Miracles Retold (5 page)

“Lon,” Annie said, “How in
the world would we manage with a dog?”

Lon raised his eyebrows.
“You’re thinking about the dog, huh? My mother has always had a
dog,” he said. “I imagine
she
would manage him just fine.” Lon smirked. “If it
weren’t for that dog, and Carter wearing Mom’s jacket, he might
still be out there in the park.”

Annie shuddered and knew
Lon was right.

He started the car’s
engine. “How did you know Carter was coming around the corner?” Lon
asked.

“What?”

“When he was walking home.
Before anybody saw him, before he came into view, you started in
that direction. How did you know?”

Annie thought, then shook
her head. “I don’t know. Just a feeling, I guess.” She tried to
remember exactly what she had been thinking and feeling, but only
came up with a sense of dread like she’d never known before.
“Intuition. God.”

She tried to put that
evening’s frantic frenzy out of her mind
—
if only for Carter’s sake, as Lon
had said. But once at home after hugging Carter again, after the
pizza and Christmas cookies, after tucking the kids into bed (even
the older ones, just because she wanted to), and saying goodnight
to Lon and Grace, Annie still had a nagging feeling inside that
wouldn’t let her sleep deeply.

Her child had disappeared,
and she hadn’t even noticed until he was gone.

It was time for a
change.

Day of Discovery

The next morning, Annie
woke up and tried to remember what day it was. Her mind was soot
left by a firestorm. The first thing she remembered was losing
Carter the night before, and eating too many Christmas cookies.
Carter’s disappearance and reappearance likely had led to the
cookie binge
—
or
at least Annie told herself that a little stress eating was all
right under the circumstances. Annie tried to remember what was on
her to-do list for that day. A kid’s sporting event? Classmate’s
birthday party? Food shopping? She couldn’t think.

She turned over and lay on
her other side. Maybe she was supposed to write and mail the
family’s holiday cards that she kept putting off. Maybe it was
shopping for Christmas dinner. She definitely needed to wrap gifts.
Annie tucked her face into her pillow.
Forget the to-do list
, she
thought.
Look where it got me: I almost
lost my child
.

Annie moaned.

There would be no to-do
list today. Today would be different.

It was still early in the
morning
—
the
fact she wasn’t physically capable of sleeping in when she had the
chance was a terrible curse
—
and by the time the kids got up, she could have
hot food and a plan.

Don’t mess with a mom who
has hot food and a plan
, Annie
thought.

Annie wasn’t sure if she
felt slightly shaky from the cold, the need for morning coffee, or
excitement. Perhaps all three.

In the kitchen, Annie made
coffee and looked for the makings of breakfast. There were no eggs,
used up in yesterday’s cookie-baking blitz. So omelets and pancakes
were out of the breakfast equation. The oatmeal also had been
turned into cookies, Annie guessed. After poking around in the
refrigerator and pantry, all Annie came up with was toast.
Fortunately, the container of ground cinnamon wasn’t emptied, so
she mixed it with sugar (just a little left) for sprinkling on the
hot, buttered bread. At least it was something other than the kids
pouring cold cereal into a bowl for themselves as usual.

Hannah appeared, her hair
tucked behind her ears and her eyes meek with sleepiness. Annie
could have sworn her oldest child were seven years old again if not
for the too-tight purple sleep set she was wearing from the last
time it was chilly
—
about ten months ago, when the warm clothing had still fit
her.

“Good morning!” Annie said.
She kissed Hannah on the forehead. Hannah raised her eyebrows, but
didn’t say anything. “Want some breakfast?” Annie asked. Hannah
nodded.

Annie put slices of bread
in the toaster. “So … what should we do today? Your first day of
winter break. Going to see your friends?”

“No,” Hannah said. “I don’t
think they like me anymore.”

“What are you talking
about?” Annie asked.

“Just … never mind. What
are you going to do today?”

“I’m going to do what you
want to do,” Annie said, “And back up there. Tell me what’s going
on with your friends.”

Hannah rolled her eyes,
then looked down and sighed. Hannah felt unsure at first as she
told her mother about Allison, her vacation house in Islamorada,
and how she had wanted to be invited. The more she talked
—
and because no one
else in the family was around
—
the easier it was for Hannah to reveal how she
felt left out.

“I’m sorry you’re sad,”
Annie said. “I didn’t know.” She re-toasted the bread because it
was cold now. “But you don’t know that Allison and the other girls
are leaving you out. You are just assuming that. Why don’t you just
call her and ask what’s up? If she’s really your friend, she will
talk to you. If not, then maybe you need some new
friends.”

“But I don’t want to talk
to any of them! I was afraid you were going to say something like
that,” Hannah said. “But I guess you’re right.” Hannah looked at
Annie. “Thanks, though. Just for listening. I feel a little
better.”

“Good, sweetie,” Annie
said.
Not that there’s any chance I would
let you go to Islamorada for the holidays
,
Annie thought to herself.
Without
me
.

“So … you really don’t have
a bunch of stuff to do today?” Hannah asked.

“Well, there’s a lot I
should do, but I don’t feel like doing any of it. I want to do …
something fun.”

Ryder bounded up to them.
“Did you say fun? Are you sure you know what that is?” he
said.

“Mom! The toast is
burning,” Hannah said.

“Aaaugh!” Annie yelled. “I
didn’t mean to keep it in the toaster so long.”

“That smells so bad,” Ryder
said.

Wisps of smoke meandered
toward the ceiling. Annie removed the burned bread and dropped it
on the counter. The pungent smell almost made Annie’s taste buds
curdle. “Sorry about that.”

“I don’t think I want toast
now,” Hannah said.

“Me neither,” Ryder said,
holding up his hands as if he could ward off the smell.

“That’s all we have,” Annie
said.

“Let’s go out to eat, Mom!”
Hannah said.

“Donuts!” Ryder said.
“
Pleasepleasepleaspleaseplease
!”

Annie didn’t think donuts
were a sufficient breakfast, but she decided to give in. “All
right. Put on some warm clothes, fast. The three of us will go get
donuts for everyone.”

“Wow, you
can
be fun!” Ryder
said.

Annie smacked him playfully
on the shoulder.

Ryder wanted to ride his
skateboard to the donut shop around the corner from their
neighborhood. Annie thought this was a good idea, so she and Hannah
pulled out their bicycles. Hannah’s bike had a flat tire, but
before Annie knew what was happening, Ryder pulled out a tire pump
and was inflating the tire like a member of a pit crew.

Annie didn’t know where he
learned that skill, or his skateboard moves. On the way to the
donut shop, Annie realized she hadn’t noticed before how well Ryder
could maneuver on the skateboard. She made a little gasp whenever
he did a jump or spin.

“You’re getting so good on
your board,” she said. Ryder smiled and shrugged.

Her boy was growing
up.

With a dozen assorted
donuts and a few breakfast sandwiches tucked into her bike basket,
Annie followed behind Hannah and Ryder back home. The sky was
clear, and the sunshine reflected in thousands of morning dewdrops
on grass, making lawns sparkle. Close to home, they saw Grace
walking with Benji, who was pawing at the dewdrops.

“Donuts, Grandma!” Hannah
called.

Benji turned his head at
the sound of Hannah’s voice and appeared to smile.

Grace’s wide look of
surprise at seeing them outside
—
Annie on a bike
—
coming home with donuts eventually eased into a
smile. “Look at you!” she said. “We’ll be inside in a
minute.”

Carter met them at the
door. “Hey! What’s going on?” he said, his voice still
morning-hoarse from sleep. His head with frizzy bedhead hair was
the only part of him visible out of the mass of blankets he had
swathed around himself.

“Plan C,” Annie said, and
kissed him on the top of his dark-blond head.

Carter squinted. “It looks
like donuts to me.”

“Why don’t you guys take
these bags in,” Annie said, handing one to Ryder and one to Hannah,
“and share. Remember, there are two donuts for each of us. I’ll put
the bikes away.”

After Annie got the
bicycles in the garage, she walked over to Grace.

“Did I smell bacon?” Grace
asked. “If so, can Benji have it? We don’t have any food for
him.”

Annie had completely
forgotten about Benji. Last night, he acted as though he didn’t
want to leave the house. Grace thought it would have been cruel to
send him outside in the cold night. So Benji had spent the night in
Grace’s room, and she hadn’t heard so much as a whine from him.
Annie bent to pet him, and he wagged his tail. “Poor guy,” she
said. “We’ll need to go out and get things he needs. You know,
until we find his owner.” Benji licked Annie’s hand.

“Right,” Grace said with a
nod. “You seem like you’re in a good mood today.”

Annie smiled. “I just want
to have a little fun with the kids. They’re growing up so
fast.”

“Yes they are,” Grace
agreed. “And I’m glad. I’m sure it makes the kids happy too, to see
you happy.”

“Is it so obvious that I’ve
been unhappy?” Annie asked.

“Just busy,” Grace said.
“Stressed. I didn’t mean….” she waved her hand. “I didn’t mean
anything derogatory, dear.”

“I know,” Annie
said.

But Grace’s sentiment about
her being unhappy gave Annie a hollow feeling that was more than
just her need for breakfast. Had her stress been stressing out
everyone in her family?

Back inside, Benji gulped
all the bacon from the breakfast sandwiches, and then Annie cooked
a frozen hamburger patty to tide him over until they could get him
proper dog food.

“We’ll get you some
vittles,” Grace said to Benji. He gobbled the meat in minutes and
sat down near Grace with a sigh of satisfaction.

Angel the cat wandered in
and sniffed at the dish where Benji had devoured his
hamburger.

“There you are, sweet
kitty,” Grace said.

“Sweet kitty?!” Annie and
Hannah said together.

“Oh, you should have seen
it,” Grace said, holding up her hand into a picture frame. “Last
night, Benji walked over to Angel where she was lying on her bed,
just to say hello, and
that cat got up and
let Benji lie down on it
! I still can’t
believe it. She’s not such a bad cat after all.” Grace leaned
forward to direct her comments to Angel. “But if you even try to
escape and put this family through anguish again, I’ll grab your
royal furriness and you’ll be sorry.”

Lon finally came into the
kitchen, his hair like wings over his ears and his golden whiskers
making his face appear to shine. Benji stood up, looked at Lon, and
wagged his tail. “Everybody’s up!” he said. “Even the
dog.”

“Dad,” Ryder called. “Glad
you’re awake. Mom and Grandma are getting weird. And we have
donuts.”

Lon squeezed his eyes shut
and opened them again. He patted Benji on the head. “Sounds like a
fun start to the day.”