The Moment Keeper (26 page)

Love, Mom

Olivia closes her eyes and whispers, “I forgive you, Mom.”

Olivia finds the heart pendant Bryan had given me and the Ace of Hearts Tom had retrieved from the pool of blood. Then she lifts out the black Bible and runs her thin fingers over my name embossed in gold on the front. “My mom’s name was Sarah,” Olivia sobs. She flips through the Bible and finds the red carnation tucked between pages at first Corinthians, chapter thirteen, verse thirteen. She reads the verse that I highlighted in pink so many years ago. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

The last thing she finds is a faded fortune – wrinkled, torn and taped. She reads it out loud. “Your dreams will come true.”

And for the first time in a long time, Olivia has hope that they will.

I want to do something to show Olivia and Tom and Elizabeth that I’m there, so I focus on surrounding them in a blanket of warmth. I concentrate on wrapping them in my energy and hold it as long as I can.

They glance in my direction all at once and I see their surprised looks and I know that they feel my presence. That they know that I’m there.

“Do you see that?” Olivia asks. “That sort of glow over there.”

Elizabeth and Tom don’t take their eyes off of where I stand. “Yeah,” they say in unison. “We see it.”

And I know that it’s me they’re talking about. That it’s me they feel. That it’s a moment they will never forget. And neither will I.

Epilogue

7 months later

Cole bends down to tie his shoe and spots a dime heads up on the parking lot at the club. He picks it up and slips it into his pocket. They are going to dinner to celebrate Cole’s graduation and acceptance into the local university. The past seven months have been a tornado of action, from dealing with Cole’s pissed off parents — who refused to join them for dinner — to Olivia coming to terms with her future in dance.

To be honest, the moments haven’t all been happy. Some have been extremely difficult and challenging. Others heartbreaking.

There’s Cole’s acceptance that he doesn’t have his parents’ blessing and probably never will. They can’t get past their anger even though he’s going to college, just as they’d always hoped he would, to study medicine. He wants to be a doctor like Tom.

Olivia has had to rethink her plans too, but she finally feels good about her new path. She plans to earn a bachelor of arts in dance education and hopes to open a dance studio one day. Both she and Tom can get their degrees locally while living with Olivia’s parents, who will help with the baby.

Olivia’s year has been full of whispers behind her back, people pointing when they think she isn’t looking and judging her without knowing anything about the situation. But she’s been strong and has discovered that true friends, like Lexie, don’t abandon you.

Tom and Elizabeth have spent the last seven months making plans, turning the spare bedroom into a beautiful nursery for the grandson they can’t wait to hold. Now, it’s a matter of waiting for that moment when the new little life will join theirs. And me, well, I’m recording the moments, more anxious than ever to meet my grandson for the first time.

Cole wraps his arm around Olivia as they sit on the couch and touches her belly mountain with his other hand. “Think Zach will like playing baseball?”

Olivia smiles. “Maybe he’ll be a dancer.”

Cole squirms. “Uh, I’d rather have him play baseball. Or football.”

Olivia jabs him with her elbow. “Hey. There are a lot of football players who take ballet in the off season. Helps them maintain their balance, strength and flexibility. So I wouldn’t knock it if I were you.”

“Maybe, but…”

“Uh!” Olivia sits up. “I felt something.”

“Omigod! Is it time? Do you think it’s time?” Cole gets up.

Olivia bends over. “Get Mom.”

Cole finds Elizabeth and Tom sitting on the patio and when they return Olivia is in a fetal position on the floor and moaning.

Tom examines Olivia while Elizabeth times the contractions.

“I felt water trickle down my leg,” Olivia says.

“Is she going to be all right?” Cole asks.

“Get the bag, Cole. We’re going to the hospital.”

I’ve never been so afraid for Olivia. I know she’s in a lot of pain because I feel it, too. I remember how my mother died giving birth to me and I pray that God will bring Olivia through childbirth and that her son will be healthy.

“Can’t we just go through the red light if there’s no one at the intersection?” Cole asks. He’s sitting in the backseat with Olivia and she’s doubled over in pain. “If a cop stops us, we can just tell him we’re having a baby.”

Tom glances back at Olivia, looks every way to make sure no cars are coming, then puts his four-way flashers on and speeds through the red light. When they get to the hospital, Olivia is whisked away and the moments come so fast I have to really focus on capturing them and not getting distracted.

“When I say ‘push’, Olivia, push,” the doctor says.

Elizabeth is on one side of Olivia and Cole is on the other.

Tears stream down Cole’s face. “I’m so sorry, Lib. So sorry I put you through this.”

Olivia looks at him and manages a smile. “Go ahead. Watch your son being born.”

Cole kisses her hand and goes down to the end of the bed.

“Now, push!” the doctor says.

“I see his head, Lib. He’s almost here,” Cole says.

Elizabeth squeezes Olivia’s hand and I send all the energy I can, wrapping them in love and warmth.

“Push,” the doctor says again. “Just one more big push and that’s all we need.”

Olivia bears down and pushes as hard as she can and a beautiful bloody body with ten fingers and toes — none of them webbed — slides out into the doctor’s waiting arms.

“Is he all right?” Olivia cries.

“He’s perfect, Lib,” says Cole as he cuts the umbilical cord.

It’s then that I notice the strawberry-blond hair glued to his tiny head and I wonder.

I feel him before I see him. Bryan’s beside the baby, looking down. A loving warmth radiates from his moment-keeper body. And I know that he didn’t abandon me. That there was no way for him to reach me – until now.

CARINA™

ISBN: 978 1 472 05477 7

THE MOMENT KEEPER

Copyright © Buffy Andrews 2013

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