Chapter 12
Tanner - Chapter 12
James sat on the flowery bench and thought of what they were doing there today. It was time. He and his lovely mate Jas had talked it over, and they were ready to move on to the next phase. A move that was breaking his heart with every beat of it. But they’d been around for a very long time now; they were chasing two hundred years old, and it was too much for them.
“You’re sure this is what you wish? I cannot change it back once I’m finished.” He nodded and so did Jas when Chris spoke to them. “I thought you were so happy to be alive with all your family. I’m sad to see that you wish to no longer be a part of their lives.”
“We’re tired. And we’ve been here far longer than we should have been. It’s time.” Jas nodded and held his hand as he continued. “There are so many of them now, so many children of the children, that we can no longer keep them straight. And when they come to visit us, we’re too far behind in what they’re doing in their lives for us to keep up. Oh, I suppose that we could have, but we are just going through the motions of life, and that’s not the way that it should be.”
“We loved being able to meet them all. The children of our son are something that we were blessed to see. And their children have been such a joy to us both. But as my James said, we’re tired. And want to follow on with the family and friends that we’ve outlived for far too long.” Jas looked at him, and James just fell in love with her again, as he did every day of his life with this woman. “We’ve seen too much in our time. Deaths of friends. Our family ever expanding. It’s time for us to take this next step, the step that we both want, and to end our lives.”
“What does your family say about this? I’m sure that they’re as upset as I am.” Jas shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks, as did his own. “Jas, I’m so sorry to make you cry.”
“No, no, you didn’t. I was thinking of the first grandchild that I held in my hands. Trent was such a lovely baby, chubby and so good. And then his brothers being born and coming into my heart. It was more than any woman could ever hope for, to see my child have children. He was our dream for TJ and Christine. The dream of having someone to love so unconditionally that it could only make your heart beat faster and better.” James kissed her then, holding her to him as he had a million times a day. “When I told them that we were ready, they seemed to be sad at first. But then we told them, just as we have you, that we’re tired. Not of life or love, but just tired. We were old before we were given such a gift, and it didn’t get any better for us, just longer. And I think, in a way, they understood that better than we could have told them.”
“You are the nicest people that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You know that, don’t you?” James had been a little in love with Chris since she’d come to his home to help his grandson, Sterling, with the she-devil so long ago. James nodded at her, and told her that he didn’t know anyone else that could have helped them with this or they wouldn’t have broken her heart over it. “I thank you for that. As I said, you are the best.”
“We’ve said our goodbyes today and yesterday. They are broken up about it—they are, but they understand. I couldn’t have asked for a better family than that. And when we told them that we was going to you today, they had us a party. A celebration of our life and all the things that we have done together.” Chris nodded, wiping her own tears away from her cheeks. “We’re ready anytime that you are.”
The celebration had been wonderful too. And as he sat at the party, he’d thought of each of his grandchildren and what they were about now. Nothing in this world could have made him prouder than his grandchildren.
Trent, the oldest and by far the one who was into most things, he and Joe took care that the town was prosperous and safe. They had set up more programs for the people that lived there than most whole states had for their citizens. They were also good to the children that came into their lives. And there was now a sixth Trent James—a seventh and the eighth were on their way. Joe, from time to time, would look over the investments that he had and have him tweak them. He’d left all their money to her to distribute where it was needed.
Elijah was still making the family money. Not that there was any need for more of it, but they not only donated a great deal to the causes and programs that Trent had going, but they also worked at the school, teaching the kids the value of money. Noelle did more for the children than anyone did. She had a special place in her heart for every one of them. Not that he blamed her, not the way that she’d been raised.
Scott had gone back to teaching people how to have sex. He supposed that was the wrong way to put it, but it mattered little. He was happy again, and as far as he could see, that was what he’d want for them all. Chloe was still running the town’s police station. She was good at it too—they’d not had a robbery or a murder in decades. Well, there was that time that a bunch of kids decided to rob mailboxes, but she nipped that in the bud right away. A night in jail scared them boys on the right path, it surely did.
Sterling. He loved that boy more than the others. Of course, he’d never say that. But Sterling had been through more than the others in his lifetime. Probably more than a couple of them. When that she-devil had tried to kill his Sterling, James had been so afraid for him. His art hadn’t changed, though. It was still dark and scary, but he couldn’t keep a painting without someone wanting to buy it before the paint even dried. His and Marty’s little boy that they adopted when his parents were killed, Benson, took over the running of the gallery and did as good a job as his daddy ever did. That Marty, she hadn’t changed a bit either. Still a pistol, and a mouth on her that made him blush sometimes.
Randal didn’t teach as much as he used to. But he did run a lot of after school programs for the kids. There was a time when he had food in his room for all the kids that didn’t have much to eat. Also, there was gloves and hats. Now they had a room that was dedicated to the children with everything they could want, from good food to eat, to boots for the cold months, to having backpacks filled with enough supplies to get them through the year at school and to take home to do homework. He loved his kids, he called them all. Laney had made up with her daddy after a time, and he still spent time with them, but he didn’t think she’d ever be as close to him as she was to his son, TJ.
Then there was his boy Tanner. He’d had a rough time of it when Giyanna had been in a car accident after their second child was born. She’d been pregnant with another little boy, but he had been taken from them. James thought for sure that it was going to break them both, they took it so hard. But when after their second child, a little boy, started talking, they seemed to come out of it. He’d never been so happy in his life when Giyanna announced the very next year that she was having another baby. Sure did his heart good to see them happy and living again.
Yes, sir. His grandkids had done him proud, and James didn’t think there was a grandda happier with their growing up and become fathers themselves as he was of them. He was sure gonna miss them.
He knew that he was asking a great deal of the witch. But James and his lovely mate had never been asked if they wanted this. Not that he wasn’t glad for the time that they’d had, but they were ready now. Perhaps if they’d been a little younger, they might have been all right with things. But they weren’t, and now they needed to get to the stepping off place, as his momma had called it.
“If you could give me an hour, I’ll have the place ready where you can rest. Or have you taken care of that?” Jas told her that they had a marker all picked out, but, no, they’d assumed after all this time they’d just turn to dust. “Not quite, but we’ll take care that you have a very nice spot, close to the family so that they can visit you. I’ll call on the lady of the earth now and have it arranged.”
“How would we get there, if you don’t mind me asking?” James couldn’t seem to let go of Jas’s hand. “I mean, traveling here wasn’t any hardship on us, but we’d really like to be close to the children.”
“Yes, of course. I can arrange that.”
She left them there, and he looked at his wife of just under two hundred years.
“You’ve been my rock and foundation our whole life together. I couldn’t have made it in this life without you and this family. You know that, don’t you?” Jas nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’d have done had you not been there at that hospital when I woke up. Seeing you there, so pretty, like you are right now.”
“Oh, go on with you. You know as well as I that I was just a little bitty thing. To think, having my daddy bringing me to work like that, and what do you think happened? I find my other half being worked on by him.” James remembered it like yesterday. “You were so afraid of him, I think now. You wanted to impress him that you’d be a good man.”
“He didn’t much care for me, I’m thinking.” She laughed, and he did as well. “Then it only took us another ten years before you became my other half, my wife for all time.”
They rocked on the bench, taking in the sights that were all around them. They’d been doing that a great deal over the last months and days here on this earth. Taking in the sights so that they’d have something to comfort them when they were ready to go on. That was where the first conversation had come about, when they’d been taking a long walk one night after supper.
“I remember you being large with our TJ. Best sight I ever seen was when you handed him up to me from that bed. You said, ‘Here you go. Now raise him to be as good a man as you are.’ And I think between us, we did a good job.” She told him they had. “Then he did the same for his sons. Six strapping boys he had, and I couldn’t have been prouder of them than if they’d been ours.”
“Christine loves them all so much. It’s like those girls were born to her too…she loves them as her own. Like it should have been.” James knew that too. And he loved them as if they were his granddaughters as well. “James, I’m going to miss them, I am, but I’m so ready for this.”
“I am too, love. I surely am.” He rocked them some more, watching the deer in the field beyond playing with their newborn. “All I can think about is how much I love you. And how I know this is the right thing to do.”
“Yes, myself as well. I’m so tired all the time, James, and I’m sorry for that.” She started crying and he held her. James couldn’t have stopped his own tears from falling under threat of death. He told her that there was nothing to be sorry for. “Like you said, had we been younger, we might have been better.”
“Better? Oh darling, we were the best there was, I’m thinking.” He pulled out the envelope that he’d gotten from Trent last night. He took half the pictures and handed her the other half. “This is why I know that we were the best. Just look at them faces. And the smiles on all of them children. We did that. We started this long line of happy faces. You remember that.”
“I will. You, I’ll remember your face as well.” He looked at her again, and she traced her fingers over all of him. His face, like hers, wasn’t like it used to be, but to him, she was still the loveliest creature ever born. “I love you, Trent James Calhoun the third. Forever and a day, I shall forever cherish our time we had together, and all the memories that we made.”
He was just about to cry again; his heart was so full. They’d been telling each other they loved the other since they were wee children. And now, all these decades later, they were still saying it. James held his wife until Chris came back to tell them that it was all set up.
“Good. That’s right kind of you, Chris. It is.” She nodded, then asked him if they’d changed their mind. “No, we haven’t, have we love?”
“No, we’re ready as we’ll ever be. But I do have a single request.” Chris told them anything. “I should like to watch the sun setting while you do this. I’m not sure what all this entails, but the sun setting, like us setting into the earth, so I’d like to watch it once more.”
“Of course. And as much as I’d like to tell you that it’s easy, it won’t be on me. I have come to love you two like my own grandparents. People that I’ve respected and needed in my life daily. I could not have asked for better friends.” They both nodded. “All right then, you two just sit here and watch the sunset. It should be soon. And then just close your eyes when you’re ready.”
“That’s all?” Chris nodded and wiped again at her tears. “You tell that husband of yours, and them brothers of his, they’d better be good to you. You’re something special too.”
“Micah is good to me, and so are the others. I couldn’t have been mated to anyone kinder and more supportive than him. And to have a family like I do—well, as you know, it doesn’t get any better than this.”
They rocked back and forth when she left them there, sitting on the front porch just swinging back and forth. They would remember something that would pop into their heads, talk about it for a bit, then watch the sun going down behind the mountain.
“It sure has been a good life, my love.” She told him for her as well. “This is the best way to leave this earth. Sitting with someone you love, just rocking away the final minutes. Yes, if I could have picked a better ending, I’m not sure what it would have been. You and me, we sure had some adventures.”
“Yes, and I’m betting that we’ll have us a few more, wherever we end up.” He nodded. “It’s time, my love.”
“Yes, it’s time.”
He turned to her then, kissing her while watching her eyes. And when the sun showed its final colors of the day, they both closed their eyes, much as they had done all their lives, when they were just too tired to go on.
~*~
Trent knew the final moment of his grandparent’s death. His heart skipped a couple of beats as he watched the same sun going down over the same mountain as they were. And it broke his heart in two knowing that he’d never speak to them or hug them again.
Chris had told him through their link that she was going to set them up a faerie garden that would be blessed by the queen of the earth, as well as the queen of faeries. He loved that idea, and his family did as well.
They had gathered together, his brothers and their wives, his parents and close friends, to sit together, remembering the couple who had been there forever. And when the time came for them to be no more, no one said a word or uttered a single sound for several long moments.
The faeries came to get them an hour later. The garden was finished. Gathering what they’d already decided to take to the garden, all of them went to the place that he’d picked out for them. His mom started to sob, and Dad held her while he too fought with the tears. Trent didn’t care. He cried like his heart had been broken, because to him, it had.
“It has been an honor to do such a thing for you, Lord Trent. They were our favorite people in all the world, we think.” Trent thanked the little blue faerie. “The White Witch said that you had things that you wished to lay with them. If you would do so now, we’ll make sure that they are safe from harm forever as well.”
Trent put his first dollar on the garden. “From my first sale that you talked me into. We made very little money that time, but it got me hooked in helping other businesses.”
The next person to lay something in the circle was Elijah. He put upon the place of interment a shell and a fishing hook. “The first time we went fishing, not at all good at it by the way, all I caught was this shell and several times my skin. I’ll miss you, old man.”
Next was Scott. He put a small whip and they all laughed. “To my grandma. The only person that seemed to understand me more than most, and could embarrass me the best. I will miss you both so much.”
Sterling set a small picture on the marker. It was a picture of the two of them that he had painted for this day. “My memories of the two of you are too great to have picked just one. So, I’ll use this to remind you both of how much we’re going to miss you.”
“Randal? Your turn.” He nodded and laid a book on the grave. Trent laughed hard, as did the rest of them. The tattered copy of Moby Dick was what they had read together each night until it was finished when he was a child.
“You are the reason that I teach. And the reason that I’m still doing it.” He blew them a kiss. “For all the nights I begged you for just one more chapter.”
Tanner was last, and he seemed to hesitate longer than Randal. But when he walked to the grave and put the small booties on the marker, he didn’t need to say a word. The booties were for the son that he and Giyanna had lost when there had been a car accident several decades ago. The grandparents had stayed up with Tanner and Giyanna all night when they were heartbroken. No one else could comfort them as they had.
Next was Mom and Dad. Mom just laid her hand upon the marker, her tears staining the bronze stone. Then from her pocket she pulled out the handkerchief that Grandma had been using since they’d been kids. It had been forever tucked into her sleeve to use when she needed it.
Dad went to the circle alone. He didn’t say anything, but they knew that he was heartbroken by the loss. He cleared his throat and then started to sing. His voice, even after all these years, was as clear and beautiful as it had ever been. And “Amazing Grace” had never sounded as good to him before.
Walking back to the house, he turned once and looked at the circle. The faeries were busy taking care that the items that they left were well preserved with their magic. Trent turned back to his family and walked the rest of the way in silence.
“He’d kick our collective bottoms if he was here.” Trent asked his dad what he wanted them to do. “We go on living like we did before. Have fun with the children. Let’s have a nice dinner and celebrate what we think of. Just anything.”
“All right. I’ll run into town and get some steaks. If you guys will have someone start on sides, I’ll be back soon.” Trent was warming to the idea. “I’ll even see if I can find us a pie or three or four too.”
By the time he returned they not only had the fire going and several side dishes, but the ice cream maker was going as well. There had been several pies at the store—not as good as homemade, but it was spur of the moment and they were good. Peach, apple, pineapple, as well as cherry. Grandda’s favorite. Then he had picked up banana cream for Grandma.
The night wore on, and they ate better than he thought they had for a while now. The pies were eaten with gusto, and even the ice cream seemed to hit the spot. They were a family that had just lost two loved ones, and Dad was right; Grandda would have kicked their butts had he seen the way that they were mourning their deaths.
When Myra showed up a little after seven that night, he welcomed her with open arms, as did the rest of the family.
“I’ve come to tell you that the Bentleys would like to open a scholarship fund in your grandparents’ name. It will go to underprivileged shifters so that they might go to college a little easier. It’ll be called the Trent James and Jasmine Calhoun Foundation.” Trent and the others thanked her. Joe asked if they might put to it as well. “Yes, she said that she would welcome you to help the others.”
“Will you stay and have some pie with us? We’re having a sort of celebration.” She declined, and that was when he noticed what she was wearing. Trent got a good laugh out of that. “Balloons, huh? I don’t suppose there is a story that goes with that, is there?”
“As a matter of fact, there is. Your grandfather was a sneaky man. One day when I was around, he told me that he could use a glass of tea. I told him, since I was standing, that I’d make him some. But he insisted that I use what was in the ice box, as he called it. When I opened the door, two hundred or so balloons came out—scared ten decades off my life. And then you know what the old poop did? He and Jas sang me Happy Birthday. First time in more years than I could count that anyone had done that for me. I have never forgotten it.”
They all laughed again, and he realized that they were much better now. Even Mom and Dad seemed to be in better spirits. He was glad now that Dad had suggested this. It was the perfect ending to the day.