Part 37
Michael pulled three bottles of water out of the cooler, shaking off the small pieces of ice that were clinging to them before opening one and handing it to Shysie. His gaze moved over the area as they walked back to their seats and he noticed that Eddie had disappeared and in his absence, Michael's cousin Shadow had taken the empty chair on Maria's left side.
Shadow was a year younger than Michael, an aspiring writer, and an expert at chasing girls. That last thought would have had him hurrying back to his seat if Maria had looked the least bit interested in whatever he was saying, but she was only expressing polite interest and nothing more.
"Tellin' lies, Shadow?" he asked as he took his seat once more.
Maria smiled gratefully when Michael handed her a bottle of water, parched from hours of sitting in the sun. It was early afternoon, barely past two o'clock, and several of his cousins had come by to talk for a few minutes here and there before going back to their chosen seats. She was glad that the cousin he had warned her about, Dakota, had chosen to stay away, though she had seen him watching her several times throughout the morning.
"Me?" The young man grinned, showing off a set of braces that glinted brightly in the sunlight. "Never. I may stretch the truth, or embellish it, but I never outright lie."
Right, Michael thought, and he was human! "What'd I tell you about blindin' people?"
Shadow knew his cousin well enough to know that he wasn't in a bad mood, so he went on teasing him. "See? Now, Michael's a very colorful individual," Shadow said, obviously carrying on from a previous conversation. "I've actually modeled one of the characters in my novel after him." He frowned at his cousin. "Although if he continues with his current behavior, I may have to reduce him to bein' a background character."
Michael didn't seem to be terribly concerned about the threat, and Maria got the feeling that it wasn't the first time Shadow had mentioned it.
"A threat which he will not carry out," Michael said, watching Shysie as she settled down on the ground with a coloring book and a handful of crayons. "He's been makin' the same threat for two years and if he ever actually followed through with it, I'd stop takin' the photos for his newspaper articles."
Maria turned back to Shadow. "You write for the school paper?"
He nodded. "Yeah, since junior high."
"Me too."
Michael listened to them as they compared journalism stories, not really paying much attention to them as his gaze swept over the area. He sat up a little straighter when he saw Dakota standing apart from everyone else, his calculating gaze locked on Maria. He turned his head and looked directly at Michael, and a slow, feral grin turned his mouth up at the corners.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Alex walked through the park across from his street, his mind working over the possibilities the encrypted letter represented. He was still trying to find a code talker who lived a reasonable distance from them while working on a believable cover story to use if he found one. He was certain that the letter had been written by a human being even though there had been no return address on the envelope. The only thing he had to go on was the postmark that identified Marathon, Texas as its place of origin.
He had researched the small town and discovered that the population was under 600, but nothing about the area had suggested anything paranormal. Nothing about the town had stood out; nothing had happened there that drew media attention to it and he hadn't found a single interesting piece of information. He was starting to wonder if the letter had been mailed from that location to mislead anyone who might try to trace it.
His thoughts eventually turned to Isabel and the things he had said to her the night before. He knew she had spent her whole life hiding who she really was, not trusting anyone enough to reveal that part of herself, but that didn't give her the right to dismiss their feelings so callously. He hadn't been surprised to find her gone when he had come back and he was curious to see how long she would stay mad at him for being honest with her.
"Well, look who stopped by."
He grimaced internally when he heard Brad Patterson's taunting voice, and despite the voice of self-preservation screaming at him to run in the opposite direction, he turned to face the captain of the football team.
I should've run, he thought when he saw Patrick Thompson and Ken Bishop flanking Brad. Just like on the football field, where you saw one of them you were sure to see all three. They were part of the elite group and they thought they owned the school.
"I've been hearin' rumors about you, Whitman." Brad shook his head and sighed loudly. "People are sayin' you've forgotten your place."
"What place would that be?"
Brad laced his hands together and cracked his knuckles before folding his arms across his chest. "The place where you don't speak to people like Isabel Evans."
"So, the three of you are here to what? Kick my ass for steppin' outta line and – " He had heard the expression 'seeing stars' but he could honestly say it was the first time he had experienced it first-hand. He hadn't seen Brad move so he could only assume it was one of the others that had punched him. He wasn't much of a fighter but that was amazingly easy to overlook when your arms were pinned behind your back by one guy while the other two took turns using your body as a punching bag.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Maria's gaze followed Kai's movements as she swayed from North to South, riveted by the myriad of emotions that chased across the girl's face. She couldn't imagine going through such a rigorous rite of passage; her own celebration of impending womanhood had been quite different and nowhere near as physically demanding.
Despite the fact that her mother felt it was something that should be celebrated, Maria had been less than thrilled about the new development in her life. But Amy had insisted on a special dinner topped off with champagne to mark her only daughter's introduction to womanhood. She had been certain her mother had finally lost her mind because she couldn't think of a single reason to celebrate her first period. Besides, wasn't a period supposed to signify the end of something? She had briefly wondered if it had been given its name by a man. If they were going to name it after a punctuation mark, why not call it an ellipse? The stupid dot, dot, dot at least indicated that it would be ongoing.
Maria paused in her mental ramblings and turned to look at Michael. "Have you ever drunk a bottle of Magnum?"
He looked up from the sketch he had been working on when she blurted the question out. "What?"
"Have you ever drunk a bottle of Magnum?" she repeated.
Oh, she was trying to figure out his nickname again. "I doubt it since I don't know what it is."
"It's a famous brand of champagne."
"Huh-uh."
"Well, you don't know what you're missing." She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the taste. "It's absolutely divine."
"Uh-huh, and when did you drink it?"
Maria mentally kicked herself; no way was she sharing that story! "Nevermind. So, what're you doing?"
"Nothin' important." He flipped the cover over the page he had been sketching on and looked at her. "I'm getting the feelin' that you don't wanna tell me about your…" He paused, casting about for the word she had used. "Absolutely divine champagne experience."
"I don't think you really wanna hear it."
"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"
Maria smirked. "Let's just say it's one of those woman things and leave it at that."
He stared at her for a few moments as he considered the implications of that statement. Woman things could mean too many things he just didn't wanna know. He shuddered comically and waved one hand in defeat. "Fair enough."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Catherine stood back, away from everyone else, pretending to watch the ceremony while in reality she was watching her son and his girlfriend. The two of them had been left alone for too long and now Michael was comfortably slouched down next to Maria, watching her as she studied his sketches. Body language spoke volumes where he was concerned and the fact that he was not only relaxed, but also leaning in towards the girl without the slightest bit of hesitation, said more than simple words could ever convey.
"Is it a problem because you do like her or because you don't like her?"
She turned her head and smiled briefly in greeting when she realized John's older sister had joined her. "What?"
Skye ran a hand through her long black hair and then motioned at her oldest son where he sat with his wife and children. "I wasn't too concerned when Colton first started dating but I knew from the first moment he mentioned Rebecca that she was different."
"How?"
"Out of four children, Colt's the most like his father; serious, reserved, and quiet." She chuckled when she thought back on her first meeting with the man she had eventually married. "The first time I met Kade, I was sure he was the rudest, most stuck-up man I had ever met."
Catherine laughed quietly. "I remember that. The entire Rez heard about him. I think I was about eleven or twelve years old when you met him; I was doing homework with John when you came home fussing about the 'rude, obnoxious, know-it-all doctor' you had run into."
"Didn't paint a very flattering picture of him, did I?" She smiled and shook her head. "Anyway, that's not my point; the point I'm trying to make is that with me – once we got together – he was completely different. Kade's just very quiet and reserved and a lot of people don't get past their first impression of him, and Colt is just like his father. So, when he started talking about this girl he'd met and I saw how animated he was, I knew it was all over, that he'd finally found someone who understood him, who could look beyond what the rest of the world saw to see how amazing he really is. And I was happy for him." She paused. "Until I realized that she was going to take my place in his life."
"That's not an easy thing to accept," Catherine admitted.
"No, it's not. I mean, you spend your life teaching them, raising them, taking care of them when they're sick, comforting them when they're hurt or scared, encouraging them, listening to their dreams and their fears, and then one day here comes this girl who's known him for a fraction of that time and she's taking him away from you."
Catherine felt relief wash over her at the realization that someone understood her feelings. "Exactly! Why doesn't John understand that?"
"For the very same reason that you won't understand why he starts acting like a fool when Maggie starts dating seriously. Believe me, Catherine, I understand your need to protect your son and considering the circumstances that led to Michael becoming part of your family, I can only imagine that it's even stronger where he's concerned."
"But?" Catherine asked warily.
Skye smiled at her sister-in-law's perception. "But, I get the feeling that there's more that you're worried about than her taking your place in his life."
Catherine debated whether or not to say anything for all of thirty seconds. "She's encouraging him to find his biological family," she blurted out in a rush of words.
Skye shook her head, confused. "Okay," she said slowly. "I don't understand; that's not exactly a new development and you've never shown any opposition to it before. Isn't it a good thing that she supports him – " She broke off when she saw Catherine's crestfallen expression.
"I've never opposed it because I know it's important to him, but the truth is I don't want him searching for his… family. What kind of people just leave a child in the desert, Skye?"
"Maybe he needs to find that out for himself so he can get some closure. I don't think his search is meant to hurt you."
"I'm not worried about me." She sighed raggedly. "He's been on this quest for the past couple of years and it's only been one disappointment after another for him. He's moody on good days but when he comes back after following one of his dead-end leads, he just closes himself off from everyone. When he's hurt, he gets angry and defensive, he pushes everyone away, and he won't let anyone help him. I do worry that she won't be able to handle him when he gets like that, when he pushes everyone away, because that'll hurt both of them; Michael needs someone who can stand up to him, who can curb his impulsive behavior, who can let him go at the right times, and who knows that when he's pushing her away the hardest, that's when she needs to hold on the tightest. I worry about what'll happen to him if she can't handle being with him when he's like that because he's gotten very attached to her."
"Are you worried that she won't be able to handle him or that she will?"
"Honestly?" Catherine sighed. "A little bit of both. You asked earlier if I like her or not, and I do… it's just that it'll make it even harder if she can't deal with him. I don't want to see either of them get hurt."
Skye nodded. "And if she can deal with him?"
"Well, I won't really know that until he comes back from – "
"That's not what I asked you," Skye prodded gently.
Catherine took a deep breath and held it for a moment before releasing it slowly. "If she can deal with him after one of those disappointing searches I guess I'll have my answer, won't I?"