Abound in Love (7 page)

She’d
turned toward him and he had smiled encouragingly. 

“Dalton!”
Candace had called from downstairs.  “Get back down here!  We’re leaving.”

Although
Dalton had made her feel incrementally better, she’d known her sister was going
to talk about her for much of the evening, poking fun and laughing at her. 
Even then she’d wondered why Candace treated her so badly.  They were sisters. 
Weren’t sisters supposed to care about each other?

As
Laura drifted toward sleep now, a series of hurtful memories ran through her
mind like a bad movie.  Being back here, in the room she’d shared with Candace,
was probably a bad idea, she mused groggily, as she felt herself succumbing to
sleep…

***

“Laura! 
Laura!  Wake up!” a deeply masculine voice whispered into right ear.  “Wake
up.  It’s all right.”

Unable
to shrug off sleep’s hold, Laura remained imprisoned within the nightmare.  It
was Halloween.  She was fifteen, Candace seventeen.  A group of her sister’s
friends had commandeered the family’s living room.  They were dressed for the
holiday, though they were attending a harvest day party at their church, rather
than attending any ‘Halloween’ events.

Laura,
dressed as a character from her favorite movie of the time, had come
downstairs.  She was going to the same event at their church later that
evening.  She remembered someone inquiring of Candace what exactly her costume
represented.  She was dressed in a plaid skirt and button down white top and
wore comfortable, serviceable loafers on her feet.  She’d pulled her hair into
pig tails and was wearing a pair of lense-less glasses Laura recognized.  They
were an old pair she’d worn when she was younger.  She’d known immediately who
her sister was dressed as—her.

“You
don’t know who I am?” Candace had asked, as she had risen from the couch and
spun around to give everyone a clear view of the entire costume.  “Really?” 
She had laughed delightedly then.  “I’m a nerd—specifically, I’m…”  She’d
turned toward Laura and grinned triumphantly.  “I’m Laura!”

The
group had erupted into laughter during the real event, but in Laura’s
nightmare, they had risen from their respective seats and come toward her,
chanting, “I’m Laura.  I’m Laura…”

“Laura,
wake up,” Dalton said firmly, now shaking her shoulder.

Finally,
finally, she managed to wake up, and she stared into Dalton’s concerned face. 
“I’m … awake,” she said, though she felt anything but.

“You
were having a nightmare,” he told her. 

“Yes. 
I think you’re right.”

“Do you
remember what it was about?”

She
wasn’t about to tell him that an event from her childhood still had the power
to hurt her deeply enough to cause a nightmare.  She shook her head.  “No, I
don’t remember.”

He rose
to a standing position.  “It’s nearly noon.  I made lunch.  Nothing fancy, just
a couple sandwiches.  Are you hungry?”

She sat
up and swung her legs over the side of the mattress.  She thought for a
second.  “I am.  Will you give me a moment?  I’ll be right down.”

“Are
you sure you’re all right?”  And to her surprise, he said softly, “Coming home
has a way of stirring up old memories, doesn’t it?”

She
lifted her eyes to his.  She saw sympathy in the depths of his irises.  Seeing
it there, knowing he’d been witness to the many humiliations she’d suffered
courtesy of her sister and her friends…  His friends…  She felt embarrassed,
inadequate—as if she were the same awkward girl she’d been when he’d last seen
her.

“You
know, I … think I’m going to pass on the sandwich.  I’m really not that
hungry.”

Dalton
swallowed hard and spread his hands.  “Laura, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to…”

“You
didn’t.”

He
stared intently into her face.  “Laura…”

She
forced herself to make eye contact.   

“I’m
sorry I didn’t do more to…”

She
understood what he meant.  He was apologizing for not intervening on her behalf
more often.  Though, aside from Thomas, he was the only one who ever had.

She
stood up and forced a smile.  “Don’t worry about it.  It’s ancient history.” 
She turned away from him, desperately hoping he hadn’t seen her eyes moisten
from the tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks.  She braced, waiting for
the sound of Dalton leaving the room.

Relief
flooded through her when she heard his receding footsteps, though she stiffened
when she sensed he’d paused at the door.

“Laura?”

“Yeah,”
she said crisply, attempting to sound like herself.

“If
it’s any consolation, I think you’re the bravest person I’ve ever known.”

L
aura
remained upstairs in her bedroom the entire day.  Occasionally, she heard
Dalton puttering around downstairs, but she just couldn’t bring herself to join
him.  If she’d known he was living with her brother, she probably would have
booked a hotel nearby.

As much
as she tried to tell herself she was a grown woman, long past her romantic
musings about her siblings’ friend, she couldn’t seem to shake off those
wistful feelings.  It was ridiculous that someone she hadn’t seen in years—who
really wasn’t someone she’d ever associated with—still held sway over her
heart.

She was
beginning to regret coming home.  She should have stayed in Georgia, where she
remained intensely focused on her career, to an extent that romance was the
furthest thing from her mind. 

Thinking
of the job awaiting her back home, she retrieved her laptop from its case and
glanced around the room.  Her eyes lit on the old desk she and Candace had
shared—or more often than not—had fought over.  She remembered her mother had
picked it up at a garage sale, given it a coat of white paint, and installed it
in their room.  Laura had spent many an evening at the old desk, pouring over
books, or doing homework. 

Crossing
the room with her laptop in hand, she tried to remember if there was a plug-in
nearby the desk.  They were few and far between in the old farmhouse.  If
memory served, however, there had to be a plug-in nearby, since she remembered
she’d often studied under the muted light of an old lamp.  Fleetingly she
wondered what had happened to the lamp.

She set
the laptop on the desk and bent down, in order to look behind it.  Sure enough,
she spied the plug-in, but she noticed something else, as well.  It appeared to
be an envelope.  She leaned in, closer to the back of the desk, and extended
her arm as far as she could manage.  She gripped the envelope between two
fingers and pulled it out.  Without glancing at it, she plugged in her PC’s
charger, and rose from the floor.

Turning
her attention to the envelope, which was sealed, but had no writing on the
face, she was about to open it when she heard the sound of her niece’s eager
voice.  “Aunt Laura!  Are you up there?”

“I’m
here, Krissy!”

The
little girl charged into the bedroom.  “Aunt Laura, I got an ‘A’ on my division
test!”

Laura
pulled open the top drawer of the desk and tossed the envelope inside.  She’d
have to have a look at it later.  “Krissy, that’s great news!”

“Are
you gonna come downstairs?” the little girl asked.  “Please come down.”

“Okay,
honey.  I will.”

“Uncle
Thomas is in a bad mood,” she warned, lowering her voice slightly and making a
scary face.

Laura
furrowed her brow.  “He is?  Why?”

Krissy
shrugged her shoulders.  “I don’t know.  He said something about his life being
turned upside down…”  She narrowed her eyes in thought.  “Oh, I remember!  He
said his life was being turned upside down ‘through no fault of his own.’  He
also said he ‘used to have a life.’”

“He
said that in front of you kids?” Laura asked, concerned.  It surprised her he
would talk like that in front of the children.

“Well,
no,” she said.  “I heard him.  He was in his bedroom.  He was being loud,
opening drawers and closing them and stuff.”

“And
you could hear him from the living room?”  She hadn’t heard him from upstairs.

The
little girl appeared sheepish.  “Well, no, but when I put my ear against his
door…”

“Krissy!”
Laura scolded, attempting to keep her expression stern.  “You should not be
spying on your uncle.”

“But I
was worried,” she declared.  “He’s usually smiley and happy, but when he drove
us home, he was really quiet and…”

“Okay,
okay.  Why don’t I go check on him?  Do you have any homework to do?  Maybe you
could sit at the desk and start it, and I’ll come back up and see how you’re
doing when I’m done talking to Uncle Thomas.”

“Okay.”

Downstairs,
Thomas was nowhere to be seen, so he was apparently still in his room.   Kenny
was sprawled out on the sofa, watching television.

“Hello,
Kenny.  How was your day?”

He
shrugged.  “Okay.”

“Do you
have any homework?”

“I did
it at school,” he told her, without looking at her.  He reminded her of a surly
teen, but then, at eleven, he was nearing adolescence. 

“Hey,
is your uncle still in his room?” she asked him.

This
time, he turned toward her.  “Yeah, and he’s upset about something.  I don’t
know what, but it probably has something to do with me and Krissy.”

Laura
gasped.  “Why would you say that, honey?”

He
turned away again and fixed his eyes on the cartoon playing on the television
screen.  “Because, he’s stuck with us ‘cuz nobody else wants to watch us.  As
if I can’t take care of myself.  I’m eleven—old enough, but my parents won’t
let us be alone, so…”  He gave a world-weary shrug.  “Uncle Thomas is stuck
with us, cuz he’s too nice to say ‘no’ to my parents.”

Laura
sighed.  “I think he watches you two because he loves you,” she said
succinctly.

“Yeah,
sure.”

Laura
raised a finger, as if gesturing for him to give her a moment.  He didn’t
notice, since his eyes were still intent on the television.  She walked down
the short hallway to her brother’s room and knocked lightly on the door. 

“Who is
it?” he called, and she had to admit, his voice did hold a surly note.

“Your
visiting sister.  May I come in?”

She
heard the sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor.  The door flung open.  “Did
you need something?”

“No,
but my guess is, you do.”

He ran
a hand through his dark hair.  “What does that mean?” he asked, with a weary
sigh.

“It’s
Friday night.  Why don’t you and Macy go out together?  You look like you could
use a break.”

Thomas
pressed his eyelids closed.  He stood silently for a full moment.

“What
are you doing?” Laura asked, perplexed.

“Remembering
what it was like when Macy and I were actually able to spend a quiet evening
together.”

“And
how long has it been since the two of you went out on a date?”

“Over a
month.”

“Well,
you’re in luck, brother.  You’re going out tonight.”

“If
you’ll remember, you have a dinner date with our elusive sister.”

“Oh,
that’s right,” she mused.  “Well…   Hmmm?  Hey, wait, didn’t Candace say the
kids are accompanying us?”

He gave
a bleak smile.  “You just wait.  She won’t take them.  Something will come up. 
Something inevitably comes up.”

Laura
pinned him with a look.  “Thomas, there’s something you’re not telling me,” she
said, watching him through suspicious eyes.

He
sighed.  “Nothing … concrete.  It’s only speculation at this point.”

“Fill
me in,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

He
shook his head.  “No.  Not until I’m certain.”

“Okaaayyy. 
But anyway, one way or another, I’ll see that you get an evening with your
fiancée.  I promise.”

Thomas
took a deep, shoring breath.  “I’m sorry, Laura.  I apologize for behaving like
a petulant, middle-school student, but I’m just…”

“Tired,”
she interjected.  “I can see that.  It’s clear you need a break.  I’m sorry
you’ve taken on the…”

“Burden
of watching us,” Kenny said from the doorway.

Both
Laura and Thomas turned toward the little boy, stunned. 

“Kenny! 
You are not a burden,” Thomas protested.

“Honey,
you could never be a burden,” Laura said earnestly.

“Yeah,
right.  Our own mother doesn’t even want us.  Why should you?”  He spun around
and ran out of the house.  Both Laura and Thomas charged after him, but he was
too quick and already out the front door.  Thankfully, they spied a patrol car
coming up the driveway.