“Calm down they’ll be here. They’re probably just outside you know how hard it is to keep your brother away from Kelly.” But Dane knew exactly where his brothers Mason and Mitchell were. They weren’t at the church yet because they were still at the house where the reception was being held putting the finishing touches on Parker’s car, Vaseline on the handles, balloons covering nearly every square inch, and even placing a dead fish in the back seat. Payback wouldn’t be pleasant.
Without warning the side door burst open and the two missing tuxedoed tricksters stumbled into the room their faces red with laughter.
“And what have you two been up to?”
“Nothing Dad why? We’ve been out here with the guests.”
“That’s one.”
“One what?”
“Commandment, and in church no less.”
“Ah right, well.”
“I won’t ask. Just keep in mind whatever you two were up to your time will come.” Bane looked directly at Mason. “And how’s Kelly?”
“Amazing as ever.”
“Well at least you already have the tux.”
Jokes like this were nothing new in the Bronson family. Ever since Mason met Kelly at UCLA everyone knew it was only a matter of time before he too said his vows. The family actually started a running bet the day Mason announced at dinner that he and Kelly, who were both studying to be therapists, were planning to start their own Christian counseling center after they graduated that would also work in tandem with Redemption Freedom Exchange. All his little birds were leaving the nest, even Mitchell was taking extra online courses in computer programming and animation for early admission to college, but Bane couldn’t be happier for them.
As the moment came Bane stood beside his sons watching his newest daughter glide towards them and he couldn’t help but remember Shaylon. Her gown rustling in the ocean breeze, more beautiful than the day they met, walking toward him. They had renewed their own vows a year ago on the beach in Hawaii with the whole family surrounding them and it couldn’t have been more perfect. Things were hard at times, and problems like the tide still rose. Sometimes that fleshly man rears his angry, selfish, envious, ugly head, but ever since that night all those years ago with a long talk with a man named John Gordon things got a whole lot better and instead of fighting those air currents of life Bane learned to let go and use them.
The chapel cleared as the newlyweds and guests made their way to the reception leaving Bane alone in the church he had grown up in. Now that everything was quiet, now that it was still, the memories came flooding back and with them all the guilt he’d spent years running away from and he couldn’t stop the tears.
“He’d be proud of you, you know? Grandpa, he’d be proud.” He hadn’t noticed Dane slipping in beside him.
That’s one thing that still plagued him even after all this time. His father had passed long before he’d found his way back to God. He hadn’t gone to the hospital when the call came, he hadn’t showed up at his funeral, and he’d avoided the old man’s grave and now that he had embraced the faith and the savior his father had held so dear he still couldn’t bring himself to visit his father’s final resting place. Still ashamed of the way he’d acted, of the life he’d led, of the time he wasted and was now gone forever, but his biggest regret was not being able to apologize, to tell him that he’d been right all along and that it wasn’t too late for them.
“I just wish I’d had a chance. No that’s not true, I had the chance and I threw it away. I wish he could know…”
“He already knows Dad. Grandpa was a man of faith right? Well then he’s up there right now waiting for the day when our whole family can be together and I guarantee you the day you accepted Christ and those angels cheered he was louder than all of them.”
As the sun shone through the stained glass window. Rays of colored light danced on the small brass plate attached to the bench in front of them that read: Dedicated in the memory of George Westmore and the two smiled as Bane reached out, tracing the engraved letters with his finger. It had been a long time since Bane had seen his father’s name.