Kealan Burke - Kin

Tonight, he knew it would come again.

He looked out the windshield at the dark shadow of a mountain a few miles ahead of them. In the fading light, it looked crimson, alien, something from a Martian landscape.

“Hood Mountain, I assume” Beau said and unfolded a map, his finger tracing a line from Columbus all the way down to Alabama and further, to where a thin thread turned away from highway and entered a geographically barren area.

He looked at Finch. “Looks like we found ’em.”

When he stepped inside and Claire had the door shut behind him, her demeanor changed completely. Gone was the weak weepy girl who had hugged him, kissed him right on the lips, and sobbed her delight at the sight of him outside. Now her face was serious, her eyes intense as she shoved him aside, moved to the small narrow window beside the front door and peeked out. After a moment, she let the curtain fall and offered him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry about that. I wanted to make sure she was gone.”

“Who?”

“My sister. The woman you met. Her name is Kara.”

“She seemed nice,” he lied.

“Yeah, she usually does. Then you get to know her.”

She turned and walked ahead of him to the kitchen. Helplessly he stood, awaiting instructions on what to do next. The abrupt change in her manner confused him, and now he wasn’t so sure she really was all that glad to see him.

In the kitchen doorway, she turned. “C’mon.”

He followed. “I’m glad to see you,” he said, with an uncertain smile.

She had moved to the sink and was filling a glass with water from the faucet. She nodded, tossed back a pair of white pills and noisily drained the glass. Afterward she closed her eyes and sighed.

Pete still stood at the threshold to the room, feeling awkward.

“Why did you come?” she asked him in a coarse tone.

“I said I would, ’member?”

“Not really.”

Pete’s smile faded. He wondered what had happened between the driveway and the house to bring such a sudden change upon her. “The night I drove you to the hospital,” he explained. “We was talkin’ about singin’.”

“I don’t like to sing,” she said.

Encouraged, Pete stepped further into the room. “That’s right! You said that, then you told me come see you soon’s you was better.”

“Then you’re early,” she said.

He wasn’t sure what that meant, and so said nothing, just watched as she set the glass down and turned, leaning against the edge of the sink, her arms folded as she appraised him. “Pete.”

“Yes Ma’am?”

“ Why did you come?”

“I said I would. I promised.”

“You already told me that. I want to know why else you came.”

“To see how you was. To see if you was all right.”

“And?”

“What?”

“And how am I? How do I look?”

“Tired, I guess,” he said truthfully. “And different.”

“Different how?”

“Your hair,” he said. “And the patch.”

Absently, she fingered a lock of her dyed hair. “Do you like them?”

“I dunno,” he said. “I like the patch I guess. Makes you look like a pirate.”

She gave him a slight smile. “You want something to drink?”

“That’d be nice.”

“What do you want?”

“Coke’s fine, or hot chocolate.”

“Haven’t got hot chocolate.” She jerked open the refrigerator hard enough to send some of the myriad magnets on the door flying. Wide-eyed, Pete followed their trajectory, then looked back to Claire.

“Are you mad at me for comin’?”

“Nope,” she said and withdrew a liter of Coke from the fridge. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Only slightly relieved, he said, “Okay.”

“Because,” she continued, unscrewing the cap from the bottle, “You’re going to drive me to Elkwood.”

She slammed the bottle down on the table, and didn’t offer him a glass.

“Drink fast,” she said.

Thunder grumbled over the city. Kara parked the car and looked out at the drab gray building in which she worked. The clock on the dashboard told her she was already an hour and fifteen minutes late, but she couldn’t care less. Her mind raced with thoughts about the boy who’d showed up at their door. He’d wanted to see Claire, and it was clear by her sister’s reaction that the visit had been a welcome one, eliciting more emotion from her than Kara had seen in months. So, though she’d been against the idea, maybe it would work out to be a positive thing in the end.

You don’t really buy that, do you?

She couldn’t help but grin at her own pessimism, but it was true. She didn’t buy it. The kid’s connection to the events that had chewed Claire up and spit her out would only justify her dwelling on them for another while, and that was counter-productive to their cause.

Cause. What cause? she asked herself. Naturally she wanted Claire to recover, and soon. But how much of that was for Claire’s benefit, and not her own? How much of it was simply a selfish desire to be as free of her sister and all her emotional baggage as Claire wanted to be of her? Kara felt cruel even thinking it, but no reassuring mental voice hurried to debate the theory.

Kara had a life. Granted, not much of one, and even Claire couldn’t be blamed for the worst of its deficiencies, but the idea of being her sister’s keeper forever made her chest tighten. It couldn’t happen. It wasn’t fair to either of them. And what good was she really doing anyway? Trying to curb her sister’s self-destructive impulses of late seemed to be having the opposite effect. Claire appeared to be waiting for the opportunity, the right moment before she took that final step over the precipice into the abyss where the demons she had escaped would welcome her back and rend her asunder.

Kara had just lit a cigarette. Now she froze, smoke streaming out around the filter, and thought of the boy. More specifically, she thought of his truck.

She’s waiting for an opportunity.

Their mother was at the doctor’s office.

Kara was here.

You just gave her one.

“Damn it.” As if by some miracle he might sense it, Kara cast a brief apologetic glance up at her boss’s window on the fifth floor, then started the engine and reversed out of the parking lot fast enough to force the driver of an oncoming car to jam on his brakes and slam on the horn.

Tires screeching, she headed home.

She estimated she’d been gone from the house less than forty minutes, but it could have been a day for all the difference it made.

After only a few minutes, she quit searching the house. The silence that had greeted her should have been enough to confirm what she already suspected. The boy’s truck was gone. So was the boy, and with him, Claire.

“Shit,” Kara growled, struggling to keep the panic out of her voice because to hear it only worsened the fear that was trying to paralyze her. Calm down , she commanded herself. They could be gone anywhere.

But they weren’t, and she knew it.

Quickly, she made her way into the kitchen, and picked up the phone. She had already dialed 911 when she spotted the single piece of notepaper on the kitchen table. She did not hang up, but reached out and snatched up the page, reading as the call went through.

Dear Kara , it said. You know where I’m going. What you don’t know, and probably wouldn’t understand even if I broke it down for you, is why I’m going there. Pete, in his simple way, does. Together we’re going to do this because we have to. There’s no other way. I’m guessing you’re gonna call the police on us. That would be you all over. But do me a favor. Give it a few hours. Give us a head start. If you don’t, I promise you we’ll find a way around it. We’re young, not stupid. So do this for me. You’ve been trying to help, and I appreciate it even if you’re a pain in the ass 90% of the time. Now’s your chance to really do something for me. You never know. This might have a happy ending. Love, Claire.