Reconnecting the Past and the Present: Chapter 5

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Sarah had spent almost 20 years trying to forget her painful and difficult past. She had overcome so much and had built a successful life, then one day her past comes knocking on her door.

Reconnecting the Past and the Present
Chapter 5

By Rebecca Jane
Copyright© 2017 Rebecca Jane
All Rights Reserved.


Author's Note: My apologies for this one taking a few days, my daughters have been interrupting the heck out of me and my Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad died half way through this chapter, so typed the last bit with the on screen keyboard. It might explain why I stopped the chapter as soon as I did, hopefully this weekend I’ll have a new keyboard. Hope you all are continuing to enjoy. ~Rebecca


 
 
Chapter 5
 

After the phone call had ended, all three of them in the truck were contemplating, not only the prior conversation, but also the plans for the evening. Both of her parents had no idea what had transpired to their child between that fateful night and till now. Just the hardships that she had faced those few days on her trip to Tallahassee felt like a knife in their heart, but knowing that April had been there for her gave them some relief. Until now they had imagined almost every possible horror that could have befallen her.

Joan tried to apologize again, “Sarah we are so sorry for what we did… I promise that we didn’t mean for it to happen that way…”

Recounting those few days and then being interrupted by Steve, and then his insistence they she bring them to his house tonight had really caused her to tense up and she snapped, “Not now okay! We’re done talking about this for the moment!” She immediately regretted her words and the sting they carried. More calmly she said, “I’m sorry… Look were almost there, and I can’t be all emotional when we get there… I have a job to do…”

Bill nodded and said, “It’s okay… We understand, we’ve thrown your whole day off. Right Joan?” Joan just nodded in acknowledgment then he continued, “By the way… You haven’t exactly told us what you do…

A bit shocked that they weren’t aware of what she did for a living, she asked, “April never told you towards the end?” When they both shook their head no, she was surprised. Then again, April had told her over the years that her parents had never once asked about her, so she could see where April wouldn’t have brought it up before she wrote her letters. With that thought, and her parents seemingly interested, she spent the last few minutes of the drive filling them in on what she did, the role she now played, and what they were doing here today.

Her dad looked at her in awe, “Sarah, that is remarkable.”

Joan followed up with, “I’m so happy that you’ve done so well for yourself.”

She had to smile when she saw her dad’s head suddenly whip around as she pulled into a parking spot.

“That car looks just like yours other than the color!”, Bill exclaimed.

Sarah couldn’t help but laugh, “That’s Ben’s, that one is pretty much the reason I have mine. When I first started coming here to inspect the outsourced items we had them build, him and I started talking about it. Thanks to you always having me help you in the auto shop, I still have an interest in cars… Especially when they are as beautiful as that one.”

Her dad still eyeing the bright red 427 Cobra roadster as they walked towards the building, he noticed and said, “I see he has all the chrome badging on the car, I don’t remember yours having anything on it.”

Sarah smiled thinking at least they still had this in common, and told him, “Well for one thing Ben likes the old school muscle car and tried to keep it as authentic as possible. I don’t have the 427 badge on mine because it’s not a 427… I wanted a car I could afford to put gas in, so mine has a newer Boss 302. That and I’m not a flashy kind of person anyway. While its not that authentic, I just loved the sleek look of the plain midnight blue…”

As the reached the door she saw her dad give her a look of admiration as he stated, “Well they are both beautiful cars.” Sarah just smiled as she nodded, while she swiped her access badge.

They hadn’t made it but a few steps into the building, before this big bear of a man stepped around the corner and bellowed out a frustrated, “It’s about time young lady!” Then a smile creeped across his bearded face as he reached out his arms to give Sarah a hug, one which she readily returned.

“Hey big guy, sorry I was running late.”, Sarah said as she let go of him.

He just smiled and said, “Yeah Steve called and told me, you okay?”

She smiled and told him, “Yeah, at least we’re getting there. Oh Ben, this is Joan and Bill Richardson, my parents. This is Ben Duncan, master machinist and production manager here.”

Ben smiled and shook their hands, “It’s a pleasure to meet you both, welcome to the Toy Box.”

Bill looked confused and asked, “The toy box?”

Sarah gently laughed at her dad, “He’ll show you what he means by that, I’m sure. I just have to get started doing what I came here for.”

Ben then led them down a hallway and a few doors until they came into a room set up for her to do her inspection on the new part. Once making sure that Sarah had everything she needed, Ben directed her parents to follow him while she got to work. He led them to the large open area that was the main section of the shop, as soon as they walked in and Bill saw all the equipment, he started getting excited.

“Okay now I see what you meant by toy box, this place is incredible!” Bill exclaimed. Joan just rolled her eyes at her husband but she was obviously amused by his reaction.

Ben just laughed, “Sara had told me that you were a shop teacher, so I thought you’d appreciate this.”

Bill nodded, “Yeah I taught shop at the high school for almost forty years and also taught the auto shop class for twenty until they phased it out. Less and less kids wanted to take auto shop so they eventually did away with it.”

Ben replied, “Yeah we’re seeing less and less younger people showing interest in this kind of thing these days… I can see where Sarah took after you.”

Bill looked surprised, the big man obviously was friends with Sarah and both him and Joan had been surprised at how nice Ben was being to them. The compliment caught him off guard though, he softly muttered, “Well she probably wouldn’t like to hear that…”

Ben looked at him sadly and gently told him, “You’d be surprised about that… Since I’ve known her, she’s actually talked a good bit about you both.”

Joan spoke up, “She has? So she told you that we…”

“Kicked her out? Yeah she told me everything.”, Ben said.

They both look at each other for a moment before Bill asked, “Since you know and obviously care for her… Why are you being so… nice to us?”

Ben leaned back against the wall and with one hand rubbed his beard in thought, finally he said, “Look, I know what you two are trying to do… I commend you for trying to make amends with her. I’m actually rooting for you in this…”

Joan questioned, “Really? Why?”

Ben just smiled at her before saying, “Look, I’m a parent too. I’ve made mistakes, quite a few of them… Probably not quite as epic as you two, but still… I have two daughters, Carly is 17 and Bree is 15. A few years ago, Carly was in a really bad place. I wasn’t listening to her, and kept telling her to toughen up, and quit letting things bother her so much… Then about 3 years ago we had found out she had started hurting herself, and was spiraling down pretty fast…” Ben paused to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand before continuing, “I was helping Sarah put the engine in her car, you know doing the heavy lifting and such. She noticed that something was bothering me, and it took her almost half an hour to pry it out. When I told her about Carly and what was going on, Sarah immediately wanted to talk to her… At first I refused and told Sarah she couldn’t help, we didn’t think anyone could…”

Joan noticed the mans eyes misting up, she gently squeezed his hand,“Was she able to help?”

Ben nodded, “And then some… I kept telling her no, until Sarah told me what she had gone through… and why… I’ll admit I never saw that coming… I had never once thought she had ever been anything but Sarah… That kind of threw me for a loop, but knowing what she had been through… Maybe with her experiences with overcoming her depression I thought she possibly could help. It was just a risk I was willing to take… So we drove back to my house and Sarah marched herself up to Carly’s room and she stayed up there for almost 3 hours talking… Since then both of my girls look up to her sort of like a big sister, and Dawn and I consider her our third daughter pretty much now.” He paused to clear his throat and resumed, “Sarah has a huge heart, with a capacity to care about people that you rarely see… She truly is a special lady, doesn’t matter even if she wasn’t born a girl…”

Bill and Joan both smiled, then Joan asked, “So how is Carly doing now?”

Ben smiled and said, “She still has her good days and bad days but her most recent cutting scar is now over two years old… Most importantly though she’s still here, that’s directly due to Sarah…”

 
 
To be continued.
 

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Comments

I like this story

Christina H's picture

It resonates with me in so many different ways a wonderful story

Christina

Sometimes the best way

gillian1968's picture

To help yourself is to help others.

Those cars sound neat!

I think there's hope for Sarah and her parents.

Gillian Cairns

Love this story!

I read through the Robbie story, and thoroughly enjoyed it. This one though, it hits the heart strings pretty hard. As a father who's child is in the teens age, I know that you feel helpless to help your own children, even though they are going through the same stuff we did. Depression, fitting in, etc. Your story is well written, and I love seeing the next chapter come up! Hope your Muse keeps up with your desire to write.
~Many Thanks for Sharing

And also

Thank you for letting us know how to comment anonymously. :-)

People who listen are rare

Too many peoplw are in their own world. It blocks out other voices. I believe every one is in some pain, we tend to block others pain becase we can't take on any more.

I think I've said this before, you are a wonderful writer.

Seems to me that Sarah's

Seems to me that Sarah's parents are learning much more about their child than they ever knew, even when she lived at home as their "son".
Hopefully, this will show them that being wrong for so long, cost them so much. I can see their grief coming out when they realize all this.

Sometimes the best way

gillian1968's picture

To help yourself is to help others.

Those cars sound neat!

I think there's hope for Sarah and her parents.

Gillian Cairns

What they have missed

Jamie Lee's picture

Hearing all Sarah does and has done is showing Joan and Bill just how much they've missed out on Sarah's life.

They will never get those years back but they can start now and form new ones with their remarkable daughter.

Others have feelings too.