“I’ll take water for now, Ms. Caselli.”
“Zoya.” I smiled, rinsing the suds from my arms and hands, and drying my hand with the dish towel.
“Thank you.”
I made her a crisp cup of water and watched her sit and take a load off. She slowly sipped her water and looked at me. “Is there any reason you don’t visit here often?”
“Brings up too many memories of my parents.”
“Understandable. Not all memories are sad ones. I can’t imagine losing a mother that young, so your feelings are valid.”
“Did you know my parents?”
She nodded her head. “I knew your mother more. We grew up together in Scotsman, Colorado.”
I paused my dish washing and looked at her. “Like, actually grew up with my mother?”
“Yes. She always had big plans to leave Scotsman, and she did exactly what she said she would. The furthest I ever got was Aspen, cleaning rich people’s homes… no offense.”
“None taken.”
I remembered my mother, but I remembered her as my mom. All I knew was that she loved to sing, hug us and cook meals, and she loved my father. She was the person to comfort us when we were sad or angry. As the years passed on, I craved to know her as the woman.
Not the mother.
Not the wife.
A woman.
I wondered what her friends were like. Did she have a glass of wine after a stressful day. What were things she did to relieve herself of stress, and did I get my mouth from her? I saw her through mommy lenses, and never as the woman who had four children and a husband.
“I don’t think I remember seeing you around.” My memory was slightly fuzzy with our memories in Aspen. I remembered some things, but I think I built this defense to forget the things I missed the most.
So many years of pretending to not care ended with me forgetting prized memories.
“Oh, no. This home sat vacant for years. The rumor in town was that the home was foreclosed on. I knew your mother and knew what happened, so I knew the home was no longer a priority… I just never knew what happened to you guys. Not until I ran into your brother in town years ago.”
“How did you know it was him?”
She laughed to herself. “Your mother brought him back to Scotsman when he was around two or three. Very peculiar little boy. I’ve never seen a toddler keep his hands inside his pockets, and he didn’t speak. While kids were running and playing with balloons, he stood near your father. His facial features didn’t change much, however, he had to give his name to have his delivery sent to the chalet, and I overheard the Caselli name. A name I hadn’t heard in years.”
Menace never told us how he acquired the family’s chalet again. It was very important to him. We knew whenever he was ghost, he was usually there. It was his favorite place to be.
Being here, I could understand with the beautiful view from every angle of this home. Other than the view, I still didn’t feel the need to mark this as one of my favorite places.
“Wow.”
“Your brother doesn’t trust at all. I still don’t think he trusts me, but here I am years later. I keep the chalet cleaned and check in on your grandmother at the retirement home and keep him updated.”
I dropped the plate into the sink of dish water. “Grandmother?”
Vera knew she messed up because she silently cursed while lowering her head. “You don’t know.”
I looked around to see if the coast was clear. “Fuck no. I have a grandmother? My mother never spoke about her mother.”
I always found it odd that the only grandparents we had were the Eatons, and even they weren’t shit as grandparents. My grandfather, from what I could remember, couldn’t stand my dad.
Even as a child, you felt the tension whenever he was around.
