Chapter 21

Charleston, April – 2004

Audrey passed around a photo of their parents. It was an aging old Kodak, a white bordered picture of them sitting at a Formica topped table. Their mother had her hair in ponytails and wore a white blouse. Their stepdad was in plain clothes, his hair combed off to the side, looking slick with hair creme.

“They sure were an attractive couple,” Rebecca said, passing the picture to Mallory. “Who do you think took it?”

“Probably the neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Parsons. She used to babysit you,” Mallory said, and passed the picture to Audrey. “You played with her son.”

“They were good people,” Audrey said and passed it along to Elizabeth. “Those were some of my favorite memories living in Jacksonville Beach. The cook-outs and playing hide and seek ’til midnight.”

Elizabeth looked up from the picture and over at Rebecca, grinning. “Here comes Rebecca. Pretend she’s poison ivy... run!”

“Y’all were mean!” Rebecca said, showing the room her middle finger.

“Whatever,” Mallory threw back with her own gesture. “This is supposed to be a celebration of Daddy. Look at that picture again. Those are the parents that gave us a safe place to grow up. Think about it! Every year we followed his naval transfers, all those deployments. And Mom had to manage four of us. FOUR OF US!”

The room grew quiet. Audrey leaned back in her chair. “So how long do you think it took before Mom told Daddy there were four girls at home?”

Everyone smiled at her question.

“Wasn’t it a school night? I believe she made us get our homework and baths done. Pufnstuf had her kittens—four of them. What is it about the number four in our lives? Poor Daddy, he not only met us... we baptized him by fire with kittens.”

Mallory laughed. “He was sitting on the couch and we were scattered around the living room. I think part of our openness was due to the Navy uniform,” Mallory added. “But, I think it was on a Friday night. They were going to a movie down at the drive-in.”

“And we were so proud of Pufnstuf’s kittens,” Rebecca added softly. “She had them in Elizabeth’s pajama drawer and we had to move them into Mom’s bathroom cabinet. We each ran and grabbed our kitten to show off to Mom’s new friend.”

“When I walked towards him with my tabby, I saw ‘mommy’s new friend’ step back,” Elizabeth recalled. “So, I sat on the floor off to the side, my kitten meowing for her mom. Mallory slid beside me right next to his pant leg, nudging her kitten towards his shoelace.”

Mallory interrupted, “My kitten loved to climb the curtains. Who knew he was ready to shimmy up a guy’s leg!”

“So typical, Mallory. You knew.” Rebecca interjected.

“I remember Mallory’s black kitten shimmying up his trouser. The terror of his reaction, her kitten flying across the room from his swat and all I could think was, did we ruin Mom’s special friend moment? Poor Daddy,” Elizabeth said. “Why would cats scare him so bad?”

“Obviously, not enough for him to stop seeing Mom,” Audrey added. “And he never told Mom no if she wanted to replace a cat when it passed.”

“Good home training in my eyes,” Elizabeth whispered mostly to herself and flipped through more of his files. “Oh my, look at these.” She started passing around several color photos, these obviously taken from a ship’s deck approaching a space capsule, the doors open and two astronauts’ heads poking out. They were flanked by three para-rescuers, barefoot and sporting wide smiles. The sky was blue and the sea was calm. The capsule was surrounded by green dye. Each photo had descriptions... Major David Scott and Neil Armstrong.

“I did a term paper on Gemini 8. I interviewed Daddy so I could make more than just a NASA story,” Audrey said as she relished the young astronauts grinning at the photographer from the destroyer. “A mission cut very short because of one thruster. Doesn’t Major Scott look like Jeff?” She softly mumbled, “A life cut short because of one drunk driver.” As she stared, she was no longer in the present.

Elizabeth crossed the room and gave Audrey a gentle hug from the edge of the armchair. Two more sets of sister arms enveloped them.

“I want to come home,” Audrey said weakly, reaching for the Kleenex box.