The Letter

Four

"Samuel signed this!!!" said Steve. He was having a hard time holding back the outburst. But his sister didn't look so pained and he knew it wasn't because she had seen it before him.

"Am I the only one that finds this a tad bit offensive?" he asked.

"Steve, you need to understand that not everybody likes you and your pretty smile" she said icily.

"How are you still making jokes" he replied.

"Lance is alive and well, okay" she stated with a boldness he couldn't understand.

"And how do you know that?"

"He's just bait, Steve."

At that moment, it occurred to him that something had been bothering him. What was it? Something about the word 'bait' seemed wrong.

"Emmy, how did you get this?" he said, flashing the letter in his hand. He assumed for the longest that it came in the mail but the look on her face told him he was wrong.

"It wasn't in the mail." She decided after this sentence to pick up her pace.

"I think I could have figured that out on my own" he blurted angrily. "Where was it?"

She was now standing at the beginning of a turn. One that brought so many memories. She did a lot of growing up in this environment.

"Why are we going home?" he asked.

"You could have used the words 'old house' or 'the house' but you called it 'home'. That is what it will always be" she answered.

They didn't have time for this.

"Why…"

"Dad is there." She stopped him before he could c***k up another sentence.

"Just how do you know this exactly?" They were almost at their old house. He needed to stop this madness before they went any further.

"He goes there almost every week. He misses Mum. It brings some comfort to him, I think", she reported.

Steve had never felt the distance between him and Jeff as strongly as he did after she said that. Sometimes, he feared he didn't know the man. Another fear crossed his mind. Emily had distracted him from the question.

"Where did you find this?"

"On a random table on my way to the restaurant."

"You know what that means, don't you?"

"That we are being tightly followed?"

"And the person most likely hasn't left," he said

"Did Samuel know our whereabouts?" he asked with a slight inflection in his voice.

She stopped. His heart missed a beat.

"I don't know" she said, but she knew, they both did, their mother and Samuel shared an unimaginable bond, and she wouldn't keep that a secret from her brother even though he is one of the Elders.

The Elders. The 12 most honoured and acknowledged of their people. All they said stood, no one countered their judgement. In the past, verdicts have been sent without the signatures of all the Elders, that can be maneuvered. A Vom knew he was headed for doom when he had all the names on his case.

They were almost at the front door now. Emily looked straight ahead at the front porch through the garden that was now a shadow of itself and suddenly she was 12 again playing catch with her parents. Her brothers in the corner doing something they'd get yelled at for. Her mother having to excuse herself to get dinner started. Life was much simpler then.

As they drew closer, Steve realized that the door wasn't locked as he'd expected. The big brother instinct kicked in and moving ahead, he reached for the door, giving it a light and noiseless shove, for fear of alerting.

He took a few steps in and once he had the hall cleared, allowed an almost grumpy Emily in.

Cinnamon, still so scented strongly in the house. She wasn't assuming and it wasn't from her brother’s scent either. Memories came rushing back, almost crushing her, but she was on a mission. She knew where he'd be. The Bedroom.

Jeff had gone ahead of her this time, guessing where she was going.

"He's not there" he smugly stated. A smugness she recognized only so well. But she was worried. She knew he was in the house.

"What do you mean?" she stammered. He had to be there. "Dad!" she shouted. They couldn't have gotten to him. It wasn't a very big house, so that sound would reach through.

Trying again, she continued this time with more resolve.

"Dad, you in here?"

"Emily?"

Her father was here. She wasn't wrong. But of course, he wasn't in the house. Why did she not think about that.

Once again, Steve beat her to the punch. Now he knew where his dad was.

When Rachel died, there was an argument as to where to bury her. Seeing as they didn't have a place of their own. It was proving difficult. Then they agreed on the one house with the longest and deepest memories. Their first house in Greq.

Jeff was bent over at Rachel's resting place. He and his wife shared an unbelievable bond. So alike, it was almost impossible to tell who said what, in passive listening. His wife's death was not something he liked to think about, and the manner of it, no less.

There he was, a person carrying the whole world on his shoulder would have weighed less than the crumpled excuse of a man in front of him. The man looked like he hadn't slept for days. He wasn't used to seeing him like this. This man had carried his family for as long as he could remember.

A rush of air brought him back to the present. His sister had run past him. Now that was a good child, unlike him who just stood there.

Jeff said in anguish, "We would not be able to carry her. I haven't been away from her for as long as I can remember. What am I going to do without her?"

His children had lost the ability to speak now.

He continued sadly, "She made all the decisions about where next to go and we would fit in like we'd lived there our whole lives". He stopped to choke on a tear.

Emily said "You will be fine. You have me, Steve, and Lance, now." She was trying hard to fight back tears. It had been a long day.

"But you don't know that. Lance isn't here. If we're too late and can't release him, we can't control what happens.''

"They wouldn't harm a child, Dad. We are leaving, right?

Steve, who still hadn't said a word, also looked like he wanted an answer too.

"I honestly don't know, guys" said Jeff

Steve remembered the use of his tongue finally.

"We don't have a choice, Dad. If we don't leave, they might kill him. We are already on their radar, there's no telling what they'll do next."

Lance, his only brother. The thought of any harm befalling him gave Steve the chills. Why didn't they take him instead, Lance is only a child.

"There is a solution" and Jeff looked at Emily as he continued, dreading as she was what he was about to say. "The Cleansing of Marriage."

"What!!!" she shrieked.

Jeff understood her anger. The Cleansing of Marriage was used in old times to remedy a family that had to do the completely signed bidding of The Elders. A member of that Vom family had to marry into the family of another Vom family, one who had never been blemished.

Jeff and Rachel couldn't do it because they were already married and their children were all little. But Emily had now grown into a very beautiful lady. She couldn't deny that she had started getting the attention of the opposite gender.

He knew he was asking too much, but he had no choice. He was tired of the endless moving. And in his defense, he was thinking straight anyway.

He looked at his only daughter whom he loved more than life itself, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at the headstone, in shock. What could be more shocking than what he had just said? Then he followed her gaze and he saw it too.

One important thing about Rachel is her attention to detail, which somehow rubbed off on the entire family. During the funeral discussions, details of what would be on the headstone were discussed. Unlike conventional headstones that had the name of the deceased and the dates of birth and death. Steve wanted the names of people Rachel was survived by but Jeff, on the other hand, fought tooth and nail. He didn’t want any more attention. Somehow, Steve won as Jeff was in no mood to argue or think at the time.

Giving room to doubt, Jeff beckoned his son and pointed in the general direction of his wife’s resting place. It only took a second. Steve’s countenance changed immediately, as though his face started crumbling in on itself.

“What happened to our names", he found himself asking, not wanting to believe what was the apparent truth. An onlooker might not have understood what the three were staring at because it was supposed to be a normal headstone but theirs was anything but normal. He had made sure of that.

Steve asked the nearest man he could find ‘’Has this ever happened before?"

His father answered without mincing words, “You are asking someone who has only buried his wife once.’’ An observer might have assumed he was trying to make a joke but he was too astonished to think straight.

Emily, on the other hand, had been oddly quiet.

‘’Emmy, do you know anything about this?’’ asked Steve.

Deep in thought, she ignored him and asked one of her own to Jeff. ‘’How did you get your letter?’’

‘’The usual, some random place I passed by daily.’’ he had seen a lot of these and knew how they were delivered. ‘’Why?’’

Her letter wasn’t sandy. If it were, she would have felt it. Somehow, she felt strongly that all recent happenings were somewhat connected. ‘’Can I see it?’’

As he proceeded to fish it out of his jacket, Steve gasped. He had noticed something else. Though the area surrounding the grave was well-cemented, it did look disturbed. Whoever did this had been very thorough. However, he noticed that the flowers were misplaced.

They had created a system to see that fresh flowers were placed on Rachel’s grave at intervals. Each family member was to place their favourite flower in the order of their age, starting obviously with Jeff’s. This way, everyone knew whose turn it was to get new flowers, as the withering would be evident. The perpetrator of the act didn’t know this, no doubt, hence the misplacement of the flowers. It was only a matter of time before the remaining two would pick up on it, one being as observant as the other in the Jacksons. But Steve wasn’t prepared to wait.

‘’Look at the flowers’’ he said, to no one in particular. Their chorused exclamations confirmed that they had seen it too.

Jeff said ‘’That is not my favourite flower’’, more to himself than anyone else.

Emily had to ask what was on everyone’s mind ‘’What does this all mean?’’

With as much horror as could be seen in a handsome man in his fifties, Jeff muttered the words they didn’t want to hear.

‘’Your mother was exhumed.”