Willow

Chapter 8

“Looks like you have company,” Randall Perkins said as he pulled into his daughter’s driveway. “Don’t recognize the car.”

“Neither do I,” Fern said, and exited her father’s truck. “You coming in?”

“Sure, I like good gossip.” Angie grinned as she got out of the vehicle. Together they gathered Fern’s things and went into the house to loud male laughter coming from the kitchen.

“Mommy!” Sarah yelled, and jumped down from the chair she had been sitting in, and ran to her mother.

“You’re home, and guess what? Uncle Christopher came to visit us.

He’s looking for Aunt Wanda.” Fern didn’t think she heard right and looked up and saw the three men in her family, her husband, son, and brother standing next to a very, very handsome and virile man.

Brandon approached his wife and hugged her, twirled her and kissed her soundly.

When he released her, she felt her cheeks flush.

With his arm around his wife, he turned to the stranger and spoke.

“Christopher, I don’t know if you remember her or not, but this is my wife, Fern Perkins Carmichael and my in-laws, Angie and Randall Perkins.

” He stepped back to see their reactions as he continued.

“Fern, Mom, Dad, this is Christopher Evans.”

“Evans, Evans, where do I know that name?” Randall said as he shook the man’s hand.

“He married Aunt Wanda!” Sarah giggled. “This is her husband.”

“Oh my god,” Angie said, and rushed forward, gave him a hug and stood back and stared at him.

Christopher accepted the warm greetings and noticed that Fern held herself back. He didn’t blame her.

“Come in and sit down and we’ll explain everything,” Brandon said, and watched as his wife took over the duty of making more coffee and putting out cookies for everyone.

When everyone was settled, Christopher gave his tale, and he had the license and pictures to back it up.

When he was done, he stared into three shocked faces.

“You left her.” Fern blurted out. “After you left, Wanda fell into a funk when Dad asked what was wrong, she said that you didn’t believe in the ‘in sickness and health’ part of the vows.”

“I was only five, and it was supposed to be pretend, how did I know this was going to happen?” he demanded as he pounded his fist on the license. Fern had come at him with anger in her expression and voice, and Christopher gave it right back to her.

“What do you want?”

“To find Wanda and get this matter resolved. With this hanging over our heads neither one of us can marry anyone else and if it was a shock to me, what’s her reaction going to be if she finds someone she wants to marry and can’t?”

“Oh dear,” Angie said, and stared in shock. “Wait, that’s my signature.”

“I figured as much, do you know when you signed it? Dad said it was probably shoved at him when he was signing his papers before he was transferred to Japan.”

“So that’s where you went? I knew your father was military, and I hate to admit this now, but all our energies were focused on Wanda at that time,” Randall admitted.

“Yes, we went to Japan for almost four years then back to the States, moved around every two to three years until I left for college. Mom tried to send you a Christmas card when we got back to the states, but it was returned with address undeliverable.” He showed them the yellow sticker from the post office.

“So, where are your parents now?”

“Dad retired three years ago, and they settled south of Chicago in a small suburb where Dad grew up. After college, I moved to New York City, where I currently own my own investigation firm.”

“What do you want from us?” Fern asked.

“I’d like to find Wanda,” Christopher said again.

“That little dweeb in the office at the church waylaid me on one of my visits to Pastor Jones to sign something.” Angie interrupted. “It was around the time we had found a bone marrow donor. I was distracted and just signed it to get him away from me.”

“Sorry, we can’t help you,” Fern said as she stood and went to pour more coffee. “We don’t know where she is.”

“I know.” Christopher sighed and hung his head.

“Doug, Brandon, and Brian along with Sarah told me all about how you communicate with her.” Everyone was silent after that.

As much as Fern was mad at the man, she couldn’t fault him for anything, he had been only five at the time.

And this really was a bizarre situation.

But when her daughter started to giggle everyone turned to gawk at her.

“You boys are so funny.” She laughed, and she did it so hard she had to wrap her hands around her middle. She reminded Fern so much of Wanda when she was that age.

“What’s so funny?” she asked her daughter.

“Boys, Mommy. Don’t you watch cop shows on TV?”

“She’s an NCIS fanatic.” Brandon grinned at Christopher. “But what does cop shows have to do with anything, Sarah?”

“Grandpa worked with cutting edge technology with computers, right?”

“I did.” Randall frowned.

“And Daddy is a Sheriff, Uncle Doug is a Deputy and Uncle Christopher is an investigator.”

“And your point is?” Fern frowned at her.

“Why can’t you use Aunt Wanda’s e-mail address and find her URL address and track her that way.

You know like Abby and McGee would. Wouldn’t it pinpoint her actual location or the location she sends the e-mails from?

” She paused as she saw the shock come over their faces, then said, “That’s what I would do.

If it’s not her actual house, I’m sure you can get within a few miles of her. ”

Fern looked at the men and saw that a lightbulb had gone off over all of their heads. She giggled and high-fived her daughter. “Yep, boys are funny that way.” She grinned as her mother said, “Out of the mouths of babes.”

Brandon jumped to his feet and literally ran out of the room and almost tripped over the cat lying there, but he was back in less than two minutes.

He opened the computer, looked at his wife and grinned.

“You’ll have to sign on since it’s your computer.

She sends you the e-mails, and you tell me about them or let me read them, but I don’t know your password. ”

Fern grinned and quickly signed on. “Here’s a new one that came in this morning.

” She read it and smiled. “Says she’s still working like a mad woman, but she’s enjoying every minute.

Also says that if she can finish by oops.

” She grinned and turned it to let her brother read it in silence.

They exchanged grins, and Brandon read it and joined in.

“Sounds like a plan. Can you e-mail back?”

Fern sat down and did as asked and when she was done, she turned the computer to Christopher who read the e-mail and smile as he nodded.

Luckily her parents had stepped out. For the e-mail said if she got done by a specific date, she’d come home for their parents’ thirtieth anniversary to surprise them and had asked Fern to come up with some type of celebration for them.

And to make it a surprise party with a surprise guest. Thank goodness she had four months to work on it.

“Do you need any other computer?” Randall asked as he came in carrying his own, while Angie had her own. They opened them and saw that they had e-mails and read them then allowed the others to also.

“I don’t know if I remember how this works,” Christopher admitted. “Sean at my office always did this part.” He closed his eyes and pictured the list he had in his office of step-by-step instructions that Sean had written out and allowed his fingers to fly over the computer. In minutes he frowned.

“According to this, every e-mail from Wanda Perkins in the last two years and four months have come from a town in Arizona.” He did some more key tapping and said, “For six months before that, they pinged all over. Chicago, Vegas, New York, Orlando, New Orleans. But finally settling in Arizona.”

“What’s the name of the town?” Randall demanded. His own fingers flew over the keys after he was given the address. “Okay, it’s southwest of Phoenix.”

“And the timeline is right,” Angie said. “She said in her first e-mails that she was traveling trying to find herself. But then she’d found the perfect location that fit her with a job she loved and a place to live.”

“There you go.” Sarah grinned and actually blew on her knuckles and wiped them on her shirt to everyone’s laughter.

“What are you going to do now?” Fern asked him.

“I’m going to go find her. I’m not going to marry the woman I was engaged to, but eventually, I’ll find someone to marry. I just want this solved, and maybe my life can get back on track, I hate chaos in my life. It isn’t productive.”

Angie actually giggled. “Do you still make lists? I vaguely remember when you planned the wedding, I thought it was so cute that you had written everything down and followed it. Even at such a young age.”

“Of course.” Christopher looked offended. “Without lists, then you’d never get anything done. You need lists to have goals and purpose in life.”

“And what about people who live by the seat of their pants, so to speak?” Fern asked, and smirked at her parents and brother. Because that was precisely how Wanda lived. They watched as Christopher actually shuddered.

“Impossible, no one can live like that and expect to succeed in life. No, you need a list for everything. Without lists, your life would be in chaos. Chaos causes misdirection, and you’ll be lost. Lists give you the drive to succeed, you make a list, cross off things as they occur, and everything is so impeccable and orderly.

Life is so much simpler that way, less messy. ”

“If you say so,” Fern smirked. “You’ll stay for supper?”

“Only if I won’t put you out. I’ve been staying in your apartment above your garage for the last week. I don’t want to put you out.”

“No problem.” Fern smiled and opened the refrigerator. As she began cooking supper, with her mother’s help, she asked. “I take it you’re leaving here tomorrow to go find Wanda?”

“Yes. Would any of you like to go with me?”

“No,” they all said as one, which surprised him.

“We agreed that we would respect Wanda’s wishes.

We trust her to tell us if she needs us.

I don’t want her to feel that we violated that trust,” Randall said.

“You can tell her how you found her, but tell her that we respect her privacy. If she wants us to come to visit her, then have her contact us. Otherwise, we’ll continue as we have. ”

“And we won’t e-mail her that you’re coming,” Angie said. “But you have to promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“If she has a heart attack, you get her to the doctor as quickly as you can and tell them she’s in remission for Leukemia and is on medication for a donor organ. I don’t think she’ll have a heart attack, her heart is strong and healthy, normal. But you never know what’s going to happen.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t be surprised that once you contact her.” Doug snickered, “You’re well organized, and your list making way of life flies out the window.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Wanda’s a fly by night and by the seat of her pants kind of girl.

Just look at all the locations she’d been before she settled in Arizona.

I’m guessing that if it were you, you would have made a planned out, exact route to follow, not jump all over the place.

That’s a classic thing for Wanda, go where the whim takes her. ”

Christopher actually shuddered again. “I can’t do that, have never been able to.

Causes too much chaos. Even my coming here was thought out.

I planned my drive from my home in New York City directly to my parents’.

With the intention of stopping for one night then straight to where we lived in California.

It worked wonderfully. Everything went according to plan.

Same as coming here, once I found out you had moved here, I sat down and planned the route and came directly here.

And before you ask, I drive everywhere, airports cause too much chaos. ”

“Tonight, I’ll go back to the apartment and plan out the route to Arizona.

I’m not going to push it, so I’ll plan on being on the road for a week.

Meet up with Wanda, have her sign whatever papers we need and two, three days tops and I’m on my way back to New York.

” He sounded like he actually meant it and the others held their smirks in while they studied him.

“Can I ask you something without being rude?” Sarah asked.

“Sure.”

“Do you have a plan for your meals during the week? I mean like pasta on Monday. Pork on Tuesday. Beef on Wednesday. Fish on Friday, and so on?”

“I do. See if you plan ahead, you’ll never wonder where you’re going or what you’ll have to do. It’s all in the planning to control the chaos.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Sarah asked with a frown.

Fern laughed. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been gone for a week and just opened the refrigerator to see what we had. Hope you like chicken, because we’re having chicken pot pie.” She grinned as she slipped the dish into the oven.

Christopher grinned. “I always plan chicken on Sundays.” They groaned and sat down an hour later, to a meal and conversation. The next day they all saw him off and after his taillights faded in the distance, Fern turned to her family and grinned.

“I think Mr. Christopher Evans is about to get the surprise of his life in about a week. I think his list making, plan ahead, prevent chaos at all costs life is about to take a turn on its axis.”

“I agree,” Douglas said. “Do you think we should contact Wanda and warn her?”

“Nope.” Everyone grinned. “Let’s wait and see what she has to say when she contacts us and yells at us.” Angie grinned as they went on with their day.