Suzanna nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she kept watch on Annie. Every now and again she nodded or gave a thin smile as Ida spoke of the bitter words that had passed between father and son. When Annie scooted out of the chair and started toward the dessert table, Suzanna finally broke free of Ida’s grasp.
“Excuse me, I’ve got to check on my daughter,” she said and hurried off.
Her intention was to grab Annie and head for the door, but Ida was blinded by her happiness and failed to notice. Step by step, she followed along still telling how Bill had continued to believe long after she’d given up hope.
Suzanna grabbed Annie from behind just as she was reaching for the chocolate layer cake.
“I told you to stay put,” she hissed.
Trying to wriggle free, Annie wailed, “I’m hungry, Mama. You said I could have cake!”
“Yes, but I told you to wait until—”
Ida moved closer and touched her hand to Suzanna’s shoulder.
“I’m normally not the type to butt in,” she said apologetically, “but your granddaddy would have my head if he thought I’d let his great-granddaughter go hungry.”
Annie stopped trying to get loose and looked at Ida quizzically.
With her smile broadening into a grin, she said, “You don’t know me yet, sweetheart, but you’re sure enough going to. I’m your Great-Grandma Ida.”
“Grandma Ida?”
“Yes indeed,” she replied with a laugh. “I’m a Parker, just like you and your mama. We’re family. Parkers, all three of us.”
Before Suzanna could stop her, Annie asked, “What’s a parker?”
Ida chuckled. “Why, that’s our surname; the name your mama had before she married your daddy.”
Annie turned to Suzanna looking even more confused. “Mama, I don’t understand—”
“I’ll explain it later,” Suzanna cut in. She glared at Annie with an expression that squelched any further bickering.
“Come.” Ida motioned to a door at the side of the room. “Let’s have lunch where it’s quiet, and we can talk.”
With a firm grip on Annie’s hand, Suzanna followed along as Ida led the way through the crowd and into a cozy back room. In the center there was a round table with four chairs. Sliding a chair back, Ida motioned for Annie to come and sit. She took a bottle of milk from the refrigerator and filled a tumbler.
“Start with this,” she said, “and I’ll bring you some lunch.”
As soon as Ida was out the door, Suzanna turned to Annie.
“Listen up,” she said. “We are going to eat lunch and then go. And if this woman calls me Darla Jean, you’d better not question it. You eat, say nothing, then we leave. Got it?”
With a pouty look settling on her face, Annie nodded.
A nod was not enough. Suzanna repeated, “Not a word, do you understand?”
“Okay, Mama, okay. But why—”
Ida came through the door carrying two plates heaped high with meat, potatoes, vegetables, and squares of cornbread. Setting them on the table, she turned to Annie, “After you’ve eaten your lunch, you can have a nice big piece of that chocolate cake you were eyeing.”
Ida poured herself a cup of coffee and sat alongside Suzanna.
“We’ve got an awful lot of catching up to do,” she said wistfully. “I don’t suppose your mama or daddy ever told you about what happened?”
Suzanna shook her head. “Not that I can remember.”
A weighted sigh rose from Ida’s chest as she settled back in the chair.
“It’s easy enough to understand why they didn’t,” she said sadly. “It was a bad time for all of us, and your poor granddaddy had the worst of it…” She continued on telling how Maggie Parker, William’s first wife and Darla Jean’s true grandmother, was like a sister to her and how after Maggie’s passing it seemed only natural she be around to comfort William.
“There was nothing sneaky about it. We were friends, that’s all. But Tommy was still living at home, and every time he’d see us together he’d roll his eyes or make some snide comment. I knew the lad was peeved at seeing me in his mama’s kitchen, so I suggested maybe it would be better if I stayed away, but Bill wouldn’t hear of it. He thought Tommy just needed time. He said, ‘Once Tommy gets to know you, he’ll love you just the same as I do.’”
For an instant, a flicker of light danced in her eyes and the fan of crow’s feet at the outer edges deepened. “Bill was like that, forgiving of everything, but your daddy, well, now he was just the opposite.”
As Ida spoke the ridges of sorrow seemed to deepen, but her expression was one of tenderness, made warmer by the glow that comes from loving somebody. Memories of the good and bad times she and William had shared came floating to the surface as she told of how they would sit at the kitchen table drinking coffee and talking about how much they missed Maggie.
“Caroline and your daddy were dating then, and the following year when they got married he moved out. Two years went by and then a few weeks after your christening, Bill told your daddy that we were planning to get married and Tommy just about went crazy. He told Bill that if we did, he’d leave town and never again speak to either of us.”
Suzanna gasped. “How awful.”
“It surely was. I wanted to call the whole thing off, but Bill wouldn’t hear of it.” She shook her head and heaved a sorrowful sigh. “Neither Tommy nor Caroline ever spoke to us after that, and two months later they left town with you. Not a single goodbye or any word of where they were going. That was the last we heard…” She hesitated a moment then her face brightened. “Until today, when you walked in.”
Annie pushed her empty plate forward. “All done. Can I have cake now?”
“You sure can. Wait here, and I’ll get you a nice big piece.” Ida disappeared into the clubroom a second time.
She was barely out
