I chase these thoughts out of my head because shifters are no longer a part of my life. I have to let these feelings go so they won’t weigh me down. Even though I tell myself this every time I come here still the anger lingers. One of these days it will work.
Arriving at my street, I mentally prepare myself for the lecture that is coming. I park the car on our garage and turn to take my bag with all of my climbing gear from the passenger seat. When I go to open the car door, I notice someone stands in front of it. I jump on my seat before I see that is my mother with a frown on her face.
“Lisa.” She said.
“Mom.” I sighed. Here comes the lecture.
“Is this an appropriate time to get home?” She asked.
“Mom, you know I was working,” I said.
“Do you have to work this hard? I told you that the company only wants the worst for its employees. You should quit and go to work for your grandmother. She told me today that she needs a geologist to look at some things on her property.” She said reaching for my bag and getting inside the house.
“Mom,” I called to her before she disappears inside. She always uses this tactic. She says something that I don’t want to hear and then leaves the room preventing me from arguing. Is her way of stating what she wants without repercussion. Before I get inside I need to sort out my equipment. So that will force me to go over what she said before I can discuss it with her.
Working for grandmother would be interesting. She is my father’s mother, and she always had a connection with nature that I envied. My entire family has an affinity for the outdoors. The one exception is my younger brother Tyler. He loves tinkering with his computers and spends most of his time indoors.
The rest of us are outside as much as we can. Including my mother. She was a foster child that stayed in the system until eighteen. One of her escapes was going out to the forest outside the orphanage as much as she could.
That forest is where she met my father. She was just strolling after one of her many shifts as a waitress in the diner at the edge of town. My father was hiking like he did every morning. From then on they always would meet up in the morning until my mother tired of waiting for him to ask her out and asked him.
Six months later they were married.
Because my mother never had a stable family grandmother became her parent just as she was with dad. My entire family is very close to one another. We have an unspoken rule that it doesn’t what you do with your life. If you need help, your family will be there.
So working with her would be a blast. I just don’t understand why my mother would want that. I would have to move to my grandmother’s place, eight hours away from here. That meant that I would be away from home.
She would rather I lived eight hours away than work for Montelch Enterprises. What is so wrong about that company? She has been more insistent about me quitting for the last month. What changed?
“Hey, Lisa, finish it already. I’m starving.” Thomas draws me out of my thoughts. He is always so full of energy. Being the older of the twins, it seems like he never stops moving. Tyler is the polar opposite, studying all the time and messing with his computers. Even though their personalities couldn’t be more different, they are as thick as thieves. While Thomas is training for soccer, Tyler is in the computer room coding. And yet somehow they are the architects of most of the pranks on their school. Nothing the principal can prove it but a fact that everybody knows.
“Come on, Lisa. You took too long to come home and mom forced us to wait for you. Come on.” Thomas urged me, getting back inside.
I chuckled, storing the rest of my gear and following him.
Inside, the wonderful smell of spicy chicken permeates everything. This is one of my favorite dishes because I love spicy foods. The polar opposite of my mother and brothers. So I know she is still trying to convince me to work for grandmother.
Going to the kitchen, I see that the table is set, and everyone is waiting for me. Hurrying, I sit in front of Tyler who is glued to his phone as always. I just hope it is nothing illegal. And if he doesn’t get caught. I dish the food out and dig in before my mom clears her throat.
“Lisa.” She starts. “I know you don’t like the idea of quitting your job out of the blue. I understand that you feel comfortable here. But you have to expand your horizons. You need to see the world. And what better way of doing that then moving into a new city?” She finishes excitedly.
I chew slowly, letting her talk. There is an edge of sadness that never leaves her, no matter how happy she can be. I have never seen her happy since my father passed. But today is different.
There is desperation in her every move. Like something is coming and she can’t stop it. But I don’t if this is just in my head because Thomas continues to stuff his mouth with food and Tyler eats absentmindedly, still focused on his phone. Maybe it is all in my head, I’ll just focus on my food for now and confront her after dinner.
Focus. This word reminds me of earlier. When I fell I thought I heard someone shouting at me. Probably it is my imagination, but now that I think back the yell is the reason that I stopped panicking. Which is the one thing you can not do when you are climbing solo? If something happens, you have to deal with it. Otherwise, you could die.
The dinner continues while my mother gets increasingly desperate for her speech about me moving. Her tone rises while tears gather in her eyes.
“Mom.” I stopped her. “Why are you crying? If you want me to move that much I will. I promise.”
“Really?” She cries. “Are you really going to leave that company and move?”
“Yes, mom. If you want that much I will.” I said, trying to console her the best I can. I don’t why it is so important to her. But if it is important enough that she is crying because of it, then I will do whatever I can to ease her sadness.
When everyone finishes there is a knock on the door. Thomas jumps out of his chair telling us he will get the door but mom stops him cold.
“Not so fast, young man. Tonight is your night of doing the dishes.” She scolds him, gesturing for the sink. “I’ll get the door.”
“Damn.” He mumbles under his breath. Tyler and I laugh because everyone in our family hates doing the dishes. So everyone takes a turn and we always try to get out of it. Never works.
I hear the door close and see Mom walking down the hall towards us. She stumbles on the rug under the table and I jump to catch her before she hits the ground.
“Mom, are you okay?” I asked.
“Of course, honey. I’m fine.” She said.
I waver, looking at her while she brushes dust out of her pants. She called me honey.
“Are you sure you’re okay mom?” I asked, tilting my head.
“Yes, honey. Don’t worry. I just wasn’t looking.” She looks at me, smiling. But at that moment I see her eyes change. “I am perfectly fine.”
The smirk on her face is disconcerting, and the sadness that always clung to her is gone. The look in her eyes is predatory and I know down to my soul that something is terribly wrong.
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