Intaglio: The Snake and the Coins (20 page)

“Oh really,” Ava
replied, narrowing her eyes and tipping her head to the side.  “Can I ask
you,
Sergeant Major Thomas,
sir... what exactly is YOUR expertise when
it comes to painting?  Please share that with me.  I’d
love
to
hear all about it.

Ava stepped
forward, invading his space as she said it, and she caught the exact moment
that his eyes flared open. 
Furious. 
She had a reckless urge
to push him harder.  Because she just
knew
he was going to push
back.  She wanted him to.

‘
Can’t
fucking wait...’
the angry part of her mind prompted.  It was always
there – her darker side –  the part of Ava that needed to use fists or
spray cans to display its anger.  That part was laying in wait, and today
it was suddenly back. 

Ready.

He had just
opened his mouth to answer when Nina stepped between them, her narrow shoulder
blocking his next words. 

“Oh goodness,
Ava dear,” she said, her hands fluttering up to her chest. “Would you... uh...
would you mind giving me a hand?  I’ll... um... I’ll need a bit of help in
the kitchen... if you don’t mind, that is...  Get the coffee going and all
that.” 

Her words
tumbled out in rapid succession, cheeks flushed and red.  Without waiting
for an answer, she grabbed hold of Ava’s arm and practically dragged her out of
the room.

Ava
grimaced. 

‘This is going
to be a long fucking weekend.’

: : : : : : : :
: :

Cole had known
bringing Ava home would bother his father. 
He’d been counting on it,
actually. 
But it was almost comical how quickly the sparks had
started.  Something almost like guilt tickled lightly at the edges of his
chest, but he pushed it away under a layer of resentment.

His father
deserved
this.

Frank stared at
the doorway as Nina’s shoes tapped down the hall to the kitchen. 
‘Never
used to wait for Hanna and I to get out of the room...
’ Cole thought,
gritting his teeth.  The marriage of Angela and Frank Thomas had been
loudly unhappy.  There were no quiet talks in the study for them.

‘Not like now…’

Frank spun on
his son the second the two women disappeared around the corner.

“You have a lot
of nerve bringing a girl like
that
into my house!” he snarled, his voice
thunderous.  “She’s got absolutely no manners, she is obnoxious, vulgar,
arrogant and—”

“I really don’t give
a shit for your opinion,” Cole snapped back.  “Nina told me I could bring
her for Christmas, and I did. 
Ava’s my girlfriend
.  Deal with
it!”

The older man
stepped forward, and Cole sneered, wondering if – as he hoped – he was going to
be asked to leave before the four days were actually over.

“Cole, if that…
that...
girlfriend... 
of yours wrecks this holiday for us, I’m
going to hold you
personally responsible for it.”

Cole smiled at
him, but it was devoid of warmth.

“Yes, Dad. 
I’m sure you will.”

Nina prattled
nervously while Ava sat at the counter on a wooden stool.  The kitchen –
like the rest of the house – was elegant in its understated beauty.  The
cupboards were pale cream panels with a beaded backboard, the counters granite,
the appliances brushed steel.  Around the room, small ornaments – a bowl
of dried flowers, framed children’s artwork, embroidered tea towels – gave
homey touches to the room. 

It was the kind
of kitchen that family sitcoms were filmed in, only Ava was starting to realize
that it was all a facade.  This was a family that never laughed.
‘The
house is an empty shell,
’ she thought.
‘Just a frame of a picture that’s
already been destroyed.’
  The idea disturbed her.

Nina Thomas
didn’t require answers while she chattered.  She dropped random bits of
information--the news, the weather, her family recipes--in short, disjointed
phrases as she pulled things out of the cupboard.  Uninvolved in the
one-way conversation, Ava watched as the older woman worked.  She poured
coffee beans into the grinder, then jumped as they were crushed into
grounds.  Her nervous energy imbued the whole room with anxiety.

Ava cleared her
throat and the older woman glanced up.

“Is Cole’s fa—
...is the Sergeant Major
always
like that?”

Nina paused,
pulling heavy white mugs from the cupboard.  She turned toward Ava, her
eyes worried.

“Not always...”
she replied haltingly.  “Not even
most
the time.  It’s only
with...”

There was an
uneasy break in the conversation, as if she was afraid she’d already said too
much.

“Cole?” 
Ava prompted. 

“Yes.” 

Ava stared out
the window at the glittering Christmas lights and the wintry postcard scene,
finally dragging her eyes through the facade of the perfect family kitchen,
back to Nina.

“Look, can I ask
you something?”

“Of course,
Ava.”

Leaving the
mugs, Cole’s stepmother walked over to the counter, tension slowly easing from
her face.

“Why did you
bother inviting me here?”Ava asked, tipping her head.  As unpleasant as it
was, Ava felt driven to know the answer.   “I mean I’ve been here
for, what...?”  She glanced at the clock above the door. “Twenty
minutes?   I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in someone’s house before
in my life.”

That, of course,
wasn’t
entirely
true, but Ava didn’t want to launch into a dissertation
on her mother.  For a second, Nina Thomas stood frozen and unmoving. 
Then something seemed to shift in the balance and she shrunk visibly, her
shoulders curling inward.

“Oh Lord...” she
cried, face crumpling like wet tissue paper, “I’m so very sorry, dear... I
shouldn’t have... I....”  Her words disappeared as she  fingers
pressed against her lips. “Oh, what have I done?”

“Whoa – hey now,
no big deal!” Ava yelped, eyes widening in concern.   “I just want to
know
why
I’m supposed to be here.  I mean I kind of thought Cole
wanted me to… um...” The words faded uneasily.  She felt embarrassed and
exposed, her relationship with Cole suddenly on display.  “I um… I just
thought he wanted me to meet you guys.  But things are just....
different
than I expected.”

Nina reached
out, patting Ava’s hand.  She smiled again, though her lips trembled.

“Oh, honey, I’m
certain Cole
does
want you to meet us, and for us to like you.” 
She sniffled loudly, brushing her hands over her hair, standing taller. 
“And I certainly do.”  (Ava couldn’t help but notice Frank Thomas wasn’t
included in that description.)  “But Cole finds family gatherings...
difficult
...
He has as long as I’ve known him, and he...”

Nina stopped,
fiddling with things on the counter.  She picked up a dishtowel and kept
pressing the folds of it again and again.

“Yes?” 

Nina sighed,
looking at Ava wearily.

“Cole also knows
exactly
what to do and say to push his father away.  I’m certain
the fact that you’re an artist – and a
graffiti artist
at that – was
part of his decision to bring you.  He mentioned your colourful past to us
for a reason.”  She shook her head sadly.  “He was getting ready for
this fight
long before you arrived.”

Ava took a sharp
breath, her annoyance with Cole rising.  Conscious or not, he had been
pulling
her into this dysfunction.  Planning it.

“Well, that’s
fucking great,” Ava snarled, then suddenly realized what she’d said.  Her
eyes darted up to Nina, wide and worried.  “Sorry –
shit!
– I’ll
try not to swear, but I can’t promise anything... I have an awful mouth
sometimes.” 

She blushed
furiously, but Nina giggled.

“Yes, Ava, you
do,” she chortled.  “But you’re also honest and brave and….  I like
that.”

The tension
broke. The two women sat and talked, a small spark of family lighting between
them, filling the space with much-needed laughter.

: : : : : : : :
: :

Nina eventually
took Ava to the room she’d set up for her and Cole.  The guest house was
the official title, though really it was just a private suite above the garage
– separate from the rest of the house.  Ava’s eyes widened upon seeing
it.  Though smaller, the rooms were decorated more expensively than her
apartment.  Oil paintings of sea and surf covered the walls, a jetted tub
filled one corner of the large bathroom, and in the combined bedroom / sitting
room, there was a fireplace and a flat-screen television.  All of it rang
of fine craftsmanship and wealth, leaving Ava acutely aware that Cole came from
money.

Dinner was held
in the kitchen rather than the dining room.  Nina ordered everything in;
sushi and appetizers, several bottles of wine, and numerous boxes of food
cluttered the counter. It felt like a casual dinner party.  Nina fluttered
around, checking on everyone, seemingly at ease once more.  Ava decided
that she liked Cole’s stepmother.  The woman was a bundle of energy, with
quick laughter and a story for everything.  In fact, Ava decided if she
could just spend the
entire
weekend with Nina Thomas, she might actually
survive it. 

Cole, on the
other hand, hadn’t been seen since the argument in the den.  Nina leaned
around the carved banister to shout up to him.

“Don’t make me
come up and get you, young man!”
 

Ava chuckled.

Nina headed back
into the kitchen, leaning in to Frank as she passed.

“I think he’s in
Hanna’s room again,” she said quietly.

Ava’s laughter
abruptly stopped. 

In the kitchen,
Cole’s father nodded and continued to pull plates from the cupboard.  The
earlier sadness took on a stronger tang, ghosts of the past flitting through
the room.  Hanna – a young woman Ava now recognized from the photos lining
the walls – whispered to her from the wallpaper.  Her shadow moving around
the empty frames.  Ava watched Cole’s father set the table with a lump in
her throat: Frank’s grief for the loss of his daughter was palpable.

A few minutes
later, Cole came down the stairs, face cold and distant.  He sat next to
Ava at the kitchen table, eating in a daze, speaking when spoken to.  His
father sat in stony silence, hands fisted beside his plate, glaring when Ava
caught his eyes.  She smirked, holding back the urge to stick out her
tongue.

‘Fuck you,’
she thought
more than once.  (But she didn’t say it.)  She’d had lots of practise
in Wilkins’ class holding those thoughts inside.

As they started
eating, Nina slid her chair closer to Ava and the two of them restarted their
discussion from earlier.  Nina’s journalistic past was surprisingly
eventful.  Seeing them talking, Frank’s scowl darkened.  Cole,
sitting next to him, was now his only option for conversation. 

In minutes, Ava
and Nina were deep in dialogue.  Nina was particularly adamant about the
need for government funding for the Arts.  Ava liked that about her. 
Cole’s stepmother was a bit of a renegade, and had supported several protests
in the capital during the previous election.  Ava thought of Suzanne and
Marcus... they’d get along with Nina.  The two women were so engrossed
that they hardly heard the argument brewing.  Vague mutterings, like the
rumble of distant thunder, were the first hint.  Ava was telling a story
about her father when Frank barked loudly, silencing them all.

“... and if you
think goofing around at some art school was the start of any REAL kind of career,
then you’re more of a fool than I thought!”

“Frank!” Nina
gasped, “you promised!”  She dropped her fork with a clatter, her face
blanching.

Neither man
seemed to notice.

“I’m not FOOLING
AROUND with anything!” Cole snapped.  “I took a year off to get my
portfolio ready, and I got a full scholarship so—”

“Which you
wouldn’t have NEEDED if you’d gone into the Forces!” Frank grunted.

Cole’s jaw was
clenched tight, his hand clutching the edge of the table.

“Military worked
for you,” he snarled.  “But it’d never work for me.” 

“How the hell
can you judge that when
you never even TRIED!”

Ava's body
tensed as her gaze skittered between father and son.  Anger boiled under
the surface of the conversation, and she was horrified to see them
explode.   Ava thought she saw the hint of a smile tug Cole’s mouth,
and she was absolutely
certain
he was going to do something stupid.

She was almost
right.

“Well, Hanna
gave the military a try, and look what that got HER!”  Cole shouted.