CHAPTER SIXTEEN
(part four)
Tuesday morning, 10 AM

Mike stopped the Mustang at the edge of the grass.  The perfect lawn was broken by a few monuments.  Sam Lipson sat on a bench near a blooming rose hedge.  He was reading the Rocky Mountain News out loud to Celia’s grave.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” He asked.

“My brother almost died because he did the right thing,” Valerie said.  “I need to do the right thing. I need to speak with my father.”

Mike’s big hand stroked her delicate cheek. Her beautiful face was pale and drawn from her night at Jacob’s bedside.  For the first time in a decade, she allowed herself to be photographed in her distraught, rumpled condition.  Today, Valerie Lipson didn’t give a crap what anyone thought or said about ‘Just Val’.  He kissed her lips.

“I’ll be right here,” he said.

She held him tight then whispered in his ear, “I love you so very much Michael Roper.”

He smiled.

Valerie slipped out of the car.  Leaning in, she took a bouquet of a dozen white roses from Mike.  Squaring her shoulders, she walked forward across the lawn.  Her father looked up to see her and jumped to his feet in surprise.

“What is it?  What’s happened? Is Jake….?”

“Jake’s in surgery.  Everything was going well when I left.  Dr. Drayson said they found a metal shard, probably from the pipe wrench, next to his heart. They think that’s causing the heart attacks.  The cardiac team removed the metal.  The cardiac surgeon is optimistic that Jake’s heart is not damaged.  We won’t know for certain until he’s active again.”

Sam Lipson visibly sagged with relief.

“The orthopedic surgeons have another couple hours.  Jill and Delphie will call the moment they know anything.”

“I was reading your mother the funnies.”

“You can finish,” she said.

“That’s all right,” Sam said.  “She likes them….”

“Uninterrupted, start to finish,” Valerie said in unison with him.

He smiled.  “Some things never change.”

“I need to speak to you about….”  Valerie’s face clouded.  She wasn’t sure how to even start the conversation.  Shoving a picture frame at her father, she said, “Jake keeps telling me to look at this picture.  What…what does he want me to see?”

“What do you see?” He asked and passed the photo back.

“I see you,” Valerie spit the words, “and your…new perfect family.”

Sam laughed.

“Why… why is that funny?”

“You can be so stubborn,” he said.  “That’s why I laughed.  It’s right in front of you and you don’t see it. Why is that, Valerie?”

“What am I supposed to see?”

“You and Jake look remarkably a like,” Sam said.

“We look like our mother.” Valerie flipped her hair at him.

“Celia was fair skinned. She had light brown hair until the very end of her life,” Sam said.  “You don’t have fair skin or light brown hair. Do you?”

“What are you saying?  We’re African-American?” Valerie spit at him.

“My family has been in the West since long before there was a United States.  We’re mutts. Dark hair, darker skin, hazelish eyes….  African-American, Native-American, Spanish,” Sam Lipson shrugged.  “The Lipson’s pass their features to their children.”

Valerie curled her lip at her father.  She jerked the photograph to her eyes.  Four tiny little blonde bitches… with their tiny blonde whore mother.  Trevor’s wicked fiancé and her bitty sister stood next to their mother while her father’s…. What?  They looked like…. She pull the photo next to her eyes.

“Your mother wanted….”

“How dare you blame your slutty behavior on my mother!  She was devastated by you!”

“Was she?” Sam asked.  “Are you sure?”

Valerie threw the photograph at her father’s feet.  Crossing her arms over her heart, she started to walk off.

“I promised Celia that I only tell you kids when you asked.”

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow….