Chapter 5

Linette was a bundle of nerves by the time she clocked out. She flew home, jumped in the shower, and then once she was out, did her hair and makeup before going to her closet. She couldn't decide what to wear, and time was getting short. Finally, she settled on a pair of gray slacks and a pale-blue blouse with elbow-length sleeves.

As she was dressing, she kept remembering the first time she'd dressed for a date with Wiley. She'd been so smitten with the man that she'd been expecting too much, and then had been humiliated by the two women who'd ruined it.

But after the attempted bank robbery, her perception of what mattered most in life had changed. They'd survived the tragedy together, and experiencing firsthand how swiftly a life could end had changed the whole dynamic of her life. Now all that remained was to see if the chemistry from before was still there, too. She was pacing the living room, anxiously awaiting his arrival when she heard a knock at the door.

He's here!

She opened it to tall, dark, and handsome, and then realized she was holding her breath, and exhaled.

"You look beautiful," Wiley said. "Are you ready, or do you need a minute?"

"I don't want to waste a minute. I'm ready to go," she said, then grabbed her purse and pulled the door shut as they headed for the elevator.

There was an awkward moment when the elevator doors shut them in. He pressed the button to take them back down to the lobby and then glanced at her. She was watching everything he was doing when he caught her staring and winked.

She blushed, then laughed, and the doors opened. They walked out of the apartment building to his car and were soon headed downtown to the tourist strip. When he pulled into the parking lot at the Back Porch, Linette sighed.

"I love this place. The food reminds me of my grandma's cooking," she said.

"What about your mama's cooking?" Wiley asked.

Linette wrinkled her nose. "We don't talk about it."

Wiley grinned. "That bad, is it?"

"Daddy cooks. Mama does dishes. It works out better that way," Linette said.

"Where do they live?" Wiley asked.

"St. Petersburg, Florida. I grew up there," she said. "Let's get out. We can talk inside. You don't have much time to eat before you have to go on duty."

They both exited the car and hurried across the parking lot and into the restaurant.

"Wiley Pope. Reservation for two," he said, when the hostess approached.

She checked his name on the computer, then led them to a table beside a window. "Your waiter will be with you shortly," she said, then left the menus on the table and walked away as Wiley seated Linette, then sat down and shifted his legs a little sideways to make them fit beneath the table.

She noticed his dilemma. "They don't leave enough legroom for guys like you, do they?"

He shook his head. "Or beds long enough, or headroom in some of the older buildings. But we're really handy at changing light bulbs. We rarely need a ladder. What sounds good to you?"

"I'm going for shrimp scampi with wild rice," she said.

"And I've been thinking about chicken-fried steak all day," he said.

Linette deadpanned. "And here I thought you were thinking about me."

He had a moment of panic, but then realized she was teasing and sighed. "For a second there, I thought I was in trouble all over again."

She laughed, which intrigued Wiley even more. Linette was a dark horse. She was gorgeous and smart, and now he was discovering that she has a wicked sense of humor, too.

He loved it.

The waiter arrived and took their drink orders and, when Wiley told him they were pressed for time, took their food orders, too. After that, they sat back and stared at each other from across the table, almost as if they were memorizing each other's faces. Finally, it was Wiley who broke the ice.

"So? Do I pass muster?" he asked.

"Do I?" she countered.

The teasing slid out of his voice. "You already did the first time I saw you. I wanted to ask you out even then, but you were so far out of my league that I didn't think I'd stand a chance. And then when I finally got the nerve, well, we both know what happened. Thank you for the second chance."

She rolled her eyes. "It would have happened sooner, but I missed the cue, then had to get out of my own way."

He shook his head and reached for her hand. "It no longer matters. Tell me about Linnie Elgin. Why did you want to become a nurse, and how did you wind up in Jubilee when you grew up in Florida?"

"I always wanted to be a nurse. I was always putting bandages on my dog or on Daddy. Mom had to put Band-Aids on the grocery list at least once a month because I used them all up on Dad, dolls, and dogs."

Wiley smiled, trying to imagine her as a child, and listened intently as she continued her story.

"As for how I wound up in Jubilee, it's because we came here for my sixteenth birthday to see the music shows and do the tourist thing, and I fell in love with the place. After I graduated from nursing school, this hospital was the first place I applied for a job. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't hired me. I never saw myself anywhere else."

"I'm really glad you did," Wiley said.

She gave him another long, steady look. "So am I. Now you. What's your story, other than being related to most of the local residents?"

He hesitated. But if they were going to have the relationship he wanted, he had to be honest from the start.

"Mom was born here. She was a Pope before she married. We grew up in Conway, Arkansas, and before we came here, our last name was Wallace. We changed it to Mom's maiden name just before we came back, which was about a year after our father went to prison. He abused Mom and us throughout their entire marriage, up until we were old enough to fight back or move out. Then one day when he was high on drugs, he beat her so badly she nearly died, then left the house and murdered two strangers in cold blood. Sean found Mom and called an ambulance.

"The cops arrested Clyde and put him in jail. He went to prison for life, and we were vilified for being related. Aaron's first wife divorced him after only a year of marriage because of it. We were all let go from the jobs we had. Then Grandma Helen died. Mom inherited her homeplace, and we moved back to Jubilee with her. She's living in the house in which she grew up. I know it's an ugly story, but I don't want any surprises between us."

Linette was in shock. She'd thought of him as a man just looking for a good time when they first met. Her opinion had already changed, but now she was seeing a whole other side of Wiley Pope. He already knew how to survive long before she saw him get shot.

"Oh, Wiley…I'm so sorry. What a life for all of you. But you've all risen above his crimes. You should feel no shame, and you're the hero for so many here in Jubilee already. I hope you know how indebted we all are to you for your bravery."

"I wasn't being a hero. It was a knee-jerk reaction to what I walked in on. I didn't see you until you were running toward me, but I will never forget how you stepped into the gap for me, and then for the victims, with no thought for yourself."

She shrugged. "Oh, I fell apart. I just waited until I got home."

He reached for her hand. "I'm sorry."

"So am I. Mr. Trotter was a really nice man. The last thing he did before he got shot was look at me. We were belly down beside each other. I could see the fear in his eyes even then, and then seconds later he was dead. It was so random, and those men were high as kites."

"Like Clyde Wallace," Wiley muttered, and then changed the subject. "What do you want out of life?"

She let go of his hand, took a sip of her sweet tea, and then looked up.

"I already have the job I want. But I want a family. I love children. I often work on the children's ward. I don't want things. I just want to be happy with the man I love. And you?"

"Same. Aaron and Sean are head over heels in love with their spouses. I want that. Brendan—we call him B.J.—is also looking for Miss Right, but he's the head pastry chef at the Serenity Inn, and right now, he doesn't have much of a social life."

She shrugged. "I never did believe in looking for love. Daddy always said when it's right, love comes to you."

"That's beautiful, Linnie…just like you," Wiley said.

She smiled. "You talk as pretty as you look, and there comes our food. I think you're going to be good to go on time after all."

"Next time, I won't be cutting it so short," he said.

She liked the thought of "next time," but the waiter was already putting their food in front of them, and their focus shifted to the meal. She would think later how easy he was to be with. There was no pretense. Just two people playing catchup on who they were and what they'd been before they met.

It didn't take long for her to realize how solidified the bond between the brothers really was. Maybe it had to do with growing up in an abusive home, or maybe it was due to the strength of the woman who'd raised them. But by the time they were back in the car and on the way to her apartment, she knew she wanted more of Wiley Pope.

"We cut it close. I don't want you to be late clocking in. You don't have to go inside with me," Linette said as Wiley pulled up to the apartment building.

Wiley shook his head. "No, ma'am. I'm not dumping you out in the parking lot."

They both exited the car on their own, but when they started toward the building, Wiley reached for her hand.

It was an innocent gesture, but it meant everything to her. She hadn't held hands since high school. The men she'd dated were always reaching for something else. He was still holding her hand as they rode the elevator up, and when she unlocked her apartment door, he walked her inside.

The moment the door closed behind them, Wiley stopped.

"Linette, I've been heartsick ever since our first date, and tonight meant everything to me. Thank you for the second chance."

She slid her arms around his neck. "Thank you for asking," she whispered.

Moments later, she was in his arms. Her heart was racing, and the kiss was all that she'd imagined and more. The moment he pulled away, she regretted it was ending.

"Be safe," she said.

Wiley ran a finger down the side of her cheek, then brushed his lips across her mouth one last time.

"Always. I'll call you," he said, and then he was gone.

***

The next day, Wiley sent flowers to her at the hospital and signed the card, Two hours was not enough. Let me know your next day off.

Linette came by the nurses' station just after the flowers arrived, and when she found out they were for her, she blushed, knowing she was going to get teased all day. And then she read the card and quickly slipped it in her pocket, prompting every nurse on duty to ask the same question.

"Who are they from?"

And she gave all of them the same answer, "None of your business," which only amped up the prying, and the smile on her face was all they needed to know the flowers were from a man.

As soon as Linette had a moment, she sent him a text.

You have caused a sensation at my work today. The flowers are beautiful. And you're right. Two hours was not enough. I'll check my schedule and you check yours, and we'll meet in the middle.

Wiley got the message and sighed. Their jobs and schedules were going to be a headache to work around, but she was worth it. He was off today, and tomorrow he'd go back on days and someone else would guard Carey Eggers, and he wouldn't be in the hospital with Linette anymore.

He sent her a message to that effect, then grabbed his car keys and headed out the door. He hadn't been to the supermarket since the bank robbery, and while his family had kept him in food, he needed to do laundry and was out of detergent. Once there, he plowed through the deli section, stocking up on food that was already cooked and would freeze well. He wasn't too proud to thaw and nuke.

He was coming around the corner of the aisle when a lady pushing a shopping cart came from the other direction and bumped into his cart.

She looked up. Her eyes widened as her lips parted, but she never got the chance to utter a word.

Wiley lowered his voice and pointed his finger straight at her. "No, ma'am. Whatever you were going to say, stuff it. I don't want to even hear the sound of your voice."

At that moment, Rhonda Tiller realized how utterly stupid it had been to make an enemy of a cop. A dark-red flush crept up her neck and onto her cheeks as she yanked her cart aside, made a one-eighty pivot, and headed down another aisle, afraid to look back for fear that he was following her.

As for Wiley, his shopping experience was over. He headed straight for checkout with his jaw set. He'd had plenty of guys pissed off at him in his life, but a bloody nose or a black eye had solved it on both sides. Women with an agenda were a whole other subset of humanity. They were scary mean and didn't care who they hurt when they didn't get what they wanted. He paid for his purchases and headed for the parking lot, and by the time he was driving away, he'd dismissed Rhonda's existence.

A short while later, he was home and putting up the last of his groceries when his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Wiley, this is Sean. I can't find Mom. She said she wanted to get some air, and I thought she was going outside to the back porch. I went to check on her about thirty minutes later, and she wasn't there. I've looked all over—in the barn, around the outbuildings. I've called and called, and she doesn't answer and she's nowhere in sight. I knew today was your day off and thought maybe…"

Wiley didn't hesitate. "Call Cameron. Tell him to bring Ghost to track her. I'm on the way." He grabbed his car keys and bolted out of the house, calling Aaron and B.J. as he went.

He was halfway up the mountain and almost to the house when he heard a siren and knew it was Aaron in a patrol car. By the time he pulled up in the yard, Aaron was behind him, with B.J. at his side.

B.J. had flashbacks of finding the remains of their ancestor Meg in an abandoned cellar a few years back and knew the remnants of other old homesteads were scattered all over the mountain. He couldn't bear the thought of his mother falling to her death in a place like that. He was grim-lipped and silent as Sean came running out to meet them.

"Nothing?" Wiley asked.

Sean was flushed and sweaty from searching and could only shake his head. Moments later, Cameron came flying into the yard in his Jeep, with Ghost riding in the seat beside him.

"Thank the lord. That dog could find God if someone would give him a trail to follow," Aaron muttered.

Cameron clipped a leash on Ghost and hurried to join the others. "Tell me what you know," he said.

Sean was bordering on panic as he explained what had happened. He'd made a conscious choice to stay on the mountain to watch over her, and now he'd lost her. "I've searched the entire property around the house. I can't imagine her wandering off without letting me know first."

"So, to confirm, she went out the back of the house and you haven't seen her since," Cameron said.

"Yes," Sean said.

Cameron nodded. "I need something with Shirley's scent."

"I knew you would. It's in the kitchen," Sean said.

They followed Sean through the house. He gave Cameron the nightgown his mother slept in, then grabbed a backpack from the counter and slipped one strap over his shoulder as they exited the house.

Cameron thrust the gown beneath Ghost's nose. "Seek, Ghost. Seek!"

Ghost whined, lifted his nose, and then went straight out across the yard, out through the back fence, past the barn, and headed into the forest beyond the pasture without wavering. They were at least a half mile from the house when Ghost began straining at the leash. Cameron unclipped it and let the big dog run, then they lengthened their stride to follow.

The brothers panicked when they lost sight of Ghost, but Cameron didn't hesitate. He knew his dog and just kept running in the direction they'd last seen him until he ran up on Ghost lying beside Shirley's body.

"Oh my God! Mom!" Sean cried as they all rushed forward.

Cameron was already on his knees checking for a pulse. "She's alive. Her pulse is steady."

But it was Wiley who keyed in on the root of the problem. She was missing a shoe, and her foot and leg were already turning purple. Then he saw the missing shoe half-buried in a pile of leaves. When he went to pick it up, he discovered it was wedged beneath a protruding tree root.

"Look! She hung her toe and fell. From the looks of her foot and leg, she'll be lucky if she didn't break a bone. Check to see if she has any head injuries!"

Cameron ran his hand beneath her head. "I don't feel anything obvious, but she could have passed out from the pain. Call Medi-Flight."

But Aaron was already on it.

Sean was sick at heart. "This is my fault. I'm supposed to be watching out for her. Why the hell did she go all the way out here?"

Wiley frowned. "Sean! None of this is your fault. Mom is a grown woman. There will be a reason, and when we find out, it will make sense."

"I hope so, because right now, none of this makes sense," he said. Then his phone began to ring. "It's Amalie," he said, and answered, but all he could hear was the frantic tone in his wife's voice and that she was skipping words as she spoke. He knew what this meant. She'd just had one of her visions, but he couldn't make out what she was saying and put her on speaker. The moment he did, they all paused to listen. "Honey, slow down! I can't understand you. Mom went missing. We just found her unconscious out in the woods behind the house."

Amalie shuddered, then took a deep breath, making herself calm.

"That's part of what I was trying to tell you. I was working in the office when I heard someone say my name. I looked up and Ella was standing in the doorway. She said, ‘Help Shirley,' and then she blew me a kiss and disappeared." At that point, Amalie burst into tears. "So now that you've found Shirley, someone needs to go to Ella's house. I think she's dead."

Sean froze. "You're serious?"

"Yes, I swear, I swear. She disappeared in front of my eyes. Just check on Ella, and call me when you get Shirley to the hospital."

"Yes, yes, I will," Sean said.

Cameron was sick to his stomach, thinking of the welfare check he was going to have to make, but right now, Shirley came first.

"Anybody got any water on them?" he asked.

Sean reached for the backpack he'd dropped and pulled out a bottle of water. As he was kneeling beside his mother's body, he had a moment of déjà vu, remembering the day he'd found her sprawled out on their kitchen floor back in Conway, unconscious and bloody from the beating their father had given her. Then he shook off the memory, soaked his handkerchief with water, and began wiping her face and neck, repeating over and over, "Mom! Mom! Can you hear me? It's Sean. Can you open your eyes for me?"

He dampened the handkerchief again, and this time gently wiped her lips, then her neck, and when she began to stir, he breathed a sigh of relief. "She's coming to, but she's going to be in agony," he muttered.

The brothers knelt around her, holding her hands, patting her, and talking to her until she suddenly gasped and opened her eyes. The moment she did, the sound that came out of her mouth was a long, high-pitched cry of pain.

"Mom, it's us. We've got you," Wiley said. "Aaron called Medi-Flight. We're going to have to carry you out, and it's going to hurt."

She moaned, clutching their hands so tightly that her knuckles went white.

"What happened, Mom? Why did you leave the house?" Sean asked.

Shirley moaned again. "Ella. Saw Ella…lost. Didn't think. Just ran."

Shock ran through every Pope there.

"What do you mean, you saw Ella?" Cameron asked.

Shirley grimaced as a wave of pain washed through her. "She was standing in the pasture looking toward the house. Too far from home. Went to check on her."

The brothers eyed each other. It was as Wiley said. When they knew why she left, it would make sense, and it did.

"Did you talk to her?" Cameron asked.

Shirley started crying. "No, she disappeared."

"Aaron, where did you tell the chopper to land?" Cameron asked.

"Back pasture behind the house, but we have to get her out of the woods," he said.

"Then let's get moving, because one of us is going to have to go check on Ella, and you four need to be with your mom, so it's going to be me."

Aaron stood. "Thank you for coming to help. We'll get her to the pickup site. Mom carried each of us for nine months before we were born. It's our turn to carry her."

Cameron took off at a lope, with Ghost right beside him.

When Wiley began taking off his belt, B.J. frowned.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm going to buckle her good leg to her injured leg and use it as a brace."

"Good move!" Aaron said.

Aaron and Sean held her legs together while Wiley wrapped his belt around them, just above the ankles, then B.J. buckled it down. Once they had immobilized her injured leg, they stood. Aaron squatted down, slid his hands and arms beneath her body and picked her up, and the moment they moved her, she screamed again and passed out. It was heart-wrenching, knowing that to help her, they had to hurt her again.

"Sorry, Mama," B.J. said.

"Let's go," Wiley said, and then turned and led the way. Before they reached the clearing, all four brothers had taken a turn carrying her. When they finally came out of the woods, B.J. had her in his arms, and they could hear the inbound chopper.

B.J. turned his back to the chopper to shield her from the rotor's blast as it began to land. After that, the paramedics took over, and once Shirley was loaded into the chopper, it lifted off and headed down the mountain to the hospital in Jubilee. Her sons were not far behind.

But Cameron and Ghost were going up the mountain on a welfare check for Ella.

***

Ella Pope's land was near the top of Pope Mountain, between John Cauley's homeplace, and Marcus Glass's property. It was where she'd been born, and if Amalie was right, where Ella's life had ended.

All the way there, Cameron kept wanting to believe this would be a fool's errand, that Aunt Ella would come out to meet him, sit him down in her kitchen with a cup of coffee and a gingerbread cookie, and before he left, impart a bit of mountain wisdom to keep his feet on the right path. But it didn't bode well for that to happen. They had already accepted Amalie had the gift of sight and Ella had appeared with a message to "help Shirley." The part of the scenario that didn't fit was that Shirley didn't have that gift, and yet she'd seen Ella, too, standing in the pasture. When he finally reached the road leading to Ella's home, he turned north off the blacktop and stopped at the mailbox, gathered up her mail, and kept driving.

The lane was graveled and bordered on both sides by trees and bushes. By the time he got to her house, Ghost was halfway into the front seat with his head on Cameron's shoulder.

"It's okay, boy," Cameron said. As soon as they got out, he clipped the leash on Ghost and headed for the porch, but before he could even knock, Ghost was whining the same way he used to in Iraq when they would find a body in the rubble. "Dammit," Cameron mumbled, and knocked, but no one answered. He knocked one more time and then tried the door.

It swung inward.

Ghost got to the threshold, looked up the stairs, then whined and went belly down.

"Okay, boy. I get the message," Cameron said. He tied the dog to the porch post, then went inside. He could see the kitchen from where he was standing, and there wasn't a cup or a plate sitting out on the table or anything out of place. He left her mail on the hall table and headed up the stairs to her bedroom.

Even though he'd been expecting it, finding her like this was a gut punch. She was lying on her back, her long white hair in a braid draped across her shoulder. She was covered only with a sheet and a light coverlet, and the windows had been opened to catch the night breeze. She looked like she was sleeping, but when he checked, her body was already in rigor mortis.

"Ah, Aunt Ella, we were never going to be ready for this." The sense of loss Cameron felt was overwhelming. The family elder—the last of her generation—was gone. He laid a hand on her forehead, then bowed his head. "Bless you on your journey, Ella Pope. You were so loved and are going to be so missed."

He was blinking back tears as he headed back downstairs, then walked out onto the porch to call 911.

"911. What is your emergency?" the dispatcher asked.

"This is Cameron Pope. I just did a welfare check on an elderly relative and found her in her bed, deceased. I'll need an ambulance sent to her residence. She wasn't suffering from any disease, but she was in her late nineties. It is my understanding that in instances like this, she must be transported to a hospital for a doctor to officially pronounce her dead."

"What's her name and address?" the dispatcher asked.

"Ella Pope, 10085 Pope Mountain Road. Once you reach the mailbox with that address, you'll turn north. It's the only one at the end of the lane."

"Yes, sir. Are you going to be with her?" the dispatcher asked.

"Yes, I'll be here," Cameron said, and disconnected, then began making calls, beginning with Rusty, his wife, so she'd know why he was delayed coming home, and then he started with Aunt Annie.

After that, word spread across the mountain like wildfire, and by the time the ambulance arrived, the front yard of Ella's house was filled with cars, and family members were sitting quietly on the porch and around the yard.

Ella had died just as she'd lived.

Alone.

But family was with her now, all the way to the grave.

***

Shirley's sons and wives were in the ER waiting room when Aaron received Cameron's text. He sighed, then looked up at his brothers.

"Amalie was right. Aunt Ella is gone, probably sometime early this morning."

Amalie started to cry. Dani reached for Aaron.

The brothers lowered their heads. This was a hard blow for the family, and Shirley's injury just made it worse. They'd all just learned she had a hairline crack in her tibia and a severe sprain. The doctor was putting her ankle in a cast, while her sons were making plans as to how to help Sean care for her, when Linette came running into the waiting room.

"Hospital grapevine! I just heard they brought your mother in," she said, and sat down beside Wiley. "What happened?"

Seeing her at this moment was an emotional boost as he reached for her hand.

"She was out in the woods behind the house, hung her toe on a tree root, and fell. She has a severe sprain and a hairline crack in her tibia. They're putting on a cast. Scary part was not being able to find her. She'd passed out," Wiley said.

"Oh, no! That was likely from the pain. I can't stay and talk because I'm on duty, but after I heard the news, I had to come check on you." Then she stood and looked around the waiting room where all the family was seated. "I didn't mean to interrupt," she said, then gave Wiley one last glance before leaving the area.

"Is this one a keeper?" B.J. asked.

"If she'll have me," Wiley muttered. "The votes are still out on that."

A short while later, a nurse came to tell them the cast was on and Shirley's doctor wanted to talk to them, so they followed her back to the exam room and were relieved to see their mom sitting up in bed and talking.

The doctor turned as the sons filed into the room.

"Dr. Kline, these are my sons and daughters-in-law. I'm afraid I gave them quite a scare."

"That's the understatement of the week," Sean said.

The doctor's eyes widened at the sight. "My goodness, Shirley. You have passed on some remarkable genetics to your boys. And I know it comes from the Pope side, because I've treated several of them since I've been here."

"Thank you, Doctor. I'm proud of all my family," she said.

"As you should be. Shirley tells me one of her sons lives with her. Which one would that be?"

"That would be me, and my wife, Amalie," Sean said.

Kline nodded. "Okay, then you need to know she's not to put weight on that foot for at least four weeks and then check in with her regular doctor. Get her one of those knee-leg scooters so she can put her knee on the pad and then propel it with her good leg. It will save everybody trying to move her and be safer than crutches. I don't know where the nearest medical supply is, but it's likely Bowling Green. And Shirley, I'm saying this in front of your family so you can't tell them different later. Do not try to cook on one foot. Figure something else out, or let your family feed you for a while. I don't want you back in here with grease burns or the like, understood?"

Shirley rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever."

"We hear you loud and clear," Sean said.

"Okay then. They'll be bringing your release papers soon, and you can take her home. There will be a prescription for pain meds with the papers. I'd suggest getting that filled before you leave Jubilee. She'll be needing them for a few days." Kline touched her shoulder and smiled. "Take care, Shirley, and you'll be dancing again before you know it."

As soon as he was gone, Shirley leaned back in the bed.

"I'm so sorry. I still can't believe this happened," she said.

Wiley moved to the foot of her bed. "Mom, you said you left the house because you saw Ella."

Shirley frowned. "Yes, that's right, I did see her out in the pasture. I couldn't imagine her being this far down the mountain and afoot. It worried me, but then she walked into the woods and disappeared, and I kept looking for her."

Aaron reached for her hand. "I'm so sorry to have to tell you this, but Aunt Ella passed away sometime this morning."

Shirley gasped. "Oh no! She was lost! If only I could have found her before—"

Amalie stepped up between the brothers. "No, Mom. Ella was already in spirit when you saw her. She was walking the mountain, telling it goodbye, and had no idea that you would be able to see her."

Shirley gasped. They all knew Amalie had the same gift of sight that Ella Pope had been born with. "Oh my God. How did you know this?"

Amalie's eyes welled. "Because Ella appeared in the doorway of my office and called my name. As soon as I looked up, she said, ‘Help Shirley' then blew me a kiss and disappeared…like smoke. I heard the rest of it in my head after she was gone and I called Sean, but they'd already found you. I told them to go check on Ella. Cameron found her in her bed. She'd been gone for a few hours."

Shirley was weeping. "She was so dear to all of us and the last of the old ones."

"No, ma'am," Amalie said. "She's not the last of anything. It's just a shift in generations. Uncle John and Aunt Annie Cauley are now the elders, right?"

Shirley swiped at her tears. "Yes, you're right, and thank you for that. Perspective is often a blessing, but we're so going to miss her."

B.J. was standing at the foot of her bed with his hands in his pockets, staring blindly at the wall above Shirley's head.

"Ecclesiastes 3: ‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.' Nothing can change that outcome, Mom, and God knows Ella was given more years than most, but we aren't going to forget her. Look how long we've hung on to Brendan and his Meg."

Shirley smiled through tears. "Oh, B.J., when did you get so wise?"

He looked away, and when he finally answered, there were tears in his eyes.

"When I found the remains of our ancestor Meg. She'd been lost to us for so long, and in those few moments when I saw her like that, I felt the weight of a thousand years upon my shoulders, like I'd been born for that purpose, and that nothing I ever do will top the importance of bringing her back to bury her beside her loving husband, Brendan."

Total silence followed, as everyone thought about Brendan Pope, the very first man to stake a claim on Pope Mountain, and his beloved wife, who had been kidnapped. Brendan had mourned her loss for the rest of his days, which none of the family knew until his journal had been found a few years earlier.

The silence was broken only after the nurse came in with a wheelchair and Shirley's release papers. "Time to go home!" she said, unaware of the gravity within the room.

Sean and Aaron helped Shirley into the wheelchair, and then everyone headed for the exit.

Aaron took B.J. back to work.

Wiley headed to the pharmacy with the prescriptions.

Ella was already in her heavenly home. It was time for Shirley to get back to her earthly one, but she was quiet and tearful all the way back up the mountain.

"I can't believe Aunt Ella is gone," she said.

"I know, Mom. She was such an institution, I think we all thought she was immortal," Sean said.

Shirley sighed. "I can't believe what I saw was her spirit, though. She looked so…so solid…so real."

"Until she disappeared," Sean said.

"Yes. Until she disappeared," Shirley said, and glanced out the window. "Looks like clouds are building up over the mountain. It might rain tonight."

"Good. Maybe it'll cool things off," Sean said. "Dani is coming to stay with you for a while tomorrow until I can get back. I have two business appointments in the morning, both in Bowling Green, and then I'm going to pick up that knee-leg scooter Dr. Kline recommended before I come home."

"I hate being helpless and dependent on other people. I've sure gone and messed everything up," Shirley muttered.

Sean gave her hand a quick squeeze. "No way, Mama. After all you do, and have done for us, we are blessed to be able to return the favor. And you'll heal and be good as new soon enough."

"I guess," Shirley said. "But just for the record, I'm sorry I won't be able to help out with Ella's funeral, or the family dinner, or anything."

"Maybe not, but we can get you there. Don't fret about that, okay?" he said.

"Thank you, Son. I appreciate that," she said, then leaned back and closed her eyes.

"Are you hurting?" Sean asked.

She nodded.

"Wiley will be along shortly and we'll get those pain meds started, and when Amalie gets home this evening, she and I will be making supper. You will be in bed with your foot on a pillow and the TV remote. I have some handheld two-way radios. When you need help, just give me a shout. We can do this, Mom."

"I don't know how lucky I became to have such wonderful sons, but I would marry Clyde Wallace all over again just for the blessing of being your mother," she said.

Sean shook his head. "Thankfully, you'll never have to do that again. Once around the block with Clyde was enough for all of us."