Moon & Star Vol. 1

Chapter 20: Garret's Departure

The rest of the summer went by with no more incidents. Mason and Sydney stayed at Tom's and Grace's house for a while, fearing that if they went back home, their father may go on a rampage. Mason stayed on the couch in the living room while his sister, Sydney, took Grace's bed and Grace slept on the area rug on her floor. As uncomfortable as it was, Grace didn't mind. After almost two months of this, Mason had decided to head back home, believing that his father would not go blitz with them there. Tom of course drove them to the house and parked there for a few minutes just in case Mason decided that home was no longer safe for them. But Mason reappeared in the doorway and gave Tom a thumbs up. Everything was ok. Tom waved and drove back home.

There was only a month left before school started again, and with that, came the grandparents... it was time for Garret to go home. They came midafternoon in their blue Cadillac. They stood outside waiting, refusing to go to the door. With his bags packed, Garret remorsefully walked out the doors. Once outside their grandparents wasted no time to Garret inside the car, but Grace was quicker and hugged her brother tightly.

"Bye," She whispered.

"Bye," Garret whispered back and they held on to each other until their grandmother snapped,

"Let's get a move on, Garret! We got a months' worth of catching you up." They separated and Tom came down to say his goodbyes.

"It was finally nice to meet you, Garret." He said and pulled Garret in a quick hug.

"You too, Uncle Tom." Garret said and the grandparents were getting impatient. They broke the hug and Garret picked up his bag and got into the car. Just before the grandparents got into the car to drive away, Uncle Tom did something that Grace would never except of him. He jogged to their grandmother and started speaking softly to her. Her frown deepened and she shook her head furiously.

"Absolutely not!" She said. "We've had enough of you people, and we have a documentation stated that Garret is ours, so we'll decide what's best for him, not you!" And with that, she and her husband got into the car and drove away. Tom sighed and looked at Grace with a sad smile. Walking up to her he wrapped his arms around her shoulder.

"Don't worry," he said. "They can't keep you two separated forever." And together they walked back into the house.

~~~~

Grace and Garret sat outside the doors to the court room, waiting impatiently. It's been an hour since Uncle Tom had filed a dispute to their grandparents about Garret's and Grace's visitation rights. Their grandparents had been furious about Tom's suing and had no other choice but to go to court with him. Grace bounced her leg nervously and Garret held her hand tightly, the only comfort for this very suspenseful time. What seemed like another long hour, the doors to the court room swung open and their grandparents came storming out with Tom a few feet behind them. Grace had light of hope when she saw their scornful faces, but it was put out soon enough when their grandmother grabbed Garret by the arm and yanked him to his feet. Garret yelped and struggled against his grandmother's grip.

"Let's go." She said hatefully and have Grace a stern look. Without another word, the left the courthouse. Both siblings giving each other one last longing look. Finally Grace looked at her uncle expectantly. He held out an arm to her, making Grace's fear come alive. She got up and ran into his arms, hugging her uncle tightly.

"Come on. Let's go home." He said softly and together they walked out of the courthouse.

~~~~

Grace was the study reading from her mother's book when Uncle Tom walked into the room with a half-closed laptop on his hands. He saw what Grace was reading and smiled sadly. Grace looked up at her uncle feeling embarrassed and sadder than she ready felt. "I know you told me not to read them, but I had to know... how it... happened..." she said and slowly closed the book. She felt has if she validated something scarce and holy. Moonstone curled up in her arms, giving her as much comfort as possible.

"I know." Said her uncle. "And I don't blame you. But I'm not here to ridicule you." Without further explanation, Tom put the laptop on the desk, turned it to face his niece, and opened it up. Grace gasped. Garret was there, in video chat form. He waved at his sister with a goofy grin.

"Hey, Gracie. Miss me?" He said.

"You bet!" Grace said then looked up at her uncle. "But I thought..."

"You thought wrong." Tom said. "You didn't ask so I thought I would surprise you."

"How?"

"Your grandparents may have the papers to own Garret, but there was nothing in the possession papers that forbid any type of visitation between you two. So the judge made it all official and said that you two had all the visitation rights that you need. Then he slammed down his hammer, we signed the papers, and the rest was history."

"And they're not too happy about it either," Garret voiced from the computer. "So now we can video chat and see each other whenever we want!" Grace laughed. She hadn't been so happy since his first arrival. And seeing Garret again made Grace forget ever reading the book. So they began chat, talking about things that haven't said to each other in a long time. All the while, Tom saw that his presence was unwanted and gave the siblings their privacy that they needed. Firestone and Brimstone followed Tom out to the living room.

"It's nice that she finally had someone to talk to," Firestone said. "She needs this. She needs her brother." Tom nodded.

"I know." He said. "That's why I did what I did. Grace doesn't need to be away from her brother all because two stubborn people don't like the way we live."

"Agreed," Brimstone said, then, "do you think Harrison will try something new?" Tom shrugged.

"Only time will tell, now won't it. We can only hope that he doesn't do anything dangerous." Tom sighed and plopped down on the couch with the dragons following. "But for now," He said, "let's enjoy the peace. We'll worry about that bridge when we come to it." The dragons, unsure about that, said nothing. They instead laid on the couch next to Tom. Moments later Tiger, the ever so fat orange cat, joined them. He jumped up on the couch, purring and rubbing against Tom's outstretched fingers. "Oh, there you are," Tom said. "I was wondering when you were going to show up."