by Melissa Jooty (email me at cosmic_quest@yahoo.com)
CHAPTER TWO- A Friend From The East
As Annie put the final touches to Matt's old bedroom,
the soon-to-be bedroom for their temporary resident, while Eric left for the
airport to collect the exchange student whom they had since discovered had
a name in the form of Kieran Connelly.
It was odd that she still referred to the room as Matt's considering her
eldest had not properly slept in it for eight years. It had belonged to Ruthie
for a brief period between Simon's death, when Matt moved into the newly renovated
loft to allow his sister the room, and the twins' birth. There was a huge
reshuffling of the rooms during that time as Matt moved out and Mary and
Lucy moved to the loft to allow the twins their double bedroom. Those three
years were the last time that the house was fully lived in and occupied.
When Lucy left, Mary moved into university accommodation shortly after,
shame-faced for the role she played in her sister's departure, and Ruthie
escaped into the loft in a further measure of detaching herself from everyone
else. It was that day that Annie felt her family was falling away, that day
when for the first time since Ruthie's birth that they had a spare bedroom.
The very same bedroom that was destined to be Simon's when he had finally
outgrown sharing a room with his younger sister.
Annie choked back a sob. The last thing they needed was the exchange student
walking in on her blubbering like a madwoman. It was time she stopped linking
every thought to her lost son; Eric was right in the respect, there had
to be a time to allow Simon rest. She just wasn't sure if she was ready to
let him go so easily.
*He's been gone for ten years.*
No, it was time to think of the living. Remaining a little unsure of whether
it was the right decision to allow Eric into cajoling her to offering Kieran
Connelly accommodation in their house, she knew she had to make an effort
for her husband's sake and the sake of the children still with her. Eric was
so certain this was the right way forward, the way out of the black chasm
that had enveloped their lives for a decade; she didn't have to heart to deny
him.
"Smells a bit better than when Matt lived here."
Annie jumped slightly at the matter-of-fact voice and looked up to find
Ruthie regarding her in that ever-present indifference. Her baby girl, only
fifteen years old, and her only daughter remaining close at home yet so far
out of reach much like Lucy was. Where had that sweet, affectionate little
girl she once knew so well gone?
Desperate to engage the girl in any form of conversation, she gave a quiet
laugh. "Let's hope this boy doesn't have the same habits like hoarding old
socks and mouldy plates as your brother enjoyed doing." Ruthie smiled- for
a brief moment Annie saw her little girl's love in her deep brown eyes-
then she glanced away, gone. "I...eh, I heard you sent Connor a card." It
was almost ridiculous, the way her voice took on the hesitant, guilty tones
of a chastised schoolgirl whenever she broached this subject with Ruthie,
as if she were the child waiting for appraisals from the merciless judge
in the form of her own teenage daughter.
Ruthie just nodded slightly, her expression blank of emotion. "Yeah, I
sent him ten dollars too, maybe Lucy will get the kid one of those Teletubbie
things he likes so much."
She admitted there was a vague flash of disapproval; she thought they had
taught the children better than to focus so much on material gifts when
it came to Christmas and birthdays. Ironically, look at where all those wonderful
morals and values had taken her family. She and Eric once arrogantly considered
themselves the perfect parents yet it was their rigid attitudes which was
the underlying cause of their daughter's absence in their lives. So who was
she to dictate how Lucy raised her child? Lucy was always such a caring and
nurturing girl and Annie had no doubt she would instil the same qualities
in her little son.
Accepting this might have hurt were it not for the more agonising realization
that Ruthie knew more about Connor than the infant's own grandparents.
Annie hoped she didn't sound too eager when she asked, "Lucy doing okay?"
"She's good."
It was a testament of her own self-control fighting back the urge to shake
more details out of Ruthie, to force the teenager to give her just a little
scrap of information regarding her beloved daughter and the grandson whom
she'd never met yet already loved with all her heart. Annie knew the way to
Lucy could never be through Ruthie, the sisters had grown very close in spite
of- or perhaps due to- the distance between them, and the younger girl would
sooner pack her bags than betray her sister's confidence. And so, it was
a difficult path the mother trod between striving for news on her elder daughter
while not seeking to alienate her younger daughter.
"That's good then," Annie smiled tightly.
Ruthie regarded her mother thoughtfully. "She said she'll be teaching third
grade next semester and Josh just got some promotion in his firm."
Her forced smile relaxed into a delighted grin at this miniscule tidings.
Her worries always lightened when Ruthie saw fit to tell her about Lucy. It
was galling to be at the mercy of a fifteen-year-old kid but when it came
to her middle daughter, Annie would seriously consider selling her soul to
know she was making a mark in the world.
As for Josh, he was apparently a young lawyer and, more importantly, Connor's
father and Lucy's...whatever. Ruthie had never mentioned marriage, although
it had sounded as if the two were dating a year or two before Connor was born
and Josh continued to play a large role in both Lucy and the boy's lives.
While in some ways, Annie would have preferred for Lucy to have that extra
stability of marriage in her relationship to her son's father, it was an unbearable
image to think of her daughter walking down the aisle without any of her
family there to witness the event.
"Lucy will be a wonderful teacher." Ruthie nodded, a sincere smile gracing
her lips. Annie would have questioned her further but she knew the moment
was gone and the subject was closed. For now, she decided to let it go. "Where
are the boys? I haven't heard a peep out of them all morning."
"Sam's in his room but David is away playing ball, I guess."
Another two children destined to follow in their sisters' footsteps, David
withdrawing physically and Sam emotionally. But not anymore, they were still
within her reach.
It was then she noticed the backpack Ruthie was carrying. "Going out?"
she asked.
Ruthie just shrugged. "Yeah."
Unlike Matt, Mary and Lucy before her, she never sought permission nor
did she ever explain where she was going. There was little point in grounding
her since Ruthie did not seem the least bothered at being locked in her room
and would simply finish extra punishment chores without complaint. In the
end it was far more stressful on them to discipline her for such transgressions
and they let her be, consoling themselves with the fact that Ruthie was far
more level-headed than the other three to be involved in any serious trouble.
"Aren't you staying to meet Kieran?" Annie prayed in vain to hear some
girlish enthusiasm at having an older boy living in the house.
"He'll be here when I get back, won't he?" Not a hint of interest there.
"I'm just going to hang with some of the guys at school, we're not climbing
Mount Everest."
"Okay, just try not to get into any mischief," Annie teased.
She remembered this would be the point where Mary and Lucy would stutter
some response, indeed intending to some petty teenage high jinks. Ruthie just
snorted in disgust, rolling her eyes.
"Mom, I'm fifteen, not five."
Her mother sighed. "Well, try to be home for supper. I want to put some
essence of normality for Kieran."
Ruthie shrugged, already walking away. Annie was sure she heard the teenager
mutter something like, 'bit late for that' but it was low enough for her
to ignore. In many ways the girl was right, she only voiced what her mother
tried to so hard to suppress.
*****************************
As it was, Kieran did not arrive until early evening
due to flight delays. There was a calm tranquillity in the house and the children,
even Ruthie, were in surprisingly good spirits with their parents' moods
lifting in response to the youngsters. Watching his wife happily potter around
the kitchen putting last minute touches to the roast chicken, Eric was pleased
he had pushed the issue of taking in this boy.
When the doorbell shrilled, there was an eager yell of, "I'll get it, I'll
get it!"
Eric smiled as Sam ran for the door. The young boy so eager to please,
so welcoming to even strangers he had never met. He prayed that Sam would
never lose the boyish enthusiasm and sweet nature, which endeared the boy
to all who knew him.
The front door had barely swung open before Sam cheerily greeted, "Hi,
I'm Sam, I live here."
"Hiya, Sam, I'm Kieran," came his amused response in a thick Scottish brogue,
"I guess for a wee while, I live here too."
Moving behind his son, Eric reached out a hand to the young man standing
there. "Hello, I'm Eric Camden, welcome to America."
Kieran shook his hand firmly. "Pleased to meet you, sir. Mr Young was going
to stop in with me but he had to collect his daughter from her friends. I
hope you don't mind me just dropping in like this."
"No, of course not," Eric smiled, ushering the boy into the house, "and
please call me 'Eric', we don't stand on ceremony in this house, too many
people for that!"
"I understand," Kieran laughed, "I have five sisters and sometimes it seems the house is more of a zoo than a house!"
Leading the boy to the sofa, Sam noticed a battered comic book peaking out of a pocket of Kieran's rucksack. "Hey, you like comics too? Do you like the 'Blue ? Or 'Spiderman'? They're my favourites, I've read all the new ones and my half of the bedroom is decorated with them."
"You sound like such a geek," David scoffed, trudging down the stairs into
the living room evidently curious of their new visitor.
Kieran, however, seemed to sense this and grinned. "You sound just like me at your age," he reassured. "My room was a shrine to the entire Marvel universe."
Sam beamed at the comparison. Kieran had won over a friend for life in the little boy.
Like his elder sisters, David often spoke before thinking and Eric could see Sam had been hurt by his brother's comment. It was curious how diverse the twins were, they would make a psychologist's dream study. David clearly was as self-confident and out-going as Mary and Ruthie, a stark contrast to the placid and introverted Sam who reminded Eric so much of Lucy and, at times, their precious Simon. Often pushed out of the limelight by his boisterous twin, Sam no doubt felt he needed to prove himself to Kieran, a temporary elder brother he so craved.
Of course, he would always have Matt but the eldest Camden son was not only settled so far away on the West Coast, the huge age gap dividing them and the fact that Matt was now in an adult mind-set he was now less of an elder brother and more of an uncle figure to the boys. When their eldest visited for Easter earlier in the year, it saddened both Eric and Annie to see their boys had grown so far apart. Matt tried to join in with the twins but he couldn't quite feign an interest in their childish humour and the eight-year-olds' sensed he was struggling to stave off his disapproval of their pranks.
Kieran, on the other hand, was the best of both worlds. As a college student, he possessed the self-awareness and worldliness that came with young manhood yet, as he did not have the responsibilities that came with juggling a career and thinking of settling down with a family of his own, he was still young and immature enough to connect to his childhood. It was the same reason why Matt could form a brotherly bond with Ruthie but not with the twins, who were born when he was graduating high school.
"Dinner is nearly ready, boys," Annie announced, strolling in from the kitchen, the wonderful smell of her roast chicken wafting into the living room.
"Kieran, this is my wife Annie, and my young son and Sam's twin brother David."
"Hello," Kieran politely greeted, "nice to meet you both."
Always impressed by good manners in the young, Annie smiled warmly at the young man. "It's great to have you here, Kieran, I hope you have a happy stay in America."
"My youngest daughter Ruthie should be home soon," Eric said, "there's more of the brood but these three are the only one living at home at the moment."
He knew he should have mentioned the elder four by name but he never had the strength to then have to explain Lucy's estrangement and the loss of Simon. The wounds were still too raw to bear his family's pain to a virtual stranger. He would never forget Simon but sometimes it was just easier to pretend he was off at university living the future he was prematurely denied.
Thankfully, David piped a question before the atmosphere could turn awkward and heavy. "So you like anything else besides comic books? Like sport?"
By the time the roast dinner and vegetables were served, Kieran was firmly accepted by both boys once he had informed David not only was he interested in comics but he was a keen sportsman involved in soccer, swimming and rugby (David was very impressed by the description of rugby being 'just like American Football without the pads and helmet'). Even his typically taciturn daughter, when she finally arrived home ten minutes after the family sat down to eat, seemed to find the young Scot likeable. It was obvious to Eric she enjoyed sharing company with someone closer to her own age since usually she had little patience for her 'old' parents or immature eight-year-old brothers.
"What did you think?" Eric quietly asked, when the children had retreated to the living room to watch a DVD leaving he and Annie to wash up in the kitchen.
It was enchanting to hear Sam and David talking a-mile-a-minute, revelling in the attention Kieran was quite happy to lavish on them for now. The boy would certainly make an excellent paediatrician if he chose to specialise in that field. He could hear Ruthie try to goad Kieran into an argument a few times but he refused to take the bait. She eventually gave in and joined in the conversation over whose schools were rowdier.
"He's a nice boy," Annie conceded. Her eyes softened. "He reminds me of a more talkative male version of Lucy."
Eric laughed. "Now that you mention it, he does, doesn't he?"
"You don't think we need to go on patrol now we have a teenage girl and a twenty-one-year-old boy in the house?"
Their guest was admittedly a handsome boy, as tall as Eric and athletically built. His mouse brown hair was cut short to almost military standards and spiked up slightly, his emerald green eyes sparkling with wry humour and intelligence. If a teenage Mary and Lucy were still at home, he definitely would have insisted on some kind of 'six-inch separation' rule they used to have in boarding schools of the sixties.
"No, I wouldn't worry too much, he had five sisters so I'm sure he can handle himself. Besides, this is Ruthie we're talking about..."
From overheard phone conversations and tit-bits of the boys' chattering, he knew his daughter had healthy interest in the opposite sex but she guarded her privacy so fiercely she would never bother Kieran under her parents' noses. He also felt Ruthie was more sensible enough to realize no decent twenty-one-year-old would seek anything other than friendship with a fifteen-year-old girl. She was more streetwise to that degree compared with her sisters at her age who would have been too delighted to have the attention of practically grown man to think of the consequences.
"She seems to be behaving herself," Annie said. She wasn't meaning the girl's conduct to a boy rather her general surliness seemed to have dissipated.
"I think this is good for her, to have someone of her own level. I guess she must have missed Robbie and Matt more than she let on."
Hearing laughter of the four youngsters drowning over the television, Eric shared a smile with his wife. He could almost sense the weary blanket of grief, which had been suffocating the house for too long, finally lift and allow his loved ones to breathe.
"I'm glad you had us do this," Annie murmured, drawing closer to her husband. "You were right, we needed this, we needed change. I think things are finally getting better for us. I hope so anyway. I don't want the kids to live in the past any more."
End of CHAPTER
TWO- A Friend From The East
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Okay,
here it is, I've finally updated! Sorry it took me so long to get this out
but I have to admit my new obsession with Harry Potter has kind of
swept me away. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for all
the kind reviews I've received for the first chapters. Please remember
that things may be a little different since I have only seen up to about the
fourth season and this story is set in what would be the thirteenth season.
Also, the characters will have changed in response to the death of a son.
I've got Matt as a police office though I've since read that he's in medical
school. Sorry to all you Matt-lovers but I probably won't be changing that
since I don't feel he was bright enough to get into med school (this was a
guy who as sixteen was convinced he was shrinking because of a prank played
on him by his eleven-year-old brother and his six-year-old sister!).
In the next chapter, we'll see more of Ruthie and Annie interacting with
Kieran and a few clues as to what's so special about him. Please do feel free
to review or email me your opinions on what you think of this chapter and
the story in general.