A Family for Tyler. Angel Smits

just as they had been at the house. Yet another clue for Helen as to who and where she was that the staff had suggested. Sitting in the chairs was a comfort to Emily as well, and she smiled. They were worn and comfortable. Home.

      “How are you today, Mom?” She sipped her own cinnamon-laced, caffeine-enriched chai. She needed to stay alert so she had no qualms about a fully leaded drink for herself.

      “Oh, Emily!” Helen shook her head. “When did you get here?”

      Emily smiled. “Just a minute ago. How’s your coffee?” she asked, reminding her mother of the drink in her hand.

      Helen looked down at it with a frown that quickly vanished. She took a tentative sip then smiled. “Very good.”

      Emily knew not to let the conversation stop or she’d lose the connection with her mother, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Work filled most of her waking hours, and she couldn’t tell Mom about the cases she was working...though it wasn’t as if Mom would remember.

      God, this sucked. Emily wished she had someone to talk to, someone whose advice she could trust.... She missed her mom even more right now, though the woman sat right in front of her.

      The sudden wave of sadness took Emily by surprise and made her quickly change her train of thought. She immediately slammed into the image of Wyatt Hawkins.

      Cursing under her breath, she stood and paced the tiny confines of her mother’s room.

      “What’s the matter, hon?” Helen’s voice broke into her thoughts.

      “Oh, nothing.” What a lie.

      “Now, you can’t hide from me, you know.”

      Emily laughed. Mom might be disconnected, but she was still Mom. “No, I never could. It’s just work stuff.”

      “Are you in trouble?” Helen frowned over her coffee cup.

      Emily laughed again. “No.” The fern in Mom’s window looked healthy, but Emily busied herself cleaning dead leaves and rearranging the tiny branches. “Hey, Mom? When we lived out at Grandpa’s place, did you know anyone named Hawkins?” She could have bitten her tongue.

      “Hawkins. Hawkins.” Helen repeated the name several times before looking up with a smile. “I do remember them. Lots of kids in that family. Five or six, I think.”

      Emily wasn’t sure if her mom meant her generation or the current one. She knew there were six in the current one.

      “Nice family.” Helen took a sip of her coffee, the cup hiding her face for an instant. Once the cup was back down, Emily felt a little hitch. The distance was back. She wasn’t going to learn any more from Mom about Wyatt and his family. Maybe that was a good thing. It wasn’t appropriate to combine her personal life with business.

      “Have you heard from your father?” Helen asked. “I haven’t seen him.”

      “Me, either,” Emily whispered. It always hurt when Mom asked about Dad. She never asked about Earl, which Emily was thankful for—she couldn’t discuss that jerk. But it was also hard to discuss the father she missed so much.

      “Helen?” A man’s voice came from the hallway, and Emily looked up to see an elderly gentleman leaning on his walker, standing in the open doorway.

      Helen frowned for just an instant, then smiled. “Hello.” She didn’t say the man’s name, so Emily knew she didn’t remember it. But she did recognize the man, if the warmth of her smile was any indication.

      “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know you had company.” He started to move away, but Emily knew an escape when she saw one.

      “I was just getting ready to leave.” Emily stood.

      “Oh.” He smiled. “I came to see if Helen was ready to head down to dinner. They’re having a round of bingo beforehand, and I thought we could play.”

      “I think Mom would like that.” Emily smiled at Helen and stood, hoping her mother would get the hint. Thankfully, she did. Setting her coffee on the table, Helen headed to the door.

      “I love bingo.” Helen fell into step as the man led the way down the hall, Emily once again forgotten.

      Emily stood there, a half-empty cup in her hand. Suddenly she didn’t want any more. She just wanted to get out of here and go back to the office. She could think there. She knew what to expect from the stack of files that needed to be read.

      “Did Helen already go to dinner?” A nurse’s aide entered the room.

      Emily recognized her as Rose from her earlier visits. She liked Rose. “A gentleman with a walker came by and is going down with her.”

      Rose laughed. “That describes most of the men here. I’ll bet it was Hal. He’s taken a shine to your mom. Keeps her out of other people’s rooms by getting her back here after every meal.”

      Relief that Mom had someone watching over her slid through Emily. She grabbed her mother’s barely touched coffee and took it to the sink to pour it out. She emptied her own as well then tossed the cups into the trash.

      “She really is doing well.” Rose came to stand beside Emily. “She’s going to activities, she cooperates with care most of the time and she even joined in yesterday’s sing-along.”

      Such simple progress...and yet it was very big news. Helen was different now from the skin-and-bones, withdrawn and frightened woman who’d been brought here just a couple months ago. She was still thin, but she was clean, neat and eating regularly. Though it didn’t help ease Emily’s guilt.

      “I’m glad.” She smiled at Rose. “And I appreciate everything you all do for her, really I do.” She gathered her purse and headed to the door.

      “She talks a lot about you, you know.”

      That stopped Emily. She slowly turned back to look at the aide.

      “When I help her get ready for bed, we talk.” Rose stepped close. “She’s so proud of you. She talks about you and your horse, Sugar. She told me how hard you worked to get into law school.”

      “She remembers all that?”

      “Yeah.” Rose took a deep breath. “The best part of this job is that I get to see that. She’s still in there, she just doesn’t show up often. Usually at night, after the sun sets, she’s more...” Rose seemed to struggle with the words. “More aware? I don’t know how to describe it. But she seems to wake up, just for a little bit.”

      Emily was surprised. “I wish—”

      Rose interrupted her. “Don’t do that. Just accept her for who she’s been and who she is. She’s a very sweet lady.”

      Emily nodded, fighting the tears that were tight in her throat. “I know. You should have known her when I was a kid.” She laughed as a myriad of images flashed through her mind. Happy times, not the painful memories from after Dad’s death, or when Earl had entered their lives. She recalled sitting on the couch reading storybooks, putting together puzzles and watching soap operas on school holidays.

      “You keep those memories.” Rose patted her arm. “I think she’d like you to.”

      Emily watched Rose leave the room and head to the dining room. She’d needed that today. Needed to be reminded that she was still important to someone. She didn’t even cringe when she went past the dining room and saw her mother struggling to read the bingo cards. Emily just smiled, waved at Hal, at Rose and the other dozen people seated at the square dining room tables.

      The sun was low in the afternoon sky as she reached her car, though the heat hadn’t lessened any. The door handle was still hot and she cursed as she gingerly opened it. She dreaded getting inside the scorching car.

      She was just a block away when her cell phone rang. She pulled to the side of the road to dig it out of her