Connecting the Pieces

By Caroline Dancel-Garcia

Cassie Gomez’s family’s life story unravels through her niece, Allie, in Connecting the Pieces. Connecting the pieces of her aunt’s life story and that of her father’s is going to be a solemn road for Allie.

The journey starts by learning and experiencing the love story of Allie’s grandparents. Despite the peaceful life they show from the outside, there is a shadow in their past that continues to linger in their lives today? “If you knew the end result, would you do it again?” This is the question that Allie will have to live with to learn about guilt, regret, patience, forgiveness, eternal love, and being a family.

If you could open the door to that past with Allie, would you walk towards the darkness to find out? Or would you let Allie do it alone?

In the end, will you adore and love Allie and appreciate her bravery or would you turn back that clock to spare her?

Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387013494

Book preview

Connecting the Pieces

Connecting the Pieces

Caroline Dancel-Garcia

Connecting the Pieces4

Copyright Notice5

Dedication6

Poem7

Prologue7

Chapter 111

Chapter 221

Chapter 326

Chapter 434

Chapter 537

Chapter 642

Chapter 749

Chapter 865

Chapter 973

Chapter 1077

Chapter 1182

Chapter 1286

Chapter 1389

Chapter 1495

Chapter 15103

Chapter 16107

Chapter 17112

Chapter 18118

Chapter 19124

Epilogue133

About the Author135

Other book by the author136

Connecting the Pieces

Cassie Gomez’s family’s life story unravels through her niece, Allie, in Connecting the Pieces. Connecting the pieces of her aunt’s life story and that of her father’s is going to be a solemn road for Allie.

The journey to Connecting the Pieces starts by learning and experiencing the love story of Allie’s grandparents. Despite the peaceful life they show from the outside, there is a shadow in their past that continues to linger in their lives today? If you knew the end result, would you do it again? This is the question that Allie will have to live with to learn about guilt, regret, patience, forgiveness, eternal love, and being a family.

If you could open the door to that past with Allie, would you walk towards the darkness to find out? Or would you let Allie do it alone?

In the end, will you adore and love Allie and appreciate her bravery or would you turn back that clock to spare her?

Enjoy!

Copyright 2017 by Caroline Dancel-Garcia

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopy, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of a brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial requests. Write to the author for permission, Attention: Permissions, at [e-mail].

Names and events are FICTIONAL. Any mention of locations are coincidental to create the story.

Dedication

To my sister, Maya, your everlasting support to everything that I do means a lot to me. You are my biggest cheerleader. You believe in my ability and you are always encouraging me. Thank you.

To my brother, John, as crazy as we get sometimes, I know that I can count on you every step of the way. You have the courage to push forward in life always. I admire your persistence to succeed. Thank you.

To my son, Ruben, you are the sunshine of my life. Your patience is endearing. I love you always. Thank you.

To my best friend, Ellie, I am blessed with your friendship. Thank you

For everyone who supports my passion for poetry and story writing, I am forever thankful.

Darkness follows me

Taunting me to oblivion

I see nothing ahead

Darkness is in me

A tiny light shines from afar

Should I run or stand still?

Decision lingers from within me

Am I ready to free myself?

Or stand still in this oblivion I call home

I take a deep breath

I take the first step to the light

No known destination

No known certainty

No known tomorrow

I run run and run until…

The oblivion becomes blurry from my sight

Hope for a better life becomes my strength

I run until I see the light coming from afar

Oblivion is no more

I am here today

A new beginning

I am here to stay

A promise of a future

I am here to explore

A life full of promise

Regret and guilt

I surrender

Forgiveness and hope

I summon

Only then can I truly be free of my oblivion

Prologue

Flight 0609 to Newark Airport will start boarding in fifteen minutes the Southwest Airlines ticket agent announces on the microphone. I am anxiously waiting to see my mom. My vacation is ending in about ten hours but I am happy that I am not travelling alone. Aunt Cassie is going home with me to New Jersey. I am a lucky niece… Four long hours later, we finally arrived. My mom is already waiting for us at the baggage claim area. Woo hoo!

I decided to cuddle up with my mom for a little while in her bed on my first night back in the apartment before calling it quits for the evening. If you knew the end result, would you still go through it the way that you did it? my mom asks when I told her the story that grandpa, grandma, and Aunt Cassie told me during my stay in Texas. I am looking at her with intensity in my thinking. Would I? After a minute or so, she extends her arms to embrace me. Whatever you think? Know that you are loved by everyone she reassures me. After talking to her for more than three hours, she walks me to my room.

I am hanging on to my mom’s question when she left me in my room. I grabbed my journal and I start to doodle on it. I am trying to process the question and possibly answer it. There are so many things that happened a month ago in Texas. Where do I even begin? I tap the pencil on my desk wondering what to write in my journal. I am having a hard time deciding where and how to start my entry.

My grandma Sue believes that destiny is set for all of us the moment we are conceived. Well, destiny in my opinion sucks because it took my dad away from me when I was twelve. I am only fifteen now and I keep hearing from everyone else that I have an old soul because I adjusted well with my dad being gone. I wonder if having an old soul means that destiny expects me to grow up faster than everyone else who is the same age as me? Does destiny have anything to do with all the events that happened during the thirty days that I was on vacation in Texas? I guess I can say thank you to destiny for bringing my Aunt Cassie to live with me and my mom until she gets her own place. I am thankful that I can get to know more of my dad through her.

Grandpa and grandma told Aunt Cassie to try living away from Texas. At first Aunt Cassie hesitated. She feels responsible for grandpa and grandma since the death of my dad. She feels that she needs to be close to them in case she is needed. Grandpa and grandma on the other hand, want her to be free and to choose where she wants to be and to start her own life even if it means here in New Jersey.

Thirty days ago, I thought I knew my family well. There is no need to do ancestry.com since everyone seemed to be in place. I thought to myself. I have my grandparents who love each other. My mom had a great life with my dad. My aunt and my dad loved each other as kids. All of these assumptions shattered into pieces the moment my curiosity peeked about the album I saw in my grandparent’s living room. Since the pieces shattered before me, I am going to start collecting the pieces today because they are part of me. They are my family. It is not something that most fifteen year old girls do after their vacation but then again I am not a typical fifteen year old girl.

The life story that you are about to read is about my father’s side of the family. I am going to connect the pieces of my dad’s and Aunt Cassie’s life story from when they were children to what I know now. I am also going to share the life story of my grandparents whose lives are not, as I thought, perfect. I am hoping that children like me, who is unexpectedly left by a parent or both at a very young age, get the chance to connect the pieces of their family’s life story through relatives. Enjoy!

Chapter One

Hurry up Allie We are going to be late my mother yells. I could just imagine her standing by the front door with her hand on her hip. My mother, Sandra Ross Gomez, pride herself of being on time on everything that she does. I am coming I yell back. I rush down from the second floor of the two unit apartment. My mother and I live on the second floor apartment for the past two years. It is just the two of us now since my father, Jonathan Gomez Jr, passed away. After my father's death, my mother decided that it would be best for us to remain in New Jersey since she already has a steady job here and I am still in school.  

Make sure to take your vitamins Do not stay up too late Help with house chores Be respectful all the time My mother is on the roll with all her last minute reminders while I am loading my checked bags at the weighing scale by the ticket counter of Southwest Airlines. The ticket agent could not help but smile. Mom stop I tell her in embarrassment. It never fails, every year for the past five years now this is the airport scene between me and my mother. My mother's anxiety elevates each time I leave for my summer vacation at my grandparent's lake house in south Texas.

After six hours of flight with a stop-over in Houston, I finally arrive in San Antonio. Allie I could hear my grandmother from afar. Grandma Sue has this very high pitch voice just like mine. She is a little over five feet tall but she swears that she is almost six feet at her younger years. I guess she did not take her vitamins to keep that height in check I chuckle at the thought. Although she is almost 67 years old, she has the energy like the energizer bunny. She loves to bake especially my favorite pie. Grandpa Joe is the quiet one. He stays mostly to himself except when he takes me with him on the tractor mower. He stays active taking care of a couple of chickens, ducks, and my favorite goat, Molly.