A Pirate Calling
Chapter Seven: Past
A bump in the road jolted Fay from an oddly dreamless slumber. She opened her eyes blearily and yawned. The bright mid-day sun shone down on her, warming her through the closed window. They had been driving for two hours and she had been sleeping for half of it.
Fay glanced at Jacob from the corner of her eye. His eyes were focused straight ahead on the road, one hand rested on the steering wheel. She studied his profile for a moment; the strong, broad jaw line, the slight bump on his nose, the graceful curve of his cheekbones. Despite everything she had been through with him; despite what she thought about him (the sarcastic bastard that he was), he was still slightly attractive.
"Where are we?" she asked, hoping she would startle him. She was disappointed.
"Just outside of Orlando," he replied, unfazed. "You wanna go to Disney?"
Fay rolled her eyes and snorted. "No. I want to get this done so I can get the hell away from you."
Jacob chuckled. "It's not really that bad, is it?"
Fay didn't answer him, instead choosing to merely stare out of the window and watch the scenery fly by. Miles of flat road flew by in front of her, broken intermittently by patches of trees or billboards advertising miscellaneous companies. She remembered driving these roads when she was younger. During the good times of her childhood; times that no longer existed.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, drawing her from her reverie.
Fay turned to him as she leaned back against the seat cushion and brought her knees up to her chest. "I could eat."
Jacob grinned at her simple answer. "Well. Then let's find something."
Half an hour later they sat across from each other, Fay watching as Jacob buttered each pancake. He was a man of many mysteries. "I still can't believe you ordered pancakes."
"You can never have too many pancakes."
"It's two in the afternoon."
Jacob grinned. "What can I say? I love pancakes."
"But in the afternoon?"
"You can never have too many pancakes," he repeated.
Fay sighed. "If you say so."
Jacob's smile widened around a mouthful of food. He seemed like such a child sometimes, Fay noted. He had so many faces, so many personalities. It was difficult to figure out which one was actually him. At times he could be fierce; dangerous. How many times had he frightened her only to piss her off seconds later? How many times had he irritated her with his cryptic questions and vague answers?
Fay began to feel her ire rise at her thoughts. She stabbed her fork into the plate of salad in front of her, causing Jacob to look up from his food, a forkful of pancakes halfway to his mouth.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"No I'm not dammit. Why the hell won't you tell me anything?"
Jacob sighed and placed the fork back on his plate. "There are things right now that you will not understand. Therefore I haven't told you."
"That is some screwed up logic Galvin."
Jacob shrugged. "Well, it's all I've got. And it's all you're gonna get," he replied and picked his fork back up, taking the bite of food.
"Then why the hell am I following you?"
He gave a lopsided grin. "Because you're curious. And," he added pointing at her with his fork, the grin dropping from his face, "you've got nowhere else to go. You willingly got into a strange man's car."
Fay blinked. There he went again. He had been acting normal for most of the meal and then in the blink of an eye his personality changed to almost threatening. "Do you hear voices?"
Jacob stared at her confused. "No. Why?"
"You seem to have a personality disorder of some kind. Schizophrenia maybe."
A bark of laughter shot from his mouth. "No, Miss Nolan. I may be a little crazy and I may talk to myself but I can assure you that no one talks back."
"If you say so."
"Tell me about your father."
Fay looked at him, startled at his sudden change of subject. "I'd rather not."
"Tell me about your childhood."
"Why?"
"Just curious."
It was Fay's turn to sigh. "It was normal. I was raised by my widowed mother until high school when she got remarried."
"So it was just you and your mother for . . ."
"Ten years."
"It had to have been tough on you both. A single woman raising a child by herself."
"We survived," Fay spat back, dropping her fork onto her plate and leaning back in her chair, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Have you lived here all your life?"
"Florida?"
Jacob nodded as he chewed a bite of his lunch.
"From what I can remember yes. Same state, same city, same house. My entire life."
"Until you grew up."
"Yes, Galvin. Until I grew up."
Jacob stared at her for a moment, assessing her expressions, her defiance. "You're hiding something," he stated.
Fay's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
Jacob held up one hand, fingers splayed out. "You don't like to talk about your father," he began, lowering one finger as if counting down. "You give vague answers about your childhood. You get testy when I ask a simple question." He looked directly at her, his brown eyes staring at her from behind his upraised palm. "Should I go on?"
"I don't like to talk about my past, Galvin. What is wrong with that?" she replied and leaned forward, placing her crossed arms on the table.
Jacob paused, watching her. Even though her face was an expressionless mask there was pain in her eyes that he couldn't decipher. He reached out slowly and took a lock of hair between his fingers, playing with the soft strands, his fingertips brushing gently against her cheek. Oddly, Fay didn't move from where she was. She didn't try to pull from his touch. She didn't try to hit him for touching her. "Sometimes you have to talk about the pain to get over it," he said softly.
He thought for a moment that he saw tears well up in her eyes, but they were gone before he could find out for sure.
Fay ducked her head slightly, closing her eyes, the lock of hair falling from Jacob's grasp. "They used to take me on vacations when I was little," she said after a moment. "Week long vacations where we would go somewhere far away. We went to Colorado once and dad broke his leg skiing. Mom was so furious with him." Fay laughed softly, almost to herself.
Jacob sat back, his eyes staring at her down turned face. He listened as she spoke, not interrupting, allowing her to speak her mind.
"We went to Chicago to visit my aunt one October and I remember getting lost in a crowd during Halloween. I was so scared until my dad found me and held me all the way back to my aunt's house," she tilted her head up, a small smile on her face, her eyes unfocused. "We spent a week at Disney Land one year, even though there was one right here in Florida. I was so excited to be there. The little dolls in It's a Small World scared the crap out of me. I clung to my dad throughout the whole ride.
"The Teacup ride was always one of my favorites. I would spin us around and around until the ride was over. My father was fascinated with history. He loved it. I will never forget the first time he took me on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was my absolute favorite out of the whole park. I loved to ride Pirates over and over until it drove my mother crazy."
Jacob, in the middle of swallowing a swig of his water, nearly choked at her words.
"When he died," she continued, as if not noticing his reaction. "It all stopped. Mom and I never went anywhere. My aunt in Chicago would visit every now and then, but that was it. It was as if when he died, so did our family. It was hard watching all of the other kids having fun with their dads. Father-daughter dances were always the hardest. My step-dad always did the best he could, but it just wasn't the same, you know? Plus he had his own daughter to deal with. Her addition to our family didn't help the strain between me and my mother either. She was nine when her dad and my mom got married. Angie was always getting in trouble. She was always getting suspended in middle school.
"Mom never seemed to understand how hard it was for me to accept a new family after dad. It was always all about them after that. When I started college I moved into the dorms to get away. I hated being at home unless I absolutely had to. There was too much there that caused bad memories to surface. Nothing was ever the same."
Fay stopped as the waitress came by to drop off the check and pick up their plates, pausing to give Jacob a wink and a flirty smile. Jacob returned the smile and slipped some bills into the envelope without looking at the check.
"Let me pay for my half," Fay said.
"Don't worry about it," he replied, shaking his head slightly. "It's my treat. Come on, let's go."
Fay stood up with him, her eyebrows furrowed. "You're not going to say anything?"
Jacob looked over his shoulder at her as he walked down the aisle. "About what?"
"About everything. About everything I just told you. You don't have any snide remarks or something?"
He turned to her as they reached the car, the keys in his hand. "Why would I say anything? The way I see it, you've just talked about something difficult for you. I would have to be cruel to say anything after that."
"Well, you do have your moments," Fay joked.
Jacob grinned in reply and opened the door for her. Fay stared at him for a moment before climbing into the car. She opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it and then sat down. He closed the door after her, walked around the front of the car and opened his own door. They were silent as he started the car and threw it in reverse. Fay inhaled deeply. "Thank you."
"For what?" he asked without turning to her.
"For listening. Thank you."
Jacob smiled a true smile. "You're welcome."
Fay stood at the door to her mother's house, her overnight bag slung over her shoulder. Mixed emotions were running through her mind. She really didn't want to be here. She really didn't want to be doing this. She hated dealing with family. That was the reason she had moved hours away.
"You may as well just knock. The sooner you do, the sooner we get this over with."
Fay knocked on the wooden door slowly, reluctantly, glaring at Jacob from the corner of her eye. He was staring out at the other houses, a serene look on his face. She ran a hand through her hair nervously. She hadn't been home in years. Too many memories. Some good, some bad. Some she just wanted to forget. And now here she was, about to dredge up memories that she had no desire to remember.
A soft click was heard on the other side of the door, drawing Fay's gaze back to the house. The door opened slowly part way, a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway.
"Yes? May I help you?" the woman asked before the door was completely open; before she could see who was on the other side.
Fay gave a small smile. "Hi mom."
AN: Taa daa! jumps up and down waving arms I do exist! I amaze myself sometimes. God it's been since December since I last updated this thing. I was sick for awhile again and it was hard to write, type, or do any damn thing that I needed to. Add to that the utter lack of inspiration that I had for awhile for this story and you have a massive amount of writer's block. But, I've been listening to the one song over and over that I normally listen to to get inspired for this story and it worked! And this chapter is what popped out. I hope all of you like it. I know it's a lot of dialogue, but I promise that everything starts to make sense soon. Secrets will be revealed and perhaps a little romance? We'll have to wait and see how my brain works!
To all of my reviewers: you rock!
