RIDE THE TIDE

Chapter 6- New Sky:

Penny made the decision when she handed Tom her car keys to let him drive. She would let him lead her wherever he needed to take her. She would learn to trust again. All the way up the winding mountain road she had wrestled with her decision. It wasn’t going to be easy but Jess had given her the jolt she needed.

“It’s me dad. He’s had a heart attack, Penny. I need you with me. Will you come?” Tom had moved to the porch and put his arms around her.

“I am with you Tom, wherever you take me.” He buried his face in her hair, his eyes wet.

Tom was on the phone booking a flight.  It looked like British Airways had the next flight out of Charlotte. They would have to move quickly. Tom’s bags were already in the car. There were only a few things he needed to throw in a carry-on bag. Penny was digging through one of her plastic bins looking for her passport.  He hated to rush her but he knew she still had to pack a bag and they needed to be on the road tonight. Tom called Terry to let him know what was happening and that they would be leaving Penny’s car with them and picking up the Jag.

Having finally unearthed her passport, Penny was standing in front of her wardrobe in a panic. The only things she had in the cabin were casual summer clothes.  She had no idea what to pack from the slim selection in front of her. Tom came in the bedroom with her leather duffle bag and put it on the bed.

“What’s the weather like in Yorkshire? I really don’t know what to take from here. My clothes are in a trunk at Terry’s. I just have jeans and shorts.”

“It’s cool and damp. Have you a raincoat? The jeans will be fine but you may need a jumper.”

Penny was wide eyed. Jumper? Tom walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out two pair of jeans, a pair of black slacks, two shirts and a jacket. From the old trunk at the foot of the bed he found a long sleeve cotton sweater.  He turned to her, shoes?…knickers? Penny moved quickly and finished up her bag.  From the back of the kitchen door she found an old ratty raincoat.

"It's all I have."

"It'll be just fine. My family are all ratty old raincoat people. Anything else you need,  we'll pick up in England."  Tom was ready to go.

Thirty minutes after he had parked the Cherokee in front of the cabin they were back on the road, headed to Terry’s for the Jag.

Terry was watching for headlights and when he saw them coming he called Jess. They were in the driveway when the Cherokee pulled in. He helped Tom transfer the bags to the Jag. Jess gave Penny a long cashmere cardigan she had been saving for best.

"Take it. You'll need it." Hugging Penny, she added, "You know I wish only the best for you."

Terry shook Tom’s hand. "We'll be praying for you two and your father."

Tom handed him the key to the cabin. "Thank you for everything, both of you."

They had made their way out of the mountains and were on the long stretch of I-77 toward Charlotte. Tom had relaxed a little behind the wheel and reached for Penny’s hand. “Thank

you, Penny,” he said.

She picked up his hand and kissed his fingers. Far from being relaxed, Penny’s insides were in a knot. If it wasn’t for Tom’s strength she would have buckled. The old feelings of inadequacy were stirring around. She was facing the unknown and felt unprepared.  Back at the cabin there was no time to think and she had just reacted. When Tom said he needed her with him, she answered by instinct. She needed him, too. Penny stretched out  and pulled the soft cardigan over her shoulders. I’ll just ride the tide, she thought, and see where it takes me.

They stopped for breakfast just outside of Charlotte. "It may be awhile before we get a meal," Tom explained. He didn’t count airport food as anything to eat. He parked in the long term lot and they caught the shuttle to the airport. Tom had his two large bags and a carryon. Penny managed her own leather duffel as, after all, there wasn’t much in it. She had her good leather hobo bag on her shoulder and Jess’s cardigan over her arm. She had changed into a pair of black jeans and a white tee shirt before they left.  Tom had the tickets taken care of and the bags checked.  They headed for the international section to await their flight.  Going through the security check point, Tom had removed his boots and black leather jacket.  He still had on the red shirt he had worn the day before.  Penny looked down at her feet...flip flops.  Oh, well.

They settled in to await their flight. Tom called home and Akkers answered the phone. Akkers was their general housekeeper.  She told Tom they were all at hospital and she didn’t know if Mr. Cox was any better. Tom let her know what time they would be at Heathrow and asked if somebody could be there to pick them up.

"Send Johnny," he suggested. Johnny was Akkers' son and a laborer on the farm. "And tell him to bring something fast," he added. He told Akkers he had someone with him. "No, you don't need to get another bedroom ready." 

He then called his brother, Davey, who was at the hospital. "It's touch and go, Tom," Davey explained grimly. "They have him stabilized for now but the outlook isn’t good. Mum was all right. You know Mum."

Penny was listening to his conversation and looking at her flip flops. They had a staff.  They would be sharing a room. She noticed Tom’s accent changed a little when he talked to his brother.

Tom closed his phone. "It doesn't look good for Dad." Then he was up and pacing, unable to stay seated.  He leaned against the wall and tilted his head back, his brow furrowed, his eyes closed. Damn being so far from home right now. Penny went to him, putting her arms around his waist. He held her tight against his chest.

It was a long time in the air. Penny thought she had slept a little, but she felt heavy, tired. They had wide first class seats and Tom slept. He was used to sleeping on planes but Penny wasn’t.  She watched the movie without sound, her mind far away where she had left everything familiar. She gazed out the window and could see outlines of land below, Greenland according to the progress board.  It didn’t look very green from here, she thought. She looked at Tom sleeping next to her, his hair tousled and covering the pillow. The blanket had slipped down around his knees and she pulled it up to his shoulders. It had been less than a week since he pulled up to her door. Penny remembered him telling her he just might show up one day. Never in a thousand years would she ever have thought something like this would come her way. Less than a week and she felt she had known him forever.

It was the smell of food that roused Tom. He sat up, ran his hands through his hair and leaned over Penny to look out the window. Ireland. "Won’t be long now," he murmured, giving Penny

a kiss. He would have liked to give her more but decided he’d better go to the bathroom instead. The meal, as usual, smelled better than it tasted, but at least it was something.

Penny got through customs easily enough.  Tom was waiting and put her bag on the trolley. He was looking for Johnny. Navigating the trolley through the crowed airport, he spotted him. Good God! Johnny was quite a sight.  Penny had to smile when she saw him. A young man about nineteen or twenty, she guessed. He was dressed totally in black, earrings in both ears and one in his nose. His hair was in about a three inch spike and bright blue. He had the brightest blue eyes framed in almost feminine black lashes and a wide smile.

Tom was having none of it. “What the hell! Your daddy die? Ya mum go blind? You’re not driving me home. You can catch the train back to whatever bat cave you crawled out of. Where’s the fucking car Johnny?”

“Ya don’t like, do ya, Tom? Me dad won’t go in pub with me anymore.” He said still with that wide smile on his face.

“I would think ya dad wouldn’t even call you by name. Now where is the fucking car?”

Johnny led them out the door and through the maze of the car park and stopped by a black Mercedes . He handed Tom the keys and turned to look at Penny, holding out his hand. “Hi ya. I’m Johnny Akkers.”

Tom said, “Don’t speak to him. He couldn’t possibly be an Akkers.” He was stowing the bags in the trunk.

Penny introduced her self and shook his hand.

Tom had the passenger door open waiting for Penny. “Leave him” he said. “Let’s go.”

Penny replied, “Tom, you aren’t going to make him take a train back, are you?”

“You’re fucking right I am!” He reached in his pocket and handed Johnny a wad of dollars.

“Go see if you can exchange this for enough money for a ticket. And the next time I see you, you better look human.” Johnny saluted him and walked back towards the terminal jingling the chains on his pants pockets.

Tom was pissed.  He paid the boy a salary and provided a home for him and his parents. He looked around at Penny who was staring open-mouthed back at him. “He works for me; nobody who works for me is going around looking like that. I’ve known that kid since he was a baby. He knows better.” He started the motor lit a cigarette and pulled out of the car park into the traffic.  It was going to be a bitch getting to the M1.

Penny buckled her seat belt and sat back in the seat, staring out the window. Wow, Tom had a temper. His eyes could flash fire.

They stopped once for gas, cigarettes and a drink.  Penny took the opportunity to pull a pair of black flat-soled shoes out of her duffel bag. She felt a little better now. Tom had apologized for his outburst back at the airport.  He wasn’t sorry for what he said but sorry Penny had to hear it. She shrugged it off. Men had tempers.

It was dark and Penny couldn’t see much out the window.  She had given up watching the traffic in front of her when she saw the speedometer.  Tom was driving ninety klms an hour in and out of lanes on what to her was the wrong side of the road. He called Janey and found she was still at the hospital. Their dad was holding his own.  Tom decided to go directly to the hospital. He was so afraid he wouldn’t make it in time. It had been nearly a year since he had been home and this was not the way he had imagined it.

They were now on the outskirts of Leeds. Penny smiled; now she knew where her shirt came from. Tom told her it wouldn’t be long now. His dad had been taken to Harrogate. Penny began to think about the hospital.  She hadn’t been inside one since her mother died. She hoped his dad would be awake; her mother hadn’t been by the time she got there from Charleston.

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