Chapter Fifty-Four

Marge wasn’t sure what had happened. They were all sitting there in their respective rows when the judge dismissed the case. He didn’t elaborate, just flicked his eyes at a piece of paper, made the call, and that was that.

The lawyer woman slumped a little, but then regained composure. She tentatively hugged Travis who buried himself in her hug but lent his eyes to Marge.

It took a second for Marge to process what was happening, but there across the room, Douglas was being arrested. It was odd watching all her dreams come true in that moment, but then her heart broke watching Franklin put an arm around his brother.

It was a quiet ride back, her grandson safely where he should be next to her son in the back of the car. Walt played something soft and low that seemed to carry their “I’m sorrys” for them. Marge was sorry her daughter wasn’t in the car with them. She was sorry she had let a bad man make her make bad choices that drove her daughter away. She was sad she ever was broken inside for having a son who was the way he was, and she was sad that she was Travis’s everything when the very thought went against nature. His parents were gone, and she had let him get arrested.

She knew Walt wouldn’t see it like that. She knew in Walt’s heart the only “I’m sorry” he had was that he couldn’t make her see the way he saw the world. He couldn’t infuse her with his joy and unrelenting hope and a hungry desire to love all he had ruthlessly like God had always loved him.

What is wrong with me? Marge asked but didn’t say.

Her thoughts wandered off to Franklin and sitting in his house at the kitchen table. Her cheeks flamed thinking of how she started blubbering like a baby. But then he came to hold her, gently, and it felt like all those times she was empty, God was taking a moment to fill her back up. She’d heard the phrase once, that hell was other people. And she had been a longtime subscriber to that way of thinking. But in that kitchen, with words lost and heart raw, she felt heaven in Franklin’s two arms.

“I love you,” Marge said to no one and everyone.