As the pristine condition, red, vintage VW rolled up her dusty driveway, Annie allowed herself a small smile. Cam had always had far too much pride in his old fixed up vehicles. Knowing his tastes for excess, it was likely that he had at least 2 more of the same back home. "Collectors items" is what he called them, but Annie knew that Cam was just another hoarder, with a really big house and a whole lot of money put away in some fancy bank account overseas so that no one dared disapprove. The car pulled to a screeching halt, dust spattering the bright green grass on either side, gravel spitting at Annie's smooth white legs. Cam stretched his long legs luxuriously as he exited the car, the few streaks of grey in his black hair becoming evident at his temples. He reached up to wipe a bit of shimmering sweat off his proud high forehead, blocking the sun reflecting off his grass green eyes, where Annie still caught a glitter of mischief as he gave her a large little boy grin, like a two year old who'd just been caught with his hand stuck in the cookie jar.
"Hey Annie." He said. The afternoon sun blazed in the sky, scorching the land, slowing down time so that it seemed like an hour had passed in the seconds it took for Annie to reply:
"Hello Cameron." As if time had rewound itself 25 years, and Noah had never existed at all.
2 weeks earlier
Kady's Mama sat on the phone, her legs dangling off the kitchen stool. The sunlight arced it's way through the huge windows reflecting off her golden hair which was placed in loose curls about her face. Her brow that was knitted into a tight frown, distorting her delicate features.
"Cam?" Her voice was raw, hoarse, but there was a small lilt of excitement at the end of that one small word.
Kady herself frowned, running her small hands through the hair she had inherited from her mama, her emerald eyes ablaze with curiosity. She did not recognize the deep rumbling voice on the other end of the phone that had asked for her mama so roughly, telling Kady she better hurry the hell up. Kady prickled at the memory, unhappy with the idea that she had allowed anyone talk to her in such an undignified matter, but his voice had been so urgent, so desperate, that she'd only handed the phone over silently.
Kady's mama had never told her about a man named Cam before, and she'd certainly never known her to speak with him. As far back as Kady remembered, Mama rarely spoke to any men at all unless she absolutely had to.
Kady also didn't like the way her mama was uncharacteristically frowning, nor the tone she took when she spoke to this man, worried, and a bit ashamed of herself.
"It's been a while and a bit, hasn't it?" She seemed almost pleased for a half second, until an ominous rumbling sounded through the phone. Mama's face quickly turned back into an expression of concern.
"Look, you know... You know why I-"
The man's voice smoothly and assuredly cut mama off mid sentence. The tones were curt, urgent, as if he were trying to get to the heart of the matter.
rumble rumble. Pause. Rumble. Longer pause. Rumble, rumble rumble. It was almost like a song.
"Hey, look now, you can't just call up like this and-"
The voice interjected once more, lilting and rumbling away.
mama sighed, obviously growing annoyed with being cut off.
"Would you-"
Rumb-
"Could you-"
-le
"Plea-"
A quiet growl
"You should understand why! I mean look at you and-"
He spoke loudly enough Kady could hear the words clearly.
"That's a bit different, don't you think! She wasn't just some stranger thrown into the mix!" To Kady's shock and surprise her mama snorted, an unladylike sound that she had already lectured Kady on about a million and one times.
"A lady would do her best not to remind others of certain grotesque and unruly farm animals." Kady muttered under her breath, quoting her mother who had not heard her, but had continued on with her conversation instead.
"Not a stranger? In what way?"
The rumbling grew pedantic and explanatory.
"That's hardly an acquaint-"
He kept on going
"Don't interrupt me!" her mother cried out, and then, sighing, slightly apologetic,
"Look, I'm sor-"
A loud, fierce animal Growl let forth on the other side of the phone for several seconds, and Kady flinched.
"No, you will not do as you damn well please! I dare say you called me! Not the other way around!"
The Growl was nearly set loose again, but as Kady leaned forward, eyes widening, her mother took a deep breath and went on:
"And I will not be told to shut up, or be told to hold on just a second, and I will not be made to laugh, or cry, I will not allow you to assassinate my character as if I've in fact done anything wrong! Tell me, in what way could I have been less cruel? Obviously you know what's what. You know exactly how I could have done things differently so that he would not have been miserable! Could you please tell me? Explain, how! Simply tell me, straight up, so I can go on spending a lovely afternoon with my daughter."
The growl turned to a sigh, then a small sad lull of a rumble, with a sudden choking and a question mark at the end.
"Yes, it happens generally when two people have decided to procreate. Who did you think answered the phone?" She frowned, waiting for his response, letting out a small smile of pride at his answer, but bit it back before it could become anything more.
Rumble?
"Yes, she heard everything."
"Mumble. Choke, sigh, mumble."
"Cam says he's sorry Kady." Kady jerked at the sound of her name.
"I should forgive him I suppose. Although I don't know the man particularly well, and I don't think I'd like him very much at all if I did" Kady said petulantly, speaking loudly and clearly, so that the man at the other end could hear every word, every syllable. Savoring the thought of his unhappy reaction on the other end.
"I might even suspect that I'd hate him a bit"
To her surprise a long deep laugh sounded at the other end, it seemed almost pleased.
The chagrined sounding rumble started up, growing explanatory, and then almost sad. Her mother's head snapped up, and she let out a small cry, but waited, and waited until the rumbling had finished.
"How could that have happened?"
Kady jerked at the strangeness of the hoarse tone.
"No. i don't believe you" She brought her hands to her face in despair.
The rumbling grew explanatory, going on for several minutes as Kady watched with rapt fascination her mother's torso seemingly beginning to shrink as she slowly curled up, her face crumbling as it grew paler and paler. Kady wanted to fling her arms around her mother, to make it better, but she did not know how.
"I'm so sorry, you have no... no idea. There was so much I left..."
"No, you don't know. Maybe..." And then she let out a half a sob, a horrid sound, a choked wail quickly cut off.
"Look, I can't, I need to-"
A glistening at the corner of Mama's right eye, but she was determinedly keeping it in, holding her breath, willing it not
to fall.
"I just.."
The man's voice rumbled on.
"I have to go"
"No!" His voice reverberated through the room, and for a few seconds there was no sound. The man spoke for a few minutes, and then asked a question.
"No, he's away for another month at least."
The man sighed, Kady could practically imagine the headache, the rubbing at the temples. He let out a long sigh, words mixing and mingling within.
Mama, was already beginning to smooth her features back, but whatever the man had said made her face become stiff, yet still smoothly she replied:
"You can come out here, I'll do it. It's the least I can do. To make up for things."
The rumbling changed tone and her Mama's features were blushed a mottled pink but her tone remained even.
"You know that isn't true. I cared too, perhaps more."
A few seconds passed and Mama let out a loud sigh.
"Look, just come if you want to. You know where I'm at." She sounded defeated, but she'd placed her shoulders high.
She put the phone gently down into the receiver, looking around the whitewashed and sunny kitchen. Looking for an escape route. Kady thought.
"Kady" mama breathed, her hand splayed out as if to grab her daughter for support.
"Mama, who was he?" She asked.
"He was.. he was no one, just an old friend from high school." Mama's voice was coming out shrill, but she was slowly calming it.
"Mama, please, what's wrong?" Kady asked, growing anxious at her mother's strange mood. Obviously the phone call had upset her, but the wicked man could not be the only one to blame, Mama had dealt with many unkind, horrid people in Kady's lifetime without falling to pieces. But as to the subject matter of the conversation she could not guess what would be at the root of it.
"It's nothing darling, Mama just received some bad news is all. Look, I'll just be in my room for a little while, okay? That's all I need."
Mama walked through the oak door leading into her room, but before she shut it she turned to say one last thing, her blue eyes locking on to Kady's green one's irresistibly,
"Don't tell Daddy. This is our little secret, alright?" Kady's jaw nearly dropped. never, in all her life had her mama kept a secret from Daddy. Even when Kady had begged her, about any little thing, a boy she liked, a missed assignment, a scrape with the neighbors, Mama insisted on telling Daddy everything. It seemed unfair now that some strange man with a soft lilting voice came along her mother could keep secrets all she wanted? The complete reason for Kady's dis-ease she kept even from herself.
Didn't that man sound seductive? With a voice like that a man could get a woman to do anything.
A few hours passed, the evening sun turning the sky red and the fields gold. The June air cooled enough that Kady
shivered in her small dress, and finally, Mama ventured out of her room, eyes no longer red, but still slightly puffy, hair loose and disheveled, her arms crossed over as if to protect herself. She had changed into a flowing white dress, as if to renew herself and her soul. If she was wearing a different outfit, had the rest of the day really happened?
"I suppose you'd like to know what's going on my girl?" She said, sitting at the table, and pointing at the seat across to indicate that she'd like Kady to sit.
"I suppose I would." Kady said, resting herself within the seat.
"Well you see, my old friend, Cameron, called me up today with some very bad news." Kady waited for her Mama to flinch, or sigh, but she managed to maintain an impassive demeanor, as if the very bad news was really not any news at all.
Mama went on:
"He's decided that he'd like to come down and visit, so that we can settle a few things between us that were never laid to rest, and I decided that may be for the best. So in about 2 weeks, you and him will be meeting, and even though you've made it clear you dislike him based on first impression alone I expect you to keep a civil tongue in your head."
Kady looked up, shocked, Mama was allowing a strange man over without daddy even being there? She supposed she must keep that a secret as well?
"Now, I want you to be on your best behavior Kady. This man will find every reason to pick me and my life apart, he'll want every excuse to prove that he knows right, and that the path that fate set out for me is wrong.
"Why?"
Mama shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.
"Well, I suppose he's never forgiven me."
"Forgiven you for what?"
Mama sighed, and there was a small ripple in her features, the smallest bit of nostalgia creeping through her gaze.
"For marrying the wrong man."