All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (32 page)

"Sure!" Doug replied. "Do you mind if
we stop by my house to pick up our costumes?"

"That would be wonderful. I'll get a chance to
meet your mom again."

Doug’s house was
a little two story home with an immaculate front lawn. There were flower beds
surrounding and a big tree in the front yard. "Mom loves her gardens. Next
summer you should come see the back yard. Dad doesn't complain because it cuts
down on what we have to mow. I complain because she makes us weed it with her. She
plants flowers out here and then the whole back yard is filled with vegetables.
Then, s
he starts canning in late summer
and doesn't stop until all the apples have fallen out of the tree and the
pumpkins are all gone.

He got out of the car and ran up the front steps,
opening the door and yelling, "Mom! Mom! Polly and Billy are here with me.
I need those robes. We're going to be Jedi Knights!"

The short, little lady from Lydia's party came up from
the basement.
"Stop your yelling, Doug. This house isn't big
enough for that mouth. I can hear you."

"Hi, Polly
!
” she said. “
So,
my boy isn't making you terribly crazy staying all these nights with you?"

"Oh, I love having him there,” Polly assured her.
“
He and Billy clean up after themselves and are great
fun to have around."

"It's b
een
awfully quiet with him gone,” Helen lamented.
“
Just me,
Frank, Sue and Junior."

Polly looked sideways at Doug.
"Junior?
You only told me about your sister."

He started laughing. "Oh, Junior is the dog. Mom
named him Frank
after
Frank Sinatra. The dog howls all the time. Dad wasn't
too
fond of the dog having his name, too
, so she started calling him Frank Junior and then it
just became Junior."

"I guess that makes perfect sense, then!"
Polly smiled at Helen Randall. "Well
,
I do appreciate him
and it seems to keep
everyone from worrying too much about me being there by myself."

"I knew someday he'd move all the way out, so
maybe this is good training for us." Helen Randall looked up at her son,
"So, what were you screeching about when you came in the front door?"

"Polly has to go over to the Merritt's tonight
and we're going to be Jedi Knights and take care of her trick-or-treaters. Do
you have those robes we had to wear for the church pageant?" He turned to
Polly. "We were shepherds. We were the best shepherds ever,” then rolled
his eyes.

"
Everything
is
downstairs in the storage room. You
should be able to find the tub marked costumes. There will probably be some
ties in there as well."

Doug and Billy took off at a dead run down the steps.

"Someday he'll quit moving so fast, but I hav
e no idea when that will happen,” she said and
gestured to the sofa. “
Come on in and sit
down. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, thank you. We just came from the diner. Doug
and Billy took me out to breakfast to say thanks for letting them have game
night at the school last night. They're such good kids."

"They are good kids. We worried some when they
were in high school, but whatever
strange
phase
s
they
were in
always went away,” she said.
“Jerry Allen
is good to them and they enjoy working for him. That's really helped."

Doug and Billy came back up the stairs. "We found
them. Thanks mom."

"Did you put everything back the way you found
it?"
she asked.

"Of course I did. You'd have my hide otherwise,
wouldn't you?" He laughed and bent over to k
iss his mother on the forehead, then said,
"Are you ready to go, Polly? We've got things to
do!"

Polly smiled at Helen, "I guess we've got thin
gs to do! I'll see you later."

They left the house and spent the next half hour
driving around Bellingwood, while Billy and Doug pointed out things that had
been important to them when they were younger. She saw the ball fields and
drove past the cemetery. They drove around the elementary school and past a few
homes that had belonged to teachers the boys had enjoyed. They told her stories
about climbing the water tower and spray painting it, then having to climb back
up and clean it.

When they got back to the school, Doug asked if it
would be alright if they took off for a while.

"Sure," said Polly. "I think I'll be
safe in my own place for a little while."

"We're going over to Henry's to see if he'll make
us some wooden light sabers. Then we're going to get fluorescent spray paint
for the blades and black paint for the handles. These are going to be
epic!"
he
declared.

She unlocked the front door as they roared out of the
parking lot. She leaned against it and surveyed her surroundings. Even with
everything
happening around her, this was a pretty nice little place to live. She shut and
locked the door, then went upstairs. All of a sudden weariness took over. The
boys would be gone for a while and she had time for a nap. That would be
perfect.

Polly walked into her room, kicked off her shoes and
plopped down on top of the bedding. She looked at
the clock. 1:30. Yep. Perfect. The next time she looked at the clock
it was 3:15 and there was laughter and clattering coming from downstairs. She
went to the midpoint of the stairs and looked over into the hallway.

Billy and Doug were waving their arms in an apparent
fake light saber battle. They were both wearing brown robes with ties pulled
around their waists. Two freshly painted light
sabers were drying on newsprint
off to the side. They actually looked pretty good. The fluorescent paint made
them shimmer in the light. She shook her head.

"Nice looking weaponry there, boys."

They stopped dancing around each other and looked up. "I
know! Henry did a great job once we told him what we wanted. We had to run to
Boone to get the paint, and there might be some sprayed on your grass outside. I
hope that's alright," Billy said.

"Sure. That's great. They do look awesome. I'm
going to take a shower and then I'll be down. Are you
guys
hungry yet?"

"We ate at T
aco
John’s in Boone. We're good,” Doug replied.

"Alright.
I'll be down in a while."

Polly took a shower and put on some fresh jeans and a
nice blouse. She pulled her hair back into a braid,
then
checked her phone. There were no more calls. Then,
she grabbed her laptop and headed down the steps. The guys were back at it,
perfecting their moves, she supposed. They followed her into the kitchen.

"Thank
s for
letting us do this,” Billy said. “
We'll
be the talk of the town once people see our awesome costumes. That was a great
idea!"

"Here is all of the candy I've got," and she
opened the cupboard. There were several bags of various types of candy.
"Use whatever you want and when you run out, then I guess you run out."

"We don't have that many kids in town,"
Billy said. "I think we'll be fine."

"Then, eat whatever you want to eat." She
opened the freezer and pulled a shepherd's pie casserole out
,
then set it
insid
e the oven to begin defrosting and
the boys wandered back out into the hallway.

She walked over to the table an
d sat down, opening her laptop.
There was an email from her friend Drea. It had been
sent Thursday night.

"Polly, I just heard Joey is looking for you. Girl,
I think he's gone off the deep end. You know that little twit at the library? She
found MY number and called me because she knew we were friends. She told me
that he had her doing some research and it was all
about you. She was checking public records in Boone County, Iowa for the
building you bought.

Let me know that you're okay and he hasn't gotten
to you. I'll send my brothers out there if I have to! Take care of yourself."

Polly replied:

"Do
n't
worry about your
brothers,
I've got a lot
of people out here who think they are responsible for the care and keeping of
my skin. But, thank you.

"I'm going to get hold of my old supervisor
and get that little twit fired, though. How dare she use her job at the library
to help someone stalk
me.
It wasn't enough that she broke into the supervisor's
office and searched my file to get my old phone number, but now this?

"He is here in Iowa. We kind of had it out
last night, but I managed to record some of his
rantings
and one of my friends here is the Sheriff, so tell your brothers not to worry
too much. This time the law is in my pocket.

"Love you! I'll call you next week sometime. Polly."

She checked the rest of her email and there was
nothing else needing her attention
, and
she
wandered ar
ound the internet for a while. Her stomach rumbled
,
so
she got up to make some toast. She buttered her toast,
shook some cinnamon sugar on it, pulled a Diet Dew from the bottom shelf of the
cooler and sat back down. One other item in her email was the one she sent to
herself last night with the phone numbers from Joey's phone. The first number
was his mother's cell phone. Without giving it any extra thought, she dialed
the number and was surprised to hear the woman's voice answer the call.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Delancy? This is Polly Giller."

"Yes, dear.
What can I do for you today?"

"Mrs. Delancy, did
you know I've moved to Iowa?"

"
I heard
that, dear
. I didn't know
why, though
. Is
everything alright?"

"Mrs. Delancy, one of the reasons I moved to Iowa
was to get away from your son. Did you know he was obsessed with me?"

"Oh, Polly dear,” Polly could hear the disgust in
the woman’s voice.
“
I'm sure that
isn't true. I know he went through something with you last spring, but he is
certainly over that by now. He has many other things in his life to occupy his
time.
So many important things."

"Alright, so you didn't know. Well, Mrs. Delancy,
your son is in Iowa trying to get me to come back to Boston."

"
T
hat's a great idea, Polly. You had a terrific job here
in Boston and great friends and you were a good companion to Joseph. His father
and I like you very much."

Polly put her head in her hands. This woman was as
delusional as her son.

"Mrs. Dela
ncy.
Your son is threatening me and I might need your assistance.
I do not want to return to Boston. I want to stay
here and I want him to go away and leave me alone."

"I'm not sure why you are telling me this. You
should be talking to him about
it
. For goodness' sake, Joseph is an adult now. I don't
have any influence over him. If you don't want him around, why don't you say
that to him?"

"I said that to him many times last spring and he
wouldn't leave me alone. He assaulted a patron of the library and when I broke
up with him, he refused to acknowledge that it was real. He
asked
a girl at
the library to
find
out where I lived so he could come out here and drag
me back to Boston. He didn't ask if he could come, he didn't even bother to
tell me he was coming. He
just
showed up and now is telling me that he waited his
entire life for me and I'm going to be the mother of his children."

"Polly. You'd make a great mother to our
grandchildren. You're a very bright and pretty girl. We enjoyed having you at
the various functions you have attended with him."

"You're not listening to me. Your son is in
denial. He's going to do something bad and get himself into terrible trouble. Are
you paying any attention to me at all?"

"Dear, I'm sure you think you know what is going
on and I'm also sure you are wrong. Joseph may have some anger issues, but he
has assured me those are all behind him. He'd be a great catch for you. You
might not want to let him come back here without you. He could change your
life."

"Mrs. Delancy, I don't even know what to say to
you at this point."