As Alex looked out the window Tuesday morning, she saw that it was promising to be another sunny day.  She hoped that the nice weather would encourage more of the islanders to make the trip into town to vote.

After taking a shower and dressing, she went downstairs to start the coffee.  Boris arrived a few minutes later.

“What a beautiful day for vote,” he said with a grin.

“Yes, it is.  There’s a good chance that we might get more of a crowd today than usual because of people coming into town to vote.  It’s usually that way on a voting day, and it will be even more so since one of the ballot boxes is right here.”

“Boris is all ready for big crowd.”

“Good.”

As Alex had predicted, they had a lot more customers than usual, many people sitting down for coffee or something to eat after dropping their vote in the ballot box, which had been set up in the foyer, a volunteer staying with it at all times.  The main topic of discussion at most of the tables was the Hope Gardens project.

It was a little after 1:30 when Alex saw Doctor Watson come in.  The doctor headed over to her.

“Hey, Lily.  Did you just vote?”

“Yes, I did.  I’d like to talk to you for a moment, if I could.”

“Um, sure.  Would you like to step outside?”

The two women went out the front door and down the steps.  Alex led Lily to a quiet place at the side of the Widow’s Walk.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.  A terrible thought hit her.  “It’s not Daniel, is it?”

“No, everything’s fine with Daniel, as far as I know, but this does have something to do with him.  I wanted to apologize for misleading you about the chances of his memory recovering fully.  I’ve been wanting to for a while, but this is the first chance I’ve gotten.”

“Don’t worry about it, Lily.  Daniel explained everything, and I understand.”  Alex smiled, remembering how happy she’d been when the minister told her the truth about his chances for a full recovery of his memories.

“Nevertheless, I shouldn’t have let my personal experience influence what I told you.”

“Well, it’s all in the past now.  I’m just happy that Daniel is going to get his memories back.  He’s been recovering bits and pieces just about every day.”

“That’s wonderful.  How is he doing with his therapy?”

“Good.  It was hard for him at first, trying to get used to the fact that he can’t do everything he could before, but there’s been some improvement each day, and we’ve done all we can to keep his spirits up.”

“That’s good.  A positive attitude will help him get better faster.  Have you made plans yet about how Daniel is going to get his therapy after he’s discharged?” Lily asked.

“No, not yet, but I guess that is something we need to start thinking about.”

“If I had the finances, I’d add a small physical therapy room to the clinic.  There have been a couple of other times when I wished I had one, and there could be even more need for one if Hope Gardens gets built.”

“Well, maybe you could talk to Misters Mann and Tate about that.  They might be able to come up with a plan.”

Doctor Watson shook her head.  “They’re already going to be building an addition to the clinic for a second exam room.  That alone will be a big help.”

“I’m really glad they decided to do that.  So, if Hope Gardens is built, would you hire a Physician’s Assistant or find a partner?”

“Well, though there would be too many patients for one doctor--already is, in fact--I have my doubts that there would be enough for two.  There are quite a few islanders who have doctors on the mainland, especially the male members of the population.”  She smiled.  “Funny how most women have no trouble going to a male doctor, but most men feel uncomfortable about going to a female doctor.”

Alex laughed.  “I think it has to do with their male ego.  Talking to a woman about male physical problems is more than those egos can stand.  Maybe if you got a male doctor for a partner, some of the men on the island would come to the clinic here instead of taking the trip to the mainland.”

“That’s possible.  I don’t know.  I’m not going to make any decisions until I know whether or not Hope Gardens is going to be built.”  Lily looked at her watch.  “Well, I’ve got to get back to the clinic.  When you see Daniel, tell him that I plan to come visit him before he’s discharged.”

“I’ll do that.”

The two women said goodbye, and Alex went back inside to the crowd within.

Bonnie studied her son’s profile.  He was sitting by the window again, his eyes turned to the city beyond.  He’d been quiet most of the day.  She knew he was thinking about what was happening over on the island, the vote that could result in a lot of changes to the place he’d come to call home.

Though Bonnie had wanted Daniel to come home to Irvine, she was happy that he’d found someplace that he loved so much, a place that loved him as well.  Hope Island had been a godsend for her son, a true blessing.  Perhaps for the first time in his life, he really had a place that he could call home with his whole heart.  It saddened her that Daniel had never been able to wholeheartedly think of Irvine as home, but she understood why he couldn’t.  He was never destined to follow in his father’s footsteps.  His destiny was a simpler one, to be the congregational minister that his father had been long ago.

“When is your flight out?”  Daniel asked, breaking into his mother’s thoughts.

“No set time.  Your father’s sending the jet over to pick me up.  I just need to call him to tell him when.”

“You should head back while it’s still early so that you won’t get home late.”

“I thought that you might want me to stay until after the ballots have been counted.”

Daniel shook his head.  “It’s going to be really late by the time they’re finished.  Besides, I won’t know the results until tomorrow anyway.”

“Is Alex coming back tomorrow?”

“It depends.  I told her that she should stay on Hope with Dylan.  I know he’s missing her and that she misses him.”

“But then you’ll be by yourself.”

Daniel smiled faintly.  “I think I can survive, Mom.  It’s not like I’m not used to being alone.”  The smile left his face, and he returned his gaze to the window.

Bonnie got up and moved her chair over beside him.  She laid her hand on his.  At the touch his eyes met hers.

“If I could do things over, there are a lot of things that I’d go back and change,” Bonnie said softly.  “But, out of all of them, what I’d want to change the most was the way things were between you and your father.  I know how lonely you were growing up, Daniel.  With us constantly moving, you never had a chance to make lasting friendships, not until we came to Irvine.  If things had been different between you and your father, I think that you wouldn’t have been quite so lonely.  And I know that I didn’t help as much as I could have.”

“Mom--”

“No, let me finish.  I never told your father how I felt about his treatment of you, and I should have.  I should have spoken up and tried to make him see what he was doing to you.  Instead, I tried to take his place as much as I could.  But I couldn’t really do that.  A boy needs his father, not a poor substitute.”

Daniel grasped her hand.  “Mom, don’t say that.  You weren’t a poor substitute.  You have no idea how much your love and attention meant to me all those times that Dad was gone or too busy with church work to pay attention to me.  Every time I felt lost or angry or sad, you were like an anchor for me, something to hold onto.  I don’t know what I would have done without you.  I really think that I would have lost myself completely.  I know that I wouldn’t have the good life I do now on Hope Island.  Everything happens for a reason, both the good things and the bad.  My childhood may not have been the best that it could be, but I’m still here.  I’m a whole person.”  He smiled.  “And the future’s looking pretty bright now.”

Bonnie returned his smile and kissed his cheek.  “And I’m hoping that bright future includes lots of children.  I’m not getting any younger, you know.  I’d like to have some grandchildren before I’m too old to enjoy them.”

Daniel blushed slightly.  “Well, I sort of have to have a wife first before beginning the process of cranking out kids.”

“And is Alex Stone going to be that wife?” Bonnie asked, her eyes twinkling.

Her son blushed again, then became serious.  “There are a lot of things that need to be sorted out with Alex before I could even think about marriage.  The biggest thing is her views on religion.  I think we both know that a minister marrying a woman without religion would lead to problems.  I’d like to believe that we could work out those problems, but it’s still something that we would need to seriously consider.”  He shook his head and gave a short laugh.  “But we’re really putting the cart before the horse here.  Alex and I haven’t even had our first date yet.  I don’t even know if she’d want to marry me.  Up until I came to the island and drafted her son as my acolyte, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with religion.  She’s softened up quite a bit since then, but I think she’s still got a long ways to go before she reaches the point where she’d feel comfortable with the idea of marrying a clergyman.”

“She loves you, Daniel.  I’m certain of that.  You didn’t see what she was like when she thought you were going to die.  She was devastated.”

Daniel looked down at his folded hands, hoping that his mother was right about Alex’s feelings.  He loved her so much and wanted to be with her.

“Daniel, what’s the reason behind Alex’s . . . dislike of religion?” Bonnie asked.

Daniel told her about the tragedy of Alex’s mother, being careful to omit the fact that Alex had been Catholic.

“What a terrible thing for Alex to have gone through,” Bonnie said sadly.  She sighed.  “It is a story that I have heard many times before, where a horrible tragedy drove someone away from God because they couldn’t understand why He let it happen.  We can only hope that, in time, Alex’s heart will heal enough to let God back in.”

“I hope that too, Mom, all the time.”

Bonnie gave her son’s hand a squeeze.  “It will happen, Daniel.  I feel in my soul that you and she are meant to be together in every way.”

Daniel gave his mother a hug.  “Thanks, Mom.  You always could make me feel better.”

“Well, that’s what moms are for, sweetheart.”

Alex climbed the stairs and traveled down the hall to Dylan’s room.  He’d gotten home from school a while ago, and she’d asked him to stay around until she had a chance to speak with him.  Her knock on his door was answered by his voice telling her to come in.  Dylan was in the chair beside his bed, playing with his Gameboy.  He put it down and looked at her as she sat on the bed.

Alex patted the spot beside her.  “Come sit with me.”

Dylan settled on the bed.  “Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong.  I just have kind of an important question to ask you.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, Daniel told me that I should stay on Hope Island instead of going back to the hospital.  He knows that you miss me and that I miss you, and he doesn’t want us to be separated any longer.”

Dylan frowned slightly.  “But isn’t Mrs. Cooper going to be leaving today?”

“Yes.  She has to go back home.  She and Mister Cooper will be returning in about a week.”

“So, if you stayed here, Daniel would be all by himself.”

“Well, not really all by himself.  There are the nurses and doctors at the hospital.”

“Yeah, but that’s not the same.”

“No, it’s not.  I know that Daniel likes to have me with him when it’s time for his therapy, and I know that he enjoys having company in his room.  But he’s trying to be considerate of us.”

Dylan was silent for a moment.  “What do you want to do?”

“I want to be with both of you, but that’s not possible as long as Daniel’s in the hospital.  Hopefully, he’ll only be there another week or so.”

Dylan fell silent again, this time for a longer moment.  Finally, he looked up at her.  “I think you should be with Daniel.”

“Are you sure, sweetie?  We’re talking at least another week, possibly longer.”

Dylan nodded his head.  “I don’t want Daniel to be alone.  Molly and Kevin and Nub and Boris are taking good care of me.  Nub and I play cards and games on the computer, Kevin and Boris both try to help me with my homework, and Molly acts like you and makes me wash behind my ears and everything.”

Alex laughed in delight.  She gave her son a tight hug.  “I am soooo proud of you, Dylan.  I couldn’t be prouder.”

“Really?”  He beamed up at her.

“Yes, really.”

She gave him another hug, then ruffled his hair.  “Now, go on out and play with your friends.”

Alex watched her son dash out of the room, a smile on her face.  Even without having his father in his life, Dylan had turned out to be a fine boy.  Her smile changed, became more tender.  She knew that she had Daniel to thank for that.  This past year, he’d been like a father to Dylan, giving him the strong, steady male presence the boy had needed so badly.  Before Daniel arrived on Hope, Dylan had been a different child, bitter and sullen much of the time.  The minister had brought the boy out of his shell, cracking through the walls that Steve’s absence had built.  For that alone, she was grateful to him.  But there was so much more than that.

Alex got up and went to her room, thinking about how much the minister had changed her life as well.  She was also not the same person she had been before.  This past year had seen the years-long anger and bitterness over her mother’s death, her father’s abandonment, and Steve’s lack of interest in hers and Dylan’s life slowly fade away, lose their grip on her.  Without her even realizing it, the place those emotions held in her heart had been gradually squeezed out and taken over by the gentle, caring minister.  Just one of Daniel’s beautiful smiles could make her feel better.

Alex shook her head.  A year ago, she’d never have dreamed that she would fall utterly in love with a clergyman.  Impossible, she’d have said.  But then, she couldn’t have known that a young, handsome minister would come along who would capture the hearts of everyone on the island with his kindness, gentleness, humor and total lack of judgment or prejudice over the religious choices of others.  She couldn’t have known that any minister would make her see beyond the collar to the man that lay beneath it.

Getting up from the chair that she had sat down in, Alex left her room and went back downstairs, a smile on her face at the thought that she’d be seeing Daniel again tomorrow.

Much to Alex’s surprise, the rest of the day passed quickly, and before she knew it, seven o’clock had arrived.  She and Ruby took the full ballot boxes to the school auditorium.  Nub got there at 7:30 on the dot.  Alex had to muffle a smile at the sight of the young man, who was wearing dress slacks instead of jeans and a crisp white shirt.  His watch cap was also absent, his blond hair neatly combed.

“My, you look very handsome, Nub,” Ruby commented.

Nub blushed, looking suddenly shy.  “I, uh, thought that I should dress nice for this, since it’s sort of an official duty.”

“Oh, I agree.”  Ruby gave him a warm smile, thinking that, one of these days, she and the Angle Dogs were going to have to find a nice girl for the young man.  He was a very sweet boy and really quite nice looking once you got the cap off him.

Unaware of Ruby’s matchmaking schemes, Nub asked Alex where he should sit.  She led him over to the table that had been set up.

“This is the bin for the yes votes and this is for the no votes,” Alex explained, pointing at the two boxes on the table.  A third, bigger box on the table was full of the slips of paper that everyone wrote their votes on.  “However you count the votes is up to you.  You’d probably want to first separate the votes into yeses and nos, then count each pile.  That pad of paper is for you to keep track of the count.  It might be a good idea to count them in lots of twenty or twenty-five, marking down each lot on the pad.  In that way, if you lose count, you won’t have to start all over.  There’s a calculator there too.”

“Thanks, Alex.”  Nub sat down, feeling both excited and calm at the same time.  He’d never been given such an important responsibility before, and he wanted to make sure that he did everything perfectly.

“Okay, Ruby and I will be right here if you need anything.  There’s a pitcher of water and a thermos of coffee over there by the door.”

As Alex and Ruby walked over to the other side of the room, Nub began the job of counting the vote.  Forty-three minutes later, he was finished.

“I’m all finished, Alex,” he called.

The redhead got up and headed toward him.  “Okay, remove the sheet of paper from the pad and fold it up so that I can’t see the count.”  Once he’d done that, she came forward, took the paper from him, and put it in a small box on the corner of the table.  “Thank you, Nub.  You did fine.  Would you like to stay here while the second count is being done?”

“No, there are some things I need to do at home.”

“Okay.  Now, you can’t tell anyone what the results were of your count, Nub, not even if Brian begs or bullies you.  The count won’t be official until after the second vote, and if there’s a big discrepancy, a third count will have to be done.  The results will be announced in the morning.”

“Don’t worry, Alex.  I won’t tell anyone.  I promise.”

Alex smiled at him, knowing that a promise from Nub was one that would be kept.

Boris arrived several minutes after Nub had left, arriving right on time.  Again, Alex had to hold back a smile.  It seemed that the Russian had thought the same thing as Nub and had dressed for the occasion.

As Nub left, Alex sat Boris down and went through the explanations and instructions again.  The big Russian was fairly glowing with a look of pride.  To him, an immigrant from a country that until a few years ago gave its people no chance to let their voices be heard, the thought that he was going to play such a vital role in the democratic process made him feel more a part of America than he ever had.  He truly felt like a citizen now, an American.

Feeling his throat tighten at that thought, Boris got busy counting the votes, which had all been dumped back into the big box.  It took him about the same time as it had Nub.  Like with Nub, Alex told him to fold up the piece of paper, which she then put in the small box with the other one.  She instructed Boris not to tell anyone what his count had been and let him know when the results would be announced.

After Boris was gone, the two women sat down at the table and pulled out the pieces of paper.  They looked at the counts written there.

“Well, it looks as if we won’t have to do a third count,” Ruby commented.

“No, we won’t,” Alex agreed.  “They both did a great job.”

“So, how will we be announcing the results?”

“Like we do with any other vote.  Callie will print up notices to post all over town.  She’ll also be printing a special edition of the paper.” Alex smiled.  “She told me that she has two versions of the front page article already written, one for if the vote is for Hope Gardens, one for against.”  She laughed.  “When Brian found out, he wanted to ‘help’ her with the yes vote article.  Of course, Callie completely ignored him.”

Ruby chuckled.  “I can just imagine what the article would have sounded like if he wrote it.”

The votes and the papers with the count were gathered up and placed in a locking box, which Alex would put in her safe.  The women said goodnight and went their separate ways.

“Hi.  So, how’d it go?” Molly asked as Alex walked into the Widow’s Walk.  She was behind the counter, cleaning up.  The place was empty of patrons, now being closed.

The redhead sat down on one of the stools.  “Everything went fine, no problems.”

“I take it you didn’t have to do a third count.”

Alex smiled.  “No.  Nub’s and Boris’s counts matched exactly, not even one vote off.”

“Really?  That’s great.”  Molly didn’t bother asking what the results were.  She knew that Alex couldn’t tell her before the official announcement.  Besides, she didn’t want to have to deal with her father trying to get her to reveal the results.  If she didn’t know, she couldn’t tell him.

The blonde came around the counter, removing her apron.  “Well, I’m going to head on home.  Everything’s done here.”  She studied the thoughtful and distracted expression on her friend’s face and gave Alex’s arm a little squeeze.  “However it is that the vote came out, Alex, I have faith that everything is going to work out all right.  Regardless of whether or not Hope Gardens is built, Hope Island will make it through.  We won’t let anything take away what we’ve got.”

Alex smiled and gave Molly a hug.  “Thanks, Mol.  I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Locking the door behind her friend, Alex went up to her room and got dressed for bed.  She lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling for a long time, thinking about tomorrow and the future of the little island that she loved.

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