PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Seventy-Two
After they left the cemetery, Jack showed
Rose around Chippewa Falls. Visiting his parents’ grave had been a great comfort,
but he had one more stop to make before he would truly be at peace with
himself.
"This was where I lived, growing
up," Jack told Rose, pulling to stop in front of a new-looking house in an
old neighborhood. The owners of the house weren’t home, so he got out of the
car, standing at the edge of the sidewalk and looking at the place where he had
grown up.
Rose stood beside him. The blackened remains
of Jack’s childhood home were gone, long since replaced by a new house. It
looked almost out of place in the weathered neighborhood, the bright new roof
and walls standing out against the mellow, well-lived-in houses that made up
the rest of the neighborhood.
Jack stood quietly, looking at the place
where he had spent his childhood. Nothing was the same. The old house was gone,
of course, burned down in the fire that had taken his parents’ lives, but
nothing else was as he remembered it, either. The wildflower garden, of which
his father had been so proud, had been replaced by a smooth, green lawn. His mother’s
rose bushes and climbing vines had been replaced by young shrubs and annual
flowers. If he hadn’t remembered the neighborhood so vividly, he might have
believed that he was in the wrong place.
But it was the right place. As Jack gazed at
the yard, he saw the one thing that was left from the years that he had lived
there—a tall, sturdy oak tree. It had been charred by the fire, but only on the
branches nearest to the house. Now, it was neatly pruned, the leaves still
summer green. The old, decaying tree house he had played in had been replaced
by a new one with a sturdy ladder leading up to it. Children’s toys were
scattered around the base of the tree, and a brightly colored bird feeder hung
not far from the platform in the tree.
As he stood, looking at his old home, Rose
put an arm around his waist and stood beside him. The sight didn’t mean as much
to her as it did to Jack—she had never been here before—but she understood what
it meant to him. Here was the place where he had grown up, a place he hadn’t
seen in over eight years—and it was nothing like he remembered it. She could
only imagine what was going through his mind.
Jack stood silently for a long time, looking
at his childhood home. His gaze took in the new house, the neatly kept lawn and
garden, and, most of all, the tree house where a new generation of children now
played.
At last, he turned to Rose, and she was
surprised to see a smile on his face. "I think I’m ready to go now,"
he told her, and she smiled back, knowing exactly what he meant.
*****
For the rest of the afternoon, Jack and Rose
explored Chippewa Falls. There had been some changes since Jack had been there,
new houses built and new people living in the area, but for the most part it
was still the small Midwestern town he remembered.
Driving slowly through the streets that he
still remembered, Jack showed Rose his elementary school, the middle school he
had attended, and even the high school were he had been a student his freshman
year. Getting out of the car, they walked around the now-deserted campus. It
was late in the day and everyone had gone home, but he was still able to show
some things to her.
With a touch of pride, Jack showed Rose the gym
where he had practiced when he had been on the junior varsity basketball team in
high school. He had been one of the top players, and might have gone far had he
not left after his freshman year.
"It looks like a pretty good high
school," Rose commented, looking around as he showed her where he had
taken classes and the places where the students had gathered.
"I wish I could have stayed," Jack
responded. "It was the first of four high schools that I went to.
Ironically enough, after all that, I never graduated from high school. I earned
my GED in juvenile hall."
Rose squeezed his hand. "Give it a
couple of years, and you’ll graduate from community college. That’s a much
bigger deal than high school. Besides, at least you got your education, even if
it was a bit unconventional. I’m willing to bet that a lot of the kids in juvenile
hall with you never got their GEDs."
Jack laughed. "You’re right. Most
didn’t, at least not then. Some of them, when they get older and more mature,
will probably get them, but some just didn’t care, or didn’t see the point. Why
get your education when you can make more money selling drugs or something than
you could get with a regular job, which is hard to get after spending time in
jail anyway?"
They had returned to the car by this time,
and it was beginning to get dark. "You’re one of a kind, Jack," Rose
told him, wiggling awkwardly into her seat. "You’ve got a good heart, even
if you did go the wrong direction for a while. I love you."
"I love you, too, Rose."
*****
As the sun set, Jack showed Rose a few more
places around the town—the supermarket where his parents had bought groceries,
memorable to him because he had once accidentally knocked over a huge display
of eggs, much to the disgust of his mother and the store manager; the
restaurant where his parents’ had shared their last anniversary, bringing him
along with them for the first time; and the fast food restaurant where he and
his friends had hung out once they got to high school. It was a long distance
from where any of them had lived or gone to school, but there had always been
some parent or elder sibling to shuttle the group around town.
"I wonder if any of the high school kids
still hang out here," Jack wondered as he parked the car and got out.
"Some kids said that people who hung out here were dorks, but I never
cared. They weren’t worth listening to, anyway."
"What say we go in and find out? I’m
getting hungry anyway. I think it’s about time for dinner."
Jack glanced at his watch. "You’re
right. It is. I hadn’t even noticed."
After they ordered their food and found a
table to sit at, Rose asked Jack if he was glad he had come back to Chippewa
Falls.
"Are you glad we visited, Jack? I know
it must be hard, but..."
"It is a little hard to come back here,
with all the memories and all. But I think this trip was a good idea. I’m a lot
more at peace since I visited Mom and Dad’s grave and looked at the old
property."
"You seem more at peace, less anxious.
And I’ve enjoyed seeing your hometown." Rose looked past him at a teenage girl
sitting in a booth at the back of the restaurant, staring at Jack as though
trying to place him. Rose tapped on his arm to get his attention.
"Jack, who is that?"
"Who?"
"That girl who’s staring at you. The one
with the straight blonde hair and bright purple fingernails."
Jack turned to look, his eyes lighting up as
he recognized her. Pushing his food aside, he got to his feet.
The girl recognized him at the same time and
got up from her table, leaving her friends behind.
"Jack!"
"Emmaline!"
The two cousins hugged, leaving Emmaline’s
friends and Rose staring in confusion.
"You’re back!" Emmaline exclaimed.
"I never thought you would come back to Chippewa Falls, especially since
Dad still doesn’t like you. Are you here permanently, or just visiting?"
"Just visiting. I’m on vacation from
work. Emmaline, this is my wife, Rose."
"Oh, yes. You e-mailed me some of your
wedding pictures." She turned to Rose. "I’m Emmaline Dawson, Jack’s
cousin."
"I’m Rose." Rose wiggled out of the
booth, standing a bit awkwardly.
"Hey, cool! You’re going to have a baby!
When is it due?"
"October first," Rose told her,
liking Jack’s exuberant cousin immediately.
"I love babies. I want to have a lot of
them someday."
"Finish high school first,
Emmaline," Jack warned her. "Don’t be like your brother and wind up
being a parent before you’re a graduate."
"I won’t, I won’t. You know me better
than that." She shrugged. "Anyway, I’ll have a new cousin. You’ll
have to send me pictures, and if you get a chance to visit here again, bring the
baby. I want to meet it."
Emmaline’s friends had come over to them,
curious about what was going on. With a smile, she introduced them.
"Jack, Rose, this is my best friend,
Sarah, and her brother James. James is my boyfriend," she added, linking
arms with him. "Sarah, James, this is my cousin, Jack, and his wife,
Rose."
"Is he the one your dad hates?"
Sarah asked, looking at Jack curiously.
"Yes, but Dad doesn’t know what he’s
talking about. Jack’s a perfectly nice guy." She raised a teasing eyebrow
at her best friend. "He’s also taken, so don’t flirt with him."
"Yeah," James added, unable to
resist teasing his little sister. "Or Emmaline will paint you for her next
modern art project."
Sarah punched him in the arm, while Jack
laughed at the teenagers.
"Last time I saw you, Emmaline, you
thought boys were gross," Jack teased his cousin, watching as she sidled
up against her boyfriend.
"Hey, there’s a big difference between
seven and fifteen," Emmaline pointed out. "Besides, James is a
senior."
"Yeah, he’s real grown-up," Sarah
teased, earning a glare from her brother.
"Hey, Jack, Rose. Why don’t you come and
sit with us?" Emmaline asked. "There’s plenty of room. I want to know
what you’ve been doing. You just don’t hear enough through the e-mail."
Jack looked at Rose for her reaction. She
glanced at Emmaline and her friends, then smiled, nodded, and picked up her
tray, following them to the other table. Jack walked with her, carrying his own
meal, as they sat down with Jack’s cousin, ready for an evening of talking and
sharing stories.