Free Return to Me by Robin Lee Hatcher Page B

yet?”
    “Yes. I’m in the boarding area now.” She hadn’t expected to talk to him before she got home. “I thought you were in a deposi- tion all day.”
    “I was supposed to be, but it got postponed until next week. So I thought I’d call my best girl.”
    Am I your best girl, Wyatt? Will I always be?
    “I’m missing you. I don’t like it when you’re gone.” She closed her eyes. “I miss you too.”
    “Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up at the airport so we can drive to your dad’s together?”
    “I’m sure. My car’s in the parking garage, and if you pick me up, we’d just have to go back for it later. There’s no sense in that.”
    “I wouldn’t mind.”
    “I know.” And she did know. Wyatt never minded doing for others. He had a servant’s heart. It was second nature to him. That was one reason he would make a wonderful pastor. “Thanks for offering, but I’ll meet you at Dad’s. If the flight’s on time, I should be at his house by six thirty.”
    “Okay. I’ll be praying for a safe flight and luggage that arrives when you do.”
    She smiled, feeling better. “Amen.” “Love you.”
    “Love you back. See you at Dad’s.”
    As Elena slipped the phone into its pocket, she said a silent prayer of thanksgiving and asked God to quiet the voices of doubt.
    R OXY
    May 1984

    Roxy sat under the school bleachers, hidden in shadows, hugging knees to chest, face pressed against her cotton skirt. The tears had long since dried on her cheeks, but every so often, a sob escaped her throat and her body shuddered.
    Parents and children — along with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends — had dispersed from the gymnasium after the close of the annual elementary school program. It was during the chaos of departures that Roxy slipped away from her dad and Grandma Ruth to hide under the bleachers. She’d held back the tears the whole time they watched Elena and the other sixth grad- ers performing, but finally she had to cry, and this was where she came to do it.
    “What’re you doing under there, Roxy?” Elena had found her. “Nothin’.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    Sob. Shudder. “Nothin’.” “Didn’t you like my piano solo?” “’Course I liked it.”
    “That’s good.” She motioned for Roxy to come out. “Dad and Grandma are ready to go home.”
    “Elena, are we orphans?”
    Her sister sat on the gym floor and scooted toward her. “’Course not. We’ve got a dad. Orphans don’t have a mom or a dad.”
    “Tiffany Smith says I’m gonna be an orphan next year when you go off to junior high.” Sob. Shudder.
    “Tiffany Smith doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s stupid.”
    Roxy swiped her forearm beneath her nose. “I know. That’s what I told her.”
    “Well, you can tell her something else. You tell her that if she picks on you, I’ll come back and give her what for. Nobody picks on my little sister.” She put her arm around Roxy and in a teasing voice added, “Nobody except me, that is. Right?”
    “Right.”
    She leaned her head against Elena’s shoulder, listening as the two of them breathed in unison. Inhale . . . exhale. Inhale . . . exhale . . .
    “Elena?”
    “Hmm.”
    “I miss Mama.” “Me too.”
    “Do you remember how good she used to smell?” “Like sugar cookies baking in the oven.”
    Roxy smiled. “Yeah. I miss that.” “Me too.”
    “Why did God take her and the baby to heaven? Didn’t He know we needed her here?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “He shouldn’t have done that, Elena. It makes us sad, not hav- ing her with us. God didn’t need her in heaven.”
    “Grandma Ruth says for everything there’s a purpose.”
    Roxy didn’t understand what that meant. It didn’t matter any- way. It wasn’t gonna make her feel better, and it wasn’t gonna make her miss her mama any less.
    And orphan or not, she would be alone when Elena went to a
    different school. Roxy didn’t want to be alone. It scared