It took Will fifteen minutes to reach the front steps of the home where he’d grown up. Aunt Hannah and Uncle Frank had taken him in when his father – Hannah’s brother – was killed in a robbery at the store. His mother had been long gone by that time when she died shortly after childbirth with Will. Hannah and Frank, unable to have children of their own, had adopted him when he was eight years old, and raised him in a traditional, God-fearing home. They’d sent him to school and made sure that he went to church every Sunday, and done their best to raise a responsible, respectable member of society.
He stood in front of the door, catching his breath for a moment, and realized that he owed these people more than he’d ever realized. They’d taken him in when no one else wanted him, and stood by him when any reasonable couple would have sent him to boarding school. If it hadn’t been for them, he couldn’t imagine where he’d be or what he’d be doing. Why, they’d even encouraged him to travel west, to follow his dreams of becoming a sheriff in that wild country. Without them … he shook his head, sending the thought away, and jumped up the stairs, taking them two at a time the way he had when he was a teenager. He stepped through the door and straightened, memories of his childhood, washing over him.
“Aunt Hannah! Uncle Frank! I’m home!” he shouted out, child like.
There was a shriek from the bedroom at the top of the stairs, and a voice called out, “Willie, is it really you?”
It was his Aunt Hannah. He ran toward the stairs, his heart feeling lighter at the sound of her voice, and clambered up the carpeted steps. Before he reached the top, he remembered that Hannah didn’t know about his shoulder, and that he needed to hide it for the moment. He grabbed his right hand with his left and stuffed it into his jacket pocket, counting on his feeble shoulder strength to keep it there as long as it could. He didn’t want to answer any questions – not when he had so many of his own.
He turned to hurry up the last several steps, and stepped toward the doorway. When he entered, he saw that Hannah was in her bed, with Frank sitting in the chair to her right. She didn’t look well – pale and wasted away, as if she’d been sick for some time. Still, her eyes shone and her smile was genuine.
“Willie!” she gasped, grinning. “Come give me a hug! Boy, I’ve missed you so much!”
He rushed toward the bed, hugging her tightly, and then turning to hug Frank, using only his left arm. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been far too long.” He stood back, smiling from one to the other. Hannah, to his dismay, looked right at his right arm, the hand so obviously still stuck in its pocket.
“Will, what’s wrong with your right arm?” she asked quickly. “Have you had some sort of accident?”
He grinned, embarrassed. How stupid of him to think she might not notice. Hannah had always noticed everything. “Yes,” he nodded, “I did have a bit of an accident. That’s why I came home when I did – I’m hoping I can find a specialist here, to treat it. Medicine in the West isn’t quite what it is here.”
“What happened?” Frank asked concerned. “Has it been treated at all? Have you seen anyone about it?”
“Yes, a lady in … um … Texas helped me. Bandaged it for me and treated it until I was well enough to get out of bed. The problem is that it’s a very deep injury. It seems to have affected the muscles that move my shoulder.” He moved his shoulder slightly, demonstrating that it was all he could do, and shrugged helplessly. “My range of motion is completely gone.” He paused, wondering if he should tell them anything else, or if they’d notice that he was leaving things out. Finally he let it lie at that – telling them about the gunfight would only make them worry. He was a grown man, now, but there was always a chance of them forbidding him from going back. He wasn’t certain how he would deal with that. Better to just avoid the situation, he thought grimly.
Hannah gave him a long, knowing look, but then glanced behind him toward the door. “Has Mary come with you?” she asked. “We’re so anxious to meet her! Your telegram didn’t say if she was coming along with you.”
Will gulped. Another complication. He hadn’t told them about Mary’s death, having been too caught up in his own misery at the time. He’d been drunk for days after his wife was killed, and when he came out of his depression he was on his way into Mexico, hunting down the men who’d killed her. Sending a message to his family about the death of a woman they’d never even met had never occurred to him.
“No,” he said, deciding now wasn’t the time to talk about it either. “She decided to stay home in Roma. She has a growing medical practice, and didn’t want to leave her patients unattended. I’ll send her a telegram that I arrived safely. I ran here from the shop, so I haven’t had a chance to contact her yet. I wanted to say hello to the family first!”
Hannah stared at him, narrowing her eyes in suspicion, and Will swallowed heavily. She knew him better than anyone alive, and she’d always been able to tell when he was hiding something. She obviously suspected something now. Finally, she shook her head, seeming to decide against pressing him, and kept quiet.
“How are you both feeling?” Will asked suddenly, keen to break the developing tension. He’d never been good at lying to his aunt and uncle, and he didn’t like it any better now. Better to keep the conversation going. “Uncle Benjamin tells me that you’ve been ill. He also told me about Grandma and Grandpa.”
Hannah nodded slowly. “It was terrible losing them both so quickly, but neither wanted to live without the other. In the end, I suppose it was best that it happened the way it did.” She looked down for a moment, then looked back up, grinning. “Now tell me, what exactly did Benny say about me when you talked to him? He’s always telling lies, that one. Even as a child, he would spread lies about your father and me playing outside when we were supposed to be inside. Always getting us into trouble! He would run to our parents and spread all kinds of lies!” Everyone laughed, and Hannah’s face became dreamy as she remembered her childhood.
Finally Will shook his head, holding his sides and taking a deep breath to recover from the laughter. “All he said was that you were sick. He wouldn’t say anything else. He did tell me to come see you, though. Why are you in bed rather than at the store, helping run everything? I’ve never seen it in such disarray. It’s certainly missing your touch!”
Hannah shook her head, her face growing serious again. “It’s my heart. The doctor says it’s quite worn out. It doesn’t beat right anymore, and sometimes I can’t catch my breath. I haven’t been able to get out of bed for many months. My legs don’t work the way they should, so even if I make it out of bed, I can’t get down the hall without falling. Frankie has to sit with me and keep an eye on me, so he can’t help Benny at the store. And I have to take all these pills.” She gestured despondently toward the table on her left, where Will could see several bottles full of white and pink tablets.
“I have a hard time getting her to take the pills,” Frank cut in, frustrated. “I have to hide them in her food so she doesn’t know she’s taking them.” He exchanged a quick look with Hannah. A look that combined frustration, despair, and heart-rending love.
Will scowled. “Hannah, you have to take your medication,” he muttered, going to the table and picking the bottles up at random. He stared at the labels without seeing them, still too shocked by the news to fully understand it. “You want to get better, don’t you?”
She snorted. “Those pills don’t make me feel better, Willie. They might work on other people, but they don’t work on me.” Will caught her wry sense of humor, and knew her well enough to see that this was simply a case of her not wanting to take the medications. If she’d set her mind against something, nothing in the world would change it. In truth, he was surprised that Frank hadn’t come to that conclusion himself.
“I’m at the end of my rope, Will,” she added quietly. “No amount of medication is going to change that. I know, and I think everyone else must know it, but no one will admit it. When I try to talk to Frank about it, he turns and leaves the room. I try to talk to him about what will happen once I’m gone, and how I hope he’ll find someone to take care of him, but he won’t hear it.”
At her words, Frank did indeed get up and stride quickly out of the room, as advertised. Will watched him go, his heart sinking. Although he could understand Hannah’s point of view, and her need to talk about those she would be leaving behind, he could also understand why Frank didn’t want to discuss it. He didn’t want to talk about it – the thought of his aunt dying was ripping his heart in two. It was obvious that Hannah needed to unburden her heart to someone, though, and no one else was giving her the chance.
He turned to her, his face pleading. “Aunt Hannah, let me talk to Frank, man to man. You just lay in your bed, take your medications, and do what you can to get better. I won’t give up hope, and I don’t want you giving up, either!”
Hannah smiled gently, as if she didn’t believe a word he was saying, but nodded and lay back on the pillows. “I’m going to sleep. I’m tired now. Promise you won’t leave without saying goodbye.”
Will reached out and put his hand on hers. “I’m not leaving for a long time, Aunt Hannah. I’ll be here when you wake up, and for a long time after that,” he answered softly. Turning, he crept out of the room, leaving her behind.
Frank was standing at the top of the stairs when he closed the door, clutching the rail tightly.
“Can I help you with something, Uncle Frank?” Will asked sympathetically. He couldn’t imagine how difficult this must be for the man. The love of his life was dying, slipping slowly away from him in front of his eyes, and there was nothing he could do. Mary had been taken so quickly, and it had still hurt worse than anything Will had ever felt. How much worse would it have been to watch her suffering as she died slowly, day by day?
He walked slowly forward and took Frank’s arm, steadying him as they walked down the stairs. “You know, boy, I remember the day you were born,” Frank said quietly when they reached the bottom.
Surprised, Will barked with laughter. “What?”
“Oh yes! For weeks before you were born, your dad was a nervous wreck. Out of his mind with nerves. He was so excited that he could barely function or talk straight. One day, a neighbor came to the store and said that your mom had gone into labor at home. Your dad told this woman to run to the doctor’s office quick, and that he was going straight home. He ran out of there so fast that he almost got hit by a trolley crossing the street. He never saw the flashing lights telling him to stop and wait. You should have heard the conductor yelling at your dad and shaking his fist, calling him crazy!”
Will chuckled, thinking of his own trip across the street an hour earlier.
“Your dad got home to find Olive in bed and obviously in a lot of pain. The doctor arrived soon after, and several hours later, you were born! We closed the store early and put up a big sign on the door that said, ‘Another Austin has been born in Boston today!’ It was such a wonderful day!”
“I never heard that story before, Uncle Frank,” Will murmured. It was one of the things he’d missed in his childhood – having people around who could tell him every intimate detail of his earlier years. He’d never thought that his aunt and uncle knew things like that. Somehow it made him feel … whole. “Thanks.”
“Well, no one knew how much trouble you were going to be, then!” Frank laughed. “It was a great day for everyone.” Frank stopped briefly and lowered his head in respect. “It was a terrible blow to lose your mom shortly after. The doctor tried everything, but she had lost too much blood.”
They slowly walked into the kitchen, where Frank sat at the table while Will boiled some water for coffee. He was mixing the coffee in the pot on the stove when he heard the sound of soft weeping behind him. Turning, he saw that Frank had laid his head on the table, inside his crossed arms, and was now crying gently to himself.
“Oh Frank,” Will said, moving toward him. He laid a gentle hand on his back. “Please don’t cry. I don’t think I can stand it.”
Frank lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot. “Willie, the doctor’s right. Hannah’s dying and doesn’t have long to live. I don’t want to talk with her about that, so I always walk out of the room. But she knows the truth of it. I’m sure she can feel it. I know it makes her mad when I leave, but I just can’t deal with the thought of it. She’s been my sole purpose for living for over seven decades. What am I going to do without her?” At the thought, his head dipped back to the table and his sobs began again.
Will sighed. “Uncle Frank, Hannah isn’t mad at you for not talking with her. She’s concerned and worried about you. You have to see it from her side of things, too. She wants to make sure that you’re taken care of when she’s gone. She feels exactly the same way you do. You’ve been together for so long, and she doesn’t want to leave you alone. She just wants to make sure that there’ll be someone here to watch after you. If you want – if it makes her feel better – I’ll stay with you for a while. I’ll take care of you.”
Frank lifted his head, confused. “I thought you were only visiting for a short time. Don’t you have a wife and job to get back to in Texas?
“Uncle Frank, I’ll stay here in Boston for as long as you need me. I promise. And while I’m here, I can make sure that the store gets back in shape. It looks terrible!”
Frank smiled. “I think Hannah would like to hear that. Do you mind if I go tell her right now? I’d like to be the one to deliver the good news.”
“Don’t you want to finish your coffee?”
But Frank didn’t hear him. He was already out of his chair and halfway up the stairs. Will grinned to himself, listening as Frank reached the second floor and rushed into Hannah’s bedroom.
“Hannah, I have the most terrific news!” he shouted above, his voice echoing down through the floor. Then his voice turned from joy to horror. “Hannah? Hannah! Will! Hannah won’t wake up! Get up here!”
Will dropped the mug of coffee to the floor and rushed out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and into the room. Frank was shaking Hannah roughly, shouting at her to wake up, but Will could see that she was limp, her hands and mouth open and nerveless, and her eyes barely closed.
If she wasn’t already dead, she was going to be soon.
“I’m going to get a doctor. Where’s his office?” he snapped, turning back toward the door.
“Over on Market and Fifth,” Frank shouted, continuing to shake Hannah. “Please hurry!”
He dashed by the store on his way to the doctor’s office, shouting for Benjamin to get to Frank and Hannah’s, and for Emma to run home and retrieve her mother. Then he sprinted toward the office with the doctor’s sign. He burst through the gate and dashed to the door, where he banged on the wood until a housekeeper opened it. Will explained who he was and what had happened, and she ran to the back room to get the doctor. The doctor arrived quickly, shouting for the housekeeper to call the church, and accompanied Will back to Frank and Hannah’s.
By the time Will got back with the doctor, Uncle Benjamin had arrive and pulled Frank out of the room. They both realized that Hannah was gone, and greeted the doctor with resigned, grief-stained voices. The doctor didn’t take long to confirm that she was gone, and the father from the local parish arrived moments later, quickly moving to give Hannah Preston her last rites.
An hour later, it was all over. Frank was in the bedroom, sleeping fitfully with the help of some pills by the doctor, and Will and Father Dunnigan sat in the kitchen, talking quietly about the past.
“I remember you when you were a lad and getting into trouble,” the priest said.
“I remember that also, Father,” Will responded sheepishly.
“I hear from your family that you’re doing quite well in Texas, though. Sheriff of a town on the border, and catching some big gang and putting them into prison in Mexico. I hear you also got married to a pretty young doctor.” The priest laughed at the irony, and winked at Will.
“Yes, Father. Thank you. All those things have indeed happened, though who would have guessed? I’m going to be staying here for a few months, though, to help Uncle Frank get things arranged and get the store back in order.”
The priest nodded. “That’s a good idea, son.” He rose, looking around, and turned toward the door. “Well, my work here is done, and I have other things to see to. Thank you for the coffee. Remember, Will – Hannah loved you very much. She was very proud of you. She would want you all to go on and live happy lives, even after she’s passed on.”
Will nodded, knowing that Father Dunnigan was right. Hannah would want them to be happy. That didn’t make her passing any easier. And it would bring small comfort to Frank, who had just lost the love of his life.
“Don’t be a stranger. Come to church on Sunday,” Father Dunnigan added softly, seeming to hear Will’s thoughts. “It will help to bring you comfort and make Hannah happy.” With that, he turned and walked out the door, leaving Will to his thoughts and sorrow.
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