Coming home

chapter 18

Clearly, Elizabeth and Luke had been waiting for Claire’s return. Claire thought when Elizabeth sprung from the kitchen door to come meet her halfway across the yard. “Dadster said, I think I like that,” Elizabeth said more to herself than to Claire when she reached her. “Dadster said that you hired someone to come in to help? Does this mean my duties are over?”

“Not exactly,” Claire explained. It means that we don’t have to stay cooped up in the house. It means we can have more freedom.”

“Oh,” Elizabeth sounded disappointed.

“What’s wrong?” Claire asked.

“Well, I thought that if I was no longer needed, I could go spend the night with a friend.”

“Well, I don’t see any reason I couldn’t get alone without you for a couple of days,” Claire said, thinking it would probably be best if Elizabeth wasn’t here when she and Luke had a talk. “When were you thinking about going?”

“This weekend? Susan’s mother was going to take us to the park and let us rent some movies for a movie night.”

“Let’s clear it with Luke first. In the meantime, I was thinking we could paint the porch swing since it’s such a nice day out and maybe have a picnic for lunch?” Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “I had one of the hands put a can of paint and some things we were going to need in my old wagon by the shed. Can you go and pull it over?” Elizabeth nodded again and took off toward the shed.

The porch swing wasn’t as important as it was to get Elizabeth out of ear shot, so Claire could clear some things up with Luke. Claire quickly ran down the most important things in her head as she headed inside. She wasn’t going to have long before Elizabeth was back.

“Dadster?” Claire said as soon as she spotted Luke looking through the kitchen cabinets.

“Huh?” Luke asked puzzled.

“Elizabeth just called you Dadster,” she clarified.

“She has been calling me a lot of strange stuff since she came back from the birthday slumber party. I have no idea what she is up to,” Luke said, shrugging it off.

“You think it might be because she has noticed that her friends call their dads something other than their first name? She is trying to fit in and find some type of relationship with you,” Claire informed.

“See. This is why I need you. I would never have figured that out on my own.”

“Elizabeth doesn’t know anything about her relationship to me, does she?” Claire jumped right onto the next subject at hand.

“No, I wasn’t sure how to handle that. She knows her mother went away and that her father died when she was an infant. She did spend some time with David, but I’m not sure if she knew exactly who he was,” Luke explained. “I was appointed her legal guardian, but David had been a constant in her life also and I didn’t want her to lose what little she had left.”

“Where is Nancy?” Claire continued, knowing she was running out of time.

“In a mental facility about an hour from here. I can get you that information.” Luke offered.

Claire nodded, hearing the squeaking of the old wagon marking Elizabeth’s return. “Me and Elizabeth decided that she needed a couple of days off to be a kid,” Claire said loud enough that Elizabeth could hear as she came through the door.

“Oh yall did, did yall?” Luke said glancing at Elizabeth.

“Yes we did,” Claire said firmly, trying to convey through her voice how important it was. “It would do all of us some good.”

“Well then, Elizabeth, when is this break going to be and what kind of break is it?” Luke asked.

“Susan’s mom is going to take us to the park and let us rent movies for a movie night. We had planned it for this weekend. I forgot to tell you when I got home from her party”, Elizabeth sheepishly replied. "And when you said Mrs. Kathryn was going to start coming to help out. I thought maybe I could still go.”

“Well, now that that’s settled, I think we should have the picnic first, then start on the swing,” Claire said, turning toward Elizabeth as if the subject was closed.

Luke eyed both females. “Am I allowed on this picnic?”

“Sure,” Claire winked at Elizabeth. “We will need someone to make the sandwiches and to carry everything for us.”

The picnic turned out to be exactly what Claire needed to clear her mind. She even got to know Elizabeth a little more in a relaxed state. There was nothing wrong with Elizabeth that couldn’t be rectified. The only problem Elizabeth really had was that she never really got to be a child. Elizabeth was only trying to make sense of the adult situations that she had been placed in with a child’s mind. Elizabeth needed to be able not to worry about such matters and allowed to be the child that she was. Claire’s heart went out to her and she knew she had to help Elizabeth be a child.

The real impact of Claire’s assessment of Elizabeth came when they were painting the swing.

“Do you think I’m normal?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes I do,” Claire reassured.

“Do you think I will always be normal?” Elizabeth said, looking hopeful.

“Yes,” Claire responded with the most confident voice she could muster. “What brought these questions up?”

“Because of my mom and her mom,” Elizabeth stated as fact. Claire gave a shocked look, causing Elizabeth to continue. “I hear things when people don’t think I am paying attention.”

It took all of Claire’s willpower not to ask who these people were. No wonder this child was trying her best to normalize her world. It infuriated Claire that people could be so insensitive and inconsiderate when it came to the innocence of a child. Not just any child, though. This was her family. This child was her niece. That was the final straw. Family protected family and Elizabeth will be under her protection from now on.