Jesse simply stared at Thomas' foot, his slightly opened mouth contributing to the expression of shock he wore on his face.
"Oh no, I should have waited for Bo or Luke or Daisy to be here before I sprung it on ya like that." Thomas said, replacing his sock and boot. As soon as he was finished, he turned and bolted from the back porch.
The sudden movement was enough to end Jesse's short bout of speechlessness. "Thomas!" He yelled out, futilely attempting to rise from the porch swing. "Thomas!"
He continued to struggle only a few more moments when a hand caught his arm. "Careful now. Let me help you."
Jesse looked up and saw that it was Thomas who was assisting him. "I thought you had done run off on me."
"Guess I should have explained myself. I was just goin' after this." Thomas explained, holding up the tattered book he kept in his duffle bag. "I'll explain what I understand so far, that is, if you wanna hear it. I understand perfectly if you'd rather I leave and never show my face around here again."
"Are you kiddin'? After what you jist said and what I saw, that's 'bout the last thing I'd want you to do. Now sit me back down here and let's have a look at what you got to show me." Jesse instructed as Thomas helped him back into a sitting position.
Once Jesse was settled, Thomas opened the tattered book. Taking out the worn baby photo, he handed it to Jesse. "I'm sorry I can't offer you anything better, but that's the only picture I have of myself from back then."
Jesse studied the picture before he turned it over on the back. "Well, sorry as I am to say it, here's our first discrepancy. Our little 'n was born in July. This here picture is dated for August."
"But there's somethin' you don't know." Thomas continued. "Well, I suppose I should start with a little confession. I didn't leave the hospital soon as I stepped out of your room yesterday. I decided to pay a visit to the nursery and ask some questions."
"You mean you been burdened with this since yesterday and you didn't bother to tell me about it?" Jesse asked.
"I'm sorry Mr. Duke, but I didn't want to say anything until I had at least a couple of facts to go along with my theory." He replied, not bothering to point out that he was actually in his third day of trying to sort things out.
"And I take it that since you're talkin' to me now, that little visit to the nursery must have confirmed your suspicions."
"Well I wouldn't say 'confirmed'. 'Supported' might be a better a more appropriate word."
"Well let's hear about it." Jesse insisted.
"I spoke to a nurse that worked there, Shirley." Thomas began. "Seems she was just startin' out at the hospital the same year I was born. Durin' our talk I was askin' her about infant deaths there at the Tri-County hospital. Mr. Duke, she said that she remembered 1947 well because it was her first one on the job, and she guaranteed me……guaranteed……that Tri-County Hospital saw no infant deaths that year."
Jesse thought on it a minute. "Guaranteed?" He asked.
"Yes sir." Thomas replied.
"Well……." Jesse shook his head. "Why would they lie to me about my youngin' passin'?"
"I have my suspicions." Thomas continued. "It seems that there was only one doctor on staff at the time that oversaw infant delivery and care. A doctor Gregory Shepard."
"Shepard….." Jesse trailed off as he thought back. "Name sounds familiar. Rachel gave birth to Daisy in the hospital, seems he mighta been the one ta deliver her."
"It turns out I found out a rather interesting fact about Dr. Shepard while I was there." Thomas continued. "There was a plaque on display at the hospital stating that he had overseen more than a hundred infant adoptions during his tenure."
Jesse absorbed the facts for a few minutes before he turned back to Thomas. "Are you tellin' me that you suspect this Dr. Shepard coulda give my boy away for adoption on accident, like a mix up or something?"
"I'm thinking that may very well be what happened……or maybe it wasn't so accidental." Thomas admitted. "My mother never made a secret of the fact that I was adopted, or how desperately she had wanted a child before I came in her life. Now just suppose mom had approached this doctor about getting a baby for her, and there wasn't any available at the time." Thomas continued. "Now I don't know anything about this Doctor Shepard, or even if my parents would have been so desperate for a child that they paid him to find one for them. But supposin' that was all true, who's to say that when your boy come in sick, that doctor didn't have him declared dead just so he could arrange the adoption?"
As Jesse took it in, Thomas pointed to his baby picture that was still in Jesse's hand. "This ain't a good picture, but it says it was taken at the Tri-County hospital and I don't exactly look like a newborn infant. Suppose it's all true, and I am your boy, and this was taken after I got well and was about to go home with my new family?"
"That's a lot of supposin'." Jesse had to admit. "But I know from a fact that askin' yer folks about it is out of the question, as Tommy told me they passed quite a few years ago."
"That they did." Thomas confirmed.
After that, the two men sat in silence on the swing quite some time, lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Jesse spoke up. "I got a confession to make."
"What is it, Mr. Duke?"
"Goes back to the first time I saw ya a couple a days ago." Jesse replied, turning to look at Thomas with the hint of a tear in his eyes. "I know I didn't say nothin' at the time, but soon as I laid eyes on ya, I thought 'If I didn't know no better, I'd swear that was my brother Rob walkin' by'. Ya look just like he did back when he woulda been your age."
"What do you mean?" Thomas asked.
"I mean that the chances of two babies endin' up in the exact same hospital with the exact same physical birth defect no more than a month apart don't seem very likely."
"Mr. Duke." Thomas pressed, laying a hand on his arm. "What are you trying to say?"
"I guess what I'm tryin' to say…" Jesse replied with a sigh. "Is that all things considered, I think it's about time you quit callin' me Mr. Duke and started callin' me Pa."
And with a laugh and a few tears, the two men began a hug that didn't end for two solid minutes.
XXXXXXXXXXX
"Come again?" Luke asked, as he, Daisy and Bo sat on the couch later that evening, wearing expressions of shock that very much resembled the one Jesse had worn much earlier in the day.
"Now Luke, I know you. I know them wheels are turnin' in your head. Just hear the boy out he's got his reasons for thinkin' that way." Jesse requested from his easy chair just as Luke opened his mouth to speak again.
As Tommy sat in his wheelchair firmly grasping Jesse's hand Thomas, for the second time that day, began sharing his theory on why he though he was Jesse's son. By the time the story had been told, the picture had been shown, and Thomas had even gone so far as to bring his toes into evidence, at least one boy in the room was extremely happy.
"Ain't it cool Bo?" Tommy asked from his wheelchair. "Now I don't hafta pretend you're my cousin anymore. You really are! Ain't that right grandpa?"
"You're exactly right,Tommy." A jovial Jesse replied, patting his hand.
As Bo arched his eyebrows at hearing the word 'grandpa' and opened his mouth to speak, Luke quickly squeezed his shoulder before he got the chance. "Well how about that?" Luke then asked, rising from the couch before he pulled Thomas in a hug. "Welcome to the family Thomas!"
As Thomas hugged Luke, Bo and Daisy simply looked at one another before they went back to observing both the hug and the way Jesse was fawning over Tommy.
"Tell you what, this calls for a celebration dinner." Luke continued, going over to ruffle Tommy's hair. "How 'bout we go a little topsy turvey today and make egg omelets for supper?"
"Sounds fine." Tommy grinned.
"We're about out of eggs though. C'mon Bo, let's go raid the chicken coop." Luke said before he opened the door and stepped outside. Bo rose and halfheartedly returned the hug that Thomas gave him before he gave Tommy a wink and followed his cousin outside.
Bo then went through the barn and over to the chicken coop where Luke was waiting for him.
"Nice goin' in there Luke." Bo argued. "Some man done come offa the street tellin' Jesse that he's his dead-and-buried child and what do you do? Give him a big 'welcome home'."
"Well he ain't just off of the street he's Tommy's dad, which means we're gonna hafta be real careful about how we handle this."
"So you ain't convinced he's who he thinks he is after all?" Bo asked.
"Of course not. But I had to stop you in there before you gave him a piece of your mind."
"Why?"
"Because, all you gotta do is look at Jesse and Tommy to see the excitement in their eyes. As a matter of fact, I ain't seen Jesse this happy since……..well, I don't know if I've ever seen him this happy." Luke admitted. "And if we're gonna go bustin' his bubble we better darn well make sure we're using a pin sharpened to a point with facts."
"So I ain't by myself on this? We're gonna look into this together?"
"Darn right we are." Luke replied. "But it can wait 'till tomorrow. For now let's just go along with things and let Jesse enjoy his evening with his new 'family'. Might turn out to be the only one he has."
I tell you what, if them boys turn up somethin' that says Thomas ain't Jesse's, I sure wouldn't wanna hafta be the one to explain it to little Tommy.