Stardust (6 page)

Chapter Five

When The Stars Align

I stood in the garden and stared at the plaque. It was a dedication to the town of Stillcreek, in honor of the founders of the mill, that of my mom’s family. The
McGuires. My mom’s bloodline ran back to the creation of the stars, or so she said. I swear, the way she talked about them, you would think they built the Ark. Truth was they were immigrants, from Ireland. A family with the desire to succeed and so they did when they migrated to Stillcreek in 1803 and started to take advantage of the lush forests surrounding it. When my mom’s great-great-grandfather, Charles, came here with his wife, Rose, they had little to their names but work ethic. Charles took one look around and used the bit of money they had to purchase land, and land was gold. He bought up the hillsides of Stillcreek and began logging. After a year, he had hired a crew, built the mill and started to construct the home that I grew up in.

I reached out and placed my fingers on the metal plaque and then turned to look at Cody and Jess as her laughter cut through the air like a knife. She had always been one to draw attention to herself and she was even more outgoing when she wanted someone to focus on only her. I knew this all too well as she charmed me when we were growing up. Don’t get me wrong, Jess did not trick me, she just allowed me to truly understand
who I am. When I was with her, everything else seemed to not matter. Not the pressures of school, my home life or my fear of the future. I guess I should be grateful that her friendship and the relationship we did have helped me get through the awkwardness of middle school and early high school.

She reached up and touched his chest as she spoke in a quieter tone, her hand flat against him and she stared into his eyes. Her pouty lips moved, but I could not hear what she was saying. Surely it was something interesting, she always had something to say about everything. I called out to Cody, purely out of need to break them up.

“This is dedicated to my family,” I said as he grinned at me and nodded. He left her standing there as she watched him walk towards me. Her expression not an angry one, but she definitely knew the competition was stiff.

I may have had a fling with Jess, but the weird need to outdo each other started when we were twelve and ended when we stopped
seeing
each other. I still remember the day she walked into school with Brad Bannister on her arm and I stood there, at my locker, holding my books to my chest. The calls and the slumber parties had already stopped, but nothing really prepared me for the shock of it when I saw her grinning up at him, her brown hair bouncing on her shoulders and her expression one of triumph. She had whispered Brad’s name on the wind for years and I knew she had a crush on him, but we…anyway. It was over that day and we never really spoke to any extent afterward, not like we used to. Minus the one late night she called me up and said she missed me, but that quickly faded when we returned to school the following Monday.

I really think that Jess gave into pressure. I mean, a lot of people do. Seeing that SHE was actually the one who kissed ME first...well, you know what I mean.
She had bravely stepped out of the closet for a year and then retreated, to this day, I am not quite sure why. She never said and I never asked her. I simply burned all of her letters to me, telling me how much I meant to her and how we would always be close. The word love sprinkled in here and there just as a means to string me along until she landed the football player she fawned over. Do I sound bitter? I may be, just a little bit, but it was not from heartache, it was from the feeling of being betrayed. I can forgive many things, but disloyalty is not one of them.

Cody walked up to me and then glanced at the plaque mounted to the large rock in front of me. I grinned at it as he leaned and read it. I looked past him at Jess, who decided she might as well join us because he was not going to simply walk back to her. She sighed and walked up, looking at her nails and then leaning to see the plaque.

“Jazzy here is royalty.”

I laughed, it sounded nervous, but truthfully, her words amused me.
Like I am royalty of any sort.

“Oh yeah?” Cody asked as she stood up and looked me over. I rolled my eyes.

“She is joking, I am not royalty.”

Jess stepped around him and bent over a little, her jean shorts tight and her butt as round as ever. I glanced at it, but not with interest. Suddenly, her being here was starting to annoy me more than I expected it to.

“Charles McGuire pretty much built this town into what it is today. Without Jazz’s family, Stillcreek would not be here, none of this would be.”

I smiled and looked around the garden. “Well it had nothing to do with me.”

Jess smiled and stepped up behind me. She wrapped her arms around me and I laughed as she rocked us back and forth. “You never were good at taking a compliment.” I stopped her and stepped forward, breaking her hold on me as Cody watched us. She was obviously trying to be cute.

“I can take a compliment just fine, but the fact that my mom’s ancestors built up this town, and the mill, has nothing to do with me.”

Jess crossed her arms on her chest and grinned at me. She always loved to push my buttons and maybe I liked it.

“I am just kidding, I am sorry. Don’t be mad, Jazzy.”

“It’s just Jazz.”

She let her arms relax and glanced at Cody. “Okay, well…I need to get back. It was nice meeting you, Cody, and it was great to see you again, Jasmine. Again, I am sorry about your dad. I really liked him, a lot. You know that I did.”

I looked down as her words sounded sincere. She was also good at that, at switching gears on me, or she used to be. I nodded to her as she hesitated and then decided to not hug me again. She turned and slid her hands into the pockets of her ripped up jean shorts as both Cody and I watched her walk out of the wrought iron gates. I sighed and looked at Cody, who obviously had something to say.

“She is something else.”

I paused and then spoke, my voice even and calm. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Cody pointed in her direction. “So you and her?” he paused like I may not appreciate the question, but I figured why not. The cat was out of the bag now.

“Yeah. From freshman year to my junior year in high school.”

Cody rubbed his neck and then grinned. “So did you guys...you know?”

I laughed and started to walk away from the plaque as he followed me. I glanced over at him as he stared at me. “No, we did not have sex. We just made out and groped each other.”

“Mmm.”

I stopped walking and turned to him. “What?”

He looked behind him and then
back to me. “Nothing,” A sinister grin curled the corner of his lip.

I tilted my head. “Seriously? What? Are you turned on or something?”

He raised his hands and laughed. “I mean, come on, who wouldn’t be? Two hot girls…doing stuff.”

I smacked at him and he backed away from me as he continued to laugh. “So you think she is hot then?”

“She is cute, but you…you are the hot one.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Right.” I continued to walk along the
path that lead into a maze of flowers and high shrubbery. I always loved this garden when I was little. It reminded me of a fairy tale and I would pretend that I was lost and needing to be rescued.  I stopped as he stepped up next to me and stared at all of the flowers.

“You will find poppies, roses, violets, daisies and, of course, jasmine here. In fact, it is everywhere,” I said as my eyes wandered across the landscaping.

Cody looked at me as the sunlight lit up my face. I looked at him and he turned his face back towards the pathway.

“My mom played here when she was little and chose all of her children's names and wrote them down in her 'Garden of Children' book.”

I started to walk again as Cody reached out and took my hand. I looked down at our hands intertwined and allowed it to happen. “Well, she certainly knows how to plan,” he said calmly.

I smiled. “Yes, she does. It is almost annoying how good she is at it.
I mean, it is creepy. She wrote our names down and then willed us here. If anyone could, it would be her.”

He laughed, “Well, any woman who can have five girls and survive it should get a medal.”

I stopped and laughed at him. “Seriously?” he shrugged his shoulders. “You know it had to be a nightmare with five teenage girls in one house…be honest.” I bit my lip and then laughed too. “It was a huge nightmare.”

“How did you survive it?” he asked me.

I sighed and then walked along, my free hand gently touching the rows of violets flanking my right side. The petals felt soft to the touch and I honestly did not realize how much I missed this place until right this moment.

“My dad. I mean, I was enough to handle, I am sure, but I was not girly like the rest of them. They were drama, morning, noon and night. I preferred to just hang out in the
treehouse and plot survival for the coming apocalypse.”

He smiled and watched my hand gently gliding along the tops of the flowers, “Well, brothers can suck too.”

I stopped and stared at the violets and then bit my lip. Cody narrowed his eyes. “Did I say something weird?” I turned to him and looked him over.

“I had a brother, a baby brother. He didn’t live past two.”

He opened his mouth and then shut it, but quickly recovered. “I am sorry Jazz, I didn’t know.”

I raised a hand to him. “Don’t be sorry, you had no idea. I just figured I would say something now so you don’t mention your brother or not liking him at the house. It is just something no one talks about. Ever.”

“Well, I promise that I meant nothing by it and I wish you would have told me, Jazz.”

I started walking again and the path turned, then turned again and finally we reached the center and a small stone. I leaned down and placed some violets I had pulled as we walked along in front of it. Cody stepped up and looked down on the stone and then at me. I rose up and grinned at him.

“This is Bailey, Mom never prepped for a boy’s name, so my dad named him.”

Cody nodded to me and then looked back at the stone. His eyes looked as if he may cry and I tilted my head and took his hand.

“He was always sick, he was born with a broken heart…or so my mom said. He had a congenital heart defect that eventually killed him.”

Cody leaned down and ran his fingers along the small stone and stood up next to me. He turned and spoke as if he had lost someone he knew.

“When a child dies, it is such a sad thing that many times a parent never recovers from it, it causes trauma far exceeding anything else they will ever experience in their lives,” he paused. “I am sorry, that sounds so clinical, the truth is, it is a tragedy that never ends.”

I nodded to him as he sniffed and then looked at the stone again.

“I should have told you, Cody. It was unfair of me to just dump it on you like that as if you did something wrong. I am sorry, I am just not really myself right now.”

He stepped closer to me and I looked down. His finger went under my chin and lifted it so I had to look into his eyes. “You don’t need to apologize, Jazz, you did nothing wrong.”

I nodded to him. “When Mom tells us to visit the garden, she means we should visit him and say hello.” I glanced at the stone. Cody kept his eyes on me.

“Do you remember him?” he asked as I turned my face back to look into his blue eyes.

“He died when I was five, so all I remember is that we got a new baby, I never saw him much. He didn’t go outside and Mom spent all of her time with him. Dad seemed to work more and the house became quieter than usual. For the two years he was with us, it seemed like the life was just sucked out of the house and then I remember hearing Mom and Dad argue about where to bury him and then we had a funeral and he was placed here. Dad wanted him at home, Mom said he should be in the garden…obviously they disagreed, but she won, as usual, and so here he is...Bailey, my little brother I never knew.”

Cody pulled me to him and at first, I wanted to simply step away, but as the warmth of his chest comforted me, I kind of sunk into him. He leaned down and his lips kissed the top of my head and then he whispered to me. “We are all stardust.” I stepped back and looked him over.

“What?”

“Stardust, I mean…we come from the stars…”

“and to the stars we return,” I said as he tilted his head at me.

“Yes.”

“Where did you hear that?” I asked him as he messed with his hair and looked at me, his expression one of confusion.

“I just remember it, it must have been something my parents said to me when I was little, or something.”

I paused as he reached out to me and I took his hand again.

“How about you give me a tour of the town?” he asked and I nodded to him, unable to speak and missing my dad even more.