“Grandpa would love that,” I said. I remembered how my grandpa had praised my mom’s work, but his disappointment that she did not know any of the stories had come with the praise. “Have you ever thought of writing down some of his stories?”
“I have,” she admitted, “but I’m not very talented when it comes to writing narratives. Maybe this is a project you should consider taking on.” She patted my shoulder. “How was his doctor’s appointment? Did he say anything about it?”
“Just that his cholesterol is still too high,” I said, thankful for the change in topics. “He said he was fine, though.”
“He always says that,” my mom said. The frown on her face said she did not appreciate his optimism. “He really ought to take better care of himself. Maybe I’ll have your father speak to him about it tonight.”
I shrugged and smiled. I doubted it would do any good, but I didn’t want to see my grandpa leave me any earlier than he had to.
“You should think about helping Grandpa write his family’s stories down. He won’t always be around to tell them,” she said.
“I’ll think about it, Mom. Thanks for the help with the forms,” I said as she moved back toward the living room, looking distracted.
“Sure, dear. I’ll be working on the photo albums for a while.”
“Okay, Mom.”
My search drug on for the rest of the afternoon, but the time was definitely not wasted. After a considerable amount of time spent getting used to the way the full page forms were organized, I started flipping through the pages with ease. Finally, I came across an entry for Elizabeth Malo. Victoria’s entry was many pages deeper into the binder. I happened upon it just as my mom came back into the kitchen and asked me to clean up for dinner. Quickly noting the death date I flipped the notebook closed.
Elizabeth Malo was born in nineteen hundred two and died in nineteen hundred eighteen. The picture I’d found of Victoria had been dated 1845, but she was apparently only twelve in that picture, and sadly died four years later. I wished I could say I was surprised to discover that both girls died on their sixteenth birthdays just like Katie and Maera. After my grandpa’s startling reaction to the topic, I knew what I would find. Actually finding the dates still sent fear crawling down my spine, though. Even with only four links, I knew the chain would continue, even past my mom’s records.
When my mom asked me to clear the notebooks out of the room so the table could be set for dinner, I truly felt like giving up. I did not want to find anything else. I was so disheartened and worried that I honestly considered putting everything I had learned back into their boxes and simply waiting, waiting for whatever was going to find me. It was beyond simply pretending I had never seen Katie’s picture. What I knew could not be taken back any more. Did I really want to know what was going to happen anyway? Could it in any way make it better, especially if I could do nothing to escape my fate?
All through dinner I wrestled with whether I would continue my search. Grandpa had given me the choice. He promised to keep working whether I continued or not. And to be honest, he really didn’t sound like he thought I could do anything that would really matter. Would it make that much of a difference?
My fear compelled me to give up, but how could I know what was coming and simply sit and wait for death to swallow me. If there was something hunting the women of my family, then finding the reason, or the hunter, could stop everything. I had no illusions of becoming some kind of Hollywood heroine, saving the day in the nick of time, but perhaps I could still do something. I refused to turn myself over to some unseen power, walking meekly to my last breath.
I watched my mom clear the table and prepare a plate for my dad as I tried to decide what to do. My dad would not get home until after ten o’clock, but he never missed my mom’s meals. My mom’s practiced movements unfortunately held no divine inspiration for me. Dragging the books and pictures I had been searching into my bedroom, I dropped it on my bed and knew there really wasn’t any choice to make anyway. Finding the truth was the only real way to go. Spreading everything I had acquired on my bedspread, I surveyed the collage. What was going on? Determined to find the answers, I settled onto the only bare spot on the bed.
Chapter Ten
I was scouring more of the genealogy records when the phone rang. My mom answered by the second ring and I went back to my search, ignoring the one sided conversation. Or at least trying too.
“Arra,” my mom called.
Annoyed at the interruption, I trudged into the living room. “Yeah, Mom?”
“That was your dad on the phone. He left his wallet here, and he won’t be home for a while yet. Would you mind running to the hospital for me?”
The hospital was a more than a mile from our house. With no metro trains, I did not want to walk the entire way there and back. I was about to object, when my mother held out the keys to her car.
“Really?” I asked doubtfully. I had gotten my driver’s license before we left Manhattan, but my mom had yet to actually let me put it to use. Her fear of letting a teenager drive among other cars, was almost as great a having a gun in the house.
“The traffic’s not so bad here. I’m sure you’ll be fine, right?” my mom said, uncertainly. “Maybe you can stop and get us some ice cream on your way back.”
From the way my mom was clutching the keys in her nervous hands, I started to wonder whether my dad had been behind the request from the beginning. He was trying just as hard as my mom to get me to accept Grainer as my new home. What neither of her parents realized was that living in Grainer was the lowest thing on my list of worries right now.
“Well, get going. You’re father’s hungry. He needs a snack at least.” My mom relinquished the keys with a smile that was twitching at one corner. “Take this too,” she said, tossing me her cellular phone. “Just in case.” She shrugged nervously and waved me out the door.
Excited, I darted across the lawn to the car. My mom’s car was a sensible Volvo S40. Known to be the safest cars in production, my mom refused to drive anything but a Volvo. I turned the ignition and grinned. Perhaps moving to Grainer would provide a few perks I wouldn’t have gotten in the city after all.
Enjoying the freedom the car provided, I made my way through the practically empty streets to the hospital. Given the fact that I could see the hospital from any high point in town I made it to the main entrance fairly easily. I pulled up to find my dad waiting for me in front of the big sliding doors that had a sign above it that read “Emergency”. From the peaceful atmosphere, I doubted an actual emergency happened here very often.
My dad waved at me as he approached the car. He seemed pleased that my mom had given in to his suggestion. I jumped out and handed him his wallet. “Hey, sweetheart, thanks for bringing me my wallet.”
“Yeah, no problem,” I said.
“How was the drive?” he asked, grinning widely.
“It was fine, Dad. Thanks for that by the way.” There was no point in denying it was his idea so he just shrugged my thanks away. I wanted to spend a few more minutes with him, but his dinner hour was quickly wasting away. After a quick hug I started back to the car.
“Oh, hey, Dad, do you know where I can get some ice cream around here?” I asked.
“There’s a place on Main Street. You can’t miss it. It’s the only one in town,” he said, rolling his eyes dramatically, mocking me and all my complaints I was sure. I just laughed. He joined in and kissed the top of my head before hurrying back inside.
Pulling back onto Main Street I quickly found out why my dad had been so sure I would be able to find the ice cream shop. The painted image of an ice cream cone towered a good five feet higher than any of the other buildings on the strip. After several attempts I managed to parallel park the Volvo smack dab in front of the giant ice cream cone.
The ice cream parlor was exactly what I had expected it to be, straight out of an episode of Leave it to Beaver. I smiled to myself and approached the counter.
All I could see was a middle aged woman with her back to me. I wasn’t sure what she was doing until I heard a screeching sound and saw her turn to reveal a soft-serve ice cream machine. The woman behind the counter was too busy man-handling the machine to notice me at first.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“Oh. Sorry, I’ll be with you in a moment,” she said with a strained smile.
I nodded, in no hurry to get back home. Studying the menu, I wondered what my mom would like. Jingling bells announced the arrival of another customer. I knew a total of four people in this town, but I still wanted to see who it was. I glanced back at the door. The dim evening light shadowed the three young men pushing each other through the door. I grinned. Speaking of people I knew…
“Tanner,” the woman behind the counter said with relief, “thanks for coming down. I can’t get this dang thing to spin right. Every time I take the blade out to wash it, I can’t get it to go back in right. This machine drives me nuts.” She looked thoroughly embarrassed discussing the malfunction in front of a customer. “Sorry for the delay.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I replied. “Hey, Tanner.”
“Hey, Arra. What are you up to?” he asked as he climbed up the step ladder to see the inside of the ice cream maker better.
“Arra,” the woman said, glancing at Tanner. “Arrabella Malo, the new doctor’s daughter?”
“That would be me.”
“She prefers Arra, Mom, not Arrabella,” Tanner said as he yanked on the blade.
“How nice to meet you, Arra,” she said extending her hand. A quick smile flashed in Tanner’s direction. “Tanner told me about meeting you yesterday. I was hoping I’d run into you soon.”
Tanner sighed and rolled his eyes. “Arra, this is my mom, Cheryl. Mom, this is Arra.” Metal grinding against metal turned Cheryl’s attention back to the ice cream machine.
“For goodness sake, Tanner, don’t break the damn thing.”
“It’s fine, Mom.” Tanner turned the machine on with a satisfied smile. Cheryl smirked at his success. Stepping down from the ladder, Tanner turned his attention back to me. “So, uh, you want some ice cream?”
“That was the plan,” I said. “Are you going to get it for me?” I bit back a laugh as he made his way behind the counter.
“What would you like?” Tanner asked. The counters had obviously been built to match his mother’s shorter height. Tanner looked a little out of place, having to bend significantly to dig the ice cream out of the tubs.
“I’ll have a mocha cone,” Evan interrupted.
Jackson glanced at Arra. He looked partially apologetic for his friend’s rude behavior, but equally hungry. I waved him on. “Cookies and cream for me,” Jackson said.
Tanner hurriedly scooped out the ice cream and handed them over the sneeze guard. “Now, beat it.” His two friends laughed mockingly, but headed to a table by the window. “Sorry,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it. What should I get?”
“Um, what do you like?” he asked.
“Well, I like chocolate, and my mom likes anything with raspberries in it,” I said.
Without answering Tanner went to work. He worked the scoop into an almost black tub labeled Brownie Bonanza. The ice cream sat rather lopsided on the cone when he was done with it. He pressed it down into the cone, trying to keep it from falling off. “I was never very good at this,” Tanner admitted.
“I’m sure it tastes fine,” I said. “What do you recommend for my mom?”
“Definitely the raspberry sorbet, but I’ll wait to get that until you’re ready to leave.” Tanner took a big scoop of peanut butter fudge and plopped it on a cone for himself.
“And what makes you think I’m not ready to leave right now?” I asked, a smile playing on my lips. I wanted to stay, but my mom would definitely have a fit if I waited any longer. I did not want another lecture about how she almost had to call my dad away from the hospital.
“How can you resist a man with free ice cream?” Tanner laughed.
He was lucky his friends were far enough away not to have heard that, I thought. Evan would have died of laughter. Tanner himself looked fairly embarrassed that the lame line had actually come out of his mouth. I was about to explain why I needed to leave when a sharp ring sprang from my pocket. For once I was actually glad my mom had called to see if I had been in a car accident or stung by a killer bee.
I snatched the phone from my jeans and answered it. “Hi, Mom.”
“Arra, where are you? I thought you’d be back by now.”
“Mom, I stopped to get ice cream, remember? There was a little problem with their ice cream machine so I had to wait a few minutes,” I explained.
“Oh, okay. I was just worried. How’s the car?”
“Mom, were not in Manhattan anymore. Relax. I’m fine. The car’s fine. Everything’s fine,” I said, getting annoyed again. Tanner stood waiting, pretending to watch his friends. “Actually, Mom, do you mind if I’m out a little longer? I ran into Tanner. His mom owns the ice cream shop.”
“Tanner? The boy from yesterday?”
“How many other Tanners do I know, Mom?”
“Well I guess that’s alright then. Just don’t be too long.”
“Thanks, Mom. See you in a little while.”
I closed the phone and returned it to her pocket.
“You want to sit down?” Tanner asked. He had obviously been listening to every word. That probably should have seemed rude to me, but I doubted that anything Tanner might do would annoy me too much.
“Sure. Lead the way,” I said.
Tanner led me to a table as far away from his friends as possible, which still was not very far, since the dining area was only slightly bigger than our living room. We took our chairs and silence fell over us. I tasted my ice cream, trying to keep it from dripping all over my hand and tried to think of something to say. The chocolate was dark and strong and incredibly distracting. I couldn’t think of anything else at the moment.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s really good, Tanner, thanks,” I said honestly. I wondered whether his mom would teach me how to make this. I could have eaten it every day.
“Thank my mom. She makes all the ice cream herself. She banned me from the kitchen a long time ago,” Tanner admitted.
We drifted back into silence as we ate our ice cream. I noticed Tanner’s mother make her way back into the kitchen. She looked at me with an appraising smile. I was suddenly sure that Cheryl would run into my mother very soon. Mother’s couldn’t help but gossip about their children it would seem. I remember all too well going through this before with my brother David. I had found it amusing then, but not so much now when I knew I was about to become the center of the gossip and planning.
“Would you like to go shooting with me again sometime?” Tanner asked suddenly.
Surprised, I swallowed my ice cream slowly to force myself from jumping at the invitation. “I don’t know if I could take the embarrassment,” I said drily.
“You can use my sister’s bow next time. It’s smaller, so you should be able to draw it a little easier,” he promised.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” I said. “I’ve really never been that great at sports.”
“Well, you won’t know unless you try. I can teach you.” Tanner caught a large drip of ice cream before it splattered on the table. “Besides,” he said, “you’ve got to find something to occupy your time now that you live here. Like you said, there’s not that much to do in Grainer.”
Caught by my own words, I smiled. I had of course intended to accept his invitation from the start, but watching him try to convince me had me and Tanner’s mother grinning. “As long as you promise not to laugh,” I agreed.
“Deal. What are you doing tomorrow?” Tanner asked, grinning shamelessly now. I couldn’t resist laughing.
“I’ll probably be at my grandpa’s house. He’s, uh, helping me with a project. I mean I’m helping h
im with a project.” Tanner glanced at me with a puzzled expression. Project, I thought berating myself for the bad word choice, what, am I in summer school or something?
“What kind of project?”
Why did I say project? Why didn’t I just say I was helping him clean out his garage, or something that actually made sense?
“A family history thing. I’m helping my grandpa write down some of our family’s stories,” I said. It was not completely untrue. I quickly put those kinds of thoughts out of my mind though, determined to enjoy a moment of normalcy.
“Oh, that’s cool. Will you be there all day?” he asked. Our ice cream was almost gone. Evan and Jackson had already finished theirs and were trying to get Tanner’s mother to give them a little more. I did not want to leave, but if I really had to, I wanted to walk away knowing I would see Tanner again soon.
“I guess I might be free after lunch,” I said.
“Do you want me to pick you up?”
“Sure, but would you mind picking me up at my grandpa’s instead of my house? Then I won’t have to walk all the way back home,” I said. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a curious mother or an over protective father.
“No problem,” Tanner replied. “I guess I better get you that raspberry sorbet.”
I finished off the last couple bites of my ice cream cone and followed Tanner back to the counter. His mom already had the dessert ready. Tanner looked a little disappointed, and actually, so was I. Cheryl thoughtful gesture had stolen a few more minutes I could have delayed leaving the shop. Not wanting to show my feelings, I thanked her for the ice cream and walked out of the store with Tanner.
When we got around to the driver’s side of the car Tanner reached for the door handle before I could, and opened the door for me. I had to resist the urge to giggle like an idiot. “You have ice cream and you open doors for me, you are pretty irresistible,” I said. It was just as dorky as what Tanner had said earlier, but he beamed at the compliment anyway.
Escaping Fate Page 6
