"Mom? Dad? Are you here?" Beth hitched her
borrowed backpack containing one change of clothing higher on her shoulder as
she entered her parents' house. One of her next tasks would be buying new
clothes, since hers were destroyed in the explosions that reduced her house in
Halo to scrap wood.
The return to her parents' home wasn't triggered by
pleasant circumstances, yet Beth felt the same welcome that always surrounded
her in this storybook house. A pleasant cottage with two bedrooms upstairs and
two down. Throughout her growing up years, Beth's parents had shared one of the
upstairs bedrooms, while Beth occupied the other one. The downstairs rooms had
been used for occasional guests and hobbies.
However, today Natalie Boulanger called out to Beth
from downstairs. "We're here, darling. In the sitting room."
Beth walked toward the back of the house, and her
mother met her partway with a hug. "I was so worried when I heard about
the explosions. Thank heavens you're safe. Go say hello to your father while I
get iced tea for us."
Howard Boulanger slowly rose from a recliner when
Beth entered the room. What had once been a space for her mother's recipe books
and decorating supplies had recently been remodeled with wide double doors
leading onto a deck overlooking their back yard.
"Hi, Daddy." As she hugged her father, Beth
noticed his shoulders weren't as broad and straight as when he used to give her
piggyback rides, and his thinning hair barely covered the shiny dome of his
head. When had her father become old?
**Excerpt from LIVING THE LEGACY, copyright Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel.
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