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Chapter 5

Grandma Mazur answered her ringing phone.

"Hi Grandma," came over the line.

"Hello, Baby Granddaughter," Edna warbled in return.

Stephanie stopped to collect herself. Her Grandma Mazur had called her that for as long as she could remember.

"Grandma, can I come over? I want to ask you a couple of questions but I don't want to bother you if you're on your way out."

Edna replied in a happy tone. "Come on over Stephanie dear. It's a free day and we were just lamenting at breakfast that we would have to entertain ourselves today. I thought about calling Frank to take me to the hall for an early Bingo, but nothing's set in stone here."

Stephanie nodded. "I'll be over shortly Grandma."

She stopped speaking and almost hung up before blurting out, "Love You."

Edna looked at the phone before putting it down. Now what was that about?

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger phoned Silvio.

"I need a favor and it has nothing to do with RangeMan.

Silvio stood up from his desk and headed for the door to his office, closing it softly. Of course he would do anything he could. Ranger had stood by him after a very unfortunate situation and he continued to feel in his debt all these years later.

"Shoot Ranger, I'm listening," he said, sitting down in his office chair again. He picked up his pen and pulled the pad of paper toward him, then pushed them away again. This sounded like something that didn't lend itself to any kind of a paper trail.

Ranger marshalled his thoughts.

"What would be the possibility of a child being born but not officially registering him or her for a birth certificate?"

Silvio furrowed his brow. This was not something that RangeMan usually delved in. Obviously this was something that Ranger was involved in. Could it have been a child born to someone Ranger knew, or Ranger himself? Could he just have found out he was a father without knowing of another child? Was someone out to demand money and try to blackmail their boss?

Questions were flowing into his brain, but Silvio kept them to himself.

"I'll check into it, Ranger. Can you give me an area and a year or at least a decade to work on possibilities?"

Ranger toyed with how much to tell him, but he had phoned him for some answers and Silvio could be trusted to treat the information as confidential.

"1981, 82 or 83, and in the southern part of Florida."

Silvio nodded.

"I'll see what and how hard it would have been, Ranger."

They both hung up without a word. Unnecessary words wasted time.

Ranger felt a bit bad that he hadn't given the smaller window or more details, but he suspected that rules would not have changed in that short of a period. Privacy issues and records were a bit more relaxed back then.

He knew that his Babe would be talking to her grandmother later this morning and he wondered, no, he knew that there would be more tears at the end of that conversation. He wondered how Edna would take the news that their secret was about to be revealed.

Watching the garage camera he noted that Stephanie was heading out. She was not dressed in her RangeMan uniform but he did notice a small bulge under her jacket. He smiled with pride that she was trying to keep herself safe.

He also noticed that Les was partnering with her this morning. While he was trained to keep himself safe, he would have some issues trying to both keep an eye on Stephanie and keeping himself from being groped.

Ranger smiled to himself. He just knew that Les was still playing that stupid game on company time. Payback was coming.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie stepped out of the SUV. Les slid from behind the wheel, nodded his head and followed her at a safe distance.

She walked into the vestibule and Edna was sitting in an easy chair waiting for her.

Edna stood up, holding onto her cane for balance and Stephanie headed right for her outstretched arm.

"Hi Grandma," a soft whisper as she melted into Edna's embrace.

"Baby Granddaughter, it's so nice to see you."

They held a hug for a few seconds then stepped back. The Plum clan just didn't hug, and if they did, it wasn't for long.

Edna looked at Stephanie.

"Do you want to stay here and chat or do you want to see my room? I bought some new fall decorations."

Stephanie put her arm in Edna's and smiled.

"I love how you like to get into the spirit of the seasons, Grandma. Let's go to your place."

Watching the residents as they eyed him, Les followed them down the hall.

Stephanie was holding a bag in her hand and showed Edna.

"I picked up an Entenmanns Coffee Cake for you."

They walked arm in arm down the hallway, greeting residents as they moved along. Most already knew Stephanie and smiled. Edna was so very lucky to have her family visit her so often.

It was a little early for such a snack, but Stephanie had also brought paper plates and plastic cutlery.

She put the bag on the small table by the door.

They sat down in the two easy chairs facing each other.

Stephanie took a deep breath as if for courage and Edna tensed up in spite of herself.

Stephanie looked at her grandma, a woman who she'd always turned to in times of turmoil, misery, or grief. Edna had been 'there for her' throughout her entire life.

Stephanie looked down at her hands then up at her grandma.

"I got a package delivered to me yesterday, Grandma. There was a note asking me if I knew who I really was. There were some pictures of a young woman holding a baby in a blanket."

She shook her head.

"I've already talked to Mom and Dad and they seemed startled, but then told me a bit. I can't lie, Grandma, but I was shocked, but at the same time, not shocked."

Edna put up a hand to stop her speaking, and lurching to her feet, she crossed to the door, closing it.

She sat back down and waved for Stephanie to continue talking. Her hands were neatly folded in her lap, but they were shaking slightly and her face had lost a bit of color.

Stephanie looked at her grandma in alarm. She had noticed the change in her composure.

Edna spoke.

"Stephanie, please continue."

Stephanie hesitated but started to speak again.

"Dad and Mom told me about this young girl who approached them, and telling them that she had been watching them while they were at the beach. They mentioned that she wanted a safe place to leave her child and they looked like a family who would love her baby like their own. After giving the baby a kiss, she handed me to them and disappeared."

She stopped, looked at Edna then continued.

"Mom brought down a blanket that was stored upstairs that looked exactly like the one in the pictures.

I'm looking for more information and I think that you might be the person I need to talk to."

She stopped and leaning over, placed her hand over Edna's now shaking hands.

"Grandma, I know you loved me like your own all these years and I treasure the memories, but I need to know more."

Edna was looking down at their hands, then looked up at Stephanie.

"Oh, my precious Stephanie, where to start?"

Edna took a moment to compose herself. Tears were seen at the edges of her eyes.

Stephanie reached over to the table and grabbed a tissue, pressing it into her grandmas' hands.

She waited as Edna thought about what to say.

"Baby Granddaughter, never for a minute are you to believe that we didn't love you as our own. Helen had been given devastating news after Valerie's birth that she could never carry another baby, and she literally went into a depression so deep that Frank had to take a leave of absence to look after her.

To keep the Burg tongues from wagging they moved to Miami, but it was too large for Helen to handle, so they relocated to the Keys. Frank was fortunate to get a transfer to that Post Office and they were eager to have him due to his excellent administrative skills. They hired him as a term transfer to save a whole lot of paperwork at the time, hoping that he would make it permanent. The Postal Service was in the process of moving to a new building and his organizational skills were a great help during a very disorganized period of time.

I liked to go down to see them but Harry was starting to have some serious health issues and I couldn't leave him for longer than a weekend at a time.

I'll never forget that day. It was Halloween and I was at home baking snacks for the neighborhood kiddies when I got a panicky phone call from Frank. He explained what had happened and had no idea what to do. They now had a newborn baby and he was afraid that the authorities would find out and take not just you, but Valerie as well away from them.

I remember telling them that, that very same day, a senior supervisor had seen me at the Post Office and stopped to talk. He lamented that due to an illness, there was an immediate opening back here in Trenton and they missed Frank."

She paused and then continued, as if a heavy weight was now lifted off her shoulders.

"I mentioned that to Frank and he phoned the man in question. He was told that they could hold that position for a couple of weeks, leaving them time to 'get home'.

Frank explained to his supervisor in Key West that his wife was needing to get home to be with her failing father. They moved with scarcely any kind of notice and the four of you wound up staying with us until they could find a more permanent place to move into.

You will not have remembered their first place since you were just a tiny baby, but a friend of mine generously lent them her home until they could find something suitable. She was planning on spending the winter in a warmer climate and had been looking for someone to house sit over the winter months.

Harry talked to your father and we lent them the down payment on purchasing a house and well, that's where they are to this day. That's one reason why they insisted I move in when Harry passed, to thank us during their time of need. Frank tried to give the money back, but Harry was a rather stubborn man and refused, saying to use it on his girls."

Edna stopped again, as if to draw a breath, then continued.

"We had to figure out how to get you registered as a Plum and a friend of mine was pretty high up in the Vital Records Department. She liked to drink and one evening we sat with a bottle and drew up a plan. I remember that it was a big bottle!"

Edna grimaced as if reliving the resulting hangover.

"She brought over the papers to your Mom and Dad and had them fill out the date of birth, the name of the baby, the parents' names and sign them, leaving both the hospital and the date blank. Back then, the date of registering was added at the office when the paperwork was received and recorded.

She put them into the system explaining that they had been found attached to another file and was being filed late due to the oversight."

She looked at Stephanie.

"I'm fuzzy on the details, but well, there were home births at the time and maybe she had a form that we wouldn't have seen. She called a few days later and assured me that it was done and there would be no repercussions. A birth certificate came for you just a couple of weeks later, and we tried to relax."

She looked at Stephanie. "Ida took a huge risk but, well, a 'clerical error' was an excuse for a lot of things back then as it is even today. Unfortunately she was forced to take a medical leave of absence due to her alcohol issues soon afterward."

Stephanie looked at Edna.

"Grandma, the Burg is one big grapevine. How did it not notice a family leaving with one baby and coming back with a newborn baby and an infant and not question why they had left and then suddenly came back?"

Edna smiled.

"Well, dear. I kind of spread it around to my friends that Italian sperm is a powerful thing, and how they wound up pregnant again so soon after Valerie was born. As far as we knew, nobody was privacy to the fact that Helen couldn't carry any more babies. The Burg being what it was, news travelled fast. I remember Frank walking around town after their return, smiling very proudly as the word spread of his 'super sperm' as we called it. Men would come over and shake his hand and slap him on the back. Women looked at Helen and giggled that she had her own Superman."

She smiled at the memory.

"Everyone was happy for Frank and his new promotion and how the Burg had enticed him back from sunny Florida.

A new baby clinic had just opened and nobody there knew about the family so that didn't draw any attention.

I remember that we just kept telling people our story and even we began to believe it might work. We just made it appear normal that everything would work out. I told everyone that you had my Hungarian genes from my mother, hence the hair and different facial resemblance. Nobody questioned it since there were so many immigrants moving in and we just began to relax and believe that we had pulled it off."

Stephanie had another question.

"So, I had to have shown up on some hospital records somewhere, Grandma. These days, mom comes home with the papers to be forwarded to the state and the hospital sends the paperwork from their end which I figure they just join up for processing."

Edna shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea on that, dear. I assume that some kind of official letter would have been sent to the address on the hospital admission papers when your birth hadn't been finalized, but remember, nothing was electronic back there, so anything not done might had taken months to be noticed."

Stephanie looked at her grandma now sitting in her chair looking so very old. She stood up and walked over, holding out her arms. Edna struggled to her feet and walked into the embrace, hugging her so hard that Stephanie could feel her grandmas' heartbeat.

Edna looked at Stephanie and spoke.

"Harry and I could see right from the get-go that Helen was having trouble understanding you. Valerie was a mini Helen and didn't like to play any kind of sports or do anything that involved dirt. That's why we had you over to our house as much as we did. We let you be the free spirit you were destined to be."

She sighed.

"Unfortunately we couldn't overstep our bounds and you were disciplined for things that you couldn't have understood."

Stephanie stood up.

"Grandma, I have never doubted that you loved me. I remember you always defending me to anyone asking why I didn't look like the rest of my family. Some of the things that happened in my life I would have liked to change, but I NEVER doubted that I belonged at the same time."

She spoke again. "Growing up I always told everyone that I had the coolest grandparents, and that they acted sometimes more like parents than grandparents."

She backed away and looked at the bag containing the cake.

"I just don't feel like cake right now, but there should be enough for you and your friends to share. I need to get back and figure out a few things but I promise to come back soon and let you know if I find out anything. I would like to find out what happened to my birth mother since she sounded so scared and afraid for me. "

Stephanie walked to the door, stopped, and turning back, spoke.

"I love you and always will, Grandma. You were a great person to have in my corner and I will always treasure the fun times at your place I had growing up."

Stephanie walked out the door and outside, noting that Lester was now standing beside the vehicle talking to Mario. He had obviously been watching the vehicle while they were inside. Climbing back into his vehicle with Clarence in the passenger seat they sped away.

Stephanie almost walked into Les's arms for a hug, but well, she wanted to be hugged by another man.

Les looked at her, nodded and his phone was to his ear.

A black Porsche pulled up and Ranger stepped out, striding to her and taking her in his arms. He hugged her to him and as his lips brushed her ear, he spoke.

"Babe."

~~~o0o~~~

Edna phoned Helen.

There was no small talk.

Helen sobbed into the phone. "Mom, our worst nightmare has come true."

Edna nodded her head. What would happen if this got out? Would they all have to move to get away from the fallout? Would they get arrested for child-snatching? Was there a statute of limitations for this?

They both hung up and sat contemplating this latest turn of affairs. Their lives had settled into an easy pace, free of gossip.

Was it about to change?

()()()()

Before you jump on the clerical error thing, I worked in a hospital setting for a number of years. I swear many, many things got blamed on clerical!

Myrna