Long Hill Home

by Kathryn Pincus

  Chad braced himself as he felt the plane accelerate down the runway. His hands tensed on the armrest of his chair as the runway and the lights of the Philadelphia airport became a blur of motion outside the window next to him. His heart raced. The five slender fingers that gently covered his hand sent a tingle through his whole body.

  “It’s okay, Chad.” Lisa said. “This is normal: we’re going to be up in the air in one second and it will be a piece of cake.”

  So, this is what it feels like to connect with someone, he thought.

  Once the plane leveled off, Chad began to tell Lisa his story, starting with his childhood. He told her about the harsh and lonely life his mother had endured in their little ramshackle house in the woods. He told her that Louisa had been an orphan, and that his father was both her rescuer and her captor. He described his father’s mean words, his cold, harsh manner and his drunken binges. He explained how his beautiful and loving mother withered away before his eyes and he could do little to help her. Chad left out the part about his having no friends and the years that he went to and from school just trying to be invisible. When he told Lisa about his mother’s sudden disappearance, Lisa gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

  “It’s okay,” Chad said softly. “I know now that she’s living in Eugene and I know things are about to get better.” He liked the way Lisa looked at him. He would no longer play the part of the shy outcast or lonely loser that his father had cast him in before.

  “What did your dad say about you going to Oregon?” Lisa asked.

  “My father died twelve days ago.” Chad said without any emotion.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Lisa squeezed his hand. “I am really, really sorry! That is too much to deal with.”

  Chad nodded his head. You have no idea, he thought. “I am sorry for my dad, you know, because he is dead. But he was the meanest person I ever knew, and all he ever did was hurt my mom and try hard to keep me under his control by scaring me and putting me down. He didn’t really act like a father or a husband, if you know what I mean.”

  Lisa shook her head slowly in understanding, as she recalled the warm embrace her father had given her only two hours earlier as they said goodbye in the airport. “Wow, you must have been really strong.” Lisa said. “I never could have gotten through that.”

  Chad had not looked at it that way. Someone was admiring him for his strength and his maturity. “Thanks, I’m okay. I am going to see my mother in Oregon, and hopefully stay there, maybe with her. I might even go to UO, who knows.” Chad tipped his hat brim down and settled into his seat a little, as if he was finally able to relax. He turned his overhead light out, crossed his arms across his chest and put his head against the window of the plane.

  “I’m really wiped out, too,” Lisa said, quietly. “I really feel good talking to you….and I’d love to see you in Eugene. I could show you around the place, introduce you to my friends. Do you bike? There are incredible trails there where we could ride.”

  Chad turned to look at Lisa. “You’re unbelievable.” He said with a smile. “You don’t quit, do you?”

  She smiled back. “Too much?”

  “No, not at all,” Chad said. He had an overwhelming gratefulness for her, and a need to be with her at that moment and thereafter. He felt comfort, strength and possibility. He summoned up his courage, pushed up the seat armrest separating them, put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close to him. “You are already the best thing that’s happened to me in a long, long time.”

  They sat like that, quietly, in the darkness of the plane for a long time. A movie flickered and droned on, a beverage cart rattled up the aisle, and Chad dozed off to sleep with the warmth of Lisa’s breath on his neck.

  During their connecting flight from Seattle to Eugene, Chad gazed at Lisa as she slept with her head on his shoulder. He would be eternally grateful that, as they entered the plane to Eugene, she had been bold enough to ask the man seated next to Chad to switch seats with her. He didn’t want their closeness to end and he did not want to walk out of the Eugene airport alone.

  As the plane had taxied toward blinking lights of the Eugene airport, Lisa pulled out her cell phone and turned it on. “Let me give you my number and email address, and you can give me yours.”

  Embarrassed, Chad pulled out a cell phone he had purchased the day before. It had no numbers on it—he’d had no one to call. He wasn’t even sure how to use it. He turned it over surreptitiously, grateful that he had scribbled its number on the back with a Sharpie.

  “Give me that,” Lisa said as she put out her hand. Chad gave her the phone and watched her enter her name and phone number. “Here is how you call me,” she said, showing him the buttons to push. “I really doubt that I have ever been the first phone number in any cell phone before. I’m honored,” she said, handing him back the phone.

  Passengers were getting up now, starting to move up the aisle and disembark from the plane. Chad helped Lisa get a bulky bag out of the overhead. Lisa asked, “How are you getting to your mother’s from the airport?”

  “I guess I was going to get a cab.”

  “You can ride with me. My roommate Janine is meeting me. She won’t mind at all.”

  *****

  As they approached the exit doors near baggage pickup, where Lisa said her ride would be waiting, Chad reached out and grabbed her elbow. “Wait, Lisa.”

  “What?” She looked startled.

  “I really appreciate everything, but I’m going to see my mother.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Lisa said. “I think that’s awesome.”

  “But I haven’t seen her in almost five months….and I told you how she left, abruptly, just disappeared. I don’t know if she’ll be home or how she’ll react, or what this even means.” Chad nervously ran his hand through his hair.

  “Oh, I hadn’t really thought about all of that. It’s pretty scary, huh?” Lisa touched his elbow gently again. “Janine and I will take you straight to her address. If she’s not there, we can wait a while, and after that, you can crash with us tonight and try again tomorrow.”

  Chad briefly considered the thought of spending the night near Lisa. But his urgent desire to see his mother was too much. “Thank you. You are amazing.”

  Lisa laughed. “Well, don’t think I meet strange men on airplanes all the time. You’re my first.” The double exit doors slid open and the two young travelers walked out into the crisp Oregon air.

  Twenty-five minutes later, Chad sat in the back seat of an old Volkswagen Jetta, as Lisa’s friend Janine chatted and drove along Route 99, toward downtown Eugene. He fingered the scrap of paper with his mother’s address typed on it. They pulled off the busy road and made a few turns on quiet neighborhood streets. Lisa interrupted his thoughts. “Chad, this is the address.”

  Chad looked up, seized with fear. A small yellow Cape Cod-style home with overgrown flower boxes in its windows sat back from the road. A thick green hedge formed a fence in front of the lawn. He noticed a porch light shining by the front door, and soft light coming through the windows. He got out of the car with great difficulty: his legs felt wooden. “Well, I guess this is it.” He took a deep breath and steadied himself, as he swung his bag over his shoulder. “I can never thank you enough, Lisa. And you too, Janine, thank you for the ride.”

  “We’ll hang out to make sure she’s home.”

  “I’ll be okay, really. I’ll figure it out. It’s late. I don’t want you to be inconvenienced any more.”

  Lisa got out of the car and walked around to the side where Chad stood. She wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back for a moment and then said, “I’ll call you soon. I mean it.”

  Lisa got back in the car and directed Janine to pull up a little so she could watch from a distance. She saw Chad walk slowly up the lawn toward the front door of the house, his bag slung over his back. She thought that he looked vulnerable as he rang the bell and stood motionless. The door opened and she saw a petite woman with
long, wavy raven hair shriek joyfully as she embraced Chad and then brought him into his home and shut the door.

  CHAPTER 40

  MARIA: NOVEMBER 19, 2011

  MARIA TREMBLED AS she entered the center aisle of the church. She smoothed the front of her gown and took a deep breath to calm herself as the beginning chords of Ave Maria filled the air. As Juan’s Uncle Miguel took her arm gently to walk her down the aisle, she felt a pang of regret that it was not her father’s arm that she was holding. She focused straight ahead, on her family. Juan looked handsome and almost regal in a rented black tuxedo. Only steps away, Baby Miguel slept in the arms of Juan’s Aunt Sabrina, their maid of honor. Maria quickened her pace as she got closer to her family, feeling their pull.

  As Maria knelt and stood and sat through the long Catholic mass, she took a moment to peek out into the faces in the church. Many of the faces were familiar; mostly cousins and relatives of Juan’s, first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans. Toward the back of the church, Maria spotted a few men that Juan worked with and a couple of Maria’s co-workers from Cleaning Angels. In the second-to-last row on the right hand side, sitting near the center aisle, was Kelly Malloy and her husband and two daughters. Maria remembered the fateful day that brought Kelly into her life, and the events it set into motion, culminating in this day.

  Maria woke from her thoughts as Juan reached out to hold her hand. “It’s time to get married.” Maria and Juan rose from the bench they shared on the side of the altar during the mass, and moved together to stand directly in front of the altar, with Father Delgado at their side.

  “Maria Anna Hernandez, do you promise to love Juan for the rest of your life, in sickness and in health, whether rich or poor, through good times and in bad?”

  Maria looked into Juan’s eyes and wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke softly, “I do.”

  A moment later, after Juan was asked the same question, he enthusiastically wrapped his arms around Maria as he declared, “Yes, I do,” and then kissed Maria hard.

  Father Delgado spoke while Juan was still embracing his wife. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the part where I usually say you may kiss the bride, but I see that is not necessary for the newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Reyes.” Laughter rose from the wedding guests.

  Later, at the Hockessin Fire Hall, a band played lively music and people danced. Little white Christmas lights had been strung up and a few potted trees had been brought in to make the hall look festive. Juan’s Aunt and Uncle had provided matching white tablecloths and floral centerpieces for the ten round tables in the hall. Long tables around the sides of the hall held an abundant array of food and drinks to serve the guests. A three-tiered wedding cake with white frosting stood as the centerpiece to the buffet, courtesy of Juan’s employer, and a large empty area in the middle of the hall served as the dance floor.

  Maria was still greeting guests when the band had stopped playing abruptly and she saw Juan speaking into a microphone on the dance floor, holding a champagne flute in his hand. “Maria,” Juan said, gesturing for her to join him. She hurried through the crowd toward Juan.

  “Maria,” Juan said as he took her hand and faced their guests. “I want to thank you for your love and for our beautiful son, Miguel. And I will be forever grateful that you took risks, and you struggled and worked very hard to follow me here to begin our life together. So first, we raise our glasses to toast my beautiful wife, Maria.” He raised his glass and then took a small sip.

  “Second, I want to thank my Uncle Miguel and Aunt Sabrina for bringing me to this country and loving me like a son. I also want to thank them for welcoming Maria as their own daughter, and for making this wedding party so perfect.”

  The guests raised their drinks again, to join Juan in the toast.

  After a moment Juan spoke again. “And third, to new friends, friends who we may not have met if it were not for some hard times, but friends who immediately jumped in and helped us without hesitation, and who by doing so ensured our bright future here in this country, Sara Nuñez and Kelly Malloy.”

  Maria looked beyond the throng of guests standing by the dance floor. She spotted Kelly and Sara seated at a table, both looking up in surprise at the mention of their names. Both of them smiled, and held their wine glasses up to meet Juan’s toast.

  “And finally,” Juan spoke yet again. “Our wedding ceremony and this party are being recorded as a gift from a friend.” Juan looked at Kelly when he said these words. “And now we can share it with Maria’s parents, who could not be here. To Maria’s mother and father, I raise my glass to you and tell you I cannot wait to share this video with you, in sunny Baja, yes, but also here in our new home, with our children circled around you.” As Juan raised his glass toward the videographer, Maria wiped tears from her eyes and then wrapped her arms around Juan tightly, causing his glass to spill. They laughed and hugged each other as if to never let go.

  “I love you so much, Juan.” Maria whispered to her new husband. “I am happier than I ever dreamed, with you, Miguel, everything here in a place we can all finally call home.”

  CHAPTER 41

  KELLY: NOVEMBER 20, 2011

  KELLY’S FEET HIT the soft mossy trail along the river and her breathing was slow and steady. Despite her hangover from too much tequila at Maria’s wedding, it felt great to be running. Chance bounded ahead, chasing an occasional squirrel. It was a cool, dry November day, and the absence of the leaves on the trees made the view of the river that much more spectacular. The steady sound of the waterfall near Breck’s Mill was punctuated by the calls of the waterfowl.

  She stopped short for a moment when she saw the “Sold” sign where Chad McCloskey’s house once stood. The little farmhouse had been reduced to piles of splintered wood, shingles, and crumbled bricks. A large dumpster was filled with other remnants of the home. The demolition work had been halted for that Sunday morning, but Kelly knew that soon there would be no trace of the building that had stood as a reminder of loneliness, anguish and despair.

  Chance trotted back to Kelly and started nosing her with his big tan head.

  “Okay, boy, I know you want to go. Pace yourself: we still have to climb this long hill home.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am deeply grateful to John Koëhler for giving me a shot and for taking a risk on a debut novelist, and to Joe Coccaro for his time and wisdom in editing my manuscript. I am also grateful to Marshall McClure, for her careful proofreading and for polishing up my punctuation and grammar.

  I’d like to thank Danielle at Dalitopia Media for creating the perfect book cover for Long Hill Home, and for her artistic and technical genius in helping me with social media.

  I’d like to thank Steve Wood for letting me pick his brain on Delaware criminal law and procedure, and Cynthia Pruitt, for providing insight into legal advocacy in association with the LACC.

  I am grateful for my parents, who taught me that it’s OK to dream, as long as I am prepared to roll up my sleeves and get to work to realize the dream.

  Finally, I am eternally grateful for my family. They are the reason I know the true meaning of the word home.

  QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. TOPIC: The concept of home is woven throughout this novel. Kelly looks through her office window and toward her home in the Highlands as she has an uncomfortable conversation with Jack Barnard. During her morning run, she likes to climb a steep hill that is physically challenging, because it takes her home. Maria feels unmoored in her life with Juan in their modest one bedroom apartment in a poor section of the city. She reminisces about her home in the Baja Peninsula and she struggles to share Juan’s optimism about the wonderful home that will someday be theirs. Chad runs into the woods filled with rage and despair when his mother leaves him, but as he walks back toward his sad little farmhouse, it “no longer felt like home.” Later, when Chad believes his mother is living in Arizona and then discovers that she is in Oregon, his sole desire is to be with he
r wherever she is, because she is his home.

  Questions: What is the author saying about the concept of home?

  Is it different for Kelly, Maria or Chad—or do they all have similar feelings about what the word home means?

  Is this concept of home a universal concept?

  2. TOPIC: Throughout the novel the reader is reminded that Kelly, Maria and Chad live and work in locations proximate to each other. Kelly reflects on this when she drives home from work and when she stands in front of Maria’s apartment, “only eight blocks” from Kelly’s “shiny office building” and “only a few miles from her large home in the Highlands.” Chad has childhood memories of standing at the top of Rockford Tower, at the edge of “his woods,” and seeing the Highlands neighborhood below him and the buildings of downtown Wilmington just beyond the Highlands. Maria cleans the big houses in the Highlands and the “shiny office buildings” of Wilmington, and yet she travels only a short distance to return home to an apartment in a poor section of Wilmington.

  Questions: Why do you think the author emphasizes how Chad, Maria and Kelly geographically live in the same small world?

  Do their vastly different economic or social circumstances factor into this discussion point?

  Does their physical proximity make it more interesting that they are complete strangers when they meet as a result of Kelly’s attack?

  3. TOPIC: Chad discovers Kelly’s unconscious body only moments after waking and deciding, “he could not wait any longer…..he was leaving, he could bear it no longer.”

  Questions: Do you think Chad’s state of mind that morning before he found Kelly had any bearing on his decision to move Kelly’s body to the trail—and let “someone else” rescue her?

  Can you identify other experiences that Chad endured that may have affected him and would cause him to make such a poor decision about Kelly’s rescue?