Breaking New Grounds

by Amy DeMeritt

  “Maybe, but she should know we wouldn’t think that.”

  “Kayla, you’re major celebrities. Everyone else is going to think it. You’ve been in the spotlight since she hit the dating age. That’s probably why she’s been so secretive about it. She doesn’t want the media talking about her business and comparing her to you and Sara more than they already do.”

  “That’s a really good point. I never thought about that before. What the heck are you doing up there?” I lift my hand to feel my head, but Sorina smacks my hand away.

  “Don’t touch. I’m almost done. I want to paint your toenails later. I bought a new polish just for you.”

  I groan dramatically and let my head fall back against her. She smiles down at me and pets my cheeks as she bends down to kiss my lips. As she pulls back, she kisses the tip of my nose, then tilts my head upright to finish my hair.

  “I’m guessing we won’t be able to arrange a friend-date while I’m here?”

  “Probably not because of the construction and my wives are recording new music. We’ll have to hang out here. We’ll dance after our food digests.”

  “Ok, I’m all done. Stand up.”

  I stand up and Sorina walks around me looking at my head with an adorable grin. She takes my hand and yanks me forward. I stumble after her and as I step in line next to her, I reach up to touch my head, but she laughs and reaches over to smack my hand down.

  “Stop trying to touch it. After we show everyone, you can go look at it in the mirror.”

  We stop next to the table with my wives, babies, Talia, Maya, Jo, Hayley, Sara, and Keira. All of them look up with huge smiles, then start laughing.

  “What the hell did she do to me?”

  “It’s… different.”

  They start laughing hard and I look at Sorina with a quirked eyebrow. “Did you make me look ridiculous? You know I’m going to have to revoke your hair and nail polish privileges now.”

  “I think you look…” She can’t even finish her sentence before she bends over laughing. “Ok, come on, I’ll take it out in the bathroom, but I want you to see it first.”

  The trek through the yard and into the house is filled with laughter, questions about what happened to me, and me blaming Sorina.

  When we reach the bathroom, I fall forward on the vanity laughing really hard. She braided my hair in weird swirling patterns tight against my head with the ends sticking out in odd angles like micro-ponytail puffs all over my head.

  “Oh, my god, I can never let you do my hair again.”

  Sorina laughs hard and steps up behind me, grabbing me around the waist to pull me upright. “Ok, let me undo it.”

  “What possessed you to do this to my hair?”

  “I started with a plan of giving you normal braids, but the muse spoke to me and that was the result.” She laughs and flashes me a beautiful smile in the mirror over my shoulder. “Honestly, I think I’m missing my baby sister. Ruby likes me to do crazy designs like that and then laugh about it. Sitting and doing her hair over and over again for hours is one of her favorite things in the world.”

  “That’s sweet. Damn, why’d you have to make me feel guilty like that? I guess you don’t have to lose your hair and nail polish privileges.”

  Sorina smiles and kisses my cheek. “Thanks. Ok, you’re done. Thanks for letting me play with your hair.”

  “Anytime.”

  With a beautiful loving smile, Sorina takes my hand and pulls me out of the bathroom and back to the deck. While I hold both of our plates, Sorina fills them with food. Then she grabs plasticware, napkins, and drinks for us. We sit down in the empty seats between Hayley and Awenasa, and as soon as I’m seated, Malana squirms on Awenasa’s lap to get to me.

  “Mom Kayla, kiss.”

  I smile really big and scoop up my baby girl. I hold her up in front of me and munch on her stomach, making her release giggling shrieks. I blow a raspberry on her neck then give her a kiss on her smiling mouth.

  “Did you eat, baby girl?”

  “Eat.”

  I give her another kiss and set her on my lap. “Have a bite of my corn bread.”

  I offer her the large square of cornbread, and she smiles really big as she grabs my hand in both of hers and pulls it into her wide mouth. Which basically makes it smash into bits against her face. I laugh hard and she looks up at me with a full smiling mouth.

  “Is that good? Ok, chew it up. There you go. No, no, no.” I laugh and pull my hand back as she tries to pull it back to her mouth. “You have to finish that bite first. Can I have a bite?”

  She holds a hand to her mouth trying to hold the cornbread in while she chews, but her smile never leaves her face. I kiss her forehead and set the mangled piece of cornbread down to clean her up and dust off my lap.

  While she’s chewing, I take a bite of a steak fajita Sorina made for me. Malana reaches up and tries to take it from me, making me laugh around my bite.

  “They are just too cute.”

  I smile at Maya, and before I can because I’m chewing, Awenasa says, “Thank you.”

  After I swallow, I ask her, “Do you want kids?”

  Talia’s head immediately bolts up from looking at her phone and her face blushes beet red. Maya notices and releases a small laugh with her cheeks blushing as well before she clears her throat.

  “I like the idea of certain aspects of having children, but I’m not sure I’ll be very good at it.”

  “The pregnancy part or being a parent part?”

  “Both. My family calls me the pet-killer.”

  All of us raise our eyebrows, and my eyes involuntarily start searching the yard for Aura.

  “Stay away from my wolf.”

  She shakes her head, saying, “I don’t purposefully do it. My parents have tried to force me to have pets all my life to teach me responsibility for another life. I sort of forgot about them after a while.”

  “How many poor innocent animals have died under your watch?”

  She blushes as she releases a small laugh again. “Oh, it’s embarrassing. Ok… I’ve accidentally killed four hamsters, a guinea pig, two rabbits, and countless fish.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Talia’s eyes are huge and her mouth is hanging wide open as she stares at Maya in disbelief and a bit of disgust. “Are you serious? You’re a biology major and you let that many animals die?”

  All of us look around sharing nervous glances as Maya and Talia stare at each other for a moment. Maya licks her lips and shrugs a shoulder as she leans back in her chair as if it’s no big deal that she allowed so many pets to die from neglect.

  “I knew the limits to my attention span better than my parents did, but they tried to force the matter. If they hadn’t, those animals and fish wouldn’t have died because of me. It was an irresponsible thing for them to do.”

  My eyebrows raise in surprise by her logic, but Talia’s face contorts in thought, as if Maya’s explanation actually makes sense to her. After a few moments, she says, “I see your point. However, as an intellectual and being in full understanding of your limits, your responsibility would be that much greater to conquer yourself to ensure your limits didn’t cost an innocent life. To me, it sounds like you were being lazy and used your limits as an excuse to allow yourself not to grow.”

  Maya grins and turns slightly to face Talia. “That’s an interesting argument. It could also be viewed as a firm stance of independence – not allowing my parents to control the areas of my growth, instead choosing my own paths.”

  “At the cost of life? So, if the universe handed you a puppy right now and said you have to take care of it or it dies, you would just let it die?”

  “How long do I have to take care of it?”

  “Forever – till it dies of natural causes, not neglect.”

  “See that forever thing is really tricky.” Maya giggles at Talia’s face of disgust. “Ok, let me ask you something, Talia. If someone said they had a plan to make you a better person, a person
they think you should be, and they’re going to take several large chunks out of your day to accomplish it, what would your choice be?”

  “If it’s a living…”

  Maya shakes her head and places a hand on Talia’s hand. “No. You have no idea what their plan is and what you’ll be doing during those large chunks of time.”

  “Then obviously I would say no, but we’re talking about…”

  “Why does it matter if it’s a life versus some other menial task?”

  Talia’s jaw drops again. “Why does it matter? Are you serious with that question?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “All life is sacred and must be protected.”

  “But without things dying, the soil can’t be replenished for new growth and healthy plants. The entire earth depends on things dying so it can survive – so we can survive.”

  “Yes, but purposely allowing something to die out of a lack of interest in doing anything to prevent it is morally wrong. It’s evil. It also goes against nature’s true cycle of life. It’s one thing to forget you have a hamster, but to look at it and say, nope, I don’t care about you so you can die, is just… Seriously, you cannot be that person.”

  Maya laughs and shakes her head. “No, I’m just fucking with you. I did have two hamsters die, and some goldfish, but that was it. And it wasn’t because I abandoned them.”

  Talia tilts her head back, groaning, “God, I hate when you do that. You had me thinking I’ve slept with a fucking psychopath.”

  “That’s it – you have to break up.” Everyone looks at me shocked and I use all the willpower I have to keep from smiling. “You are not allowed to have sex. That is not why I am paying for your college tuition.”

  Everyone laughs really hard as Talia’s face blushes redder than I’ve ever seen it.

  With narrowed eyes, she grunts, “Loser.”

  I laugh as Talia releases an embarrassed yelp as Maya pulls her into a kiss. I have never seen my sister kiss someone before – this is just weird. Awenasa pets my head, giving me a cute smile and kisses my cheek.

  “Mom, eat!”

  “Ok, baby girl, try some chicken.”

  “I’m done eating. Do you want me to feed her so you can eat?”

  I pout at Awenasa, but I allow her to take Malana back. I pick up my fajita to take a bite, and Malana smacks my arm, and screams, “Mom!” I laugh as she holds her little hand up to my fajita.

  “Ok, here you go.”

  I give her a piece of soft avocado, and she grins around the bite and bounces on Awenasa’s lap.

  “Mom Kayla!” I look up to see Helaku fighting to get out of Symone’s hands and onto the table. She’s laughing and struggling to hold onto him. He looks back at her and slaps her hand, screaming, “No, Mom!”

  We laugh hard as she loses her grip, and he starts crawling across the table with a huge grin on his face. I quickly stand up and scoop him up before he lands in my plate.

  “Mister, that was not very polite. You don’t hit or yell at your mommies, or climb onto tables. Ok?”

  He giggles and smooshes his parted mouth to mine, giving me a kiss. I ruffle his hair and sit down with him on my lap.

  “Are you going to help your sister eat my lunch?”

  He giggles and reaches for my plate, saying, “Eat.”

  I offer him a piece of chicken then give another piece to Malana before I take another bite of my fajita. As I look up, my eyes lock with Maya’s. She’s leaning on her upturned hand watching me with the babies with a smile.

  “My babies stealing my food convinced you to have some of your own, didn’t they?”

  She grins as she sits up looking at Talia, who is blushing again. “I’m open to the idea one day, but not for a while.”

  I sit bolt upright as I hear Aura barking. I stand up and look around the lawn, but I don’t see her. I hear her again and quickly hand Helaku to Sorina and take off running.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  My heart is racing and my feet are moving faster than they’ve ever moved before. I can hear feet trampling leaves and twigs behind me, but I don’t stop or look back to see who’s running with me. I weave in and out of trees in the woods and leap over a fallen tree. I slide to a stop panting for air, and Sara and Talia quickly reach my sides.

  Aura is crouched down in an aggressive stance and is snarling. It’s not till something scuffles in some dead leaves that I realize it’s a huge snake – it’s thick and at least four feet long. It’s slowly curling its body into concentric circles as it raises its head higher.

  “Oh, shit. What kind is that?”

  “I think…”

  Before I can finish, the snake reveals its dangerous nature with a distinct rattle sound.

  Breathing heavily, Talia quietly says, “Shit. How did that get here?”

  “I can’t remember the name of it, but there is a type of rattlesnake that pops up sometimes in this state, even though it’s a cooler climate. Aura, get back here.”

  I motion to Aura to move, and she takes very slow backwards steps, while the snake continues to stare at us with its head slightly raised and its tail raised and shaking. I glance around my feet and slowly bend down to grab a sturdy tree branch.

  As someone else joins us, the snake shifts and starts rattling its tail faster.

  Jo steps back, saying, “Oh, fuck. This is bad. One wrong step and…”

  I cut her off, saying, “Yeah, so don’t move.” While I keep my eyes on the snake, I snap the limbs off of the branch in my hands till I have just a little over an inch on either side to create a V. I wish the length of the branch was a bit longer than only a few feet, but it will have to do. “I have an idea. Remember when we went to the Navajo reservation a few years ago? We went on a guided hike in the desert and the guide had to remove a rattlesnake from our path. We need to pin the neck down with the V of this stick. Then we’ll need to get it to bite down on another stick to lock it’s jaw open. It has to be a bit thick though to stay wedged in there. That way it can’t bite us. Then we’ll use my shirt like a sack. Once we have it secured, we can call animal control to pick it up and they can sort it out.”

  “Who’s going to pin it down? As soon as we lunge for it, it’s going to strike. If we’re bit, we’re done for.”

  The shaky caution in Talia’s voice causes me to break eye contact with the snake momentarily to look at Sara and Talia to gauge their mood. Both look a bit nervous, but Sara much less so than Talia.

  “I’ll pin it down. Sara, can you get it to bite a stick?”

  “Done. As soon as it’s chomping wood, I’ll hold the neck down while you get your shirt prepped.”

  “Ok. Let’s…”

  Jo quietly snaps with a bit of panic in her voice, asking, “Are you crazy? That thing is venomous.”

  I don’t hazard a glance at her to acknowledge the panic in her voice. “Exactly. I can’t leave this out here with Aura running in these woods and my family just a couple hundred yards away. Aura, go back there.”

  I motion for Aura to back up further, and she immediately follows my command, walking several yards back. I take a deep breath and try to channel the knife throwing skills I learned and the skills I learned from Kelly to anticipate an opponent’s movements. I close my eyes for only a second to get the vision of my totem in my mind, and with the ferocity of the spirit of the wolf coursing through my veins, I thrust forward.

  The snake darts right then strikes forward, baring its fangs. I thrust down and pin its head a couple feet out in front of me. It’s long body thrashes around, so I plant my foot on its neck just below the stick to bolster my hold on it. It releases a hissing sound and its rattle shakes violently. I swallow hard and take a deep breath as I watch its mouth flare open and closed as it snaps frantically under my foot. Venom is dripping from its razor-sharp fangs and its eyes are staring me in the face in a terrifying way.

  Sara cautiously approaches with a broken branch less than a foot long and about an inch thick
. I push down harder on the neck so it can’t move side to side or up and down. Sara gets the stick wedged in its mouth, then exhales hard in relief.

  “Ok, give me the stick.”

  She takes over holding the stick while I keep my foot on its neck with its body thrashing and beating against the ground and whipping my other leg. I quickly pull my tank top off and knot it below the arm holes to seal one end.

  “I really hope it fits in here. This thing is huge.”

  “Here, trade me. My tee shirt is a lot bigger, but I’m not walking back topless with the crew here.”

  I trade shirts with Jo, and while she puts my tank top on, I knot her larger tee shirt.

  “Ok, I’m going to slip it over its head, then we’ll have to funnel it inside and tie off the other end.”

  Looking nervous but determined, Talia steps forward and places a foot on the snake behind mine, offering additional support. It takes the three of us a few minutes to safely get the entire snake in the improvised bag. But as soon as we get the shirt knotted around the stick like a hobo-picnic, we release a collective laugh of relief.

  “That was intense.”

  Sara and I smile at Talia, and Sara squeezes our shoulders with a proud smile, saying, “I’m proud of you both. Come on, let’s get that thing back to the house so we can secure it better while we wait for animal control.”

  I hoist the stick up, watching to make sure the tight knot remains true. As I turn, my eyes lock with Jo, who is standing back next to Aura and looking kind of shocked with what just happened. She clears her throat and steps forward, giving me a brief awkward smile.

  “That was impressive. I’m sorry for profiling you as another self-absorbed celebrity when we met. I’ve seen the news reports of the things you’ve done for people, but I guess I thought it was about boosting your profile. It takes sincere selflessness to throw yourself into harms way like that. I mean, one bite and you could have been dead in a few short minutes.”

  As I look at the improvised sack hanging in front of me, the reality of what we did sets in and my heart starts racing. She’s right; I could have died, again. I take a deep breath and shake my head. As my eyes lock with Jo’s, her blank expression transforms into sadness and understanding. In this moment, it feels like she’s finally seeing me for me, which is good, but it also makes me feel raw. I try hard not to show fear or that my constant brushes with my mortality bothers me. But Jo is a soldier; she knows all too well what it means to nearly die. I clear my throat and walk forward. I briefly grip her shoulder to acknowledge the moment we had, then lead the way out of the woods.