the card.
After she puts the last bite of salad into her mouth, she gets up, smiling at the kids. “So, who’s helping me?” Gigi bounces out of her chair and Christopher turns as far around as he can in the high chair, looking for her. “Come on, big guy,” Joan says, lifting him out and getting a kiss from him. “Let’s make the house smell good!”
October 2012
It isn’t as easy as Travis thought it would be to find someone who recognizes the name of Bud the farmer. No one at the parks department recognizes the name, and he dreads telling Lauren that in his search, he has only hit dead ends. He is using a leaf blower around the gazebo in the Grandon town square when he notices Robert Layton waving at him. Robert’s law office sits on the square, just two doors down from Marshall’s Department Store, and Travis’s family has known Robert and his family for as long as Travis can remember. He turns off the leaf blower as Robert steps toward him. “I haven’t seen you since I’ve heard the news,” Robert says. “Congratulations!”
Travis takes off his Grandon Parks Department hat and wipes his forehead. “Thanks!”
“When is Lauren due?”
“In December.”
Robert nods, smiling. “A baby for Christmas. Fantastic! Is Lauren doing well? If I get home this evening and Kate learns that I’ve neglected to ask all the pertinent questions, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Travis chuckles. “She’s doing great. She’s taking time to do some decorating in the house and get the room ready for the baby and is learning to cook.” A thought strikes him, and he interrupts Robert as he’s about to ask another question. “Hey, Robert! You don’t happen to know a farmer named Bud, do you?”
Robert shields his eyes from the sun as he looks at him. “Bud Waters?”
Travis’s eyes light up. “Really? There is a farmer named Bud?”
Robert nods. “A dairy farmer.” Travis beams at the words. “He sold the farm fifteen or twenty years ago.”
The smile leaves Travis’s face. “Do you know where he lives now?”
Robert looks up to the sky, thinking. “Drake County, I think. It’s been a lot of years to remember. Why?”
“Lauren really wants to find him. Hoping he can help her find somebody else.”
“Well, let me poke around. If I find him, I’ll let you know ASAP.”
“That’s great, Robert! Thanks. What can we do for you for helping us?”
“Name the baby after me,” Robert says, walking toward his office. Travis laughs, but as he starts the leaf blower again, he looks at Robert’s back as he walks away, wondering if he was serious.
NINETEEN
October 1972
Joan sits in one of the chairs in the chemo room at the cancer clinic as the chemo drips through the IV line and into her arm. There are two other chairs inside this room; the chair next to her is empty, but the one near the door is taken. A young man around twenty or so sits in the chair, and a woman who Joan believes is his mother sits next to him; her hand is on his arm, and Joan thinks of her own mom at home with Gigi and Christopher.
Joan’s father brought her to the clinic today so John would not miss another day of work. On her insistence, her dad has gone to find a bowl of soup in the cafeteria for her. If they don’t have broccoli cheese—and she knows the cafeteria will not—she has instructed him where a nearby café that makes it is located. She has sent her father on a scavenger hunt of sorts because he is never able to hide his concern, and Joan knows it is best if she receives the chemo alone. As the cancer killer drips through the IV, Joan whispers again, “Today’s the day. I may not see it, but God is at work.” Her mind wanders ahead to Halloween, and she wonders if she’ll be up for walking Gigi and Christopher around the neighborhood. Her mom found a lion costume a couple of months ago at a sale for Christopher, complete with a golden, bushy mane to frame his face. Gigi has said she wants to be Big Bird from Sesame Street, but Joan questions whether she can make the costume. She closes her eyes to rest and seems to be drifting toward sleep when she hears “Today’s the day. God is working. I just know it.”
Joan flashes her eyes open and looks at the mother and her son,