What Were They Thinking?
Epilogue
Memorial Day Bonfire
“GRANDMAS AND GRANDPA,” a bright voice called as the door slammed. “Papa said to call all the old folks out to lunch. The grills are cooking.”
“Old folks!” John hmphed as he stood to embrace his youngest granddaughter, Patricia. “I’m finally going to take that boy up in an airplane and push him out. I should have done it years ago, the first time he dated your mother.” He growled but no one believed him in the least.
“But grandpa, then you wouldn’t have me!” Patricia said. John hugged her more fiercely and brought Bea into the hug with them.
“I wouldn’t trade you for the world,” he whispered. “Not for the world.”
“Anybody need help getting outside?” Another voice said from the door as more of the grandchildren entered the house. Jenny Lynn entered the room dragging Drake Irving by the hand. “Come on, Drake. They won’t bite.”
“Y-Your family is… so big,” the boy stammered. He wasn’t as tall as the Trane boys, but he towered over his parents, Larry, Theresa, and Dawn.
“They’re not all my grandparents,” Jenny Lynn laughed. “But they are all our family.”
“Goodness, Drake! What did they feed you in college? I’m sure you’re six inches taller than you were in the fall!” Anna said as she stood to embrace her granddaughter and ‘the neighbor boy’.
“J-Just two inches. I think… I’m done now, Ms. Pratt.”
“Calling me Grandma doesn’t imply that you’re getting married,” she laughed. He blushed and squeezed Jenny Lynn’s hand.
“I-I know, Grandma Anna. I just-t get…” His left hand flew in signs. All the children on the ranch had been taught sign language and the adults had learned quickly to understand what was being said.
“Don’t let it bother you, Drake,” Marilyn said as she gave him a squeeze and then turned to embrace her granddaughters. “All God’s children got a voice in the choir. Some sing silently. We love you all.”
More grandkids waited outside as the older folks moved to join the rest of the clan where the guys manning the grills were dropping hamburgers and hotdogs onto the plates of the great grandchildren.
“We love any occasion to get everyone together and Memorial Day is a great opportunity. Now that most of our children are out of high school, they get out earlier in the spring and some have already headed away to their summer jobs. BD and Claudia are building a school in Djibouti and Whitney will be joining them as soon as school is out here. We’re all proud of them as this school will be a memorial to many of Major Anderson’s fallen comrades who served with her there.”
Whitney stepped forward and read the names of the soldiers and Marines she had served with who didn’t make it back, starting with the sergeant she commanded who died in the embassy attack at Dar es Salaam. Both John Clinton and Sly Cortales mentioned the names of other comrades who had fallen and Matthew stepped forward to read the name of Doug’s and Doreen’s uncle and Hayden’s best friend, Darnell Swift. It was a solemn occasion and everyone held a moment of silence when all the names had been read.
“In our little community,” Rose picked up the narration after the memorial service, “we also remember those of our clan and our tribe who have gone to rest and float now in the River of Life. We are all better for having known them, loved them, and lived with them.”
Samantha stepped forward to read the names of family members who had died since the forming of the clan, starting with Denise and Jack Raymond, her sister, her mother, Hayden, and the others who had passed on over the years and had their ashes raked into the stones of the little Zen garden.
The fire had been lit and chairs were set out for anyone who wanted to sit and watch the younger ones cavort. And cavort they did. By the time it was fully dark out there were a lot of nude bodies dancing around the fire ranging in age from two to fifty. Sixty-five. Dinita had barely kept her clothes on through the day and shed them as soon as the first toddler lost his diaper.
“Who would have thought it would all come to this?” John mused.
“Not me,” Rex said. “I thought we were just giving them a way to attend college together.”
“A safe way to date,” Saul mused. “That’s all the girls said they wanted.”
“How safe was it?” Dinita asked. “I guess they all got what they wanted.”
“If I had known my daughter was going to end up with two husbands and a wife, I might not have encouraged John to be more lenient,” Bea laughed. “But I love them so much my heart might burst. And they’ve given us four of the most beautiful grandkids I could imagine.”
“Josh, Mary, and Cassandra have all moved into the mansion with Brian, but we’re keeping our house so the grandkids have a place to live when they come home. Somehow they are more comfortable staying with the grandparents than the parents.”
“Ours are trying to get us to move to a cottage so they can have the extra room in the house,” Bart laughed. “I threatened to move back to Bardstown. Sending those girls here to college, though… That might have been the best decision we ever made.” Tiny Sylvia all but disappeared when she sat in her husband’s lap and kissed him.
“We aren’t out of the game yet,” Sly said. “Our kids still need us. As babysitters if nothing else. But we’ve got something precious here. Something I’m still committed to defend. It’s hard to see some of their new ideas taking shape. I know there are a few of the younger kids who haven’t kept to the agreement. When Steph got married she was two months pregnant and had only been seventeen for three months. Times change. People change. But the basics are still the same. I’ll do whatever is necessary to help them along, defend the village, and protect our children.”
“You are a treasure, Sly,” Marilyn said. “We all love you and thank you. The best we can do now is to simply let the children, the grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren know. No matter what, we still love them.”
The End
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