Wayward Paths and Golden Handcuffs

“How do you think?”

  Braedon smiled. “Wow. I’ll be back next week.”

  He thought of heading over to the Sunday school classrooms in the large building next door to the church to meet up with his wife and daughters, but realized that he didn’t know where they were. They’d probably be gone before he got there anyway. He’d just go home and tell his wife about his visit to the church.

  As he drove, he reflected on the sermon, focusing most closely on Paul and the apostles. “Heroes. True heroes. Brave and fearless.”

  A sense of peace soon came over him and he felt a calmness that he’d never felt before. The empty shell of a body he’d been occupying was empty no more.

  “Please forgive me Lord. I’ll change. I promise.”

  When he got home, he changed into his comfortable clothes and kicked off his shoes before strolling over to his favorite chair in the family room. A Bible in the bookshelf caught his eye, so he grabbed it just before sitting down.

  “They should be home any time now.”

  He couldn’t wait to see them to tell them about his day in the church. Couldn’t wait. And while he waited for them, he’d read a few Bible passages. So much learning to do.

  Chapter 19

  A Day at the Zoo

  After dinner that night, Tricia left to go back to the church to work on organizing charitable distributions to Guatemala. He wasn’t happy that she was gone and had left him alone with the girls, but he’d started to understand her interests in working with the church and helping others. She’d told him that she was happy to hear that he was in the church that morning and that she was bummed that she’d missed him. She’d taken time off from the choir to attend an important session of a Bible study on the book of Ephesians about marriage.

  “She’s doing all of the right things.”

  He sat in the reclining chair in the family room and watched his daughters, who were circling a coffee table in front of him in a game of tag. They were being a little too noisy, so he figured he’d try to get them to calm down.

  “Girls, wanna watch a movie? How about Shrek?”

  “Yeah!” Kaylee responded.

  “No,” Haley said in her tiny voice, “I don’t want to watch a movie. I play with my dolls.”

  “How about playing with your dolls here in the family room, while Kaylee and I watch the movie?”

  “Okay Daddy.” Haley went into her bedroom and collected her dolls and carried them into the family room, where she plopped them on the floor. She returned to her room and soon appeared in her doorway with her dollhouse. It was almost as big as she was and she was having a difficult time dragging it into the hallway.

  He got up from his chair and walked over towards her. “Haley, let me help you with that.” The doll house was a little heavy as he gripped it tightly and carried it from the hallway to the family room. It was another splurge from his wife, but spilt milk.

  “Try not to think about those things. Try not to think about money.”

  He knelt down to the ground and placed each of her dolls into a separate room of the dollhouse. “How about that, Haley?”

  “Thank you Daddy,” she said as she sat down in front of the doll house.

  He returned to his favorite chair and Kaylee crawled into his lap. Feeling comfortable and loved, he cuddled with his daughter and simultaneously flipped the channels to find the Shrek movie on his remote. Seconds later, Shrek and his sidekick donkey appeared on the flat screen television.

  “Yay,” Kaylee said.

  “Girls, do you want to go to the zoo tomorrow? I’ll take you out of daycare, if you want, to go to the zoo. We can look at zebras and elephants and snakes and monkeys.”

  “Yeah, Daddy,” Haley said as she jumped onto his lap next to her sister.

  “I wanna go too,” Kaylee said, “but I don’t like snakes.”

  “Well we can skip the snake exhibit. They have penguins and birds and kangaroos there too. Okay, it’s final then. Tomorrow we’ll go to the zoo. Maybe Mom will play hooky from school and join us.”

  ***

  The girls fell asleep in his lap, so he carried them into their bedroom and tucked them into their beds. He always enjoyed watching them sleeping, so peaceful and innocent. Quiet time. He returned to the family room to wait for his wife.

  “Why have I been so critical of her?” He thought. “She really isn’t that fat. Probably normal by societal standards. Just a little out of shape.”

  Braedon reminisced about his life and his upbringing, questioning his feelings on weight gain and obesity. His mom came to mind. When she had married his dad, she was probably a size two, appearing thin and radiant in their wedding photo. After she gave birth to Braedon, she was a bit larger, but still at a generally accepted weight for her height. Then she plumped up like a balloon. By the time Braedon was in high school, she’d topped 200 pounds. When he graduated, she’d reached 250.

  It had embarrassed him when she picked him up from school and his friends made fun of him. They made so many ‘your mama’ jokes that he could barely face them.

  She made him angry and resentful, so he’d asked her to avoid high school events, especially his graduation. She showed up anyway. He didn’t want her to show up for his college graduation either, but she did anyway. She never listened.

  “Why did she love food so much?” Baking and cooking were her hobbies, and eating was her passion. She ate at least six meals daily, supplemented by cookies, pies, and cakes. She never stopped eating and crunching and munching and grazing all day long. “How about a pizza for lunch?” She’d ask. “How about a pizza for dinner?” She’d order two pizzas, one for herself and the other for the family. Pizza made him sick to his stomach.

  “But she also loved me.” It wasn’t until his mid-twenties that he decided that he’d accept her as she was and love her unconditionally. But he’d also decided that he didn’t want to accept anyone else under the same circumstances, particularly the woman he married.

  But maybe Tricia wasn’t on the same obesity track. Maybe she was at a comfortable weight and would stay there for the rest of her life. Maybe he’d been overly critical of her and overly worried about her weight gain possibilities.

  The garage door opened. “Braedon, I’m home,” she called out as she entered the house.

  “Hi Trish. How was the church?”

  “Good, helped over a hundred kids in Guatemala tonight. They’re happy for that.”

  “That’s great Trish. I think I’ll start joining you. You’ve been setting such a good example for the kids and I’d like to be a good example too.”

  “What? Really?”

  “Yeah, I think you’re doing the right thing and I need to make a few changes in my life. Church is a good change. Next Sunday, I’ll join you. Maybe help you in Sunday school too. What do you think?”

  “Wow Braedon.”

  He looked at her as he waited for an additional sign of approval, but she was just staring at him. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, cuffed up under her knees, and an airy button-down cotton shirt. She looked casual, and somewhat fashionable. He noticed that she had eye makeup on, along with a bit of red lipstick and blush. Maybe she was starting to care a little more about her appearance. He didn’t know for sure.

  “Are you okay with that, Trish?”

  “Well, maybe in a month or so as far as Sunday school goes. They’ve set the schedule and the lessons, so I won’t need any help for a while.”

  “Okay, well, that’s cool,” he said.

  He studied her expression, which seemed a little cold. Maybe she was a little bitter about the way he’d treated her over the past few years. He’d need time to make up for that, but he’d do what he could. After all, she was his wife and the mother of his children and it was time he did things right.

  “Well, I’m going to hit the hay. I’m worn out,” she said as she started to turn around.

  “
Hey, Tricia.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You look nice tonight. How about joining me at the zoo tomorrow with the girls? Play hooky from school. I told them I’d take them out of the daycare to take them there. We’ll have a nice family day.”

  “No, I can’t do that. The comprehensive exams start tomorrow in the school. Sorry.”

  “No problem. I understand.”

  “Goodnight Braedon.”

  “Goodnight.”

  ***

  Braedon was prepared for a long day at the zoo. He put suntan lotion on the girls before leaving and dressed them in sundresses with comfortable sandals and floppy hats. He packed diapers and backup clothing too, in case either had accidents or something unexpected happened. With toddlers, backup clothing was a necessity. He’d also packed a small cooler with bottled waters, snacks, and sandwiches for the girls and planned to carry the cooler into the zoo in the bottom of the double stroller.

  He and his daughters arrived at the zoo at 8:30 a.m. on that relatively cool, sunny Monday morning. Braedon wheeled the girls in the stroller through the parking lot and up to the ticketing agents where he paid for an annual family pass. The pass was on sale that week, and he considered the price quite a bargain for unlimited attendance over the coming year.

  “Where do you want to go first, girls? If we go left, we’ll see the monkeys. If we go right, we’ll see the giraffes.”

  “Giraffes,” Haley said.

  “No monkeys,” Kaylee said.

  “We’ll flip a coin. If it lands on heads, we’ll see the giraffes first and on tails, the monkeys. He flipped the coin and said, “Monkeys it is. Don’t worry Haley, we’ll see everything here today. We’ll circle around and hit the giraffes before leaving the park.”

  “Okay Daddy. Can we get cotton candy?”

  “After lunch. I brought lunches for you. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, raisins, and chips.”

  “Can we eat now so we can get cotton candy?” Haley asked.

  “No, in just a little while. After we see the kangaroos, we’ll have lunch in the park area.”

  “Okay Daddy.”

  “I love you two. You’re my little strawberry delights.”

  “I love you too Daddy,” Haley said.

  “Me too!”

  He wheeled up to the monkeys and the girls admired them in their jungle-like habitats, which were filled with ropes, hammocks, and trees atop a stream and surrounded by caves, rock, and grass. They made a variety of noises that varied in pitch and volume as they scampered around the grounds and swung between the trees. A mother monkey sat on top of the hammock, feeding her young.

  “I like the monkeys,” Kaylee said as she climbed out of the stroller. Haley climbed out of her chair and stood next to her. They both stepped onto the ledge, which bordered the habitat, and studied the monkeys. Braedon stood next to them.

  “I like the monkeys too,” Braedon answered. “They’re the animals that are most like humans. They have feelings and they’re smart, and wouldn’t you like to swing from tree to tree without a care in the world?”

  “Yeah,” Kaylee answered, “can I?” She looked up at her dad with her crystal blue eyes, wide open and curious.

  “No, not here, but maybe we’ll hang a swing from one of our tree branches at home sometime.”

  They watched the monkeys for a little longer before hopping back into the stroller and heading to the tropical birds’ nest area. Both of the twins loved birds and the birds at the zoo were all sorts of species in all sizes and colors.

  “Are you ready to see some birdies?” He asked as he stopped the stroller in front of the birds’ nest area.

  “Yeah. I love birdies,” Kaylee said.

  “Me too.”

  The girls hopped out of the stroller, which he parked in the stroller area, and all three walked inside of the birds’ nest area.

  Braedon loved being outside with his kids. Neighborhood walks, parks, theme parks, the beach, and the zoo were ideal ways for a dad to bond with his daughters. It was so much better than being cooped up inside of the house on a sunny day. He decided that they’d be using the annual family pass to the zoo often.

  Chapter 20

  An End and a Beginning

  Two weeks later, on a Friday, the front page of the local paper revealed that Barbara Collins, the renowned founder of a community foster home, had passed away the night before. She’d finally lost her battle with cancer. Nick read the article as tears streamed down his face. He recalled Barbara’s many good deeds and the way she served others. She exemplified a term he’d learned in school: servant leadership.

  Then a different photo on the front page caught his attention. It was a photo of a man he’d seen before at the luncheon and at the fundraiser, and most recently at the church. The photographer. Braedon Ramsey. He thought of the missing wedding band and of the wife who’d died of cancer. He read the headline, “Pregnant Woman Shoots and Kills Husband, Thinking an Intruder.” The story that followed indicated that Tricia Ramsey had purchased a gun for her family’s protection a couple of years prior to the shooting, which she hid in her nightstand. When Braedon Ramsey arrived home from work in the middle of the night, the room was dark and she mistook him to be a burglar and shot him. She was mortified when she discovered her error and called 911 immediately. They had two twin toddler girls.

  “Karma. He got what he deserved. He lied about his wife, probably after Mom. Cheater.” He reflected on the way he noticed Braedon in the church the previous Sunday. “Faker.”

  He thought of his mom and the chemotherapy she’d just begun. It had already weakened her quite a bit; she was having difficulty walking and seemed very depressed and tired. Nick had offered to quit his job at the summer camp to become her full-time caretaker, but she wanted him to continue to work to keep his mind off of her cancer. She’d hired a nurse named Fey from a home healthcare facility to tend to her medical needs and to administer fluids and check on her vital signs and progress. Nurse Fey took her to her doctor appointments and chemotherapy sessions.

  “I need to be here for her this fall,” he said as he searched his phone for the State University Registrar’s phone number. “Maybe I can take on-line classes from home,” he said as he got up from his chair and dialed.

  His hopes were confirmed after two calls to the Advising Office and the Registrar’s Office. He’d be awarded his diploma in December following successful completion of three business courses. He called his coach and shared his plans and fortunately, his coach was supportive. “Probably wouldn’t have been so supportive if I starred on the team, but since I was only a backup…”

  Nick returned to the couch and turned the pages of the paper to read the rest of the story about Braedon Ramsey. Tricia Ramsey was pictured in a headshot.

  “She looks familiar, but from where? Was she at the fundraiser or at the church or someplace else?”

  He continued reading the article and discovered that she belonged to the church he attended. “Sad,” he said, “I must have seen her before in the church. Now she’ll have to take care of three kids all by herself.” He finished the paper, folded it up, and carried it to the recycle bin in the garage, tucking it under other papers in the bin. “No sense in showing this to Mom. She’s already depressed enough. She doesn’t need to know that the guy who was flirting with her was married and is now dead. No need for that.”

  The phone rang, so he got up and walked into the kitchen to answer it.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, is this Nick?”

  “Yes, who’s this?” Nick sensed a familiarity of the female caller’s voice.

  “Piper McCoy.”

  Nick’s heart raced and he felt his hands shaking. Piper? Is this a dream? He struggled to compose himself before saying, “Hi Piper! It’s great to hear from you.”

  “Nick, I heard about your mom. I’m so sorry. You probably don’t know this but my mom died of
cancer when I was in the seventh grade. I miss her so much,” she said in a shaky voice. “I thought I’d call to offer you support.”

  “Wow, thanks Piper, I really appreciate it” he said as his face lit up. “Geez, I thought you hated me.”

  “Hated you? No. I never hated you. I just didn’t want to date you since you always seemed like you were on the prowl for women. Marlis told me a few weeks ago that you’ve changed since Tyrone’s death, though. And she told me a few days ago about your mom. I started thinking about calling you.”

  “I’m glad you did.”

  “But my thoughts didn’t turn into action until I talked to Parker and Aiden.”

  “What did they say?” Nick asked. “You know I saw you in the parking lot on my first day of coaching them, but you drove away before I could say hello.”

  “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t want to talk to you because I didn’t think you were my type.”

  “Didn’t think?” Nick asked, feeling a ray of hope.

  “Yeah. Didn’t think. I like gentlemen. But then I started thinking more about you. You looked like a loving son to your mother at the luncheon and you’ve been a good example to Parker and Aiden on the field. Maybe my judgments of you were in error. Parker and Aiden told me that you’re a really great guy. And that you really care about them. And that they admire you.”

  “Really? Parker and Aiden said that?”

  “Yup. That’s when I knew I needed to call you.”

  Nick smiled. He started feeling a bit lightheaded as his thoughts were racing. He said in a slightly audible voice, “Could be fate.”

  He figured he’d give it a shot. “Piper, would you want to talk more in person? Maybe we could go to the beach?”

  “Sure, I’d love to.”

  “Really?” He said excitedly, “how about tomorrow afternoon? I’ll come over and pick you up.”

  “That sounds nice Nick,” she said, “why not?”

  He confirmed a few details along with her address before hanging up the phone. Nick couldn’t believe the way the day had taken a turn for the better, from depressing and sad in the beginning to exciting and hopeful in the end. The mixed emotions caused his stomach to twist and turn, causing a passing bit of anxiety and the need to throw up. He took a deep breath and the feeling passed.

  Chapter 21

  A Date at the Beach