"I've always had this disease!" She realized. "It’s why I never got sick. It wasn't until you asked, Mike, I also realized I had never broken anything, and anytime I had cut myself, I never scarred and always healed rapidly. But, why haven't I changed until now?"
No one gave her an answer. After a moment of silence, Jason spoke up.
"The nice thing is, I don't think we need to worry about anything until there is a full moon."
"Why?" Beth asked.
"Well, it would be the mythology of lycanthropy, right? We must assume since evidently, lycanthropy is real, the mythology holds a bit of truth. I can't speak for last night, other than perhaps it happens for the first time is when you reach a certain age, or certain part of the season. One could never know. But, what is commonly agreed upon is, when it comes to lycanthropy, it commonly occurs on a full moon." Jason continued, "So I believe we are safe from any changing for a week or so."
Stephanie wasn't convinced. "Can we risk it? This is all supposition. We have no idea for sure about any of this." Throwing her hands up. "Hell, I could be moments away from changing again and killing all of you." That got their attention. "We don't know. And I, for one, am not willing to risk your lives or the lives of other innocents on a guess."
So excitedly sure of himself, Jason deflated under her rationale.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"I told you. I'm going to return home and try to stay as far away from people as I can."
"What about me?"
"What about you? Jason, I almost killed you the last time I changed, I can’t bear the thought of causing you any pain, let alone killing you. I can't risk having you near me." She pleaded with him. Hoping he would understand. The expression in his eyes told her he wasn't going to give up.
"Stephanie. Even if you don't believe you have lycanthropy, you should at least believe whatever you have, I now have. There is no other explanation for the fact my wound disappeared. So, whatever you do, I am doing it with you. If you are going home, I'm going home with you."
She wanted to argue with him, but the truth was, she felt alone. Realizing she wasn’t like everyone else now, and although she had terrific friends, there was no way for them to understand what she was going through. Hell, she didn’t understand what she was going through. She needed Jason. Not because she needed a friend now more than ever, but she needed someone who was going to be experiencing everything she went through. Someone who would understand. In the end, she decided it was best not to argue with him on this and nodded her agreement he could accompany her to her home.
Smiling at her, Jason squeezed her hand. She turned to Beth and Mike.
“You two on the other hand, I need to say goodbye to now.” Raising a hand to forestall Beth who was about to say something. “Now, don’t argue. It’s all nice and well to assume we are all safe till a full moon, but as I mentioned before we have no proof. I will not risk your lives on a guess, no matter how logical it is.” Stephanie stood up. “Jason and I leave tonight. If you could make yourself scarce, in case I change in the next five minutes or something?”
Standing, Beth nodded slowly to her and was suddenly hugging her hard. “You take care of yourself, little sis.”
“I will, big sis.”
“You better,” Beth insisted as she disengaged herself.
“Or what? You’ll break my legs? They will heal right back up.” The joke rang a little hollow, since she wasn’t quite used to the idea yet. Beth smiled at her all the same.
Beth turned to Jason. “And you! That’s my little sis over there, and if you allow anything to happen to her, I will get a gun with a silver bullet and shoot you myself!”
Gazing at her, Jason just smiled, then hugged her as suddenly as she had hugged Stephanie. At first Beth was stiff in his arms but hugged him back.
“I will do my best, Beth, I promise.” Jason whispered and released her.
“Well, okay,” Beth told him.
Stepping around Beth, Mike held out his hand for Jason. Jason took it and shook it vigorously.
“You’re a decent man, Jason, try to be careful. And, good luck.”
“Thanks, Mike. You’ve been a terrific friend. Don’t worry, you guys, we’ll keep in touch. We’ll call you when we get to Pennsylvania,” Jason told them.
A day later they were in Brookville, Pennsylvania. A few hours north of Punxsutawney, the town made famous by the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Stephanie remembered when she was younger making the drive down there for Groundhog Day to see Punxsutawney Phil. It was one of her fondest memories she had of growing up.
They stopped attending the event after her mom died. Her mother had drowned in the farm’s lake when Steph was ten. It was hard after that. Her father had never been a loving dad. A farmer, he worked hard and long. He didn’t have time for her or her sister. Which was what wives were for. It was the kind of mentality which didn’t surface much anymore, but her dad was old-school.
He left them alone to raise themselves, and to deal with the grief of the loss of their mother, as well. Her sister, Caroline, was only seven, so it was up to Stephanie to take care of things. Teaching herself how to cook, she made sure Caroline and she ate well. Her father, she left to fend for himself; after all, it was what he was doing to them.
It wasn’t the taking care of them which hurt Stephanie the most. It was dealing with the grief which was the hardest. It was why she always resented her dad and why she left as soon as it was obvious Caroline would be okay on her own.
Working hard in school, she received a scholarship, including boarding. The day before she left for school, she told her dad where she was going. She remembered it vividly.
Sitting on the sofa, her dad was watching TV. Having come in off the fields, he was falling asleep with a beer in his hand. Her father was a rough seeming man. Dark tanned skin, creased and marked by age lines from too many years in the field. He seldom smiled, though she always believed it was because of his bad teeth more than he was never happy. Stubble covered his chin and cheeks. It appeared he never shaved, but she knew he had; only it was so early in the morning, by the time his work was done at the end of the day, he needed to shave again. Stretched out on the sofa, he sat with his long legs sprawled out before him. Some might say her father was lanky, though to her, lanky always meant weak. Her father was not weak. It was true he was tall and skinny, but his biceps were corded lumps which stood out, even at rest. All skin and muscle, not an ounce of fat on him.
Sparing her a glance when she sat, he looked back to the TV. She let him know she was leaving in the morning for the University of Pittsburg where she would be staying and going to school. She wasn’t sure when she would be back.
She remembered his reaction like it was yesterday. Taking a sip of his beer, his eyes never leaving the TV, he told her, “well, good luck.”
Stunned, she sat in the chair for a moment before slowly going up to her room. Packing all her clothes, she cried the entire time.
Morning came and when she went to leave, she saw her father out on the fields working. Hugging her sister long and hard, she told her to find a way out as soon as possible.
To her credit, Caroline nodded and hugged her back. Stephanie felt she was abandoning Caroline, but there was no help for it. She had to leave. Her friend Clea gave her a ride into town where Stephanie boarded the bus to Pittsburg. In the two years she was at school, she hadn’t been back. Until now.
As Jason turned on the road which would lead them to the driveway of her home, she felt a moment of panic. Caroline had left for school last fall, getting away from here. Only her father was at the farm; her father who had so coldly said goodbye when she left. Hell, he didn’t say goodbye, just wished her luck. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him. How she was going to explain to him why she was there. Wasn’t sure he wanted her there. Stephanie hadn’t bothered calling, either. Just showing up with her boyfriend after two years…
“Let’s go somewhere e
lse, Jason,” she uttered when they at last pulled into the driveway of her childhood home.
She felt Jason’s eyes on her as she stared down the long driveway to the house. Bringing the car to a halt, he turned off the radio.
“Okay, Stephanie, what is it? You have been quiet most of the way here and frankly, I could feel the tension elevate the closer we got. You worried about seeing your father?”
Stephanie stared out the window at the fields. She didn’t want to talk about it, and yet she desperately needed to.
“I’m sorry,” Jason said after a moment of silence. “Hey, never mind, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine. Just know, I’m here if you want to talk, okay?”
“No.” She considered him. “It’s okay. You should know a little about what you are getting into.”
. She told him everything about her mother’s death and the years afterwards leading up to her leaving home and going to college.
“So, you see? I’m not sure he is going to welcome us home. Plainly, he didn’t want me here before I left,” she finished.
Jason let out a long sigh.
“Well, I’m not sure what to say about all of that, but I think after coming all this way, we should at least stop by.”
Thinking long and hard on it for a bit, she decided Jason was right. She at least owed her father that much. Nodding her assent, he continued down the drive.
As she neared the house, all the comments Caroline made to her the last few years before she had also left started to come to mind. She had dismissed them because she still hurt and didn’t want to hear anything about her father, but they ran straight to her thoughts the moment they came close to the house.
It appeared dilapidated; as if no one lived there. The windows carried a sheet of dust from the fields so thick as to make them opaque. Shutters were either missing or almost falling off. Weeds and vines choked the landscaped bushes marking the front of her home, leaving them brown and skeletal. The front door screen was ripped from one corner and draped over the rest of the door, fluttering when the wind blew.
Caroline tried to tell her how bad it was getting at home, but Stephanie ignored it, not wanting to hear. Caroline tried to tell her how little their father did to maintain the house; even how bad he maintained the fields.
Glancing out over the fields. Most of them were barren and appeared untilled this year. One section of the farm held some crops, and it appeared paltry, at best.
The car stopped and she saw the front door open. Her father stepped out onto the front step, shading his eyes, trying to make out who his visitors were. It was strange to see him at the house during the day time. Either out in the fields or in the shed working on the equipment, never at the house till dusk, or later.
At first glance, he appeared much like he did when she left, tall and thin, skin worn and leathery. At closer inspection, she saw how sunken his eyes were. Didn’t stand as straight as he used to. Now, he hunched over as if beaten into submission and forced to bow and scrape. His hair, which had never been neat, was wispy and disheveled. Several days of growth spread uncomfortably up from his chin to form a patchy, salt and pepper beard.
This was not the strong man she knew. This man appeared as if he had nothing left worth fighting for. For the first time in her life, her father seemed weak to her.
She stepped out of the car. Her father lowered his hand from his eyes and stared at her. They stared unmoving, staring at one another for what seemed like an eternity. She couldn’t take it anymore.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
When he heard her voice, he dropped to his knees and let out a loud sob, burying his face in his hands.
Stephanie stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. She never heard her father cry — not even at her mother’s funeral. Standing there, frozen, she was unable to move. The moment passed and she crossed the distance to her father. When she approached, he threw his arms open wide. Barreling into him, he wrapped his arms around her and continued to cry against her stomach.
Stroking his hair, she held him. It took her a moment to realize he was uttering something, almost unintelligible. She strained to hear him, and when she at last did make out what he was saying, she began to cry as well.
He kept repeating “I’m so sorry.”
“So am I, Dad. So am I.”
Jason watched from the car as Stephanie and her father hugged each other and exchanged words. He felt it wouldn’t be right to interrupt the reunion as it appeared to be an emotional one. Figured it would be.
When Stephanie told him the story of her childhood, he knew she misunderstood her father. Stephanie and her sister lost a mother they knew for a decade. He lost his wife, friend and the partner he knew for twice that time at least. Many times, children consider their parents as larger than life, he knew. As if the things which affect us, don’t affect them. We expect them to act above everything. Sometimes, when we are disillusioned of the belief, it can be painful, as it was with Stephanie.
Somehow, she expected him to be unaffected by her mother’s death, and yet, be sensitive to it with them, when in fact, he was devastated. Doubtless, he felt he had lost the one person who sincerely ‘got’ him, the one person who he had shared his life with for many years. Her father was only human, after all, and he couldn’t be expected to continue with his life as if nothing happened.
Jason didn’t excuse his actions, though. The man had two daughters who needed him and he should have done his best to deal with his grief, and move on as best he could and take care of them. No. Jason didn’t excuse it, he understood it.
Stephanie was waving for him to get out of the car. Joining her and her dad, he could feel his eyes on him, weighing him. Jason met the man’s stare and her father’s features softened. He knew he had lost the right to judge any man Stephanie brought home a long time ago.
Jason stuck out his hand.
“It’s splendid to meet you sir, I’m Jason.”
“So Stephanie tells me.” Taking Jason’s hand and shaking it firmly. “You can call me Jack. I haven’t had anyone call me sir in a long time, and I’ve gotten used to being just Jack.”
“All right, Jack. Well, I’m glad to meet you,” Jason told him, smiling down at Stephanie.
“Likewise, though I didn’t know there was a possibility I would meet you.”
“Yeah, I apologize, Dad.” Stephanie stepped in. “I should have called. But, I didn’t know what to say. And I don’t know how to ask you this, so I’m just gonna ask.” Stephanie was uncomfortable. “Can we stay here for a while?”
“Can I ask why?” Holding up his palms apologetically, he continued. “I’m not saying I don’t want you to stay, or you can’t. I’m just saying I haven’t seen you in two years, my fault, but there it is. Two years and nothing, then you show up with some guy and ask to stay for a while.” He eyeballed each of them in turn. “You had to know I would want to know why.”
Stephanie stared at her dad for a long while before answering.
“Can we come inside? This is going to take a bit to explain.”
Jack stared at them both for a long time when Stephanie finished her story. Stephanie’s father was thoughtful before he broke the silence. “I wonder if you got this from your mother?”
Stephanie was taken aback at this possibility.
“Why would you think that?” Stephanie peered at her father quizzically.
“Well, I always found it odd your mother never got hurt. Perfect health and she always mended right quick.” Shaking his head and chuckling softly as if something funny had occurred to him.
“I remember one time hearing her cry out from the kitchen. I ran in there as fast as I could and your mother was standing over the sink with a towel wrapped around her finger. There was so much blood, the towel was soaked through and I had only been a moment reaching her.” Clicking his tongue, he peered at them, winking one eye.
“I thought for sure she had cut the tip of her finger off. Wa
s the only way there would be that much blood. Waving me off, said she just cut herself a little, nothing a Band-Aid and some time wouldn’t cure.”
“I remember insisting we go to the hospital and get some stitches,” he continued. “It was the first time I ever remember your mother getting angry. Yelling at me for suggesting it and accusing me of thinking she was wimp who couldn’t handle a little cut.”
Shaking his head again. “I was so surprised at her attitude, I stammered an apology and left her there.”
“Thinking back on it now, I wonder if it was what she intended. To upset me so much I wouldn’t question what I had thought I had seen. I assumed I was wrong, though I had seen someone cut the tip of their finger off before and seen how much blood was lost. You can't compare it to a cut which doesn't require stitches." He was lost in thought for a while, remembering the past.
"She wore a bandage for a week or so and when she took it off there wasn't a scar."
Shaking his head. "Apart from that, there is nothing else similar. I'm sure I would have noticed any...umm...changes, if they occurred. It seems logical she also had this...err...thing you have as well. But for some reason yours is a …" Again, he searched for the right words. " An advanced form, or whatever."
Stephanie nodded. It was nice to hear stories of her mom. She remembered her of course, the way she looked and special moments they had shared together or as a family, but there hadn't been many of those. Then she died. Afterwards, her father never spoke of her, until tonight. It was weird to hear her father speak of her mother now, and show some emotion in remembering her. She wasn't sure she understood the transformation her father had gone through, but it was nice.
Perhaps once Caroline left, and he was all alone, he had time to think about what he was like these years, to sincerely face his demons and cast them out.
"Well, Dad, if we could stay here for a while, till we figure out exactly what is happening to me… us." She smiled sheepishly as Jason, who smiled back re-assuredly.
The Awakening: Part Two (The Lycan War Saga) Page 16
