"Huh?"
"Nothing, Daddy. Just kidding."
"Yes, well that's something we haven't had around here for a long time, kidding. Go settle yourself in your old nest, little bird."
He smiled at me, and I stood there for a moment remembering an earlier time. I didn't know exactly when, but I remembered running up to him when he was sitting at the dinner table and him holding out his arms. He lifted me and put me in his lap and hugged and kissed me. Was it a dream?
He held up his arms, and I went to him now. He embraced me. "I'm so sorry for everything. Jordan."
For a long moment, we just held on to each other. Then he kissed my cheek and I turned and ran to the stairway. The tears flew off my chin as I hurried up to my room.
I sat on my bed right where I'd sat the day Felix had come to take me away, only now I closed my eyes and worked hard on Ian's telepathy. I concentrated on reaching my mother. and I tried and tried until I was sure I heard her voice, heard how happy she was that I was home again. She promised me she would return soon. too.
It had been a long time since I'd sat and had dinner with my father. Of course. I missed Ian and my mother at the table, but Daddy talked about all his new plans.
He spoke to me as if I'd already been a grownup and he wanted my opinions. After dinner, he went to the office and made some phone calls to see how Great-aunt Frances was doing. Later, he told me she would be heading home even sooner than expected.
"Won't she wonder where I am?" I asked.
"She's been told and she's also been told that as soon as she's strong enough, she's being brought here to visit you a
nd me and, who la-lows, maybe even your grandmother."
"Good," I said.
I asked again about Ian, and he promised he would work on our visiting him as soon as possible.
"I've been speaking with your mother's doctor. Jordan. We'll be going to see her this weekend. I want to stress that you shouldn't get your hopes up too high, but they're leaning toward a more positive prognosis, which means more hopeful. It might take a long time yet, if at all. Okay?"
I nodded, too terrified that I might think or say something that would change his mind. He smiled.
"You are growing up so fast. I feel like I'm in a rocket ship watching."
Comforted with all this new promise and hope, I was able to curl up in my own bed and fall asleep quickly. I had once again been riding on an emotional roller coaster and was far more tired than I had imagined.
After breakfast the following morning. Felix took me to visit Grandmother Emma. For the visit. I put on the dress she had bought me on my birthday. She'll be surprised to see me wearing a bra now, I thought. I fixed my hair and put on a string of pearls my mother had given me some time ago. When I thought I looked good enough to make a proper presentation to my grandmother. I left the house and walked toward the limousine. Daddy wheeled out to wish me luck.
"Well, look at you, a young woman, a beautiful young woman.'
"Daddy." I said. even though I soaked in the compliment. He laughed.
"I guess it all comes natural to you girls." "What?"
"Never mind. You'll know. Now remember, you don't look the queen directly in the eyes," he joked. I started toward the limousine. "Tell her I made you sleep on a bed of nails in a closet," he shouted after me. "Tell her I installed the chair lift on her stairway."
"I will not. Daddy," I said, and he laughed.
Moments later, we were on our way, and my heart was beating as quickly as the wheels were turning on the road. The ride wasn't as long as I'd anticipated. Grandmother Emma was in a building that Felix said had been recently bought by a group of Yen' wealthy people and was supported through charity balls and events and heavy donations. The building and the Grounds had been constructed to make it look like anything but a place to house and treat stroke victims. In many ways it looked like the March mansion.
It was a large, light-gray stucco structure with beautiful stonework around its entrance and first-floor windows. With its round tower, it did look like the castle my grandmother thought she owned. I wondered if she now imagined she was really the queen she pretended to be.
The parking lot was in the rear so that anyone who approached it and didn't know what it was would not assume it was in any way a medical facility or any sort of institution. There were no big sips announcing it either. I asked Felix about that and he said. "If you have the money to be brought here, you don't need signs telling you you're here."
I guess he was right. Exceptionally detailed care was taken with its grounds. The perfectly trimmed hedges looked like they had been pruned with scissors from a beauty salon. The small ponds had water percolating over colored rocks, and there was statuary placed everywhere I looked. Some of it was of people, some of angels and some of birds. I saw some benches and smiled in amazement at the beds of beautiful flowers full of rainbow colors. Were they real?
I saw the curtains on the windows as we drove closer and then around the building. They looked like velvet drapes. In the rear there were a few dozen automobiles and a large van. The rear lawn flowed on and on in wavelike ripples until it reached a wooded area. Two men on large grass cutters were busy leveling out the autumn grass, and when I stepped out of the limousine, the sweet aroma perfumed the air around me.
There were still flocks of birds fluttering about in the clear sunshine to make for a pleasant, happy, melodic morning. If someone couldn't recuperate here. I thought. they couldn't get better anywhere. Looking out your window at this world certainly had to raise your spirits.