Chapter 33

Chugiak, Alaska

2:00 AM

It had been an eventful day for the Johnsons. That morning, or yesterday morning to be precise, they had no thought of a new child in their care. Now, in the guest room, a thirteen-year-old girl was in bed and would be for quite a while to come.

The ongoing saga of Oak Island ended and Bob stood up and stretched. It was a repeated episode from the tenth season, and he once again wondered if Mage, Chet, Marcia, and Darryl could solve the mysteries if they were to tackle it.

He started toward Liz’s and his bedroom, but part way there, he heard crying coming from the guest room. He considered going in but thought better of it, and continued onto his own room. Liz’s bedside light was on, and she was putting on a robe.

“You heard her?” Bob asked.

“Yes. I don’t want to push her, but I think I should see if she wants to talk.”

“Let me know if she’s okay,” he told her.

“I’m guessing she’s probably not,” Liz replied.

“Okay, well let me know if she’ll be okay,” Bob amended.

Liz smiled and gave him a kiss. “I will.”

Bob entered their en-suite bathroom, and Liz softly made her way to Heather’s room.

She noticed that the door was slightly open, and briefly wondered if Bob had opened it, but in retrospect, figured that he wouldn’t even touch the door to the room of a young girl he wasn’t related to. True, they had decided to adopt Heather regardless of any problems that might arise, but until she was adopted, she knew Bob would be careful.

She tapped on the door, and heard a quiet, “Come in.”

She gently pushed the door open, and the soft light from the hall showed Heather lying in the bed. Her back was toward the door, but she rolled over and faced Liz.

“It’s been a hard week, hasn’t it?”

The girl nodded, then unexpectedly said, “I know what my parents did.”

Liz was taken aback but carefully asked, “What’s that?”

“I know that they hijacked that plane. I know that Dad was the air marshal on board, and I know that Colonel Chatham was the one who landed the plane.”

“How do you know that, Dear?” Liz asked her.

“People can try to block the internet, but there are always ways around that.”

“When did you find out?” Liz asked.

“I wondered when I went to live with Dad. I had learned a while before that how to get into locked computers.”

“I see,” Liz said, surprised that one so young would know how to break into a computer. “How did you learn that?”

“The internet.”

Liz laughed softly. “So you learned how to break into the internet on the internet.”

“Yeah.” She didn’t say anything for a minute and Liz just sat beside the bed. “Why do people do things like that?” She finally asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Hijack a plane.”

“Usually for the love of money. I think your parents did it for a different reason, though.”

“Why?”

“I think they loved you very much,” Liz said. “And they wanted to make sure you had a good life.”

“I would have had a good life with them at home, no matter how much food and clothes I had,” Heather said, starting to cry again.

Liz nodded, then said, “Sometimes a parent’s maternal or paternal instinct stops them from seeing the obvious. They’ll do anything for their kids, to make sure they have a good life.”

Heather sniffled a couple of times, then exclaimed, “But it was wrong!”

Liz reached out and grasped Heather’s hand. “They didn’t see it that way.”

Heather didn’t argue. She lay quiet for a bit, then commented, “Dad killed my father.”

Liz involuntarily squeezed the girl's hand. “That must be hard to take.”

“It was at first. I thought about it a lot, then realized my Mom had miscalculated how far they could get. My father tried to kill Colonel Chatham. If he had, everyone on the plane would have died because they couldn’t have made it to where Mom was going. Colonel Chatham landed the plane and saved all those people. Mom would have killed them.”

Heather dissolved into tears again. It was a couple of minutes before she could even approach talking again. “I d-d-don’t know h-how to feel about them. I w-want to hate them, but I still l-l-love them!”

Liz sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled the girl into an embrace. “That’s alright,” she said softly. “No matter what they did, they’re still your mother and father. Nothing will ever change that.”

Heather nodded her head Liz held her until she felt the girl starting to fall asleep, then she carefully lowered her down to the bed again.

She got up from where she was seated and carefully moved to the door. As she was exiting, she heard Heather softly say, “Thank you. You’re good parents too.”

10:00AM

Heather woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee. She got up, put on some jeans and a V-neck top, and walked into the kitchen. Liz was making bacon, eggs, pancakes, and toast.

“Can I get some coffee?” Heather asked.

“Of course,” Liz told her. “Everybody in the family has free reign with the coffee pot, but you’re immediate family, so you have free reign of whatever else you find in the kitchen, too.”

Heather smiled, and poured herself a cup of coffee, then sat down at the table.

Just as she sat down, she heard footsteps, prompting her to turn and say good morning to Bob as he came in. He grinned at her and sat down at his place, where Liz set down a steaming stack of pancakes.

Liz sat as well and she and Bob folded their hands and bowed their heads. Heather quickly followed suit, and Bob said grace for their breakfast.

When he finished, Liz stood up, and he glanced around the table but didn’t see what he was looking for. Liz opened the pantry and reached in. She grabbed a jar of peanut butter and set it in front of him.

“There you go,” she said and kissed his cheek.

Bob grinned at Heather and said, “Gotta have peanut butter on my pancakes.” When he finished spreading it, he gestured to ask Heather if she wanted some. She smiled wide and nodded. Bob slid it to her, and she happily spread it on her pancakes, then poured some maple syrup on top.

“Do you like breakfast-dessert?” asked Bob.

“What’s that?” Heather wondered.

“Is that what you’re calling it now?” Liz laughed from where she was making more pancakes.

Bob grinned conspiratorially at Heather and said, “Just save some room.”

When he finished what was on his plate, Liz brought a couple more pancakes to him and then went to the fridge and got a bottle of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup^®. Heather watched as Bob put peanut butter on his pancakes again, and then squeezed chocolate syrup onto them, just as he had the maple syrup. He gave her a questioning look when he was done, and she answered exuberantly, “Yes, please!”

Chatham Farm

Noon

Heather looked beside the car as the scenery went by. They were through Palmer now, and heading roughly northwest. Just after they passed a prison on the left, they turned into a drive on the right.

Bob pulled up to a ranch gate. It looked like the Ponderosa gate from the TV show, Bonanza, but the sign above said Chatham Farm with real moose antlers hanging on either side of the name. Across the road was a metal gate and on the driver's side of the car was what looked like a wooden mailbox with a number pad beside the door.

Clipped to Bob’s sunvisor was a garage door opener, and he pressed one of the two buttons on it. The gate opened and he drove through.

About a quarter mile past the gate, the road went over a rise, and ahead of them were several buildings.

Heather was looking straight ahead, afraid of meeting her new sister. Bob pulled up to what was obviously the house, parked, and he and Liz opened their doors.

Heather was reluctant to go into the house, and Liz turned to tell her, “You can sit in the car until you’re ready to get out. There’s going to be a lot of people here, and we know meeting so many people at once can be overwhelming.”

The young girl nodded, and her new parents shut their doors and walked toward the far side of the house. Heather watched them go, and saw that there were several picnic tables set up there. A man with dark hair was watching over a grill, and beside him was a wood smoker pouring out smoke. Colonel Chatham was there as well, talking to him. She suddenly realized that she smelled the meat on the grill when her parents opened their doors. It smelled wonderful!

Suddenly, Marcia rounded the corner of the house and ran toward the car. Heather opened the door and got out. With Marcia there, she felt more confident.

Marcia enveloped the girl in a big hug and exclaimed, “So you’re my sister-in-law! I’m so happy!” Heather noticed that Marcia didn’t say she was going to be her sister-in-law. It seemed that to the older girl, it was already done.

“Come on,” Marcia enthused. “You need to meet Chet and Mage!” She grabbed Heather’s hand and pulled her toward the picnic area. Even if Heather had wanted to stay away from the other people, Marcia was determined that that wouldn’t happen.

Marcia pulled the girl up to the man with the grill and said, “Chet! I want you to meet our sister-in-law, Heather!”

A woman with light brown hair, just a shade or two darker than Marcia’s walked up to them, and Marcia introduced her excitedly, “This is your sister, Mage!”

“Chet’s my brother. He and Mage are married!”

Marcia was bubbling with enthusiasm while she introduced everyone.

Heather saw three younger kids running over. She guessed that one of the girls was around ten years old. She recognized Amber, and the youngest, a boy, was about five or six. Chet started to introduce the kids, but Marcia interrupted. “This is Allie,” she said, indicating the older of the two girls, “and this is Sammy,” she said of the small boy. “They’re our niece and nephew. Chet and Mage’s kids.”

“Hi,” Heather said. “I’m Heather.”

Chet overrode his sister with a glare, as she started to introduce the other girl. “And of course,” he said, “you know Marcia’s and my sister, Amber.”

“Sorry,” Marcia said, but she didn’t seem to be, really.

“Uh-huh,” Chet retorted.

Another car was pulling up, and Heather suddenly seemed to withdraw. Mage noticed and offered, “Would you like Marcia and me to introduce you to them?”

Heather nodded, wide-eyed.

Mage started to move over to the older couple as they got out of their car, but Heather remained rooted to the ground.

“Let them come over here,” Chet advised.

The couple greeted Bob and Liz, then Mike and Gloria. Finally, they moved over to where Heather stood with her peers.

The man held out his hand and said, “I’m Judge Matthews. You’re welcome to call me grandpa if you want, but you don’t have to.”

“I’m Sylvia,” the woman said, “the judge’s wife.”

“You’re my new mom’s parents?” Heather asked.

“No,” Sylvia told her. “We’re not really your grandparents.”

“We consider them grandparents,” Darryl said as he joined them.

“Grandpa Matthews is the attorney general of Alaska,” Marcia told her.

There was a sound on the road, and Heather glanced that way. Her face turned white as she saw two cars coming down the road.

“Why don’t you take Heather to introduce her to Tigger,” Judge Matthews said.

Marcia nodded in agreement and said to Heather, “Come on!”

Gratefully, Heather followed.