by Valerie Puri
She laughed heartily, her pink gums visible. The old woman took two bowls and spoons down from a shelf and ladled the chunky stew into them. She handed one each to Jennie and Ethan. “Thanks, Old Nan,” Ethan said.
Jennie walked to a plush chair as fast as she dared, careful not to spill her meal. She lowered herself into the soft cushions with a sigh. It was such a relief to get off her aching feet. Scarfing down the stew in silence, she savored every bite. It was rich and flavorful. After starving for days, this was one of the best meals she ever had.
Ethan gobbled his bowl up, too.
She heard footsteps just above them. Her eyes followed the sound of movement along the ceiling. They approached the spiral stairs, then descended the steps. Jennie could only see the back of a woman with long, blonde hair coming down.
Whoever it was, she looked like she been in a scrap recently. Her clothes were pretty beat up. She curved out of sight behind the tree trunk. Jennie heard the hollow thud as the woman stepped onto the floor.
Jennie returned to her bowl, scraping the last bits of broth up with her spoon.
The woman’s footsteps came closer to her from behind. They stopped suddenly, followed by a familiar voice.
“Jennie? Is that you?”
Her breath caught in her throat when she turned and saw Marlene standing behind her.
Fifteen
Marlene
“What are you doing here?” Marlene asked. “You’re insane to leave the Commune. Don’t you know about the endless threats in the wilderness?”
She wasn’t sure if Arborville would still be standing by the time she arrived. With so many lemerons passing through to reach the Commune, she was sure they would have decimated the place. Yet to her immense relief, it remained untouched.
She arrived that morning and spent all day trying to find Ethan. She found out he was sent to investigate the increase in lemeron activity, but no one had seen him in weeks. Her unease grew the longer she looked in vein.
“Answer me, child,” she snapped. “What are you doing here?”
Jennie shrank back in her chair. Marlene stepped square in front of her, hands on her hips. The knot in her stomach clenched tighter.
“Looking for you,” she answered sheepishly.
Marlene frowned.
“Why would you be looking for me? I told you all I was going for help, didn’t I?” She jabbed a finger at Jennie. “You should have stayed put. I’ll be damned if some foolish girl gets killed simply because she was looking for me.”
The girl shifted in her seat and clamped her mouth shut.
“I don’t have time for this,” Marlene waved a dismissive hand. “I’m searching for someone. Stay here or go back, it doesn’t matter to me. Just try not to get killed.”
She strode past the girl, making for the exit. Jennie was whispering something behind her back. Probably quietly cursing herself for her stupidity. Let her.
I have to find Ethan. If he’s dead, I don’t know if I could withstand the grief. Her chin trembled. At least I would have closure.
Marlene left him nearly eighteen years ago with his father, but there was always the lingering hope she might see him again. If he perished, everything she sacrificed would have been for nothing.
“Mother?” A young man’s voice called from behind her.
She hesitated a moment. Surely, he wasn’t talking to her. He was probably speaking to the woman cooking in the corner. But there was something familiar about his voice.
The floorboard creaked behind her. Whoever spoke was coming closer to her. Her heart pounded in her chest.
It can’t be him. It’s too much to hope for.
The floor creaked again as he took another step.
Turn around, she urged herself. And so she did.
She gasped, clasping a hand over her open mouth. Before her stood Brenden, only he was younger and had her eyes.
The last memory she had of her son flashed through her mind. He was a happy baby with those bright green eyes. She passed him over to his father. Her little boy wouldn’t let go of her finger. He was strong then, and he looked to be even stronger now.
His muscular build was very much like his father’s. Marlene extended her hand, tempted to touch his stubble covered jaw. The shape was a bit like her own jaw, slightly squared. Her fingers shook as they neared his face.
Her attention was pulled behind him, and she lowered her hand. Jennie stood there a few paces back, a smile plastered on her face. Marlene furrowed her brow.
Did she do this? Did she bring my son to me? How did Jennie come to know him?
Marlene focused on the young man before her. His eyes were glassy. His chest barely moved, as though he were holding his breath.
“Ethan?” Marlene asked, her voice shaking.
The young man sucked in air and exhaled rapidly. It almost came out as a laugh.
“Mother.”
It was really him. Ethan was alive and well. Her little baby boy was all grown up.
“Oh, my son.” She pulled him to her, wrapping her arms around him for the first time in eighteen years. And for the first time in nearly a hundred years, she cried.
Sixteen
Ethan
“I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you,” Ethan said.
Marlene wrapped her arms around him, holding him close.
She smells like wild strawberries and pine needles. Like the forest.
She pulled away, gripping his shoulders in her hands. Her green eyes darted around his face, taking him in. Jennie was right, they had the same eyes. His mother looked exactly as she did in the picture of her in his pocket. When she abandoned him in the forest as a baby, she left that picture with him.
His eyes stung with tears that threatened to fall. He didn’t want to cry in front of his mother… or Jennie. He bit his lower lip, fighting the urge to cry.
“Why did you leave me in the forest?” He asked.
Marlene’s face fell, and she wiped her eyes with her finger. “We’ll get to that later. Is there somewhere we can go to talk?”
Ethan glanced around the open hall, aware of the onlookers. The privacy of his home seemed like a good idea. He had so many questions for her.
He was angry with her for leaving him in the forest, but happy to meet her. All his life, he thought she didn’t want him. But here she was, crying with joy after seeing him. He was so conflicted. Every emotion possible was rushing through him, ripping him apart. He had to know more and work through these feelings. But not here, in front of a crowd. Home was best. Except his father would be there. Sooner or later, they would probably meet.
“I, uh, would like you to meet my father,” Ethan ran a hand through his matted hair.
This was more awkward than he anticipated. Here he was meeting his birth mother for the first time, and he invites her to meet his adoptive father. What would she think of his father? He frowned. What would he think of her?
She left him alone in the forest as a baby. If his father hadn’t come along, Ethan might have died out there. Come to think of it, he might not want to meet the woman who left her child for dead.
“I would like that,” she said.
“He is my, um, adoptive father,” Ethan chewed the inside of his cheeks. “He found me as a baby in the woods.”
She pressed her lips together into a thin line and nodded.
He ran his hand through his hair again.
“All right then. Follow me, I guess.”
He left the main hall, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Marlene and Jennie were behind him. His entire body tingled. While crossing the bridges connecting the treehouses, he felt clumsy like his feet were too large for his body.
He stumbled, losing his balance. Reaching out, he grabbed the rope railing of one of the bridges. His heart pounded in his chest. Clinging to the rope, he waited for the bridge to stop bobbing up and down. His stomach had that weird feeling again… butterflies.
Get it together, he told h
imself.
He looked back over his shoulder. His mother and Jennie waited without saying a word. Taking a deep breath, he walked on.
After crossing a few more bridges, he finally reached the home he shared with his father. It was a modest house, but it was theirs. He stared at the weathered door.
When he was only nine, he wanted their house to have a blue door.
“Why blue?” his father asked.
“Because the sky is blue and we live in the sky,” he said.
“Right you are,” his father chuckled at his wit.
So, they went out hunting for blueberries until they had a bushel full. They spent the entire afternoon mashing them into a liquid and smearing it on the door. They used a crude brush Ethan made out of pine needles, twine, and a stick. It did the job well enough.
The door turned out to be more purple than blue.
Now only streaks of faded purple remained in the deeper grooves of the wood. He ran his hand down one of the more pronounced streaks.
His father was everything to him. He taught him everything he knew and made Ethan the man he was today.
What will he think about my birth mother?
It was too late to turn back.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled, trying to slow his heartbeat. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
His father was there, tending to the fire, his back to the door. He jerked his head up when he heard the door.
His father’s face lit up the moment he laid eyes on him.
“Ethan, my boy,” he exclaimed, approaching him with widespread arms.
Ethan couldn’t even attempt a smile, he was so nervous. His father frowned, dropping his arms to his side.
“What’s wrong? Ethan, did something happen? Tell me, what’s the matter?”
He bit his lower lip and stepped aside, letting his mother and Jennie enter the house.
“I found my mother.”
His father’s mouth dropped open.
Marlene stepped around Ethan and approached his father. “Hello, Brenden.”
Ethan shook his head. “How do you know his name?”
She reached out, stroking his father’s cheek.
The butterflies turned to fire in his stomach. He felt like he might be sick.
Why is she touching him like that? She only just met him.
“Because he’s my husband.”
Ethan staggered back. He tripped over something and fell to the ground. All he could do was watch as Marlene and his father stood too close to each other.
“No. This is impossible,” Ethan yelled. “You don’t really know him. This is some cruel joke. Why are you doing this to me?”
Marlene turned to face Ethan, stepping closer to him. He scooted away from her on the floor, but his back met the wall. He was trapped.
“This is no joke, Ethan,” she said. “Brenden is my husband, and he is your real father. He didn’t adopt you, he sired you.”
Her voice cut like cold daggers. The flames in his stomach turned to ice.
“No,” he shook his head. “You’re wrong. He found me. You left me in the woods to die.”
She shot a glance at his father, then fixed her gaze on Ethan. “I left you in his arms. It wasn’t safe for you to stay with me in the Commune. I handed you over to Brenden to keep you safe, which is exactly what he did.”
He looked at his father. Tears welled in Ethan’s eyes, not caring anymore if he cried. His whole life had been a deception.
“You’re my real father? How could you not tell me? You let me live my entire life thinking my actual parents never wanted me.” Ethan jabbed an accusing finger in his father’s direction. “You let me believe that you were some stranger wandering through the forest when you just happened to find a baby who you raised as your adopted son. Why would you lie to me like that?”
The tears overflowed, streaming down his face.
“It would have been too painful to tell you the truth. It was hard enough losing your mother once, I couldn’t bear talking about her. It would have been like losing her all over again. It was easier this way,” Brendan said.
“Is that what you tell yourself so you can live with your lie?”
His father opened his mouth to speak. Ethan raised his hands, shaking his head.
“Don’t answer that. I don’t care what you have to say. Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie. You lied to me my entire life. How could you?”
“Ethan, you have to understand, it was for the best,” he tried to explain, but Ethan didn’t want to hear it.
“Best for who?” He shouted. “You? Her?”
He pointed his finger at Marlene.
“Neither of you care about me. If you did, you would have told me the truth,” he clambered to his feet. “I don’t even know where I belong anymore. I just know it’s not here.”
He rushed from the house he once called home, slamming the purple-streaked door behind him.
Seventeen
Jennie
Jennie was stunned. She stood, glancing from Marlene to Brenden. No one said a word. The air in the one-room house was thick with tension.
A string tugged on her heart, urging her to go after Ethan. She wanted to, more than anything, but she had no idea where he went. This settlement was entirely foreign to her. She was disoriented as soon as they left the main hall.
Marlene crossed her arms and pursed her lips at Jennie as if silently saying this was all her fault. It wasn’t, though. How could it be?
All she wanted was to see Ethan happy. She thought he would want to be reunited with his mother. And he did… until he found out just how deep their lies go. Jennie never could have expected his adoptive father turned out to be his actual father.
Brenden, was staring at Jennie, too. Only his expression was less accusing than Marlene’s.
She wrung her cold hands together, trying to warm them, but also to steady her nerves. The silence was overwhelming. No one said anything, but so many questions hung in the air.
It seemed that if she didn’t speak up, no one would. She swallowed hard, mustering her courage to ask her burning question.
“What just happened?”
Marlene closed her eyes, shaking her head. When she finally opened them, she spoke in a frigid tone.
“You interfered, that’s what happened.”
Jennie was taken aback. “What? Me?”
“If you hadn’t had meddled, Ethan would still think Brenden adopted him,” her face spasmed with pain. “It would have been better if Ethan never met me.”
“I’m confused, you’re saying Ethan getting upset because you both lied to him was my fault?”
“I had to know Ethan was alive and okay. I could have done that from afar, without meeting him,” Marlene said. “You told him who I was, didn’t you? You shouldn’t have. It would have been better if he still believed Brenden’s story.” She looked at him with longing in her eyes.
Jennie felt her face turn hot. Her blood was boiling. No one accused her of something she didn’t do. Not even a Commune Elder. She stepped up to Marlene, staring her right in the eye.
“You were the one who got all touchy-feely with his father. That obviously upset Ethan. You should have told him everything back at the hall instead of letting him think you didn’t know his father.”
Brenden stepped forward. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”
Marlene answered for her. “Her name is Jennie Caraway. She’s from the Commune and a known troublemaker.”
Jennie crossed her arms. “Why? Because I told you your inaction gave the Order the room they needed to destroy the Commune from the inside out? If you would have just done something before things got out of hand, we might not have hundreds of lemerons just outside our walls.”
Marlene’s lip twitched. Her eyes flashed with anger.
Jennie took a step back. She said something to hit a nerve. She never saw Marlene so furious. Ever.
“Those monsters took everything
from me!” Her nostrils flared. “I lost my friends, my family, and any chance I had for a normal life.”
“But now you have a chance to get it back,” Jennie said.
“It’s far too late for that.”
“Then why are you really here? You abandoned the Commune in a state of chaos that you helped create. You said you were leaving to find help. Was that just another lie?”
“No. That was part of my reason for leaving. I came here to make sure Ethan was okay. But now, he wants nothing to do with Brenden or me. No thanks to you,” Marlene added.
“He’s just upset. He’ll get over it, he just needs a little time,” Jennie said.
“There are some wounds time can’t heal, trust me. This is one of them,” Marlene said.
Jennie shook her head. She had enough of her stubbornness. “Just because you’ve lived a freakishly long time, you think you know everything. You both just gave Ethan earth-shattering news and all in the same night.” Jennie pointed to Marlene. “And now you would just abandon Ethan to fend for himself? Again?”
“Ethan rejected me, so be it. I don’t have time to wait around for someone to maybe change their mind. I have more important things to worry about, like the lemerons you’re always so concerned about.”
Jennie scoffed. She couldn’t believe how cold Marlene was. “So, just like that, you would sacrifice your relationship with your son?”
Marlene slammed her fist against the tree trunk in the middle of the room. The house shook from the impact. “I would sacrifice everything to stop the lemerons.”
Brenden placed a hand on her shoulder. “Marlene, the girl is just trying to understand my decision about how to raise Ethan.”
Jennie glared at him. “You should have told Ethan you’re his father. He deserved to know the truth.”
“You wouldn’t understand such things, you’re too young,” Marlene cut in.
“I’m not a child anymore. I’m an adult, and I understand perfectly well.”
“Your actions say otherwise,” Marlene said.