Torn Between Two Enemies

Chapter 2

From the living room, Lucas steals glances at Kate who is dancing to Michelle. What is the favor? What does she want him to do for her? They separated about six years ago when they were both ten years old. All of a sudden, Kate didn’t want him anymore. She no longer sat beside him. During lunch, she left him. Lucas didn’t know what he did wrong, but Kate just stopped wanting him.

Lucas remembers the time when he found out that Sam was not Kate’s mom. They were six years old at that time and were playing inside Kate’s bedroom. Kate’s real momma came to the room and hugged her. She asked Lucas who he was before introducing herself as Kate’s momma. Kate looked embarrassed at that time. When her real momma left the bedroom, Kate cried. Lucas came to her and hugged her.

“If Sam was not your momma, then who is she?” little Lucas asked, curious.

“She’s my governess,” little Kate answered.

“What?”

“Governess.”

“What is that?”

“You don’t know what a governess is?” little Kate asked with such disbelief.

Little Lucas shook his head. “No,” he said.

Little Kate opened her mouth to answer but then closed it again. How could she explain something that she herself didn’t understand? All this time, she thought that every child had a governess. But Lucas, he didn’t even have a momma, how could he have a governess, right? Kate had come to his house often. It was not as big as hers. In fact, it was pretty small compared to the mansion she called home.

Perhaps, his dad couldn’t afford a momma. If his dad couldn’t even afford a momma, how could he afford a governess, right? With that thought, Kate decided to be kind and just shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“But Kate,” Lucas said. “Should I have that too, what is that, again?”

Kate shook her head, then smile. “No, Luke,” she said. “You’re a boy. It’s okay that you don’t have one.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, believe me. Let’s play again.”

Now Lucas smiles. It’s always fun remembering the past, as long as it’s about Kate and him. Kate’s never really left, at least Lucas has always thought so. This is not the first time after their separation that his princess came to him. It took longer for the naïve little Lucas to know that the reason Kate left him was because of his lack of money and his social status. However, once he realized it–around the time he was twelve–he accepted it. He didn’t stop loving her, though. Couldn’t. Although he stopped bothering her, stopped trying to get her attention, and started leaving her alone. He too started finding his own friends. Friends with more similar status with him, financially and socially.

But he’s still loved her, still admired her, from afar. He hasn’t lost hope that one day he will marry her. And Kate, Kate acts like she doesn’t know him in front of her friends but it’s not true. It’s only an act. Because she’s always come to them. One day, Bruce Jenkins found her standing alone in the rain in front of the Jenkins’s house. He just came from work and both his sons were in the house doing whatever. Nobody saw the twelve-year-old girl standing alone in the rain, clutching something in her hands, shivering like crazy.

When Bruce Jenkins saw her, he hurried towards her and scooped her in his arms. He ran fast towards the house while shouting Lucas’ name. Bruce then brought Kate to the bathroom and dried her hair and her body. He asked her to take a hot shower then gave her Lucas’ clothes for her to wear. Once she was done, Bruce then asked what she was doing outside. Kate then said that she was going to deliver a present for Bruce because that day was Bruce’s birthday. He was supposed to be her future dad-in-law so she must not forget his birthday. What kind of a daughter-in-law would she be if she forgot, right? Her explanation touched Bruce deep in his heart. Nobody remembered his birthday, not even his own two sons.

They had dinner together that night, with no birthday cake because there wasn’t supposed to be any celebration at all. Still, that day was the best for everybody. Bruce didn’t receive any presents from his sons, he didn’t expect them anyway.

But Kate was there, and her presence was in and of itself a present for not only Bruce, but for both Logan and Lucas as well. Kate brought a present, though. And a card that she made herself. The card was wet because of the rain, the colorful wordings turned to smudge. But it was beautiful. Bruce still keeps it till this day inside his nightstand’s drawer.

Bruce also still keeps his present, wears it, actually. It’s a belt that Kate bought with her own money she’d saved with diligent every day.

A year after that, it was Logan’s turn to find Kate lurking at their porch. When their eyes met, they didn’t say anything. Logan held out his hand towards Kate and she took it. Together they walked inside the house then went to the basement where Lucas was just about to do laundry. Logan then left her with him. They both did the laundry together. When Bruce Jenkins came back from work, he found Kate and Lucas in the basement folding the clean clothes and Logan in the kitchen making his famous mac and cheese. They ate the mac and cheese together. Kate had always loved Logan’s mac and cheese.

A year after that, it was Logan again who found Kate crying inconsolably on their porch. She was holding a clear bowl with a dead goldfish in it. Logan then took the bowl from her with one hand while holding hers with his other hand. They found Lucas in his bedroom doing his homework. Together they then sat in silence on his bed waiting for their dad to come home with pizza. Once Bruce Jenkins came, they ceremoniously flushed the goldfish in the toilet. After that, they ate the pizza.

It was kind of hilarious that a fourteen-year-old girl was still crying over a dead fish. However, the Jenkins knew the real truth although they never said it. Kate was lonely, both her parents never home. They’re busy bigshots. Kate had a big brother, but he was six years older than her and at Yale. The age gap was wide, they’re not at all close.

With Sam and Carl were no longer in the picture, she had nobody. Except for the Jenkins, even though she had denied them in public. Always acted like she didn’t know them and that she was above them. But the Jenkins never denied her. In their house, she was always welcomed.

What Kate doesn’t know is that the Jenkins too need her, even though they themselves don’t realize it either. They don’t know how much she means to them; they just accept her. It’s sad being alone in that big house. Out of the kindness of their hearts, the Jenkins then have an open invitation for Kate to come and go anytime she pleases. She even knows where the keys are.

There is no woman inside the Jenkins’ household, it hasn’t been for a long time. Logan and Lucas don’t have a mother. At some point, Logan may have remembered having a mother, may have had some recollections of her face and of her sweet voice, but not for poor Lucas. From the very beginning he doesn’t understand the concept of having a mother. Well, he has a grandma and she was nice, but she doesn’t live with them. She and grandpa live quite close and from time to time they will visit or vice versa, but to have a woman in the house is not something that Lucas is familiar with.

Kate has never really left. She still comes to the Jenkins from time to time like a lost puppy. The lost puppy that the whole family loves and adores.

And Lucas, he has never stopped loving her. That also means that whatever she wants from him today, he will give it to her. Kate catches him stealing a glance. She smiles shyly to him. Lucas smiles back. Come Monday in school, she will go back to not recognizing him. It doesn’t matter. His Kate, his princess, she may leave but in the end she always comes back.

One day, though, when she comes back, she will stay. When that day comes, her name will be Kate Jenkins. Lucas will make sure to that. He will have to make himself rich to gain recognizance from the good people of Alpequa, but he will make sure to that.

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