Miss Maple and the Playboy
Page 15
There is something around Ben and Beth like that, too. The way they look at each other, the way they touch. It’s not like they run around kissing each other in front of me, but sometimes I’ll just look over and see his hand cover hers and stay there, and it is like everything stops, in awe of what they have.
And they’ve been married two years, now. That was an awesome day. My uncle Ben asked me to be his best man. And when I saw Beth coming up the aisle looking like an angel in her long white gown, I felt like she was coming for us, not just him. And I guess she was, because me and my uncle Ben are a package deal.
Now the three of us are a package deal. I call Beth Mama B. It could be for Mama Beth, but we both know it isn’t. It’s for Mama Bear, because she is just like I knew she would be. Warm and fuzzy at times, but a stickler for manners and curfews, and protective of me as a mother bear with a cub. Most thirteen-year-olds would find it super annoying, but I secretly like it. Still, it will be a relief when the baby comes and she has someone else to fuss over.
Most thirteen-year-olds wouldn’t like a baby coming, either. Casper and Peter both look at Beth getting rounder like it is something horrible and embarrassing, so I try not to let on how excited I feel, and happy.
This is my world and in it I feel cherished. There is room in a world like mine for a baby. Family makes everything bigger, not smaller.
My uncle is calling me. Casper is on the phone. Casper has done a lot of growing up in the past few years. He is not such a loudmouth anymore, and he never picks on me. Of course, it might help that I am an inch taller than him and outweigh him by ten pounds. Or maybe it’s just that Bubs and Grandpa Ike have a swimming pool.
He wants to do our grade-seven project on Genghis Khan. I still like Genghis Khan, but not so much because he conquered the world. It is the secret side to the Khan that intrigues me.
Most people don’t know he had a best friend named Jamukha, who became his blood brother. When Jamukha was elected as the universal ruler, instead of Khan, they became enemies. But when he was captured, instead of killing him, Khan, the most ruthless man who ever lived, offered a renewal of their brotherhood, which Jamukha refused.
When I was little, my uncle Ben was the most powerful man in my world. He would come to us over and over, bringing us food and gifts, and my mom was always mean to him, refusing the real gift he was bringing her, family. Love. Forgiveness.
Uncle Ben always came back, always extended the hand of a brother to her. I doubt my uncle would ever use the word forgive, just like he hardly ever uses the word love, but he forgave my mom, as if he could always see who she really was. There is something in some men that is bigger than words, that does not need words.
I know now that my mom did the best she could. I guess I could be angry at her for all the times she didn’t do so great, but I’m going to be like my uncle Ben and forgive her for all the things she did do and didn’t do.
I did not have a perfect childhood, but somehow it made me a perfect me. I feel way more grown up than either Peter or Casper and like I can handle things better than them. There are things they just don’t get and probably never will.
They don’t get the best part of the Khan story and the most powerful part is the love he had for his brother, a love that transcended all the things that happened between them.
They don’t get how wondrous toasted bread smells in the morning, or how good it feels to have five bucks in your pocket to spend on anything you like. They don’t know what a good thing it is to bring a baby into the world who will have a mom and a dad and a cousin who will do anything to protect it, and who will love it no matter what it does.
Casper and Peter don’t really get what it is to be afraid, what a dark place that is, like a prison. They don’t really get how wonderful it is to be free, or how good that freedom can make you feel. They are both a little immature. A new TV can make them feel good.
What makes me feel good is to wait for Beth after school and we drive home together. On the way home we talk about what to make for dinner, and after I go visit with Kermit for a bit, I usually help. I’m really good at peeling potatoes, and I make the best Caesar salad.
And then my uncle comes home, and when I see the look on his face when he comes through the door, and sees us, I don’t need one other thing. Not even an iPod.
He’s usually all dirty and his clothes have tears in them, but Beth looks at him as if a prince has just come through the door. And then his eyes light up, and this smile comes on his face, and he picks Beth up and swings her around as if she is as light as a feather, even though she’s not anymore. He swings her around until she is laughing so hard she can’t stop. And then he comes and ruffles my hair and asks me about my day, and he really wants to know.
What I see in my uncle’s face when he looks at Beth and me is what Genghis never knew, except maybe for one shining moment when he forgave his brother, Jamukha.
And that is that there is only one way to really conquer the world.
Love conquers the world. Dumb as it sounds, love really does conquer all.
Not that I’ll be putting that in my grade-seven project report.
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All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2009
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Cara Colter 2009
ISBN: 978-1-408-91184-6