Page 20 of Echoes of Eternity
“Yes.” He tried to grab for it, almost like he regretted sharing it, but Ryan snatched it.
“Why were you hesitant?”
He shrugged a shoulder, his gaze panning the restaurant. “I just don’t know about this, man. What if it’s something more? Like with this Linda gal?”
Ryan’s mind immediately went to the text message he had seen after the funeral, and his heart dipped into his stomach. He wondered if there was a connection, but he wasn’t about to share it with his vulnerable younger brother.
“You don’t want the truth?”
He shrugged. “Do you? I mean . . . Dad’s gone. What’s the point?”
Looking down at the slip of paper, Ryan shrugged. “True.”
“And when I searched online, her name did come up for the Rescue Mission of Spokane. Maybe Dad supported the rescue mission?”
“There you go. Just relax, Brother.”
Jason looked at Ryan as he held the paper in his hand. “You going to go check the address?”
“That’s a two-hour drive one way. I already have enough going on with the grill, the website business, and trying to keep my family together. I don’t know . . .”
“Speaking of family. I heard from Mom. She’s in Buffalo with her sister.”
“I’m glad she’s okay.” Crinkling the piece of paper up, he shoved it in his pocket as his brother stood from the booth.
“I need to get home and start a movie with the wife. Have a good night, Brother.”
“Have a good night.”
As his brother left the grill, Ryan dug the paper out from his pocket and unfolded it.
CHAPTER 5
Only three weeks into her new job at the school and Emily was finding it difficult to adjust. As her students read for the last fifteen minutes of the day, Emily stared out the window. The daisies in the garden bed outside her classroom window were in full bloom and soaking in the rays of the May sunshine, a quiet reminder that summer was fast approaching. Though she had only started her new job in Cedarwood Creek Elementary a short time ago, she was already looking forward to the summer break. Her students were not only behind where second graders should be for reading, writing, and arithmetic, but her co-worker teachers weren’t friendly in the slightest. She had thought once she started her job, things would get easier in her life, but they didn’t. If anything, they only worsened.
The bell rang, signaling the end of school.
Packing her laptop and other belongings for home, she paused. Taking a moment, she let a deep breath out from her lungs and mustered the strength within herself to lift a prayer. “God, let my heart be content with my life . . .”
Venturing out of the classroom, she walked the school hallways to the gymnasium to pick up Jack and Conner, then met Elizabeth out at the car.
Arriving home that day, her daughter promptly went to her bedroom and cranked music as her boys began to wrestle on the living room floor.
“Homework . . .” she told Jack and Conner on her way into the kitchen. Remembering she had forgotten to pull something out to thaw for dinner, she touched her forehead as a heavy sigh escaped her lips. Pulling her cellphone out, she called Ryan. “Could you bring dinner home?”
“I can’t. We had another guy call in, so I’m helping run the kitchen. But I can put something together that you can come grab.”
“Thanks.” Her heart ached knowing it’d most likely be another late night for Ryan. Hanging up the call, she set her phone on the counter. On her way to gather laundry, her boys were playing at the table instead of doing their homework. Her tone edged upward. “Homework, boys!”
Continuing down the hall, the music coming from her daughter’s room wasn’t as loud and she could hear Elizabeth’s voice. Through the muffled door, Emily could hear faint crying and talking. Stopping, she knocked lightly and went in. Finding her daughter in tears and on her phone video chatting, she proceeded further into the room. “Hang up the call.”
“It’s Gammy.”
Knowing it was her mother, Emily shook her head and insisted even more. “Hang it up.”
Walking over to the radio on the dresser, she smashed the power button.
“What is going on, Elizabeth?”