The Article by Jackie Zufall (large screen ebook reader .txt) 📕

had gone off alone. Nicole and Jay smiled at each other and Nicole winked, Both thinking, “’Bout time.”

Paul and Abby walked along for awhile without talking. Finally Paul took hold of Abbys arm to stop her, and pointed to a fallen log. “Want to sit for a bit?” He asked.
“Sure.” she answered.
They made small talk about the stars, the moon, the water, the weather, the kids, whatever came to mind in an effort to avoid what was really on each of their minds, which of course was each other.
Finally Paul could not take it anymore, he turned to Abby and said, “Abby, I need to tell you something.” “OK.” replied Abby, “Shoot.” Paul turned to Abby and just sat there for a few minutes taking in the way her eyes looked in the moonlight, the way she had her hair pinned up in a bun. He felt all jittery inside, just as he had anytime she was close by him. This week here with her around had been a joyous one for him. He enjoyed seeing her each morning upon waking and each evening before drifting off to sleep. But now, here he was feeling he couldn’t do this anymore. He still loved Abby and he just felt the need to hear from her if she still had feelings for him. Taking a deep breath he finally said, “Abby, I love you, I always have, that’s why I never married. I know I hurt you when I left and I don’t blame you at all for going on with your life.” He stopped a moment then when Abby started to say something he put a finger to her lips and continued to speak, “I feel like I have never been away from you, I know that sounds dumb, but that’s how I feel, I’ve grown to love Tony and Amanda as well, they’re great kids, and they need a father in their lives as much as I need them and their mother in mine, having said that, I need to know, do I have any chance at all of having you back in my life?”
Abby said nothing for a moment, then said, “No, not a chance.” Paul looked crestfallen and Abby just smiled and said, “you have EVERY chance.” she reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck and said, “I’ve always loved you too, though I did love Jake, I’ve never ever felt love the way I did with you.” Paul feeling totally wiped out suddenly after worrying and being tense around her just wrapped his arms around her waist and said, “oh Abs,” as he gently began kissing her face all over. They sat there for awhile acting like love sick teens again making out again on the very beach where they had made love years before. Finally they got up and walking hand in hand, they headed back to camp. When they finally arrived all their friends were the only ones still waiting up for them. “bout time.” said Nicole. “Yeah,” teased Jay. “we were about to send out a search party for you two.” “Very funny,” said Paul, to which Jay replied, “so anything you feel like sharing? I mean we saw the two of you holding hands just now.”
Paul replied “Never you mind for now, we were just talking and looking at the stars.” “Yeah, yeah,” Jay said, “whatever you say, I just want to know one thing.” “What’s that?” Paul asked. “When’s the wedding,” Jay said as he jumped up ready to run, he knew Paul well enough to know what was coming. Paul broke into a run, tackled Jay and put him in a fake headlock like the old days and said “You’re asking for it buddy.” They wrestled around for a few minutes, everyone laughing and cheering one or the other on. Finally everybody settled down again and began turning in for the night, the last two were Paul and Abby who hung back deliberately. “I love you Abs.” Paul said as he gave her a quick kiss goodnight. “Me too.” she replied. To which Jay said, “we heard that.” and everyone began clapping, including all the kids who were thought to be asleep. Blushing a bit Abby said, “Go to sleep. All of you.” She and Paul exchanged another quick kiss, then turned and entered their tents.

The next morning, as it was their last day, the kids ate a quick breakfast and left for one last hike, the guys began taking down the tents, while the ladies packed away their kid’s dirty clothes, bedrolls and pillows.
When the kids returned at lunchtime, the women had lunch almost done. They all, adults and kids alike went for one last swim, except Troy of course, whose cast by now was every color but white. Everyone had taken turns signing, drawing and coloring on his cast
.
Finally, lunch done, it was time to clean up and get ready for the trip back home. Counting heads, they all loaded up and headed down the road for home. As they neared each familys turn off in town, they gave a quick wave and a honk before turning off. Paul pulled up at the Millers and unloaded all their belongings. Abby insisted that he stay for supper, and ordered pizza. Betty had declined, asking Paul to run her and her things on home. Giving Ben a hug and a quick kiss, she said to all of them, “I had the best time, thanks for inviting me along.”

When Paul returned the Pizza was just being delivered. They all sat around the living room eating and watching TV. Finally, Paul called it a night and saying goodbye to Mr. Miller and the kids, took Abby’s hand and made her walk him to the camper. Once there they held each other for a few minutes, then Paul said, “I love you.” turned to the camper, climbed in, and looking at her as he started the motor he said, “See you tomorrow babe.” He pulled away from the curb and drove off, all before Abby could say anything at all. With a smile on her face, she turned and walked back to the house, thinking “this has been one of the best weeks of my life.”
Driving home, Paul spent the time thinking about this whole week as well. He smiled to himself as he thought, “this has been the best week in my life.” He had great plans for Abby and the kids. “but of course,” he thought to himself, “lets take it one day at a time here.”
He pulled into the drive and drove around to the back of the house. He decided the camper could wait till tomorrow to be cleaned out. He let himself into the house, walked over to the answering machine and saw that there was a message. He hit the button and headed to get a beer, but stopped when he heard Dean Simmons voice saying, “Paul, we got the results. Give me a call.” Paul suddenly felt hyped again, it had been weeks since the judge gave the go ahead to exhume his parent’s remains. The camping trip had been the gangs way of getting his mind off things and it had worked. He looked at the clock, seeing it was nearly ten decided to shower, hit the sack, think of Abby, and forget about the results till morning.

Chapter Eighteen


The next morning Paul drove into town, going straight to Dean Simmons office. He walked in and Dean, who was talking to his secretary, motioned for Paul to go on into his office. Paul walked in, and being too nervous to sit, wandered over to peer out a window.
Dean finally came in and sat down after shaking Paul’s hand.
“Well, Paul, are you ready?” he asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be I guess,” Paul replied. Dean opened up a folder that was laying on the desk in front of him. “Well,” He began, “in the case of your father,” he paused a moment, looking up at Paul he continued “they recovered a high caliber bullet from the skull, it definitely came from an assault rifle, he was definitely murdered, Paul.”
Paul took a deep breath in an effort to keep from crying. This felt to him like losing his father all over again. But this time he felt the loss more powerfully as an adult. That’s not saying he had not mourned as a boy, only as a kid he had never dealt with death before, and also as his father had been badly burnt, he just never saw his father again. So though he knew in his mind that his father was dead, it was more like he just didn’t come home one day.
Dean gave Paul more time to take this information in and collect his thoughts
Finally Paul asked, “What about my mom?”
Dean shuffled a few papers around until he found what he was looking for. “They are still running more tests on her remains, umm… they are not willing yet to say with 100% certainty yet, but off the record, they do feel that there is every reason to believe that your mother was poisoned. I’m not a medical person, but from what I, Myself, understand certain findings concerning bone density etc. tells them that she was poisoned.”
Paul asked, “Is it enough to change the coroners ruling of suicide to murder?”
“Honestly Paul, I don’t know, I have an appointment with Judge Stanton this afternoon to show these reports to him. We’ll just have to see if he feels this is enough for him to sign the papers to formally change both rulings.”
Paul finally stood, reached out to shake Dean’s hand,
“Thank you so much for everything, Dean, please beep me when informed.”
As Paul walked towards the door Dean said, “One more thing Paul, the insurance company has said that if the Judge rules your mother’s death a murder, then they will honor the life insurance claim for the value it was worth at the time of her death.” Paul thanked Dean again, and walked out to his pickup, he sat there for a couple of minutes, then suddenly he began shaking as he broke down and cried like a baby for the second time since returning home. He felt this tremendous feeling of guilt, feeling as though he had let both his parents down. He knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent his father’s death, but he did have a new felt guilt as for he suddenly felt he betrayed his father, because in the beginning he had liked Ron. He knew he was being silly, he had only been twelve and there was no way he could have known at the time that Ron had anything to do with his death.
He didn’t know how long he sat there crying, he jumped as a sudden knock on the glass pulled him back to reality. Abby’s worried face was peering back at him through the driver’s side window. He indicated for her to get in. Abby walked around and climbed into the truck. “Paul, What’s happened?” She asked, “You’ve been sitting here for forty-five minutes, I was picking up parts and had to wait on them to come over, I’ve been watching you from the supply store across the street.”
Paul recounted all that he had learned, then went on to explain what he had been sitting here doing and thinking. Abby had agreed with Paul that it was silly to feel as he did, that she was sure that James understood, wherever he was, that Paul had just been a boy who lost his father, and she told Paul that his father would not want Paul to put himself through this, that James would know Paul wouldn’t have