Page 14 of Rage's Solace
Meli’s the closest thing I have to a mom. Me and her son, Venom, took a blood brother oath a few months ago. At the time it was just a silly thing, but I really appreciated the thought. Turns out Ven took it seriously, as did his mom who always wanted more kids, so since then I’ve been treated as a member of the family. She seems to really like Mia, so she jumps at the chance. Turning to Mia, she says, “If you stay, we can bake cookies, just like you wanted.”
“Yay! Cookies!” Mia says excitedly. Then she bends down and claps her hand for Barley to come to her. “Did you hear that, Barley. I’m staying the whole day, and we get cookies.”
“No cookies for Barley,” Meli says.
Mia’s face falls, “But he loves cookies, he told me so.”
“Maybe we can make him some special dog cookies then,” Meli grins as she scratches the top of Barley’s head.
“Watch it,” I tease. “If you’re not careful, Meli will put you to work in the restaurant.”
Meli just laughs, “Maybe someday, when she is older, she can wait tables, my Serp did that at weekends.”
Mia gleefully tells Barley, “Did you hear that, boy. I landed my first job too.”
Priscilla is all smiles when we leave. Clearly, she trusts Meli with her daughter.
I help get Priscilla settled in the passenger side of my truck because I don’t want her climbing up unaided. After making sure she’s okay I get in and start the engine before explaining, “Over the last two weeks, I’ve taken Mia out to Meli’s restaurant several times. Mia loves it there. She’s even taken to cutting flowers and creating little mini flower arrangements. She gives them away and decorates her room with them.”
“She has a room at your house?” Priscilla says in a surprised voice.
“Of course. What did you think I was doing, locking her in the attic?”
“Well no. Naturally, you would put her in your guest room.” Blushing all over again, she mumbles, “I don’t know what I was thinking. To be honest, I’ve been thinking of us as homeless.”
“Don’t be silly, woman. You’re going to stay at my place until you’re back on your feet—however long you need. It’s a little out of the way cottage down a dirt road that leads to nowhere. You’re going to love it.”
She perks up. “I’ve never lived in the country, it sounds a bit isolated.”
“Well, it’s notthatisolated,” I tell her with a mischievous grin, “besides me, there are bears, coyotes, and wildcats.”
“Oh okay, you’re scaring me now. Why would you pick such an out of the way location?”
The curiosity in her voice is all kinds of cute. Priscilla’s most certainly a city girl and I’m pretty sure she’ll want to get back to it as soon as possible after she heals up. I decide to tell her the story of how I ended up with my home. “The house originally belonged to my neighbor. He was an older man with no family. After getting called out to his place one time when he fell and broke his hip, I started stopping by every day to check on him after he got out of hospital.”
“Oh, that was really sweet of you. I’m sure he appreciated the help.”
“Actually, it was my fucking honor to know him. He was a retired Purple Heart veteran and had traveled the world back in the day.” Taking a deep breath, I continue, “You’re right though. He did appreciate me coming to check on him and making sure he got to his medical appointments and got his prescriptions filled. We used to sit out on the porch and talk for hours. I really miss Gerald. Since he didn’t have anyone, he left everything to me, including his house. I could have sold it, but I decided to keep it because it reminds me of him and the stories he would tell.”
Priscilla immediately chimes in, “I am so sorry you lost your friend. There is no kind of pain like grieving.”
There’s something in her voice and I wonder who she lost, though maybe she’s referring to her husband? I don’t know what things were like between then, “I know Conrad was a real asshole. Does some small part of you miss him.”
She turns to look out the window and takes a few minutes to organize her thoughts. “With Conrad, it’s complicated. He wasn’t always bad.”
“Yeah, you never really know what someone’s capable of. You think you know their limits right up until they pull the rug out from under you.”
She turns to me and nods. “You’re not wrong about that.”
“It’s hard to grieve over the person who tried to kill you, right?”
She nods and wrings her hands in her lap. “Yeah, that’s about the size of it. I didn’t love him and don’t feel grief so much as relief that it’s all finally over and I’m away from that family.”
Her story really drags out all my protective instincts all over again. I want to ask why she didn’t reach out to me. She has to know that I would have moved heaven and earth to get her out of there. I don’t ask though because I don’t want us to get mired down in the sins of our past. She didn’t want me. I shouldn’t be worried about why she didn’t call me when things went bad with her marriage. “Any idea why your parents had their hearts set on an asshole like Conrad for you to marry?”
She takes a deep breath and says, “It was because his family was wealthy. For the duration of our marriage my parents got a hefty stipend from his family.”
That doesn’t make a bit of sense to me. “Why would your parents have needed that money? They were wealthy in their own right.”