Moments in Time

Widowed

“I’m very sorry, Mrs. Regan. There wasn’t anything we could do.”

Moira nodded, feeling numb. A massive heart attack had just taken her husband Lewis. Where would the money come from to support them, without his wage? What about the hospital bill? And the funeral?

And how would she raise their children without him? Deirdre, at fourteen, was quite a handful. Little Billy, their surprise late addition, was only two. How would he know what it is to be a good man without a father to show him?

“I’ll make it work,” she promised herself. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

The Aftermath

A few inches, Moira Regan mused, as she shivered on the dock. She rubbed at her injured shoulder. If I’d been just a little to the left, Deirdre and Billy would have been orphans.

She closed her eyes as a covered stretcher was carried past. Who might that have been? she wondered. She glanced around at her colleagues, trying to identify the deceased by elimination. The pleasure boat trip was supposed to have been a celebration of the big contract they had just finished. Instead, it had left how many dead? She didn’t know, yet.

It could have been me.

The Boyfriend

“Where do you think you’ve been, young lady?” Moira demanded, as her seventeen-year-old daughter tried to sneak into the apartment.

Deirdre shrugged. “Around.” After a moment, she added, “I’ve been at the movies. With Tim.”

Something in that defiant face caused Moira to pause. “You’ve just got to tell me, next time. I’m not trying to ruin your fun. I just need to know where you are.”

The girl nodded and fled to her room.

Moira sat in her chair and contemplated this development. She smiled faintly. Something told her they would be seeing a lot more of Tim Mangan.

Shotgun Wedding

“Would you stand still?” Moira snapped, while dropping pins everywhere. “How you expect me to fix this with you wriggling all the time I don’t know!”

Deirdre wiped a tear from her eye, trying not to smudge her make-up. “It fit on Tuesday. I don’t know why it doesn’t now. I’m going to be late.”

Moira sighed. Heaven knew that Deirdre was not so naïve as to not know why her middle was expanding. “There’s worse things than being late. And worse than the start you’re getting. It’s going to be okay.”

She made the last stitch. Deirdre was ready.

Almost-twins

“He says I’m pregnant. Again!” Deirdre declared, while baby Daniel screamed in her ear. “If you’d taken that job, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Tim Mangan wearily rubbed his eyes. “If your mother wasn’t helping us, I wouldn’t have had a choice whether to take it. So surely that means it’s her fault and not mine.”

His weak joke fell flat and Deirdre burst into noisy tears.

Tim folded his whole family into his arms. “We’ll be okay, darling,” he assured Deirdre. “And, because I didn’t take that job, I’ll be around to help.”

“You’d better.”

He smiled, pulling her closer.

Administrative Error

Tim smiled at Deirdre as he arrived home from work. “How did their first day at the new school go?”

His wife shrugged. “It could have been better. Ellie’s happy, but Dan is in a temper.”

“Still?”

She nodded. “There’s been some kind of mix-up and they’ve put them in the same grade. Ellie’s grade.”

He whistled. “Are you going to do something about it?”

She bit her lip. “I’ve told him he’ll have to deal with it.” She hurried to explain. “He’s been struggling so much; I think this will help him. It’ll be easier this way.”

He agreed.

Tragedy

“Yes?” Deirdre greeted the police officers, while five-year-old Dan and four-year-old Ellie fought in the background.

“Mrs. Mangan?” the younger officer asked. “May we come in?”

Heart suddenly in her throat, Deirdre nodded, opening the door wider. “Kids, go and play in the bedroom,” she ordered.

They heard the sharp note in her voice and ran off with worried looks.

“We’re sorry to inform you that there’s been an accident…”

And that was the end of the dream. Tim wasn’t coming home.

When they’d gone, she snatched up the phone.

“Mom?” she asked. “I need you.”

“I’m coming,” Moira replied.

Bill’s Dilemma

Moira eyed her son. “What’s the problem?”

Bill held up an open letter. “It’s a job offer. In Saratoga.”

Her heart lurching from pride to dread and back again, Moira asked, “Are you taking it?”

He did not answer at once, but she could see the longing in his face. “You need my help with the kids.”

She could not argue with that. Her bad back troubled her more with every passing year. But with Deirdre so sick, what else could she do?

“I’ll manage. I always do.”

He shook his head. “There’ll be other jobs. You need me here.”

Grief

A single tear trickled down Moira’s cheek as she stood before the modest grave marker. So young, she reflected. Tim had been twenty-six when he died six years ago. Now Deirdre had died aged thirty-one, leaving children aged ten and eleven.

Moira had outlived her husband, her son-in-law and, now, her beloved only daughter. She’d never felt so alone.

No time to be bitter about it, she told herself. You’ve got two children to raise and a son who still needs his mother, even if he’s nineteen and doesn’t think so.

She left the cemetery. Grief would have to wait.

Rebellion

“You can’t tell me what to do! You’re not my Dad!”

The bedroom door slammed behind Dan, leaving Bill staring at it, utterly perplexed.

“Leave him be,” Bill’s mother advised him. “I expect someone’s said something unpleasant to him at school. He’ll come out when he’s ready.”

“I wasn’t like that, was I?” he asked, sinking down beside her on the sofa.

She shook her head. “But you weren’t in the custody of your grandmother and uncle, either.”

“I can’t be his father figure,” Bill blurted. “I’m not old enough.”

Moira squeezed his hand. “I know. But we’ll find someone.”

Discouragement

Bill’s shoulders sagged whenever he thought his mother wasn’t watching. Over the last few days, she’d become convinced that something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Grandma?”

Moira turned and put on a smile for her granddaughter. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Ellie’s eyes strayed after her uncle. “You tell me.”

Silently, Moira sighed. At twelve, the child could not be expected to understand the kind of things that Bill might be upset about. “I think he’s disappointed about something,” she admitted. “But I don’t know what.”

“Did he knock back the job?”

“What job?” Moira’s heart sank.

Snitch

Honey Wheeler’s eyes filled with tears, as she watched events on the opposite hill. She stamped her foot. “I hate him!”

Beside her, Trixie nodded grimly. “He didn’t need to do that! Poor Jim. What’s going to happen to him now, do you think?”

Her new friend shrugged. “He might get sent back to that horrible Jonesy. How I wish that my father was here! And that he’d never hired Mr. Brooks to be our groom. I hate to even go in the stables.”

Trixie cast a disappointed look in that direction. If only they had a more understanding groom!

Waiting

The plain, beige room seemed to close in on Jim as he waited to know his fate. The skin on his back crawled every time he thought of what Jonesy would do if they sent him back.

The door opened and Jim shot to his feet.

“You can’t send me back,” he begged the officer. “Please. I’ll do anything, just don’t let him near me.”

“I don’t have any say in that, kid,” Officer Webster answered. “You’ll be in foster care for the night. We’ve heard from a lawyer who wants to see you, but can’t be here until tomorrow.”

Adoption

Honey’s breath came in puffs as she tore down the hill to Crabapple Farm. “You’ll never guess what’s happened,” she declared to Trixie, the instant she arrived.

“Is this about Jim?”

Honey nodded vigorously. “I told you I called Daddy? Well, he knew Jim’s Dad and when he heard what happened, he called the lawyer and it turns out that he knows him, too, and it’s all settled and I can’t believe it’s really happening and isn’t this the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to us?”

“But what’s settled?”

“Mother and Daddy are adopting Jim! We’ll be a family.”

The Derelict House

“What am I supposed to do with it?” Jim asked, as he and the man who was going to adopt him stood before the old house at Ten Acres.

Matt looked up at the neglected building with a speculative eye. “I think you’d do best to restore it. It must have been a beautiful house, once.”

Jim looked from his new Dad to the house and back again. He gulped. “I haven’t a clue where to begin.”

Matt clapped him over the shoulder. “We’ll start by getting it inspected. I’ll get that arranged and then we can make some plans.”

A Second Chance

A thunderous expression marred Matt’s face as he stormed into the house. The nerve of the man! Treating the horses that way. Endangering Honey like that. It was all he could do to stop himself from throttling Brooks on the spot.

“Marge!” he bellowed.

Her footsteps hurried towards him. “What’s wrong?”

“First aid in the stables, please. Then we’re terminating Brooks’ employment. After that, get me the number of that young redhead we interviewed in the summer.” He scowled more deeply, as she rushed away to do those things. “Whatever the obstacle was, we’ll find a way to overcome it.”

Sharing the News

“He’s not going to be happy,” Bill predicted. “And he’s going to blame me.”

His mother patted his arm. “If he wanted to stay with his friends, he shouldn’t have gotten in so much trouble.”

She had the young teens sit on the sofa. “Your uncle has a new job and we have the chance to go with him,” she explained. “I think we’re going to take the opportunity, but I wanted to talk to you both first.”

As she detailed the new situation, Ellie’s eyes shone, but Dan glowered.

“I’m in.” Ellie turned to Dan. “You’ll like it there.”

Moving Day

Dan frowned as his uncle hefted the last box of Dan’s belongings and carted it down to the waiting vehicle. He didn’t want to move. But everyone else did and he just had to go with them. No one ever listened to what Dan wanted. No one cared.

Ellie’s voice broke into his gloomy reflections. “You can start skating again.”

“Don’t want to.”

She shrugged. “We’ll probably get to exercise the horses, to help Uncle Bill.” When he didn’t answer, she added, “You’ll get a room to yourself.”

“Stop being so cheerful. It’s irritating.”

Ellie just stuck out her tongue.

The Mouth

“I hear that you’re an almost-twin,” the blond boy beside Dan mentioned. “I am similarly afflicted.”

Dan frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Mart pointed to the blonde on the horse. “My sister is eleven months younger than me.”

“Same grade?”

He shook his head.

“Lucky you.”

Mart appeared surprised. “I thought you’d be in some of my classes, since we’re about the same age.”

“There was some weird mistake four schools ago.”

Mart spoke to the other boys. “Are you two up for a little tutoring? Dan needs to catch up a grade.”

“Sure.”

Maybe Sleepyside wasn’t so bad.

Bob-Whites

Honey hurried into the stables, her face lighting up when she saw Dan and Ellie. “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere. I wanted to come and tell you the good news right away.”

Ellie dropped the shovel she’d been using. “What good news?”

“We’ve voted and it’s unanimous: we want to invite both of you to join. Our club, I mean; the Bob-Whites of the Glen. We help other people and have lots of fun and we’re all one big happy family together. So, what do you say?”

“We’re in.” Ellie grinned.

“We are?”

Ellie laughed. “Yes, we are.”

The End

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