| Romance Fiction posted October 18, 2025 | Chapters: |
...47 48 -49- 50... 
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The Town Comes Together
A chapter in the book Yesterday's Dreams
The Lighthouse Chap 12
by Begin Again
The screen door thumped behind Lucy as she stepped into the keeper's kitchen. The wall phone was already ringing.
Claire grabbed it. "Hello--yes?" She listened, eyes going to Ruth. "This is Claire. She's with me."
A pause as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line.
"Ten a.m. is fine. We'll be there." She hung up. "That was Jenna -- the EMT from the other night. She coordinated with Dr. Patel. He wants to see you tomorrow at ten, just to be cautious."
Ruth buttoned her cardigan. "Ten it is. I like a doctor who follows through." She chuckled and added, "It's nice to have someone boss me around besides you two."
Lucy pulled out a chair. "You feeling okay, Mom?"
"I am," Ruth said. "But we'll let the doctor say it so you two will stop hovering like storm gulls."
They finished what was left in the fridge -- half a casserole, rolls, and a salad. Claire washed the dishes and left them to dry on a towel the way her father used to. The Lighthouse clicked and settled around them, the comfortable sounds of a house breathing.
"Tomorrow," Claire said, drying her hands. "Doctor first. Then you can start to set the story straight."
Lucy met her mother's eyes and nodded once.
*****
Morning came clear and blue over the point. Claire drove down from the Lighthouse, Ruth riding shotgun with her purse neatly clasped, Lucy in back with a warm thermos between her hands. The harbor slid past—stacks of traps, a gull claiming a piling, cottages with flower boxes, the small shops, the ravine where Ruth's accident occurred — then across the newly replaced bridge to Dr. Patel's office.
The visit went quickly—vitals, a blood draw, and a careful talk. "You appear to be recovering well," Dr. Patel said to Ruth. "Still, it won't hurt to be cautious for a few days." He printed a follow-up and handed the card to Claire, then squeezed Lucy's shoulder like he knew more than he said.
Outside, the wind carried the aroma of fresh bread and something sweet. Claire tucked the appointment card into her wallet.
"Soup," Ruth declared, satisfied that she'd passed the doctor's inspection. "And then lemon cookies. They are the best medicine for whatever ails you. The doctor didn't say cookies, but he meant them."
"The doctor's orders were to eat lots of soup," Claire said.
"And I revised them to include the cookies."
Lucy lagged half a step behind and took out her phone. "I'll text Jenna a thank-you." She typed, then, with her back to the others, called David. He picked up on the first ring.
"She's okay," Lucy whispered. "Cantankerous, and definitely not fragile."
"That's good news," David said, relief in his voice. "The crew's nearly done setting up.. Don't tell Claire. I want her to see the town coming together -- Lighthouse and all."
"She'll see," Lucy promised.
*****
The Harbor Street diner smelled like coffee and home cooking. The sun slid across the checkerboard floor, lighting the chrome napkin holders like tiny beacons. They took the booth by the window -- Ruth at the aisle, Claire beside her, Lucy opposite.
"Chicken soup," Ruth told the server. "With lots of chicken. Don't want to be eating plain broth."
The waitress scribbled on her order pad and hurried away.
"Doctor also said you're doing fine," Claire said.
Ruth's eyebrow climbed. "I heard stubborn."
Lucy grinned. "If you did, he wasn't wrong."
The clink of flatware and the hiss from the grill settled around them. Claire smoothed her napkin. "I should get back to the lighthouse this afternoon," she said. "David's family will want to start their plans. If I begin tonight, I can have my things boxed by Monday."
"You don't have to rush," Lucy said -- too fast.
Claire kept her tone even. "It was my father's, and he's gone. The Reeds have the means. It's their turn. I don't want to hold anything up."
Ruth reached across and covered Claire's hand. Claire saw her eyes soften. "You're no one's delay, honey. You kept that place's heart beating. Andrew is probably still smiling after what you and the town pulled off the other night."
Claire let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "If he's watching, I want him to know that the staircase complains louder than I do."
"The third and the seventh step," Ruth said. "Your father always skipped the seventh -- bad luck, he claimed."
"And he tapped the banister twice," Claire added. "Telling the sea he was coming."
Lucy's eyes brightened. "Once he let me watch the lens turn. I wasn't supposed to be there that late. He pretended not to see me and said, 'If you're going to sneak, at least learn something. He showed me the stars and I remembered."
Their bowls arrived in a drift of steam. They ate for a while, accepting the quiet, lost in their own thoughts.
"I found his field journal," Claire said at last. "Sketches of the lamp room, notes about the motor. I could hear him in the margins." She swallowed. "It'll be good seeing the place alive again -- even if I'm not there for the next part."
You will be, Lucy told herself, pressing her fork into a pickle spear to keep the words behind her teeth--just a few more hours.
"After soup," Ruth said, "Cookies. Then home."
"Home," Claire echoed.
They paid — Ruth exact with her coins — and drove back up the road toward the point, windows cracked toward the sea. The keeper's house rose ahead, the tower shouldering the sky beside it.
From the gate, Claire saw it before she understood it -- a lift by the oil shed; pennant strings tugging in the wind and cars angled along the fence. Gideon's broad back moved through a scattering of volunteers.
Claire braked. "What is happening?"
"You went to town," someone called from a ladder, "and the town came here."
"I don't understand. The renovation doesn't start until Monday."
Ruth patted Claire's hand. "Don't fuss."
Lucy helped her mom out, closing the car door.
Gideon grinned when he saw her. "Good timing," he called to Claire. "We needed a boss to tell us we did it wrong."
"What are you doing?" Claire asked, half angry, half breathless.
"Getting ready," he said, as if it were apparent. "Town wants a night worth remembering."
David stepped out of the keeper's house -- sleeves rolled, a smear of grease at his wrist. His smile tightened and eased when he saw her. "You made it."
"Apparently, to a construction site," Claire said, but her voice had gone soft at the edges. "You've started already?"
"Of course -- can't wait till the last minute if we are going to have a celebration."
"A celebration? What's this about? Are you having a grand opening before you even renovate?"
"Of course not, silly. We're celebrating how the town pulled together the other night, and it gives Lucy a platform to tell her story."
Claire turned to Lucy, who was grinning ear to ear. "You knew about this and didn't tell me?"
"I was taught that one never spoils a surprise." She laughed. "Besides, I think the grand lady deserves a big party. Don't you?"
"I'm not sure, but if you think it's what you want."
Lucy wrapped her arms around Claire and gave her a big squeeze. "It's what we all need -- a celebration of new beginnings."
Claire turned away and mumbled, "And an ending for me." She kept walking toward the house.
Neighbors kept arriving in twos and threes, setting down casserole dishes with names scrawled in tape, laying quilts over the backs of folding chairs. The breeze lifted the strings of bulbs into small arcs. Someone tuned a guitar; someone else fussed with the microphone on a crate-turned-podium until it squeaked and then behaved.
By the time the sun sloped toward gold, the bluff looked like a festival. Trudy from the Gazette stood off to the side, camera dangling, and caught Lucy's eye as if to ask for permission. Lucy gave a slight nod.
Lucy wiped her palms on her skirt and stepped up onto the little platform. She found her mother in the front row -- Ruth's chin lifted, eyes already bright--and then she looked out over the town that had carried a rumor for forty years.
"For a long time," Lucy said, voice steady, "I wondered who I was--and why this place wouldn't let me go. Maybe the sea remembers what it carries." She swallowed and turned back to Ruth. "I wouldn't be standing here if not for my mom. She opened her heart to a baby who didn't come with instructions, and she never once made love feel borrowed. Mom, thank you for choosing me every day."
As Lucy continued to tell her story — a story that deserved to be told from beginning to end — the town's residents whispered and nodded amongst themselves. At the end, applause rose like surf. Lucy stepped down and went straight into her mother's arms. People nearby reached, too — hands on shoulders, quick embraces, the soft hum of relief moving through the chairs.
Before the quiet could quite settle, an older man stood from the front row. He cleared his throat once, glanced at David, and then faced neighbors who'd known him since he was a boy.
"Before my son speaks," he said, voice steady but thick, "there's a truth I ought to tell. Douglas Reed -- the man we honor tonight--wasn't my father. He was my uncle."
A ripple of surprise moved the air.
"My father, Daniel, was Douglas's older brother," he went on. "He and my mother were killed overseas when I was small. Douglas came home from his own heartbreak and took me in. He raised me as his son and carried the rest in silence. Folks called him a bachelor, and he let them. Maybe it was easier than reliving what he couldn't change."
He turned to Lucy, eyes soft. "He never stopped loving your mother, or the baby she bore. You were never a forgotten child — only protected the best he knew how."
Lucy pressed her fingers to her mouth. Claire felt her own heart kick hard and then settle, as if something long skewed had clicked back into place.
John Reed looked at David and nodded once. "Now I turn the mic over to my son."
David reached him in two steps and gripped his shoulder. "Thank you, Dad." They stood that way for a heartbeat—two men touching the same past—and then David turned to the little microphone.
"This light has weathered storms, secrets, and these last months of grief," he said. "Tonight, it returns --" A gasp worked its way through the crowd. "It's been recommissioned as a working beacon and as a memorial to Douglas Reed and Andrew Crandon."
He lifted his chin toward the tower. Somewhere inside, a switch clicked; a motor hummed awake. The lantern room brightened, the first sweep of the beam sliding across the water and back over the crowd. The cheer that rose was ragged and honest. Gideon swiped at his eyes as if grit had flown up.
Tears streamed down Claire's face as she watched the light sweep across the water and then the grounds. She stumbled away from the platform, gasping for air. Waves of happiness to see the light washed over her, mixed with the anguish that her father wasn't here to see it.
She could hear David's voice continuing. "The Reed family will build a small bed-and-breakfast on the neighboring parcel. Visitors will have a place to stay, and they'll learn this story the right way. The Lighthouse stays what it's always been — a keeper of light, and now, of truth."
Applause shook the pennants. Music found its way into the gaps--guitar, a fiddle someone had smuggled in, a low hum of harmony from the back row. Trudy raised her camera, thought better of it, and let it hang again.
As talk and laughter rose, Claire drifted to the bottom of the tower steps and watched the beam turn. She whispered, "I wish you were here, Dad. Tonight she shines. And tomorrow I shall say goodbye to the grand lady. I don't know how I can let both of you go."
Tomorrow, Yesterday's Dreams and its fourth story, "The Lighthouse," come to an end. I hope you will enjoy the last chapter and the epilogue. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts. Smiles and hugs, Carol
 Recognized |
Cast of Characters
Claire Crandon ó A writer and historian returning to her hometown after her father's death. Determined to restore the lighthouse and uncover the truth behind the secrets her father left behind.
David Reed ó Contractor overseeing the lighthouse restoration. Grandson of Douglas Reed, a man whose lost love and unanswered letter lie at the heart of the mystery. Steady, grounded, and quietly protective.
Lucy Crandonó Claire's cousin, raised by Ruth. Outspoken and loyal, but shaken when she learns the truth about her birth and the secrets that bound her family for decades.
Ruth Crandon ó Claire's aunt and Lucy's adoptive mother. Fiercely protective, burdened by the promise she made long ago to keep a secret that has cost her nearly everything.
Andrew Crandon ó Claire's late father. The former lighthouse keeper who pieced together fragments of a long-buried truth and left a trail for his daughter to follow.
Lily Wheaton ó A young woman from the past whose forbidden love with Douglas Reed and tragic fate shaped the lives of everyone on the point.
Douglas Reed ó David's grandfather and Lily's lost love. A man of quiet honor who never knew the truth about the child he left behind.
John Reed - David's father
Gideon Pike ó The harbor master. Rugged, loyal to the sea, and always first to answer a distress call.
Harper Benton ó Owner of the general store. A practical man with a good heart and a hand in every town effort.
Dr. Avery ó The retired town physician who once delivered a baby at the lighthouse on a storm-tossed night forty years ago.
Trudy Lansbury ó A persistent reporter from The Gazette, digging into local history and stirring up truths some would rather stay buried.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. Claire Crandon ó A writer and historian returning to her hometown after her father's death. Determined to restore the lighthouse and uncover the truth behind the secrets her father left behind.
David Reed ó Contractor overseeing the lighthouse restoration. Grandson of Douglas Reed, a man whose lost love and unanswered letter lie at the heart of the mystery. Steady, grounded, and quietly protective.
Lucy Crandonó Claire's cousin, raised by Ruth. Outspoken and loyal, but shaken when she learns the truth about her birth and the secrets that bound her family for decades.
Ruth Crandon ó Claire's aunt and Lucy's adoptive mother. Fiercely protective, burdened by the promise she made long ago to keep a secret that has cost her nearly everything.
Andrew Crandon ó Claire's late father. The former lighthouse keeper who pieced together fragments of a long-buried truth and left a trail for his daughter to follow.
Lily Wheaton ó A young woman from the past whose forbidden love with Douglas Reed and tragic fate shaped the lives of everyone on the point.
Douglas Reed ó David's grandfather and Lily's lost love. A man of quiet honor who never knew the truth about the child he left behind.
John Reed - David's father
Gideon Pike ó The harbor master. Rugged, loyal to the sea, and always first to answer a distress call.
Harper Benton ó Owner of the general store. A practical man with a good heart and a hand in every town effort.
Dr. Avery ó The retired town physician who once delivered a baby at the lighthouse on a storm-tossed night forty years ago.
Trudy Lansbury ó A persistent reporter from The Gazette, digging into local history and stirring up truths some would rather stay buried.
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