AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
Layla
* * *
Since it’s Sunday, I know my uncle will be around. I’d seen him during the week for brief glimpses at a few breakfasts, but he was always on his phone, or with Roxanne going down a checklist… if he was there at all. As often as not, I ate dinner with one or more of the staff, since Uncle Dom always seems to run off to a meeting or event in town. I know he’s the mayor, but it mystifies me he has so many things to attend in such a small place.
However, it’s definitely fair to say I understand now why he couldn’t stay with me in LA—he barely stays in this house as it is.
But Roxanne assured me he takes Sunday dinners seriously. That is when he and all the household staff have a sort of family dinner, which I guess now includes me.
I know he is the only one that’s going to give me answers. Whether it’s because they fear his reprisal or for some other reason, no one will give me more than a few tidbits about my mom. The boys had been the most forthcoming last night in the attic, but even they don’t know enough to satisfy my curiosity.
My uncle grew up with her. He was there, so he definitely can tell me more, if not all of, the story.
And tonight I plan to get answers.
I plot my attack as I wander the lush grounds of Harridan House, soaking in the warm sunlight and earthy fragrances that surround me.
It isn’t a complicated plan; I’m going to play nice at dinner, then corner him and get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding my mom’s childhood and what led to her running away in the first place.
Because it makes little sense. This place is magnificent—why would someone ever leave? Yes, it’s a little lonely in the giant castle. But she had parents and a sibling, and clearly she had friends. It’s a cute small town with a hipster-wilderness vibe, and short of a shopping mall and a movie theater, Smoky Falls seems to have everything a person could want. I certainly understand why people don’t leave this place; I’ve seen what the world offers and there’s not a lot of good out there. Sure, a bigger city offers anonymity, and there are things to see in the world like the pyramids, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower… all places to visit, then go home.
But nothing ever felt right the way Smoky Falls does. Even with my entire childhood spent growing up in LA, I never felt like I was home. My parents moved us constantly from one apartment to another. We never settled in one place for more than a year. Everything was temporary, and that was before I ended up in foster care.
Here, everything feels permanent, solid, trustworthy and inevitable. I’ve scarcely been here a week, and it’s already the mosthomeI’ve felt in my entire life. Despite my initial fears, and mean kids at school—seriously we’re in college, you’d think they would have grown out of it?—I have no desire to leave.
But I need to know the truth. My mother never did anything that wasn’t for a reason, and I know, deep in my heart, that she had her reasons for leaving Smoky Falls despite a lack of obvious ones.
My mind flashes briefly to Derek and my street family, a slight pang in my chest for the people who were my entire world just a year ago. Now they seem like a distant past, almost so far removed as to be a dream more than a memory.
Something about this place is magical. Restorative. As a kid surviving on the street, I learned really quickly to box up fears or emotions of any kind. I didn’t have the luxury of being afraid, or sad, or hurt. You’d think someone would need years of therapy to get over that, and to be fair, perhaps my year with Roxanne was a sort of deprogramming to help transition me to a more normal life.
But at the same time, I’m now perfectly comfortable pulling out those emotions, unboxing them, and examining them one by one. They don’t bother me to consider, as part of my distant past. Even the attack that I only remember in flashes is an unemotional memory. I healed, I recovered, and while I bear the scars on my arms and chest, I don’t carry any ill effects in my heart.
The only thing that continues to bother me is the mystery of why my parents left in the first place. Why drag me through all of those roach-infested apartments, barely surviving, when I could have grown up here in a literalpalace?
The urge to let it go is strong—after all, I’m here now. What else matters?—but the need for answers is stronger.
Tonight I’ll go to dinner, be the perfectly behaved niece, and then I’ll corner my uncle and finally get some answers.
ChapterFourteen
Layla
* * *
So this is what a normal family dinner looks like.
Seated in the ‘breakfast room’ with my uncle, most of the staff, and Roxanne, it’s difficult to describe the odd formality of the occasion when it’s outwardly supposed to be casual.
The staff who are not working—I guess this alternates by weeks, so everyone gets to join ‘family dinner’—are wearing normal clothes, not uniforms like they do through the day. Food is served ‘family style’ with the platters passed around instead of plated service. There is light conversation, background music, and an outward sense of ease.
And yet, the tension is thick among the party. The staff speak in low tones to each other, and Mr. Carson sits beside Uncle Dom, chatting as they eat. However, it’s not the same lighthearted conversation I overheard when I slipped into the kitchen last week and observed them enjoying their meal without my uncle’s supervision.
I’m at my uncle’s left, and I’m trying—but failing—to come up with conversation.
He asked about my first week of school, the football game, and how things were going with the guys, which I answered as conversationally as I could. But when I turned the conversation to him and his work, his replies were curt and he quickly reengaged Mr. Carson in conversation about household matters.
