. He set the microwave to warm up some water while he was getting the bunk ready, and once they were watching cartoons, he set two mugs of hot cocoa (lukewarm) in their hands with three jumbo marshmallows floating on top of each of them.
It warmed his heart when he saw Ben take one of his marshmallows and put it in Gwen's mug, setting it on top of the others. "You take it, Gwen." He insisted, and she looked at him for a bit before popping it in her mouth. When she got done chewing it and swallowed it down, she giggled and leaned into his side, and Max felt calm enough to leave them be. He left them a towel over their legs while they were drinking their hot cocoa and a blanket behind them if they got cold, then grabbed his bag cellular phone and walked out of the Rustbucket, taking a lawn chair with him and locking the doors as he went.
They were safe. He breathed in slowly and breathed out even slower, then called up the local pizza delivery store and put in an order. A small hawaiian for Gwen, and a medium sausage and black olive for him and Ben. On afterthought, he included a bottle of decaf soda as well. He checked his wallet to make sure he had enough money for the tip after, then made the phone call he knew he had to make, but was dreading.
"Hello?! Dad?"
"Hi, Carl." Max greeted his youngest son, hearing the panic in his son's voice. It was a panic he could take away in seconds. "The kids are here with me."
"Oh, thank God." Carl gasped, and Max could hear him buckling under the weight of relief. "Thank God. When Sandy called me half out of her mind, I...We thought…"
"They're okay." Max said, forcing himself to stay calm. He needed to be the strong one now. "They're a little tired, apparently they walked all the way here from your house. Are Frank and Lili over there?"
"They're out driving around the neighborhood right now with Sandy. We were just about ready to call the police. I…" There was the noise of Carl slumping down. Into a chair or on the floor, Max wasn't sure. Carl's breath shuddered. "Why did they do this, dad?"
Max knew why. The thing he hadn't known when he punched in the number to call Carl's house was how he was going to say it.
Now, in the moment, he finally did.
"They got tired of Lili and Sandra fighting." Max forced the words out in deadly calm. "And they thought that their moms were fighting because of something they did. That it was their fault."
"What?" Carl sounded poleaxed by the news. Good. Max wanted him poleaxed by it.
He wanted this whole business done with.
If his Verdona were still...She would have known what to say to them. She would have been able to make his daughters friends again.
"I...I'll talk to Sandy about it. And call Frank. He's got one of those car phones now, I can have him stop by and pick up the kids."
"No." Max dismissed the idea. "No, I think the kids are better off staying with me tonight."
"What? But dad, it's a school night!"
"Right now, my grandchildren are hurting and tired. They were crying when they got to my door, Carl. Crying." Max growled out. "I don't know what's going on with Lili and Sandra, and I don't know if you and Frank are a part of the problem as well. They're in kindergarten, they can stand to miss a day of school. What they need right now is some time to put themselves back together. And that's also what you all need as well, I think. Some time to talk to each other about what's going on."
"...Okay, dad. Okay." Carl wasn't happy about the idea, but he wasn't really arguing against it. He must have been exhausted by the ordeal. "You'll keep them safe?"
"Of course I will." Max promised his youngest son. They were his grandkids. Nothing was going to hurt them while he was around. "But if you could, Carl, I wouldn't mind having some extra clothes for them. You could swing by and bring a bag. But just you, or Frank. I don't think it's a good idea for their moms to come by tonight."
"I think I can get some stuff put together for Ben. I know Frank could get some things for Gwen as well. Thanks, dad. I'm sorry this all got dumped on you."
"We're Tennysons, Carl." Max said. "We don't bother with the easy problems. I just want my family to all get along, and for my grandkids to feel safe enough that they never try to do this again." He shivered a little. So much could have gone horribly wrong. That they got to him in one piece…
They were all just way too lucky.
"So what are you going to do with them tomorrow if they're not going to school?" Carl asked. Max smiled and eased back into his lawn chair.
"Well, I thought I might take them fishing." They spoke for another minute before Carl excused himself to get a hold of Frank and Lili, and then Max waited in the waning daylight for the pizza deliveryman to show up.
Twenty minutes later, when he stepped inside, he found the kids slumped on the bunk and curled up on the blanket against each other, still watching cartoons with dozy, lidded eyes. The promise of a decent (unhealthy) meal perked them up, and they dug in cheerfully. By the time they all finished up, Carl came by with two bags of clothes. The kids both froze up when he came in, but Carl just smiled at them, told them that they could stay with Grandpa tonight and that it was okay and he'd see them tomorrow night. That simple reassurance was as relaxing for Max as much as it was the kids, and Max and Carl shook hands before he left. With some fiddling, Ben and Gwen were soon dressed in their PJ's and ready for bed. Max started to get the top bunk set up, but Gwen cut him off.
"Wanna stay with Ben." She pouted, and there was such earnestness in her face that Max allowed it.
An hour after Max tucked them in, he walked back from the front of the RV where he'd been listening to a classic rock station on his radio on low volume and found the two curled up under the covers, side by side and cute as anything. He regretted not having a camera, and he smiled as he watched them for a few minutes before going to set up his own bed.
It was strange, feeling that he wasn't alone when he finally dozed off.
He slept easier than usual.
11:10 P.M.
Carl Tennyson usually didn't have any trouble sleeping at all. His wife had complained that he could, and had, slept through thunderstorms before. To be certain, the night hadn't gone anything like he'd thought it would when he left work and came home. He found the house empty, his wife's minivan gone, and a note in the kitchen.
That the kids were gone. That Ben and Gwen were missing, and that she and Lili were out looking for them. He called Frank right after, then drove out and found Lili and Sandra and dragged them back home. Somebody had to stay by the phone, so when Frank got there, the girls went with him, and it had been Carl's responsibility to wait there in the empty house. Wait in a kitchen which smelled of overcooked tuna casserole, the dinner now sitting in the refrigerator to eat later. None of them were hungry, not with their stomach twisted into knots.
The call from his dad was unexpected, and it delivered relief and panic in equal measure. The kids had run away, and somehow found their way to the only safe place left to them in their grandfather's RV. It was a relief because they weren't hurt, they were safe and being taken care of.
It hurt because they didn't feel safe in his home. It hurt because Ben and Gwen didn't feel safe around their parents.
When he called Frank and told them all to grab some clothes for Gwen and to come home, he'd expected resistance to the idea. They were their kids, they belonged back at home, safe. Sure enough, both Sandra and Lili argued against the idea of leaving them with their grandfather. Once they started in on each other, though…
Frank all but shoved the bag with Gwen's things into Carl's arms and stared at Sandra and Lili as he said that maybe the kids needed a break after all. Frank never did raise his voice too often. He always knew just what to say to be heard, though. And their wives had heard it clearly enough, based on how they both looked at each other, faces full of pain…
And they all finally saw why the kids had run away from home. Why Max was so mad.
He didn't usually have trouble sleeping, but tonight he snapped awake and wondered why everything felt wrong. Then he realized that the bed was half empty, and that his Sandy Bear, who usually slept snuggled up next to him, was gone.
The house was dark, and he didn't hear any movement from the kitchen or the living room. But he did see a light coming from Ben's room, and when he walked to the doorway and found it open, he saw his wife sitting on the floor in the glow of Ben's Kangaroo Kommando nightlight with her knees drawn up to her chest. She didn't look back at him as he came close, and instead just stared at the empty bed where their son should have been sleeping.
She was wearing her usual T-Shirt and short shorts, and usually she glowed with life, even at night. But watching her as she sat there, rocking gently, Carl realized that she was paler than usual. Faded, somehow.
"Sandy?" Carl finally said, and even his whisper was so loud in the dark bedroom.
"He's not here." Sandy answered, a tremor in her voice. "My son isn't here. He should be here, safe, sleeping in his own bed, and…"
Carl landed down beside her, held her gently. "He's with dad. They both are. They're fine."
Sandy's eyes finally teared up. "I did this. They ran away because of me."
"I think you and Lili can both take some credit, hun." Carl reminded her, stroking her back. Sandra hiccuped a little, not disagreeing with him. "What were you even fighting about?"
"It's stupid."
"Probably, but I still want to know."
"It...she asked me to pick up Gwen, because there was a tree trimmer coming by and she couldn't leave the house. And when she didn't come by, I thought it wouldn't hurt to have Gwen stay for dinner. The kids wanted to...to have a sleepover, but it was a school night. I thought she'd agree to it. But instead, she showed up angry, and she just blew up on me, and…" Sandra's breathing hitched a little. "And then I was yelling at her, and she was yelling at me, and the kids, they were up at the top of the stairs, just watching us...And Ben tried to make us stop fighting." She laughed, and it came up full of sadness instead of joy. "God. Last summer, we...we almost had this same fight. I saw that look in his eyes then, in Gwen's, and I stopped. And Lili stopped." She pulled away from Carl's arms and rubbed a hand at her eyes. "We didn't stop today, Carl. We didn't stop fighting, and...and they ran away from us."
She cried then, and Carl held her tight, hurting as much as she was.
It was the same argument, the same fight. It was one that even he and Frank were guilty of, Carl realized with increasing bitterness. Who were the better parents. Who knew the best way to raise their child.
"She was right." Sandra sobbed. "Lili was right. I don't know how to be a good mom. How can I be a good mom if my baby decides he's better off running away from me?"
They were five years old, Ben and Gwen. Only five years old. Carl and Sandy were only twenty-five years old. Sandy's pain, her fears, Carl knew them way too well. What did he know about being a good dad? It wasn't like Max had ever shown him how to be one. Max taught him how to take care of himself. His long absences taught Carl how to be independent. There was nothing that he'd gotten from Max about how to raise a son. Only how not to.
It was all such a mess, and the one person who could have given him the answers he needed, his mom, was dead and gone, dead before the kids were even born.
For once, for once in his life, Max had been there when they needed him to be. He'd been there to grab Ben and Gwen and hold them tight when this all happened. He'd given them a safe place, if a little more cramped and crowded than a regular house, to stay at.
But he still hadn't given Carl the answers he needed. Just loose instructions. To work it out. To end the fighting. How?
He wondered if Frank and Lili were having the same conversation. He wondered if his brother and his sister-in-law had the same worries and fears that he and Sandy did.
Somehow, he got Sandra up on her feet and out of Ben's room, walked her into theirs. He sat her down on the side of the bed, looked into his wife's drawn, pale face, and came to a decision.
Carl Tennyson picked up the phone and dialed his brother. It was late.
Frank picked up midway through the second ring. "Hello?" His older brother's voice said, rough and coarse.
Rough and coarse from crying, Carl realized.
"Frank?" Carl said, pausing. "Could...could Sandy and I come over tomorrow morning? To talk?"
"Carl? I...Yeah. Yeah, that'd be...that'd be good, I think. We need to talk." His older brother paused. "You couldn't sleep either, huh?"
"Sandy can't." Carl admitted.
"Lili's hurting too." Frank added. "I just...How did it get this bad, Carl?"
"I don't know, brother." Carl sighed. "I just want to fix it."
"Dad's lessons. Stand by your work, and clean up your own messes." Frank chuckled once. "I think we've got some muffin mix we could whip up if you want to come for breakfast. Could you…"
"Mom's sausage, egg and cheese casserole?" Carl cut in with a smile. Verdona Tennyson was gone, but she'd taught her boys how to cook a few things so they wouldn't be hopeless, and Carl had figured out breakfast years ago. Maybe one of her favorite dishes would bring her spirit back long enough to solve their problems. "I can manage. I'll make it how you like it too, with parmesan sprinkled in."
"See you at nine then." Frank said, and hung up. Carl went back to Sandra's side, hugged her again.
"It'll be okay, Sandra." Carl promised her. "We're going over to their house tomorrow morning. We're going to talk this out. We're going to fix this." Because that was what he did, Carl knew. He fixed things. He just hoped that there was enough of his mom in him to help him fix people and not just things.
Sandra folded into him, and the two slumped back against the bed with Sandy tracing a finger on his arm.
"I'm sorry." She apologized, shaken and sad and so very tired.
"It'll be okay." Carl said again, and kissed her forehead. "It'll be okay."
March 16th, 1993
9:14 A.M.
Somewhere around this pond, Max Tennyson knew, he'd find a familiar tree if he looked hard enough. Of course, he wasn't about to go wandering off and leave the kids on their own. Hell, he wasn't about to leave them in the Rustbucket alone if he could help it. And there was the matter of being busy with fishing.
The pond was big enough and deep enough that you could take a small rowboat out to the middle of it. For this trip, like he usually did when he was by himself, lawn chairs at a flat bit of shoreline on the west side of the pond worked well enough. He sat in one, and Ben and Gwen were huddled up side by side on the other. He only had regular fishing poles, so he held one and let Ben and Gwen take turns holding a second one. He'd been tempted to give them each a fishing line of their own, but as small as they were, it would have overwhelmed them. They managed well enough sharing one, thankfully, and weren't fighting over it as much as he had thought they might. Sharing was often a hard lesson for kids.
"You wanna hold it for a bit, Gwen?" Ben asked.
"No, it's okay. You hold it some more." Gwen said, leaning back in the adult-sized lawn chair and yawning.
Max chuckled. No, sharing wasn't the problem with them. He spooled out a little more line and let his bobber drift with the wind-influenced ripples along the surface. The only thing that had gone as expected so far with the fishing trip was that Gwen got a little grossed out when he set the worm on the hook. Ben, naturally, had wanted to do it himself, but even Max had limits where safety was concerned.
"You doing all right over there, you two?"
"When do we get to fish?" Ben asked impatiently.
"We are fishing, Ben."
"Nuh uh!" The boy pouted a little. "We just sittin' here, watching!"
"Ah. Yes, I see what you mean. But it's still fishing, Ben."
"It is?" Ben blinked at that. "How?" That got Gwen's attention as well, and the two looked at him with the same green eyes as their grandmother, earnestly seeking an answer.
Max took a bit to answer. "Adults...they have a lot to do." He explained. "I know that you two like to run around and play a lot, and when you do that, don't you lose track of time?"
Gwen nodded hesitantly.
"Well, adults work and they have chores and errands. Things they have to do. And a lot of adults, when they get that busy, they forget to slow down. They forget to think about what's really important."
"Did you forget, Grandpa?" Gwen asked, and Max felt a sharp sting of hurt. Because he absolutely had.
"I did. For a while." He admitted quietly. "So when I come out here to fish, I try to slow down. Sometimes I'll just sit here and let my mind wander. I just enjoy being out here in the wilderness."
"Wildermess?" Gwen said. "What's that?"
"Wilder-ness, pumpkin." Max waved his free hand around them. "It means the outside. With lots of trees, and not so many people. It gives me a chance to...relax. To remember. To think."
"About what?" Ben asked, shifting in the seat a little so he could scoot up to its edge and get a better hold on the fishing pole, which he lowered until the base of it was on the ground, letting him hold it by the spindly rod.
He could have lied and said something else. Max had always been good at lying. He hesitated for once. Really thought about it.
"About your grandma. My Verdona." He confessed, and his grandchildren both looked at him with wide eyes.
"Gramma?" Gwen said. "Mommy and daddy don't talk about her."
"Because we miss her. We all do." Max said. "Sometimes, it hurts talking about people we miss." It hurt him most of all. Some days, being in the graveyard and visiting her...he preferred to go at night. When nobody else was around to judge him for talking to her, for watching the starlight reflect off of her smooth black headstone. Still...He looked into their eyes and realized how wrong it was. How wrong they all were.
He smiled, looking at their faces. "You both have her eyes." He started, reaching over and touching Ben's nose with a finger before setting his hand on Gwen's head. "And you have her hair, Gwen. Hair like fire. And when you smile and laugh...It's like she's back with us again." Gwen flinched a little at that, and her lip quivered. Max and Ben both saw it coming, but Ben was faster than his granddad.
"I like you smiling, Gwen." Ben blurted out. "Don't cry. Please?"
"Okay." The little girl said softly, sniffing once and hugging Ben. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay to be sad." Max told them. "I'm sad a lot, too. I miss her." And they both knew it, too. The whole family had gone to the cemetery on the 5th anniversary of Verdona's passing, and he remembered seeing the kids, before…
And then Max didn't remember much of anything, until his boys finally pulled him away from Verdona and walked him back to the van. He only saw the kids after. How sad they both looked as they watched him.
It wasn't too surprising when Gwen slid out of the lawn chair she and Ben were sharing and skipped over to climb up into his lap. The hug wasn't a surprise, either, but he loved it anyways.
"Don't be sad, Grandpa." Gwen said, her face buried in his shoulder. Max closed his eyes and held his granddaughter with both arms, his own fishing pole dropped and forgotten. "Please?"
Max let out a soft laugh. "I'm working on it."
The tender moment was interrupted when Ben let out a wild shout, and the sound of the fishing line playing out made Gwen pull away from the hug and look over to her cousin.
"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Ben exclaimed, his eyes wide in panic. "Whaddo I do? Whaddo I do?"
"You've got a fish on the line, Ben! You have to reel it in!" Max said, setting Gwen down and walking over to him, grabbing the rod and holding it steady. "Put your hands on the handle, one on the reel! You want me to help, or…?"
"No, lemme do it!" Ben yelped, moving his hands down. Once Max was sure he had a grip on it, he let go, and there was a second of heart-stopping terror when the force of the fish on the line made Ben stumble forward a few steps before he planted his feet right and jerked back on the line, grunting from the strain.
"Come on, Ben!" Gwen hollered as she stood beside Max, caught up in the moment and bouncing on her heels. The boy was small, he'd always been a small, screaming fighter of a thing like all Tennyson boys were. He had a heart bigger than his body, and that was clearly on display now. He was struggling with the fishing rod, losing out to it. He could hang on to the pole, but he didn't have enough strength to reel it in. And he still wanted to do it himself. No, he didn't want grandpa helping him, but…
"Ben, why don't you let Gwen help you catch that fish? You can catch it together, wouldn't that be better?"
Ben was still grunting, but Max could see his mind spinning behind those fierce green eyes. "Yeah!" He finally blurted out. "Gwen! Help me!"
Like a shot, Gwen raced to his side. With Ben holding onto the fishing rod with everything he had in him, Gwen grabbed the reel, one hand on the spinner and the other on the mount, and started cranking in hard. Separately, they would have lost the fish on the line, but working together?
Max was so proud of them. It took them two minutes, but at last, the fish splashed up out of the water and back down, then splashed on the shore, and then was dangling on the end of the line.
"Great job, you two!" Max cheered, and got out a disposable camera he'd been hanging onto that still had a few exposures left. It was a greengill sunfish, about half a pound, and the kids crowded around it with wide eyes as they exulted in their victory. He took a photo of them while they weren't paying attention, then got them to pose for the next shot. "That's a keeper, all right. Your parents are going to love these photos." He chuckled.
Gwen poked at the dangling fish with one finger. "Can we keep it?" She asked him eagerly.
"Yeah! Can we?" Ben exclaimed.
"Well, it is kind of small. You know, for eating." Max explained. "A fish this small, it's better to throw it back."
"No! Wanna keep it!" Gwen insisted. "My fish!" Ben let out a squawk, and she looked at him apologetically before adding, "Our fish!"
"What would you do with it?" Max asked, taking the fish off of the now de-wormed hook. He set their fishing rod to the side and bent down, holding the sunfish in his palms as it flopped wildly. "Are you going to eat it?"
"Ew! No!"
"Are you going to put it in a fish tank then, take care of it? Which wouldn't work, you know. This is a wild fish. They don't belong in a tank." Max went on firmly. "I have one rule I learned from my dad. It's a family rule, when it comes to fishing and hunting. You only kill things that you're going to eat. And if we don't put this fish back, that's what's going to happen, you two. It's going to die. It needs water to live. If you don't put it back, it's going to die. You'll have killed it."
They blinked in horror at the idea, and Max nodded. "Hold out your hands for me." They did so, palms up, and he plopped the sunfish into their grasp. They both gasped, but Max kept his gaze locked on them. "It's your choice. Just think real hard first. Make sure it's the right one."
Ben and Gwen bit their lips and looked at each other, and then she got a look on her face and nodded at him. Ben nodded back, pressing his lips together, and then took the fish, waddling back over to the water and dropping it back into the pond. It splashed, then took off like a shot, burying itself in the cloudy water.
"It's gone." Ben said sadly, and Gwen came over and grabbed his hand.
"For now." Max said, coming up behind his grandkids and putting his hands on their shoulders. "But we can always come back and try again. And that sunfish will be able to have other baby fishes now as well. And we have a photograph of it, even, so you two can show it off at school."
"Show n' tell!" Gwen shrieked, her sadness gone in a blink as she looked to Ben excitedly. "We can do it at show n' tell!" Ben got swept up in her enthusiasm all too easily.
"I can't wait to show Mommy and…" And Max winced when he saw the light drain out of both Ben and Gwen's eyes. As they remembered why they were out here with their Grandpa Max.
Gwen hugged him seconds later. "It's okay, Ben." She said, sniffling. "We can stay with grandpa."
Max blinked. "Of course you can. I'm not your home, but you can always visit with your grandpa."
"We ran away from home." Ben said sadly. Max blinked, and something clicked into place.
They thought…
"Do you two think that because you ran away, that your moms and dads don't want you anymore?" Max asked, shaken by the idea. When they both looked down at the ground and nodded, Max wanted to cry. He laughed instead and picked them up into a bearhug that lifted them both off of the ground. "Well, that's just the silliest thing I've heard. Sport, pumpkin, your parents love you. They're never going to send you away, or tell you you can't come home." Especially not with what Max knew about his daughter's other parents. Sandra's especially. "When you came out and stayed with me, they were so worried. They thought something had happened to you, that you were hurt." Holding them together in his arms, he looked between the two, pouting seriously. "Does that sound like something they would do if they didn't want you to come home?"
"No." Ben admitted. "Are they mad?"
"They're worried." Max said, setting them back down on the ground. "But they know you're safe. Your moms...they both love you. And they have some things they need to talk about."
"The fighting?" Gwen asked. Max nodded.
"The fighting. And how it's bad. And how they can stop it. Because they need to stop it." Max scratched at his chin. "I think that's what your mommies and daddies are doing today. Talking to each other. Apologizing. So that when you do come home, they won't have anything to fight over anymore."
Ben nodded. Gwen worried her fingers together, rubbing them over the backs of her hands.
"It is not your fault." Max said, needing them to know that. Needing them to believe it. They finally nodded, and he smiled. "But, you know? They need to say sorry to you for yelling at each other so much. You could say sorry to them for running away. You did scare them, after all."
"Okay." Gwen said timidly. "How, grandpa?"
"How do you say you're sorry?" He mused, and looked around. Then he smiled. Spring came earlier to the landscape around Bellwood, a side effect of the unusual congruence of landscape and weather patterns in this part of California. He could see a lot of spring flowers popping up here and there. "Why don't you two go pick some flowers for your moms? We can make them a proper apology bouquet. Flowers...and I have some small hershey bars that you two haven't eaten yet. We could include those as well." Their heads perked up, eager, and Max sighed and amended his offer. "We can eat some ourselves too, if you hurry."
They cheered and raced off side by side to collect flowers, and Max was left chuckling as he sat back down in his chair, picked up his forgotten fishing rod, and reeled in the line.
At the end was a bobber with no fishing hook or lure or bait. Max smiled at the empty fishing line, chuckled once, and then cast it out onto the surface of the pond again.
They were such good kids. In time, they'd learn the more important lessons. And maybe he'd get them to go fishing without needing to catch any fish as well some day. It was never about the fish, after all.
It was about the peace and quiet of just being happy and content and remembering what was important.
Gwen's House
9:32 A.M.
Ladies didn't fall apart. Ladies didn't scream and throw insults and curses. Ladies held their composure, maintained their poise. It was the backbone of every lesson that the former Natalie Isabella Larrsen had learned from her mother. Yet she had done all of those things yesterday, with one irritation too many stacked up on top of another until she had gone off on Sandra for wanting to give her a dinner with her husband in private.
Ladies didn't frighten their children so badly that they ran off, either, but that had happened as well. By any definition of her mother's lessons, Lili Tennyson had screwed things up by the numbers.
Sitting next to Frank, with Carl and Sandra slumped onto the chairs opposite of them, she gripped the ceramic coffee mug in both hands and tried to put her thoughts together. Carl and Frank were the ones keeping the conversation going; Frank had made muffins, Carl had brought an egg casserole that was a perfect match for the one Lili remembered Verdona making for her back when she had been pregnant, and there was plenty of coffee to go around. Their husbands talked about how Frank was moving up at his law firm, and how Carl was pretty much set to land that supervisor's spot for the county if things kept up as they were. They talked about old stories about Grandpa and about them as kids, offered suggestions and plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and basically just talked.
They talked about everything except what had brought them all together that morning, subtly leaving it open to their wives to lean into the subject of why they were here, instead of Frank and Carl being at the office and Lili either outside gardening or doing volunteer work.
But every time Lili looked over to Sandra and wondered if the blond-haired woman might start talking when the boys' conversation hit a lull, Sandra would stir a little, look up, meet Lili's eyes, and then just...wither. And then she'd look back down at the table, finger her glass of juice, and move bits of her breakfast around with a fork. She hadn't taken very much; half a blueberry muffin, a small square of casserole. She'd gone after it like a bird, pecking at it and leaving more than half of it untouched. Well, unconsumed, at least. Her fork had shredded the casserole fairly well by now. Ben's mother looked like she hadn't slept a wink last night, and not all of the redness in her eyes was from that.
Lili knew she looked perfect, because even if she hadn't slept well herself, and had kept getting up in the middle of the night to go stare into Gwen's bedroom and look to where her baby girl should have been sleeping, Larrson ladies lived to a standard. Makeup, eyeliner, and good clothes were a must for breakfasts like this. She looked perfect.
She felt as miserable as Sandra looked, and for once, she regretted spending as much time getting dressed up. Sandra kept looking at Lili as though she had done something wrong, that she wasn't as good as Lili, that…
They were getting nowhere, and her daughter was still beyond her reach. Not entirely, though. If she wanted, she could demand that Gwendolyn be returned to her. If she wanted to. But Lili remembered how Frank had looked at her last night, with that cold fire burning in his eyes, and it was like every nightmare she used to have back when Gwen was just a baby.
The dreams she'd have about going to that party with Frank back in College when he walked out on it. On her. And how, unlike how it had really happened, that he hadn't just stormed off because he was tired of her lying to herself, but that he was tired of her, period. In those nightmares, he disappeared from her life, and she kept on going to parties and lying to herself and either ended up married and divorced and bitter, or that she just drifted. That she never married Frank. That she never got pregnant and had Gwen. She would wake up from those nightmares and reach out to Frank, just to convince herself that it wasn't real, that he was here and then she would go and check on Gwendolyn and cry in the dark because her daughter was real too.
That look in Frank's eyes last night had been what had made her stop arguing, stop fighting, and finally begin to look at herself, and Sandra, and the mess that they had made. She'd thought about it all night, about her daughter and her nephew and how they didn't care about the petty arguments and fights about who the better mom was. They just didn't want them fighting, period. They were so tired of their mothers arguing and fighting that they had done the unthinkable. And then Frank had looked at her with those eyes of his, and it cut her anger and blind reaction off at the knees. He only ever looked at her like that when she was wrong. She wasn't wrong very often, and not that badly. She had damaged something, and wasn't sure if it could be fixed.
She needed to say sorry. She kept waiting for Sandra to say something, so she could build up to it, but Sandra just kept looking more and more miserable.
They had promised each other, before they lost Verdona, that they would be sisters. Daughters abandoned by their families and invited into a new one. She'd been so close to Sandra once. They'd stayed close up until preschool, and then…
Damnit. Why was it so hard to apologize? Lili knew why, of course. Larrson pride. Ladies didn't make a mess this terrible. To apologize for it would mean…
Would mean…
Lili shut her eyes, and tried to think of the memory of Verdona. Months ago before the kids had started kindergarten, Sandra had evoked the memory of the woman they both clung to as a surrogate mother and stopped another fight cold. If Verdona were here, what would she say now?
What's more important, Lili Flower? Your pride? Or your family?
An easy question with a simple answer. If she had but the strength to say it.
"I shouldn't have yelled at you." She blurted out, and everyone at the table stirred and looked at Lili. She pressed her hands against the table and curled her fingers into the surface, forcing herself to look at Sandra. Forcing herself to not look away, as much as she wanted to. "It had been a trying afternoon, and I was frustrated, and...and you didn't deserve that, Sandra. You were trying to do something nice for me. For us. I should have seen it." Sandra just stared at her, eyes dull and hollowed out, as if not believing her.
Not enough, Lili Flower. You're just dancing around it.
Lili breathed out. Bit her lip. "I'm sorry." She finally got out. "I'm sorry for it all. This is my fault."
Sandra just blinked back at her, and Lili wondered if she was about to explode. What Sandra actually did shocked her.
"You said I was a bad mother." Sandra said, and shut her eyes. "You were right."
"Sandy, no!" Carl protested, pulling her into his arms. "You're not, I swear you're not!"
"My son ran away from me. He ran away from his home." Sandra hiccuped, and Lili could hear the hurt and the tears in her voice. "What do I know about being a good mom? Nothing! All I ever got from mine was rules, rules and control until I couldn't think, couldn't breathe, and my brother…" She crumbled at that.
Lili felt her heart skip a bit as she stared at Sandra then, remembering something that Verdona had said to her once. "I'll try my damndest to be a better mother to both of you. God knows you both deserve one." But Verdona had never told Lili why she had said that, and Lili, young and hurting and fragile, just dismissed it as some offhand comment, meant for her more than Sandra.
But it wasn't. She could see that now. Lili still saw her parents. Gwen was a part of their lives. Lili had never met Sandra's, and so far as she knew, they had never seen their grandson.
There had been a reason for it she'd never pressed on. And she finally realized why.
Lili's hand reached across the table, and she grabbed Sandra's hand and squeezed it tight.
"We got pregnant at the same time." Lili began carefully. "I never told you the story of what my parents said when I told them, did I?"
"Lili, you don't…" Frank started, and she could see the pain in his eyes. She'd told him after, one night when not even living in the same house as Verdona and Sandra and the Tennyson brothers was enough to chase away the ghosts of her fears. It had hurt him then, and it still hurt to think about now, and not even their reconciliation when Gwen was born had fully healed the wound. Sandra had a wound of her own, Lili at last acknowledged, and it was nowhere near as healed up as her own.
"Yes, I do." She told her husband firmly, and turned back to the other woman, who she had once called sister. "Sandra, please. Can you look at me? I don't know if I can get through this more than once. Even now." And Sandra stirred herself out of Carl's arms enough to meet her gaze.
Lili breathed. "I was so happy when I got the news. Frank and I were going to have a baby, and...and I thought my parents would be just as happy. But they weren't. My mother cried on the phone. She...she asked me to come home. She said that she and my father could 'fix it'. I was pregnant with their grandchild, and it wasn't a miracle to them. They weren't happy about it. They weren't happy with Frank. I made two choices of my own in my life, Sandra. I chose where to go to College, and I chose who to fall in love with." Her lip quivered, and Lili ignored it. To hell with being a Lady.
"I didn't know who my child was going to be, but I knew that they weren't a mistake. And I knew I didn't want to lose them. I didn't want to lose Frank. I liked my life. I could have gone back, and I would have lost everything. They threatened to cut me off. I quit school the next day. Frank was more important. My child was more important. Didn't mean I wasn't lost. It didn't mean I wasn't hurt. I hurt so much. If I had been paying more attention...I should have seen just how much you were hurting too." Lili's eyes were blurry now, and she reached up to wipe at them with her napkin. "My parents came back and apologized. But yours never did, did they?"
Sandra shook her head.
Lili exhaled. "I didn't know." She confessed. "Or I didn't want to know. When you read all those parenting books and try to be a mother based on those, it drives me crazy. But I understand why now. The only example you have any memory of is your own mother, and…"
"I'll never be like her." Sandra sobbed. "I can't. I won't do that to him."
So much of the blind rage Sandra had for Lili and her rules for Gwen finally clicked.
"I'm not your mother either, you know." Lili added gently. "I want Gwen to have everything I can give her, to be able to be anyone she wants to be. To do whatever she wants to do. I don't want to limit her, Sandr...Sandy." She corrected herself, dropping that edge of formality. It didn't belong here. It wasn't needed. "But you're not a bad mother. Because if you are, then so am I."
She sloughed off that vulnerable confession all at once, and let it sit there in the air between them. Sandy gasped and looked at her, and Lili just let herself smile sadly and cry in silence. To hell with it all.
"My daughter ran away from me, too." Lili said. "They ran away from both of us."
Neither one of them said anything after that, and they both let their husbands hold them, grounding them, giving them something to hold onto. Sandy was still a mess. Lili somehow found the strength to keep going.
"How do we fix this?" She asked her sister, and clung to that word with everything she had. Sister.
"I'm tired of fighting." Sandra whispered. "I'm tired of arguing with you. Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."
Lili froze up at that. "No." She whispered. "No, Sandy. I don't want to tell you what to do. I'm...I'm always telling people what to do. You, Frank, G...Gwendolyn." She shook her head. "Maybe I need to let go for once. And maybe you need to hold on more."
"A middle ground." Frank murmured, and she felt him move his head. Looking at his brother, maybe. "Not as strict as we've been."
"A little firmer than we have." Carl added. "Like mom was."
"I'm sorry, Lili." Sandra said, finally echoing the apology that Lili'd been strong enough to give. "But thank you."
Lili laughed, and wiped at her eyes again. "My mother would say neither of us was acting much like a lady."
Sandra sniffed and gave her a tenuous smile, and reached over to squeeze her hand back. "You're a woman, though. And a mom."
"So are you." Lili replied, meaning it. Because maybe that was enough, in the end. To be there for the people you cared about, and to leave decorum to the side when it got in the way. "And if you want to have Gwen stay over for dinner next time to let me and Frank have a night off...I'll remember that you aren't doing it to prove you're better than me. It doesn't matter. It's not a fight worth having. They don't care who the better parents are. We shouldn't either."
Sandra sniffed and nodded, then got up from the table and came around, pulling Lili up into a tight hug. They stood there, rocking back and forth, and finally let all the arguments die.
"I think we can call dad now, Frank." Carl said. Lili and Sandra both laughed at that.
"God, yes." Frank sighed. "Time to bring the kids home."
Gwen's House
4:15 P.M.
Being told that their parents weren't mad at them, being told that everything was okay and that their moms weren't fighting anymore and they wanted them to come home should have been enough to make Ben and Gwen relax. But they were Tennysons, and just like Max, they were already putting more faith in actions than in words. When Max pulled the Rustbucket up to the sidewalk in front of Frank and Lili's house and killed the engine, the kids didn't squirm to get up and leave. They just sat in their seats, nervous and uneasy. Ben scratched at his arm, and Gwen twirled a finger in her hair.
"Hey, you two. It'll be all right." Max counseled his grandkids, giving them an easy smile. "I heard from both your dads, after all. You're not in trouble. Besides, we brought your moms flowers and chocolates. It's hard to get a better apology than that."
"What if they start yellin' again?" Gwen asked him, nervous and on edge.
"They won't." Max said firmly. "But next time you want to come visit grandpa? You don't have to wander off. Just call me. I'll come. You have my number now, both of you, right? Got my card in your pocket, Ben?" The boy patted his pants pocket, confirming it. "Good. Now come on, you two. Let's get unbuckled. Up, up, up."
He shuffled them to the middle of his old girl and had them grab up the small bouquets of wildflowers and the ziploc bags full of fun-size chocolate bars left over from when Max handed out treats last Halloween, and tried not to smirk as the two figured out how best to carry both without dropping either. They just stood there and looked up at him, and neither one of them moved to the side door.
Well. He could be the brave one if he had to be. He'd done it before. He swung the door open and walked out first, then motioned for them to follow, and they trailed after him on unsteady legs. From the Rustbucket to the sidewalk and then past the gate in the fence around the yard, and up the concrete walkway to the front door…
The kids walked it like they were on their way to a prison cell.
Max pushed them ahead of him so they stood on the welcome mat, and then reached for the doorbell. Between the ding-dong and the door opening took only about three seconds. It was Frank in the doorway, and he met Max's eyes for a second as they both nodded at the same time before he looked down at Gwen and Ben.
"Hey, baby girl. Hey, Ben. Welcome home." He smiled at them. "What do you have there?"
"For mommy." Gwen mumbled, holding up her bundle of flowers.
"To say sorry." Ben added, struggling to not drop his own.
Frank bent down on his knees to look at the two on their level. "Flowers and chocolates?" He glanced up at Max and smirked. "Grandpa's idea, I take it?"
"I helped." Max admitted, trying to let the kids take the lion's share of the credit. "Can they come in?"
"Of course you can." Frank said, standing back up and moving out of the way. "Ben? Gwen? Your moms are in the living room. Why don't you go take those to them?"
The kids walked inside slowly with Frank behind them, and Max walked just past the front door and stood in the entryway, closing the door behind him. He saw Sandra and Lili, sitting on the biggest couch in Frank's living room side by side...and though his angle was skewed, he could have sworn that they were even holding hands as they waited and watched their children walk up to them.
He tried to think back to the last time he'd seen his daughters do that. Max wasn't sure, but he wanted to guess that it hadn't happened since before Ben and Gwen had been born.
Sandra and Lili looked so fragile, sitting there. Like one angry word from their children would break them. When Frank had called him, he'd said that they (All of them, his boys and their wives all together) had worked things out. Frank hadn't told him how badly they had taken it.
His daughters watched with hopeful, hurting eyes as Ben and Gwen came up to them, handed over the flowers they'd collected and the chocolates they'd ransacked from the Rustbucket.
"We're sorry." Ben said. "For running away."
"You ssouldn't fight." Gwen added with just enough censure to make the apology a more conditional one.
"You're right. We shouldn't." Lili said, looking at her little girl. "We talked about it. We're going to stop fighting."
"We didn't think we were hurting you. We were wrong." Sandra added, looking at Ben with hope. "Can you two forgive us?"
The kids nodded. "Can we come home?" Gwen asked unsteadily.
"Of course you can." Lili said, setting her flowers aside and letting go of Sandra's hand so she could scoop up her daughter. Sandra did the same for Ben, and the kids and their moms didn't say much of anything then, they just kept hugging each other tightly.
"Don't cry, mommy." Max heard Ben say when Sandra started sniffling. The blond-haired woman laughed and held him even tighter.
"It'll be better, Ben. I promise. Just please, please promise me you two won't run off like that again. We were so worried about you."
"Okay." Ben grunted, relaxing once Sandra stopped hugging him so hard. "Okay, mommy."
"Good." Sandra kissed his forehead, then grinned. "Now. How would you two like to help us make dinner? You'll have to wash your hands first, though; meatloaf gets very messy. And while we're working, you can tell us all about what you did with Grandpa Max, okay?"
The kids hopped down and immediately started chattering away as they walked into the kitchen with their mothers, leaving Carl and Frank standing in the living room looking relieved and so very tired.
Max had hope that things would be better after this. They were off to a good start, at least, and if the kids did ever need a break, Ben had his phone number. It would keep the two of them from running off again, anyways.
He turned and opened the front door again, when Frank's voice stopped him.
"Where are you going, Max?"
"I…" Max turned and looked back at his boys, still standing in the middle of the living room. They seemed concerned. "I just thought that you all might want some time with the kids without me getting in the way. Besides, I did have them all day, and…"
"Dad." Carl interrupted his rambling apology. "Unless there's something critically important you have to go do, we want you to stay. Have dinner with us."
"Are you sure, son?" Max blinked, his hand still on the doorknob, and looked over to Frank for confirmation.
His oldest boy nodded once. "We're going to...try a family dinner tonight. The whole family. And that includes you, Max. If you want to stay."
Max blinked a few times, and felt something settle into his chest that made him smile and close the door. "I'd like that." He admitted, and went to join the rest of his family.
It had been a crazy 24 hours for them all, but as he and his sons went to go help out in the kitchen and join in the fun, Max thought that maybe it was a good thing that Ben and Gwen had decided to run off the way they had.
It took the kids leaving to bring the family back together.