Elderberry Croft: Volume 3 by Becky Doughty

Author:Becky Doughty
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romance, murder, alcoholism, spousal abuse, hope, short stories, broken heart, trailer park, love stories, grace, abandonment, inspirational stories, reaching out, helping others, clean read, elderberry, 4th of july, elderberry croft, the coach house trailer park, willow goodhope, august memories, christian goodhope, elderberry croft volume 3, elderberry scones, good neighbores, heart condition, july madness, mitral valve, park residents, september longing, story about broken heart

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Chapter 4

By the time the ambulance arrived, Al had thought through it all. If he admitted to what he’d done, he’d be sent to prison, and rightfully so. He knew he deserved it, and had circumstances been different, he would have come clean on the spot.

But he also realized that without family, and him in jail, Maggie would become a ward of the state. She would be a number in the system, and all those things she’d feared might well come true. She’d be institutionalized for certain, most likely kept drugged because of her mental instability, and who knew what else. Al had heard the stories about the nut houses, and if he got locked away, there’d be no one left to watch out for her.

Al chose the lesser of two evils that day, and lived with the burden of that decision for over a quarter of a century.

Maggie’d suffered a stroke, most likely caused by hitting her head when she fell off the step stool while changing the light bulb in their hallway. It was a fortunate thing that Al had forgotten his lunch and had come home for it, but her prognosis wasn’t good. Al made a promise to himself that he’d see her get the best care until she passed, then he’d turn himself in and tell the authorities the real story.

To everyone’s surprise, Maggie turned out to have a little more living left to do, but she was in no condition to come home. Her world was one of her own making, and like a naughty toddler, couldn’t be left alone or unattended even for a moment. Al found a full-care facility that he’d heard nothing but good about, and signed the paperwork that said he was the sole provider for his wife’s needs, that he would pay the exorbitant costs that came with the facility’s upstanding reputation.

He moved into the trailer park that same year, cutting his own expenses down to almost nothing. And he waited. Even when he met Myra in the trailer two spaces down, and he felt his heart jolt back to life like he’d been electrocuted, he waited. Just like Maggie was doing when he first set eyes on her, he waited. And waited.

And now, twenty-six years later, her ride had finally come, setting them both free.

“Doc. Got a minute?” He didn’t know who else to turn to, but he knew Doc would be slow to hand out pat answers, and even slower to judge. He was surprised the man had even opened his door; Doc was even more private than Al.

The man nodded and stepped outside onto the landing, pulling his door closed behind him. For as long as the veteran had lived here, as long as they’d known each other, Al had yet to set foot inside Doc’s place. In fact, Al didn’t know if Doc even let Eddie in, although the park manager had every right to do so.

Doc’s place was actually a small loft apartment over an old garage on the property.

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