Chapter 4 - The Folks in Town
As Greer walked through the open door of the supermarket, he realized it was much bigger than he expected. With this "quaint" little town, he would've thought the market would be more of little general store, like in the old time western movies. As Greer shuffled along the tile floor, peering down the aisles, he discovered that the shelves were stacked with things like chips, soda, magazines, and completely random things such as a rack of belts at the start of one aisle. It wasn't a Stop and Shop or anything (if they even had those in Canada), it's name "SUPERMARKET" printed in bold, red letters above the store doors in front. But it definitely didn't just have the basics. Greer threw his eyes around to spot a cart, seeing a few young boys dart crazily in and out of the banana racks in front of him. He rotated on his heels, preparing to venture to the other side of the store, when he was suddenly face to face with a bright looking woman. A vibrant, white smile burst across her face. She had her dark blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and bangs that curled very 80's like across her forehead.
"I say, I haven't seen you before. Would you like me to point you in the direction of the shopping carts or baskets?" The woman questioned exuberantly, like she had recited it just about a thousand times. Greer was sure his face looked like he was in some form of torture.
"Um, yes, actually. I - my family and I just moved into Antigonish." He said reluctantly, just wanted to scoot out of there. The woman's eyes grew wide, but kept their happy glint.
"So you're new in town, eh?" The Rachael Ray exclaimed. She stuck out her hand. "I'm Pam, the Customer Service manager at Supermarket." The shine of Pam's teeth nearly wore Greer's eyes to nothing. He took her hand, though, shaking it. In a new town, Greer felt he had to be polite to make a good impression.
"Hi. I'm Greer… Wilson." Greer added his last name as an afterthought, not really sure why.
"I see." Pam replied, taking her hand away. "And you moved here with your family?"
"Yes." Greer stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. He jiggled his keys around in his hand, tapping his foot. Impatience began to settle in. "With my wife, Kahlen, and her sister Blair. My two kids, also, Jay and Bridgette."
"How delightful." Pam clapped her hands together joyfully, seeming to actually mean the words. "How old your children?"
"Bridgette's fifteen and Jay's twelve." Greer looked around anxiously, hoping someone would wander along looking for assistance.
"Your oldest is fifteen? How can that be, why you don't look a day over thirty!"
"Well, thanks." Greer sighed, "But I'm actually thirty-eight."
"Is your wife older than you, then?" Pam questioned, stepping closer to him as a man attempted to squeeze past her with a cartful of bags.
"Kahlen's two years younger than me, really."
"So you two were pretty young when you had your first child, then?"
"We met in college." Greer nodded. He rocked back and forth edgily on his heels. A silence filled the air and he was going to snatch the opportunity when Pam opened her mouth to speak again.
"Where have you guys moved in to?" Her eyes drilled into his so much at this question that it made Greer almost nervous to answer it.
"We, um, we're in the old Victorian up on the hill. You know… at the end of that "B" street?"
At this, the exuberant smile that had once laid on Pam's face faded, her eyes quickly losing their cheer. "Wait… what?" She asked solemnly.
"We moved into it. The one on its own little hill-"
"I know which one you're talking about." Pam cut him off abruptly. Her face read stoic. "I um… have to go now, I do have other customers." Pam, without leaving a greeting, turned on her heels and clicked away, her head peering downwards. Greer was glad she had finally ceased her interview, but half of him held onto the perplexed - and almost angry look that had set on her face. He shook it off and walked in the opposite direction to find someone who could tell him where the damn carts were.
Kahlen, her hands in her pockets, strolled into the left room on the end of the hall. Jay was standing by the window, gazing intensively out it.
"Hey, Jay." Kahlen called, standing in the doorway. He turned around, still holding onto the window pane.
"Oh. Hi, Mom." He replied, turning back to look out the window.
"Can I come in?" She questioned half-jokingly. Jay nodded, though still keeping his back to her. She wandered in, glancing around at the wood furniture. She sat down on the bed to the left of him, which creaked. She compulsively brushed non-existing dust off the bedspread. "Nice view?" Kahlen questioned. Jay nodded silently.
"The woods." He added in hesitantly after a few seconds.
"Sweet, wish I had that view." Kahlen nodded. "But you know, the master bedroom. Has the size, just not the views. Not the view I would have preferred, at least. I'd chose the woods over the town square any day."
Jay continued to stare out at the woods, his eyes drifting into the deep shadows the trees were making. He opened his mouth to speak, though he didn't turn back to Kahlen to do it. "That's great." Jay said, obviously not meaning it.
Kahlen made a face, clutching her hand over her heart. "Wow, Jay, that was really a shot to the heart." She said sarcastically, smiling. She expected him to turn back to her to make a face himself, but he just stood there in silence. Kahlen smoothed the bedspread between her fingers. "Okay, mister have-no-humor." She put out casually.
"Do you miss her?"
The smile on Kahlen's face faded quickly. She forgot how to speak momentarily, hoping that Jay didn't mean who she thought he meant. It hadn't been talked about in such a long time. She tried the innocent, clueless approach.
"Who?"
Jay turned around at last. Seeing the look in his mother's eyes made him feel almost guilty for ever asking the question in the first place. His eyes quickly dropped to the ground.
"Um… Leila." He breathed. He instantly spotted Kahlen in his peripheral vision sighing in relief. Her whole body slouched as she relaxed.
"Well, Jay, she's my best friend. The last time I saw her was four years ago. Of course I miss her. But I don't think that moving to Canada will make her talk to me again. It was a feud over something I don't even remember and we never fixed it. We should have. But then she moved to Minnesota and we never got around to calling each other." She rose from the bed, crossing her arms. "What's with your random thoughts, anyway?" Kahlen ruffled Jay's hair and he slapped her hand away, embarrassed.
"Right." He muttered as Kahlen walked slowly out of the room. He remembered what the feud was over, he remembered it so clearly.
Kahlen ran into Blair as she entered the hallway - literally. She backed off from her sister and shook her head.
"Sorry, I guess I'm still getting used to this house." Kahlen apologized. Blair nodded.
"Yeah, me too. And Greer went to the market."
Kahlen continued walking, Blair tagging along behind her. "Oh, great, Blair! Let the man go to the market alone!" Kahlen laughed sarcastically, gripping the balcony as she went quickly down the staircase. She wasn't quite sure where she was going. "Watch him come home with like, eight pounds of hamburger meat and twenty cases of Samuel Adams."
Blair rolled her eyes at this. "Nah, he'll be fine… hopefully."
Kahlen got to the bottom of the stairs, glancing around her. She decided to take a look at the view from the front porch, walking to the front door. She opened it with a creak and stepped out onto the porch. A large swing hung to her right and she sat down on it. It swung under her weight but held out well even when Blair took a seat next to her.
"He was kind of hinting that we hook up the cable." Blair mentioned. Kahlen turned to her.
"Hmm?"
"Greer. He wanted us to get the cable going."
"Oh."
"Oh?"
"So he's got the television up and working?"
"Um, no cable."
"Oh. Right."
"Are you okay?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?! I'm fine!"
"Fine? Kahlen, you have to know that when you say fine, I know that's exactly what you aren't-"
"I'm fine! I'm just very cold currently because we're in Canada!"
Blair sighed from the dialogued that her and Kahlen had exchanged. She was tired. She had been sitting in the backseat of a car for twelve hours. She needed her sister to not look like she was about to cry.
"Kahlen… when Greer's friends put up all the furniture in the house, and brought in the boxes- he told me all of the boxes are in the attic."
Kahlen shot Blair a confused look. "Okay, thanks for telling me…?"
"No. I mean… Kahlen, everything's up there. Everything."
"Yes, I believe you have told me that."
"Kahlen!"
"What?!" She exclaimed innocently back.
"Stop being so da- just stop acting ignorant, okay?" Blair searched for the correct word for the way Kahlen was acting, which probably wasn't ignorant. But it was close enough. She held back the urges to yell at her further. She rose from the swing, facing the view of the many houses below them. She crossed her arms.
"Fine! Okay, Blair, I'm listening. If you get to the point, maybe I won't have to be so ignorant!"
"I'm just trying to say that Emilie's-" She turned back to face Kahlen. But the bench was empty.
Greer struggled to steer the terribly rusted cart down the cereal aisle. The wheels squeaked, nearly piercing his eardrums. He wasn't even sure what cereal his family ate. Did they even eat cereal? Greer shook his head, snatching a box of Cheerios and Frosted Flakes off the shelf. He was almost surprised that they had these cereals in Canada. He tossed them in the cart carelessly, attempting to turn the cart around the corner. As he looked up to read the next sign, he felt his cart bump into something. He looked down to spot the head of a red-haired woman looking though her purse. She lifted her head and they both, at the same time, apologized for running into one another. It was only after this when their eyes met did they both fall into shocked silence.
"Greer!" She shouted in astonishment.
"Leila?!" He gasped.
They stood just like, this gazing at each other before Greer finally spoke up again.
"What are you doing here?!" He questioned, still standing in the same place in amazement.
"Uh, I live here, duh! What are you doing here?!" She shouted back.
"Well, we moved here! Today, actually." He grinded his teeth together, nearly biting his tongue. "Kahlen's tried to call you, just to tell you." Leila shrugged at this. Greer was irked by her silence. "So first you move to Minnesota, promising you'll keep in contact with her… and then, what? Nothing! Nothing, Leila! You just cut her off completely! Do you know how many times Kahlen called you, sent emails, letters?! Then you just go and move to another country? Without telling us?"
Leila shook her head, halting Greer's speech. "Greer… Kahlen and I have been talking for the past two years. But she never told me you guys were moving to the town I live in…"
Greer's eyebrows caved in, her mouth turned down in confusion. "What?"
"We've been talking ever since… well ever since she tried to."
"Tried to what?" Greer asked, waving his hand in the air for Leila to finish the sentence. Leila stared at him, a "duh" look set in her eyes.
"Greer, I know what she did is surely difficult for you to recall, but you know what I'm talking about."
"No I don't, Leila, I really don't! And Kahlen never told me that you guys made amends…" Greer began to grow anxious. He wondered if it was a complete coincidence or that Leila was actually telling the truth.
"Listen… I don't know why she wouldn't tell you that we were talking again so I'm thinking that maybe she did and you forgot. But she told me she was seeing a psychiatrist…"
"Leila! You have to understand that I didn't forget anything! Nothing big happened two years ago and she has not told me that you guys were talking again. And she's not seeing a psychiatrist for any reason, because she has no reason!"
A man walking past stared at the two and Leila gave him a glare. She turned to Greer, keeping the glare set on her face.
"Listen, Greer, you are being very loud right now, not to mention snobby and pretentious. Are you trying to prove what everyone else thinks Connecticut people are like?"
"I am not trying to prove anything, Leila, I'm just trying to understand!" Greer shot angrily at her, lowering his voice.
Leila's face fell from its angry state and she looked a bit guilty. "Look, I'm sorry, I just… I can't believe you don't know what's going on in your wife's life!"
"Well, how am I supposed to know things if she doesn't tell me?" Greer questioned. Leila sighed.
"She really didn't tell you?"
"No!" He shouted back.
Leila heaved a sigh once more. She stared at Greer, the puzzled look on his face seeming genuine. She motioned to a green plastic bench at the back of the store.
"Let's sit down, huh?" She said gently. Leila walked to the bench as Greer hesitantly followed, the cart squeaking. When he got to where Leila was sitting, he tucked the cart between the wall and the bench. He sat down next to her, shifting in the uncomfortable seat. Leila had pulled out her cell phone. She looked up at the ceiling, then down at the floor, looking as nervous as she would be to make a big speech. She turned to face Greer.
"Two years ago, my phone had about a two-week period of being screwed up. I mean, my sister would call and it said it was my boss, my dad would call and it would say it was my boyfriend, you know? Plus the ringtones were screwed up, it would randomly hang up on me and it would record random conversations I had that would be store in my phone's memory. So one day during this period, my phone rang. The caller ID said it was my mother, but when I picked it up, I didn't here anything. And… well you'll hear." Leila was clicking many buttons on her phone.
"Hear what?" Greer questioned. But Leila held out the phone to him.
"My phone recorded the conversation. I saved it. Just listen to it, okay?"
Greer took the phone from Leila's hand and put it to his ear.
"Press the center button to play it."
Greer pressed it, putting it to his ear once more. An automated voice rang in his ear.
NOVEMBER 28, 2005, 7:48 P.M.
Greer listened as a different, non-robotic voice entered his ear.
LEILA: HELLO? MOM?
-SILENCE-
LEILA: MOM? YOU THERE?
KAHLEN: LEILA?
LEILA: WHO IS THIS?
KAHLEN: LEILA, YOU ANSWERED…
LEILA: WHO IS THIS?
KAHLEN: IT'S ME, KAHLEN.
LEILA: KAHLEN, I CAN'T TALK TO YOU. I HAVE TO GO.
KAHLEN: NO!
LEILA: KAHLEN, I'M HANGING UP.
KAHLEN: NO! LEILA, PLEASE.
-SILENCE-
KAHLEN: NO! LEILA! I'M SORRY, LEILA, YOU WERE RIGHT!
LEILA: WHAT?
KAHLEN: YOU WERE RIGHT. IT'S MY FAULT. IT'S ALL MY FAULT.
LEILA: KAHLEN, I NEVER SAID IT WAS YOU FAULT.
KAHLEN: BUT I WAS WRONG! I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT, LEILA!
LEILA: KAHLEN, I WAS WRONG. YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT YOU MADE THE RIGHT DECISION.
KAHLEN:NO! YOU WERE RIGHT! I SHOULD NEVER HAVE LET HER GO!
LEILA: NO, KAHLEN. IF YOU HADN'T LET HER GO, SHE WOULD HAVE SUFFERED. YOU KNOW THAT. SHE'S BETTER OFF NOW THAN SHE EVER WOULD HAVE BEEN IF YOU HAD LISTENED TO ME.
KAHLEN: IF I HAD LISTENED TO YOU, SHE WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!
LEILA: YOU DON'T KNOW THAT, KAHLEN. EVEN IF SHE WAS ALIVE, SHE WOULD BE IN A TREMENDOUS DEAL OF PAIN.
KAHLEN: I DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE.
LEILA: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, KAHLEN?
KAHLEN: IF I TOOK HER LIFE AWAY, WHY SHOULD I HAVE MINE?
LEILA: BECAUSE YOU DID IT FOR A REASON, KAHLEN! THE RIGHT REASON!
-SOUND OF RUNNING WATER-
LEILA: KAHLEN?
-SOUND OF HAIRDRYER-
LEILA: KAHLEN? ARE YOU BLOWDRYING YOUR HAIR?
-SOUND OF RADIO-
-SOUND OF MUSIC-
LEILA: KAHLEN? DO YOU CARE TO TELL ME WHY YOU ARE LISTENING TO MULTIPLE SETS OF RADIOS?
-SOUND OF TELEVISION-
LEILA: KAHLEN? WHAT'S GOING ON?
KAHLEN: I'M GOING TO GET INTO THE BATHTUB.
LEILA: WHAT? KAHLEN…
KAHLEN: I'M BRINGING THE RADIOS AND THE TELEVISION AND THE HAIRDRYER WITH ME.
-SILENCE-
LEILA: KAHLEN… DON'T JOKE AROUND LIKE THAT…
KAHLEN: I'M NOT JOKING, LEILA.
LEILA: KAHLEN, JUST THINK A MINUTE, HERE!
-SOUND OF CORDS DRAGGING ACROSS THE GROUND-
KAHLEN: I'M GOING TO GET IN.
LEILA: NO! KAHLEN, NO!
-SILENCE-
LEILA: KAHLEN!!! KAHLEN, PLEASE! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO YOUR FAMILY!
-SILENCE-
LEILA: KAHLEN! KAHLEN, ANSWER ME! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITHOUT YOU? DO YOU THINK I'VE BEEN LIVING HAPPILY SINCE I STOPPED TALKING TO YOU? I JUST STOPPED PICKING UP THE PHONE WHEN YOU CALLED AND WHEN YOU WROTE LETTERS I JUST COULDN'T ANSWER THEM. IT REMINDED ME OF HOW EXCELLENT MY LIFE USED TO BE. THEN I MOVED HERE AND EVERYTHING CHANGED. THERE'S NO ONE LIKE YOU OVER HERE. MY BOYFRIEND AND I GET INTO AN ARGUMENT EVERY TIME WE LOOK AT EACH OTHER. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I LEFT YOU FOR HIM… KAHLEN? KAHLEN, PLEASE!
-CRYING FROM OTHER END-
LEILA: KAHLEN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? YOUR FAMILY WILL FALL APART IF YOU DO THIS.
KAHLEN: I HAVE TO DO IT.
LEILA: NO, KAHLEN, YOU DON'T. YOU CALL GREER RIGHT NOW. CALL HIM.
AHLEN: LEILA, I'M IN THE WATER.
LEILA: NO! GET OUT!
KAHLEN: I'M PUTTING THE RADIOS IN.
LEILA: NO, KAHLEN, NO! CALL GREER, CALL HIM RIGHT NOW!
KAHLEN: I WON'T.
LEILATHEN I'LL CALL HIM!
KAHLEN: NO, PLEASE. DON'T TELL HIM!
LEILA: KAHLEN, JUST CALL HIM. YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL HIM, JUST CALL HIM.
KAHLEN: AND SAY WHAT? I'M DROPPING THE RADIOS IN-
LEILA: AND ASK HIM WHAT TIME HE'S COMING HOME. IF HE SAYS THAT HE LOVES YOU, YOU HAVE TO PROMISE ME YOU WILL GET OUT OF THE WATER AND DRAIN IT.
-SILENCE-
LEILA: KAHLEN? KAHLEN?
-RINGING-
GREER: HELLO?
KAHLEN: GREER?
GREER: HEY, KAY, WHAT'S UP?
KAHLEN: WHAT TIME ARE YOU GETTING HOME?
GREER: AROUND NINE-ISH. AFTER I PICK UP THE KIDS FROM SOCCER AND CHEERLEADING.
KAHLEN: OKAY.
GREER: IS THAT ALL?
KAHLEN: YEAH.
GREER: ARE YOU OKAY, KAHLEN? YOU SOUND UPSET.
KAHLEN: I JUST WANT YOU HOME.
GREER: WELL,I CAN LEAVE WORK. I'LL JUST TELL THEM I HAVE TO VISIT MY SICK GRANDMOTHER OR SOMETHING.
KAHLEN: DON'T DO THAT, GREER. YOUR WORK'S IMPORTANT.
GREER: KAHLEN. THERE WILL NEVER BE A TIME WHEN ANYTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN YOU, OKAY?
KAHLEN: DON'T LEAVE WORK. I'M FINE.
GREER: I'M COMING ANYWAY, KAHLEN. I LOVE YOU.
KAHLEN: FINE, SEE YOU SOON.
GREER: YEAH, HONEY. BYE.
-DIAL TONE-
LEILA: KAHLEN? KAHLEN, GET OUT.
KAHLEN: I'M OUT. I'M DRAINING IT.
LEILA: KAHLEN, PROMISE ME YOU WILL STAY ON THE PHONE WITH ME UNTIL GREER GETS HOME.
KAHLEN: OKAY.