JOSIE
I resume my seat. “So talk,” I say. “Who’s the man from the news and why is he in town texting me about you and Mom?”
“Yeah, I gathered, since he’s kidnapped a person. What I want to know is why he’s in Burnville.”
“I don’t know.”
I roll my eyes. “Who is that woman, Mallory Blain?”
“Just a person from the past.”
I bite my lip in frustration. “That past is pretty muddy, Grams. Why would he kidnap her? And what does he want to tell me about Mom and my father?”
Grandma winces, just barely, but I notice, because that’s unlike her. Everything she’s done and the way she’s acted in the last few days is unlike her.
“I don’t know, Josie. But that man is a liar. He’s capable of ruining people’s lives very easily.”
I lean back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest. “Really, Grams? After everything, that’s what you tell me? He’s a big, bad wolf, so stay away from him?”
I shake my head in frustration and look through the kitchen window. “What’s his deal with Mom? Because I’m pretty sure everything that’s going on has to do with her.”
“She was one of many. One of many who fell for his charm. Who became his prey. Who was left a victim.”
“Oh! My! Gosh, Grams!” I lean in and bang my palms against the table. “You are telling me the vaguest story. No, wait. You aren’t even telling me a story. You’re leading me around like I’m a ten-year-old who won’t leave you alone if you don’t feed me some nonsense. You’ve been doing it for years!”
“You don’t know that man,” she says harshly. “I hope you never do. He is evil, and I hope the police find him and lock him up for what he did.”
“What did he do?” I ask louder, losing my temper. “You are not telling me! What! He! Did!” I almost snarl at Grandma.
“He kidnapped that woman. I’m sure he was planning on doing the same to you.”
I gape. “Why? Why would he? Why me? Why that woman? Why is he in this town again?”
“Because he ruined many lives,” Grandma says louder, her hands clasped together so tightly that her knuckles turn white.
“Everything that happened twenty-five years ago—the murder, the fire—it’s all his doing.
Someone went against him, and he devised an evil plan to ruin their lives.
That was me. You know how it all went down. ”
She looks down again at her hands that are trembling now.
“No, I don’t,” I say. “That’s the problem.
I don’t know anything. The murder, the fire…
” I don’t continue. Getting her to talk is like pulling teeth.
I want her to look at me. What happened twenty-five years ago haunted my entire childhood.
No, scratch that—my entire life in Burnville.
The rumors, the accusations. The nasty comments about my mother getting what she deserved.
The horrible jokes about my grandmother being a killer.
There wasn’t a single bonfire without someone joking about “Ma Killer,” about “setting it on fire Karen-style.”
No matter how many times I asked what really happened, her trial and conviction, I always got the same answer.
“I didn’t do it.” This is the first time, the first conversation that gives me hope that there was someone else responsible.
There are facts. There’s a suspect. And maybe there’s a chance to vindicate my grandmother of what happened.
“It’s him,” Grandma says and raises her eyes. “That man, the kidnapper, the one who messaged you—he is the one who committed all those crimes and set me up years ago.”
There it is.
We sit in silence for some time, then I speak, because she’s obviously done telling her story. “Why haven’t you ever told me about him?”
“There was no reason for you to know. He’s not worth talking about.”
“Doesn’t look like that anymore, does it?”
“I was trying to protect you and your mother.”
“It didn’t exactly work out for Mom, did it?”
Grandma winces and sucks in her cheeks.
“Sorry,” I say. “Maybe if you’d told me, I wouldn’t have gotten into this mess.”
“There was no way to escape it. If he chose to come back and do what he did, he would’ve done it anyway.”
“Why now?”
“I don’t know, Josie. But I need you to go away.”
Her words stun me. “What? What do you mean away?”
“I think it’s best if you go back to Pittsburgh. Safer that way. He won’t be able to find you there.”
I stare in shock. “Are you kidding? Are? You? Kidding me?”
I rise from the chair so abruptly that it tips and rattles on its legs before it sets back in place.
“I came here for you!” I say loudly, my voice cracking. “I left Pittsburgh. You know what happened there. And I want to be—”
“It’s safer there, Josie!”
“No! What do you think this is? The nineties?”
“He won’t find you if—”
“I’m not going! I’m staying with you!”
“I need to sort this out, Josie. And I will.”
“Oh, yeah? Because what, Donna Snickett is your best friend again? She was so great that you two haven’t spoken in decades. Or because the chief is going to catch the big bad criminal?” I say in my most mockingly scary voice. “Because he did such a stellar job back then?”
“Maybe this time, we will,” Grandma says as I start pacing around the kitchen.
I laugh. “Oh! Em! Gee! Yeah. That guy kidnapped a person, and no one even noticed until I stepped into that house. What are you going to do, Grams? Take your old gun and hunt him down?”
She lifts her chin, a viciousness on her face I’ve never seen before.
“I will deal with it. I have no one but you, Josie,” she says softly, her chin just slightly trembling, making my chest tighten.
“I’d rather you be safe and away than by my side and going through what your mom had to go through years ago. ”
I’m not even sure if she’s referring to the incident or Mom’s death two years after it.
“I might’ve done a lot of stupid things,” I say, “but leaving you by yourself won’t be one. I decided I want to be a proud Burn-villian,” I say with as much bitterness as I can manage. “I’ll see you later.”
I grab my parka and stomp toward the door.
“Josie, please, listen—”
I slam the door shut before I hear what she has to say. First, it’s anger that simmers inside me. She refuses to tell me about her past, so I’ll dig into it myself. Then, I feel the familiar stubbornness. I’m old enough to be someone she can count on. Right now, she needs it more than ever.
By the time I get in my car, tears well up in my eyes. And that’s stupid self-pity. My mother left me, in a manner of speaking. And the only person I love wants me gone.