Chapter Fifteen
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Liam was quiet that night, as the group made their way through the dark forest and back to the house. Zev and Annie talked excited amongst themselves, but Liam was preoccupied—who did he remind Tove of? And what did Eli mean when he’d said Liam was special? He was reluctant to let their comments go. In fact, there had been something rattling around in his head since returning to the cabin—he just hadn’t figured out what it was. The mystery that would have to go unresolved, however, as his time in the valley was up.
He had put himself in quite the predicament by promising so many things to so many people. Clearing out the house had taken longer than he’d expected, thanks to the brief detour. He desperately wanted to stay and help get rid of the loggers for good, despite the fact that staying would cost him his job. The job which, he reminded himself, had been the driving factor of his life, the thing he woke up for every day, the thing that paid his bills.
How could he consider throwing away his entire career, the one he’d been working towards for almost a decade, just to save some trees for a pretty girl? It was unlike him to think with his heart. It was a childish, romantic whim, one that he needed to put to rest immediately .
Liam took a few hurried steps, catching up with his friends.
“They’re incredible,” Annie said of the Acernae, finger running idly down the length of her braid.
“I’m a bit jealous, really,” Zev replied. During their walk, Zev too had fallen into an uncharacteristic melancholy.
Liam knew what they meant. When Liam had met Zev, had long hair and dressed in feminine (but always secondhand) clothes. Liam watched as the years went by, the confidence they gained from an undercut and a fresh wardrobe, and eventually, the use of different pronouns. For Zev, those years had been both terrifying and freeing, and Liam had been at their side through it all.
Of course, they were still bound by the limits of humanity.
Fluidity was difficult to attain in the same way it would be for the Acernae, with their unique ability to change their appearance at will. It was exactly what Zev had always longed for.
Liam opened his mouth to say something hopefully encouraging, but Annie beat him to it. She looped her arm through Zev’s with a gentle touch, resting her head against their shoulder as they walked on.
Liam swallowed back the words, feeling like the conversation wasn’t his to join anymore. The night had grown colder, and he shoved his hands into his pockets in an effort to warm them. He slowed his pace, trailing a few feet behind them and sinking back into his own thoughts.
By the time they returned to the house, it was past midnight, and Liam was exhausted. Zev added a few more logs to the dying fire, to keep the place warm overnight while Annie shed her layers and warmed her hands. Liam took one look around the house with it’s piles of boxes and sighed. It wasn’t perfect, and certainly not up to Rebecca’s exacting standards, but it would have to do. They’d run out of time.
He’d resigned to leave it all for the morning when a particular box pulled his attention—one he’d filled with things to be delivered to his parents. The old guitar was propped up beside it.
There were two people who could always be counted on to lift his spirits… If anyone knew how to help him with the trouble he’d gotten himself into, it was them. “I’m going up to Bremerton to morrow, to drop some things off at my parents,” he told Zev and Annie. “I’ll meet you back at the apartment in the evening.”
They looked up at him, but neither seemed overly surprised by the announcement.
“Sure, we can take Maple, if you want,” Annie said, and looked at him with a gentle knowing.
***
The drive from the cabin to his parents' new apartment in Bremerton took a few hours. Though long, the drive was beautiful and took him along the winding highways up and along the Hood Canal. He’d made the trip only once before, when he and Rebecca had helped them move six months ago.
The apartment was situated in a retirement community that had accommodations for his father’s impaired vision. The woman at the front desk welcomed him with a warm smile. It wasn’t a huge building, and he knew the way to their room. He told her as much and made his way for the stairs.
As Liam rapped his knuckles against the heavy wooden door, a strange tingling spread across his fingers. It wasn’t painful, so much as unexpected, and the feeling lingered a moment longer than he’d have liked. He was wringing his hands when his mother opened the door. A delighted grin spreading across her face as she saw him.
“Oh, honey! What a surprise. You didn’t tell us you were coming.” Her voice had a singsong quality to it that hadn’t faded with age. She ushered him into the apartment, laying a gloved hand on his shoulder. The dirt on it stuck to his jacket—he’d caught her digging in her planter beds. He didn’t mind.
“Goodness, look at me. I forgot I had the darn things on. Sorry, Liam,” she attempted to brush the dirt from him, but he pushed her hand away. She’d not taken the gloves off and was making the problem worse.
“It’s alright, just a little dirt.”
“Maggie, who is it?” his father’s gravelly voice called from the room beyond, and Liam’s smile faded slightly. Of course he couldn’t see who was at the door.
“It’s our favorite son, dear,” Maggie called back to him.
“You mean our only son?” he replied. She’d made the joke a thousand times .
Maggie only laughed, a pure and musical sound that filled the room.
The apartment was a bit larger than the one Liam shared with Zev and Annie back in Seattle, but considerably more dated. Nothing could replace the home they’d made in the valley, but the two of them had made the place their own. They’d brought his mother’s entire collection of house plants with them, and they’d taken nicely to the bright space. Photos of the family, clad in wooden frames, hung on the walls, and books were piled everywhere. His father had brought his favorite chair, a beat-up recliner that was nearly as old as Liam. It’s brown leather was now cracked and peeling in places, the cushions melded to fit the occupant, who looked with vacant eyes towards the doorway.
“Hey, dad,” Liam said, as much as a greeting as to let his father know where he was in the room. He raised his voice over the radio buzzing, excited commentators talking about the football game. Liam had grown up watching the games with his dad. He felt a twinge of sadness that they’d never watch them together again, at least he was able to listen.
“Come in, come in. Get comfortable. I’ll take that box,” Maggie fussed, grabbing it out of Liam’s arms and setting it on the ground by the door. “Do you want some tea? I’ll go make some while you catch up with your father. I’ll be just a moment,” she said, then hurried off into the kitchen.
She was almost ten years younger than Liam’s father, but had always been remarkably youthful for her age. She’d told Liam as a child it’s because she ate her vegetables. Up until some time ago, she could have been mistaken for being twenty years younger than she was.
Now, it seemed something had changed.
Not that she looked old, exactly, but time seemed to have worn on her more than it had previously. Her hair, once a vibrant ginger, was now tinged with white that hadn’t been there a few months ago. Maybe being cooped up with her antsy husband in the apartment had just been that stressful. Or perhaps that’s just what it felt like to watch one’s parents age.
Liam admired the plants that his mother had always been so good at tending to. Like Liam’s apartment, plants trailed down from every available surface. Even here, without a proper yard, she’d managed to make the place feel so much like the forests she loved so much.
“How’s it going, kiddo?” John said, and he reached over with a clumsy hand to turn the the radio down. “I was just telling our new neighbors about you—our science guy, off to work in his fancy lab.”
The warmth in his voice was enough to make Liam’s stomach knot. Truthfully, there was nothing impressive about his job. “It’s alright dad, I’m not doing anything that special. I just test water samples.”
“Still—you wound up smarter than I could ever be. Can’t stop a father from bragging about it. How’s life in the big city, anyway?”
Liam shifted, grateful that his father couldn’t see the discomfort on his face, then settled into a seat on the sofa. He filled his father in on his life, though nothing much had changed since last they’d talked. He’d forgotten how much his parent’s pride in him and his accomplishments meant, and found himself glowing despite the uncertainty he felt lurking in the back of his mind.
Maggie breezed back into the room, her long skirt flowing around her as she walked, and set a tray with a teapot and several small cups down on the coffee table.
Liam’s eyes lingered on the way she lovingly poured tea for John, guiding it into his hand, and showing him where to set it down on the table beside him. They were adjusting to this new dynamic and managed to make the most of it. The two of them seemed as happy together as they’d ever been, and it made Liam’s chest ache.
She entered the conversation as Liam was telling his father about Annie, and how she’d moved back in. “So have you too… gotten back together, yet?” A mischievous look twinkled in her eye.
Liam’s face grew hot. “No, it’s not like that mom. We dated like, a decade ago.” He’d been distracted for a moment by Iona, but he couldn’t tell her about that and even if he wanted to, there was nothing to tell. It was time to change the subject. “That’s not why I’m here. You know how I’ve been clearing out the house? I just came to bring some things by.”
Liam hadn’t spoken to his parents much about it, letting Rebecca handle the logistics and the hard conversations. Both their faces fell, and it was clear they were unhappy about the situation .
“I’m sad to see that place go,” John grunted; It was a sensitive subject, since he would have been happy to grow old and die out there. Liam knew his father felt responsible for having to relocate and the knowledge that it made Maggie inconsolably sad. Not that she would dare let on to her husband—for him, and for the rest of the family she was all smiles.
It was probably for the best that John couldn’t see the heartbreak written across her face. It was so cutting that Liam looked away. He knew what magic the place held now, how much his mother had loved her forest.
“You know we’re all sad about it, John. But that’s okay. Look at our kids! They’re doing such great things out in the world.” Her tone was light, but her eyes were glassy, her sadness and pride both spilling over.
Liam had come to deliver their things, yes, but a part of him had also wanted to talk about the situation with the loggers, and the predicament he’d found himself in. Looking at them now, he realized there was no reason to. Bringing up the logging at this point would only make things more difficult for all of them.
Perhaps an even smaller part of him had hoped they’d give him permission to stay in the valley and finish what he’d started. It was a hope that died when he remembered they were so proud of his living in the city, working his fancy lab job… the path before him was clear as it always had been.
“Have you heard from Rebecca?” Liam asked, attempting to change the subject. “Did everything go okay?”
It worked, both his parents lit up.
“They just got home this morning, actually. She sent me pictures!” Maggie rushed over to show him pictures of the happy family gushing over the baby—which looked, as far as Liam could tell, much like any other baby. He ooh’d and ahh’d where appropriate, and let his parents steer the conversation from there. “Adopting Rebecca was such a gift to us, you know. We were so thrilled when she told us she was planning to adopt herself.”
“It feels weird to be an uncle,” Liam confessed, running his hands through his hair. With so much going on, he’d nearly forgotten the gravity of changes his family was going through. It was all happening so fast .
“We’ve all been invited over next weekend to meet her,” Maggie told him excitedly, “they’ve named her Iris, after John’s mother. It’s so very sweet, don’t you think, John?”
John grunted his affirmation.
With a long drive ahead of him and work looming in the morning, Liam didn’t stay long.
As he drove back to the city, his mind swam with thoughts about the house, the forest, and the cyclical nature of life.