“I still say there’s something fishy going on! How on earth did ‘family’ show up so fast? Especially when he didn’t have no family that I ever heard of,” said the first man.
“Well, we were up here a few weeks ago,” said Patrick. “We were visiting Brian then and my wife is related to him.” “Here’s hoping Ginny will forgive me for that little white lie,” he thought.
“Yeah right. Just more lies,” said the man.
“ENOUGH!” shouted Luc this time, heavy on the sub-vocals. “I give everyone three minutes to leave the premises. After that, I’m calling the sheriff.”
Everyone was so shocked, that they left. Luc locked the front door and Patrick turned the sign to Closed.
“That should take care of that,” said Luc as they walked down the hall towards the kitchen. Patrick nodded and was still trying to get the goosebumps to go away.
*
“You said what?” asked Ginny,
“It was just a little white lie,” said Patrick. You yourself said you had a grandma from Canada. What’s the possibility that you are related? Pretty damn close? Sort of like you are to Luc?”
“Well, okay. That reminds me. We need to go through his stuff and find his real relatives,” said Ginny.
“Why don’t you and Meg go do that while the men and ‘Buster’ go take a look around,” said Angie. “I’ll help Sam.”
“Is that alright with you?” asked Luc. Angie was right. A walk with ‘Buster’ would help squelch a lot of things.
“Don’t forget to have him go by the Dog Bar for a slice of pizza,” said Sam. “When he was feeling good he’d go by and they’d always give him a piece.”
“Good idea. We’ll be back soon,” said Luc as he, ‘Buster’ and Patrick went out the back door.
Sam turned to Ginny. “Here’s the key to his room. Go through the stuff and figure out what you need to keep or toss,” she said.
Ginny nodded and headed down the hall with Meg trailing behind her.
Three hours later, Ginny was pouring over a diary. Meg had laid down on the bed and taken a nap. Ginny was shaking her head, not able to believe what she was reading. “Damn! Patrick didn’t lie!” she thought. She re-read the family tree in the back of the diary again.
Me and Natalie
(1916) Jenny and?
(1931) Lizzybit and David
(1948) Margaret and Jonathan
Ginny had found the family tree first as there had been a bunch of pictures stuck in the back of the diary. She glanced at the writing when the name Margaret jumped out at her. Margaret and Jonathan were her parents. That made Buster her great-great grandfather.
Buster had somehow lost track of the family prior to her birth or that of any of her siblings as none were listed. She’d been going through the other boxes first. Lots of pictures, a uniform with more ribbons than tunic and lots of memorabilia. There was also a picture of a young woman with a baby on her hip wearing Roaring Twenties style clothing. The writing on the back was smeared, but Ginny could make out ” ta l e n J n” She was looking at a picture of her great-great grandmother and her great grandmother.
Patrick came to check on Ginny and Meg and found Ginny surrounded by photos. She had a small leather bound book clutched in one hand.
“Ginny?” he said softly. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. You didn’t lie,” she said.
“What? What do you mean?” Patrick asked.
“Today, you told that crowd that it was a family funeral, and that I was related to Brian. You were right,” Ginny said quietly.
“I… How?” asked Patrick.
The noise had woken Meg up who stretched and yawned. “Yeah, how Ginny?” she asked.
“This is his diary. Up until about 1950. It shows his family and it shows a woman named Margaret who’s married to Jonathan being born in 1948. That’s my mom and dad,” said Ginny.
“But that could be anyone,” said Patrick.
“Yes, but my grandparents were Elizabeth and David. That’s why Bitty is Elizabeth,” said Ginny. Then she handed the diary with the names and dates to Patrick.
“Oh wow,” said Patrick.
“There are other things too. Some of these pictures I remember. My mom and grandma had copies,” said Ginny.
Patrick didn’t know what to say except to walk around and hug Ginny.
They gathered up all of the photographs, and repacked the boxes. Ginny held onto the diary. She wanted to finish reading it.
“Let’s go get something to eat,” said Patrick.
“Okay. I totally spaced lunch. Plus I want to hear about your trip out with ‘Buster’,” said Ginny.
“So do I,” said Meg.
The three of them locked the door and went to find Sam.
*
Over dinner everyone talked about Ginny’s find. Since they were in the dining room, George had shifted back and joined them.
“You should have seen them at the Dog Bar. Those two paramedics had them convinced that ‘Buster’ was dead and gone. So when he showed up for pizza, they just about shit,” said George. “It’s good pizza too.”
That made everyone laugh.
“So, if Brian is Ginny’s great-great grandfather, that makes him Luc’s and George’s great-great uncle or something like that,” said Meg.
“Yes. Jenny had a couple of sisters and brothers and one of her sisters ran off with an uncle of Luc’s,” said Ginny.
“You know, if’n I didn’t know better, I’d a thunk I was in the twilight zone,” said Sam.
“Dee dee Dee dee,” sang Patrick who then smiled at Sam.
Sam smiled. She was glad that they were here to help her. It didn’t take away the pain, but it certainly helped to ease it.
“I talked to Doc Roger’s friend who’s the pastor of the local chapel and he said we could hold a service there tomorrow if we were up to it, or day after. I called the funeral home and they said everything would be ready by 10am tomorrow,” said Patrick.
“We are doing two remembrances aren’t we?” asked Luc.