10
"Hayley!" Mateo called out.
"What?" she yelled back from the laundry room.
"Honey, what are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm folding clothes." She kept on with her task.
"Shouldn't you be doing something else? I don't know, making something to eat or something?"
"Why?" she still didn't look up.
"Hayley, remember, Raquel's bringing Max over, they're getting back from Texas today."
"Yeah? I know."
"Yeah. What's with you?"
"Excuse me if I'm not doing back flips over the fact that your son is coming here, last time he was in this house he was staring down a gun at me."
Mateo took a deep breath. "Hayley, he's changed, you know that, he got help and he's better now. It's been four years! People change in that amount of time, look at us! Look how different our lives are now!"
"We have two year old twins, of course our lives are different! Evil like that doesn't change, it doesn't just go away."
"Max isn't evil!"
Flashback
"You've ruined everything, Hayley," Max said, holding the gun out straight in front of him, pointing directly at Hayley.
"Max, sweetie, I don't know what you mean, please, put down the gun," she said, trying to get away from the six year old.
"You're going to have a new baby and then Daddy won't come see me and Mommy. You want him all to yourself."
"Max, it's not like that at all, Mateo will always be your Daddy."
Max shook his head as his hand holding the gun tensed.
"Max, please put the gun down."
"No," he said firmly.
"Max, honey, please," Hayley pleaded. This kid was only six yet she felt so helpless.
"No!" he yelled, pulling the trigger. He hit her squarely in the shoulder and she fell to the ground.
End Flashback
"Mateo, you weren't there, I'm sorry, I just can't forget that day."
"Hayley, I'm not saying to forget it, I'm not telling you to completely forget everything he ever did, I'm just hoping that you'll accept that he's changed and that he's better now. Why are we even dredging all this up anyway? I thought we were past this by now."
"I'm sorry, Mateo, it's just not that simple, I know it's been four years. Sorry, I can't say I'm all too happy about your son coming back."
...
Bobby walked into the front office of Pine Valley Elementary School and signed into the visitor's book, also taking a PVES visitor name tag. He walked down the hall to Sam's classroom where the students were lined up for lunch.
"Bobby!" Sam almost screamed when he saw Bobby come in. He ran over to him and gave him a big hug.
"Hey there, Sammy," Bobby said.
"Are you here to have lunch with me?" Sam asked.
"Yep, I sure am, I thought I'd surprise you, is that okay?"
"Of course!"
"Okay students, it's time to go to lunch," the teacher announced, leading the line to the lunchroom.
Once there, Sam and Bobby sat down at the front lunch table where all the students with visitors got to sit. They had just taken out their food and were about to eat when Kelsey sat down beside Sam.
"Hey Sammy!" she said.
"Kelsey!"
"Sorry I was a little late," she said.
"That's okay."
"You knew she was coming?" Bobby asked Sam.
Sam nodded.
"Bobby, if you don't want me here, I can leave and I'll just come eat with Sam tomorrow," Kelsey said.
"No, it's okay, stay."
"Um, okay."
No one said anything for at least a whole minute. Sam's eyes went back and forth between his two biological parents.
"What's wrong with you guys?" he finally asked.
Kelsey and Bobby eyed each other.
"Um, nothing, Sam, it's just a little, I don't know, weird," Bobby said.
"Do you two not like each other?" he asked.
"No, it's not that, it's just been a long time for me and Bobby-"
"Bobby and I," Sam corrected.
"Bobby and I," Kelsey repeated with a smile. "Like I was saying, Sammy, Bobby and I are friends, it's just been a while since we've been together, Sam, you were too young to even remember the last time the three of us were together."
"We were all together just last month," Sam said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Well, I mean alone, last month there was a ton of other people there," Kelsey said.
Sam looked around the room, "There sure are a lot more people here."
"He sure takes after you, Kels," Bobby told her. "Sammy, I think what she means is the three of us sitting here together, not with our other family people gathered around. See, when you were really little-"
"Daddy told me about being with you two when I was a baby. When he told me, I got mad at you because you took me away from my Mommy and Daddy, but Daddy explained to me that you only did what you did because you loved me."
"We still do love you," Kelsey said to him.
"Oh, lunch is over," Sam said, seeing his class getting up to leave.
"Bye sweetie," Kelsey said, trying to give him a hug as he tried to wriggle away.
"Bye Sam," Bobby waved as Sam rejoined his class.
"Well, that wasn't too bad, now was it?" Kelsey asked.
"Not a bit," Bobby said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"So…would you like to go to BJ's and get some real food? This cafeteria stuff is just as bad as I remember it!"
"Uh, sure…I'll meet you there, ok?" Bobby said. What am I thinking? He thought.
They headed off to their cars.
...
Carmen flipped through the journal she'd been keeping since coming to Pine Valley.
August 17, 2003
What the woman whispered keeps reverberating in my mind. I'm almost certain of what she said, but to lock that in as what she definitely said would put a name to myself, other than the one given to me by Garlan six years ago. And if I'm wrong as to what she said, or if I'm not who she thought I was, then I will be going in the wrong direction.
Is one sliver of something I might have found out worth this?
September 1, 2003
More than two weeks have gone by since the incident at the Valley Inn. I've made my decision. The name she said was "Maria." I may be Maria. But to know for sure, I would have to talk to that woman.
I have seen her several times since, but considering her reaction to seeing me the first time, I decided against approaching her.
I keep waiting for someone else to recognize me. Not that I've been too many places, most of the time I stay up here in my hotel room, but the money that Garlan gave me will run out sometime, so eventually I must leave and find work.
September 4, 2003
Today I went to the hospital. Garlan had made me promise to get checked out once I came back to the mainland. So, today I finally went.
I saw the woman from that night. She is a nurse at Pine Valley Hospital. I heard someone talk to her; her name is Julia Keefer. This bit of information may be helpful to me.
Maria. Maybe if I could just find out who this "mysterious" Maria is, that could give me a clue.
Carmen closed the book. She didn't have a new entry to make since she'd once again spent the entire day in her room.
She gently placed the book on the nightstand and stood in front of the mirror.
She looked at her reflection. "Maria?" she asked, pointing to herself.