The Homecoming by Dan Walsh

Author:Dan Walsh [Walsh, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 0100-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty-three

Katherine set the kettle to boil, added a pinch of salt. A nice white sauce was already simmering. Soon she’d add the pasta. Where was the garlic and pepper? She looked quietly through the cabinets to find the spices.

“You sure you got this?”

She turned to see the elder Collins as he popped his head through the kitchen doorway. “I’ll be fine. Mrs. Fortini checked all the ingredients. Got the recipe right here on the counter. She promised me you will love this. Now go do something for about thirty minutes, and I’ll have it ready.”

“I’m going to take Patrick with me.”

“Where are you going?”

“Nowhere, just out to the garage.”

“He’s all clean; don’t get him dirty.”

“We won’t get dirty.”

She looked at the water in the kettle. Little bubbles were already starting to form at the bottom. “Better be back in twenty-five minutes. Give yourselves time to wash your hands.”

“Let’s go, Patrick.”

Collins walked past her in hurried steps toward the back door of the kitchen, wearing an overcoat. The door led out to the backyard, down a few wooden steps, to a freestanding garage. Patrick was right behind him. Collins had this look on his face. Hard to place it. Maybe . . . mischievous. She walked over to the window and pushed the sheers to the side. She couldn’t help smiling as she watched them disappear into a side door of the garage. What a difference, she thought, between now and the way things were before Christmas. The old man really had changed. Almost a Scrooge-like transformation.

Almost.

She quickly walked back to the stove to check on things, glanced down at the recipe lying on the counter to the right, held down by a salt shaker. She’d already studied it a half dozen times. That exchange with Mr. Collins went rather smoothly, she thought. Once again, the wisdom of Mrs. Fortini had been vindicated.

Her last words to Katherine as she’d left to come over here were about how to handle the old man. “It’s really very simple,” she had said. “Use gentle tones but be very firm. Like you’re talking to a child just a bit older than Patrick. I watched Ida handle him for years. He’ll fall right in line.”

It worked.

“Watch your step, Patrick. It’s a bit messy in here. Boards all over the floor. Stand there by the door till I find this light.” “Okay.”

“There it is.” He grabbed it and pulled. “Still not much light.”

“I can see okay.”

“All right, come on in then. But watch your step. I got something to show you.”

“What is it?”

“A surprise.”

“Really?”

“Come here. Stand right there and close your eyes.”

“They’re closed.”

“No peeking.”

“I won’t.”

Collins pulled the leather pouch from his coat pocket and held it right in front of Patrick’s face. “Okay, open ’em.”

Patrick did. “Wow,” he said then looked puzzled. “What is it?”

Collins untied the leather strap and unraveled the pouch. “They’re my wood-carving tools.”

“They what you used to make my wooden soldier?”

“Yep, and a whole lot of other things.”

“But why you showing them to me?”

“That’s the surprise.

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