Coming home

chapter 12

“Hello,” Luke called out as he came in before Claire even made it back to the kitchen. When she entered, he was already making another pot, and there was a mini version of Nancy sitting at the table all wide-eyed. Claire paused. This was it. This was the child she had never wanted to meet. It took her a second to push herself forward. What happened had happened, and she couldn’t blame this child for any of it. But seeing this child only made the betrayal come bubbling to the surface.

Claire composed herself and vowed to judge this child on her own credits instead of the actions of her parents. “Hello,” Claire said while sitting down at the table across from Elizabeth. Claire offered her hand to Elizabeth, saying “Hi. I’m Claire. Luke hasn’t told me much about you at all, and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t told you much about me either. Is there anything you want to know or something you want me to know?” Claire decided to try to put the child at ease first. If she was all wide-eyed and nervous the whole time, then this wasn’t going to work.

Elizabeth looked at Claire’s hand for a moment and then gave it a little shake. “My name is Elizabeth,” she mumbled with nothing more.

“Do you have a nickname? Something like Beth or Liz or Lizzy?” Claire inquired to open the lines of communication. Claire caught Elizabeth as she cautiously cut her eyes toward Luke, who acted like he wasn’t paying attention to either of them. Still wide-eyed, Elizabeth shook her head no.

“Well, that isn’t right. I always wished I had a name that could be shortened. There isn’t much you can do with Claire,” Claire said, not completely surprised that Luke never thought to call Elizabeth anything other than her given name. “Hey, do you like horses?”

This got Elizabeth's attention. “Yeah, but I’m not allowed to be around them. I might get hurt.” This time, when Elizabeth cut her eyes toward Luke, it was a look of frustration.

“Well, we will go see Chaos later. She won't hurt you.” Claire said firmly just in case Luke tried to intervene.

“Is that the horse that hurt you?” Elizabeth asked.

“She was the horse I was riding when my shoulder got hurt, but it wasn’t her fault. It was just an accident. She would never hurt anyone on purpose,” Claire explained.

“It was an accident,” Elizabeth said with no emotion. This got Luke’s attention.

“Who told you that?” Claire said in complete shock.

“Momma. She told me that it was the last time I had seen her.” Luke went completely white, as if this was news to him.

“Well why don’t we go pick you out a room to stay in, and then we will put bed clothes on to wash so you will have fresh sheets. You can get settled while I get a shower, and then we will go see Chaos?” Elizabeth nodded as they both left the kitchen, leaving Elizabeth’s things for Luke again. It must be a female thing, Luke thought, but at least things seem to be going well right now. He decided he would stay close but out of their way why Claire did what she did, and he could get caught up after Elizabeth went to bed each evening.

* * *

The smooth calmness had washed over them just like all the times before. It was a welcome relief from the doubts of the last couple of days floating around in their mind. The calmness made everything seem manageable. It made everything clearer. Nothing could possibly go wrong now. All they needed to do was lay low for a couple of days.

It was obvious now that Claire hadn’t seen them or they would have been caught by now. The only logical explanation was whether she hadn’t seen them or whether she didn’t remember. The human mind is a tricky little thing. It would disregard anything that didn’t seem important. This was the only reason they had gotten this far in life.

If you didn’t stick out like a sore thumb, then people wouldn’t remember you. You can manipulate minds. All you had to do was act a certain way, keep quiet, and be forgettable. This was also true in reverse. You could make things more important than they were, so it stood out. You could trick the minds of people into believing anything you wanted them to believe. This was a learning behavior that they wished they had known a long time ago. It was only through observation and a lot of trail and errors, but they got it down now. They could come and go now without even being noticed or leaving any trace that they had ever been there. Well, everywhere but this small town. In this small town, they had to be even more careful not to be seen. Everyone would have questions that they couldn’t answer. The time for their big return would be coming, but not before it wouldn’t be questioned.

Nope. In this small town, they would be recognized in a heartbeat. When they were here, they made a big production of themselves. Always wanted to be in the spotlight. Always stood out among the crowd. They hadn’t known the entire workings of the mind yet. It was back before they actually knew any of this. Before all the secrets and deceptions came to light. They had given up their life, dreams, and future to people who didn’t deserve it and all because of lies.

Deathbed confessions were only good for the dying. The dying have to clear their conscious and go in peace. For the ones left behind, it only hurts them. It weighed on them until it got too much to bear. How was one supposed to go on living knowing their whole life was a lie? They could have spent the rest of their life not knowing, and that would have been fine. Some secrets need to go to the grave. Now, they were left to deal with the lies.

Lies took away options. Lies is why they had the life they had. Lies are why they got saddled with the burdens they had been saddled with. Lies were the reason everyone involved was going to pay. Lies. Lies. Lies. Now they were going to take back what was theirs. It had taken years to get to this point, and now that it was almost in reach, then no one was going to stop them.