Chapter 12 #2
“Sometimes, but my therapist would tell me that speaking about it will only make it easier for me to move on.”
He said nothing, giving me plenty of time to talk through it at my own pace.
“It was a normal night. I worked a little later than usual. I was over at a client’s house finishing up a decorating job. I came home thrilled that the client had loved the new bathroom I’d designed for her, but I was also exhausted.
“I’ve always been a very heavy sleeper. I’m hard to wake, and when I’m tired, I sleep like the dead.
Anyway, the fire started in the apartment above me.
The old man that lived there left his stove on and something caught, and the entire building went up so quickly.
The alarms sounded, and most people woke up and were able to evacuate, but I slept right through it.
“By the time Mr. Crinkles managed to wake me, the apartment was filled with smoke. We nearly made it out before part of the ceiling caved in and pinned us both to the ground. Debris flew into Mr. Crinkles’ eye causing him to lose it, and my arm got pinned beneath the ceiling.
It’s a miracle that firefighters were able to pull us both out and that all we lost were an eye and an arm. ”
He shook his head and his gaze looked sad. “I canna imagine how frightened ye were. How great the pain must have been.”
“In all honesty, I wasn’t frightened. It happened too quickly for me to be scared, and the pain was nothing then.
” I shuddered thinking about the weeks and months of recovery afterward.
“That came later. Luckily, I didn’t have too many burns on my body.
That was the one blessing about the way things fell.
The part of the building that landed on me and Crink didn’t actually catch on fire, so we were shielded from most of the flames.
“You asked before why anyone would want to leave here. Visiting with you has driven home my reason even more. My roots are too deep in Boston. Every place I go—my work, Laurel’s apartment building, all of my favorite restaurants—everyone knows me.
Or at least they did know me. Now, they look at me as if I went somewhere in that fire.
They don’t look at me the same because they know who I was before.
I changed. I know that, but I didn’t die.
I’m still here, but I’m not sure everyone else knows that.
All you can see is who I am now, and that’s more refreshing than I know how to express.
I’m ready to leave everything behind. I don’t think I ever could’ve really healed there. ”
He leaned forward with his hand that wasn’t holding up his head and gave my knee a gentle squeeze. “I thought yer sister was the bravest lass I knew. I doona know if I can say that anymore.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Brave is the very last thing I am. I’m scared of everything.”
“O’course ye are. We are all scared, but most of us allow that fear to keep us from doing things. Ye doona do that.”
We spent the rest of the night talking. We spoke of the other men on the Isle and of Laurel’s throwdown with Machara. We spoke of serious things and silly things. By the time the sun began to peek through the windows, I was certain I’d never been so happy to start a day on so little sleep.
“I think ye should go and speak to yer mother about what is troubling ye now, lass. Before the castle wakes and the day truly begins. The time just before ye sleep and just after ye wake hold a special sort of magic. People are more prone to honesty; to bearing their soul, if ye will.”
At some point in the night, we’d circled back around to the topic of Dillon, and I’d mentioned my worry over my mother’s insistence that I speak with him. He was right, I wanted to find out what was up.
Standing and stretching from hours of sitting there on the bed, I smiled at him. “You sound as if you know this from experience.”
He motioned between the two of us. “Look at us, lass. We hardly know one another and yet we met each other during that magical time of day I just mentioned, and we spent the whole night speaking to one another like old friends.”
Or lovers. I kept that thought to myself.
“You’re right. I’ll go talk to her now.”
Stepping out into the hallway, I could see that the light in Mom’s bedroom was already on as I’d suspected it would be. She enjoyed rising early.
It never occurred to me to knock before entering. I turned the knob and flung it open without a second thought.
The only way for me to make sense of my ridiculously delayed reaction is to chalk it up to shock.
Every fiber in my being had known precisely what I would see when stepping inside my mother’s room.
I would find her propped up in bed, reading glasses on and a book in her hands, enjoying the quiet minutes before everyone else was awake.
My brain simply didn’t know how to comprehend what I was seeing.
Mom was propped up in the bed, but she wore no reading glasses, and there wasn’t a book in sight. Instead, she was naked, and her breasts greeted me as I stared at her in confusion.
“Mom? Did you sleep nude?”
It should’ve been so obvious to me, but I just wasn’t getting it.
Her panicked voice was immediate. “Kate! You don’t just go around opening doors without knocking.”
I snorted, still astonishingly slow on the uptake. “Seriously? You’re one to talk. Do you even know how to knock? I mean…”
There was the briefest of shuffling noises, and for the first time since stepping inside the room, I glanced toward her bathroom.
David stood totally naked in the doorway, both palms spread wide to cover up his junk.
He and I must’ve stared at each other for a solid five seconds of horror. Eventually, as my mouth still hung wide open from shock, he spoke. “Good morning, Kate. I guess the cat’s out of the bag.”