As the pair neared the house, Janet found herself more and more transfixed by the stranger, something about the tilt of his head, something...
"FELIX!!!" she screamed, and ran to open the door just as the pair were ascending the steps. "Oh my God!" she cried, her hands to her mouth, as Cecily and Daniel excitedly grabbed Felix from either side. Felix gently kissed each one and moved out of their grasp to stand in front of his mother, with tears streaming down his face.
"I promised I’d come back home, Mother," as he took his free hand and stroked Janet’s hair. With a loud sob, Janet enveloped her son in a long hug, repeatedly saying his name as if he’d disappear if she stopped.
"This is the best Christmas present I could have ever hoped for!" shouted Daniel happily, and the whole family smiled as they looked at their youngest member.
"We have to let Felicity and Gus know," reminded Cecily excitedly. "I hope the phone is working by now. I don’t want to have to run over to the Foundling Home." It was only yesterday that Felicity told her family of her pregnancy, and confided to Cecily that the baby would be named Felix if it were a boy.
As luck would have it, the phone did work and Felicity was told. The scream that left her lips upon hearing the news probably woke up half of Avonlea, and as soon as she got off the phone she hitched up the buggy and she and Gus, who was on vacation from his Naval Telegraphy job, flew to King Farm. They ran in the door to find the family sitting at the kitchen table, Janet holding Felix’s hand in hers.
Felix rose with the help of his crutch, and at least was spared a pained expression from Gus, who was unable to see the condition in which the war had left his brother in law. There was no such relief from the look on Felicity’s face, as her eyes took in Felix’s condition. "Oh, Felix, what have they done to you?" Felicity said, shaking her head in astonishment. The young Felix she had teased and bossed around was gone, and in his place was a semi crippled, scarred man who looked practically ten years older than she.
Reading Felicity’s mind, Felix replied as he moved to hug her, "It’s still me. I know I look different, but it’s still me." But there was a worldliness, a maturity to his voice which spoke volumes of the horrors he had experienced, which his family could never understand.
Cecily chimed in, "It’s lucky we didn’t have breakfast yet, Felix, you must be starving. Look how thin you are, but Mother will fatten you up again."
"That’s right, dear," Janet fussed as she bustled around the kitchen. "Girls, would you help me? Felix, go upstairs and get washed up. Oh, it’s so lucky I couldn’t bear to throw away your clothes. You’ll have something nice and clean to wear."
"That’s a good idea, Mother", and Felix proceeded to limp up the stairs. The rest of the family stayed quiet until Felix was out of earshot, staring at each other with the shock they still felt in their hearts.
"Oh, my poor baby. What can we do for him?" the tears started pouring from Janet’s eyes again as she moaned the words.
"The first thing you can do is not feel sorry for him," said Gus forcefully. "The last thing he needs is pity and tears; what he needs your strength."
Felicity chimed in, "Gus is right. As hard as it is to see Felix like this, we’ve got to support him and be strong for him." At the look of doubt she saw in Janet’s face, she continued, "Mother, Gus knows what it's like to have to come back from the ‘dead’ like this."
The rest of the family agreed but still felt unsure, but the women got up and made the breakfast. In honor of his brother’s homecoming, Daniel picked up the box of previously neglected ornaments and started hanging them on the tree. Alec helped him for awhile, but then went to see what was taking Felix so long. He entered Felix’s room to find him stripped to the waist, having completed shaving and washing up. It took all of Alec’s fortitude not to gasp at the sight of more scars from the bomb’s shrapnel on his son’s newly sinewy yet muscular body. The rigors of military life and the recovery from his injuries had claimed all of Felix’s baby fat. "I’m just trying to look presentable for the family," Felix joked, trying to diffuse the feeling of shock which radiated from his father, as he dried off his face. "What I really need is a bath."
"We’ll draw you one after breakfast. Are you ready to come down yet?"
Felix nodded and pulled on a shirt that was now rather large on him, took up his crutch and followed his father down the stairs to a delicious smelling breakfast. Felix managed to eat some of the food, but his heart was not really in it. He knew he should feel happy to be home but instead felt out of place. Had he given it some thought, he would have realized it was because he had changed so much. He smiled politely as Felicity told him that he would become an uncle in six months, but did not know she left out the details of the baby’s name had it been a boy.
Felix turned to Cecily and asked "Where’s Izzy? When I passed through the town last night, I noticed that the Pettibone home was completely dark."
Cecily explained that the Pettibones had traveled to New Brunswick for the holidays—Clive thought it best to get Izzy out of Avonlea for awhile, as she was very depressed over the news of Felix’s death. Cecily did not tell Felix of the secret which Izzy had only shared with her; that she planned to go to France to drive ambulances for the military. She had told Cecily that she could not return to a place where she everything reminded her of her lost love. She knew Izzy’s plan was to leave directly from Moncton—she would have to find some way to get word to her before she left.
Felix didn’t reply to Cecily’s information, he was sorry for the pain his Izzy was feeling because of him, and he covered himself by taking a few more halfhearted bites of his pancakes. "Maybe it’s for the best if she stayed there," he ruminated sadly, "I should have married her before I left, that way she’d be mine now. I put it off like an idiot because I thought I had all the time in the world." Shaking his head without thinking, he said to himself, "Now it’s going to be too late, once she sees me she’ll never want me."
The irony was lost on him that Felicity was the one to ask him why he was shaking his head; he had totally forgotten that his sister had still wanted Gus back in spite of his blindness. All he could think to do in response was to snappishly ask her why she was staring at him. She apologized and the rest of the family was rather stunned at Felix’s reaction.
The meal gave the family time to adjust to this stunning change of events and prepare for the trip to Rose Cottage. They had not telephoned Hetty and Olivia to advise of the good news because they knew Hetty was still weak from the operation and they felt it better to break it to her in person.
Felix bathed as the rest of the family bustled about to get ready for the trip to Rose Cottage. Felix dressed in another too large outfit, and Janet commented that she would soon be busy altering all of Felix’s clothes. At last the family was all packed up and boarded the carriages to take them to Rose Cottage.
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