Chapter Fifteen

“Are you sure you know your way to the funeral home?”, Jake asked as they passed the marker sign that said that they were entering Boone Hollow. Sam just looked over at him increduously. “Okay, that was a silly question”, Jake said.

Jake looked at his watch. “Good driving, Sam. It looks like we have an hour or so before the service starts. Do you think we could drive through the cemetary before we go to the funeral home?”

“Jake, we’re going to be there after the service for the burial. Can it wait until then?”

“I was just that Dad would like to spend a lot of time in the cemetary if he was here. You know him and headstones.”

“Yeah, brother. I know.” Both of them were quiet in their thoughts for a while as they drove on. Jake eventually broke the silence.

“You know he wanted me to buy Uncle Bob a new camera, don’t you.”

“What camera?”

“Uncle Bob’s nice Nikon that I broke when I fell in the ravine. Bob didn’t really want another one, but Dad insisted that I go out and earn the money and pay him back for it.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“Oh, sorry”, Jake said. “I was still thinking about the camping trip.

It had been a great trip for the Dunbars and a disaster all in the same trip. They had an unforgettable bonding experience with family and a great sightseeing trip in the Smoky Mountains. On the other hand they almost lost both boys, Sam once and Jake twice on the same trip! All in all, it was an unforgettable trip for their family.

It was a long and cranky drive back with the family cramped up in the old Buick. Jake was taking up more room on the way back than he had on the way down due to the casts and bandages. Edward made frequent pit stops as a relief valve for all of them when they were getting on each other’s nerves. They made it back on schedule and resumed their routine lives with the first ever Dunbar vacation safely behind the.

Sam didn’t waste much time calling Marie after he got back to get together for a date. Two days later he came calling early to ask Ernie for Marie’s hand in marriage. That was the traditional way to do it and Sam was a traditional guy. Ernie was happy of course, for the respect that Sam had paid him and he reiterated to him that there was a job waiting for him at the factory soon. Ernie would go a step beyond that and help them to find a starter apartment in town. Anything for his baby, Marie. Sam quickly found a cheap and simple ring at pawn shop and on his third day home he got down on his knee and he proposed to Marie. She accepted and wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Sam Dunbar, you are going to make a fine husband and a father”, she said.

There was a week left before school started when the got back from vacation and Edward gave his old foreman at the factory a phone call. Could he work at odd jobs for a week and catch a paycheck to catch up on the bills that had come in while they were gone? His foreman found him some work and Edward reported for second shift duty. Edward did odd jobs, which in this case meant anything the foreman asked him to do including hauling crates around by hand on the loading dock. It was hard physical labor and it left him sweaty and exhausted, but it was only for a week.

Sam was waiting up for him at midnight on Thursday when Edward got home from the factory. That wasn’t like him, so Edward knew something was up. And he was smiling, so he knew it was something good. “You look like the cat that ate the canary, Sam. What’s up with you?”

“Guess.”

“I can’t guess”, said Edward who had a suspicion after all. “I’m too tired. Just tell me so that I can go to bed.”

“ I proposed to Marie tonight!”, said Sam.

“Well, I hope she said yes”, said Edward teasingly.

“Dad! Of course she said yes. Yes, yes, she said yes”, he said excitedly.

“That’s great Sam. I’m proud of you and I’m very happy for you.”

“Dad, I’d like to ask a favor.”

“Anything son, just name it. If I can do it then of course I will.”

“I’d be honored if you had a part in the wedding service. Reading a passage of scripture or something. I asked Marie if it was all right and she agreed to it.”

“Sam”, Edward said with tears in his tired eyes. “I would be very honored to do that. Thank you for asking me.”

“You’re welcome. And, Dad”, Sam said again. “One more thing.”

“Yes, Sam.”

“Would you help me tell Mom?”

“You bet I will. But in the morning, okay? I have to get some sleep.”

Lucille was thrilled with the news when they told her at breakfast. She spent all of the next day telling all of her friends in town and calling up the folks in Boone Hollow to tell them the news. Sam had asked her to pass along a special thanks to Uncle Bob, which she did even though she had no idea why he had asked her to do that.

Edward was excited as well and he spent his last shift at the factory telling all of the guys at the plant about his son’s upcoming wedding and especially about how proud he was of Sam. Edward took a little extra pride, unusual for him, in telling them that he would have a part in the service. It would be the best wedding that he had been to in his little churh. The wedding of his firstborn. Plus, he was anxious to finish this week and start back up in the teaching year with his new class of charges.

As his final shift ended for the night, Edward left his post to go find the foreman and thank him for letting him work for the week. He hurried across the loading dock lanes to try to catch the foreman in his office before he left for the night himself. Edward was running across one of the lanes when he heard a Jerry shout at him “Look out.” Edward looked in the direction of the shout to see a forklift barreling down at him. The forklift driver was in a hurry to drop this load and get out there himself and had not seen Edward until the very last minute. The driver swerved hard and missed hitting him. But the heavy forklift truck was not balanced to swerve that fast and it tipped over right on Edward.

Edward was crushed instantly. He never made it home that night to start the teaching year.

The Dunbar family was devasted. They loved Edward and were beside themselves with grief at his loss. Lucille’s family made the trip up from Boone Hollow to comfort her in her time of grief. Uncle Bob was a pall bearer at the funeral and he and Verdela stayed for a few days with her and the boys to help get things settled.

Uncle Bob even came back two months later and took the part that was intended for Edward in Sam’s wedding.

Sam would make it okay, Lucille knew. He was out on his own now. But what about Jake? How we he make it through his high school years without his father to guide him? And how would the two of them make it financially? Edward was the provider and his insurance would not carry them for long. Lucille didn’t have the answers. She just knew it would change all of their lives forever. Especially her baby, Jake.

“Dad would have liked to be here today, is all I’m saying”, Jake said as Sam pulled into the parking lot of the funeral home in Boone Hollow for Uncle Bob’s funeral. They had arrived. “That’s all I’m saying.”