By Way of Autumn Read online

“Susan…”

  “Shh. Candy doesn’t have to be registered.” She winked. “Tell him it’s from Aunt Sue.”

  “I will. Thank you.”

  She left. I placed the candy in my sweater pocket, grabbed the last box and took it to the shelf. I wasn’t paying attention when I returned. I had sat down, pulled the paperwork forward, when a can of sardines, a single can, was set on the desk.

  “What did you do? Feel guilty about keeping it?” I asked with a laugh.

  “No, you gave it to me,” a male voice said. “I did not eat it and thought you’d want it back since you collect rations.”

  Slowly, I lifted my eyes.

  I screamed his name as I jumped to my feet. “Luis!” I flung open the door and raced out, blasting him with my body and arms. “I thought you were dead.”

  “I sent you many messages, but none made it through, I suppose. I was stuck in Virginia. They wouldn’t let me return. I had a government truck, so I had to stay there.” He pulled back some and placed his hands on my shoulders. “I never stopped looking for your girls. I carried their numbers.” He patted his chest pocket.

  “I know. Thank you.”

  “I never stopped…” he said. “Until I found them.”

  Was he joking? I locked eyes with him and his eyes squinted with a smile.

  I felt everything inside of me tremble and when he sidestepped his tall body, I saw my girls.

  Julie carried Liam on her hip, he had grown so much. The girls looked healthy and fine. A little thin, but weren’t we all.

  I cried out so loudly, I was afraid security was going to come.

  The Mommys and Marmies along with tears were in abundance as we embraced and cried.

  Then it hit me.

  “Did he tell you?” I asked Nicole

  “Tell me what?”

  I looked at Luis.

  “No. I want you to do so.” Luis said.

  “Tell us what?” asked Julie. “He said nothing about you being alive either. Only that Sam was looking for us.”

  “I wanted it to be a surprise,” said Luis. “It needed to be a surprise.”

  “Where...where’s Josh?” I asked.

  Nicole lowered her head. “He died of the flu right after we left. That’s why we didn’t end up in New Haven. We had to wait for another transport. They didn’t register us there. But he was sick. Real sick like Tag.”

  It was so sad that we had lost Josh, I needed a moment to absorb that, to grieve that, but my insides were jumping with excitement over seeing my children and telling Nicole.

  But instead of telling her, I grabbed her hand and started to run.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Mom, wait, I can’t run with Liam.” Julie called out. “Why are we running?”

  I didn’t answer, I just flew down the hall to the small room where the children had school. There were seven of them in there.

  Without knocking, I opened the door. “Sorry Miss Beasley,” I apologized. “Can I see…?”

  “Tag!” Nicole screamed. “Oh my God.”

  The second Tag cried out, “Mommy!” Nicole couldn’t walk. She tried but her legs gave way and she dropped to the floor as Tag charged to her and leapt into her long awaited arms.

  There’s a sound in the cry a mother makes when she loses her child. A sound only a mother could make. I never knew the opposite could occur when a mother was reunited with a child she believed was lost.

  “I thought you were gone.” Nicole sobbed. Her hands feeling and grasping Tag. “I thought you both were gone.”

  Julie raced toward the room and I stopped her for a moment to kiss her, then released her to hold Tag.

  Reaching out, I grabbed onto Luis. There were no words. I couldn’t thank him enough.

  Wrapping my arms around his waist, I saw Sam at the end of the corridor.

  “Tell me it’s true,” he said breathily. “Tell me.”

  I nodded.

  Sam’s hip had been giving him trouble since the weather turned bitterly cold, but he moved faster than I had seen him move in months.

  Another interruption, a good interruption into Miss Beasley’s class.

  I looked up at Luis. He smiled from ear to ear. Did he know the magnitude of what he did? What he meant to us? I hoped he did. This big man with a huge heart, rolled into our lives and became the angel we needed in a dire situation.

  From the hall I watched as they all embraced. The other kids asking Tag if that was his mom. Laughter, tears and hugs. It was phenomenal. I could also tell that Liam was different and Julie, not Nicole, had taken that mother role. She just was so mature with him.

  “Don’t you want to go and join?” Luis asked.

  “No, I am enjoying watching.”

  I could stand there forever and watch. It saddened me to think Josh, with all that he had done, didn’t make it. Did his family know? Were they, like me, searching desperately for their son? If they didn’t know, that would be my next goal. No parent should go through life not knowing what happened to their child. No matter the outcome, it had to be known, resolved.

  The reunion continued and I supposed it would for a long time. We were separated for months. Never knowing about the other. Left with only guessing and hoping.

  All that was behind us.

  It didn’t matter what became of the world. It didn’t matter if it were cold and gray, dying and desperate. It seemed a lot less dismal and lot more doable in the wake of having my family back.

  We had our losses, great losses. This was a victory. A long awaited victory. We were reunited. That was all that mattered.

  There was a long road of hardship behind us and an even longer road ahead. It was a journey into an uncertain future, one that we would take as a family unit.

  Apart, yes, we would survive. But together we do more than just survive…we would live.

  <><><><>

  Thank you so much for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it. Please visit my website www.jacquelinedruga.com and sign up for my mailing list for updates and new releases.

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  Table of Contents

  ONE – STICKYJuly 7

  Two – RoutineJuly 8

  Three – Regrets

  FOUR – STALLEDJuly 9

  FIVE – ROLL OVER

  SIX – ROAD HOME

  SEVEN – Touched

  EIGHT – Wait

  NINE – REAL WORLD

  TEN – COOL

  Eleven – Executive orderJuly 12

  TWELVE – HIGHWAY

  Thirteen – SPORADIC

  FOURTEEN – MOVING

  FIFTEEN – PILES

  SIXTEEN - SMELL

  SEVENTEEN – SWEAT

  EIGHTEEN – GUESSES

  NINETEEN – DISCOVERYJuly 13

  TWENTY – FROM THE LEFT

  TWENTY-ONE – Nova Scotia

  TWENTY-TWO – THE HAND

  TWENTY-THREE - STALLED

  TWENTY-FOUR - HOME

  TWENTY-FIVE – This Stone Will PassJuly 14

  TWENTY-SIX - EMPTY

  TWENTY-SEVEN – BOURBON

  TWENTY-EIGHT – CHANGING

  TWENTY-NINE - Tag, You’re ItJuly 15

  THIRTY – ACCEPTANCE and DECISIONS

  THIRTY-ONE - SAILOR’S DELIGHT

  THIRTY-TWO - Good LifeJuly 16

  THIRTY-THREE - CHOICE

  THIRTY-FOUR – Story

  THIRTY-FIVE – Three TimesJuly 17

  THIRTY-SIX - ASSESSING

  THIRTY-EIGHT – Catching breath

  THIRTY-NINE - HeadlightsJuly 18

  FORTY - Last Transport

  FORTY-ONE - Retained

  FORTY-TWO - Waiting GameFort Ticonderoga, NY

  FORTY-THREE - SARDINESNovember 8