Chapter 6
I pounded up the steps of our front porch and walked into the apartment. Mom was halfway through a Wu Qin Xi set, an ancient five animal Qigong form for mastering the elements. I grabbed some water off the table by the entry, and watched her graceful movements.
“Did you have a good run?”
“Yeah, not bad.” I wasn’t about to tell my mom that I was seeing weird visions of people dying. I could just imagine what sort of reaction that would bring. Mom would probably assume it was some sort of emotional trauma related to the move, and bring me to the local shrink. No way was that going to happen. I wasn’t exactly a “share your feelings” kind of girl.
“I’m gonna take a shower. What’s for dinner?”
“I saw that Giovanni’s has chicken parm dinners. I thought I’d order in. What do you think?” She stepped into the final animal stance and pushed her hand out in claw form. “Spaghetti or Ziti with yours? A side salad, too?”
“Sure, with spaghetti. And blue cheese on the salad.”
“Great, I’m almost finished here, and then I’ll order. We can do movie night, since you slept in last night.”
“Yes! I have a chick flick all picked out.”
My mom groaned, and I headed to the shower.
After washing the day off, I stepped out and threw on a black cami and sweats. My mom knocked on the door. “You done yet?”
“Yep.” I stepped out of the bathroom. The two-bedroom apartment only had one. “It’s all yours.”
“Perfect. I left some money on the table, in case the delivery guy comes while I’m in here.”
“Cool, thanks.”
I sat on the floor by the sofa and worked at toweling off my hair, then put the towel around my shoulders and did a few stretches. My mom was still in the shower when the doorbell rang.
I grabbed the money off the table and opened the door. Rowan was standing there, a big brown bag with the letter ‘G’ on it in his hand. He looked me up and down. “Hey there,” he said, a grin spreading over his face.
My stomach flip-flopped. Feeling a little nervous, I rubbed the end of the towel through my hair with one hand. “Hey.”
“I’ve got two chicken parm dinners and salads here, and one bottle of grape soda.”
“Uh, yeah.” I handed him the thirty bucks my mom had left on the table. “I think this will cover it.”
“Yeah, that does it. Do you need change?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Thanks.” He pocketed the money with one hand. An awkward silence fell over us.
“So...a group of us are going swimming tomorrow afternoon at the Falls. You want to come? Meet some people before you get to school?”
“Oh! That would be great, I love swimming! Arizona was definitely lacking in the water department.” I gushed without thinking. Uh-oh. I tried to tone it down a little. “I haven’t had a chance to swim in anything other than a pool for the last couple years.”
“Ah, an Arizona girl.”
“Well, yeah, just for the last year. And before that we were in Egypt for six months. No public swimming holes there!”
“Wow, Egypt, really? That’s cool.” He looked at me with that intense gaze of his again, like he was trying to read my mind or something. “How about I pick you up at noon? The back roads around here can get a little confusing until you know your way around.”
“Sure, that sounds good.” My stomach was filled with butterflies again, but I managed to keep my tone light.
“Cool, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Rowan turned to walk away.
I laughed. “Hey! You still have my food.”
“Oh, right!” He shrugged and gave me a sheepish smile. “Here you go.”
“Thanks. See you.” I backed up, shut the door and sighed.
“Looks like you’ve made an impression.” I jumped at the sound of my mom’s voice, as she came chuckling around the corner. “Aren’t you proud of me? I didn’t interrupt or anything.”
“Oh yes, uber proud, mom. Your super spy skills are not creepy at all, either.” I rolled my eyes, which really set her off laughing. I pushed by her into the kitchen, grabbing the new sage-colored bowls and a couple turquoise plates after I put the bag of food down.
“Did I hear something about you going out tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I said. “Apparently there’s some waterfall where you can swim.”
“Ah, yes, I suppose there would be in a town called Falls Depot.” She winked, and started plating our food. “That’s great news, Siri. I’m glad to see you’re making friends so quickly.”
“Yeah well, don’t throw me a parade yet. We’ll see how this thing goes tomorrow. Rowan seems a little…I don’t know…intense?”
“Oh, he’s just friendly. Seems like you couldn’t have met a nicer person your first day out and about.”
“Yeah. I guess.” I thought about how my stomach filled with butterflies every time I got near him. “I hope so.” I carried my dinner out to the living room and flopped down on the carpet in front of the TV. “Now what will it be? Clueless or Hunger Games?”
“Like you have to ask.” She laughed, and picked up the Hunger Games DVD. “Can’t have too much romance in the house, we might combust.”
I groaned, and stuffed a piece of lettuce in my mouth so I wouldn’t have to respond.
After the movie, I went to my room to check Facebook. A few messages from friends in old places, lots of funny memes about kittens. Social networking at its best. My closest friend from Egypt, Claire, said her dad had transferred to the same Irish company my mom had worked at five years ago. She was totally swooning over all the accents at her new school, and had included a few snapshots of the hot local eye candy. Claire was totally boy crazy. It was good to see that some things never changed.
Next, I checked out the Mount Snow website. Season passes were still on sale at a discount for another couple weeks. I decided I’d head over in the morning and get a youth pass, apparently local students under eighteen got a great deal. It was so cheap it was practically free. I couldn’t wait to put all my new gear to use in a couple months.
I turned off the computer and leaned back in my chair. What would tomorrow bring? I hoped that Rowan’s friends were as nice as he was. Well, maybe not quite so friendly. His total openness and chipper attitude was a bit much for me, I didn’t think I could take it from a whole group of people. But you know, it was better than unfriendly. Whatever. I guessed I would find out soon enough. I turned off my desk lamp and crawled into bed.
Moonlight seeped into the room through the curtains, casting strange shadows on the walls and ceiling. I stared up, feeling a little melancholy. Watching Hunger Games always did that to me. The scenes where her father disappeared down the mine, never to return. I envied Katniss. At least she’d had a father to miss. A father who had been kind and loved her.
My own father, according to mom, was a soldier she had known for less than a week. She said there’d been an instant pull and attraction between them, a knowing. She had still been with the army, stationed over in Afghanistan. He had been with a covert mercenary unit for the Brits, and both their teams had been working together to secure a biochemical facility from some terrorists. They had spent every free moment together during the mission.
Every moment, and by the time he was gone all she had was his code name. And me, of course, just starting to grow in her belly. She’d never been able to track him down. She’d tried, once she realized she was pregnant, but the Brits hadn’t been too forthcoming about who she’d actually met, and where the team had moved on to. They even refused to forward him a letter from her. The army had transferred her to a desk job, since she was pregnant, and she’d pensioned out a few years later.
I’d sort of hoped that we would run into him when we lived in Ireland, because hey, it was practically right there in England. Okay, fine, it had been a longshot, but I knew my mom had been disappointed when we left without making any sort of a connection, too. It was a bi
t depressing. I mean, my mom wasn’t loose or anything. She almost never dated. I knew my dad must have been someone really special. I could see it in her eyes whenever she talked about him. The yearning and the sadness.
I sighed, and closed my eyes. The odds were slim to none that I would meet my dad here in Falls Depot. At seventeen, I was pretty much resigned to never meeting him. Still. Sometimes it hurt to be without him, like how I imagined it felt after you lost a limb. You knew it was meant to be there. You could feel how it felt.
But it wasn’t there.