JUST WHEN I NEEDED YOU
Chapter Nineteen
August 10, 2003
Rose sighed as she dropped the now rotten
green peppers into the garbage. Life the past few weeks had been hell. Helga's
mother had fallen ill, so she had to go stay with her, leaving Rose alone. Then
Josh had tripped over the dog coming up the basement steps, breaking his arm.
Now she was faced with the emotional battle of getting through her and Jack's
second anniversary without him. And to top it all off, her mother was in town,
expecting to have a nice dinner with her daughter and grandchildren, but the
ingredients Rose needed to make dinner were either non-existent in the house or
rotten. "Fuck!" Rose yelped when she stubbed her toe on a chair. She
inevitably had to go to the grocery store, but dragging three young children
with her sounded less than inviting. Slowly, she went to the phone to call her
mother.
"Hello?"
"Mom, it's Rose."
"Hello, Rose. What's wrong?"
"I need your help. Could you come over
and watch the twins? I need to run to the store for dinner tonight."
"Of course. I'll be there shortly."
"Thanks, Mom. Bye."
"Good-bye, Rose."
Fifteen minutes later, Ruth arrived.
"Thank you for doing this, Mom. I'll take Josh with me. Janelle's sleeping
and Colin is in the playpen. We'll be back in a little while," Rose said,
tying Josh's shoes.
Ruth smiled. "No need to thank me. I
love spending time with my little angels."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Okay. We're
off."
*****
Josh fidgeted as Rose lifted him into the
shopping cart seat. "Josh, you have to sit still."
"Gamma!" he declared.
"Yes, Grandma's waiting for us at home.
So be a good boy and we'll get to see her faster."
Josh seemed to understand and settled into
the seat, keeping himself occupied with Rose's purse strap.
Rose was trying to decide what kind of baby
food to get Josh when out of the corner of her eye, she caught a familiar face.
Rose shook her head. It couldn't be. After making her selections, she turned
down the next aisle and ran right into another cart. "I'm so sorry,"
she started to say, her voice fading out when the man lifted his eyes to her.
Rose's mouth dropped open. "Teddy?" she asked, her voice almost
inaudible.
The man stared at her for a moment before his
eyes went wide. "Rosie?"
"Oh, my God, it is you!" Rose
exclaimed, throwing herself into her older brother's arms.
Teddy hugged her tight and then pulled away.
"What are you doing here?"
"Me? What are you doing here?" Rose
demanded, staring at the man she hadn't seen since she was eight years old.
Teddy grinned. "Grocery shopping. And
you?"
"The same."
At that moment, Teddy noticed the child in
his youngest sister's cart. "And who's this?"
Rose smiled lovingly at the kid. "Oh,
this is Josh. My son."
Unable to believe his baby sister had a baby
herself, Teddy frowned. "A son? Aren't you a little young for that?"
Rose jabbed him in the ribs. "Ah, you've
been away too long, dear brother. I'm all grown up now."
"How old are you now, anyway? Fifteen?
Sixteen?"
Rose shook her head. "Hardly. Twenty
years old, as of this past May."
"Holy crap. It has been a long
time."
"Yes, it has," she said sadly. She
brightened up quickly, though. "Come over to my house for dinner
tonight?"
"Sure. What time?"
"You can follow me, if you want."
"All right. If we stop by my apartment
first. I need to drop my food off."
Rose smiled excitedly. "Oh, that's fine.
Mom's going to freak."
"Mom's there?"
"Yeah, she's here for a while."
"What about Dad?"
Rose dropped a can into her cart abruptly,
tears filling her eyes. "He died a few years ago," she told him,
quietly.
Teddy's face went pale. "How?
When?"
Rose pushed her cart next to her brother's,
so that they were walking side by side. "April of '99. He died of
cancer."
"Oh, my God."
Rose gave him a sympathetic smile,
understanding how much it must hurt knowing he never got to say good-bye. They
finished their shopping in silence. As they strolled towards their cars, Teddy
turned to her. "You follow me to my place and then I'll follow you to your
house."
Rose nodded. "Okay. Sounds good to
me."
*****
Once Teddy had dropped his groceries off at
his place, which ironically, was no more then five miles away from Rose's, they
headed towards the Dawson home. Teddy got out of his car, just as Rose
unbuckled Josh and set him down. "I meant to ask you. Where's his
father?"
Rose sighed. "Overseas. This stupid war
separated us."
Teddy took a few bags from her trunk.
"Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you married?"
"Yes. Our two-year anniversary is this
weekend."
"Wow. Who is he?"
Rose closed the trunk and gave him a smile.
"You remember the Dawsons?"
"How could I forget? You were inseparable.
Wait, you don't..."
"Come on, Josh," she called to the
toddler before turning to her brother. "Actually, I do. I'm Mrs. Jack
Dawson."
Teddy gasped. "You're kidding."
"Nope."
"Wow..."
Rose smiled and opened the door the led from
the garage to the kitchen. After depositing the bags on the table, she called
out for her mother. "Mom? We're home. I've got a surprise for you."
"We're in the living room, dear."
Rose grinned at Teddy. "Ready for a
blast from your past?"
Teddy sighed. "As ready as I'll ever
be."
Rose led him into the large living room,
where Ruth was playing with her grandson, her back turned to them. "Hey,
Mom. There's someone here to see you."
"To see me? You're the only one I know
out here," Ruth said, turning to face Rose. As soon as she caught sight of
the man standing beside her daughter, she turned white. "Theodore? Is that
really you?" She gasped.
Teddy grinned. "It's me, Mom."
Ruth embraced her long lost son, crying
softly. They hugged for a little while longer until Ruth spoke up. "How
did this happen?"
"Rose ran into me. Literally."
Teddy laughed.
"Josh had me preoccupied and I ran into
his cart," Rose explained.
Ruth shook her head. "This is
unbelievable. Did Rose tell you about your father?"
Teddy nodded sadly. "Yes. I'm sorry,
Mom. I should've stayed in contact."
Just then, Josh toddled into the room with
his puppy following. "Gamma, up," he announced, raising his arms.
Ruth smiled and picked the child up.
"Have you met your Uncle Teddy, Josh?"
Josh shook his head and hid his face in his
grandmother's hair, just as a wail came from another room.
Rose sighed. "And the house comes
alive," she muttered, heading down the hall.
Teddy followed her into the nursery, where
she was cradling a crying baby. "Who's that?"
Rose smiled. "This is Janelle, my
daughter."
"Damn, how many kids y'all have?"
"Three. Josh and the twins."
"Where's the other one?"
"In the living room. He's probably
asleep in the playpen."
"How old are they?"
"Josh is a year and a half. The twins
will be three months Thursday," Rose replied.
Teddy looked up at her in awe. "You
weren't kidding when you say you were all grown up. My little sister, married
and a mother three times over. I feel old."
Rose giggled, but then turned serious.
"I've been meaning to ask you. Have you heard from or seen Lori in the
past six years?"
Teddy looked at her, confused. "No,
why?"
"She took off about six, seven years
ago, claiming she was going to find you. Nobody's heard anything from her
since."
"She disappeared?"
Rose nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Mom worries
about her more and more every day. She did with you, too, but now that we know
you're okay, she can be at ease about you. I just hope Lori shows up okay
eventually. It'll kill Mom if something happened to her."
"Damn. I had no idea."
"No, I guess not. Um..." She
paused, blushing. "Would you mind leaving? I have to feed her."
Teddy grinned. "No problem. I'll be in
the living room."
*****
After dinner was served, the dishes put away
and the children put in bed, Ruth, Teddy, and Rose sat down to talk.
"Teddy, what have you been up to since you left?" Ruth asked
curiously.
Teddy coughed. "Well, after I left I
headed out to Michigan and did a few years of community college there. I met
Leanne then--she's my fiancee--and we decided that once she graduated college,
we'd travel the world. So that's what we did. We went everywhere, Paris, Rome,
London...we even lived in Spain for a few years. We came back here in '98 then
we traveled the US for awhile, until we settled in San Francisco in early 2000.
We moved here last summer."
"You're engaged!" Ruth exclaimed.
"Where is she now?"
"She had some family business to take
care of back in Michigan. She'll be back next week."
Rose glanced at her brother. "Well, when
she gets back, bring her over here for dinner. I'd love to meet her."
Teddy nodded. "Sounds good to me."
Suddenly, Rose burst into tears. "Excuse
me," she mumbled, quickly exiting the room.
Teddy gave his mom a worried look. "Is
she okay?"
Ruth sighed and looked back at her son sadly.
"No, she's not. Jack's been gone for nine months now, and their wedding
anniversary is Saturday. He's her lifeline, and I think it's getting to be too
much for her, being away from him."
"Shit. Is he okay?"
"So far everything has been fine. But
you have to understand about them...from their first kiss, those two were head
over heels in love with each other. A little after they had been together for a
year, Jack left. He was gone for three years, and those three years--dare I
say--were the worst of Rose's life. He came back in May...they were married
that August. Then he left again this past November. They haven't had each other
all that long, and now they're forced apart again. Keeping Rose away from Jack
is like keeping her from breathing. She can only last so long without
him."
Teddy shook his head. "God, poor Rose.
Why did Jack leave?"
Ruth hesitated, knowing how close Teddy had
been to Jack's older sister Karen. "His parents died, and then Karen
killed herself. I guess it was too much. He couldn't stay in Chippewa Falls. I
can't say I blame him."
Teddy went pale. "Whoa..."
"Yeah, I know." Ruth paused.
"We should probably get going. It's getting late."
"What about Rose?"
"She'll be okay. She doesn't need us,
anyway. She needs Jack. Right now, it's best to just leave her alone."
"You sure?"
"Positive. Come on, help your old mom
back to her hotel."