Lightning Strikes (Hudson 2)

He looked at me for a long moment and smiled.

"I've been dreaming about this so long, I can't believe I'm actually here with you again. It's almost like we're back in D.C."

"Too much has happened since then, Roy. Neither of us will ever go back."

"That's the truth," he said, nodding. He looked down again and continued. "I heard more about Ken. He got in trouble in prison and he's going to serve eight years in total now for sure."

"Wow," I said. "I feel sorry for him."

"I don't," he said quickly, his eyes filling with that familiar look of rage I had known so well back in what I now thought of as my other life. "He had plenty of chances to be a man. Manta gave him lots of second chances. If she hadn't suffered so much, I bet she wouldn't have died like that."

"I don't know, Roy. Lots of rich, happy people get sick like that and die."

"That woman never had her head out of the water much on account of him. No sir, I don't feel a bit sorry for him. He didn't get enough time in lockup as far as I'm concerned."

"Okay, Roy."

"There's other bad news. Aunt Sylvia died."

"Oh, no. What happened?"

"Heart failure." He looked up. "Soon there'll only be you and me left in this whole family," he declared. "Not that it's much of a family anyhow."

"A family's a family, Roy."

"It just means there's people we can't deny," he declared. He looked at me harder. "You and me could do something about it, Rain. We can start this whole thing new and make our own family."

I nodded, but looked away.

"I guess that's a dumb idea, now that you're on your way to being a big star, huh?"

"Oh, I'm far from becoming a big star, Roy. All I've done is a couple of things on the stage and I'm still learning. I have a great deal to learn yet."

"Yeah, but you will and then you won't want to know me."

"Oh stop that talk, Roy. That day will never come. You're all I have now, too," I said.

His eyes filled with some light again.

"You mean that?"

"Of course I mean that, Roy." I looked at the time. "I've got to get to the kitchen to help Mrs. Chester prepare dinner," I said.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry."

"But I don't want you to leave," I said quickly. "I'll introduce her to you and you can watch us in the kitchen. She'll give you something to eat, too," I said. "Or I will. After I'm finished serving the dinner, we can visit longer if you want to."

"If I want to? Sure, I want to. It's the only reason I made this trip, Rain."

"Okay," I said, smiling.

On the way to the kitchen, I began to tell him about my life in England. Just before we reached the kitchen, I revealed how I had found my real father and how Grandma Hudson had advised me to let him be.

"Is that so?" he asked, eyes wide. "Are you going to live with him now?"

"No," I said. "It's too late for that. Grandmother Hudson was right. C'mon," I said, opening the door to the kitchen. "Meet Mrs. Chester."

She looked up from a