Love of a Lifetime by Carol Voss

Author:Carol Voss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2012-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Sounds of shuffling feet and muted voices came from the hall outside Nonna’s room as Tony packed lunch leftovers in the cooler. Sharing his eggplant Parmesan with Nonna had proved to be a hit. No complaints about too much garlic this time.

He pulled a chair close to her bed and spread out one of the photo albums he’d brought with him. The ones he figured would be least likely to have pictures of his dad. Truth be told, he wasn’t quite as confident about his blast to the past with Nonna as he’d been when he’d decided to bring the albums along.

Too bad Maggie’s schedule was too full to allow her to be here to smooth troubled waters. But he’d be leaving the day after tomorrow, so there just wasn’t a lot of time to wait. Besides, he’d chosen the albums carefully. He could handle this.

Things began smoothly enough. Nonna offered an occasional comment as she paged through photos of his growing-up years, countless pictures of him at various ages in assorted ragtag sports uniforms. He remembered she’d sat through some pretty bad weather sometimes to cheer him on, no matter how bad things were going between them. How had he forgotten that?

She pointed to a picture of him marching in a parade with his trumpet, wearing a band uniform she’d managed to scrounge from somebody whose kid had outgrown it. “Do you still play your trumpet?”

The trumpet he’d traded for a good meal in Arkansas? “I don’t have it anymore.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. You were very good.”

A compliment? “Thanks.” Things seemed to be going better than he could have hoped. Shots of his golden retriever were a welcome relief. And there were more pictures with friends than he’d ever remembered having. “Who took all these pictures?”

“I took some, friends gave me a few. Maggie’s mother gave me many. She always had a camera in her hand, remember? She was a wonderful woman.”

He nodded. “Maggie’s a lot like her.”

“Yes, she is.”

They both chuckled at several photos of him with Maggie in all her freckled glory. Pictures of them running in the sprinkler, sitting in the apple tree outside her bedroom window, eating wands of cotton candy almost as big as she was. Several of them leaning out the window or door of her tree house.

Pigtailed or ponytailed or long curls blowing in the wind, he could almost feel the energy that still radiated from her. Could almost feel the invisible bond that still stretched between them. “Did you put the pictures in these albums, Nonna?”

“Yes. They help me relive many fond memories.”

He turned her comment over in his mind. Had she forgotten all the less-than-fond ones? By the time they finished the album, Tony couldn’t help noticing how tired she looked. “I’ll let you get some rest now.

She shook her head. “Let’s look at one more album.”

“If you’re tired, we can look at more pictures tomorrow,” he suggested.

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