That seemed to be the right answer. I held Lily until she finally stopped crying. My guess was she’d been keeping a brave face on for her dad and brother. I was glad she felt she could come to me with something like this.
Brook finally came in.
“David needs to grab something to eat and get back to work,” she gently explained.
“Oh, sorry. I was wrapped up in my own issues. I forgot you were here to film your movie,” Lily said, getting off my lap.
We stepped into the kitchen where Lexi had made me a sandwich and grabbed me a can of Mountain Dew. I remembered her dad from around town. Her brother was older, and I only recognized him because he looked like his dad.
I was curious as to how this all started.
“How did Megan find her?” I asked.
“One day, I was in the office and saw her doing research on something for Caryn. I asked her if, when she had some free time, she would be willing to do some research for me to find anything out about where my mom was. She found her on a missing-persons website in Canada,” Lily said.
“We flew up there, and they gave us the information about Phoenix. The people who live in our old house told us she had gone to LA,” her brother provided.
“Megan got on one of those online services that has everyone’s addresses and phone number, and they had the group home address listed for her. That’s where we met Dr. Lanus,” Lily explained. “He manages the facility.”
“Lily told us that you paid for our travel. I’ll make sure you get reimbursed,” her dad said.
“It was freely given; I didn’t offer Lily money to create a debt. I’m just happy that you were able to find her,” I said, and suddenly had a thought. “Does your mom still live at the group home?”
“No. She’s able to live on her own and has a job now,” Lily said.
“If she wanted to move closer to you all, I would be happy to help,” I offered.
“You’ve already done enough,” Lily’s brother said.
“I’m not sure she would even want to,” Lily admitted.
“That’s fine. But I want you to know that if she does, and needs some financial assistance to make it happen, I would be glad to help,” I assured them. “Again, with no strings attached.”
“I know you mean it, and that’s why you’re one of my favorite people. Thank you,” Lily said.
“We have to go,” Lexi said to remind me of work.
I was glad Lexi was there to keep me on track, and I told her so on the ride back. I also asked her to contact my mom and Caryn to give them the scoop on Lily’s situation. When Lily got home, she would need the support of our small town. That was something we were good at. They would rally around and make sure Lily and her family were okay.
◊◊◊
During the afternoon, I received pictures of Halle and Brook hitting the after-Christmas sales. This was one of those times I was glad that my girlfriend had her own money to spend. From the number of outfits I saw they’d tried on, it looked like they were each on a quest to single-handedly revive the California economy.
I also received pictures from my brother of Mac and Kyle at their first pony-riding lessons. They were just too cute for words. Mac was seated with her back board-stiff, like she was on a show horse. Kyle, on the other hand, looked like the goofy kid he was. He kept trying to take off the helmet they made the kids wear for safety.
My mom had made it her mission to unload the kittens. From what I could tell, Brit wasn’t aware that Mom had dropped off kittens at a few of the Mennonite farms. My grandma had gotten one with the promise that my mom thought it would be a good mouser. Mom left me a note that the mean one was still in my apartment. She’d tried to catch it, but it had bested her. I was under orders to capture him once I got home and take him to my uncle’s farm. I wondered what Uncle John had done to make her mad.
Dad had posted a video of himself out in the snow, hitting golf balls with his new clubs. That made me reconsider playing football at someplace like Michigan. I might have to seriously rethink where I would go to school because I enjoyed the LA weather this time of year.
◊◊◊
Tsuyoshi Nomura and I were preparing me for my next scene.
“I bet when you agreed to be my mentor, you didn’t expect to be handholding me so I could learn my lines.”
“I look at it as paying it forward. When I first arrived in Japan, I had an older actor act as my mentor. I promised myself that someday I would pay him back for his help. Unfortunately, he passed a few years ago,” he said.
“I would imagine that the transition from China to Japan would be easy,” I ventured.
“In a sense, but every culture is different. And while the languages share some characters, since they’re not phonetic, they’re not even close to the same, speaking.”
“Which did you like best?”
