Chapter 19

Friday Mid-afternoon …

B ack home again later that afternoon, Doreen put on coffee, then looked over at Tammy, who even now sat on the patio outside. “Do you want coffee?”

“Yes, please,” she replied. She was fixated on the river. “I can’t believe how beautiful this place is, even though the house needs some updating, but wow.”

“I know. This was my grandmother’s house, and she left it to me when I got into a bad situation with my marriage. She was so happy when I came back.”

“Holy… she gave you a house?”

Doreen nodded. “I know, right? She’s living in a senior home right now, down at Rosemoor. So she couldn’t remain here and enjoy the house, but didn’t want to sell it and didn’t need the money from it, so she gave it to me instead.”

“You are blessed.”

“Yes, I sure am,” Doreen agreed. “I am very appreciative of everything my grandmother has done for me.”

Tammy shook her head. “It’s truly amazing.”

Doreen smiled. “How bad was the police station visit?”

“It wasn’t bad,” she said, “but it was very strange.”

“Why is that?”

“Being treated like an equal,” she whispered.

“You’re human, so that makes you an equal,” Doreen stated. “We all make mistakes. We all get into trouble, and we all need a little bit of help sometimes to get back on track.”

“I don’t dare go back to the apartment again, so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do from here,” she shared, staring around at the backyard. “I feel like asking you if you have a tent that I can pitch in the backyard.”

“You would be welcome to, if you had a tent,” Doreen teased, with a chuckle. Just then her phone rang. “Hey, Mack. Problems or a social call?”

“You tell me. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, I just put on some coffee. Everything here is okay. You?’

“Yeah, I’ll be done here soon and plan to run by and talk to you both.”

“Good idea,” she replied. “I don’t know that either of us have answers about anything else at this point in time. We’re pretty tired, but otherwise we’re all good.”

“Good enough. I’ll be there is about twenty.”

She ended the call to see Tammy eyeing her in surprise.

“You really do have a relationship with him, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I sure do. I just haven’t quite figured out what to call it yet.”

“You don’t have to call it anything. The fact that you’re even with somebody like him is amazing.”

“He’s amazing all right,” Doreen agreed, with a smile, “and I do know it, but I’m coming out of a pretty-rough divorce, from a pretty-ugly marriage, and I’m just not too eager to jump into something new without… some time to… How do you trust in your own judgment again?”

“Oh, yes. I understand that all too well.”

Doreen nodded. “Which is also why I haven’t really been working too hard at nailing down our relationship.”

“I don’t think you need to nail it down. It’s obvious he’s very much in love with you.”

“Is it?” she asked, looking at her in surprise.

“He’s absolutely smitten, and you’re really lucky.”

“What do you want to do now that you’re free and clear of this Jed guy? Where would you like to go, and what would you want to do?”

Tammy shrugged. “I want to go back to my family.”

“Have you contacted them?”

“No, not yet, and I don’t really have any way to get back there.”

“Have you thought about asking them for money?”

“I didn’t want to do that,” she said, her voice turning faint. “Yes, it would get me back there, but it wouldn’t exactly be the kind of return I would prefer. Besides, I wouldn’t want them to all see me as this sad person who needed help to get home.”

“Right, well, we’re looking at some of the costs involved in transportation, but you still need some money for food and such on the journey. Plus you need some clothes too. You came away with nothing.”

“Right. As for food, I don’t eat very much. I can go without food for a while. As for clothes?”

Doreen chuckled. “I don’t think either will be an issue. We can go to the thrift store and find clothes for you. I can make you some peanut butter sandwiches to take with you. I’m willing to front you the bus ride home, if you’re willing to go home and make some changes in your life, so you can have your life back again.”

Tammy stared at her in shock. “Seriously?”

“Absolutely.” Doreen smiled. She hadn’t even finished discussing these plans, when she heard a Yoo-hoo from the river. She looked over and pointed. “Perfect timing. Here comes Nan.”

At that, Nan walked up, gave Doreen a big hug, then looked over at Tammy. “Hello, you must be Tammy. My granddaughter told me all about you.”

Tammy frowned from one to the other. “She did?”

“Absolutely, and, yes, she told me all about it, so relax, and please don’t feel ashamed.”

Tammy sagged in place. “I hope you’re the last person who knows what I used to do for a living,” she noted, with a deliberate emphasis on the past tense usage.

Nan chuckled. “We all have a history, dear, and burying that history so you never have to be tied down by it again is hugely important. So, did Doreen tell you about the bus fare?”

“Just now, Nan,” Doreen said, with a smile.

“Good. She’ll pay the bus fare, and I’ll front you some clothes at this end and a few hundred dollars so you can get started on the other end. It won’t take you very far though, so you’ll need to have a place to land when you get there, plus find a job pretty quickly to get you some cash. I presume you can live at home in the interim.”

Tammy stared at the two of them, tears in her eyes. “Seriously?”

Doreen nodded. “Yes, we don’t want to see you going back to what you were doing.”

“I don’t want to go back to that either,” she stated fervently.

Studying her intently, Nan added, “It’s also an easy lifestyle to fall into if you’re desperate for cash and short on other experience.”

“I used to type and do office work, so I don’t know if I can get a receptionist or clerical job right away, but believe me that I will take any honest job at this point in time, if it will pay for my living expenses. And I can probably get some help from my mother with that.”

“Maybe you should find out if and when they can pick you up from the bus station.”

Tammy again stared at them, almost as if she were afraid to make the phone call and to hold out any hope.

Doreen handed over her phone. “I have long distance on mine, if you want to use it.”

Tammy snatched it up and quickly dialed a number she obviously knew from heart. She got up and walked a little bit away. “Mom?”

At that greeting, there were tears on both sides of the conversation, from the little bit Doreen could hear. She sat down, looked over at Nan, and smiled.

“You’ve done a good thing,” Nan declared.

“I hope so. I really want to give her that chance to start again.”

“And that’s what you’re doing,” Nan stated. “What she does with that chance, you have no control over, and you’ll need to let it go.”

At that, Doreen winced yet nodded. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? You can only help somebody by showing them where the water is, but you can’t force them to drink.”

“No, you can’t, and, in this case, you’ll give her the tools so she can start again.”

The phone call lasted at least another ten minutes. By the time Tammy rejoined them and returned the phone to Doreen, Tammy had wet streaks down her face, but shining out beyond the tears was hope in her gaze.

“I’m to call Mom back and let her know when the bus is due to get in, and she will pick me up. She also told me that they’re looking for an assistant where she works, and she would put in a good word for me—if I was interested in staying for a while. I didn’t tell her that I was hoping to move back home because I didn’t have a job or a place or anything.”

“Did she offer you a place to stay?”

“Absolutely,” she replied, with a beaming smile. “She offered and sounded really happy that I’m coming home, like over the moon.”

“Of course she is,” Nan declared. “When we love our children, we love them forever, not just for the good times or not just when we like them. Enough times you guys get to go off and make your own decisions, but, when you remember your family, they’ll do anything for you.”

Tammy smiled. “It sure sounds like it. Do you know when the next bus leaves?”

At that, the women sat down and started to work out the details. When Doreen found a bus going to Toronto, Ontario and leaving tonight, she looked over at Tammy. “Are you ready to make that change now?”

“Absolutely,” she stated fervently. “The sooner I’m out of this town, the better. It’s never been a good place for me,” she admitted. “When I came here, I immediately got hooked on drugs. I managed to get myself off the drugs, but I couldn’t get away from Jed.” She shook her head. “Now that I am rid of him, and he’s in jail for a while, I want to get while the getting’s good.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Doreen said, as she looked to Nan, who nodded.

Nan added, “Take her to get some clothes and a backpack or something. Then straight to the bus station and buy the ticket.” Then she got up, fetched a small wad of bills from her pocket, and handed it over to Tammy. “You’ll have to leave now to get any clothes because the bus leaves in about an hour and a half.”

Tammy looked shocked, then gave Nan an ever-so-gentle hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispered.

Nan just brushed it away. “Just remember that we’re counting on you to make a whole new start out of this and to make something out of your life. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be anything other than the fact that you allow yourself to become the really good person who you are and to stay off the streets.”

“Got it.” She brushed the tears from her eyes. “I’m ready to go, so I know this is for real. Plus I sure hope they don’t let Jed out early.”

“Come on then.” Doreen asked Nan, “Mack will be here soon, did you want to come too?”

Nan shook her head. “No, I’ll stay here with the animals until you get back, the sooner, the better.”

Doreen got up, snagged her purse and keys, and, with Tammy once again in her car, the two women headed to the thrift store. Soon they were at the bus depot.

As she pulled in and parked, Doreen said, “Come on, let’s go get the ticket.” They walked up to the cashier, then quickly asked to book a ticket.

“You’re just in time. We’re doing checks on the bus right now.”

Doreen and Tammy stood at the station, until the bus could be boarded. Doreen gave her a hug and whispered, “You’ve got a second chance, so make good use of it. When you step on that bus, remember it’s the first moment of the rest of your life. A life you can be proud of.”

Tammy gave her a big hug and then raced onto the bus, taking a window seat on Doreen’s side.

For whatever reason, Doreen felt she needed to stay. She stood here until the bus pulled away, the two of them waving the whole time. Something was incredibly rewarding about helping someone else.

As she slowly turned toward home, her phone rang. “Nan?”

“Yes. Is Tammy on the bus?”

“She’s on the bus, and I’m heading home.”

“Good enough,” Nan said. “You should probably hurry along.”

“Why is that?”

“Because this man sitting beside me has a gun. He says he’ll wait right here until you come home. So, sooner would be better.” And, with that, Nan ended the call.