HOMEWARD BOUND

The police arrived soon after with Detective Davidson leading the group. He looked straight at me as the officers went into Richard’s office.
“Miss Novoselic?”
I was ready to charge into him as I knew he was going to dive on in that, here I was, causing more commotion, more destruction to his calm and tranquil town; like Knoxville was freaking Mayberry.
“You all right?”
I only nodded to him.
“What happened?”
“That dick in there,” Michael pointed to the office door, tried to rape my fiancé’”
I didn’t expect him to say that in front of my parents and the mixed company that surrounded the front room.
“And you are?”
Michael dropped stood up and extended his hand. “Sorry, sir. Michael Nelson.”
They shook hands and the detective took a step back to see the officers standing with Richard, who had a bloodied face.
“What happened to him?”
“Well, he had his pants kind of at his knees and he went down pretty hard when we tackled him. Let’s just say he isn’t gonna be doing any kind of modeling or whatever he used to do with his pretty face.”
I started to cry because I remembered what almost happened.
I was ready to do whatever Richard wanted me to do to get out of that room, even if it meant degrading myself to him; I just wanted to make it out alive. His hands moved in slow motion and I feared that no matter what I did, he would still find a way to hurt me even more.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“For what?” The detective asked.
“I shouldn’t have gone to his office alone.”
“I’ll need the two of you to come down to the station and make a statement.”
“Detective,” My father walked up to him. “My daughter’s been through a lot today. I’ll make my statement now. Can she come back later?”
My father locked eyes with the detective, who then nodded.
Michael’s uncle stood on the other side of the room, away from all of us. “He said he should stay on the other side, in case he felt the urge to hit Richard again. I kind of want to do it myself.”
We looked at the detective and hoped he didn’t hear us.

I stood up next to Michael and soaked in everything: there was blood on the floor and on five people, with my father, Michael and Richard covered with the most. There were crowds of students surrounding the doors and the front windows with their phones out recording what looked like the end of a boxing match. I was sure campus security wanted us to leave as soon as possible,
“Oh hey, I found something for you.” Michael reached into his pocket. “I’m going to need to borrow your other hand.”
I held out my left hand and Michael laid my grandmother’s ring in it.
He then lightly took my right hand and moved my fingers. He then picked the ring up and placed it back on my finger.
“Thank you.”
“You are most welcome.”
“Oh, and we picked up something from your grandmother.” We walked to the far side of the front room as both of my parents walked to the opposite end of the room with the detective.
“You went from Nashville to Steens and then back here?”
“Yep.”
“Why?” I asked while the police stood next to Richard while two EMT’s looked at him.
“Uncle wanted to see the farm. He said it still has promise.”
“He met my grandmother?”
“Yep.”
“How did that go?”
“You’re completely avoiding what I said earlier.”
“Yes, because I want it to be a surprise. I need a nice surprise after all of this. Okay, the suspense is killing me, what is it?”
“It’s a white dress. Your grandma said it was very pretty and I wasn’t going to argue.”
“Okay, I can’t guarantee I’ll wear it.”
“You don’t have to wear anything if you don’t want to.”
“You’d like that.”
“I like whatever makes you happy, m’lady,” he said with a slight bow. “But for now, I think you should go talk to one of those guys over there.”
I wanted to will away the pain I felt but that would be impossible. Two other EMT’s ran into the room, spoke to one of officers who looked in our direction and nodded.
“Okay, I’ll go. For you.”
“Thank you.”
Hours later, the prodding stopped, the questioning stopped and it was declared that my arms were not broken. Members of the administration were not happy and wanted us off campus. They even went so far as to cancel the play—considering all the “negative press” during the past week.
I wasn’t even able to go to the theatre to say goodbye as the local police said it was for the best if we placed some distance from the college for the time being. I wanted to say a few things, but I kept my peace and held my head up high as I got into Michael’s car and we started our caravan back to Memphis, Tennessee.
“I’m going to need to get an automatic,” Michael said as he fastened his seatbelt.
“I’m going to need to get a license.”
“Yep. That too.”
Michael has already grabbed everything from Danny’s apartment before he came to the dorm. He also had a lot planned out for the evening before Richard destroyed it.
“This is the biggest secret you’ve ever kept from me.”
Michael nodded in reply.
“Any other surprises?” I asked as I tried to keep up with my parent’s car.
“I wanted to say I kept one of Richard’s teeth.”
“That’s kind of disgusting. Could we bronze it?”
“Now I wish I had.”
“Probably for the best you didn’t,” I replied, even if it would have been somewhat creepy and probably illegal to keep a knocked-out tooth it would have been a great conversation starter.
“Your dad fights like Jerry Lawler.”
“The wrestler?”
“Oh yeah. It looked like he wanted to pile drive Dick into the floor. I would have paid to see that, you know?”
Now it was my turn to nod. I didn’t understand wrestling, but I tolerated watching it on Saturday mornings whenever I used to spend time with Michael. I thought the acting was atrocious—after I found out that it was acting—like a horrible soap opera for guys. A soap opera with more skin than anything on “All My Children” and I admit I watched it just to see that. I had no idea who was a good guy or a bad guy, I just saw all these chests moving around.
“I’ve never seen that side of him.”
“He accepted me earlier today, I mean like earlier today.”
“Is it the end of the world?” Michael asked as he motioned an explosion with his hands.
“I know, right? It’s like I was waiting for death to just come right there or to have him say he was luring me out to see if I would fall for something like that but—”
“But?”
“He said he’s going to switch out my birth certificate.”
“Did aliens kidnap your dad and replace him?”
“He accepts me, Michael. Me. As Kristina and not-”
“Kristopher?”
“Yes.”
“What about your surgery?”
For most of life, up until the week before I hated the semi-functional appendage hanging from me but at that moment, I really didn’t care about it anymore.
“I don’t know, I mean, in the grand scheme of life now, it’s nothing. What do you think?’
“It’s not my decision. It’s all yours, Kristi.”
“It doesn’t define who I am.’
“True,” he replied with a slight grin.
“What’s that for?”
“I’ll have to show you later.”
“You’re evil.”
“With you, yes.”
Due to my driving skills, it took longer than six hours and three fill-ups before we arrived back in Memphis. I used to think I’d never want to see it again; just to look at it fade in a rear-view mirror or out the window of a plane but at that moment, I welcomed the always under-construction highways and horrendously bad drivers.

It was after midnight before we made it back to the house. It was lit up like a Christmas tree with every light on, something that would have caused my dad to explode in a vocal tirade about wasting electricity. I assumed they had been home for a few hours before us, so I had to wonder why they were still on. My parents’ car was parked in front of the garage along with another car that I did not recognize.
We walked to the front door and stood on the porch.
“Here we are. Home.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“A little,” I replied as I blew my hair away form by face.
“It’s just temporary. Maybe we can look for an apartment.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I replied as I turned the knob, it was unlocked, which was stranger.
Had we been robbed? We’re my parents tied and bound to the floor by whoever it was that owned that car?
We walked in to see my parents in the sitting room with my grandmother.
“Grandma!” I felt like a seven-year-old again as I ran to her.
She stood up to meet me in a hug.
“I’m so happy you’re all right, Kristi.”
“Thank you.”
“Michael. Come, come,” Grans waved him over and pulled him into us as soon as he was close enough to grab.
“She’s here now, mama, so what’s going on?”
“I kept your father waiting dear, just so I could tell all of you.”
“Tell us what?” I asked as I looked at my parents. Apparently, grandma has kept them occupied with small talk—perhaps about why she had turned nearly every light on—until we arrived.
“I’ve been thinking about the future, how I’m getting old and how much I missed when you worked on the farm with your Pa.”
“I know, I know, but you haven’t had a farm operation in quite a while.” Dad replied as he sat up on his chair.
“I’ve been planning to start it back up and eventually hand it to a new owner.”
“You’re selling the farm?”
“Aaron Malone Novoselic, that’s complete crazy talk. No self-respecting southern farmer sells her land, no matter the price.”
“What are you getting at, mama?”
“I’m going to hire out and start again with some livestock. I’ve found a young couple to help me for a few seasons and then, maybe I’ll retire to the coast and let them take over.”
“Retire to the coast?” Dad asked.
“I said I would never sell, doesn’t mean I won’t take an extended vacation.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan. Who are you asking to help you?”
“A hard-working couple. They’ve been given a bit of hard luck in the past but I see a bright future for them, they just need a chance. And now they’re here to consider it.”
I tried to hide my fear and shock as we stood before the three of them. Grandma smiled at the two of us; mom looked like she was near tears, and my father-
My father was smiling—and he wasn’t having a heart attack from doing it!
Michael wrapped his arm around me and I tried to hide the fact that I was looking at my dad’s face but at that moment our eyes were locked with each other’s.
My father broke the silence with a small cough as he stepped towards us.
“Your idea, mama?” Dad asked.
“Of course, dear.”
Dad nodded as he looked back to mom. She made a rolling motion with her hands, as if this was all planned by everyone but me.
“Think you can handle farm life?”
“Yes sir.”
“What do you plan on doing with the rest of your life, Michael?”
“To take care of Kristi the best I can.”
Dad reached his hand out and Michael took it in a hand shake.
“You do that. You take extra care of my daughter, you hear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Dad then turned back to me. And put his arms around me. “Kristi and I love you, little girl, I’m sorry I never said that to you,”
My heart could have stopped at that moment and I would have died happy.
The world could have come to an end, and I would feel elated.
I took a step towards my father and closed my eyes—thinking that I would wake up at that moment but instead I felt his hands on back in a loving embrace.
“I won’t let anyone ever hurt you again,” he proclaimed with a quiver in his voice. “Can you ever forgive your father?”
“Yes,” I replied through tears that never flowed out when it came to my family.
Ones of happiness.