She snuggled closer inside his embrace.
“Tell me in the morning,” she whispered.
He lay on his back, barely covered by the sheets on his bed with one arm resting behind his head and the other beneath Sydney, who was lying on his chest. He couldn’t escape the sound of Erika’s voice, feeling sick to his stomach at the thought. The words I'm pregnant echoed in his mind as if they were said in a room full of hollow walls. He was angry, confused, and he was afraid. He hadn’t spoken to Erika in months. He remembered clearly the last time they were together and the last time he’d seen her. Ideally, between then and when he met Sydney later that morning, the last time he’d planned to see Erika again.
His eyes settled upon Sydney’s face as it rested just beneath his chin. That, above all, was his main fear telling her. It didn't matter how many ways he thought of to say it; it was every bit as bad as it seemed. When she woke up he’d have to tell her.
Fading into a cloud of guilt and uncertainty, he finally drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 21
He and Sydney awakened to a sky still darkened by night. Before the sun had finished rising they were up and walking out the door to catch their flight. Mason quickly loaded their luggage in the trunk of his car as Sydney watched through the mirror, arms folded and eyes extremely heavy with sleep. She was too tired to express the excitement that she actually felt about going home for Christmas, and far too tired to notice how quiet Mason had been since they woke up. A few good mornings were uttered as they pulled out of the garage, but not much else. Assuming he was as tired as she was, the conversation that seemed to be missing didn't stand out at all. She leaned her head against the window, hoping the ride to the airport would help her fall back to sleep, while he just hoped the ride would clear his mind and help him to relax his thoughts.
The streets were like blankets of white clouds. Mason knew a mild storm had been anticipated throughout the night, but this was a lot more than he’d expected. The snow beat against his windshield accumulating flakes faster than the wipers could wipe it away. The heat in the car beat against his face irritating his eyes and causing them to water. It was necessary to defrost the ice from the windshield so he couldn’t do much about it until the windows had cleared a little. It was like staring through fog as he tried to make sure he was still within the street lines. His thoughts weren’t much clearer. Riding through the snow was manageable, regardless of how much snow was falling, but most of the drive for him was spent trying to figure out how to tell Sydney that he was now fathering a child by a woman whom he had never really dated. It sounds crazier the more I think about it, he thought. There they were on Christmas Eve, driving to the airport to fly out and spend the holiday with her parents. As if this couldn’t come at a worse time, he clenched the steering wheel and pressed through the storm.
The airport was a far more congested than usual. Some congestion was expected with Christmas only a day away, but this was a little too much. They walked through the crowd as fast as they could, hoping to not miss the flight. Mason slowed down to secure Sydney's carry-on bag, which became loose from the handle. Strangely, they were the only ones moving with any sense of urgency. They looked around and saw people calmly sitting in terminals or eating in the airport restaurants, but no one was rushing to board a plane. ‘Delayed, Delayed, Delayed’, he saw down the board of departures and arrivals. The storm had grounded, if not canceled, a number of flights in and out of Philadelphia. At that point there wasn't much else to do but sit and wait along with everyone else.
After a few hours of being delayed they finally heard, “Now boarding flight 917 to Charleston, South Carolina, departing from gate C19,” over the loudspeaker. Both Sydney and Mason, startled from the intercom, jumped up to board the plane. Sydney, still tired, could barely keep her eyes open and fell asleep only moments after sitting down. The plane had even taken off. Mason was wide awake and although he was extremely tired, he couldn’t go back to sleep. He buckled his seatbelt, sat back in his seat, and never took his eyes from the window, not even to acknowledge the flight attendant taking their drink orders once they were in the air. His mind was as scattered as the light snowflakes that broke against the wings of the plane. Looking down at Sydney, who had fallen asleep on his arm, he gently took his hand and pushed aside a few strands of hair that had fallen over her eyes. I can’t do this, he thought. His heart beat nervously and his breaths were shallow. He didn't want to hurt her, but he knew not telling her would hurt her even more if she found out. His hand grazed her face lightly enough to wake her. She noticed the look on his face, but even more so the look in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" she asked, lifting her head from his arm.
Just tell her, he said to himself. There was nowhere she could go and nowhere he could hide. They were thirty-one thousand feet in the air, and right then -before they touched down in Charleston- was a better time that any. Inside he yelled, no, I’m not okay, but no words left his lips. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat.
Hesitant he answered, "Yeah... I'm okay."
Against everything that told him to just tell her the truth, he couldn’t. What good would it do if she knew, he asked himself. He knew he was taking a chance by keeping this silent, but a part of him wasn’t willing to risk the possibility of losing her. It was the only way to keep moving forward with whatever this was that they had going on in this relationship.
Their plane landed in Charleston, South Carolina, early in the afternoon.
“Did they know what time we were coming in?” Mason asked.
“I spoke to my mom and told her, but my dad doesn’t know. I thought we’d surprise him.”
Mason chuckled lightly under his breath, pulling the luggage from the conveyor belt. “I hope your dad’s the surprise type,” he joked.
He started to imitate Sydney, doing his version of how the surprise would go as he pulled the last piece of luggage from the belt.
"My dad will be fine," she assured him, smiling from ear to ear.
Mason didn’t know much about her father or her mother; everything about this trip was going to be a surprise to him as well.
They walked out of the airport, instantly greeted by the twenty-degree warmer Carolina sun. It wasn’t hot, but it felt so much better than when they’d left Philadelphia. For Sydney, she was right at home.
"Christmas in the summer," Mason joked.
"Oh come on, it's not even hot!" she laughed.
Mason had called ahead earlier that week to reserve a rental car for the two of them. Waiting for it to be pulled around, he and Sydney sat on a steel bench in front of the rental window facing the street with a clear view of some of what made Charleston so beautiful. Of all the traveling he had done over the years mostly for business the south was one place he never stayed long enough to experience anything outside of a conference room and, in some cases, the occasional gentlemen’s club. Sydney was ecstatic to be home, though. The look on her face was of a longing satisfaction and the way she inhaled that down-south air made it apparent she missed home more than she let on. She just looked so incredibly happy. In that moment, everything that had been weighing so heavily on him within the last twenty-four hours seemed to just fade away as a distant memory. This, right now, was all that mattered him and Sydney.
“That is not what I reserved,” Mason mumbled, barely able to speak past the disgust of the car that was slowly approaching them.
Sydney covered her mouth, hiding her laughter at the little compact car they were being handed the keys to. Bad enough that it was little but it was also bright red with wheels that looked like they belonged on a lawn mower.
She turned her back to the car and faced Mason, unable to look at him for fear of her laughter becoming uncontrollable. “It’s okay, let’s just go,” she urged him, clearing her throat.
He could hear the laughter disguised in her voice.
“That’s not what I reserved,” he said more loudly, gaining the manag
er’s attention.
“Mason, come on, ‘it’s okay’,” she said again in laughter, rolling the luggage to the car.
“What do you mean it’s okay? What is this, a Kia? I can’t even fit in this thing. The luggage can barely fit in this thing!”
The rental company apparently mixed up his reservation and accidentally gave his reserved SUV to another customer, leaving him with an economy hatchback.
As upsetting as it was, he was all out of options. That was all they’d had left. “You’re driving,” he said, throwing Sydney the keys. This is so embarrassing, he shook his head getting into the car.
They left the airport and drove what seemed like endless miles through the city of Charleston. It was beautiful; live oaks and palm trees line the streets with Spanish moss draped in their canopy.
“What do you want to do right now?” Sydney asked, seeming to already have something in mind.
“Well, this is your Christmas present, so it’s up to you.” He put his seat back as far as he could, which was maybe only an inch or two because of the size of the car.
She laughed, noticing him trying to push it farther but knowing it wouldn’t go. They had a few hours before they were due to check-in to the hotel. Having not been home in a while, and never with Mason, Sydney thought it would be nice to actually show him where she’d grown up.
Slouched as far back as he could go Mason closed his eyes and just went with the ride.
Chapter 22
She pulled up to an old brick building with boarded windows in a city called Goose Creek, seventeen miles outside of Charleston. It was her old high school, which had been closed now for over seven years. The grounds were full of weeds breaking through the cement and bricks on the building were badly faded from seasons of rain. There was a gate that prevented them from entering with their car, so they decided to park and walk around.
“This was my old high school,” she said as her eyes gazed on the fading letters still on the side of the building.
Mason followed, only a step behind her as they walked around the building. It was interesting to hear and see what life was like for her back then. They walked through a lightly wooded area behind the school to a small creek that was almost hidden behind the trees surrounding it.
“I thought they would have closed the access to this by now,” she said, nearing the ledge. “We used to sneak back here almost every day after school.”
"We?" Mason asked.
"Yeah, me and my boyfriend, Dalton," she bashfully answered.
Itching with laughter, he asked, “You dated a boy named...Dalton?"
“What’s wrong with Dalton?” she laughed.
“Other than him sounding a bit nerdy, nothing,” he joked.
As she thought back to it, Mason was actually right. Dalton was very nerdy, with unnecessarily large glasses and a slightly larger than average head from what she could remember. Back then it hadn’t really mattered what he looked like; she was in her rebellious stage. All she had wanted was a boyfriend. “My father would have so killed me if he knew," she confessed.
"What, for dating a guy named Dalton? I wouldn't blame him.”
"No, for dating at all. I was only sixteen."
Mason laughed.
"Your household must have been really strict. My dad, my real dad,” he clarified, “didn’t mind us talking to girls.”
"Things are different when you have daughters,” Sydney stressed. “My dad never failed to remind us of that every time he said ‘no’ to us wanting to go to the movies, or school dances, even our prom.”
Turning their back on the creek, they made their way across the street to a neighborhood of single family homes in front of the school. Many of them were modestly kept; others looked as if they had been abandoned for some time. The ones that were well kept had cars or trucks in front of them some old and many new all except one. A gravel paved driveway led to the front door of a house where an old wooden chair sat overlooking the front yard. The hedges had been trimmed and the grass had been cut, but the dust of many seasons that coated the rusted screen door made it apparent that no one had lived there for years.
"This was my grandfather’s house," she spoke softly, wiping the dust from the chair. "If we weren't cutting school or sneaking off somewhere, we were here," she began to tell him.
Mason leaned against the wall beside the chair she sat in, looking off into the neighborhood that painted the background to Sydney's story.
"I remember during our summer break one year, my sister Kimmie and I stayed with Granddaddy. My mom and dad were on vacation or something. I can’t remember, but," she laughed, remembering what happened, "Kimmie had this boyfriend that no one liked, especially Granddaddy. And Granddaddy was old school, so having a boyfriend was already more than enough. Kimmie must have talked to him on the phone just about every day and every night. Anyway, one night it was real late and I was already in bed. Kimmie decided to tie up Grandaddy’s one phone in her room; she even had the nerve to lock the door so he couldn’t interrupt her conversation. Now, if you knew Granddaddy you knew the one thing he didn't play with in his house was locked doors. He went to open her door to tell her to get off of the phone and that's when he realized it was locked. He didn't say a word didn't yell or anything but by the time morning came, when we had woken up every door in the house had been taken off the hinge, even the bathroom! He sat at the kitchen table with his coffee, his newspaper, and his phone right beside him and didn’t say a single word. We didn't laugh about it then, but boy when I think about it now...that was my Granddaddy." Her voice softened with a tearful smile.
"When did he pass?"
"A little over three years ago," she answered, getting up from the chair. "My dad hasn't been able to bring himself to sell the house, so he just comes by every now and then and makes sure the lawn are kept. He never goes in."
She sat at the edge of the chair for a moment, thinking about how she really missed him and how much she wished he were still here. She and her grandfather were like best friends. He was the one she would run and talk to when she was upset or having trouble at school. His passing was the hardest thing she had ever dealt with.
"Okay! Where to next?" she gasped, breaking the awkward silence of sadness she started to feel from her thoughts.
Mason helped her from the chair. “How about we head to the hotel,” he suggested.
They made a few other stops after leaving Sydney’s grandfather’s house but they weren’t out too much longer although time seemed to move much faster than she could get from one place to another. Finally, as the afternoon grew spent, they headed back into Charleston to check into their hotel.
“This is the third time she’s called me.”
“Who?” Mason asked.
“My mom.”
He could hear in her voice that she really wanted to stop by before going to the hotel. He was pretty tired but, as he’d said before, this was her Christmas present. It really didn’t bother him.
“We can go,” he laughed.
Her smile made it obvious that he’d answered a question that she asked without saying a word.
They drove just twenty minutes out from where their hotel was to her parents’ house. They had moved four years ago from the home Sydney and her sister grew up in after they sold it to buy something bigger and a little more modern. It was the first time Sydney was going to see the new house. After getting turned around a few times, confused about which direction to go, they finally pulled into the right development. They drove down a few streets and made a few turns until they found the house: 247 Carolina Ridge Parkway, Charleston Estates. The home was immaculate. As the sun began to set, the ground lights shimmered into the red brick, accenting the lights coming from within the windows above them. It was warm and inviting. Along with the Christmas lights and decorations that layered the front lawn, it was amazing.
They pulled up to a driveway that led to a three-car garage and stairs leading up to the back sunroom.
There, standing at the very top, was her mother: a beautiful middle-aged woman with streaks of wise grey falling against her shoulders. Her smile quickly joined with tears after not having seen Sydney in so long. Her petite frame ran down the stairs and embraced Sydney, almost lifting her from the ground.
They hugged, backed away to look at each other, and hugged again. “Mom…stop crying…you’re so emotional,” Sydney joked, wiping her own tears from her eyes.
“Look at you!”
“No, look at you. Mom, you look great!”
“Child, I done went and hired me one of those personal trainers.”
“I can tell!” Sydney exclaimed.
“And this must be Mason” her mother implied, taking his hand into both of hers.
“Mrs. McCail, it is a pleasure to –“
“Ruby, please, you make me feel so old,” she laughed. “Call me Ruby.”
Her voice was soft, but with an authoritative undertone hinted with a southern accent. Looking at her, though, she was the sweetest woman you could ever meet. She pushed his extended hand aside and wrapped her arms around him as if he were already family.
“Come on in the house, your father should be home soon. He is going to be so happy when he sees you!”
They walked up the stairs, through the sunroom, and into the kitchen. If Christmas dinner had its own scent, that was what Mason smelled walking through the doors. His mouth watered at the smell of honey glazed ham and candied yams cooking in the oven, and the collard greens still on the stovetop. Something about the aroma of southern cooking made him feel right at home.
“I’m sorry it is such a mess in here, I’ve been in this kitchen all day,” Ruby uttered exhaustedly with her arms folded.
She took Mason’s coat, hung it on the rack near the door, and placed his shoes just beneath it. They had a no shoes in the house rule.
Walking back into the kitchen, her face was blushed with excitement and fulfillment. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you are here,” she sighed with an unwavering smile.
Where We Left Off Page 11
