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ISLA
“Mommy! MOMMY! I have to POTTY!!” screeches Lochlan.
“Baby can you hold it? You just went to the potty thirty minutes ago and we are almost to Maw-Maws,” I soothe. Thankfully the rain seems to have finally stopped so it shouldn’t take much longer to get there.
“Yeah, I can hold it! I’m a big boy!!” he says grinning, I smile at my sweet boy in the rearview.
“You’re not a big boy, you’re a baby, dummy.” Arden snickers as I watch Lochan’s face fall.
“ARDEN COLE, WE DO NOT CALL PEOPLE NAMES!” I hiss, knowing my middle son can’t handle the name calling due to all he’s witnessed in his short almost four years of life.
“I’m sorry bubba, I was just playing,” he apologizes, reaching over his baby sister's car seat to grab his brother's hand.
It amazes me constantly at how close the boys are; they fight a lot but always want to comfort each other, and protect their sister. My three beautiful kids have been through so much, they are what kept me going and gave me the strength to leave finally after seven years. Arden is the oldest at five, my miniature twin with his dirty blond hair, baby blue eyes and freckled chubby face. He’s bigger than most five year olds, taking after the men in my family, standing right at four foot three already and sixty pounds. No one believes he’s only five.
Lochlan, my sensitive middle child, who will be five in a couple of months, is his daddy’s spitting image with his brown hair, hazel eyes, tan skin, and his tall and slender frame. The princess of the bunch is Vivian, my brown hair, brown eyed, almost two year old little girl. She is the perfect mix of me and their father according to his family. However, Corin never wanted a daughter, saying it would be “Too much drama and trouble”. He beat me so badly when he found out, I almost lost her, though thankfully she’s a fighter and held on. That was also my breaking point when I knew I needed to get out, and how the amazing people who helped us leave came into our life.
“Your destination is on the right,” says a robotic voice.
“Oh shit!” I screech, scared to death by the GPS I forgot about while I was lost in my head.
I haven’t seen my grandmother since she moved here eight years ago. She moved to Tennessee when she married my Paw-Paw and her father cut her off, because she refused to marry the man he picked for her. However, her mother never let him take her out of the will since she was their only child, and even though he lived six years after his wife, he never changed it, so once he passed it all went to her.
“Look kids, we made it to Maw-Maw’s!” I tell them excitedly, parking the car but unable to get out, too stunned looking at the huge house. When she said she had plenty of room, I was not expecting this even though I knew her family was rich growing up. This place is massive. My grandmother mentioned that it’s an old plantation style home that her family built when they moved over from Ireland in the 1920s. Actually, this is a rebuild of the original; the first house was burned when the other farmers accused my ancestors of ‘stealing’ their workers. Technically, they were, but they were the only land owners that actually paid the migrant workers living wage. Over the years, it had a ton of additions put on. Nowadays it's not as big as the Nottoway plantation home, but it’s not much smaller. Thankfully, it doesn’t have the dark past most older southern homes do.
As I’m slowly getting out of my POS car, the door to the mansion - because let’s be real, that’s what it is- opens and out walks my grandmother. She looks great for being sixty-nine, with her blonde hair styled in a pixie cut, the same blue eyes as me and Arden, and standing even with my five foot three frame. “Isla Claire! There you are! Did you have any problems finding the house?” She exclaims hurrying down the stairs to greet us.
The boys hurry out of the car to get a look at the great grandmother they have only seen over Zoom, while I grab Vivian out of her car seat. “Yeah, we made it safely. It didn’t get as bad as I thought it would, but it still rained pretty hard most of the way. Thank you for letting us come here…I…” My mumbled words cut off because what else could I say? She told me not to marry “that idiot”.
“Now none of that Isla, you will always be my baby girl, no matter how many of your own you have. Let’s get inside so I can get a look at these beautiful little great-grandchildren I’ve only seen through a screen,” she says, grabbing the boys’ hands and leading them up the stairs. I grab the couple bags we have and follow her up to our new home.
“MOMMY, LOOK!” Both the boys scream.
“Look how big it is! We get to live here?” Arden exclaims in shock while looking around with his big blue eyes wide.
“That’s right baby, you get to live here with me and mommy. Y’all even have your own wing of the house!” Maw-Maw tells them grinning, before turning to me. “Wow, sweetheart, you made some beautiful kids, look at them! Arden you are so tall and handsome, and look at those freckles! Lochlan you look so grown up with that big boy haircut, and you have the cutest smile.” Looking at my daughter in my arms, she says, “My sweet Vivian, look at you. Those big brown eyes will have people melting, now won’t they?”
Her eyes are watering, and I can feel the matching moisture building in my own. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her; Corin would never let me leave to visit. I think he knew I wouldn’t come back given the chance.
“I hate that I missed them being born and growing up,” she sighs. “Alright, let’s show y’all to your room so y’all can get settled in.” Waving us down the hall, she points out the living room and kitchen. It’s a beautiful home. Damn this house is huge… I’m going to lose my kids in this place.
“Now Isla, there is an upstairs, however I figured with Vivi being so little, having a room downstairs would be better. I wouldn’t want my princess falling and getting hurt,” she tells me as she leans down to kiss Vivi’s forehead. “Okay guys, here it is,” she grins as she pushes open a huge wooden door.
“Holy shit,” I breathe.
“It’s so much bigger than our old house!” Arden exclaims
“It’s so big! This is ours?! Really?” Lochlan says shyly, looking around. I hate how timid he is after what he’s endured; I hate that I couldn’t protect them.
“Well of course it is, baby! Maw-Maw wouldn’t tell you it was if it wasn’t true,” she tells him as my eyes begin to water looking around our wing of the house.
We walk into an open living area that leaves me speechless. It has a brick fireplace, a beautiful mocha leather sectional, and the walls are a gorgeous olive green with white trim. It looks exactly like I imagine a farmhouse would. It’s crazy. To the left is a hallway with five doors. To the right is a small kitchen, and glass French doors that lead out to a beautiful garden.
“Maw-Maw this is beautiful,” I breathe. “Did you do all this?”
“Well, when I moved I’d hoped you’d follow me. Then you never did, but I kept hoping, so I spent the time redoing it, just in case,” she smiles.
Walking around the room, there are pictures hung up of me when I was a kid with my parents, as well as some I’ve sent her of the kids over the years. Making my way down the hall to the rooms, I push open the first door and it’s a large bedroom that’s obviously for the boys. It’s painted a pretty blue with superheroes everywhere and two twin-sized loft beds with the boys' names over each one. The beds themselves are white with little tent attachments; red for Arden and Lochlan’s is blue. Their favorite colors.
