Chapter 14
Dorian:
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving Risa and I fly up to Addie's by chartered plane and are delighted to see Blair, Starr, Hope, Cassie, her husband, Andrew, his wife and Adriana and her kids and husband there. Langston and Jill are there as well.
Kelly texts and lets me know that her flight is arriving a bit later tonight.
I smile softly when I see Cassie and Andrew embrace Risa, although I can tell that her parents are getting used to seeing her earrings and skirt.
Cassie, Adriana, Langston and I hug for a long minute.
Addie and I rush into each other's arms, hugging deeply.
Risa, Starr and Langston are also in a tight group hug, already chatting away.
"How're you feeling, dear?" Addie asks me softly. "Therapy started well?"
I nod.
"That's good." Addie says.
Addie and I corral the others into the living room where she pours sparking cider for us.
We spend several hours catching up over cheese, crackers, celery sticks and cider.
I'm especially glad to see that Hope seems to be enjoying herself.
Late in the afternoon, Kelly rings Addie and texts the rest of us to let us know that her plane has landed in the nearby airport and that she is on the way to getting a cab.
"Great, we're meeting the newest Cramer!" Adriana crows.
On impulse, since Addie has her phone on speaker, I offer to ride on over and pick Kelly up myself.
Blair offers her car and keys, so Addie and I ride to the airport...I drive since Addie never drives.
It's a very pretty late autumn sunset in deep purple and magenta.
"I'm glad a therapist is helping you," Addie tells me.
"Me too," I say. "Oh, Addie, thank you for your support...I finally feel like I have a family again after all those years."
"Me too, Dori," Addie says. "For years, I was afraid you, Melinda and Blair were dead...some of the other patients back in that state hospital had visitors and I wished I did...it was a dream come true when my girl, then you came back into my life."
"I was relieved when I could move you into Saint Anne's instead of that dreadful state hospital," I say.
"Dori...I remember how I scared you so much at first...I'm sorry I scared you that time in the gazebo."
"It's all right..." I say softly. "You didn't know...and back then, you had been taught to distrust everyone, so you had no reason to trust me either."
I remember how back in 1991, how shocked and scared I had been when the sister my parents had told me was "dead" suddenly lunged out of the shadows at me with that knife.
"My earliest memory, Dori, was your birth," Addie tells me. "It was early evening and drizzling...Sonya started shouting...she came out of the side room...I think she'd been playing the piano when her labor pain started.
"Charlotte Stonecliff came running...ordered me to my room...I went but since the door didn't close properly, I was able to see everything...Lou came home just as you were coming out feet first.
"I remember feeling happy that I had a new sister...you were tinier than a doll and squalled right away...I stepped back into my room when Lou went to get a towel...I looked out the window and saw that the rain had stopped and it was almost dark.
"And under that old maple tree in the back...I saw a beautiful goldish-brown fern glowing and a little rainbow wrapped around it...then I looked up to the sky and a beautiful shooting star streaked across the sky and left a rainbow trail behind it."
"Wow..." I breathe, touched. "Th-thank you for sharing this, Addie."
"For years back in Llanview, I worried about you, Melinda and Blair," Addie adds. "Sometimes I was afraid somebody from the Buchanans or their paid clan had killed you and that I'd be without any family.
"I also was afraid that your girl Cassie would be taken from you...that they'd turn her against you...Cassie was so socially oriented and wanted in with that crowd."
"I often worried about losing my family too," I say.
I reflect a bit on how highly social Cassie is whereas I am not...I didn't care about being liked by that elitist crowd whereas Cassie wanted to fit in and have a lot of friends in Llanview.
All I just wanted was my family and a few loyal close friends that I could stand by and who would stand by me.
I never have had the patience for superficial or small talk or a lot of superficial "friendships" the way most others seem to.
I suspect this is what turned off so many in Llanview about me...I know I came across as aloof and snooty, especially since I know I am not very friendly or smiley.
"A lot of trouble could have been prevented if our parents and Charlotte had just told you and Melinda the truth instead of all the lies," Addie says.
"Yes, I wish Mama and Papa had been truthful with us too," I pull into the parking lot, which is unsurprisingly busy.
It takes us almost twenty minutes to find a space. As we leave, Addie pulls out a bright orange ribbon and ties it to the antenna of our car. I have to smile.
"So, we don't forget where we parked," Addie says as we walk into the airport.
"You are sharp," I tell her.
Addie sure has come such a long way since even ten years ago.
With the extensive speech therapy geared toward people with autism, her language has improved greatly.
In the airport, Kelly, Zane and Indigo rush into Addie and my arms with happy howls.
Finally, Addie and I meet Indigo and Indigo's father Jack Pfer.
Jack seems quite outgoing in a different way than most of the people back in Llanview are outgoing.
He and Indigo seem to blend in readily with the rest of the family over dinner that night.
I find myself far more relaxed than I've been in several months.
Addie's house is not large, but has a sort of quaint beauty to it with dormer windows and little nooks here and there that are ideal for curling up with a good book.
Addie has hired a cook to make and bake everything the night before, so we have all the traditional staples of Thanksgiving.
Risa and I did make a spinach souffle Tuesday evening and brought it over to Addie's as our contribution.
Mid-afternoon, I find myself needing some quiet solitude, so I go for a walk, letting the others know that I'll be back in an hour.
Most of the trees are now bare with the leaves covering the ground. Some of the piles of leaves come up to my knees.
Addie's area is beautiful...I silently marvel at the success Addie has now made with her life, especially after spending so many years in institutions.
I'm glad Saint Anne's finally helped her and the nuns there were supportive and cooperative with Addie and me.
They also made it easy for Addie to transition into more independent living without relying so heavily on pills.
I wish Melinda's doctors could have done the same thing for her before she died.
I'm a bit surprised to find my eyes still fill with tears sometimes thinking of Melinda.
As I start back after reaching the nearest sidewalk, I reflect on Starr and Hope...Starr tells me that therapy is helping Hope and her nightmares are less frequent now.
I am particularly touched that Hope sometimes asks how I'm feeling.
As if my thoughts somehow summoned her, I see Hope and Jill playing in the leaves outside once I return to Addie's.
"Hiii, Aunt Doriiii!" both girls chime when they see me.
"Hello..." I smile back as I sit on a stump.
Both of my littlest ladies wade over the leaves and lean on my lap...I put my arms around them and give them a hug, savoring the affectionate feel of their warm bodies.
"Aunt Dori..." Hope says. "I'm glad everybody's here...whenever Grandma and Mommy go to Llanview, I'm afraid they won't come back."
I stroke her thick brown hair, not sure of what to say at first. There were many times that I feared that I wouldn't make it out of Llanview alive.
"I think Llanview's going to be safer now with Viki in jail and Clint dead " Jill says.
"But they might just put Viki in a hospital where she'd get out in a while," Hope worries. "And what if her and Tina try to come after you, Aunt Dori?"
"I don't think they will," I try to reassure her. "I think even if Viki is not in jail, authorities will be monitoring her closely now...there are different people in office now."
"And aren't Viki, Tina, their husbands, Cord and John almost broke these days?" Jill asks.
"They don't have as much as they used to," I tell them. "Viki's current husband is rich, but not as influential as Clint was."
I think about Buchanan Enterprises and how it's gone under.
In a rather vindictive move after years of being their scapegoat, I had taken over it for a while, but recognized that it was a lost cause and gave the business back to them after a few months.
In addition, it really wasn't worth the risk of losing custody of Langston and of...at that volatile time...having Clint nearly strangle me.
The Banner is mostly gone now too...I wonder if anyone is running it now with Viki in custody and in no condition to run anything.
I smile wryly when Viki tried to revive her newspaper by posting and bandying about some mix-up several senators, several CIA officials and I had been involved in last May about "malfeasance" over a few sensitive documents.
And since I am often known as the "wicked witch" of the CIA's west wing, some of the men there who felt threatened by a powerful, blunt woman with money were too happy to try to pin the blame on me.
At one point, Viki left messages trying to bribe me into resigning with the promise of writing an article about me "confessing" Watergate-scandal-style and "saving face."
I saw through her BS immediately, knowing that what she really wanted to do was paint herself as this grand heroine "saving" her "best frenemy Senator Dorian Lord" from "national disgrace" and told her absolutely not.
It turned out that it was a group from a private investigative corporation that worked with parts of the CIA who mishandled the documents much to the disgust and disappointment of Viki and the CIA clique.
I wouldn't have put it past Viki to try to contact these CIA men and bribe them.
Now today, Hope, Jill and I sit arm-in-arm for a while until it's dark and Addie steps out and calls us on to eat.
It's a wonderful dinner with lots of great food and conversation.
I especially love hearing about the humanitarian volunteer work that Addie and Carlotta are doing in various tent areas where people have ended up homeless.
A friend and neighbor of Langston's is also doing volunteer work training service dogs.
Blair is considering expanding her business into the United Kingdom while Kelly discusses expanding hers into Switzerland and opening up a smorgasbord.
It's a couple of hours later when we drift into the living room, stuffed, a bit bloated and sluggish from so much food.
In her large living room, Addie has a fireplace going...we play a loose, rather scattered game of Uno for a while.
Starr happens to glance at her phone and sees a message from the hospital near her place.
She gets up, goes back onto the kitchen to find out who would be calling her from Auburn Hospital.
She returns about ten minutes later, her eyes wide and looking at all of us.
My heart begins to beat faster, afraid that she has received bad news.
"It's Cole," she tells us softly. "He's at Auburn Hospital...he was in an accident close to here."