STORM: IT'S A CURSE TO REMEMBER

by Gurpreet Kaur Sidhu

  Evan let out a muffled laugh, cautiously swallowing the cake, not wanting to choke and possibly have Shadow perform the Heimlich or CPR. He cleared his throat with a slight grin. “Are you mocking me?”

  His eyes twinkled when he looked at her.

  When their eyes met, it felt as if he was looking into her soul. It made Shadow nervous. The good kind of nervous—the one that made her want to sit in his lap and kiss his neck as she whispered sweet nothings into his ears.

  She was attracted to him, in ways she couldn’t explain. Sure, he was cute and he had a sense of humor, which was a huge plus. But most importantly, from the moment they met, she felt safe and comfortable. Given that her past relationship was with Marvin, it’d been hard for her to trust anyone.

  Evan was different.

  “Not really.” She giggled. “The view’s kinda doing it for me. What do you do all day anyway since you’re on winter vacation?”

  “I’ll tell ya. First I wake up and make myself a cup of coffee. Then I have breakfast. After breakfast, either I’ll go for a run or start working on the garden and then I’ll take a shower and start making dinner. Then I’ll sit down and read or grade papers. By then, it’s time for bed.”

  Shadow looked at him with a mouthful of cake. “Wow. For someone with a lot of time on his hands, you don’t do much, do you?”

  Evan raised his eyebrows and chuckled. “You sure have a lot to say. I offer you some really good cake and this is how I get treated? In my own home?”

  Shadow took a gulp of milk and set down the glass. She looked at him with a smile and beaming eyes. “I just would of thought you would’ve had finished working on your garden by now.”

  Evan laughed. He got up and put his dishes in the sink, and began to pull out the ingredients he needed to get dinner started.

  “Since you think you know so much, why don’t you come and help me?” He turned toward her, holding a cheese packet and ground meat.

  “Yeah I can help you,” she said, pausing for a moment, “and by help, I mean sit on a lawn chair and mentor you.”

  They broke into laughter.

  There was a moment of silence and neither of them felt they needed to say something. Shadow gazed off into the backyard, wondering how Evan existed all this time without her knowing. She moved away from Pool View to start a new life, and the universe set her up next to Evan, maybe by far one of the dreamiest and genuine men she’d come across. It’s funny how life turns out, she thought. Everything I had to endure led me to where I am right now. Was it worth it? It definitely was.

  “I’m going to get dinner started. You should stay.”

  Shadow smirked before she took a sip of milk. She looked down at her plate, nearly empty. Her eyes moved to Evan, who stood in the middle of the kitchen waiting for an answer.

  “What’s for dinner?”

  “You like tacos?”

  “I certainly do.”

  “Tacos it is.” He winked.

  Shadow proceeded to get up from the table. “Do you need any help?” She carried her plate to the sink.

  “You mean help as in watching and critiquing?”

  Shadow turned around and looked at Evan after she placed her dishes in the sink. She exaggerated a sigh and placed her hand on her chest, her eyebrows furrowed. “Are you mocking me?”

  Evan broke into a smile. “A girl with a sense of humor. I like that.”

  Evan’s comment made Shadow blush.

  “So, how can I help?

  He looked at her with a sparkle in his eyes. “Just keep me company while I cook.”

  He gave her arm a gentle squeeze as he moved past her to retrieve the rest of the ingredients.

  As he cooked, Shadow comfortably leaned against the counter. She watched as he diced the onions. As the meat cooked, he chopped the cilantro, the knife loudly hitting the cutting board. He was fast, which amazed her.

  “Where did you pick up your kitchen skills?”

  “Back in college. My grandma made Denise and I move into dorms and experience the college life. And we had to support ourselves. So, I worked at a restaurant as a server. During my breaks, I’d watch the head chef go wild in the kitchen. Cooking became a stress reliever. It would calm me down during the stressful times and it was fun to watch too. Then I’d come home and try to mimic the chef.” He laughed. “I learned a lot from working as a server.”

  “That’s so odd.”

  “What’s odd?”

  “Cooking is relaxing for me too.”

  Evan looked at her for a brief second before he began to pour the mixture onto the tacos. He smirked as he focused. “Putting in slices of bread into the toaster does not count as cooking.”

  Shadow genuinely gasped this time. “You’re so evil.” She playfully slapped his arm. She found herself grazing her hand over his upper arm. She could feel the definition of his muscles. When she looked at Evan, he’d been focused on the cooking portion that she wasn’t sure if he’d even noticed her hands lingering.

  He felt her hands remain and he quite enjoyed it. However, Evan remained nonchalant as he squeezed some lime on top of the meat and then added some chopped cabbage on top. His feelings continued to develop. But before anything could happen, he wanted to tell Shadow about the memories. He needed to get it off his chest, but this wasn’t exactly something easy to discuss.

  “Are you telling me that you can cook an entire meal?” He asked, looking at Shadow with gentle eyes, “Without anyone’s help?”

  “Yes, I can, Evan,” she said defending herself. “I can cook all by myself.”

  “We’re going to have to see about that.”

  And all Shadow could do was smile and giggle. She hadn’t enjoyed herself like this in some time. She’d forgotten what it was like to be around someone who radiated happiness and kindness. It was an environment that was going to let her blossom into the person she was meant to be as long as Marvin was no longer an issue.

  “I don’t know if you want wine with tacos, but I have dry rose. Coke and Pepsi are also available if you prefer that.”

  “Wine sounds great,” she said.

  After they’d finished, dishes were rinsed and put into the dishwasher. The night was still young. Shadow quietly sat on the sofa with her wine glass in her hand. When she craned her head over to the kitchen, she could see Mr. Jingles sitting in front of the back door, looking out into the garden. Then Evan came back with a box in his hand. He sat down next to her and opened the box in his lap.

  Shadow set down her wine on the coffee table, curious to know what was inside. “I hope these aren’t the remains of a skeleton you found when you were digging in the backyard.”

  Evan snickered as he removed the lid. “Seems like someone’s drinking a bit too much,” he said as he looked at her.

  She looked back wide eyed and pretended to take offense. But the smirk didn’t fool anyone. She leaned in and picked up the first picture on top. Ironically it was of naked Evan at two years old. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” She waved the picture in front of Evan. Shadow could see the slight pinkish color appear on his cheeks when he realized the photo she was holding.

  “Do you mind giving me that back?” He asked without making eye contact. The corners of his mouth lifted up and held out his hand.

  “You’ve been making jabs at me all night. I think I deserve a little bit of fun.”

  Evan scoffed and looked through the box, pretending not to care about his naked baby picture.

  “Would you run around the house naked when you were younger?”

  “Yeah, I did and then I began running down the streets.” He chuckled. “You wanna give me the picture back?”

  Shadow pursed her lips and thought long and hard about her decision. Making Evan sit there, shy and embarrassed was the first she’d seen that side of him and she want
ed to squeeze every ounce of joy she could out of this moment. “Here,” she finally said and handed back the picture to Evan.

  “Thank you,” he said, his voice low-key. He took a quick peek of Shadow and she still wore a smile on her face, like a little kid who’d uncovered a juicy secret. “This is literally all the pictures we have from our childhood. All in this one box.”

  Shadow took another look at the depth of the box and realized there weren’t many photos that had accumulated over the years.

  “This is a picture of my parents on their wedding day,” he said when he handed the picture to Shadow.

  She studied the image for a moment. “Your mom was so beautiful. Your sister takes after her, you know?”

  “Looks wise, yeah, but her mannerisms are more like my grandma’s.”

  “You look like your dad. He was a good looking fella,” she said as she gazed over with a smirk.

  Evan and Shadow spent half an hour looking at the photos, not in any particular order. She looked at each photo and Evan would tell the backstory. He only remembered so many stories thanks to Venice. She was able to fill in the blanks to most of the memories the pictures captured. Besides, Evan was too young to remember half the things that went on back then.

  “This is the last picture we have of the four of us before their deaths.”

  Shadow took the photo from Evan and admired the memories they must have created that day. All four of them looked happy. From previous pictures, Shadow could tell Evan’s parents were very much in love by the way they looked at each other. It didn’t sink in until now how big of a loss Evan must have endured when they died, even though he was young and maybe too young to understand.

  “You don’t appreciate time until it’s gone.”

  “You were young. No one thinks their parents are going to die at that age.”

  “Yeah,” he said in a somber tone.

  He took the photo and placed it back in the box.

  “So,” he said after replacing the lid on the box, “what was the last straw that made you move to Lake View?”

  Shadow leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand. The box of Evan’s memories sat there taunting her about her own past. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to share with Evan about why she’d moved here. She didn’t want to relive it. Shadow didn’t want to be reminded of the fear that drove her away in the first place. Whether she told Evan or a random stranger she met on the street, neither would be able to do anything.

  She sighed and then looked back at Evan who had his arm stretched out on the couch. He smiled back at her with a pleasant look in his eyes.

  “You didn’t murder someone, did you?”

  She chuckled and shook her head before she leaned back into the couch, now closer to Evan. “I don’t even know where to start,” she finally said.

  “What happened?” he asked softly, running his fingers through her hair.

  “I felt trapped,” she answered. She looked up at the ceiling, her heart pounding in her chest and she could hear the little voice in her head telling her it was okay. But a little part of her feared his reaction. What if Evan decided that he was going to become her knight in shining armor? She sensed he cared for her but that didn’t mean she wanted Evan to lay his life on the line for her.

  “What happened?” he pressed. “I know you’re scared of something. The look on your face when you came looking for Mr. Jingles makes me think that you’re not safe.”

  Her eyes flicked over to his. She shifted her body to face Evan. “He’s all I have here.” As she let the words slip out of her mouth, she knew it wasn’t true. “He’s the only one I’ve had with me for a long time.” She took another long deep sigh before continuing. “I was engaged to someone who turned out to be this whole other person. I couldn’t trust him anymore. I just wanted to be as far away from him as possible.”

  Shadow wanted to go into detail about how dangerous Marvin was and the fact that she wasn’t even supposed to have any kind of contact with Evan in the first place. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be sitting here next to Evan on his couch and releasing all the worries in the back of her mind. She wasn’t supposed to be here at all. But something in her gut told her this was exactly where she needed to be. Plus, maybe Marvin was just bluffing. There was the possibility that he’d eventually get bored obsessing with Shadow and then move on to someone else. She didn’t wish any harm upon another innocent girl, but at this point she was being selfish and if it meant that she had to be selfish to be safe, that’s what she was going to do.

  Evan understood why Shadow moved all the way out to Lake View. A new life, a fresh start. It’s what people did when things went horribly wrong. Except that Evan didn’t know how wrong things were. Evan, not knowing the volume of the danger Marvin was to him, suggested something that would only be a short-term solution. “You know what you should do? Get a cat door. He’ll be able to come and go whenever he pleases and then you won’t have to stress about him being cooped up in the house all day.”

  She hadn’t thought about it, but it seemed like a good idea. “Yeah, I’ve heard of those screen doors with the built-in cat door. I’m gonna have to go down to the hardware store and get it sometime this week.”

  “I can get it for you and install it.”

  Shadow laughed at his gesture. “Are you the only professional available in town?”

  Evan mocked her laugh, then let a small smile fade in. “They should put a warning label on the wine bottle clearly stating consuming this may make sweet girls sassy.”

  Evan hadn’t heard someone laugh so hard as Shadow. Her head tilted back and she covered her mouth with her palm.

  Shadow, who struggled to gain composure, wiped her eyes. For the first time in a while she laughed to the point of tears. Evan brought in light to her life where darkness once existed. Every ounce of fiber in her body wanted this to be the beginning to something far more wonderful than she could ever imagine.

  “That is really nice of you to offer, but I’d be just holding you back from your project,” she said, tilting her head in the direction of the backyard.

  Evan peered into the backyard, knowing there was a lot of work that needed to be done. “It’s no big deal,” he reassured her. “I’m home all day anyway,” he said, playfully nudging her. “Just think of it as a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ gift.”

  “Are you sure?” she said, batting her eyelashes, deep down happy that he’d offered.

  “Yeah,” he responded. “I can get the door tomorrow and install it once you’re home.”

  She nodded, liking the idea.

  “Are we still on for this Friday?”

  “You ask me like I’ve changed my mind,” she gleamed. She softly grazed his hand that sat on his lap. When they hands intertwined, their heartbeats became in sync.

  By far, this was the most perfect night of her life. And then suddenly everything that felt familiar about Evan came rushing back to her in bits and pieces. She looked at his face, his eyes, his nose and his lips. Her heart tore when she realized who she was looking at. Her eyes began to fill with tears.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She forced a smile and said, “Nothing.”

  “Are you sure?” Evan asked, not convinced.

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “Okay.”

  She leaned in closer while keeping her hand interlocked with his. She finally found the missing piece to the puzzle and Shadow didn’t quite know how to feel about it just yet.

  ***

  Bruce sat in his office with Marvin’s files spread out in front of him. He rubbed his face, exhausted. What was this guy up to? Twice, he carried out the same exact assignment. But why? Why was he going after Shadow Hex the first time? There was no indication on personal files about the motive for the assignment whereas client-based missions had thorough detail of the
motive and exactly how the mission was supposed to be carried out. It was going to drive Bruce insane trying to figure out why Marvin was so interested in Shadow Hex. Hex, he thought to himself. The name started to sound familiar. Hex…he recognized it but he hadn’t interacted with anyone with that last name from what he could recall.

  Hex.

  Bruce shifted to his computer, pulling up all the files associated with the assignments he’d done in the past. He typed in the last name in the search bar and waited for the results to pull up. Seconds later Bruce was staring at a white page. There was no one by the last name Hex he’d worked for. This was going to eat at him until the light bulb went off in his mind.

  Hex.

  Did he come across that name in the newspaper? Did he hear it as he passed by a conversation in the office? Bruce grunted as he continued to search.

  Hex.

  Bruce tried a different approach. He looked up Shadow Hex, pulling up her background information. Everything he needed to know about Shadow was right there in front of him. But it was no use. He wasn’t interested in the girl—he’d never met her.

  As he scrolled down, he came across a familiar name. He leaned in closer to the screen, making sure what he was seeing was correct. Suddenly, the light bulb flashed in his mind. Roy Hex. Now he knew where he’d heard the name Hex before.

  He’d met Roy once. A stern sixty-five-year-old man with the stamina of a thirty-year-old. The time he’d met Roy, Bruce felt intimidated by the way he looked at him as if he had a vendetta.

  This was not good at all.

  Bruce wanted to shut his eyes and hope all the thoughts running through his mind would freeze. But that wasn’t going to happen. He was panicking. The room started to feel like it had been set on fire. His tie started to feel too tight around his neck. Loosening it didn’t help.

  Roy Hex was Shadow’s father—who also happened to be the head of the SEA.

  Bruce didn’t have all the information yet, but now that Shadow was Evan’s neighbor, the chances of Evan getting swept up in Marvin’s assignment had become much higher.

  He had to let Venice know that under no circumstance was Evan allowed to associate with Shadow. The farther away he was from her, the safer he was.