by T. K. Chapin
“Hello?” Levi said.
“Hey, I found Chris.”
“Oh good.”
“Yeah… I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
“That trailer, I need to borrow it to move some tables out to the Silverback.”
“Alright,” he replied and then paused. “How about in an hour? I’ll come over then.”
“Okay.” Chris came down the stairs with a duffle bag in hand as he headed for the front door. “I’ll see you then,” I said to Levi, hanging up the phone. I ran after Chris out the front door.
Loading his bag into the back seat of his car, Chris began to get in. I darted down the porch steps and out to the road and in front of his car so he couldn’t pull forward from the curb. “Chris…”
Rolling down his window, Chris yelled, “Get out of the way, Dylan, I’m going to find Mom, and you aren’t going to stop me.”
“Just wait for me to go with you, Bro.”
“When? You got this and that going on all the time, I don’t want to wait.”
“We can go in a few days, we need to have Dad’s funeral. There’s a better way to do this.”
Shutting off his car, he said, “Two days?”
“A few,” I replied. “We need to go to Dad’s funeral… usually they have those pretty quick, so right after that.”
“Fine, okay,” Chris replied softly.
Coming over to his driver side window, I leaned down to speak with him and put my hand on his shoulder. “Mom’s been there for a while; we’ll find her. This way works better anyways; you can call Ken and let him know what’s going on so you don’t lose that job.”
Looking up at me, Chris shook his head and turned the key back over. My nerves unhinged as he revved the car up. “You know what? I’m not waiting, I’m going now. You thought you could run the inn without me, so I’ll leave without you.”
“Don’t, Chris,” I pleaded.
Shaking his head, he looked at me in the eyes and said, “I have to find her.” He put the car into drive and peeled out. As he took off down the street, I watched his tail lights fade into the distance, worry came over me. My brother was on a dark and lonely path.
CHAPTER 10
February 14, 2011
The funeral for my father was yesterday. It was a small group of people. Missy was there, and even Ally, Jess, Levi and Elly came to pay respects and support me. For family though, it was just Lenny and myself, since the rest of the family had passed on. My father was the youngest of three siblings. Knowing dad was in a better place, I choose to put the funeral behind me, and began getting ready for Ally’s and my date that was tonight.
Up in my room, I gave myself a squirt of cologne and changed into a nice white polo for the evening. Hopefully Ally didn’t get too dolled up for our date tonight, I wouldn’t want to feel underdressed, I thought to myself as I grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter. Grabbing my coat, I was out the door and off to pick her up.
With a white skirt and a jean jacket on, Ally looked cute but a little cold as she waited out on the patio bench in front of Roy’s house. I couldn’t help but smile as I walked up the sidewalk towards the house. She looked amazing. Rising to her feet, she grinned at me as I approached.
“You ready?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied with a slight bow of a knee.
Sammy was peeking through the window that sat above the bench. He was smiling ear-to-ear as he looked at me. “Looks like we have a watcher,” I said with a laugh.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Sammy and smiled. “He’s quite excited that I’m going to a movie and dinner with you.”
“Oh yeah? How’s Olivia feel about it?”
She looked back at me, “She’s not so glad. She kept asking me what Dad would think about it.”
“Yeah, she’s a little bit older…”
“Yep, she struggles with the idea of a new life here, even though she enjoys it.”
“I’m sure. The movie we’re going to see starts at four. We should get going that direction.”
“Let’s go!” she replied.
As I held out my arm, Ally grabbed onto it and I led her out to the truck. Helping her into the passenger seat, I couldn’t stop smiling, which was strange, since I had just buried my dad; but just being around Ally made me not worry about all the bad going on.
Getting into the theater and taking our seats, we had two sodas, a large popcorn and a box of chocolate caramels. Glancing over at Ally midway through the movie, I couldn’t help but notice how gorgeous she looked in the low lighting of the movie theater. Her skin glowed from the light of the screen and her smile was perfect as always. There wasn’t a different place in the world I wanted to be in that moment.
Midway through the movie, I suddenly felt her hand grasped onto mine that was on the armrest that separated us. Waves of warmth rushed over me at her touch. Shortly after that, I put my arm around her shoulder and scooted closer to her. She fit perfect in my arm. I could tell neither of us wanted to leave the theater, we even sat through the credits, just letting ourselves pretend like we cared about the costume designers and all the people involved in making the movie. But really, I think we both were so into the moment and each other we didn’t want it to ever end.
On the way to the restaurant, Ally’s cell phone rang causing me to jump in my seat. She laughed. “You don’t hear that very often, do ya?” I shook my head over at her and she glanced down at her phone. “It’s Jess. I’d better answer it,” she said.
“Hello?”
She listened.
“What do you mean you can’t find Olivia?” Ally replied with a worried tone.
I nodded over to her as I pulled over and headed back towards Chattaroy. She didn’t have to say anything; I knew we needed to go back to the farm.
“We’re on our way,” she said before hanging up the phone. Turning to me, she said, “I’m so sorry. Olivia up and vanished after dinner and they can’t find her.”
“No need to apologize,” I replied. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I really enjoyed the movie, Dylan…” I knew what she really meant.
“It was nice,” I replied. “Do you know where Olivia might have gone off to?”
Ally looked out the window and was quiet for a moment. “She really likes the creek… maybe she’s down there? I don’t really know… ugh.”
“We’ll find her, don’t worry.”
“You can just drop me off, Dylan, you don’t need to stay and help find my little defiant child.”
“No, I want to help. More people looking will help us find her faster.” Smiling at her and trying to reassure her, I grabbed her hand.
She smiled at me as she wrapped her fingers into mine that was on the seat between us. “Thank you.”
Arriving back at Roy’s, we parked in front of the garage and grabbed the flashlights I had stashed behind the seat. Walking down the hillside along the creek, we split up to find Olivia.
Coming to the bridge’s underside, an old favorite hiding spot of mine, I pointed my flashlight into the water and then up against the wall that sat under the bridge. There she was. “Olivia,” I said, coming up to her. She was sitting with her knees up to her chest and an angry look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
“You!” she snapped at me as she turned slightly to look away.
I took a deep breath, walked up to her and sat down next to her. Pulling my knees up to my chest to match hers, I set my flashlight down and said, “Me?”
“Yeah! Ever since Mommy started talking to you, she talks about Daddy less and less… I miss my Daddy!”
I nodded. “I miss my Daddy too.”
Her angry face softened. “Where’s your Daddy?”
“Heaven,” I replied delicately.
“He died?” Her eyes widened.
“Yeah, not too long ago, in fact.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she replied.
I laughed a little inside, knowing she probably didn’t
understand what she was saying. “Thank you, Olivia.”
“You should leave my Mommy alone. She doesn’t need you. She has Sammy and me, and she even has Daddy.”
“I just like hanging out with your Mom. I’m not going to take her from you, ever.” She seemed okay with what I said, so I continued, “We’re just friends and like hanging out. That’s what adults do sometimes.”
Ally came up to the bridge and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Olivia!” she shouted. “You scared everyone half to death! Get your butt up to the farmhouse and into your room, right now! I will be there in a minute to talk about your actions tonight.”
Olivia glanced at me, and stood up and stomped off up the hill and out of sight towards the house. Turning back to me, Ally cleared her voice and smiled, “Thanks, Dylan. I really appreciate you helping find her.”
“No problem,” I replied.
“Hey, speaking of going missing, have you heard from Chris? I meant to ask earlier, but spaced it,” she said as I stood up from under the bridge.
“He called for a second when he got into town to just let me know he made it safely. He’s staying at the Seagull Inn while he hunts for our mom.”
“You should go there.”
“He left without me; it’d be stupid to go with a second car.”
“Just fly there,” she insisted.
“Why are you pushing me to go?” I asked curiously.
“It’s your brother all by himself looking for your mom. You want to be there, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but-”
Ally took a step closer to me and touched my arm. “You’ll always have a reason not to do something you’re scared of… but sometimes the scariest thing in the world is exactly what we need to do.”
“What if she doesn’t have a reason for leaving us?” I asked with a nervous tone in my voice. “That’s what worries me the most.”
Shaking her head, she replied, “You have to have faith, Dylan… And I know you do. If there is one thing I know about you, it’s that your faith carries you along. I’ve admired how you have handled your Father’s passing with such strength.” She let her fingers slide down the sides of my arms along my muscles as she continued, “You are courageous and an inspiration. Don’t let your faith waver in the presence of fear.”
Nodding, I replied, “Okay, I will go.”
CHAPTER 11
February 15, 2011
Coming out of the airport terminal at Lincoln City, I was surprised by the strong smell of the ocean that was evident in the air as I stepped outside. Getting into the back of a cab, I asked the driver to take me to the Seagull Inn where I knew my brother Chris was staying.
As we drove through the little town of Lincoln City, I couldn’t help but think about my mother and how she visited many of the shops there. Seeing a grocery store, I thought about her and envisioned her pulling up in a car to go get groceries. It was so strange since just a week ago I thought she was dead. But now she is not dead; it turned out she had another life. Why’d she leave us? I kept asking myself on the ride over to the hotel. What would she think about when she saw us?
After paying my cab fair, I noticed Chris’ car in the parking lot at the hotel. It was parked along the farthest edge of the lot and the ocean waves were crashing up on the shore off in the distance behind. He really did it, he drove all the way here, I thought, smiling. Thankfully he made it in one piece. Walking into the hotel lobby, I asked for Chris’ room. They refused to give me the room number and instead called him, thus ruining my surprise.
“He’s in room six-one-six,” the hotel clerk said.
“Thanks,” I replied. Grabbing my duffle bag from the floor, I headed out the door and over across the parking lot to his room.
Chris was standing in the doorway smiling. “You came!” He shouted over the cool breeze that was blowing.
“Sure did,” I replied as I walked into the room.
Tossing my duffle bag in the corner, I asked, “So, any leads on Mom?”
“It’s tough, man. I just have an old photograph I pulled from that photo album years ago. I’ve been asking local stores if they knew the woman.”
“That’s going to take forever. Let’s see if we can get a last name, the note did say she had a different family here, have you called and asked Lenny if he knows what her last name might be?” I asked.
“No.”
I walked over to the phone and dialed out to the Silverback back in Chattaroy to see if Lenny might know about our mom’s last name.
“Silverback Inn, this is Lenny.”
“Hey, it’s me, Dylan. I’m in Lincoln City with Chris.”
“Oh wow, you decided to go?”
“Yeah, what could you tell us about our mom, Elyse? Do you know by chance what last name she could be under?”
“She was married to your father but she never took his last name, so I doubt she’d be under that... hm. Even if she did, she left and wouldn’t have kept it. You know what you could try? Her maiden name, Miles.”
“Okay, we’ll go with that.”
“Sounds good, I’ll see if I can dig anything up in your Dad’s stuff down in that room. By the way, I deposited a check from your Dad’s estate into your bank this morning, so that should help with your two’s venture. It included this quarter’s dividends.”
“Thanks Lenny,” I said as I hung up the phone.
“Mom’s maiden name is Miles; she never took Dad’s to begin with.” I began wondering maybe she was never into the marriage to dad? She did after all never take his last name. There was no telling for sure on anything. There were no memories for us of our mother, outside of the ones our father told us. But who really knows if any of that was even true.
We went with using the phone book first and we found a listing under an ‘E. Miles’ that lived off a road named Island Drive, just south of town along the ocean side. “This could be her!” I said excitedly. Picking up the phone, I dialed the number. It dead rang forever without a voicemail. Hanging it back up, I sighed and said, “No answer.”
Chris smiled as he patted my back. “Let’s go see her; we have the address.”
I nodded and we ran out of the hotel room to go get in the car. I felt a little apprehensive with Chris as he got into the driver seat. “Hey man, I can drive…” I said, trying to be delicate as possible about the situation.
“If it’s about drinking, you don’t have to worry about it, Bro,” he said as he got into the driver seat.
“You quit?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
Nodding, he said, “Ever since I got here and could smell the ocean… I just felt so much better, almost like I found a part of myself here. Maybe that’s why Mom loves it here. Something about the air.”
“Whatever works,” I replied smiling as we got into the car. I was relieved to hear him say he wasn’t drinking. Could a little ocean smell really curb an addiction? I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to question him about it.
Pulling up the driveway of the address we had, the whole property sat on a slight incline which pointed towards the ocean. The constant sound of crashing waves in the distance was soothing the insecurity I had buried within my soul. I worried about meeting my mother for the first time. The lawn on the property was neatly trimmed and had a white picket fence that ran along the outskirts of the yard. Stones fitted together and made an elegant walkway up to the house. My nerves were on edge with every step on the way up to the door. This looked like a typical house of the American dream. Is this where she’s been this whole time?
“Hello?” A woman answered the door. She looked thin, tall and blonde. She looked older, but not too old. Thinking of the old photographs that we had seen of our mother, she didn’t look much like her.
“Hi, we are looking for an Elyse Miles?” I asked.
Shaking her head, she replied, “There is nobody here by that name.” She began closing the door, and I put my hand up on the door.
“Wait, do you know anyone by
that name in this town?”
She looked to think for a moment. “No, I am afraid I don’t know anyone even by the name of Elyse. My name is Eleanor Miles.”
“Sorry for bothering you, Thank you for your time,” Chris said softly as he turned back towards the driveway.
We walked back to the car. On the way to the curb, I glanced out at the ocean and said, “We might never find her, Bro…”
“We’ll find her,” Chris said confidently.
“And then what?” I asked as we got back into the car.
“Then we can ask her why she left, what happened… find out the truth Dad hid from us. We could have a mom again, Dylan.”
“Maybe,” I replied. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to be realistic. She left us. I don’t know why, but she is a mother who left her children and didn’t appear to look back. Isn’t it strange she never took Dad’s last name?”
Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
We were both in the mood for some seafood that night, so we headed down to Phill’s Crab Shack on the pier. The restaurant walls were filled with fishing poles, anchors and other various ocean-related decorations. It was a loud and busy atmosphere, but the food was delicious.
“How’s everything back home?” Chris asked, voice slightly elevated as he tried to talk over the other conversations in the restaurant.
“With what?”
“I don’t know… it just sounded like the right thing to ask. How was Dad’s funeral?”
“It was small… but it was nice. Levi and everyone showed up.”
“Elly?” Chris asked.
I nodded.
“That’s good they were all there for you…” He took a sip of his soda.
“Oh, here’s something new. I went on a date with Ally.”
Chris grinned. “I saw that coming. How’d it go?”
“It was fun. It was just last night, actually.”
“Wow,” he replied. Wiping his mouth with his napkin, Chris leaned in and asked, “Why’d you come here, Dylan?”
“I told you I wanted to come, just not immediately. You know you probably lost your job?”