Home Sweet Home
T he next morning, Grace called the school principal. Melanie was surprised and unhappy to hear her news. She had been looking forward to Grace returning and working on National Board certification, and now she would have to find a new teacher in less than three weeks. Grace had to hold the phone away from her ear as Melanie’s voice rose in volume.
It went better telling Jen she was leaving. Jen would miss Grace, but she was happy Grace was going to do something she cared a lot about.
And now Grace was just waiting on her car, still at the garage waiting for a catalytic converter. It had been two months. Would that thing ever get done?
She couldn’t go back to Michigan until the car was done. But she could figure out what she needed to take with her and what she needed to leave. Grace got some empty boxes and started packing.
§
On Monday morning, the car was done, with a price tag of three thousand dollars. By Monday afternoon, a significantly poorer Grace had all her things in her car and was saying goodbye to Jen.
She had made the trip—about 2,200 miles—once before, when she first moved out to California. It was a long drive to take solo. But she planned to stop as needed for breaks, and she could listen to audiobooks and podcasts and pray rosaries and call people on the phone. It would be good. And what better way to see the United States than a cross-country road trip?
Grace started her car, said a prayer for safe travel, and turned on an upbeat playlist. Michigan, here I come!
It was surreal, going back to Fraser’s Mill for good. This time Grace wouldn’t be just a visitor. She looked forward to being a bonafide Fraser’s Mill resident and getting involved in all kinds of town activities—when she wasn’t busy saving the store, of course.
§
By the next morning, after a stay in a little Utah hotel (reputed to be clean and safe, based on online reviews), Grace had run through most of her playlists. Now would be a good time to call her parents, if either of them was home.
Mom picked up. Dad was in the store, she said, and she was cleaning the house. She could put Grace on speakerphone and still do the laundry.
“Thanks, Mom,” Grace said. “I just really wanted to talk to somebody—this desert is endless!”
The day was warming up, and the breeze from the open car window blew Grace’s hair everywhere as she drove along.
Mom laughed. “Are you still in Utah?”
“Yes, I am. I’m going to see if I can make Denver by night,” Grace said. “So how are you guys doing? How’s the store? How’s Dad doing now that he’s getting around more?”
“Oh, he’s doing fine,” Mom said. “He’s been telling everybody who comes into the store that you’re coming back to take over. I haven’t seen him this excited in a long time.”
Grace smiled. She could just see Dad now, standing behind the counter, telling everybody his little Gracie was going to follow in his footsteps as a storekeeper.
“So I guess the whole town knows I’m coming back by now?” Grace asked, grinning.
Mom laughed. “Pretty much! We keep hearing from people who want to recruit you for things. Dorothy wants to get you for her ladies’ group at the church. And Alex wants you to join the choir as a permanent member. As though you weren’t going to have enough to do already!”
Grace laughed. “Alex texted me about the choir. I guess I’ll see how much work I have at the store and then decide about the other things.”
It was nice to come back to a place where the people liked her and wanted her to join their activities.
“Doc was really surprised you were coming back,” Mom said. “He acted like he couldn’t believe his ears.”
Grace’s pulse quickened. “Really? Huh.”
“Yes, really,” Mom said. “I was in the store when your father was telling him. He wanted to hear all about your decision to come back.”
For someone who hadn’t even been talking to her before she left, that was unexpected. Maybe Doc was surprised because Grace had talked so much about her plans to teach.
Well, it didn’t matter if he was surprised or not, or why. If she ran into him—which she was bound to do at some point, living next door—she would be polite, but not try to strike up a friendship again. It was better to only be slightly acquainted with a guy she couldn’t get along with and whose girlfriend probably didn’t like her.
“Speaking of being surprised,” Mom was saying, “Katie’s fit to be tied about your coming back to work in the store. She thinks you can’t be serious about really wanting to come back. You’d better call and talk to her, because she doesn’t believe us when we tell her.”
Oh, Katie. Always the protective older sister. It was easy to see why Katie would think that, since Grace had been so vocal about her wish to be a teacher and to get away from the backwater of Fraser’s Mill. Well, it was good that Katie wanted to look out for her. She’d have to give her a call and explain things. She had been too busy the last few days to call a lot of people.
§
Grace got to Michigan on Friday morning. After a long stop-and-go period through the I-94 corridor, full of summer construction and congested traffic, she was finally speeding north toward home.
She stopped in Grand Haven for lunch. Should she make a quick stop at the beach? No, she wouldn’t. She had done enough stopping and sight-seeing as she went through Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa. All she wanted now was to get to Fraser’s Mill.
As she went through the Ludington area the trees were getting thicker and more piney, and the air was delightfully fresh. She was close now. How had she ever thought she wouldn’t want to live in Michigan?
At long last, she could see Fraser’s Mill in the distance. It was a bummer that the first thing you saw when you got to town was the dollar store. But that made Grace all the more determined to fight it and win.
The town seemed different this time. Before, Grace had been hit with an overwhelming wave of nostalgia—it was the place where she had grown up, and she had returned to it as someone revisiting her youth. Now it wasn’t a place for visits and memories. It was home.
There was the grocery store, with several cars in the gravel lot. Good, customers. Grace pulled into the driveway, hopped out, and ran into the store.
Dad stood behind the counter, a grocer’s apron on, looking businesslike as he rang up a customer’s groceries. He looked up. “Gracie!”
Grace waited, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. As soon as Dad finished with the customer, she rushed behind the counter. “Dad!”
Dad caught her in a big bear hug. “Welcome home.”