Full Circle by Mona Ingram Page A

obvious.
    “Yes...and
I’m going to take Melissa out of school and take her with me. It’s time she met
her grandmother.” She choked back a sob. “I only hope it isn’t too late.”
    * * *
    “Hello?” Her
father’s voice sounded frail and exhausted.
    “Daddy, it’s
Bella. I’m coming home.”
    For a moment
there was silence on the other end; Bella wondered if he was going to hang up.
    “Good,” he
said at last, his voice strengthening. “When will you be here?”
    “I’ll be
there tomorrow. I’ve arranged a car to pick me up at the airport and drive me to
Willow Bend.” She was afraid to ask the next question, but she had to know. “Is
she still alive?”
    “Yes.” There
was a smile in his voice now. “I’ll tell her you’re coming.”
    * * *
    “Grandma’s
sick?” The concern in Melissa’s voice was almost more than Bella could bear.
“What’s the matter with her?” They were in First Class, en route to Atlanta.
    “She has
something called lung cancer. It makes it hard for her to breathe.”
    “We learned
about lung cancer in school.” Her smooth brow furrowed. “Does she smoke?”
    “No.” Bella
stroked her daughter’s head, smoothing back a few strands of errant hair.
“That’s what surprised the doctors. She’s never smoked.”
    “Then why did
she get lung cancer?”
    “I don’t know
sweetheart. It just happens that way sometimes.”
    “Well, it’s
not fair.”
    “No, it
isn’t.”
    * * *
    “Hello,
Girlie.” Her father gathered her into his arms; it was something he’d rarely
done when she was young. She inhaled his familiar scent, and struggled to keep
back the tears that burned in the back of her eyes. He knelt down. “And you,
young lady” he said to Melissa. “I am very happy to finally meet you.”
    “Hello,
Grandpa.” Melissa went into his arms, and then pulled back, her face taut with
concern. “Can we see Grandma now?”
    “Yes, of
course.” He rose, and Bella studied him. Her father was just over fifty years
old, and yet he seemed much older. He took a moment to square his shoulders,
and then led her into what had been her mother’s workshop. The layout table,
dressmaker’s dummy and sewing machine were all gone. The space had been
converted to a sickroom, with sun streaming through the windows and several
bouquets of flowers placed where Bella’s mother could enjoy them.
    Bella held
back, shocked at the sight of her mother. Melissa had no such qualms. She
walked to the side of the bed and smiled at her grandmother.
    “Thank you
for the birthday present,” she said, kissing her grandmother’s shrunken cheek.
“I loved it.”
    Shirley
Thompson looked past her granddaughter and smiled at Bella before returning her
attention to Melissa. “I thought you might like it.” She had sent Melissa a
book on Victorian fashion, and the child had been fascinated. “I understand
that you enjoy the fashion industry almost as much as your mother.”
    “How did you
know?” As usual, Melissa was direct.
    Shirley motion
to several large scrapbooks on a bookshelf beside the bed. “Pass me that top
one, would you child?”
    Melissa
complied.
    “You see?”
she said, turning the pages. The book was full of clippings about Bella ,
gleaned from a variety of magazines and newspapers. “I know all about Bella .”
She looked up, and her gaze met her daughter’s. “I’ve been watching your
mother’s career for a long time. I’m very proud of her, and you should be,
too.”
    Melissa
retreated to the floor, and began avidly turning the pages of the scrapbook.
    “You look
beautiful,” she said to her daughter. “So grown-up.”
    Bella took
her mother’s hand and sat down on the chair beside the bed. The oxygen machine
hummed quietly in the background. “On the outside perhaps, but there are many
times I still feel like a kid on the inside.”
    “It happens
to all of us.” Her mother switched topics. “You’ll be missing the opening.”
    Bella gave a
sad