Chapter 56
"Hey Trouble and Trouble Jr," Al smiled at the two girls as they entered the hospital room.
"Just remember, there are two of us and only one of you!" Alex warned him with a smile. Nora climbed up on the bed and kissed him.
"How are you feeling today Grandpa?" she asked him as she pushed her hair back with her fingers and a slight tilt of her head.
The simple gesture made Al blink his eyes quickly to keep the tears back. How many times had he seen Livy do that same gesture over the years? Hundreds? Thousands? It was so subtle, so quick, but the soft gentle way she pushed her hair back reminded him instantly of Livy.
"I'm good," he said, recouping his voice after a few moments of it being stuck uneasily in his throat like a kernel of popcorn. "I feel like I could wrestle an alligator!" he teased her.
"Grandpa, you are so silly! An alligator would eat you!" she said laughing.
Her laughter carried and Al looked to Alex who seemed to be seeing the same things. Little mannerisms that Nora picked up from her mother that no one noticed until recently. Now they were on display for all to see. At least those who were still coming to grips with the fact Livy was gone.
"Hey!" Trevor announced as he came in.
"Hey," they called back as a collective. Alex steeled herself and waited for his mother, Krista, to come in, but she didn't so she looked to Trevor.
"I had a friend from school drop me off," he explained her questioning eyes.
"Ah," Alex nodded, thankful that Krista didn't come. She didn't want to argue today, she didn't want her father to become aggravated either. So having just Trevor was good for keeping things light.
"I do have some things to tell you," Trevor said with a mischievous flick of his eyebrows. Alex cocked her head. Obviously it was going to be good but he wouldn't say in front of Nora.
"Where is Gavin?" Al asked.
"Back in Chicago," Alex frowned.
"That makes sense," Al nodded. "You guys have a lot of wedding stuff to put together, or is mean old Queen Madelyn handling all the details now?" He teased tickling Nora.
"The wedding," Alex frowned. Al snapped his eyes to her. "It's been postponed." She said carefully.
"What?" Trevor and Al said at once, shocked that the one happy thing they had going in the family right now was now cooling off.
"Well," Alex shrugged. "We thought it was best, so you can concentrate on getting better and I can concentrate on Nora a little. You know, new school and things like that."
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry I have wrecked everything!" Al groused, his anger weaving into the words.
"You haven't wrecked anything," she assured him. "We just need to take care of some priorities."
"Your wedding should be a priority!" Al told her. She shrugged.
"It's not off, just pushed back," she told him. "Don't go getting up panties in a bunch!" She smiled at him, using one of his favorite sayings to her when she was growing up. She didn't know how many times he had thrown that statement at her, but she was sure she heard it at least once a week.
Walking down to the cafeteria with Trevor for coffee she was dying to hear what he had to tell her. As soon as the elevator doors closed he turned to her.
"You ready for this?" Trevor asked with a broad smile.
"Yes," she smiled, smiling because he was.
"Mom, Aunt Brandy and Grandma had back pew designation Wednesday night!" Trevor announced happily.
"No shit," Alex gasped.
"You know what that means?" Trevor asked her.
"I grew up in that church, I know that is not a good thing!" Alex nodded.
"I know I shouldn't be happy about it," Trevor frowned.
"I know the feeling," Alex agreed. "Aren't you relegated to the back as well?"
"No," Trevor grinned. "I usually sit with my friends elsewhere...we are counting the days until we pull our Alexandria."
"Your what?" Alex asked.
"Our Alexandria," he smiled sheepishly.
"Explain," she demanded.
"You are a legend in our church," Trevor shrugged.
"What?" she scoffed.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Our parents have told the cautionary tale of how you went to Chicago and fell in bed with the devil!" Trevor waved his hands in showmanship fashion. "The only problem with that is, I've been bragging on the fact you found a great guy, have made tons of money selling your art and did a mural that the entire world was blown away by!"
"Ginny," he smiled. "That's my girl, she even went online and printed out pictures of you standing by your mural from an online paper...we then stuck them in every hymnal!"
"Oh man you should have seen all the faces on everybody when they opened their hymnals to sing and found you staring back at them! The so called devil's puppet from Chicago!" Trevor laughed. "Worth every minute of punishment they hit us with when they found out we were involved."
"What happened?" Alex asked, shocked that her nephew had gone through with the practical joke. Not so shocked they were punished for it.
"We had to clean the church for like two weeks," he shrugged. "Just gave us more time to plot our next act of rebellion!"
"Oh man," she shook her head. "I've inspired monsters! Funny as hell monsters, but monsters nonetheless."
"We like to be called your minions," he corrected.
"My minions!" she laughed. "How did your mom respond to being banished to the back row?"
"Oh man," he shook his head. "She was humiliated! Ducked out of church right after service, ranted and raved like a clucking chicken at home! I bet she starts to shun grandma next!"
Alex looked to the floor. She thought of how her mother must feel. To have her idea of what was her rock crumble under her like sand in an on rushing tidal wave. What would her mother do now? How would she handle the new banishment to the back? A small part of her felt sorry for her mother. To have something you believed in ripped from you was a hard thing to handle. She knew this because she had her mother ripped from her by Rev. Sellers' beliefs.
***
"Good morning Jack," the priest called out to him.
"Morning Sy," Jack said not taking his eyes off the pond.
"Nice out here this morning," Sybian said to him.
"It is," Jack agreed with a nod, but still not looking at the psychiatrist.
"How did you sleep?" Sy asked him.
Jack shrugged and shook his head. Sleep? He wasn't sleeping, if he slept he had dreams about her. Dreams no priest should have. At least if he was awake she would keep her clothes on.
"You know, you are only hurting yourself here, I could prescribe something," Sy offered.
"No, no pills," Jack said firmly.
"Alright," Sy shrugged. "So, are your dreams still sexual in nature?" Jack nodded. It took a few therapy sessions before he finally admitted to Sy the nature of his dreams. It took a few sessions more to reveal his feelings for Livy.
"I should just drop the collar," Jack told him.
"Let's not go there just yet," Sy suggested softly.
"Sy," Jack said gasping in disbelief. "I'm having dreams of a woman that...I shouldn't be thinking of her that way!"
"Love is a curious thing," Sy shrugged.
"Love?" Jack asked.
"Jack," Sy exhaled deeply. "You fell in love, that is not a crime...its most definitely not a sin!"
"I'm a priest...I'm her...I was her priest," he pointed out sharply, correcting himself in mid-sentence. "I made a promise to God!"
"A promise you could have kept," Sy suggested with an upward shrug of his shoulders.
"How do you figure that?" Jack snapped, his lack of sleep making him edgy and irritable. "I took a vow of celibacy!"
"Jack, you were called to God, but that doesn't mean you have to serve him in a priestly capacity! You could have stayed with the church, married Livy and still maintained your calling," the man told him. "Our Father called you to do His work, He didn't say 'Jack become a priest!'" Sy smiled as he dropped his voice to a deep baritone for the last part. Jack shook his head. He wished he could smile.
"How do you figure?"
"You could have done marriage counseling, it would have been beneficial to you to have a priest background but be able relate to them as a married man," Sy pointed out.
Jack sat back and thought hard on that.
"You received a call to serve God," Sy said standing up. "How you serve Him, is what you have to work out. That may mean giving up the collar, it may not. But one way or another, God will tell you what He wants you to do."
"What if He isn't listening to me anymore?" Jack asked him.
"He listens to all the prayers," Sy said calmly. "But you know, as well as I do, sometimes the answer is no."
Jack leaned forward and put his face in his hands. That's the problem, He said 'no' to the one prayer he wanted more than anything. The prayer to save her life. To keep her in this world. Not only for Nora, but for him as well.
The soft scent of her perfume wafted around him and he looked up to see her by the pond, squatting to look at the baby ducks there. She looked over at him and gave him a half smile. He smiled back at her and she blew him a kiss from the ends of her fingers.
"Livy," he said to her as she walked away. "I miss you so much!" She looked over her shoulder at him but continued walking until she was nothing more than the soft wisp of the morning fog.
***
"Hello you evil Bitch," Gavin said lovingly as he kissed her temple. He made his way to the seat next to her at the table.
"How is Alex doing?" she asked him immediately pulling her glasses down and setting the newspaper to the side.
"About like you would expect," he told her pouring himself a glass of wine.
"What kind of answer is that?" she barked testily. Gavin sighed, he should have known that Madelyn wasn't going to except anything less than a complete answer.
