Thank you for reading and leaving reviews. With ff down most of the weekend, I was unable to write people and thank them.
All mistakes are mine but if Ranger wants to assign a Merry Man to proofread, well, who am I to refuse an offer like that?
Chapter 2
Ranger was watching Hector. "Hector, talk to me!"
Hector spoke as he was looking at the laptop.
"This picture – see behind the girl to the left? I see a unique home and am checking my files for a hit."
He pressed buttons again and everyone watched as he zoomed in on the background.
Ranger looked at the screen.
"Les, isn't that the Ernest Hemingway House in Key West?"
Les furrowed his brow and finally nodded.
"I think you're right, Ranger. Abuela loved to go there. I swear she knew more about that house than the tour guides!"
He grimaced and looked at Ranger.
"Damn, we almost got caught trying to sneak in there one night, but those cats materialized out of nowhere. They meowed, we screamed like girls and chickened out. Not one of our finer moments!"
Les continued to muse.
"Abuela was petrified of water but she told me about the Christ of the Deep statue down the coast. I think that she would have loved to go and see it if she hadn't been so afraid of the idea of diving. Years later I'd catch her standing and looking out her kitchen window. She told me that she would look out that window and feel her God's love and be comforted. I remember kidding her that some people might call it peeping because it sure looked like she was peering into their neighbors' window."
He spoke again. "I always thought that she was looking toward Cuba, and wondering how it would have been if they had stayed there, and not fled on that rickety boat."
Ranger looked once again at the photo. Could his Babe have been born in the area, a place where his parents had sent him to get away from the bad influences he had begun to hang out with? His Abuela and Abuelo had ruled with an iron fist and kudos to them both, Ranger had turned out a better, stronger person.
He thought back. No, he had not been the model teenager growing up. He'd still gotten into some trouble while living in Florida. He'd found a group of boys that took him in, and while he had been fortunate enough to avoid more legal trouble, he was no choir boy either.
He looked at Stephanie who had a perplexed look on her face.
She kept staring at the young woman and the baby and he could almost see the gears turning in her head.
As a young girl, she had been questioned so many times that she and Val had never looked like sisters. Val had dark, straight hair like their parents. Her mom had always said that her features were the result of a family member long ago and she was a throw-back. Stephanie remembered crying well into the night thinking that she wasn't a real member of the family. A throw-back? It sounded like more a throw-away and her mom and dad must have taken pity and gave her a home. Even that far back, she'd imagined herself like a puppy found on the street and adopted out of pity.
Could she have been more correct than she had thought?
Stephanie looked at her watch. It was four o'clock, too early to go home and beg supper, but early enough that if she timed it right, both her mom and dad would be there. Her dad would be in front of the tv watching the news, waiting for the baseball game.
She stood up and looked at Ranger.
"I need to leave the building."
Ranger nodded his head. Everyone in the room mentally nodded also. They knew where she was headed and what she wanted to ask. It might be an awkward moment in the Plum family home soon.
Ranger stood up also and put his arms around Stephanie giving her a hug.
"Do you want me to come too, Babe?"
Stephanie thought about it then slowly shook her head no.
"Thank you, but no, Ranger. I think this is one conversation I need to discuss alone with my parents."
Shaking her head, she opened the door and slipped out, closing the door softly.
The five men looked at each other. Bobby spoke softly
"Oh, to be a fly in a corner of that room in a few minutes."
The men nodded and looked at their boss.
"You know that I will be waiting outside. If this breaks down how we think it will, I'll give them the privacy they need but I will be there to pick up the pieces."
Les nodded. He would hitch a ride with Ranger, pick up her vehicle and bring it back to RangeMan. He suspected that Stephanie would be in no condition to drive anywhere in a while.
Hector withdrew the disk from the slot. Putting it in its case, he held it out to Ranger, but he shook his head no.
"Take it and work on it. I want everything you can get off it."
~~~o0o~~~
Stephanie rode down in the elevator to the garage. She had taken a few minutes to head up to seven and change out of her RangeMan uniform into a pair of grey dress pants and a white button down shirt. She was wearing a black leather jacket that Ranger had given her just a few days ago, a just-because present, he called it.
Sliding into the vehicle signed out to her, she backed out and headed for the secured garage door. It opened and she drove out turning to the left. The drive was quiet with her radio off and all too soon, she pulled up to the front of the house she had called home for so many years.
Her mom appeared at the door and waited for her to emerge.
Stephanie had given up wondering how she had been able to do that all these years. No matter what form of transportation she was on or in, she had known, just as her grandmother had.
Edna was no longer living in the house, needing relief from the stairs that led to the only bathroom in the house. She was mostly happy in a retirement village on the edge of The Burg and was quite the social butterfly, enjoying the activities that were scheduled each and every day. Unfortunately, her days of viewings at the funeral home were in the past, but with the number of escorted bus trips around town and entertainment in the front vestibule, her days were quite full.
Stephanie had joked on more than one occasion that she had to book a time to see her beloved grandmother since her calendar was usually full. She was happy at the same time that Edna was enjoying her twilight years.
Stephanie climbed out and walked around the SUV. She pushed open the small gate at the front of the yard, and walked up the path. She stepped onto the porch, automatically missing the one step that could have alerted her parents so many times in the past of her late night returns.
Her parents were not the huggy type and she walked behind her mom into the hallway and past the living room. Her dad was settled in his favorite chair, with the newspaper in his hands and the tv on.
Frank looked up from the paper.
"Hi pumpkin."
Conversation over and she followed her mom into the kitchen.
Helen, who knew to the minute what time it was, spoke.
"It's a little early for supper, but if you would like a snack, I made a chocolate swirl cheesecake for dessert."
Stephanie shook her head no, noting the surprised look from her mom. Dessert, and Stephanie was turning it down?
She sat down on a barstool at the kitchen nook and played with the placemat in front of her, marshalling her thoughts. These were her parents, the people she had grown up with, and providing a safe environment to live and learn.
She chewed her bottom lip and finally spoke.
"Mom, I received a package today. It was addressed to me and had no return address. I opened it and it had a picture of a young woman holding a baby. The tech guys at RangeMan identified it from possibly the Keys."
Helens' eyes grew wide and she put up her hand to stop Stephanie from continuing.
She moved to the doorway and spoke. "Frank, I think you really need to come into the kitchen."
They both could hear Frank groan as he pulled himself out of the chair. The tv was still on and footsteps were heard coming down the hallway.
He grumbled as he came in. "Helen, the game starts in a few minutes."
She turned to Stephanie.
"Please continue."
Stephanie looked at them both.
"Mom, Dad, I received a package this afternoon that was addressed to me and had no return address. In there was a note and a CD with pictures. The guys at RangeMan identified the background as possibly the Keys. The picture had a young woman, a girl really, and a baby in a blanket."
Both Frank and Helen looked at each other. Frank walked over to his wife and put his arm around her shoulders, as if for comfort.
Stephanie continued.
"The girl had really curly hair, and a face that looked oddly familiar. She was holding a baby in a blanket and in one of the pictures it had slipped a bit, showing a baby with curly hair like its mom."
She looked at them. Frank nodded at Helen and she moved away from him, heading out the door. Stephanie cocked her head and her forehead wrinkled in a questioning manner, but Frank put up his hand to stop her asking any questions.
Helen walked up the stairs and they could hear a door open. They both heard some thumping and sliding as if a few boxes were being moved around.
The stairs creaked as Helen walked back downstairs and into the kitchen.
In her hands was a paper bag.
She put it on the counter and slowly opened the bag, pulling out something wrapped in tissue paper. There was the smell of mothballs and as she set it on top of the bag, the tissue paper began to fall open.
Inside was a blanket, a baby blanket.
Stephanie stared at it in shock. It looked just like the same blanket that the baby in the picture was wrapped in.
Helen lovingly smoothed an imaginary wrinkle over the top and looked at Frank.
"You are ours and always will be, honey. After Valerie was born, the doctor said that I would never be able to have another baby."
She looked at her husband and her hand reached toward him. Frank took her hand in his and gently pulled her to his side.
"I went into such a depression at the devastating news that Frank took me away to recover. He figured that Florida was far enough away and I seemed to find comfort staying by the sea and listening and watching the waves crash on shore. We chose far from our home since people from here went to Point Pleasant and we just didn't want tongues to wag.
Frank looked after me for months, caring for both Valerie and I. He became both cook and maid. Mother came down as much as she could, but with Dad having some serious health issues of his own, unfortunately most of the care fell to Frank."
She took a facial tissue from the box always on the counter and wiped her eyes.
"I loved the coast but Miami was too big and too noisy, so we found an apartment in Key West.
Money had now became an issue and Frank took a term transfer to the Post Office with the option of permanently moving there. The Post Office was in the process of building a new and much larger building slated to open in 1982. They told him that with his experience, if he chose to stay instead of continuing as a term position, well, he had been noticed by the executives above and was earmarked for promotion."
She looked at her husband and continued.
"It was a Saturday and Frank had finished work at noon. We packed up a picnic basket and a blanket and headed for the beach. It was the last week of October, and still warm. We were sitting on the sand enjoying the day. Val was toddling around on the blanket since she didn't like the feel of sand on her feet and we were laughing at her antics."
She stopped, then spoke again.
"We didn't notice, but a young girl had been watching us and came over. She was carrying something in a blanket and she looked at the three of us. Her eyes were red from crying and she opened the blanket, showing us a little baby, only a week or so old. She asked permission to sit on the blanket since she looked tired and probably still recovering from childbirth. We offered her some food, and she took a little, then began to nurse the baby."
Helen looked down at her hands.
"The young girl looked at us again, and stated that she had become pregnant too young and didn't have the proper resources or home to raise a child. She said that she loved the fact that we were a happy family. She said her name was Michelle."
Frank took over the conversation.
"I pulled out my wallet and tried to give her some money but she refused. She said that while she appreciated the thought that it would only be a stop-gap solution. She was unwilling to go to Social Services since she was still a minor and her boyfriends' mother would most likely just come to claim her back anyway."
Stephanie had now stood up off the stool.
Frank continued. "She asked if we would take her baby, raise her as our own and love her."
He looked at Helen and murmured. "We so wanted another one but this was like, what! This only happened in the movies and not in real life. The girl looked like she was about to flee and we wanted more details."
Frank spoke again. "I walked to a food stand right by us on the boardwalk and got more food since we had not been prepared to stay at the beach this long."
Helen took over once again.
"While Frank was gone, she elaborated a bit more. You know, woman to woman. She said that she needed to flee because she knew too much. Her boyfriend was involved in scary illegal stuff and she had seen drive-byes out the window. She also mentioned that she was afraid of her boyfriends' mom and felt like she was being kept like a prisoner in the home. She said she had only gotten out of the house because she said she needed to get more baby supplies.
The girl looked at a shopping cart by a bench on the sidewalk with a small shopping bag sitting in the basket. She laid you down on the blanket and started to get up. Frank had just returned with a box of food and putting it down on the blanket he walked over, grabbed the bag and brought it back.
She changed your diaper, whispering words to you the entire time. When your diaper was changed and the sleeper back on, she picked you up and gave you such a loving look and whispered something else to you.
It was such a personal moment and we looked away to give her some privacy.
We were looking for a policeman to help but she looked scared and oh so young. We watched as Valerie crawled over to her and leaned against her leg. The girl opened the blanket and showed our daughter you. We watched as little Val put her hand on your cheek and then looked at us saying, 'Babeee'.
I began to cry. Michelle looked at us and began to get up. We knew, we just knew that she was going to leave and this was our chance. We looked around and nobody was near us."
Frank nodded his head. "We watched as she leaned over you and gave you a kiss, whispering something to you."
Helen wiped her eyes again. "I reached out and took you in my arms. You felt so right, so small, so perfect. I wanted to believe that God was giving me this gift and I needed to accept it or my life would be one more tragic event to regret."
Helen had tears running down her cheeks. While this was such a shock and the conversation needed to be replayed in her mind later, Stephanie couldn't feel anything right now.
She remembered growing up and listening as people commented that she didn't look like either her parents. The running joke back then was that the mailman or milkman had a passing resemblance and she remembered that Helen had gotten so very angry at those cruel remarks.
On so many occasions, she had stated emphatically that Stephanie was theirs.
Stephanie walked to her parents who were now holding each other up as if for support and put her arms around them both.
"You may not be my birth parents but you raised me as if you were. I felt loved and safe and cared for."
Both Helen and Frank were shaking a bit as they held each other.
Frank spoke again. "We never heard from or of your birth mother again and we looked in the papers for weeks after that for some news."
Stephanie nodded her head and headed for the door.
"If you don't mind, I'll take a pass on supper. It's been a bit of a shock and I need to get my head around this. I have so many questions but I need to digest what you just told me".
She closed the front door behind her not surprised that there was a black Porsche sitting at the curb. Ranger was leaning again the front passenger fender and she moved into his strong embrace.
He put his arms around her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
()()()()()
Authors' Note – Well, a surprise to the system, yes?
Myrna
