All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (51 page)

"No, it's fine. Bring on the trees. I'll get
people here to start working on this. Is there anything else I'm supposed to
do?"

"I think I've got the rest of it. The string
quartet and guitar duo, which will play Christmas carols all evening, are
scheduled." he said. "By the way, have you heard anyone in town
talking about this? I've got flyers all over town and the newspaper is running
a short article tomorrow."

"It seems like everyone is talking about it, so I
think the place is going to be packed. The whole town wants to see the school,
and I'm afraid it might be a little crazy."

Andrew stirred on the cot and sat up, rubbing his
eyes. Polly walked over and handed him the remote to the television. She
assumed this made her a terrible parent, but things were going too quickly for
her to manage all the niceties of parenting.

"Just a second, Jeff," she said as she
checked on the bedroom once more.

"What's going on there, Polly?"

"Oh, you wouldn't even believe it," she
said. "While you were running around Ames and Des Moines yesterday, I
became a home for wayward children."

"What exactly does that mean? How many kids do
you have there?" he asked.

"Five," she said as she walked back to the
kitchen. Polly told him about the events of yesterday and he moaned.

"Well, I guess that will teach me to be out of
touch with you for a day," he said. "What are you going to do with
all these kids?"

"Hopefully their parents will be back by tonight.
But, don't worry, I'll still round up help to decorate the trees," Polly
said.

"Alright," he responded. "I'll be there
when the deliveries start coming in. You go be a mommy, now, alright?" he
teased.

"Thanks for your support," Polly laughed. "I'll
see you later."

Jason had come back in with Obiwan, who was jumping up
on Polly's legs as she ended the call with Jeff.

"Okay, okay!" she said. "I'll get food
for you! Patience, my little Obiwan, patience!"

Jason was standing at the counter. "I think it’s
totally cool that you named him Obiwan. Do you like Star Wars?"

"Do I like Star Wars?" Polly laughed out
loud. "I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've watched the
original trilogy. Hey! Do you guys want to watch it this morning? I'm always up
for a little Luke Skywalker!"

She walked over to a bookshelf and pulled out her Star
Wars videos. "Here," she said to Jason as she handed him a disk. "This
is the version originally shown in 1977. There are no strange updates to it. Han
shot first."

He looked at her quizzically.

"Oh, never mind. Just put it in the player."
Polly peeked in the bedroom again to see Emma looking at her. She whispered to
the little girl, "Are you ready to be awake?"

Emma's stage whisper seemed loud enough to wake the
dead, "I am, but Sammy said he doesn't want to get up yet."

"Is Sammy awake, too?" Polly asked.

"He's hiding it, but, he's awake."

Polly whispered back, "We're watching Star Wars
out here, do you want to come out in your jammies and watch it with us?"

Sammy jumped up, "I love Star Wars! I watch that
all the time with Bruce!"

"Come on out," Polly said. She pulled the
blanket off the end of the bed and looked in at the baby. Tyler was still
sleeping.

"Be very quiet so you don't wake Tyler up,"
she whispered. The two children tiptoed out of the room and once they broke the
threshold, ran to the sofa. She carried the blanket over to them and tucked it
around them, including Andrew in the crowd. Obiwan had seen all of the activity
and jumped up on the couch, landing on Emma and Sammy's laps. They laughed as
he ran across them to lick Andrew in the face. He finally settled down beside
Andrew, and Jason tucked himself in on the other side of the dog. Polly’s heart
could hardly stand it. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and clicked
a couple of pictures. This was definitely a memory she wanted to keep.

Once breakfast was ready, Polly pried the kids away
from the movie so they could eat at the table, then sent them scurrying to get
dressed for the day. Tyler finally woke up and she gathered him into her arms
as she fed him breakfast. Soon, everyone was dressed and ready to go. There was
a knock at the front door and all of the kids looked at her expectantly.

"Go ahead!" she laughed. "One of you
get
the door!"

Lydia and Andy came in behind Sammy and Emma, who had
raced for the entryway.
"Good morning, everyone!"
Lydia said. "We're going to steal you away for
the day so Polly can get some work done."

"Where are we going?" Emma asked.

"How would you like to go see a train?"
Lydia said.

"I love trains!" Sammy exclaimed.

"That's great, because we're going to go ride a
Christmas train today. Someone told me that Santa might show up, too! What do
you think about that?"

Jason and Andrew sat on the couch, not saying a word.

"Oh, boys," Lydia exclaimed. "You're
going too. Don't worry. We wouldn't leave you out!" Both of their faces
lit up.

Lydia went on. "Your mom will be here in a few
minutes and we'll all drive down to see the train. She decided you could take
the day off from school. Do you know where your winter coats are? Go get '
em
!"

Emma and Sammy dashed into the bedroom as Lydia came
over to take the baby from Polly's arms. She said to Polly, "Aaron says
you need to get down to the courthouse in Boone this morning if you're going to
bail them out."

"Oh, Lydia, thank you!"
Polly said, then remembered something and cried, “Oh
no. Jeff has Christmas stuff showing up here in a couple of hours."

"Why in the world did you hire him if you can't
trust him to take care of it?" Lydia asked. "Call him and tell him
you're busy. He's a smart boy. He'll manage fine without you."

Polly called Jeff and told him what was happening. He
assured her that he would take care of everything. As soon as Sylvie showed up,
the three women got the children all packed into cars and took off for the
train in Boone. Polly changed into something a little more professional, spent
a few minutes looking at the map online for the County Courthouse, then took
off, not knowing at all what would come next, but hoping someone would steer
her the right way.

By one o'clock that afternoon, Polly was on her way
home with Bruce and Hannah McKenzie in her truck.

"Polly, I can't thank you enough," Bruce had
said over and over.

"Don't worry about it, Bruce. We'll get this
figured out," she replied.

"How are my kids?" Hannah had asked the
moment they were out of the courtroom.

"They're doing fine. I've probably let them watch
way too much television, but otherwise they're fine. A couple of older boys I
know came over yesterday and spent the night with us in the apartment and I
think Sammy had a great time with them. They love my dog and everyone slept
well.

"Lydia, the wife of Sheriff Merritt, took
everyone down to the Santa train today. I don't know if they'll be back when we
get there, but I texted her to let her know you guys were going to be with me
at Sycamore House." Polly had come up with everything she could to assure
Hannah McKenzie that her kids were alright.

"They miss you guys, but they're safe and
healthy," she said.

"Polly," Bruce said after a lengthy silence.
"I need you to believe that neither Hannah nor I know anything about those
drugs in the car. I have no idea how they got there. I don't want you to think
we'd ever expose those kids to something like that."

"That's fine, Bruce," Polly replied.
"It's not up to me."

"No, really, Polly," he said, "You have
to believe me. Someone has to believe me!"

"Sheriff Merritt is the most fair, honorable men
I've ever met, Bruce. If there is any proof that you didn't do this, he'll find
it. So, don't worry about what you can't fix today. Let's figure out what is
going to happen next. Are you going to call your Dad?" she asked.

"
Gah
!" he spat.
"I can't imagine what he’ll say when he hears this. He's never going to
let me work for him. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he won't even let me
see Mom." His shoulders slumped and Hannah reached over and put her hand
on his knee. He covered it with his own hand.

"This has been the worst year,” he said. “First
Hannah lost her job when Tyler was sick. Then, my hours were cut. We lost
everything.
The house, the car.
Everything.
I scraped enough money together to buy an old beater
and pay for food and gas to get out here. We packed up the clothes we had left
and started driving.
And now this."

If his shoulders could have
slumped
any lower, they did.

Polly started to open her mouth to say something,
closed it and thought to herself, "I'm in for the whole thing, I
guess."

Then she said out loud, "I have a room at
Sycamore House. You and Hannah and the kids can stay until you figure out your
next steps. It's Christmastime and you don't need to be homeless when I can put
you up. This is all going to work out. It has to!"

Rain had begun falling when Polly pulled up to
Sycamore House and parked beside Henry's truck. She wished it was snow, but
temperatures weren’t supposed to fall for another day or so. When she and the
McKenzies walked in the front door, the scent of pine filled the room, making
it feel more and more like Christmas.

"Welcome to Sycamore House!" Polly said. "You're
my first guests! Let's take your stuff upstairs and then I'll show you around
the place." They followed her up the steps and she wasn't surprised to see
a large tree standing in the hall between the two bathrooms. She was, however,
surprised to see Henry walk out of her apartment.

"Hi Henry.
Umm, what are you doing?"

"Hi Polly," he snickered. "We had an
extra tree, so we found a place for it in your apartment. I think you'll like
it."

"Okay,” she said. “Henry, these are friends of
mine, Bruce and Hannah McKenzie. They're going to be spending a couple of
nights in the room across the hall." Henry strode over to them and put his
hand out to shake Hannah's hand, then Bruce's.

"Welcome to Bellingwood," he said. "You'll
like it here."

"Henry did all of the woodwork in the
place," Polly remarked. Hannah and Bruce both looked around in awe.

"Nice work!" Bruce said.

"Oh, I had a lot of help," Henry said. "And
Polly lets me get away with doing what I want to do. It’s a fun job."

He started to walk away, then turned and said. "We've
nearly got all the trees standing up and some of the guys are hanging wreaths
on doors. It's getting pretty festive, around here! Nice to meet you guys. Hope
to see you at the party Saturday night."

Henry walked down the steps as Polly led the McKenzies
to the front room. She opened the door and said, "I'm sorry it isn't
finished. There's still a lot to do here. I have a bed in there and that's
about it. The two bathrooms at the end of the hallway are both open and ready
to go, though. You can have your pick. I don't use either of them. My apartment
is on the other side there,” and she pointed to the entry way across the hall.

As they went into the room, Hannah sighed, "This
is wonderful, Polly. Thank you so much. I can't believe you are doing this for
us."

"Well, you've got three adorable children and
they should have fun right now rather than worrying about where they're going
to sleep. They're scared enough as it is, so it's probably just as well they'll
stay somewhere familiar for a couple of nights."

"Polly, I don't know how to thank you,"
Bruce echoed.

"Bruce, promise me you're sticking around and
going to work this out and I'll be fine," she responded. "Why don't
you guys take some time to settle
in.
Unpack your bags,
take a nap and I'll be back in a little bit to show you around the rest of the
place. Oh, and while you're here, I might put you to work helping me string
lights on all of these trees! I guess this party is going to happen whether I'm
ready or not!"