THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
        Episode 51
The gates of the facility
opened with a metal hiss.
Robert walked out into the
heat of the Arizona morning.
He didn't have a limo now.
He had a small bag and a
grey bus ticket.
He saw a blue car idling
quietly by the curb.
Minnie stepped out, her
face glowing in the light.
"You look thin," she said,
holding him very close.
"The food wasn't exactly
French," he joked softly.
They drove slowly toward
the small condo.
"Where are the girls?"
Robert asked, watching the
cactus and the red hills.
"Virginia is at the city
hospital," she replied.
"Dorothy is teaching, and
Shirley is in the studio."
"And Barbara?" he asked.
Minnie smiled at him.
"She is managing all the
book sales for us now."
They pulled into the drive
of their modest new life.
"We sold the last of the
jewels," she said quietly.
"The family debt is gone."
"Every cent?" he asked.
"Every cent," she said.
Robert felt the weight of
the years finally lift.
The prison bars were gone,
replaced by the bright sun.
They walked inside the
small, quiet hallway.
The smell of coffee and
old books was better than
all the gold they lost.
"I started a draft,"
Robert told his wife.
"A new series about the
virus and protection."
"The Robin Hood one?"
He nodded his head fast.
"I wrote it in there."
"It kept me sane, Min."
Minnie looked down at her
bare, empty fingers.
"I don't miss them," she
said of the diamond rings.
"I like the way my hands
feel today," she added.
"Useful," Robert said.
They sat at the small,
clean kitchen table.
"The board is gone,"
Robert said very quietly.
"The victims were paid."
"The legacy is safe,"
Minnie replied to him.
"Not the money, Robert."
"The honesty is safe."
The phone rang suddenly.
It was Dorothy calling.
"Is he home?" she asked,
her voice full of love.
"He is home," Minnie told
her daughter with a smile.
Robert took the phone with
a shaky, calloused hand.
"I am here, honey."
"I am really home now."
The long saga had turned.
The hard fall was over.
The rise was silent and
built on the desert dust.
The air was finally clear.
They were together again.
It was finally enough.

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