Courageous Love

by Jerry Cole

  “You don’t deserve to be treated this way.”

  “I wish that was true.”

  We sat in the tense silence of the room.

  “I won’t be mad if you get to stay here,” I said finally. “He’s not your dad; he can’t really do anything else to you since you have a new job. Maybe you can text me updates? Tell me how Cecil is when I can’t be here?”

  “Adam.” It looked like she wanted to say more but the words failed her.

  “Face it Stacy, I am leaving this town and I can’t ever come back.”

  Stacy and I both froze as the door to the room swung open. I turned and saw Cecil. His eyes were reddening as tears slipped down his cheeks.

  “Cecil.” I reached my hand forward but he turned and ran away.

  I turned back to Stacy who could only shrug sadly.

  I was going to have to tell him, and I was dreading it, but I didn’t want him to find it out like this. I wanted to try to explain what exactly was happening. I was going to see if we could try long distance. Maybe it wouldn’t work out since I couldn’t be seen in town from then on but I was willing to try.

  I tore out of Stacy’s room and started searching around the house. But the house was so large and I didn’t know it as well as Cecil did so there could be hundreds of hiding spots, I had no idea how to find.

  I gave up on the floor our bedroom was and stood where I hoped my voice would echo the best.

  “Cecil? I hope you can hear me.” I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself. “I don’t want to leave. I wanted to keep my promise to you. I know it’s only been half a day here but I was so excited to live here with you. I wanted that life. But if I don’t go home my father will destroy this town. It would be selfish if I stayed.”

  I balled my hands into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms.

  “I love you. And that’s why I can’t stay.”

  I wish I knew how to solve this so I could stay and my father would leave me alone. But I was the youngest son. The screw up. The one who’s only good at being a florist. I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out like the twins insisted I should.

  I waited for some kind of response, some hint that he had heard me. The house only creaked as it settled as the late fall’s chill settled over the evening. I went to sleep alone that night.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The chime as I entered the florist rang and it made me realize how many little things I would miss when I was gone. I held the folded-up apron against my chest and rang the bell on the counter.

  Beth hustled in and immediately looked at my arms. “Oh Adam.”

  I nodded slowly. “Yeah. I have to quit.”

  She rushed forward and pulled me into a tight hug. I was expecting her to be madder, the hug was unexpected.

  “Stacy told me everything,” she explained as she pulled me in tighter.

  “She did?”

  “Of course, we’re friends too you know.” She clicked her tongue. “It’s just awful what your poor excuse for a father is doing to you.”

  “Yeah.” I felt weary suddenly. Beth was such a strong solid presence in my life now that I couldn’t imagine life without her and her little shop.

  “We’ll figure it out though so keep your apron,” she said abruptly and broke the hug to start walking away.

  “Wait. What?” I jogged slightly after her as she headed into the backroom and began to do busywork.

  She barely glanced up at me. “You’re going to come up with a plan to stay and tell your dad to piss off.”

  I blinked. “No I’m not?”

  “Why not?” She asked as she grabbed a duster and began tidying.

  “Because it’s impossible,” I said incredulously. “I wish there was something I could do but there just isn’t.”

  “Impossible huh? You know what else was impossible?”

  “What?” I was starting to get frustrated.

  “Convincing a town set in its ways to like the local graveyard keeper.” She bopped my nose with the end of the buster like punctuation to her point and then continued to move around the room, basically ignoring me.

  “That was different,” I tried to say.

  “How so?” She didn’t even look at me.

  “It just was. No one in town was a billionaire with a deed to half the town.” I wish I could have her confidence, but she just had no idea what my dad was really like.

  “Tell me the truth Adam.” She finally turned and looked me dead in the eyes. “Were you willing to do anything to make Cecil feel welcomed in town again?”

  “Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate.

  “And you were willing to do anything to make him happy?”

  “Of course.” I was almost offended that anyone would think otherwise.

  “Then why aren’t you willing now?”

  “Because it’s so much bigger—”

  “Uh, uh, uh.” She shook her finger at me. “The question is the same. This is for both of your happiness. Don’t give up so soon. It might not work out, but why are you going the easy way? Why not try to fix everything?”

  “I need to go.” I looked up at her.

  “I thought you might. Now head on out of here and start using that brilliant mind of yours to save the town and your relationship.”

  It wasn’t until I was halfway home that I realized she called me brilliant. Me? Brilliant? That couldn’t possibly be true.

  ***

  I found a note on the counter from Stacy saying she was out and wouldn’t be home all day. It didn’t give a reason why, but it was too much to ask Stacy to explain herself better and be a little less mysterious.

  I had no idea if Cecil was still in the house or if he’d run off or if he was somewhere in the graveyard. I just had a feeling based on the last time he disappeared like this, that there was somewhere inside of here that was special to him. A place he went when he was upset.

  “Cecil?” I called to the seemingly empty home.

  No response, which I expected.

  “Cecil?” I called more gently. “I want to talk. I know last night I said I had to leave and that might still be true but...I have to at least try to stay right?”

  I waited and still heard no response. Maybe my hunch was wrong and he was somewhere else.

  “Sorry I’m so stupid. I should have tried to figure it out first before doing what was easiest.”

  A long slow creak made my head snap up and follow the noise. It was somewhere on the first floor. I started searching and eventually found a bookcase that was swung out from the wall like a door. Of course there was a secret room in this old home in the middle of a graveyard.

  The space was rather small but I found my way in, albeit a little hunched over. Inside was a small room, a little bigger than a closet with large shutters on three of the walls. It was lit by a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and inside was Cecil and a small bed filled with soft looking blankets.

  “Cecil…” face to face with him again I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “My parents showed me this room,” Cecil began, not looking at me, just looking at the shutters. “They said my grandparents added it in when they were younger. I always hid in here when I was afraid or sad. It’s kind of silly to keep doing it as an adult but I never broke the habit.”

  “It’s not silly,” I said quietly. “Look Cecil, I have to apologize.”

  “So do I,” Cecil added in quickly.

  “What for?” I asked.

  “I spied on you and Stacy; I was just coming over to ask Stacy if the Wi-Fi was working for her but when I heard your conversation I just kept listening? It wasn’t right.”

  “I forgive you, really it was nothing. I need to apologize for giving up so easily. I’m so stupid.”

  “Stop!” Cecil said so firmly and loudly, louder than he had ever been. My mouth instantly shut. “Stop saying you’re stupid. You aren’t.”

  “But—”

  “No.” Cecil shook his head furiously.
“You keep looking down on yourself, thinking you aren’t worth anything. But that’s all your family’s words in your head. Adam you organized a whole group of teenagers into getting their parents to like me again. You came up with that plan all on your own.”

  “I had all of your help, and Stacy was the one who found the document in the library,” I tried to insist.

  “You were the one who led us all Adam, and you were the one to ask her to look for something like that. You knew exactly how to cheer me up after I locked myself away in here the first time. If Beth is telling the truth, and she is, then you are one of the quickest people to pick up on being a florist for someone with zero experience. Every time you say you’re stupid it hurts me because I care about you so much. I don’t want to see you hating yourself.”

  “It just always felt that way,” I admitted. How often did my dad say I was stupid for throwing my life away with a “useless” art degree. That I was stupid for not thinking about the business more? Even my siblings, evil twins that they were, expected me to figure out how to stop our father. That meant, even though they never said it or disagreed with my father, that I wasn’t useless. They weren’t afraid of me taking part of the company and ruining it, they were afraid of me taking over part of the company and being better than them.

  “You are smart Adam. Don’t let your terrible family make you think otherwise. I only know a little about what’s going on but I knew you can stop it if you put your mind to it.”

  “Cecil?” I asked, my gaze wandering.

  “Uh, yes?” His voice softened again, his speech over.

  “Do these shudders move?”

  “They’re kind of rusty?” Cecil sounded so confused. “I’ve never gotten them open.”

  “Can I try to open them?” I asked.

  “Sure?”

  I’m sure he wanted to ask why but I was motivated. I headed over to the shudders and very carefully, my arms straining against the years they had been closed, and very slowly opened them. Once they were all open, I stepped back to take in the sight.

  Cecil gasped. “I had no idea. From the outside, with the shudders, they just looked like walls.”

  In front of us were three windows, perfectly facing the home my grandparents bought on the hill and their own glass room.

  I stared out the glass and felt a grin spread over my face. “I don’t know if I’m right, but I think I might know how to stop my dad.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “You really freaked out my parents,” Jordan said as he helped me draw up another sign.

  “At least it was justified this time,” I said snidely. “Their whole town is at stake.”

  “I don’t know if some protesting is going to help,” Jordan replied. “Those construction trucks that keep showing up on the edge of town look very scary and big as shit.”

  “The protest is just the beginning,” I promised and brought my focus back to the sign I was working on coloring.

  “Excuse me?”

  I turned from my spot on the floor of Cecil’s huge entry hall and looked up to see just the mustached man I was hoping for.

  I stood up and threw on my winning smile. “Mayor Reeds, it’s a pleasure.”

  The man frowned. “These are uncertain times Adam. I could hardly believe what you told me.”

  “But you understand the seriousness of it all?”

  He nodded gravely. “I do.”

  “So about my request?” I lifted my eyebrows.

  “It’s granted. You can look through all the records in town hall until four o’clock in the morning if you have to. I don’t know what you might find in there that I can’t but.” He sighed heavily. “We need a miracle.”

  “You don’t need a miracle,” Jordan piped up with a grin. “All you need is Stacy.”

  “She’ll be over in no time,” I promised.

  He nodded. “And if this doesn’t work?”

  My face fell slightly. “Then I promise to leave and take all my problems with me.”

  “Good.” Mayor Reeds fixed me with a stare that was probably meant to be encouraging and marched out.

  “See Jordan?” I spun around. “We even have the mayor on our side.”

  “Let’s see if you have luck on your side too,” Jordan joked back but he wasn’t wrong.

  ***

  With the surprisingly helpful texts of my twin siblings, I knew exactly when my father was planning to come to town to officially announce, and then begin, demolition of half the town he claimed was his.

  That morning every single person in town gathered in main street. They all picked up a sign and a flower to pin or wear from Beth. It was so encouraging to see everyone coming together like this. People were even talking to Cecil about what our plans were without flinching. In a few years, no one would even remember why they disliked him so much in the first place.

  I took a few moments to admire him before returning my attention to organizing the town folks. We had to make sure to spread out enough that not a single one of their vehicles could get past us.

  The clamor of the crowd suddenly quieted down as the feedback from a speaker hissed to life.

  I had to find a better vantage point to see what was happening and saw my dad at the front of the construction equipment with a microphone and speaker system.

  “Dear people of Ravenwood. I wanted to make it known I hear loud and clear your problems with the plans for this land.”

  The crowd began muttering. It all sounded negative to me.

  “I just wanted you to know that I plan on paying every single person who lives on the land I own,” he emphasized that point. “Even though I don’t need to as owner. It’s a sign of my goodwill. I know this town means a lot to you. It meant a lot to my grandparents too.”

  I saw a few people begin to look skeptical. The man was trying to win them over.

  “But we plan on building a facility to develop lifesaving medicines and treatments. By delaying construction you delay that which could one day save your own life or a loved ones’ life.”

  I could tell that some people were beginning to have serious doubts. My father knew as CEO how to spin things in his favor.

  “Why don’t you build it where people aren’t already living?”

  I looked to see Jordan, halfway up a light pole yelling out to the crowd.

  I smiled and added my voice to the growing crowd asking that same question.

  “This land is the best option…”

  “Why?” Jordan yelled back. Teenagers were the best.

  “We need a remote location,” my father insisted.

  “Buy a cornfield then, there's hundreds of them around here,” I heard someone else yell back. The whole crowd started yelling things back at my dad and breaking down his weak argument.

  “I told you I was planning to be generous,” my father said like the threat it was. He was going to go through with his plans whether the town fought or went along quietly. But he couldn’t control everyone like he thought.

  In the corner of my eye I saw what I had been waiting for. Stacy nodded to me, giving me a thumbs up. We were done stalling; the final phase was here.

  I yelled as loudly as I could, “You don’t even own this land at all!”

  The crowd hushed and my dad’s eyes found me even in the thick of all those people.

  “What makes you say that?” His act of friendly CEO was falling. I heard so much venom in his words it could have killed me. But I refused to let him get to me.

  “I said it. And I have proof.”

  Stacy handed me the document and I walked toward him, the crowd parting for me. On the way I saw Cecil and took his hand, leading him to the front with me.

  “Dad, I want you to meet my boyfriend Cecil.”

  Cecil waved slightly, which had to have pissed my dad off.

  “He runs the graveyard in town. His family, the Domires, have owned it for generations and generations.”

  “I know how slow you are,” h
e made sure to say after covering the microphone. “But your grandparents gifted me the land. I don’t own or care about the graveyard.”

  “That stings father.” I put a hand over my heart. “Not just the insult but that fact that you seem to know nothing about your parents and who their friends were.

  “What?” In his anger he lifted his hand off the microphone so I made sure to speak clearly.

  “My grandparents were best friends with the Domires. I had no idea until I noticed their peculiar taste in architecture. Both families have glass rooms in their houses facing each other. And it’s not like that’s a popular style in town. I asked everyone just to make sure. They are unique. Both rooms happened to face each other too and give a great view between them. In a small town like this, whenever your parents stayed, they didn’t have things like phone operators or anything. So, how best to let your best friends know you are in town? Why, you would shine a light in your glass room to theirs of course.”

  “That’s a story. A creative story, but fiction nonetheless,” my father scoffed.

  “I thought it might be farfetched, Dad.” I grinned. “But I remembered how much that room meant to them. They have an exact copy in our own mansion, don’t they?”

  “What does this have to do with the land?” My father was boiling mad.

  “I wanted to test my theory that they were as close friends as I thought. So we did some digging. A few late nights going through every document in town. And you know what we found?”

  I held the paper up for him to read. “They gifted all the land they bought to the Domires in case they wanted to expand their graveyard. Of course, instead the town expanded, but I’ll leave that up to their descendants to decide what he wants to do with that.”

  “This is insane. And untrue,” my dad seethed. He tried to tear the paper from me but I quickly stepped back having assumed he would try something like that. “It was in their will that the land belonged to me.”

  “Actually Dad.” I pulled out my phone. “I asked my dear siblings for a copy of the will; they had no idea what for but they did it anyway.” My one gift to them for helping me would be making it seem like they weren’t involved. We were officially even. “The wording says all land they owned was given to you. It’s not my fault you didn’t check to see this particular land had already been gifted away.”