Revenge of Cornelius (3 page)

"Really?" Mira asked.

"Really."

"Why didn't you tell me he was keeping
you guys so hot?"

"Well, I'm telling you now." Sara
stopped what she was doing and leaned over the counter. "One day, I
came right out and asked him."

"Pray tell, what?" Mira was gearing up
for the disclosure.

"If he liked you."

"Mom…you didn't!"

"I certainly did!" Sara straightened
up again. "It was obvious that he did and I could see that he was
just too shy to reveal it."

"What did he say?"

"Do you really want to know?" Sara
seemed eager.

Mira thought for a moment and sighed
again. "To be honest with you, Mom... No, I don't really wanna
know. Bobby's a nice guy and all, but I'm not interested. I just
wanna focus on me and Rosie. I don't have any room in my life for a
relationship."

Sara's heart sank. "Mira!"

"What?"

"How can you say that? That you don't
have any room in your life for a relationship? Don't you want to
settle down with someone you can share your life with and grow old
together with?"

"I can do that with my daughter,
Mom."

"Now, that answer was just plain
silly!" Sara's hands were at the waist.

"Not to me."

"For your information, dear, Rosie is
going to grow up someday and meet a nice, handsome fella of her
own. She's not going to court you, my dear. She'll have her own
life to live." She leaned over the counter again. "Look…you've
known Bobby ever since grade school and you two have always gotten
along so well. Why not give him a chance? He is interested; he
straight out told me."

Mira was quiet. Sara could tell that
she was analyzing all of the information.

"I'm not interested, Mom," she finally
replied.

Sara exhaled heavily. "I can't believe
you, Mira!" She was shaking her head. "No man's ever going to be
good enough for you. I'm right. Ain't I?"

"I don't know what you're talking
about. Why are you making such a big deal of this anyway?" Mira was
becoming agitated. "I'm a grown woman now, Mom. If I choose to be
by myself for the rest of my life, that's my prerogative. I'm not
saying that's what I want. It's just that…"

"No one can ever fit the bill," Sara
interjected. "You know what I'm talking about."

"I have no idea, Mom. I really
don't."

Sara walked around the counter and sat
next to Mira. "Every single fella I knew that showed the slightest
interest in you, you push them away."

"You've lost me there."

"Take Rosie's father, for instance.
The guy just forgot your birthday and you dumped him!"

"Mother, for your information, Cody
and I had been dating for a full two years. There was no excuse for
him not to remember my birthday," Mira countered. "Furthermore, it
was more than just that."

"Sweet pea, you know that's all it
was. Cody was a real gentleman who treated you so well the time you
were together. No amount of calls or pleading on his part prompted
you to take him back after you broke up with him. I never
understood how you could do that."

"You weren't in the
relationship with him, Mom. You couldn't see his stupid flaws.
Furthermore, if he was such a nice guy and a
gentleman
as you say, how come after
he saw that I wasn't getting back with him, he moved away and
seemingly forgot he had a daughter. Such a nice guy he
is!"

"You're right about that," Sara
agreed. "He's so wrong and he'll regret that one day, but let's not
make this about Cody…I'm talking about you. Ever since that
incident with Karlen Key and Andy all those years ago, you've taken
on the viewpoint that love relationships must be perfect—like
theirs was."

"I really don't know what you're
talking about." Mira looked away momentarily.

"Don't you remember what you said to
me that very evening after Karlen and Andy were
re-united?"

"No."

"I remember. You said that when you
grew up, you would never fall in love with a man if he wasn't like
Andy."

"The revelation instantly jogged
Mira's memory."

"You said that he was the perfect man
and you wanted to have a relationship just like theirs when you
grew up," Sara continued.

Mira was silent.

"I think I understand now. You don’t
think you've found the man that's measured up to the standards
you've set based on those qualities you saw in Andy."

"That's ridiculous," Mira finally
responded.

"No, it's not and you know I'm right,
dear. I realize that experience you had all those years ago -
witnessing the extremely passionate, undying love they had for one
another made a lasting imprint in your young mind of what love
between a couple should be like. But sweetheart, I'm going to be
honest with you... Romantic relationships require work. When the
butterflies in the stomach settle down, couples tend to come back
to reality. The struggles, hardships and disagreements set in and
if the love is true and pure from the beginning, it can survive.
What you didn't see were the struggles, hardships and disagreements
Karlen and Andy might have had with each other when they were
courting. You didn't see the attitudes and personalities that
clashed from time to time. You just saw the most meaningful
part—which is how strong and lasting their love was that even
transcended death and that's what was so beautiful and gave you the
outlook on life you have today."

"I don't know, Mom. You've arrived at
such a deep conclusion to a simple matter," Mira said.

Sara gently stroked her daughter's
hair, then got up and walked back around the counter.

"Just think about what I said. I know
when you and your brother were younger, you didn't see much
affection coming my way from your father and I know that's not what
you want for your life. But you know your father is a different man
now and these past fifteen years have made up for all the years
prior to that. He's more loving, affectionate and although he's
still not much of a talker, he communicates way more than he used
to. Our love may not be a fairy-tale type of romance, but it's true
love and as we're growing old together, we're both grateful that
we're here for each other and enjoying life. That's what I want for
you—someone you can share your life with in a loving, caring way."
She placed two sandwiches on a tray. "I'm going to take these to
your father and Rosie."

Mira sat at the kitchen counter,
surprised that her mother had even brought up the Karlen and Andy
saga.

She pulled up one of the
sandwiches and took a bite. Her mother was beginning to get inside
her head.
Maybe she's
right
, she thought. Then in a split
second, she decided that she still felt the same way as before and
nothing her mother said was going to change that.

That night…

Mira was helping Rosie with her pajama
top. The little one had just finished her bubble bath.

"Why do you always do this, Mom? I'm
old enough to do it myself," Rosie stated
matter-of-factly.

Just then, Sara appeared at the door.
"So you're ready for bed now, huh?"

"Yes, Nana," Rosie answered
cheerfully. "Umm…Nana, may I watch one more program with Pops
before I go to sleep?"

"Now, pumpkin…" Sara stepped further
into the room, "…that's completely up to your mother." She glanced
at Mira.

"Mom, can I?" Rosie made her
plea.

"Honey, it's late. It's actually
almost ten o'clock now." Mira glanced at the clock affixed to the
wall. "You and Dad have watched television for hours already. Dad
has to get some sleep and so do you. There's always tomorrow,
okay?"

Sara smiled as she looked
on.

"Okay, Mom." Rosie pouted a little as
she climbed into bed.

Mira walked toward her mother. "Can
they ever get enough of that TV?" Mira remarked. "She's not
interested nearly as much when we're home."

"That's because that is their special
thing," Sara responded. "Whenever your father passes on…" she
lowered her voice to a whisper, "…that's most likely the thing
she'll miss the most. They're creating memories that will last a
lifetime. Have a good night, dear." She patted Mira's shoulder and
left the room.

4

_________________

After breakfast, Rosie and her grandfather busied themselves with a
game of Checkers. Mira washed the dishes, then sauntered out into
the western side of the yard where her parents had placed two
adjustable patio chairs side by side near the plum tree. She
reached up and snatched a few plums, then stretched out in one of
the tilted chairs.

As she sucked the delectable flesh of
plum, the early sun met her ankles. She welcomed the warm glow that
soaked through her strapped sandals.

"There you are!" Sara said. "I was
wondering where you had disappeared to."

"This was really a cool idea putting
these chairs in this spot." Mira spat out a seed and put another
plum in her mouth.

"It's better than being on the front
porch," Sara noted, sitting in the other chair. "There's no shade
there, so when the sun's piping hot, you've got to get indoors
unless you're looking for a tan."

There was a brief silence.

"Your father and I are taking Rosie to
the theme park today. I just told her before I came out
here."

"That's great. She'll love
it."

"Afterwards, we're going for cake and
ice-cream. I haven't told her that part yet, though," Sara
giggled.

"You're trying to do all of that
today?" Mira asked.

"Sure. Why not? We'll leave around
noon, so we'll have plenty of time to get everything
in."

"I just think it's a lot for you and
Dad to do. You'll most likely be at the park for hours and after
that, you'll all be tired—except maybe for Rosie. Whenever I go
there, the only thing I wanna do right after is come home and go to
sleep."

"That's because you young people are
not as strong sometimes as us older folks. Wiser, but
weaker…"

"Sure, Mom," Mira smirked.

"I took these two weeks' vacation
because I wanted to spend as much time as I can with you guys and I
plan to get in as much fun time as possible. I thought Rosie was
excited about going to the theme park, but your father is even more
excited than she is!"

A sudden burst of laughter escaped the
house. "I win! I win!" They heard Rosie exclaim.

Mira and Sara laughed.

"It's like no one else on earth
matters once she's with her Pops." Sara smiled.

"So true."

At that moment, Mira's attention
shifted toward the far, southern end of the street.

Sara could not help but notice the
length of her daughter's stare. "Did I ever tell you that a family
moved into that house?" she asked.

"What house?"

"Cornelius Ferguson's
house."

Mira gaped at her mother. "Really?
When?"

"A few months ago, a senator and his
family moved in after fixing up the place pretty good. The house
was vacant for well over a decade, so they must have had a great
deal of work to get that place inhabitable. By the way, they're
colored folks too," Sara noted.

Mira sat straight up—clearly stunned.
"I wonder if they heard the stories."

"I have no idea. I heard the husband
isn't very friendly and the wife rarely associates with anyone
around here neither, so I couldn’t tell you what they
know."

Mira leaned slowly back again. "Well,
maybe they're doing just fine at the house since Karlen's no longer
there. I would think it's nice and peaceful just like any other
house would be. I'm surprised that it remained empty all those
years after she moved on."

"You might be forgetting, sweet pea
that only a handful of people knew that Karlen moved on. People
around this town fear that once a place was haunted, it's always
haunted anyway, so if they knew or not, it might not have made a
difference."

"Did they save most of the bearing
trees?" Mira asked. "I can still see a few from here."

"Most of the trees that were there in
front of the property are still there," Sara returned. "They
cleared down the entrance that leads to the house starting more at
the right side of where the fence used to be. I guess they didn't
have the heart to uproot all those lovely, fruit-bearing trees.
They did a really nice job with the driveway. You can't see it from
here."

Suddenly, Mira had an idea. "Maybe
Rosie and I will pay them a visit. What's their
surname?"