Cy leaned forward over the steering wheel and slowed the truck to read the numbers on the mailboxes. “ We have to be close. Orenda said five-fourteen Orchard.” He pulled the truck to a stop in the gravel.
Mia felt her stomach drop and sweat break out on her forehead. This was it? The moment that she’d waited for her entire life. But now that she was here, she wanted to run. Like you always have.
Cy scooted across the bucket seats and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He dropped his head and spoke calmly, “Whatever happens, I’ll be there for you, like you were there for me last night. That’s what people do who care about each other. You’re not alone. If what Orenda said is true, and this is your grandma, she deserves the chance she never had to make things right. Everyone deserves another chance.” He smiled and nuzzled her hair. “Look at me, you tried to get rid of me multiple times, and I got m still here.”
“How do you manage to talk me into things that I’d never do otherwise? And why exactly do I always listen?” She met his gaze.
“That’s an easy one.” His eyes sparkled. “‘Cause you love me...duh.” He kissed her nose and got a snap on the lip then ran his tongue over the spot. “Come on, Snappy, it’s now or never. Last one in’s a rotten egg.”
The house was a small, single-story rambler with a wood picket fence and faded plastic pink flamingos stuck guarding the front. A sprinkler sprayed water back and forth giving the lawn it’s only hope, as the summer heat scorched everything in sight. Cy pushed the latch on the gate and then moved to the side to let Mia through.
Weathered red bricks led across the grass to the front stoop. Brightly colored baskets of flowers hung from iron poles on the side of the porch leaving their sweet fragrance to trail in the breeze. Mia slowly moved up the two steps, her chest tightening with each step. Taking a deep breath, she raised her finger and pushed the doorbell button. Small dogs barked a warning, and then a voice called for them to be quiet.
The door opened a few inches. “Can I help you?” a woman asked, peering through the crack between the door and the jam.
“I...ah...” Mia stumbled on her the words. “Could I ask you some questions?” Everything she’d thought to say left her mind in an instant.
Not opening the door any farther the woman narrowed her eyes. “I don’t talk to strangers, and I don’t have any money. If you’re here to sell me something, you’ll have to leave.” She started to shut the door.
Stepping out from behind her Cy added, “We’re looking for a woman named Donoma? Could you please help us?”
The woman’s eyes reflected that she didn’t often get, or want, visitors. Pulling her thin crocheted sweater tighter at her neck she said, “Who are you again?”
As he flashed his best lady-killing grin, Cy pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. “Ma’am, my name’s Cy Brennon. I’m a Fire Fighter with the Klahowya Fire Department. If you’re not too busy, can we talk with you for a minute?”
Mia rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go, she doesn’t want to talk to us.”
The old woman plucked her glasses off the top of her head and studied the badge. “Well it’s too hot to stay out on the porch, you’ll both drop over from heatstroke.” She swung the door open. “Come in before you let all the cold out.”
As she shut the door, the cold blast from the air conditioner washed over them. It was bliss after the scorching heat outside.
“Sorry, but I’m an old lady, and you can’t be too safe in these times. Now, what in the world would the Klahowya Fire Department want to talk to me about?”
“Is that your name? Donoma?” Mia asked, her words blunt as she moved uneasily into the living room.
“I didn’t catch your name? Are you with the Fire Department too?” The woman pursed her wrinkled mouth.
“No. My name’s Mia.”
The old woman paused, her weathered brow knit across her forehead.
Cy broke in, “A good friend of mine, Orenda, sent us here to talk to you about your granddaughter.”
Donoma’s face paled as she clutched her chest. “Oh, God, please tell me that she’s all right and that nothing bad has happened to her.”
“Nothing has happened to her, ma’am.” Cy cleared his throat, looking at Mia to say something. “Do you want to sit down?”
“Have they found her? If she’s -all right, tell me where she is! I’ve looked for her for so many years,” her voice rose in pitch and she clutched her hands into fists.
Mia undid her hair from the knot, flipped it back exposing her face, and raised her chin in defiance. “The old lady Orenda thinks that I'm your granddaughter.” A prickle of anxiety burned Mia's cheeks as she waited for her reply.
Donoma stood quietly, her mouth open. “Child?” She looked from Mia to Cy. “Is it true?”
“We think it might be,” Cy said.
“You tell me,” Mia said guardedly. The fear of having her hopes torn from her grasp once again clawed at her.
The old woman took a step and stretched out a weathered hand. Mia could feel the woman’s fingers tremble and felt a snap that echoed through the silent room when she took her hand.
Large tears filled Donoma's dark brown eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “I knew you would have my power Miakoda. It is you....” She grabbed Mia and (pulled) her into her arms.
A rush of heat scorched through Mia and rainbow colors flashed behind her eyes. Shades in jeweled diamonds shot and sparkled in her mind and through her vision.
Mia tried to gasp a shaky breath, overwhelmed by sensations. The old woman held her in a death grip, muttering her name repeatedly.
“Miakoda...Miakoda...”
A wall of energy surged into shimmering light to surround them. Electricity raced up and down her arms as she tipped her head to the side, seeing Cy’s shocked expression.
“Mia!” Cy reached to yank her away.
“Don't!” Mia pleaded and held a hand up to stop him. “It’s okay,” The power was there, but it grounded, like using a lightning bolt in a storm.
At that moment she knew it was true. There was someone like her. She wasn’t alone.
The old woman’s body shook as she finally stepped back and reached for the support of a chair “I’m sorry, child.” She put her knuckles to her mouth and choked back a sob. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Cy looked around for the kitchen. There was a clink of glasses and he returned handing Donoma a large glass of cold water. “You doing okay? Let’s all take a little breather—Mia, sit.” He pointed to the couch.
“You’re my grandma?” Mia asked after a long silence.
The old woman was still visibly shaken but her voice now was low and steady, “Everyday I prayed that someone would find you and bring you back to me. Your mother?”
Mia let out a hardened laugh. “You know as much as I do. She left me when I was a kid.”
“Left you? Why?”
Mia looked at Cy who nodded, and said, “Tell her.”
Mia’s ears hummed and the hairs on her arms tingled from the strange electrical current that still passed between her and the other woman. “She dropped me at the C.P.S. office. We got into a fight and this blue bubble of light came out of me. My mother said, ʻYou’re just like her.’
“She was talking about me.” Donoma ran the glass of ice water over her forehead and sighed. “She never took the time to understand our powers because she didn’t carry them. She lived life in fear of someone finding out about us. She thought if she cloistered you away maybe your powers wouldn’t surface, but I knew they would. It was a matter of time. I should have taken you when I had the chance. Orenda wanted us to leave. She’d even offered to take us to live with friends of hers in Canada, but I tried to give your mother a chance, to embrace our ancestors, hoping one day she’d understand. She never wanted any part of it. Everyone deserves a second chance, but I shouldn’t have given her one. You were the one who paid the price.”
Mia’s glanced over at Cy, remembering
what he’d said. “You didn’t know what she would do?”
“I knew sooner or later she would hurt you. Physically or mentally, she would hurt you. I thought sometimes that she was incapable of love. That’s a terrible thing to say about your own daughter, but she was. I would have done anything to have kept you safe and loved, but I didn’t.” The lines looked like cracks on her face as another tear escaped. “Can you ever forgive me?”
This woman she hardly knew was willing to take the blame for what her mother had done? Mia’s heart broke as she looked into the old woman’s face seeing love...for her.
Mia moved off the couch and crouched on the floor next to Donoma. “There’s nothing to forgive. You didn’t do those things to me, my mother did.” Mia reached for the wrinkled hand and grasped it. Again she felt the calming blue light race through her.
Holding her grandmother’s hand she was one...she was whole. The same feelings she had when she was with Cy.
“Where have you been living?” Donoma asked wiping an embroidered hankie across her swollen, red eyes.
“Klahowya. It’s a nice little town about a hundred miles from here. I work in a restaurant.”
“The same town as Orenda?” She shook her head in disbelief. “But you just met her?”
“Cy thought she could help with my problem.”
She smiled, squeezing Mia’s hand so tight she felt the bones push together under the skin. “She has her own powers you know.”
“Yeah.” Mia laughed.“She said she knew who I was because I looked like you.”
Donoma ran a thumb down Mia’s cheek, “Yes—you do when I was younger.”
“And that she could see my future.”
Donoma looked from Mia to Cy. “It doesn’t take someone who can see the future to know that.” She drew Mia up to sit next to her. “I want to hear everything about your life.”
Chapter 16
“In Klahowya, I thought I burned down my house. I still don’t know how it happened, I was asleep. But now they think someone has been starting the fires,” Mia said meeting Donoma’s gaze,
“That’s how she met me.” Cy met Mia’s gaze but didn’t add more than that.
“He could have died that night trying to save me,” Mia confessed. “It was terrible.”
“No…shhhh,” the old woman said in a calming tone like you would to a child and brushed her palm down Mia's hair. “Nothing would have happened to him that night because then you couldn’t have fallen in love with him.”
Mia looked up. “Why would you say that?”
“Oh child—it doesn’t take special powers to see the way you two look at each other. With these old eyes, I could see the second you walked through that door how much he cares. I can feel his emotions.” Donoma looked to Cy which made his cheeks turn pink. “He’s helped you through this?”
Mia sniffed and dropped her voice to a whisper, “After my house burned, I was so afraid and alone. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”
Donoma continued to rub her back, the centering pull of energy calmed her. Being close to Donoma was like a gentle flow of water, the water she’d needed for control. Mia felt her heart and her breathing slow. Her whole life she’d been alone and never known this. Was this what it was like to be around someone with the same powers she had?
Pulling Mia to her feet, Donoma stood, moved across the room, then sat back down placing Mia between herself and Cy. “My heart is so full of happiness!” She smiled widely then looked up as if saying a silent prayer of thanks. “I have so much to tell you, stories about your ancestors.”
“I want to hear them.”
Donoma grasped her hand. “The women of our family have been gifted for hundreds of years with ‘the powers of the moon.’ Many people do not understand what this means and have misled others about our powers. Many years ago, women did the same as they do now—they balanced their families by holding the life-force within them. They hold happiness and joy, but they also hold all the worries and pain. As time passed, all the emotions women took from others would weigh heavily upon them. They become weak, many becoming ill—no longer able to care for the ones they loved.”
Donoma pulled in a deep breath and then began.
“Many years ago, a woman went out to the woods crying, for she felt she could no longer take any more pain, it had become too great. That was when the raven heard her and asked, ʻWhy do you cry?ʼ
“The woman told the raven ʻI love my family more then anything in this world but their worries have filled me. I can take no more of their pains and I do not know what to do.ʼ
“The raven told her, ʻI will go ask Grandmother Ocean.’ The raven flew to the ocean and told Grandmother about the women he had met.
“Grandmother Ocean said, ʻIf the women come to me, I can help wash their pain from them, but this will not help the ones who are far away from me. I will ask my sister, Grandmother Moon if she could help?’
“When Grandmother Ocean talked to Grandmother Moon she said, ʻI am the power of the feminine. I will send to these women your waters carrying my powers. Once every moon cycle, you will come into these women through me and help purify them of their burdens.’
“Grandmother Ocean and Grandmother Moon help embody women with their powers, but the women still cannot rid themselves of their burdens. This is where you and I help. We are gifted with the powers of the moon. But without knowing these things you must have hated your powers, not understanding that they were there to help people and protect you.” Donoma’s eyes grew dark and troubled. “My beautiful granddaughter, how did you live all of these years with this pain?” She choked in another breath.
Mia shrugged and tried to keep her voice even. “I lived through it. It was all I knew. I found that being by myself most of the time was easier. When I was around others the powers were hard to control. And if anyone touched me, especially if they were feeling strong emotions, it was difficult.”
Donoma shook her head. “We are empaths. You take on other’s sorrows but also their emotions. How were you able to control it without another of your kind there to help center you?”
Not knowing if she should laugh or cry, Mia looked at Donoma and shrugged. “I pop into a blue bubble. That night there had been a woman at the restaurant where I worked. Her boyfriend had just left her for someone else and she was angry and hurt. I could feel my body trying to absorb her pain, taking it inside. I ran and found water to stick my hands in.” Mia leaned back into Cy’s strong body, feeling his arms wrap around her.
Cy added, “But if she doesn’t, her power shifts to this bubble of shimmering energy. It protects her. It protected me the night of the fire. When I walked into her room, the bubble was keeping Mia safe. It saved both of us. We would have died from the flames if it hadn’t been around us.”
Donoma’s eyes widened. “There are legends of ones who have a higher level of power. I believe you could be one of these women.”
****
Donoma didn’t want them to leave, but after a sufficient exchange of phone numbers, the fear of losing touch faded from her eyes and she finally let them go. Mia gave Donoma her address, Cy’s, the restaurant, and the address of the fire station. Donoma hugged the two of them so tight Mia thought she heard one of her ribs snap.
Mia promised her grandmother over and over, that she’d come back soon. She’d take a few days off and even stay with her. That way the two of them could again spend time getting to know each other.
By the time they drove the distance back to the cabin, the last of the color had disappeared from the sky. Cy grabbed burgers on the way through town and they were both exhausted. Greasy fast food was just the answer.
Cy crumpled the white paper bag and tossed it into the garbage pail, popping the last French fry in his mouth. “You look like you could use a nice long bath.”
“Too bad you only have a shower... oh yeah, and a river.”
Cy grinned. “There’s a claw-foot tub in the corner of the
bathroom.” Cy handed her a beer. “It’s stuck behind a bunch of junk. This cabin is greatly lacking in storage space. Right now I think my kayak is in it, but I could get it cleaned up in a few minutes.”.
“Was this one of your water ideas, Mr. Science?” Mia loved ribbing him, watching the tips of his ears turn pink. Now, after being around him, she knew exactly what he was thinking. Because she was thinking the same thing.
“You caught me. But I thought a hot bath would help you relax. It’s been a hell of a day. I could leave you alone to soak awhile. No touching, I promise.”
“That sounds great. But you’re tired too.”
“Not that tired.” His gaze traveled over her face, dipped down her body, and then back up. “Suddenly I’m awake.” White teeth lit his face and a smile indented the dimples in his cheek “I’ll go start the water, it takes a while for the tub to fill. Water pressure’s not great. Just sit here and relax. Want me to turn on some music?” He called out for music to start streaming over the speakers. Slow blues filtered through the room as he disappeared into the bathroom.
Mia stretched out, draping a leg over the arm of the chair. She looked around the cabin and felt her chest tighten. This small, slightly dusty log cabin with the green camp chairs sitting haphazardly around the dining room table felt like home. Her home. And not simply a place where she waited to move on to the next town.
She’d been happy in the short time she’d spent in her house, but the difference was, she’d been alone. Something had always been missing. Cy.
****
Cy turned off the water and swirled his hand through it to check the temperature. Steam rose from the old cast-iron tub.
“It smells great. What did you put in the water?” Mia asked as she bent and ran her hand through the hot water.
“I don’t know,” Cy confessed. “It came in a basket of stuff Sally brought over. It’s pretty -frou-frou.’”
Fighting the Fire Page 15