Mack was in the kitchen cooking breakfast when Thomas arrived bearing a gift of daisies. He shoved the flowers at her with a slight blush. “Picked you these on the way.”
Smiling at him, she reached out and took the flowers, then gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Thomas. I don’t ever remember being given flowers by a gentleman before.” She stretched up to the top shelf of the cupboard for a vase.
“That guy in that fancy suit at your apartment gave you flowers,” Lucas stated.
“Yes, but he wasn’t a gentleman. Now go wash up and stop listening to adult conversations.” She tried to hide her embarrassment by setting the table for breakfast.
Sometimes she really wished she could gag Lucas. He was her nephew and she loved him, but sometimes . . . Ugh!
She turned back toward Thomas, who appeared to still be chuckling at Lucas’s comment. “Are you all right, Thomas?” she asked. She took in his appearance and he seemed better this morning but that hadn’t stopped her from worrying about him last night.
“I’m fine. Don’t be worrying about me.”
She gave him a long look. “Okay, I won’t . . . for now.”
“I was wondering if Lucas would like to come back with me to look through some more comics.”
“That would be fine. What comics are they?”
No sooner had Thomas sat at the table, she put his breakfast in front of him. “Thanks, Mack. Our Gang. I have every issue as well.”
She was sitting at the table, now that Lucas had joined them. “You know I’ve heard of them. They’re the ‘Little Rascals’ characters, right?”
“That’s right. I have the first issue in October 1942, to the last one before they added Tom and Jerry, which would be issue thirty-eight in November 1947. Didn’t much care for the Tom and Jerry stories,” he said, enjoying his breakfast.
“Wow, that’s some collection you must have.”
“I know.”
They finished the rest of their breakfast in silence, apart from Lucas, who kept slurping his milk.
The rest of the morning was spent with Lucas and Thomas bent over the atlas, trying to find where his parents were now.
Not long after, the two headed out for some fun, hand in hand. Mack was really surprised with how quickly they had become friends. Lucas was used to spending time with older people, because of his grandparents and where they lived, but it usually took a lot longer for him to warm up to someone new. Then again, Thomas wasn’t like the people at her parents’ village. He was, different; all grumpy on the outside, and like a mischievous little boy on the inside, so perfect for Lucas.
“Thomas?” Lucas said with a quizzical look on his face. “Why don’t you like Tom and Jerry?”
Thomas hadn’t expected that question and burst out laughing. “I preferred the Our Gang kids. They used to get into trouble like I did as a child.” He grinned. “Used to give me some good ideas, too!”
As they walked hand in hand to Thomas’s cottage, it brought back memories of another time. Except he was the child, and his sister, Rose, was the one holding his hand. She had been ta
king him to the beach, probably close to seventy-five years ago now, when he was five or six.
With his cottage door open, Lucas ran inside, straight to the living room where Thomas kept the comics for him to read. Thomas followed behind him with his mind still on Rose. He hadn’t thought about her in a long time. He’d loved his sister, and always thought she’d died hating him until Mack had started to read the diary.
He’d lived with regret about that final night, and in sixty-eight years, he hadn’t spoken about it. If only he’d told his father, perhaps Rose would have lived her life with the man she’d obviously loved. It wouldn’t have been easy at first because of their father, but if their love were true, they would have made it work.
An excited Lucas brought him back to the present. “Can I look at this one, Thomas, please?”
He glanced down. “Not that one.” He removed it from Lucas’s excited fingers as he pulled out the next issue and offered it to him. “Try this one.”
Thomas moved away from Lucas and walked the short distance to his bedroom. He felt so old, but the comic in his hands, as he glanced down at it, brought back the memories as though they had happened only yesterday and not sixty-eight years ago. Sitting on the side of his bed, he placed the comic on his night table to read later, when he was alone.
It was dated April 1, 1947, the comic his sister had bought him as a surprise. She’d left it on his bed the night she’d died. He’d placed it into the box with the other issues, having never opened it.
Perhaps it was time to lay old ghosts to rest and read it.
Mack, who had the morning alone, decided to retrieve her laptop so she could start doing some very important research. She really needed to try to find Jacob. Hell, she was half in love with him herself.