On Stable Ground

On Stable Ground - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

In the following days, life was busy. Tonya and her mother, Jenny, who arrived the day after Nana’s stroke, took turns during the daytime to be with Nana. After a long day on the farm, Charlie, Julie and sometimes even Tanner would go and spend an hour or two with Nana at the hospital and then at the rehab facility.

Tonya was honest with her mother from the moment her plane touched down. She confessed that she was not always honest and even admitted that she had thoughts of suicide in New York. She told her Mom that she was not happy there and really missed the farm and wanted to move back. This hit Jenny with quite a blow. It was her idea to move to the city. “Well, we can talk about that later,” was Jenny’s reply.

Confession was good for the soul, but watching people react to the truth wasn’t always so good. When Tonya told her mother about Heath and things that had happened in New York, Jenny was very upset. After a little cooling off period, she found Tonya working in the garden.

She went to go and help her pick the tomatoes and squash. At first she did not say anything. They worked in silence until they were almost done. As they stood up, Jenny reached out and grabbed Tonya’s hand that was holding the basket. “Tonya, I love you. No matter what you’ve done. You’re still my baby and I love you.”

Tonya stood still looking down at the ground.

“What bothered me is that you disrespected yourself so much to allow boys to treat you that way. A reputation is a hard thing to get back once you lose it.”

“I know Mama.” Tonya said with tears in her eyes. She blinked and two tears splattered on the dirt below. Jenny lifted Tonya’s chin to look at her in the eyes.

“Tonya, but if anyone can change what people think of you, it is YOU! And if anyone can change the path they are on, it is you! I have faith in you.” Since coming to the farm days before, Jenny had noticed a big change in Tonya. Not just that she was being honest with everyone, including herself. But there was a light in Tonya that Jenny had never seen.

“Thank you, Mama,” Tonya hugged her mother, “I won’t let you down.” They stood in the garden holding each other for quite some time.


Several days after Nana’s collapse, Heath called. Jenny had answered and although a part of her wanted to give the boy a piece of her mind, she knew this was Tonya’s battle to fight. She handed her daughter the phone and quietly began praying for her to have strength to let this boy go and for him not to hurt her mentally.

“Hello,” Tonya said.

“Hey,” Heath said, “Sorry I did not answer the phone the other day. I didn’t know about Mrs. Croft.”

“Well, if you would have answered, I would have told you.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t change that now.”

“I know.” Tonya said, “But Heath, I really needed someone then. I really needed YOU then!”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.” Tonya said, she took a deep breath, “Heath, what do you want?”

“I wanted to know if you wanted to get together tonight?”

“No.”

“Because I didn’t answer the phone?” Heath asked sounding outraged.

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because you value yourself more than you do me. What you want has always come before me. What you think is better than what I think.” Tonya said and she took a deep breath. “And I’m sick of it. I am sick of letting boys treat me like a second class citizen. So, NO. I won’t go out with you tonight, and as far as I’m concerned, unless you treat me like a lady, I’ll never go out with you again.”

Heath didn’t say anything, he just hung up the phone. Jenny knew Tonya would be okay.