"Dinner! Get it while it's hot!"
No longer face to face with Tommy and Shane, she watched as their dirty socks left massive smudged on the carpet all the way down the hall. The mess cascaded down two flights of winding steps, the boys remarkably like a herd of elephants stampeding throughout the house.
"I told you she wouldn't do it!" said Shane gruffly to Tommy as they clambered down the steps.
The boy who stood in the shadows looked up and smiled at Tristan. Quietly, he closed the distance between them.
“Hey, Cole…” Tristan said softly.
Cole smiled, his sweet face lighting up every time he saw her. He leaned in to kiss her, but she cut him short, putting her hand on his chest.
“What if my father sees?!”
Cole shrugged.
“You know he’ll go ballistic…”
“I’ll meet you at the lake later, then…” Cole said with a mischevous smile on his face.
“Okay…” Tristan said smiling back.
Then, without warning, Cole kissed her. A quick peck on her lips, and before she could protest, he was retreating down the hall with an amused look on his face.
"Did someone say dinner?" asked Blake as he poked his head out of the bedroom doorway. Tristan was blushing and Blake stared at his sister with a bewildered look on his face.
“What’s up with you?” he asked with one eyebrow raised.
“Nothing… Mind your business!” Tristan said as she made her way down the hallway.
At the sound of the dinner call, Blake's bored expression turned into a look of eagerness. Although he appeared to be just skin and bones, Blake had a notoriously large appetite that could rarely be squelched. Tristan nodded with a smirk on her face as the pair walked down to the dining room together. Hungry members of the household quickly grabbed their places around the long dining room table. A mountain of a man with a gruff manner sat down at the head of the table without saying a word. His faded flannel shirt of red and black squares was covered in dust from working in the fields. A blue trucker hat donned his head, covering up his salt and pepper wavy hair. Beneath the brim of the hat was a weathered, yet handsome face that provided neither smile nor comfort. Jack was not having a good day.
Tristan and Blake were among the last to arrive at the table and were met with a perturbed glare from their father, which prompted them to quickly take their seats. From the kitchen, another obnoxious metallic clattering caused Jack to raise his eyebrow towards the white kitchen door. Wearily, he returned his focus to the children that were sitting at his dining room table, his children, nephew, and the sorely out of place Cole Piedmonte. Jack cleared his throat indicating that he required silence.
In a hoarse voice he spoke, "I received a call from Kendricks today."
From around the table groans sounded from eight voices of varying octaves. Jack stared at his family as he watched the many different reactions to his simple statement and smirked in spite of himself. Tristan rolled her eyes profusely at the sound of her teacher’s name, Tommy and Shane raised their fists in rage. Blake was so overcome with annoyance that he curled his lip up in distaste, as if he smelled something that was truly offensive. Tommy, in an attempt to distract Jack from the task at hand, created a diversion.
"I didn't mean to throw his keys out the window! It was a jerk reflex! Look it up," said Tommy slyly, as he was met with a disbelieving stare from his father.
"Give it up. He didn't mention anything about keys. This is about homework."
The jig was up. Tristan anxiously bit her lower lip as she prepared for the worst. Two chairs slid out from the table as Jack’s eldest sons Adam and Liam, ages twenty and eighteen, attempted to exit the room. Jack’s eyes tracked his oldest sons from across the table, and squinted with disdain.
"Where do you two think you're going?" asked Jack, sounding perplexed and annoyed.
Adam, quick with a charming smile, turned to his father and replied, “I graduated two years ago. Don't you remember? You were there."
Meanwhile, Liam answered simply, "Iced tea.”
With irritation clear in his voice, Jack barked "Sit it down. I didn't excuse you from my table."
Liam and Adam exchanged a look indicative of, "What the hell did we do now?"
Jack scratched his head in disgust as he began to speak again. “Like I was saying, I received a call from Mr. Kendricks today. Why am I being told that none of you children ever hand in a certain assignment for his class?”
Jack’s eyes peered over his glasses as he surveyed the room for answers.
"You two,” Jack said as he pointed his fingers into the chests of Blake and Tommy, who had the misfortune of sitting on either side of him, "Are in danger of being put on academic probation... again! You are in the same English class as your younger sister! Don't you think that is a problem? Do the damn assignment. Or else."
Tommy began to open his mouth, but was interrupted by a large, calloused hand over his mouth. “Please, anyone but Tommy… Thomas, shut up,” growled Jack.
From the opposite side of Jack, Blake stood up. Though typically mild mannered, Blake spoke to his father with a firm and direct tone. “I will not do it, and you cannot make me.”
Jack, surprised by the firmness in Blake’s voice replied, “Yes, you will, you all will, for the sheer fact that if I receive another progress report or failing report card from that school, you all will be cleaning out the barn instead of playing football or whatever it is you people do for fun.”
“I don’t play football,” Blake retorted snidely.
“I prefer hockey,” remarked Tristan. Frustrated, she asked, “Do you even know what the assignment was about?”
All at once, voices overpowered one another, fingers pointed across the table, faces turned from worry to utter annoyance. Tristan remained still with her arms crossed as she peered around at her dysfunctional family. Using two fingers, Tristan a whistle sounded from her lips.
"Dad, I asked you a question. Do you even know what the assignment was?"
Cheers and comments from the others in the room called out in response to Tristan’s question. Jack quickly responded, “Shouldn’t matter. Homework is homework. The reason they failed last year is because they didn't hand in this particular assignment. I know I won't have this problem with you. I never have this problem with you.”
Tristan’s eyes began to water as rage began to quake inside of her. “No matter what I hand in for this particular project, it will not be good enough for him!”
"What do you mean? You have a near perfect average."
"The subject is not something I know anything about, and it is not something that is easily researched."
"Kendricks didn't mention that. Okay, I'll bite. What was the assignment?"
Tristan broke her glare from her father, as Blake cleared his throat.
“Create a detailed biography on a family member. Kendricks assigned each of us a family member to investigate and write an in-depth history about. Tristan was assigned Mother. We don't want to complete the assignment to support Tristan.”
Jack looked taken aback, as he gulped down air. He was not expecting this. Jack had assumed the project was a report for a book no one wanted to read. Words would not come to his mouth. He stared blankly as his children stared back at him, angry and confused looks all directed towards him.
"Kendricks said that this project makes or breaks the quarter. I told the others to do theirs so they wouldn't get into trouble," informed Tristan.
Jack stared quite blankly at Tristan, no emotion could be read on his face which caused Tristan’s cheeks to flush.
Liam, who normally stays out of such matters, piped up, “You know he’s just trying to get information on the well to do families…”
"Too bad this family is not well to do anymore," said Tommy.
“Not like he knows that...” piped up Adam.
“He knows more than you think…” grumbled Jack under his breath.
Adam eyed his father suspiciously, his temper starting to boil over the surface. Jack sat at the head of the table, pensive and quiet for a moment as the gears in his head spun round and round, processing various thoughts at once.
"Don't hand it in. I'll handle it," said Jack abruptly, shocking the children at the table, but none more so than Tristan. While Tristan looked displeased, Tommy, Shane and Blake applauded.
"Yeah, Uncle J! You tell him!" blurted out Shane, while Tommy and Blake cheered along.
Jack laughed at his excitable nephew and delivered a swift undesired response, “I am not getting you off the hook, kid. Sorry. Or you, or you,” Jack said, as he pointed at Blake and Tommy. Seeing that Tristan still appeared to be upset he asked, “Why did he assign you your mother when he knows that she is not around?” Tristan braced herself to speak, her chest searing with pain.
"I asked him that and he said that is where my inner investigator would need to come into play. I confronted him after class to ask why I couldn’t select someone else, and he told me to ask my father. Dad… What is he talking about?”
The surprise was apparent on Jack’s face, and under his breath he began muttering profanities.
“That son of a bitch…” Jack whispered, just loud enough for Adam and Liam to hear.
“Our mother left when I was born, and I am supposed to write about a person whom I don’t know? You do realize that he is setting me up for failure, right?”
"Don't speak poorly about your mother in front of me. I know he's an intolerable, insufferable pain, but please have respect."
Looking defeated, Tristan crossed her arms over her chest as she stared at her father, feeling massively misunderstood.
"You three,” continued Jack as he pointed at his nephew and two youngest sons, "Will do the assignment. I will talk to that teacher of yours, and see if maybe Tristan can write her essay on a different family member.”
The trio stared at their father with a look of sheer confusion. Jack then put his most dashing smile and said, "Like me... I'm handsome, rugged, and loveable."
All the members of the table showed their disagreement in some form, between groans and eye rolling, to a boisterous declaration of, "You wish!" "Someone is already doing their report on you, so it would have to be someone else," explained Tristan. “I wouldn’t mind interviewing Gus,” Tristan said, referring to her cranky but lovable grandfather.
“Oh, please let it be someone other than Tommy... I cannot handle another year of interviews.”
Tommy smirked, “You better get ready, I have lots of questions lined up, and since I must hand it in, I'll be sure that it will be extra special.”
Jack began to roll his eyes as a loud crash came from the kitchen followed by an outburst of swears.
A woman cried out, “God damn it! I hate this oven it burns everything!”
Jack whispered to the teenagers that surrounded the table with a sarcastic voice, “It’s not the oven’s fault that she can’t cook…”
“I heard that!” Bridgette yelled out of the kitchen without opening the door.
In an attempt to diffuse the negative energy and confusion in the room, Jack blurted out with a smile, “Aunt Bridgette is cooking so naturally, we’re having pizza again.”
Shane blurted out to his buddy Cole, “Yeah, my mom can’t cook.”
Cole laughed and agreed with the consensus of the crowd, “Pizza sounds great.”
The kitchen door swung open and a pretty red-haired woman with long, frizzy curls and a perturbed look appeared. Abruptly, she yelled out, “Pizza’s on its way! Uncle Frank offered to bring it home.”
As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared, as she began to clean up the destroyed pot roast that lay charred in the oven. As the rest of his siblings celebrated over the news of pizza, Adam stared into his father’s green eyes and didn’t mince his words.
"You tell them the truth or I will. You know what he is trying to do and I don’t like it one bit. It’s about damn time they know what happened to our mother."
Jack swallowed nervously as he broke eye contact with his eldest son. Swiftly, Adam rose from his chair, grabbing his leather jacket off the back of Shane’s chair and hastily departed the dining room, leaving his father looking nervous and dumbfounded. The smell of pepperoni filled the foyer, as Frank Kilpatrick strolled into the house with five large pizza boxes from Monte’s restaurant. A faint Scottish brogue boomed from his lungs.
“Oy! Who wants pizza?!”
Frank’s work boots tromped heavily across the hardwood floor as he trudged into the dining room. He was greeted by a room of smiling faces; the kids were always happy to see him. As far as uncles went, Frank Kilpatrick was a great one to have. He was quick with a joke, always up for a board game and whenever Aunt Bridgette fouled up dinner, he would bring home take-out. Jack tipped his hat to his brother-in-law, and oldest friend.
Frank dropped the pizza boxes on the massive dining room table and he began passing out paper plates, tossing them like Frisbees across the table. As everyone began grabbing slices of pizza, Frank swung the kitchen door open to get a peek at his wife. Leaning over the trash can, Bridgette scraped what appeared to be a completely burnt pot roast and lumpy mashed potatoes into the rubbish that lay below. His young wife looked utterly disgusted.
“Now you’ve done it. Destroyed the pot roast…” Frank said in amusement.
“Just admit it. I’m a horrible cook!” Bridgette said, admitting defeat.
Frank smirked, “I’ll keep the pizza place on speed dial.” Bridgette jabbed her husband playfully as a smile crossed her face, against her will. As he leaned in for a kiss, the kitchen door swung open as Tommy yelled out, “Uncle Frank, play a board game with us!” Still smiling, Frank said he would once he finished his dinner.
After dinner as Bridgette cleared the paper plates and empty pizza boxes from the table and Frank began taking board games down from the closet, Tristan escaped outside with Cole. Capturing the perfect moment, when her brothers were preoccupied and Jack was focused on the evening news, Tristan hoped to catch up with her oldest friend. Living atop Cavegat Pass, there were no other children other than her brothers and cousin, so it wasn't easy to make lasting friendships. When Cole and Tristan were children, Bridgette would babysit many of the children in Elkhart, and Cole and his siblings just happened to be among them. Jack did not approve of Tristan hanging out with Cole alone. Tristan recalls the last time Jack addressed the so-called issue. Jack berated them from the other side of the dining room table as his face turned a putrid shade of red. He was pissed that the pair were found sitting together in her bedroom playing a game of chess on the floor with the door ajar as requested by Aunt Bridgette. Jack often overlooks the fact that the pair have been friends since they were both in diapers, been in every class together since nursery school, and share many of the same friends. Tristan wondered how Jack would react when he found out that Cole has been her boyfriend for the last month. It wasn’t Cole’s fault that Jack was so protective, and Tristan, at age fifteen, understandably had an interest in dating. Jack liked Cole as a person. He thought he was a respectful young man. He just wasn’t savvy on the idea of him dating his daughter.
Now when Cole wants to come over, he has to play it cool; act like Tommy, Shane or Blake invited him. Then when dinner was over, Tristan and Cole would sneak off to the lake to hang out without being watched like a hawk. If Jack could read the contents of Cole's mind, or knew the extent of his feelings for his daughter, Cole was sure that Jack would never allow him within fifty feet of his Tristan.
Tristan ran briskly across the valley, as Cole chased behind her, unable to quite catch her. Her dark brown curls flew behind her, as she ran through the fall breeze, the vivid scenery whipping past her. Cole smiled as he watched her, as her soft hair flowed gracefully down her back, the color of her cheek flushing rose from the autumn chill. Finally, she slowed, finding a tree - her tree, in the apple orchard. An aging wooden ladder sat by the tree.
She climbed up to the top step and sat, while she laughed at Cole who was still catching up, clearly out of breath as he clutched his side.
"Come on, old man!" yelled Tristan at Cole, teasing him because of his slower speed.
"You're too damn fast!" retorted Cole, winded but finally at the foot of Tristan's apple tree.
"You better get back in shape before hockey season starts..."
"Totally different experience, skating. I'll be ready."
Tristan settled onto her tree branch, as the smile washed from her face.
"What is it?" asked Cole, with worry clear in his voice. Tristan trying to hide what it was that was bothering her, attempted to play it off like it was nothing. This often happened between the pair; something was bothering Tristan, but she didn't want to trouble Cole with her complaints.
"It's nothing..."
"Can we skip the part where you pretend nothing is wrong and you just tell me?" asked Cole with a charming smirk on his face. Tristan rolled her eyes, and prepared to give up what was irritating her.
"Do you ever go onto Mountain Road with your dad?"
"All the time... Why?"
"Tommy and I went into town with my father today and we had a really weird experience. So we arrive and right away we see Joey Binns getting the snot beat out of him by his father, right in the middle of Elk Road. My father ran over to stop the guy, and Joey's dad, no lie, took one look at my father and looked like he had seen a ghost."
"That guy is a jerk. My father always tells me to stay away from that house,” said Cole.
Tristan continued, “That’s not all, though. Then when we were passing through Harrow’s, the General Store, I noticed that we were being watched. Edna and Peggy were watching us from inside the store. I elbowed Tommy, and he pointed out that they weren’t the only ones who were staring. It was weird.”
Shadow Dancer (The Shadow Series Book 1) Page 2
