CHAPTER NINETEEN
“H-m-m-m-m,” was all that Tom would say. That is, until Olivia pulled into the driveway. By the time she stopped, he had his seat belt off and the door open. “Why, th-a-a-t’s,” he began as he climbed out the door, “my son, Phillip.” Without further explanation, he quickly hurried over to where Phillip and Jeanette were waiting.
Olivia was flabbergasted to the point of utter confusion. First, she swung the door open and cried out, “Grandpa, what did you mean? You come back here. I want to talk.....” But the simple fact that she had forgotten to unbuckle her seat belt halted her in mid-sentence and caused her to almost fall out of the car. She struggled to sit up straight and finally half pleaded and half commanded, “Arthur! Help me. I can’t find the…..button.”
Arthur leaned over the seat and said, “I’ll get it, Mom.” But, in his haste, he didn’t think to see if it was safe to unbuckle his mom.
Olivia’s posterior was hanging more off the seat than she realized. When Arthur hit the seat belt’s release button, she fell butt first towards the ground. Only a death grip on the steering wheel kept her from an embarrassing introduction to her unannounced company. Quickly gathering herself together to see if she was noticed, she saw Tom, Phillip and his wife in an embrace. Whew! She was safe.
“Arthur, get Wendy out for me,” she said as she hastily straightened her clothes. She made her way to the trio with a very puzzled look on her face.
After some very happy hugs and greetings, Tom looked back and saw a very, what should we say, 'resolute' Olivia making her way over to them. Arthur wasn’t too far behind her with Wendy firmly in his arms. The look on his face was just as 'resolute' as his mother’s.
With a merry twinkle in his eye, Tom cheerfully announced, “Olivia, Arthur, I want you to meet my son, Phillip, and his lovely wife Jeanette.”
Phillip and Jeanette stepped over and shook hands with a somewhat subdued mother and son. Phillip attempted a conversation, “Finally, I get to meet you. We have been so……anxious to meet you ever….since…..Dad, uh, ..T-Tom told us………about you.”
As she finished shaking hands, Olivia answered in a quiet, cool voice, “That’s funny. In all that we’ve talked about since he got here, he.....NEVER ONCE......mentioned the fact that he had gotten married and had a son.” As she finished, she looked over at Tom with a raised eyebrow.
Tom looked down towards the ground, sighed real deeply and said in a sad voice, “Well, Olivia, ……the truth is……his mother and I never got married.”
Almost simultaneously, Olivia and Arthur looked at him in disbelief and blurted out, "NEVER GOT MARRIED?"
Olivia went on, “Grandpa, how could you?” Then after a swift look at Arthur, she said in a lower tone, “And…..you had to say that in front of Arthur. Grandpa, really.”
Jeanette covered her mouth with her hand and looked at Phillip. Phillip crossed his arms, looked at Tom and asked, “Dad----is that all you’re going to say?”
Tom looked over at him with a perplexed and innocent look as he lamely protested, “Phillip, it’s the truth. No matter what I said, your dear, sweet mother flatly refused to marry me.”
Phillip looked at him with a big grin and began talking in measured tones, “You…..sneaky…..snake…..faking….old codger. You will never change your ways, will you?”
Tom shrugged his shoulders and declared with a contented smile, “My boy, why mess with perfection?"
Phillip turned toward Olivia and Arthur and stated, “It’s not what you think. Don’t let this vicious trickster pull the wool over your eyes. It’s true that my mother didn’t want to marry Tom. But, the rest of the story is…..Tom didn’t want to marry her either.” Phillip's vain attempt at clearing things up only added to the confusion. And, Tom couldn't help adding more muddle to the story.
While Olivia and Arthur stared at Tom with their mouths wide open, Tom woefully declared, “Oh, the shame of it all. The disgrace of my indiscretion has been brought out into the open.”
After a cry of “Grandpa” from the Hollis duet, Phillip interceded, “You never give up do you, Dad? You’re a hopeless case.” Then turning to Olivia and Arthur he explained, “The truth is, Tom didn’t come into our lives until I was twelve years old. Don’t let him fool you. He’s not my biological father.”
The Hollis duet breathed a sigh of relief as Phillip continued, “They did see each other for a month or two. But, Mom was still in love with my father and was still praying that he would come back. And, Tom, the old codger, was still madly in love with his Ellen. Neither one of them would have been happy.”
Then, as he stepped over and put his arm around Tom’s shoulders he said with a big grin, “But, I was sure happy. I got to spend every weekend with this hopeless case until I left for college. Hangin’ out with this bum kept me from getting into a lot of trouble with the crowd I had started running with.”
Olivia chortled a real weak laugh, “Ah…ha-ha….I….uh should have known he would eventually pull something over on us like that. My dad, his other son….I mean real son……oh, no, I don’t mean that you’re not real or nothing…”
Phillip said with a smile, “I know what you mean.”
Olivia continued with a nervous giggle, “Well……my dad was always pulling something over on us. Not mean stuff. Just funny stuff. Come to think of it, he always came up with something you would have never expected.”
“Exactly. Your dad got it honestly, Olivia,” Phillip went on. Then he stepped over to Arthur and put his arm around him and said as he looked back towards Tom, “When I get a couple of days, I could tell you more stories about your grandpa than you could ever remember.”
Jeanette added, “And if he ever forgot any of them, I could fill in the empty spaces. When those two got together, that’s all they talked about……..how they pulled a slick one on somebody.”
Everyone laughed, even Wendy. Then it dawned on Arthur, “Wait a minute. You said, ‘when‘ you get a couple of days? You mean you can‘t stay?”
Phillip answered, “No, sir. I’m sorry but we have to catch a plane in a few hours. We’re on our way to Hawaii for a vacation.”
Tom added with a grin, “Dad-burned airplane pilots. I fail to understand why a company would send their pilots to Hawaii to teach them something. And, to beat it all, it‘s gonna take them four weeks to learn it all. Sounds to me like somebody‘s got a learning disability.”
Quick as a wink, Arthur shot back, “D-u-u-u-h, what did you say, Grandpa? I don’t remember anything you said after Hey-wire-ya.”
I have no idea who got the biggest kick out of that. Phillip had to lean on Tom for a minute. Arthur stepped over to the porch and sat down on the steps to keep from dropping Wendy. Phillip finally calmed down enough to observe, “He has just barely been around you for 24 hours and already he’s already acting like ……….a…..”
“Hey, I resemble that remark,” quipped Arthur as he started laughing so hard he almost had to stop to catch his breath. Tom came over and rescued little Wendy before Arthur became disabled from his own joke.
It was Olivia's turn to comment on her only begotten son, “He started off that way. I tried to trim his wick down a little and make a gentleman out of him. Then, low and behold, his grandpa shows up and he throws a retard attack.” Olivia tried to act like she was complaining as she turned to go up the steps to the house, “Get outa my way, Mr. Laughs and Giggles I‘ve got to get some grub for your Uncle Phillip and Aunt Jeanette.”
Arthur caught on, “Uncle! Hey! I’ve got an Uncle and an Aunt. Wow! A matched set.” Then he grabbed his Uncle Phillip by the hand and started pulling him towards the house. “Come on, Uncle Phillip, there‘s no time to lose. You’ve got to tell me at least one good story about Grandpa. Please, pretty please.”
Tom grabbed Phillip’s other arm, “Just a small word of advice. You may as well give up when he starts with that ‘Please, pretty please’ stuff.”
Phillip looked down at Arthur. The eleven-
year-old con artist had one of those ear-to-ear cheesy grins and he was batting his eyelids like a butterfly in mating season.
“Alright,” Phillip conceded. “But just one story.”
“OK,” answered Arthur as he pulled him towards the back door. “OK, just one. One at a time that is.”
Phillip looked at Tom and said, “I see what you mean, Dad.” He called out to Olivia who was at the door already. “Olivia, don’t fix anything for us, please. We……..”
Hand on the hip and a sharp tongue to boot, “Whatsa matter. You don’t think I cook good enough for you?”
“Oh, no…it’s not that…..”
“Just for that crack I won’t give cooking a second thought. Besides that, the Pizza King van just pulled into the driveway.” With a 'Ha ha, I gotcha' look on her face she quipped, "I already called them on the way here, so there."
Before he could stop himself, Phillip spilled out, “Gee, I bet she was fun on a date.” He tried to cover his mouth, “I can’t believe I said that.”
As everybody tittered over Phillip's remark, Olivia stood there with one hand on the door knob, one hand on her hip, mouth wide open and shot glances back and forth between Tom and Phillip. “Dear God in heaven,” she exclaimed, "Wonder where you got that remark from?"
As Tom broke into laughter and pointed at Olivia, Phillip asked, “Don’t tell me he already sprung that one on you?”
“That does it. I’ll get the THREE of you before it’s all over with. Just you wait and see,” she went on in mock anger. She opened the door, pointed inside and snapped her fingers as she commanded, “Every one of you. Into the kitchen….right now. Last one in has to put the ice in the glasses for the drinks.” Did you ever see an eleven-year-old get from the bottom of the steps into the kitchen of a house in less than half a second? I must have blinked, too. Because all I saw was a blur.
Now it was Jeanette’s turn. She acted like she was trying to shoo chickens into their pen. “C’mon guys. Mosey along, will ya. I am definitely going to be the last one in besides the pizza guy. I sure wouldn’t trust any of you putting ice in my glass with y'all already acting like that.”
She yelled up to Olivia from the bottom of the steps. “It’s Tom’s favorite trick. If he ever takes the boys on a camping trip, Olivia, make sure that YOU bring the ice and not him. Have you ever seen a grasshopper in an ice cube?”
The pizza delivery man busied himself trying to walk around everybody with two giant pizzas, the bread sticks and a couple of two liters of drinks. Tom and Phillip quickly cleared the table and the pizzas were placed. There was the usual squabble about who pays and who tips. And, in less than two minutes the driver was out the door and on his way.
Arthur had spent his time getting Wendy‘s highchair ready and strapping her in good and tight. Then he turned around and announced, “I’ve got to go let Samson outside, BUT, when I get back in, we’ve got to talk, Grandpa and Phillip. We’ve GOT to talk.”
Olivia tried to give him a mean look, “Oh, I don’t know about that.” But she couldn’t hold her laughter back. As Jeanette joined her in the kitchen, Olivia took time to give her a hug.
Jeanette held on to her longer than normal and began to shake ever so slightly. She was crying. When she finally loosened her grip on Olivia, she quickly brushed the tears from her cheeks.
Thankfully, Ryan made his entrance and the men began to greet one another and carry on like men do. A squeal and two raised arms from Wendy meant a little huggy-doodle business was necessary.
That gave Jeanette time to admit something to Olivia, “I had to be the last one to come in because I was about to fall to pieces. We are certainly going to miss Tom, but I am so very, very glad for him to finally be around his loved ones. He was always having fun with everyone he was around. But, even his smile would tell me that he was lonely. And, I wasn’t the only one that saw it. Every now and then, I could glance over at him and the smile wouldn’t be there. That’s when a world full of emptiness showed on his face. But, tonight, it’s gone. And, God did it all in His own way. You have no idea how hard Tom has worked for the Lord. Now, it wouldn’t surprise me to see how God wound up blessing him.”
Olivia replied as she got out the glasses, “Let me tell you something, Jeanette. We’ve always been a happy family. But, the past 24 hours have turned our lives in a different direction. God has something good for Tom and for my son, Arthur. And, I am so glad to meet someone who has known my grandfather during the years I didn’t. Somehow, we need to get together……..”
Jeanette couldn’t stop herself as it dawned on her. She had to interrupt Olivia with, “Four weeks!”
“Huh?”
“In four weeks we’ll be back from Hawaii, and Tom has already asked Phillip to come spend some time with him in a fishing cabin somewhere around here. I believe he said something about having an outing with Arthur’s friends.”
“Oh, Jeanette," Olivia responded with a look of pure delight. "That would be just perfect. That would mean that you and I and little Wendy could spend our days and nights together. But, you’d better hold on. I’ll have four weeks to write down all the questions in the world.”
“Don’t worry, Olivia. I’ll start writing down all the things I want to tell you. Maybe I could get some of the ladies from the church to come down and we could just have a gaggle while the guys are camping.”
“I’m for it.”
Ryan came into the kitchen to greet his wife with a kiss and to say ‘Hello’ to their guest. He asked, “Do you need any help with the glasses, Honey?”
“Yeah, between the three of us, we can carry them in our hands and don’t use a tray this time.” The three of them grabbed the glasses and placed them appropriately around the table. Everybody got seated and waited for the blessing to be said.
Ryan gave the nod to Arthur and I think he broke the speed record with five seconds flat. Without blinking an eye and before he reached for a piece of pizza, he looked at Phillip and asked, “Which one?”
Ryan admonished him playfully as he lifted the lid on the pizza nearest him and offered it to Phillip and Jeanette, “Sunshine, let’s eat some pizza and give us a moment to get acquainted with our guests first.”
An embarrassed smile played on his face as he answered, “OK.” Then, right back at it he went. “Hey, Grandpa. Is that your blue SUV out there?”
Olivia put her head in her hands and chuckled, “I give up.”
Arthur had a slice of pizza half-way in his mouth when it dawned on him what he had done. He slowly put the pizza down and said, “Oops. I’m sorry, Uncle Phillip and Aunt Jeanette. Mom’s been working real hard on getting me to slow down and be more considerate of my elders.”
He was almost at his puppy-dog-eye look when he continued, “And, I’m doing much better than I was two years ago. Mom and Dad have really been patient with me.”
“Patient?” Phillip asked as he pointed to Tom with his pizza. “That’s Mr. Patient, himself.” He took a bite of his meat lover’s special and continued, “When Tom first started coming to our church, I had a personal vendetta against him.”
Jeanette giggled as Arthur almost choked on his glass of Dr. Pepper. With a smile as if he was fixing to hear the inside scoop of some good gossip his inquiring mind wanted to know.
“A vendetta? Just what did Grandpa do?” Arthur asked the question in a tone that suggested he might be fishing for some kind of quality that he could copy. Olivia perked up.
Phillip got a play-pretend mean look on his face as he leaned toward Arthur, squinted his eyes and alleged, “He put his hands all over MY mother.” He sat back up, gave Tom a ‘so there, ha-ha’ look and made a show of stuffing the rest of the meat lover’s special into his mouth.
Tom sat back in his chair with an aloof look on his face, made a pretense of looking at his fingernails and responded, “And she loved every minute of it.”
“GRANDPA,” Olivia demanded as Arthur giggled. Wendy giggled, too, but only because
Arthur did. He held out his hand for a high five which brought another gush from her. Olivia stammered, “You…just what did you……put your hands….”
“To be honest, the story’s about me holding her hand the first day we met. She was an usher at a church that I was visiting,” started Tom. “And, I’ll have to admit, I did hold her hand a little bit longer than you normally would.”
Olivia asked, “Then what’s this hand holding thing all about?”
Jeanette answered, “It’s about a mean little brat who was insanely jealous over any man who paid attention to his mother.”
Phillip raised his hand and said, “She’s talking about me, just in case you didn’t know. It was always all about me.”
“I had no alternative but to let go of her hand,” Tom continued. “Phillip was standing close to the door behind me. When he saw me put my left hand on top of hers as she greeted me, he came around and walked between us and asked her some meaningless question.”
“I was a brat, alright, and I had a pretty big chip on my shoulder, too. Yes, indeedy I did,” Phillip said quite proudly of himself.
“His father had just left about four months previously and he was the self-declared protector of his mother,” added Tom.
“And he was a mean little brat,” Jeanette repeated.
“The meanest of the mean,” Phillip bragged. “Seriously, I really worshiped my dad, even though he was in the wrong. I blamed women in general for taking my dad away from me. I didn’t know the whole story. I was pretty hurt, pretty mad, pretty mean, pretty disgusting………..eh…..I guess pretty everything EXCEPT……pretty good. If I was going to be anything at all, I made up my mind not to be good.”
Jeanette carried on the unkind remarks, “And, he was pretty good at being pretty bad. All the girls in the church were targets for his anger and hostility.”
Arthur looked at Phillip with a funny little smile and doubted, “Not you. I can’t believe that you would ever be anything like that. Are you……..telling the truth, Uncle Phillip?”
“I’m serious, my boy,” Phillip said as he looked him in the eye. “You have no idea in this world how much hatred I had for mankind in general. Even though I know now that it wasn’t true, I thought that nobody cared for me. I hated everybody. All I could think of was how to be mean.”
“No way,” was all that Arthur could come out with.
“That was until this man came along,” Phillip said as he pointed to Tom.
Tom smiled and just nodded his head.
“No matter how I treated him, he treated me as if I was a piece of gold,” Phillip continued.
“That’s because God saw you that way,” added Tom.
“I pulled every mean trick on him when he came over to see Mom. I treated him like dirt. I said awful things to him and all he would do was love me. AND, take me out to Bad Boys Bar-B-Q. Maybe that’s what did it,” suggested Phillip.
He looked at Tom with a smile and continued in a little softer voice, “I was absolutely destined to be my own man. One of the guys I hung with gave me a half-pint of vodka one night to take home. He told me that it didn’t have a smell and no one could tell when I was drinking it. I downed that one the first night and felt like a real man. I had done something I wasn’t supposed to do. And, I didn’t get caught doing it."
After a small sip of tea, Phillip continued, “Of course, I had to come up with a way to buy it if I wanted it. So, I got pretty good at doing chores here and there and just down right stealing if I had to. I would pay a guy to buy it for me and hide it in our yard. Every night I would go out to get it and take it to my room. I couldn’t wait for 10 p.m. to come around. It got to be where I couldn’t do without it. In just a short amount of time, I had become an alcoholic.
“One Friday night, I talked Mom into letting me go hang out with the guys. I lied to her and told her it was some of the guys from the church. That night, my plan was to get smashed out of my gourd. But, as I started drinking, I started comparing the party to the Friday nights I would spend with Tom. Conversations with Tom were always fun and uplifting. Hearing these guys talk it was ‘GD’ this and ‘GD’ that or ‘F’ the other thing. They never had a kind word about anybody. They were mad at everything.
“I tried my very best to drink myself silly. The longer I sat there listening to the people I only thought I wanted to be around, the more I wanted to be around Tom. I knew it wasn’t just Tom, it was the Jesus in Tom. I couldn’t even drink like I wanted to. Then, it was like God speaking to me and asking, 'Is this the kind of guy you want to grow up to be, or would you rather be like Tom?'
Phillip looked at Tom for a second and then back at Arthur. “That’s when I couldn’t stand it any longer. I got up like I had to go to the bathroom. Instead, I went out the back door. I walked around until I got my bearings and then I headed for Tom’s house. Half-way there it started to rain. I got completely soaked.
“It was 1:30 in the morning when I finally straggled up to his house. I must have looked like a drowned rat when Tom opened his front door. He acted like he had been expecting me. You know what? He hugged me like he always did, wet clothes and all. After a hot shower and some good food we talked about a lot of things. That Sunday, we walked down the aisle of the church together and I gave my heart to Jesus.”