Chapter 7

When Jake arrived back home to Texas, everything seemed so empty. He opened the door to his parents' house and was immediately greeted by his mother. Sara Morgan stood up and ran to her son. Her hair was still in curlers and it seemed as if she had just gotten out of bed and her green eyes were puffy as if she had just finished crying.

"Jake! I'm so glad you're finally home!" She squealed throwing her arms around Jake.

Jake held her but his mind was elsewhere. "I missed you mom," he whispered.

Sara touched his face and kissed his cheek. "You hardly called here. We were worried about you!"

"I'm sorry... I was just... I got busy that's all."

"Too busy to call your momma huh?" She teased.

"I'm sorry mom."

"So tell me. How was your trip? Where in the world did you go?"

Jake took a deep breath and flopped down on the recliner putting his feet up on the lazy boy. "I... I went to Houston that's all. Just to visit some friends of mine that will be attending school up there."

Sara sat on the couch across from him. "Well I'm glad you had a good time honey."

Jake looked around for a moment. "Where's dad? At the church?" Tom Morgan was the town's reverend at a local church.

Her lower lip trembled and she burst into tears. "No. He's in the hospital."

Jake almost jumped out of his seat. "What? Why didn't you call me on my cell phone to tell me?"

Sara shrugged. "Well this just happened last night actually. I knew you'd be home today so I figured I didn't want to worry you while you drove."

"But mom, this is important! What happened to him?"

"Heart attack," she sobbed. Jake knew his father had heart problems. He had a mild heart attack a few years back when Jake was only 13 and he remembered what his father had gone through.

Jake gasped. "Oh my God! Well what did the doctors say?"

"It doesn't look so good, at least from what they can tell. He's got a clogged artery. They will need to do surgery, if it isn't successful... well you know... I've been praying for your father all night. I was about to go down to the hospital in an hour or so."

"Jesus! I'm going with you. Mom next time something like this happens I need to know. Just because I'm far away doesn't mean anything. I need to be here for things like this."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I just didn't want to worry you."

"He's my father and I love him. I do worry about him and you. Now get dressed so we can go see him."

An hour and a half later, Sara and Jake arrived at the hospital. They only had a few minutes with Tom, since he'd be going into surgery that afternoon. Jake went in the room with his mother and saw his father lying in the bed. He was staring up at the ceiling as if he was praying.

"Dad?" Jake said softly walking closer to his father.

Tom turned and his brown eyes met with his son. "Jake! My son! I'm glad you're here!" His voice was barely audible.

Jake sat next to his father and held his hand. "I am here and so is mom. We'll be here for you."

"I love you Jake. I might go this time."

Jake felt tears almost swelling from his eyes. "No don't say that."

Tom squeezed Jake's hand. "If I go, just promise to take care of your mother. She's going to need someone to care for her."

Jake nodded. "I promise dad."

Tom looked over at Sara who stood by Jake's side sobbing. "Sara? I love you honey."

Sara burst out crying and knelt by his side. "I love you too. I will always love you Tom. But you're going to be fine sweetheart. I know you will. Jake and I will pray for you."

"Excuse me, Mrs. Morgan?"

Sara turned wiping her tears and saw the nurse standing at the doorway. "Y-yes?"

"You only have a few more minutes then I do have to ask you wait in the waiting room. Mr. Morgan is about to go to surgery."

"Yes ma'am." Sara replied and turned to her husband once again. "We will wait for you Tom. I know you'll be Ok."

"Thank you. I love you both dearly." Tom replied quietly.

"I love you dad," Jake said as he stood up and slowly let got of his father's hand. He only hoped he would be OK. He had to be.

After four long hours of waiting, Jake and Sara got the news. The bad news. The doctor came to tell them the surgery was not successful and that Mr. Morgan had passed away. Jake felt his whole world shatter and comforted his mom. They cried for what seemed to be forever. They cried until they could no longer cry.

2 years later

Jake was at his sophomore year in college. It had taken him a while to decided to what study and then he realized what he wanted to do. After his father's death and being away from Lucinda, he had been quite depressed. He began to write a journal of his feelings and his life and realized he wanted to be a writer. He signed up for many English classes and enjoyed writing.

He lived in the dorms but would often go visit his mother in the weekends. Sara still worked at the church as a secretary, which was good. She needed to keep busy after the death of her loving husband.

Jake never once told his mother about Lucinda, he knew that eventually the time would come up. She'd always ask him if he was dating anyone and he'd say a few girls but it wasn't true. He didn't have a desire to date any other girls after having been with Lucinda. His true love.

"Yes I'm finally glad to be going. I'll be leaving in two days from now," Sara told Jake over the phone one night. Sara was going to take a small trip with the church up to New York for a conference. It was her first time taking a trip in a long time.

"I'm happy for you mom. You do sound a lot better too," Jake replied.

"You still have the luggage from when you took your road trip don't you?"

Jake tried to remember. It'd been 2 years and he recalled taking almost everything out of the suitcases. Memories of Lucinda just came rushing back to him making his heart break. "Yes I do. They should be in my room in the closet."

"I'm going to need to borrow your luggage since mine is a bit old. I hope you don't mind?"

"Not at all mom. Take it and have fun. Call me when you get there and when you get back please."

"I will honey. I love you."

"I love you too mom. Night."

Jake hung up the phone and stared up to the ceiling. He closed his eyes and saw Lucinda's face. Her beautiful face.

"I still love you with all of my heart Lucinda," Jake said to himself. He could still feel her kisses, the softness of her body and smell her scent. He missed her and there had been so many times that he wanted to just pick up the phone and call her and tell her. So many times had he wanted to send her flowers especially for Mother's Day. Two years had been an eternity now he needed to wait two more years until they met again. This was all so torturous.

Sara went up to Jake's room and searched in his closet for the luggage. She grabbed two big suitcases and placed them on the bed. She opened them up to make sure nothing was in them. There were two of Jake's t-shirts in there that looked as if they had never been worn and some papers. Sara folded the t-shirts and put them in Jake's closet. She looked over some of the papers and began to toss out the old gas receipts. She thought all the papers were receipts but then one particular paper caught her eye.

It was a small white sheet of paper that was folded up. Sara opened up the paper and her heart almost sank when she saw what it had. It was the name she knew. Lucinda Grant. It had Lucinda's name, address and phone number. Sara was puzzled. Had Jake ever called his biological mother?

She went on to look further. She saw a receipt for a hotel. The hotel was in Las Vegas. "You lied to me Jake," Sara said silently.

She knew Jake must have gone to Las Vegas and searched for Lucinda. Had he ever found her? Sara wondered. She held the paper in her shaky hand and read the phone number.

Sara picked up the phone and dialed the number. It wasn't until four rings later that she heard a female voice.

"Hello?"

Sara wanted to speak and ask if that was in fact Lucinda Grant but something deep down told her it was. It had to be.

"Hello?" The female said again.

"S-sorry wrong number," Sara said in a panic and hung up the phone.

After Sara returned from her trip, she invited Jake over for the weekend. She would confront him about the whole thing. She didn't mind that he wanted to find his biological mother, but the fact that he couldn't be honest with her was what hurt.

Jake arrived later on that afternoon and Sara greeted her son with hugs and kisses. She cooked him up a nice dinner and they sat outside for a while sipping on coffee. Jake had told her about how his classes were going and how he would want to take summer school to try to finish faster.

"Do you know what newspaper you'd like to work for?" Sara asked curiously.

Jake shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe somewhere in Texas, Arizona or maybe even... Nevada."

Sara gulped. "I see. Why Nevada? It's too hot. I mean you complain how hot it is here but Nevada is really hot!"

"Yes I know but Vegas looks like a fun town."

Sara raised a brow. "Looks like a fun town or is a fun town?"

Jake looked puzzled. "I-I don't know mom. I've never been there."

She felt her heart breaking. Why did he have to keep lying to her? She stood up and walked into the house. Jake grabbed his cup of coffee and followed her. "Mom?" He looked around and Sara came back to the living room holding a piece of paper.

"I found this in your suitcase. You know when you supposedly took that road trip to Houston?"

Jake felt his heart sink. He could see his own writing on the paper that had Lucinda's name, address and phone number. "Mom... I-I... I'm sorry."

"Why did you have to lie to me Jake? I don't mind that you want to know your biological mother but why did you have to go sneaking behind our backs to do it. I could have arranged for her to come here and stay with us if you wanted me to."

"I know mom, but... it was just something I had to do on my own."