Page 133 of Hello, Summer
“But as small as his feet were, my father had a heart for everyone. He wasn’t a perfect man, and he would be the first to tell you that. Well, actually, my mom would be the first to tell you that, because she is the only person I ever met who could cut Dad down to size with one meaningful glare.”
Conley craned her neck and could just see the top of Vanessa’s head. She was sitting erect, her shoulders tensed. The widow, she thought, was not amused.
“You know, we all thought Dad would live forever. He thought it too. But last fall, we received the devastating news that he was suffering from cancer. Dad was adamant that he didn’t want his condition made public. He said he didn’t want to be a poster boy for cancer, and he didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for him, because he’d lived a long, productive life. He had work to do in Washington, and he knew that the time he had left was short.”
Charlie took a deep breath. “Knowing that, my dad took stock of his life. We had a lot of good talks these last few months. What a tremendous gift that was, for both of us. During one of those late-night talks, Dad divulged to me that he had one big secret, one big regret, something he was deeply ashamed of, and he asked me to help him make things right.”
Vanessa’s head bowed, and the rest of the congregation sat up, waiting to hear the rest.
“Dad revealed to me that he had what he called asecret family,one that I knew nothing about. He told me that he’d been married before he’d met my mother, and he’d had two children with his first wife.”
Charlie chuckled ruefully and paused for effect.
“Damn, he’s good,” Mike whispered, gazing around the church at the rapt faces of all the mourners. “He’s got this crowd in the palm of his hand.”
“Trust me. It’s all an act,” Conley whispered back.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” Charlie said, affecting the folksy accent of a local yokel. “And it turns out that most of my life, that secret family—including my half brother, Hank, and half sister, Rebecca—lived less than an hour away from the spot where I’d spent most of my growing-up years.”
Another ripple of murmurs and whispers washed through the room.
“It turns out that in the process of making things right, you sometimes make waves. Sometimes you have to make decisions that will make people you love uncomfortable, even unhappy. I was willing to do that for him. So these last few months, I did what I could to help my dad reconnect with his first family.”
Conley scanned the faces around her. Every eye in the cavernous church seemed riveted on Charlie Robinette—except Vanessa’s; she seemed to be staring down at her lap.
“It had been more than twenty years since Dad had seen his children. Amazingly, they found it in their hearts to forgive his absence and to accept his apology and his love, however belated it came. Hank and Rebecca and Toddie are here in this church today. I know that they mourn my dad’s loss as much as the rest of us do. But I also know that their presence here today would make my dad proud and happy.”
Charlie took another deep breath. “I’m not a preacher; I’m just a simple country lawyer.”
“Country lawyer, my ass,” Conley muttered.
“But I believe there’s an object lesson that we can all take in my dad’s last months on earth. If there is someone you feel you’ve wronged or hurt in some way, don’t pass up the opportunity to try to make things right. I know I speak for all my family when I say thank y’all for coming today to celebrate the life of my dad.”
A bagpiper accompanied the choir and congregation in “Amazing Grace” as the family and pallbearers filed down the center aisle.
“Go!” Conley told Michael, who managed to slither past the other worshippers in their pew to race toward the side exit.
She was almost to the rear door when she spotted a familiar figure,still sitting in the very last pew, dressed in her customary white shirt and black pants. Conley sat down beside her.
“Winnie?”
The housekeeper looked up, grim-faced but resolute. She saw the question in Conley’s eyes.
“Had to see it for myself. When she was on her deathbed, I promised Nedra I would see Symmes Robinette dead, and now I have.”
“Okay,” Conley said. “I gotta get back to work.”
By the time she exited the church, there were still knots of people standing around on the church lawn.
Buddy Bright was set up in the shade of a magnolia tree, near a van with the radio station call letters, doing a live remote and interviewing any politicos he managed to buttonhole.
Conley found the NBC camera crew on the opposite side of the church lawn. She introduced herself and pointed out the key players in the day’s drama, including Toddie, Hank, and Rebecca. But Tressa, the reporter, had been in church during most of the service and had already zeroed in on both of Symmes Robinette’s wives and all his children.
“You know where the Baptist church is, right?” Conley asked, pointing across the street at the imposing redbrick structure. “The reception is there. Maybe you’ll get lucky and manage to get all the family in the same frame.”
She returned to the front of the church in time to see G’mama emerge, again on Skelly’s arm.
“Hey, you two,” she said. “G’mama, how did you manage to score such a handsome date?”
