20. A Trip Down Memory Lane
1475 Words
Cissy had a class at Aidan’s dojo that night around six, but Summer was half decided to leave it to another day. She did not even know if he was still at the hospital or not, and his phone had gone straight to voicemail.
But her daughter was so excited for her first class that she decided to go nevertheless. So, when she arrived at the dojo, she was surprised to see it open with lights on.
Nobody was at the front desk, but that was hardly surprising since Aidan ran it solo. And his voice was coming from a nearby room.
She took a peek and Cissy almost ran to the spacious open space.
There were a few children already there, and Aidan was conducting them with an open smile. He acknowledged her presence with a chin lift, but never broke concentration. The little ones were so excited that he was forced to stop and wait for them to calm down. She noticed he didn’t raise his voice, as any other adult would do, but merely forced them to listen by speaking always in the same even tone.
Deciding to wait, she walked to the nearby ice cream parlor where they once had eaten the frozen delicacy. She ordered one scoop, thinking to herself that if there was a day worthy of ice cream, that would definitely be it.
She nursed the treat until it was a gooey puddle of something in the plastic box. She was so inside her own head that only when the first parents started to leave the dojo did she realized she was running late.
Running to the dojo’s entrance she saw Cissy speaking excitedly with Aidan. He looked fatigued, she thought. Probably was mirroring her own tiredness.
“Hey…”
“Hey…”
“Mommy, did you see me?”
“Ah…” she looked at Aidan helplessly and he merely shrugged. Shooting daggers with her eyes, she said:
“No, sweetie. I was outside.”
The crestfallen look in Cissy’s eyes made her swear intimately that she would see, record and then see again next class.
Aidan was packing some things in his bag, his gestures slow.
“Hey, we’re about to grab some dinner at Mary’s, do you want to come?”
“Yeah…”
He had heavy eyes, and she left her hands roaming around his torso before slowly embracing him.
“How is she?”, she whispered. “Caleb didn’t tell me anything.”
“We ended up returning together, she will sleep through the night. Not only did she lost a lot of blood, but they filled her with something to sleep. She was awakening but was so agitated that they sedated her again before she could take out every needle in her arm.”
“She is up to a nasty homecoming… how does anyone rebound from this?”
“No idea… but I’m sure it takes a lot of therapy…”
“How are you feeling?”
“Truthfully? I want to kick myself. I should have known better…”
“If divination was a way of life, we’d all win the lottery.”
“Is my car still at your place?”
“No, I sold it to the highest bidder. What do you think?”
He chuckled.
“We can grab a pizza on the way instead of heading for Mary’s…”
“Don’t let her hear you saying the local joint is better than her dinner…”
“I didn’t say that, and you quote me, I’ll just deny. It’s just that… I want to speak with you.”
“Okay…”
They walked to her car and Summer strapped Cissy securely to the baby seat. Out of habit, Aidan was headed to the driver’s seat when she cleared her throat.
“I believe that is my seat…”
He smiled and exchanged places. Half an hour later, they were both at her kitchen’s table, nibbling at a slice of pizza, while Cissy was half asleep on her chair.
“What did you do to her, she’s exhausted…”
He grinned, although his smile did not reach his eyes.
“She’ll get used to the training and will return being the smart little sprite we all know and love…”
After putting Cissy to bed, Summer returned to the kitchen but a heavy silence fell upon them.
“What are we, Sunshine?”
His voice was low, barely above a whisper, but she heard it nevertheless.
“What do you mean?”
“Today you didn’t tell Caleb right away that you were with me. Why?”
Summer sighed. She knew that question would pop up sooner or later. Unfortunately, it had come too soon.
She dropped herself in the couch and patted the pillow near her. When he sat beside her, she got up, poured them a whisky and sat again.
“Liquid courage?”
"I need all I can get.” She muttered, nursing the glass before taking a sip. The strong beverage burned down all the way to the stomach and she coughed up before stating:
“I really hate this thing.”
“Why drink it, then?”
“Like you said – liquid courage.”
He put down his own glass without touching it.
“Spill it, Sunshine.”
She sighed before starting:
“My parents don’t really have a fairy tale relation. My father is a judge, and my mother is… well I guess I could say she’s a socialite and nothing more. They live for appearances and me and my sister had to live up to the title.”
“I take it you didn’t like it all that much…”
“Not really, but I… I was obedient. Did everything it was expected of me. Autumn, however, was more rebellious. She was younger than me three years and was the life of the party. Any party. She would sneak out and return in the wee hours of the morning. There was nothing my parents could do to keep her in line. The harder they were on her, the more rebellious she was becoming.”
“And you?”
“Me? Straight A’s all the way. A nerdy student if I ever saw one… They used me as an example for Autumn and that only made her more rebellious. She turned on me.”
“Wait… Summer, Autumn… Did your parents had a thing for the time of the year?”
A smile crept on her lips.
“It had to do with the time of the birth. I was born on August, Autumn in October and my mom… guess what… December…”
“So your mom is Winter Belmont?”
“Do you know her?”
“From the tabloids. She was running a charity before stepping down. My Sensei’s dojo applied for funds for a while. But please continue.”
“Yeah, well… Autumn was going wilder by the day, and our parents threatened to disown her. Parties, drugs… she would do anything.”
She stopped herself, her eyes lost on the past.
“And then…?”
“Then they finally threw her away. They claimed they had only one daughter. They cut off Autumn’s access to her bank account and she disappeared for a while. I went to college and lived apart from my parents for the first time in my life and then, I think I really started to live. I experienced freedom for the first time in forever, but at the same time I was afraid. Afraid they would treat me as they treated Autumn. And then, one night, she came knocking on my door.”
“She? Autumn, you mean?”
“Yes. She was disheveled, scared… and heavily pregnant.”
His hand fell upon her arm and she looked at him, surprised. He had an intensity in his eyes that was almost scary.
“What happened next?”
“She was bleeding, and I took her to the hospital. There I called my parents. They came… they came running… but not for Autumn’s sake… they came to remind me that she was disown… she was not a Belmont anymore. They wanted me to leave her there. They had only one daughter and I was the one.”
Aidan held his breath while she seemed lost in her past.
“You didn’t leave her there…”
“I couldn’t… she was my baby sister…”
“What happened, Summer?”
“She left the hospital and I opened my doors to her. She was on bed rest, and although I had questions, she seldom answered. She was… different. She wasn’t the merry-go-around she had always been. She kept to herself, sometimes humming to the baby, but not once did she say a word about the baby’s father. Nor where she had been all that time.”
She paused, and he urged her to continue:
“And then?”
“She went into labor and I called my parents as soon as I took her to the hospital. It was their grandbaby that was about to born, I thought they would care… but they didn’t. They stated very clearly that the baby was to be left at the hospital, like Autumn.”
Tears were falling down her cheeks but she barely noticed.
“She died in labor… “ She whispered. “she hemorrhaged and they couldn’t do anything. Suddenly I was truly an only child… and there was a crying baby nobody wanted. My parents threatened to tear me a new one if I tried to keep her…”
Eyes wide like saucers, Aidan connected the dots.
“Cissy… She’s not you daughter… she’s your niece!”
- Writer
