Chapter 20

The girls flipped when I told them. Jim and Chrsty just grinned. A thought crossed my mind.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

Jim looked a little sheepish at first. “I suspected. You looked too much alike, and you had a lot of the same mannerisms. I slipped a water glass out of the lawyer’s office and had my buddies at the Bureau run it for DNA, and compare it to a sample of yours. When they came back as a match I wrestled over what to do, and Christy told me to let sleeping dogs lie. I have to tell you, though, I lost sleep over it, and I’m glad you discovered the truth.”

I nodded, seeing the wisdom of what he said. I don’t think any of our friends were surprised when I took the evidence to a Judge, and asked if it was legal to change my name to Merchant. He looked at the papers and sighed. “My grandfather worked for your great grandfather as an engineer for a few years. He would often talk of him with respect. Your grandfather, not so much. He was the bad seed of the family, I’m afraid, always into things that his father had to get him out of. He finally had enough, and there was a pretty big row. He left that night, moving to the Midwest. I understand there was some kind of a scandal there, and he moved on to California. I guess now I know what the scandal was.

As for changing your name, it’s a pretty easy process. People change their names for all kind of reasons. I for one will be glad to see a Merchant back in the house and the community. Get a lawyer and have him put you on the docket, and we’ll go from there.”

When I told Jen, she cried for an hour with happiness. Three weeks later we were in front of a Judge, and pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Dean Merchant.

Miss Agnes, if anything, was even more happy. We could hear her hum in the vents, and hear Grace and Sandy giggle often over something she had revealed to them. Lindsey and her young police officer were growing closer, and it had been months since anyone had seen anything of Gwen. Shaggy had started divorce proceedings based on desertion, and in less than ninety days he would be a single parent. He told us he felt safe enough to move back into his house. We would be sad to see them go, especially Grace, who had become a surrogate daughter to us all. Lindsey had been working on her house, and was going to finally move in, with her fiancee, Robbie. I just looked at Jen and grinned. “Looks like it’s time to fill the bedrooms on our own.” She grinned back. “It will happen sooner than you think. I went to the doctor yesterday, and I’m almost two months along. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I told you. And before you say anything about names, Miss Agnes agreed we could use hers. Agnes Jane Merchant, and we’ll call her A.J., if that’s all right.”

The family celebration was epic. Sandy was due to graduate just after the birth, and already had a full golf scholarship from Duke, a noted LPGA factory. In a move that stunned the school she turned the scolarship down but asked if she could still be on the team. They loved the idea, getting the top high school player for free, able to give the scholarship to someone else on their list. Grace just hovered and promised to be the best Aunt in the history of the universe. She and Christy got into a mock argument over it, when she said she would be the best one. They settled it by saying Christy could be the best old aunt(Jim had to stifle a snicker over that), and she would be the best young one. Christy was looking a little wistful, and I grinned. Jim had told me the other day he had contacted a few agencies about becoming foster parents, with an end game of adoption.

Gram was smiling, something that was rare these days. Her health was to the point where we had a visiting nurse in three times a week, and the girls hovered when she wasn’t there. The doctors told us privately that she would be gone before the year was out. She was spending a lot of time talking to Miss Agnes. I think she was getting her ready to go.

We were moving on. Jen’s family came in, staying in Lindseys’ house, to share the joy. Her mother almost smothered me when she got hold of me. “Congratulations,” she said, once she let me breathe. “The best thing that ever happened to this family was you marrying our daughter. You don’t know what it means to us when you gave the girls the money to make it through four years of college without worry, as a birthday present. They’re looking right now, even though they have two years to make up their minds. I’m pretty sure they’re going to different schools, to get away from the twin identity. Joe doesn’t know what to say about you picking up the last two years after he graduated from community college, but he is very grateful.”

“You can stop embarrassing me now. You’re my family, the only one I’ve got. How could I turn my back, especially when the money wasn’t an issue? Besides, Jen would have killed me if we didn’t help. Quite a girl you raised there, Mom. If they all turn out anywhere close to her, you may not have a lot of money, but you’ll have an embarassment of riches in your family.”

She hugged me again, sniffling.

They left, but five months later Mom was back, and would stay until the baby arrived. The kids would be out of school in two weeks, and then the rest of the clan would arrive.

I admit it. We let down our guard. The gate was hardly ever closed now, and the security teams had departed. Jim and Christy found a house five blocks over, and moved there with the foster daughter they had taken in. She was fourteen, a victim of abuse and neglect, and extremely nervous in crowds. It took her four months to relax, and soon she was following Sandy around, the big sister she never had. Grace declared herself a little sister, and she often stayed with them. Andrea was smitten with Anne and Jan, and when they arrived it seemed like my pool was always full of giggling girls, followed soon by boys. I watched them like a hawk, and Jen laughed. “What are you going to do when your own daughter grows up?”

I didn’t like the idea the least little bit. Daughters were supposed to stay young forever, and love their daddies. “Well by the time that happens, I hope there will be a few more for me to concentrate on.” That got me an extra nice kiss.

We did another documentary, this one about lost children and the state of the social system that let bad things happen to children. The numbers were staggering, and it upset Jen for days. Whenever she got upset, I would rub her tummy, and feel little A.J. kick. It calmed her. We donated all the proceeds from the film to children’s shelters and private, non-profit agencies trying to stem the tide.

Shaggy, after the divorce went through, finally started dating. He met a really nice woman through our work with children’s agencies, impressed with his success as a single parent. She had a little boy, and soon they were having blended family outings. It was the most we had seen him smile in a very long time. Grace really liked her, and Sandy thought she was nice, but she was going away to college and didn’t have time to bond as closely as she would have liked. Shaggy brought them over to meet us, and let Mom check them out. She must have approved, because the boy and Grace disappeared upstairs, and came down lugging a croquet set. We had to set it up on the lawn, so they could play, and while we watched and Shaggy and I manned the grill. They had a ball, making up the rules as they went along. They fell asleep snuggled to each other, and Harriet had tears in her eyes as she looked at them. I got a feeling she would be around for a long, long time.