by K. J. Emrick
Izzy rolled her eyes as she and Helen walked away. Darcy felt like doing the same. “We’re not a team, Brianna,” she told her.
“Oh, sure we are. You just don’t know it yet.”
Scott the cameraman came back over, handing Brianna her expensive Brooks Brothers twill trenchcoat as he whispered in her ear. She nodded to whatever it was and then winked at Darcy. “Gotta go. The news waits for no woman. See you next time, Sweet.”
Grace actually growled as they watched Brianna walk away. “Is there a reason I don’t like that woman?”
“Yes,” Darcy confirmed. “There certainly is.”
“That’s what I thought. Look sis, I’ve got to get back to work too. Jon’s going to go nuclear when he hears we just made the news.”
“He’ll be fine,” Darcy told her. “He doesn’t hate the news as much as he says he does.”
“What about Brianna?”
“Oh, her he hates. No doubt.”
“Don’t blame him.” Grace gave Darcy a quick, unexpected hug. “Love you.”
“Wow, sis. Is the world ending?”
“You know what,” Grace said, “forget it. Just forget it. I was trying to be nice, and supportive, and all of that other sisterly stuff that we don’t usually do, but—”
“Grace?”
“What?”
“I love you, too.”
Grace smiled at her, then clapped her hard on the shoulder. “Don’t forget it.”
When everyone else was gone, and when the news van was pulling away up the street, and when the crowd around him had gone their own separate ways, Tobias glared at Darcy. “What, do you expect me to apologize or something?”
Darcy didn’t bother to answer. Tobias was never going to be part of the Misty Hollow community, no matter how many businesses he bought on Main Street. He didn’t care about the people here. He just wanted to turn a profit for himself. Darcy was sure he didn’t plan on doing anything to keep the bakery from being ruined further and that cemented in her mind that he really did load up on insurance before the fire. Whether he set it or not… well, like Grace said, they had Pastor Phin McCord under arrest for the crime already. If he was the arsonist, that still didn’t make Tobias Ford anything other than despicable. He’d take his insurance money from the fire and call it quits.
She had nothing to say to a man like that.
While she was walking away from him, she caught sight of a man further down the street watching her. A man twice as wide as she was and a half foot taller. A man wearing a leather aviator’s cap to hide his red hair, and a jacket from the 1980s.
Edmund Beres waved at her with his fingers, a cutesy little wave that set Darcy’s teeth on edge.
Then he turned and disappeared around a corner, as snow started to come down in earnest.
Chapter 8
Snow fell all through the night, and the next morning school was closed while plows worked overtime to clear the roads off. It was a winter wonderland that met Darcy’s eyes as she pulled the curtains away from the window in her bedroom. Everything white, and fresh, and new. It was still coming down when Colby came bounding down the stairs to bundle up in her snowsuit and her boots and her mittens, full of energy now that she didn’t have to go to school. Out the door she went, scarf trailing behind her, flopping down in the puffy layers of sparkling powder to see how many snow angles she could make in a row, like a big paperdoll chain in the shape of her own little body.
Darcy called Izzy, knowing her and Lilly would be home because of the school closing too. No sense opening the bookstore today, she said. Why not come over and spend the day with us?
While Jon was at work Darcy and Izzy chatted over cups of tea. Lilly was always happy to spend the day playing with Colby, although at age seven the games they played together had changed. Gone were hide-and-seek and eye spy. In their place were card games like War and Old Maid, or crazy games of charades. Colby was fascinated with Lilly’s hair, too. Lilly was always experimenting with different colors, and for Christmas she had dyed streaks of red and platinum blonde into the right side of her pixie cut, and then twirled them into mini braids that looked like candy canes.
Lilly explained it was her way of making things pretty for the holidays. Colby told her that she was already pretty. “Connor thinks so too,” she whispered as they ate grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. “I think he loves you.”
Leaning in closer like it was a big secret, Lilly whispered back, “I think I love him too.”
Colby’s eyes got very big, and very wide. She knew all about love from Jon and Darcy. Her mother and father had no problem showing their affection for each other, or for Colby either. But the idea that a boy and a girl might love each other before they were all grown up… well. Colby had a few years yet to learn about that. Darcy hoped.
Tiptoe hung around the table waiting for someone to drop her a bit of cheese or buttered bread. Sitting over by their food dish, Smudge twitched his whiskers at the impatience of youth. Funny, Darcy thought with a smile. She seemed to remember a younger white and black cat who found his way into everything and loved to beg for people food scraps. Old man, she whispered to him in her mind. His eyes blinked up at her, and he shifted slowly from foot to foot, which was as close as he would ever come to admitting she was right. He was getting old.
As promised, Jon made sure to get home on time to help make dinner and soon Aaron and Grace and Addison were at the door as well. Darcy and Izzy set the table while Jon and Aaron debated the best way to cook steaks on the stovetop, and Grace went into the living room with Addison to join Colby and Lilly. Their house was full of talk and laughter and the sounds of belonging. Darcy thought that her Great Aunt Millie would approve. After all, this house had been Millie’s before it was Darcy’s.
All through dinner, and then after, Darcy watched Addison. The kids ate in the living room because there wasn’t room enough around their kitchen table for everyone even with the leaf put in. She seemed just like her usual self. Just the same as always. Funny, bright, happy child. She and Colby and Lilly were sitting at folding tables, watching television while they ate their burgers and fries. Darcy didn’t know what the program was but they were laughing and joking about it and then Colby swung her arms wide to make some kind of point in the story she was telling and knocked her plate sideways, and off her table.
Addison caught it, neat as you please.
From her seat at the table Darcy could see into the living room. She smiled, although she wasn’t sure if this was the sort of thing she should smile about. Addison hadn’t just caught that plate. She’d had her hands out and ready for the plate before it ever left the table. Before Colby had even lifted her arms. She’d known the plate was going to fall. In her mind’s eye, she’d seen it about to happen.
That was Addison’s gift manifesting itself. Something so simple, and yet it had so much meaning for her, and for Darcy, and for Grace.
From the living room, Colby turned to look at her mother. Darcy could see in her eyes that she had pushed the plate on purpose. Addison had the gift. Colby knew it. Now it was time for Addison and Grace to know it, too.
Sitting next to her, Grace cleared her throat, a quiet sound in the middle of all the conversation. Darcy looked at her sister, and Grace raised an eyebrow. Well? she was asking. Is it true?
Darcy nodded.
Somehow Grace kept her composure until the dinner wrapped up, eating her food with hardly a word, staring at her plate and making sure to laugh at her husband’s lame jokes.
“I mean,” Aaron was saying as they began picking up their dishes to clear the table, “did any of us really know Pastor Phin? He hasn’t been in town that long and we’re a pretty tight-knit community.”
“Oh really?” Jon said, waving his fork around in circles. “Then why did I just arrest our town’s hairdresser? Why is one of our neighbors in debt up to her ears to a bookie, who I’m going to arrest this weekend once the paperwork is all in order? I tell you, Aaron
, there’s a lot that goes on under the surface of small town America that most of us never see. Even us police officers.”
He smiled to take the sting out of his words but he was right. This mystery had brought out the worst in a lot of people. Or at least, it had shown their bad sides. The naughty list wasn’t done, either. There were still more names to cross off.
“Don’t forget we have a freelance criminal walking our streets,” Darcy pointed out.
“And a mysterious Iroc driver,” Izzy added. “Or are we not caring about the car? I’ve kind of lost track.”
“I know where to find the car.”
Everyone turned to Grace. She stood with them at the sink, her dirty dishes in hand, watching them staring at her. “What? I’m just saying. It won’t matter in the long run, right? But I’ll run down the lead just to see what was going on with the car.”
“Thanks,” Izzy told her, “but you don’t have to do that for me. I saw the car that night but if it doesn’t mean anything then it doesn’t mean anything. That’s all right.”
Jon took the rest of the plates and cups one by one from everyone and stacked them up on the counter. “No Izzy, Grace is right. We should run down everything to make sure we don’t miss anything or give the defense a reason to cast doubt on our case at trial. Besides, like I was saying, the way our luck is going every single person on that list is going to be up to something illegal.”
“Hey, Darcy,” Grace said once her hands were free. “Mind if I talk to you about something outside? Won’t take long.”
Darcy knew what Grace wanted to talk about. Addison, and her gift. She liked the idea of talking about it outside, where they would have their privacy, because suddenly she had something else to talk about with Grace. Something she should have seen a long time ago.
“You two go ahead,” Jon told her. “We can watch the girls. We’ll get the cards out, too. Whose up for some poker?”
Darcy led Grace out onto the porch and then over to the driveway, standing next to where the cars had been packed in like sardines to keep them off the street. Grace was blowing warm breath on her hands, her breath misting in front of her face and then drifting away into the night. All around them the world was dark. They stood on the very edge of the lights from the house casting a glow across the snow and the bare trees in the front yard.
“Well?” Grace said. “What did you see?”
Darcy had thought that maybe Grace would want to ease into this conversation, maybe come at it sideways and work up to the question of her daughter’s abilities, but obviously she was anxious to know the truth. That was good, as far as Darcy was concerned, because there might be more truth to tell than either of them had realized.
“Addison has the gift,” she told Grace. “Your daughter inherited it just like I did.”
In that moment, Grace’s face froze as if the winter air had turned it to ice. Then she nodded, and took a very slow breath, and nodded again. “Well. That changes things.”
“No, Grace,” Darcy said, reaching out to take her sister’s hand. “It doesn’t have to change anything unless you let it. Remember when Mom sent me off to live with Aunt Millie because I had the gift and Mom didn’t know what to do about it? You won’t have to worry about any of that. I’m here. I’ll be right here with you to help you understand anything that comes up. I’ll help Addison learn to use what she’s been given, too.”
“Thanks, Darcy. Really. But we both know that’s not true. Having this… this curse our family’s bloodline carries means Addison will never have a normal life.”
Darcy was shocked to hear her sister say that. All her life she’d felt like she had to keep her gift a secret. She had lived in constant fear of what other people might think of her if they knew. Her friends. Her teachers. Her neighbors. But not Grace. She’d told Grace about the things she could do—most of it, anyway—just like she’d told Jon. If there were two people in her life who she believed she could count on to love her no matter what, it was Jon and Grace.
And yet, here was Grace, spouting those prejudiced and hurtful words she had always feared from everyone else. It wasn’t fair. Her family should accept her for who she was. They should love her, no matter what. Just like Grace should love Addison.
“Grace,” she tried, “this ability is a gift, not a curse. Look, I know you can’t understand what Addison is going through. She may not understand it herself, for that matter, but that’s where I come in. I can help. I can help both of you understand how this all—”
“You don’t think I understand?” Grace laughed, her voice thin and somehow dark. “You don’t think I know what it’s like? Darcy… don’t you get it? You’re not the only one in our family with this curse!”
Gift, Darcy wanted to argue. It was a gift, not a curse. Only, the words couldn’t come out past the choking lump that had formed in her throat. She’d been right.
Not the only one in our family. That’s what Grace had said. Finally, the pained look in Grace’s eyes registered for Darcy. So did a dozen other little things she’d been piecing together. Like, how Grace had seemed to be staring at Pastor Phin in church on Sunday… when his sister’s ghost was standing right next to him. Or how Grace had been acting yesterday in the bookstore, like there was something else she needed to tell Darcy but couldn’t. At the time she’d thought it was just because Grace had been upset about Addison. Now the real reason became clear.
Not the only one in the family.
She wasn’t talking about Addison, or Colby either.
She was talking about herself.
“You?” Darcy managed to say after a long moment. “You have… you can… Grace, why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Oh, like you didn’t tell me Addison had the family secret?”
“I explained that, Grace. I wanted to make sure she really did before I said anything. But this… Grace, how could you never tell me?”
A shaky breath turned into a snort. “Because I didn’t want to be different, Darcy. I didn’t want to be the kid that everyone whispered about behind her back. Or the one who got made fun of for something she couldn’t help. I didn’t want to be—!”
The night became so silent that Darcy imagined she could hear the individual flakes of snow falling to layer the ground. There was no need for her sister to finish that sentence. Darcy knew what she had been about to say.
“You didn’t want to be me,” she said, her voice dry of any emotion at all. “You didn’t want to be the one who got sent away. You didn’t want Mom to do to you… what she did to me.”
With her lips pursed and her eyes glimmering with tears, Grace nodded. That was it exactly.
Darcy dropped Grace’s hand.
“How could you?” she asked her. “How could you let me go through all of that when we were younger, and never say anything? All these years? All the stuff… everything we’ve been through… all the times I could have used my sister there supporting me and telling me she understood and you… how could…”
She couldn’t complete a single thought. They were all jumbling up together in her mind and twisting around each other trying to get out until her head was pounding in time to her heartbeat. She wanted to scream. She wanted to shout and not stop until the world went back to when she was a little girl just entering into puberty and a gift that was scary and dangerous and exciting.
She wanted to go back in time and have her sister Grace stand up beside her and say, take me too.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, she’d been sent out on her own. Just her and Great Aunt Millie. It had been years before she reconnected with Grace, and even longer before she healed the relationship with her mother. Now, here she stood on this frosty cold December night, hearing that her whole life could have been different. Her sister, who she loved dearly, had been too scared to stand by her.
Darcy closed her eyes tightly and let stray snowflakes land on her cheeks and melt. They were as close to tears as she was going to get. She was t
oo numb inside to cry.
When she opened them again, she was looking past Grace, to the house where their families and their friends were happily sitting together and playing cards or watching television or whatever. In the window sat Smudge, his tail swishing against the glass, his eyes focused on her.
I’m here for you, she could almost hear him say. I’m always here for you.
Thanks, Smudge.
He blinked, and then jumped down from the window. Darcy took a breath, and let it out again with a question.
“How strong?”
“How…? Oh.” Grace shoved her hands back through her hair. “You mean, how strong.”
“For Pete’s sake, Grace, yes. I mean how strong is the gift in you?”
“It’s hardly there, Darcy. It’s just enough to bother me when I don’t need it. Why do you think I’ve ignored it? Why do you think I deny being like you? I mean, how am I supposed to feel? I have to be saddled with this but I don’t get to do anything useful with it. Oh, no. I’ve seen the things you can do, sis. You are… amazing. With me, I get to know what bills are going to be in the mailbox before I go and look. But then, when my husband got kidnapped all those years ago, did these powers of yours help me do anything to save him? No. I had to use my police skills and thank God for that because this curse—yes, Darcy, curse—did absolutely nothing for me!”
Darcy remembered. Aaron had gotten caught up in a robbery and then kidnapped, and they hadn’t known whether he was alive or dead. Darcy knew, of course, because of her gift, but Grace had been beside herself trying to look for any way at all to save her husband. Darcy had been able to use her abilities to help locate him but Grace had been frantic the whole time. Looking at it that way, knowing what she did now, put that whole event in a different light for Darcy. Whatever spark of the gift Grace had inside of her had been completely useless to her.
Looking at it that way, Darcy might be tempted to call it a curse, too.