The miracle from God. One Thelma was not about to let slip through her fingers.
She had gone upstairs to finally change and think about dinner, now that the heaviest emotions had passed. Yet while she got comfortable in a baggy shirt and pajama bottoms—two things she never,everthought she’d wear in front of other people, even her own family—she heard a damning commotion outside her bedroom window.
Since it overlooked the driveway, all Thelma had to do was push aside the curtain to see her son banging against Gretchen’s fence line.
“Hey!” That was what Thelma parsed the moment she opened the window and inhaled the cold winter air. “Yeah, you!” He flagged down Gretchen, who had just pulled her truck into her driveway. “When are you going to apologize to my mother for breaking her heart!”
The curtains fell from Thelma’s fingers as she gaped at the scene her son caused the moment twilight fell.
“What are you on about?” Gretchen met him at the fenceline. Across the street, the likes of Ben and Heather came out of theirhouses to see what was going on. “I don’t have anything to say to any of you! It’s because of you guys I’ve got the FBI tailing me all the time!”
“Leave her alone, Robbie!” Thelma shouted from her window. “It’s okay! I promise!”
He wasn’t listening to her. “Look, my mom likes you. You like her. So get over whatever you’re thinking about this whole situation and kiss and make up! Do you know how far away she’s traveled to have a life now? Do you know what kind of woman she is? Just do it, kid!”
“You’re insane.” Gretchen looked close enough to actually touch Robbie on the nose. “Your whole family? Crazy. Keep the cult stuff to yourself, buddy.”
“Cult, she says! Only cult here is the one the Murrays have going on out of their basement down the street!”
Heather excitedly said something to Ben, who conferred with his mother, who also came out into their yard.
“You’re gonna let some revelation about how the world apparently works keep you from a nice lady like my mother?” Robbie finally backed away from the fenceline, but not before getting in the last word. “Fine! But you’re the one missing out!”
“Why the hell would I want to be part of any family with you in it, Robert!”
“Big news, kid! I’ve got cancer! I could die soon!” He tossed his arms into the air with half the neighborhood watching. “I don’t care who knows it! I’ve got cancer! So what! We all get cancer at some point!”
“You’re nuts!”
“Yeah, and you’re young and stubborn!”
“I’m thirty-three!”
“A goddamn child!”
“Please! Both of you!” Thelma glanced between them and the neighbors across the street. “Watch your mouths!”
Robbie pointed up to her in triumph. “See! She’ll live on beyond me! And that’s what she cares about! Come try her cooking again sometime!” He backed up toward the house. “But only after you apologize to her!”
“What do I have to apologize for?”
Both of Robbie’s fingers pointed up toward Thelma, still hanging out of her window. “That’s for her to decide!”
The door slammed shut as Robbie went back inside. Thelma was left staring down at Gretchen, who looked back up at her with shock still spreading across her face.
“Sorry!” Thelma called down. “We just had a breakthrough!”
Gretchen turned and went toward her front door without a word.
“Merry Christmas!”
That wasn’t just for Gretchen—it was also for Ben and Heather, who waved back at her with their phones lit up in the air.
All of that would end up on the internet, Thelma was sure. Good thing she didn’t put much stock into it.
Chapter twenty-three
Christmas, 2018
