by K. Walker
I climbed into the limo and my chest tightened. Not from anxiety, but that wow factor again. It had plush leather seating, off-white that made me afraid to even want to sit. As soon as the door closed behind me, I forgot I was in the back of a car. There was a minibar tucked neatly inside an opening in front of us, and a glass case that housed wine, champagne flutes, and shot glasses.
Soft music streamed through the speakers, and I settled into the soft leather seat eventually.
“So, how was your flight?” Aunt Celine asked and pulled her long, blonde hair back. I could tell she had gotten highlights, and I suddenly started wondering what my hair would look like if I got them, too.
“It was long,” I replied, and she giggled.
“I bet you’re hungry. They hardly ever serve anything decent on airplanes,” she said in that bored voice rich people often used and reached forward. “Drink?”
“No, I’m good, thanks. But I definitely could go for some food,” I smiled.
“Okay, then. Lily’s making dinner,” she replied. “I told her we’re expecting company, and that you’re seventeen, so she has some idea what to make. That is,” she said and widened her eyes and clasped my arm, “you’re not one of those picky teenagers, are you?”
I laughed. “No, I’m not. I eat pretty much anything. I’ve mostly had diner food and frozen dinners, so, if you have hotdogs, I’m good with that.”
She sighed and fell back into the seat, and her shoulders sagged. “I’m so sorry, sweetie,” she murmured and her eyes became rounder and glossier. She looked like she was about to cry.
“No, don’t cry, please,” I gushed and grabbed her hand. I couldn’t handle that right now.
She blinked a couple of times, and then her smile returned. She cleared her throat and scooted closer to me. “You look so much like her,” she said and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. “I hate that we didn’t see each other more. Maybe I could have helped in some way.”
“Its okay, Aunt Celine,” I told her. It sure wasn’t going to do either of us any good to go down memory lane, digging up the worst memories and ascribing blame. “You’re helping now, that’s what counts.”
“And I’m so glad,” she said and pulled me in for a huge hug. “You’re going to love living in Silicon Valley.”
Was I?
Silicon Valley.
I had heard the name before, and I had always associated it with the backbone of modern technology. If she lived there…whew! I couldn’t even grasp what that meant for me and for her.
“How far is it? I asked when I felt my ass tensing up. I had been sitting for hours, and I needed to stretch my legs.
“Uh,” she mumbled and checked the gold watch on her wrist. “About another thirty minutes. What is it?”
“Nothing,” I lied. “Just checking.” I didn’t want to give her one more thing to feel bad about.
My phone buzzed and I slipped it out. It was my friend from Miami – Olivia.
Olivia: Hey, are you there yet? Lol!
Me: I am. In the LIMO now…
Olivia: What? She has a limo? You’re so lucky.
Me: I don’t know if it’s hers, but it’s nice. I miss you guys already. From the looks of things, I’ll be living with the not-so-poor.
Olivia: Girl, just enjoy it while you have it. Maybe you can send for me later, lol!
Me: Lol! You can count on it. I’ll text you later.
Olivia: Okay, hun. And Cheer up. You deserve it!
Me: Thanks, Olivia.
When I looked back at Aunt Celine, she was staring at my shoulder. I glanced down, momentarily wondering what she was looking at, and then I remembered the scar from that night. It ran across my collarbone to my shoulder.
I felt immediately uncomfortable, like someone was spying on my innermost thought, or had discovered my secret. I slipped my jacket from my waist and shrugged into it quickly.
“Is that from…?”
“Yep,” I told her and quickly changed the subject. “I think I’ll take that juice now. What do you have?”
“Help yourself,” she said invitingly and indicated the mini-fridge.
I did. I opened it and stared at the collection of juices and bottled water. “What’s this?” I asked, mostly to myself. “Voss? Is this water?”
She laughed as I looked perplexed and turned the bottle over in my hand. “Yes, it’s water.”
“Even the water’s different here?” I giggled and asked. “I’m afraid to see what Lily’s cooking. I don’t eat caviar.”
Aunt Celine laughed as I turned the glass bottle over and over in my hand. “I’m afraid to even drink it. Does it do anything special?”
“Just drink the thing,” she said and wiped the corner of her eye. “It’s just water. It’s what Richard and the kids like, so that’s what we buy.”
The kids. I wondered what Tyson and Liv were like. She had told me they were twins and my age. That should be interesting, but I wasn’t sure how well I would fit into their world. I was never into any of that fancy shit before. Chances are, I would feel like a duck out of water – or like I was drowning for my entire senior year.
Thanks, Mom.
You always wanted me to get some experience. I bet you didn’t think this would be it.
I put the glass bottle to my lips and braced for what I expected to be an almost orgasmic experience. It was a let-down. Or maybe I wasn’t cultured enough to appreciate it. Water was still just water to me, and I couldn’t say that it tasted much different from the regular kinds of water I’ve had before.
Maybe a little tangier. I just drank expensive water; I thought and happened to look out the window as the thought escaped me.
We were past the long strip of road that led to the residential areas. I didn’t have any expectations of where I would be sleeping, or in what kind of house, but after the limo and that bottle of water, I was more than curious.
I turned sideways and pulled my leg up onto the seat, so I could see outside better. I realized we were past the ordinary by the looks of the houses I saw outside.
“Damn!” I exclaimed when I saw what looked like a castle. I saw the high retaining wall long before we made the ascent to the main gate, black with gold encryptions, beyond which laid a handsome Victorian-style mansion at the end of a cobblestone driveway.
It took us what felt like a mile to pass the property in its entirety, and by the time I pulled my head back, we were half-way past another one. It was like traveling through a dream. We made the long climb to the center of the hill, bordered on both sides by acres of manicured lawn, lush gardens, exquisite topiaries, and personal streams and tributaries.
I was craning my neck to catch a last glimpse of two teenagers in a drop-top Porsche inching towards the main road when the car swerved and made a sharp turn. My attention was yanked forward, and I noticed we were off the main road now.
Rows of palm trees bordered a long strip of road, and green grass on both sides as far as the eyes could see. I lowered my head and tried to see further than was possible until I glimpsed the first signs of a house that got magnificently larger.
It was painted in a cream color and had a main building in the middle, with wings on either side. Lush green vegetation was neatly trimmed beneath the Victorian windows.
The limo circled the fountain in the middle of the driveway and stopped just below the main doorway. I looked over at Aunt Celine as she positioned herself to get out.
Danny got out of the car, and I wrinkled my brow and waited for Aunt Celine to tell me what to do. Danny opened the door, and she got out. I was curious as I followed her out of the car.
“Quinn, this is your new home,” she said and made a sweeping gesture to the gorgeous mansion.
My eyes widened and I covered my mouth. This wasn’t happening. I was going to blink a couple of times, and I would wake up in Miami Dade County, in my trailer, prepping to spend the rest of my life alone.
Or for the foreseeable future anyway.
“Quinn? Did you hear me?” she asked.
I blinked and nodded, and watched as Danny took my bags from the car and hurried up the steps. You could see the smile that played at the corner of his lips. My reaction obviously amused him.
But this was very real. I would be living in a mansion in Silicon Valley, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that just yet.
Chapter 3
I walked through the door with Aunt Celine, and nothing about the house seemed real. It was like I had been zapped into another world, like Enchanted, except I was sent to the fairytale land instead.
My boots were light on the tiles, and my eyes scoured the walls, admiring the exquisite paintings, the long and graceful tapestries, beige-trimmed drapes I had never seen before that hung from ceiling to floor. The foyer opened into a wide circular space that revealed several arched openings, and directly in front of me, a double, spiral staircase with golden rails that hypnotized me.
“Over here,” Aunt Celine motioned for me to follow her, and she walked like the place was nothing. I guess it was for her – she was used to the luxury. For me, having my cupboards stocked with food was a very good day. The space where we stood could have easily fit our trailer and the entire backyard and front yard space my mom and I were allotted in the trailer park. Olivia should see this, I thought as I tore my eyes off the furnishings and followed Aunt Celine.
We entered another room as big as the space before. “This is the kitchen area, and that’s Lily,” she smiled at the elderly woman who quickly turned and smiled at me. Her thick, grey and white hair were swept back in a bun and covered with a fishnet.
“Nice to meet you, dear,” she said softly and walked quickly over to hug me. My eyes popped when she did. I was expecting a handshake.
Aunt Celine laughed. “Lily’s a hugger.”
I was smiling when I left her embrace. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Lily,” I said to her.
She waved me off. “Please. Don’t Miss Lily me. It’s just Lily.” Her cheeks were rosy and her body full in the black and white attire she wore.
“My mom would kill me if she heard me calling an older person by their name,” I said to her and started surveying the kitchen.
“She sounds like she was raised down south,” Lily laughed. “Bless her soul. I heard the bad news.” Her face fell, and her eyes grew sympathetic.
“Yes, thank you.” I didn’t say anything else as I wandered around the “kitchen.” That’s the name they used for it, but that was no ordinary kitchen. Again, it was oversized – unlike any kitchen I had ever seen either in real life or on TV. Modern state-of-the-art equipment occupied the space, from the French-door fridge that looked to be installed inside the wall, the range, ceramic-top stove, the marble counter-top, the chandelier dangling overhead, to the rug under our feet – everything was unreal.
“You must be hungry,” Lily said after a while.
And then I actually paid attention to the smell. Or it was masked until she opened the oven. I wasn’t sure – anything was possible in La La Land. That’s what it felt like to me. No way is this where I was going to live. I didn’t know the first thing about life in Silicon Valley, or how to adjust to all of this.
I was suddenly overwhelmed.
“I am,” I cleared my throat and answered. “What are you making?”
“What girls your age like,” she grinned and pushed the oven shut again. “Home-made pizza, peach cobbler pie, and my world-famous shepherd’s pie.”
“Ooh, you’re going to love that,” Aunt Celine beamed. “It’s one of my favorites.”
“Okay,” I said. Never had peach cobbler, but I wasn’t going to admit that – any kind of food worked well enough for me.
“I’ll let you know when it’s done, but it shouldn’t be more than another ten minutes or so,” Lily said and busied herself again with the food prep.
“Okay, follow me this way, again,” Aunt Celine said and walked off through a different opening than we had entered. “This here leads to the pool area. I bet you’ll spend a lot of time out here – it’s a favorite haunt.”
Did she say a pool? But why the hell not? I’m surprised I didn’t see a helipad or a space shuttle.
She opened the door and we stepped onto colored stones that paved a path to a pear-shaped pool. The water was pristine and the closer I walked to the edge, the more I could see of the landscape below, showcasing the various mansions lining the countryside.
It was picturesque, and I inhaled deeply as I breathed in the fresh, Californian air.
I forgot where I was for a second until I turned and saw Aunt Celine staring at me. “You coming?”
She must have asked before. “Yeah.”
“Can you swim?” she asked as she walked off.
“Yes, I can,” I replied and stopped. I stooped and scooped up some of the water, feeling the warmth as it rippled through my open fingers. It was inviting, and I was tempted to strip and go for a swim right then and there.
“Okay, well, when you feel like it, there’s the pool house.” I looked up and saw the cottage she was pointing at. “It’s stacked with everything you need – towels, slippers, scuba gear, surfing stuff, you know the drill.”
I did?
I nodded nonetheless. “Got it.”
“Okay,” she heaved and checked her watch. “Let’s show you to your room. You must be tired. By the time we do, Lily should be ready with the food.”
We didn’t walk back through the kitchen, but instead, she opened a patio door close to the pool house and I hurried over to join her. We entered, that time, through a narrow passageway – narrow when compared to everything I had already seen.
It led us to the backside of the staircase, and we walked through the circular space and up the stairs. I noticed the photos that lined the wall on the way up. Several of them were of a boy and girl, who looked to be my age.
“I guess these are the twins,” I stopped and said while I studied an image of them at a football game.
“Yeah,” Aunt Celine stopped and answered. “That’s Tyson and Liv”
“Twins!” I said and raised my brows. I had heard it before, but it was real now. They looked okay like we would actually get along which was encouraging.
“That’s cool.” I started walking again and saw a wedding photo of Aunt Celine, looking like a princess, with her beau standing over her, his arms placed on her shoulders while she sat, as if at a coronation. “You looked beautiful.”
She blushed and pressed her hand to her chest. “Thanks, sweetie.”
“He looks nice, too,” I said of her husband.
“You can tell him yourself when you see him,” she smiled and started walking again.
“Are they here?”
“No. The twins are out. You’ll meet them later. And Robert had a thing, somewhere,” she said and waved her hand about like she wasn’t even interested. “He should be back soon. He doesn’t usually go out on a Saturday. Oh,” she said and turned around when we hit the landing at the top. “His study is off-limits – he gets cranky about that. And I would show you the rest of the house now, but it’s a lot. You’ll discover most of it on your own, I guess. But there’s a gym, an entertainment room on the lower level next to the garage if you’re interested.”
I held my hands up. “Sweet! No problem. But it was nice of Robert to agree to take me in. I really appreciate it, Aunt Celine.”
“Nonsense,” she stated as we walked down the west wing of the house. I noticed my bags outside one of the doors. “He was more than happy. This is you,” she beamed as we reached my room.
“This is me,” I said awkwardly and entered the room as she held the door open. “No way!”
Well, what did I expect? Another trailer parked inside?
There was a large, maybe queen-sized canopied bed in the center of the room. An antique footstool was at the base, with an ornate design framing the structure. I pressed my hand into the padding and it sank.
I walked around the bed, running my hand over the white sheet, and then I fell back against it. “This is amazing,” I said and rolled my head around to look at Aunt Celine.
She stood just inside the room, and she walked slowly over. “I’m glad you like it.”
I sat upright and looked around. “What’s this?” I asked when I saw white, latticed closed doors. I yanked them back and realized it was a large walk-in closet. There were clothes hanging in there, and a couple pairs of tennis shoes, sandals, and pumps.
“I didn’t know what you would like, so I just picked up a couple of things,” Aunt Celine said from behind me. “I can return them if you don’t like them.”
“Are you kidding me. No! It’s good.” I said hastily and took down one of the hangars. “This is nice.” It was a white, flirty dress with spaghetti straps. “And the shoes…I don’t think I’ve ever had this many at one time.”
“Well,” she murmured and came closer to me. She hugged my shoulders and rested her chin on my left. “It’s about time you had some nicer things, wouldn’t you agree?”
Her words weren’t unkind, but they reminded me of the fact that Mom wasn’t able to afford nice things. She tried – like really tried. She gave up everything. She didn’t go anywhere. She just wanted to make sure that I was alright, and she would always do anything that she could to ensure it.
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Aunt Celine quickly corrected and apologized. She turned me to her and pinched my cheeks. “I know Joanne did the best she could. Hell, if I hadn’t married Robert, I wouldn’t have all of this. Just luck, I suppose. But let’s not dwell on that, okay? I didn’t mean to make you sad again.”
“You didn’t. It’s just that…” I began and sighed. I hated thinking about the fact that she wasn’t there, and the last couple of hours had been a great source of distraction for me. I should have known that I couldn’t really outrun her ghost. “Sometimes, I’ll be fine, and then, I’ll hear something, or see something, and then…” The tears fell from my eyes before I could blink them back.
