Evangeline, Alone. (Book 1): Evangeline, Alone

by Styles, M. A.

  Rae pointed over to a few empty seats on the other side of the fire. Charlie grabbed a seat inbetween Henry and Rae, while the other two grabbed a seat across the way. A few rounds of the bottle passed, Charlie taking them up on it a few more times, and Jack realized he was going to have to have some water if he wanted any kind of fighting chance for the walk back tomorrow. The wine had given him enough buzz to signal a warning for what was to come in the morning. He asked the group where he could go, and Rae pointed him to one of their rain barrels with a tap at the bottom. A few beat up plastic cups were propped on top of the spigot for use. He filled one up, and began to fill up the other for Cara when he saw Mac and Antonia heading out, off the side porch towards the barn. As his eyes adjusted from being away from the light of the fire, he could make out two people walking out to meet them. It was Nico and who he assumed was Richy, the man Nico said he was going to meet.

  He watched as they spoke for a moment. Then Mac reached out and shook Richy’s hand, but he pulled her into a hug. Nico clapped him on the back, and Antonia looked like she was laughing. Mac pulled away, a smile on her face too. Just then he heard a bang from the kitchen door. Lizzy started to make her way over to the group in the dark. Antonia gave them a wave then headed over to meet Lizzy half way. When they met she started to guide her over to the fire, and though you could see her hesitate, Lizzy followed. The rest chatted some more, then Richy walked to join the rest of the group by the fire.

  Mac and Nico stood straight and stiff across from each other. He only saw their mouths move a few times, but for the most part they just stood there in silence, looking at their boots. Nico’s hands were stuffed in his jacket pockets until Mac gently grabbed him by the elbow, and he looked up. She gave him a nod, then let her arm fall back to her side, and made her way over, taking the seat on the other side of Cara and next to Antonia. Nico walked off down the hill in the dark. Jack made his way back over with the two cups, handing one to Cara, and took his seat back next to her.

  Lizzy sat on the other side of Antonia, her arms hugging herself for added warmth. She stuck her head out from the row of people, and looked to Jack and Cara. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you two together?”

  Cara let out a huge laugh, and Jack give her a playful hit to the arm. “Thanks a lot,” he joked, and he looked back at Lizzy. “No, just friends, and I’m definitely not good enough for her anyway,” he said, giving her a playful wink that she laughed at.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just nice to think people can still find love and happiness in all of this now,” Lizzy said with a hint of preachiness. “I feel lucky every day to have Nico here. It definitely makes the times more bearable.”

  Antonia let out a cough, and then gestured for the bottle of grappa from one of the group across the way. When they followed her reach around the flames, they couldn’t help but see Rae staring at Mac with a sad expression. Mac on the other hand hadn’t made a single indication she was listening to anything anyone was saying.

  “That’s nice,” Jack said awkwardly. “There’s a few people who coupled up in our group. Charlie, and a couple others.“ He paused thoughtfully for a moment, “Still, sometimes that’s not enough to save you out here. But I’m sure it keeps you going,” he said with a forced politeness to the naivety of her statement.

  “It sure does. I’m always here to pick Nico up when I see he’s getting down. Sometimes he just spends days with Emma, and I have to go drag him away,” she said strangely. Mac suddenly turned to her with a sharp look.

  “Hey, Elizabeth!” Out of no where Rae was standing next to her. “Can you do me a favor? Can you come up to the loft and take a look at a few things for me. I think I ruined a pair of my best work pants. I’ve been meaning to get you to tell me if you can save them.”

  “Oh sure!” she said, seemingly surprised by the invitation. She got up and followed Rae through a door at the end of the large workshop. From the glow of the fire, a set of stairs going up could just be made out, and they started their way up them.

  The tension was evident from the look Mac gave to Antonia, one that she would not return, but sipped from the bottle instead. Cara looked between them both.

  “So Antonia, I’m sorry to pry but, what’s your story? Wyatt said Nico was his little brother, so you’re his mom too?”

  She smiled, and passed the liquor back to the other side. “His step mother, but yes. Nico and I moved here from Italy, oh, about twenty-five years ago, now, I suppose. I met Wyatt’s father, shortly after. He was a horse breeder, and I was in the market for a horse.” Her face lit up at the memory. “Wyatt was- well, if Nico was five…” She paused in thought, “Wyatt was eight at the time.”

  “What brought you here from Italy?” Jack asked, intrigued.

  “Oh well, that’s a whole other story,” she said, rolling her eyes. “My first husband, Nico’s Dad, was from a vineyard that his family owned. I was actually working at my father’s restaurant when I met him. He came in trying to get us to buy some of his family’s wine to sell there. It was good, but the winery was not doing well since the passing of the man’s grandfather, and my father didn’t want to get involved in it. But I convinced him to buy a case, and it sold. So we kept buying more and Alberto would deliver them. Eventually he asked me out. And then we got married,” she laughed. “He and I brought his family’s business back to life!” she said with a sparkle in her eye. “His parents wanted to sell it all off piece by piece. They never cared about it. But Alberto did. Said he would save it, for his grandfather who had built the whole thing himself. And sure enough he did.”

  “Yeah, but he couldn’t have done it without you,” Mac said to her.

  She waved her hand at her. “Maybe, but I like to think we did it together. Anyway, one day he went out with a delivery and never came back. He was taken from us by a car crash. Nico was three.” She stopped her story for a moment, taking a few swallows. “When he was gone, his parents were suddenly interested in the vineyard. It was making money of course, and we had made a name for ourselves. They tried to push Nico and I out so they could take it all and sell it off. Fill their pockets with the efforts of the dead.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cara said. “That’s pretty damn terrible.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” she said. “When we were fixing up the place we found that his grandfather had left the entire vineyard to my Alberto, but the cottage, where we all lived, was left to his parents. They soon realized that they couldn’t sell anything without my permission, because Berto had my name added to it. But they could kick us out of the house.” She had a look of disdain on her face. “But, as I always knew, they were stupid and greedy. They had taken most of our profits Berto and I had made together through the years, plus what was left from Alberto’s grandfather’s estate when he passed. So, they had a good amount of money behind them already. I simply told them they just had to buy me out, and I would be on my way. They told me they would pay me only the value of the land, since the house and wine facilities were nothing to them. So I agreed. But I had also sold all of our equipment, machinery, horses, and any other damn thing I could get a price on right before the papers were signed. They had no idea for over a month. That is how much they cared about that place. They never even looked into the barn. Assumed my employees just stayed and kept working. But when they did, they saw it empty.” She started laughing really hard at that, slapping her thigh.

  Mac started laughing a little with her, or more like from the way she was laughing. Soon Jack and Cara were chuckling too.

  She wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye as she settled back down. “I miss Puglia very much sometimes, but when we came here, to all the land that I owned, I was a new woman. We lived in the tiny cabin that was here when we first came, Nico and I. I was deciding what I wanted to do with my money, and my life, and my home. That’s when I met Travis, Wyatt’s father. We were out in Montana, just sight seeing, and I decided we should get a ho
rse. Travis owned the horse farm. I still don’t know how it happened, but he started his second horse farm here, and I started my little vineyard. We raised our boys until he too passed.” Her delight faded at the words. “Then I raised our boys.”

  Cara gave her a smile. “Wow, that’s an amazing story. You’re a badass. I love it!” she said, bringing the mood back up.

  Antonia chuckled. “Yeah, well, when Brooks started to lose his sight, we moved him in with us too. He’s Travis’s father, obviously. Wyatt’s grandfather. So, I take care of him as well. Though I’m sure he likes to believe he’s in charge of all of us.”

  “Well, I see he does take orders from Mac,” Jack joked.

  “Yes, well, she has something no one else does.” She gave her a disapproving look. “But it helps him, so I know why she does it.”

  Just then, Wyatt started playing loudly on an acoustic guitar that had appeared from out of no where.

  “Here we go,” Antonia said in whisper more to herself. “Wyatt, please. The baby is sleeping, and I don’t want to deal with the jumpers in the morning.”

  “Oh, come on Toni,” he said, pouring on some drunken charm. “It’s a party!” He walked over to her, and gave her a big bear hug from behind as she sat.

  “Yes, it’s always a party with you. If you want to play, bring it down to the basement or up to the loft, and hold a private concert, please.” The other citizens of the Ranch all laughed a bit.

  He leaned over and gave her a big kiss on top of her head. “Alright, boss. I will take it inside.” He slung the guitar over his back, and started to light a joint he pulled out of his front jacket pocket.

  Antonia plucked if from his lips, and smacked him upside the head. “No smoking in the house! Now get out of here.”

  He looked like a scolded puppy, but he headed towards the loft, head slightly down. “Damn,” he said under his breath.

  “Hey!” she yelled after him, and he stopped short then turned around, heading back to her. She put out her hand to him, and when he got close enough she pulled him down and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Good night, I love you.”

  “Love ya, too,” he said, sounding like an embarrassed teenager as he turned and went for the door leading to the loft.

  Richy got up and started following him, giving every one at the campfire a wave. “I’ll go in with him.” He gave Antonia a smirk. “Good night everybody.” And he followed after Wyatt. “Hey, Wy, I’m coming,” he shouted after him, breaking into a little run.

  A woman they recognized from the barn when they stabled the horses was introduced as Beth at dinner, got up from the other side of the fire and took the empty seat next to Antonia. Her shoulders wagged up and down from silent laughter. She reached into her pocket and passed something to Antonia. A little clink sounded as a flame appeared from the pocket lighter she just got, and she started to light the joint. She took a drag, holding it for a bit before passing it over to Beth. Cara started laughing.

  “Hey, he already rolled it. I’m not going to throw it away. He has had more than enough anyway,” Antonia said taking it back, and having another pull. She then held it out to Jack and Cara.

  “Hell, why not,” Cara said, shaking her head in disbelief as she pinched it out of Antonia’s fingers and took a puff. She offered it to Jack who declined, so she handed it back to Antonia.

  “Here,” she said to Mac.

  “Oh, no thanks,” she said hesitating a bit.

  “Evie. You are here. You will eat. You will drink. You will relax. You will sleep. Ok?” She continued holding it out to her.

  Mac gave a tiny shake of her head, but took it, and had a nice drag. She closed her eyes and held the smoke in for a bit, then released it slowly in a thin stream from her barely parted lips. Antonia leaned over and placed her head on Mac’s shoulder, reached behind her with her arm, and stroked her hair for a moment. Then she sat back up taking the joint with her, and offering it over to the other side of the fire where Charlie, with wide eyes, accepted it gratefully.

  Jack watched them all as they unwound from the day, and realized how good it felt to know more people like this. What he thought his own people were like. They still existed. He looked from face to face, each laughing or animatedly talking, passing around whatever they wanted from one to the other. His eyes landed on Mac, and for a moment she didn’t look so alone. She sat listening and chatting with the group. Her face looked relaxed, even her shoulders were slightly curled forward showing a level of ease that he hadn’t seen in her in the month he’d know her. He was once again reminded that he didn’t know this person at all, or her them, but she was out here doing all of this for his people. And for the first time, he wasn’t just filled with shame and guilt, but extreme gratitude and respect. Cara gave him a nudge, and he was snapped away from his thoughts and thrown into their conversation midway.

  “And what was the one you rode in on?” He looked at her blankly. “The horse, Jack.”

  “Oh,” he said, taking a moment. “Aries.”

  “Right, Henry’s horse,” Beth said.

  “What is with the names? I know there was some bet or something, but I need more details here. These are some serious names you’ve got going on.” She took the bottle of grappa being offered to her and took another swig, showing that a little weed and wine melted away any second thoughts on drinking that liquor again.

  Antonia let out an exasperated breath and shook her head. “Well, the joke of our family is that I’m a wine maker, a grape grower. Travis was a horse breeder. We each raised our children respectfully passing our knowledge down to each. As they grew older, though, we saw their interests start to drift off. Wyatt, we knew pretty early on why he suddenly had an interest in winemaking. Basically because he had an interest in drinking it. Nico was a bit more subtle. He had always been more of a selfless boy, and we just thought he was simply connecting with these beautiful, intelligent things. Our horses. But Wyatt kept making the same joke: Dad, it looks like Nico will be taking over the family business! and we’d laugh because Wyatt grew up in it, and he knew everything there was to know already, and had pretty much done it all when it came to the horses by the time he was ten. But no, he insisted it was Nico who would move to the barn, and him to the vineyard. Eventually they made a bet among the three of them, right before Travis’s heart attack. If Nico took on the horses, Wyatt would get to name every single one of them from being right. Travis agreed. So, years later, Wyatt went to school for agriculture and Nico became a veterinarian specializing in equines.” She took a swig of grappa and a puff of the joint, and passed them both on to Beth.

  “Let me tell you. We hear about this almost everyday, whenever those two are in the barn,” Beth said, looking at Cara and Jack with a look of serious annoyance, and they laughed. Even Mac let a bit of a smirk show.

  Antonia looked off into the flames. “I do wonder sometimes, knowing my Nico, if he really did want to take such a role on with the horses. I know he loves them, but part of me thinks, because Travis died, he felt like he had to. We all knew Wyatt wasn’t going to step up and go back to it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he just figured he had to be the one, and solve that problem.”

  Beth gave her back a few pats. “Well, regardless, he does a fine job, and I see him in there everyday with a smile on his face. With all the animals. Even when no one’s looking.”

  Antonia smiled and turned to her, giving her knee a squeeze. Just then Lizzy and Richy came back out of the garage from the loft.

  “Rae’s already got him passed out in bed, so I’m going to head on in, Toni,” he said, walking towards a sliding glass door they just noticed sitting under the back deck.

  “I’m going to bed too. I’ve got a lot of mending to do tomorrow, and I’d like to get it all done before Nico wakes up in the afternoon after watch. Good night,” Lizzy said, as she headed back to the front of the house.

  “Richy, are you going right to bed?” Antonia asked him.

  “Probably n
ot for a while. Still coming off from last night’s watch so I woke up sometime before dinner,” he answered.

  “I hate to ask you this, but would you mind taking another night, but on the back deck? You know the usual watch on a loud night like this?”

  “Sure, Toni. I’ll just grab a few more layers and be right up,” he said as he headed inside through the sliding door.

  “Thank you, Richy. I’ll have some blankets out there for you when you go up.”

  Charlie had focused in a bit on the conversation. “Are you expecting trouble?” he asked as the rest of the crowd all started getting up too and going their separate ways to bed.

  “No,” Antonia said as she stood up stiffly from the patio chair and started walking back to the front. “It’s just those damned jumpers,” she answered as she headed towards the door that led into the kitchen.

  Charlie looked at Cara and Jack like he missed something being on the other side of the fire, but they returned his stare with the same confusion.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mac said walking past them, following Antonia in. “Come on. Antonia has already set up places for us to sleep.”

  ✽✽✽

  Jack had volunteered to take the couch, letting Charlie and Cara each have a bed in the two make-shift guest rooms that sat behind the huge fireplace. He figured anything was better than sleeping in that recliner the night before, and he was not disappointed. The couch was the softest leather he had ever felt. He had an actual bed pillow, and he was wrapped in a huge cashmere blanket that coupled nicely with the warmth of the fire, and the wine from dinner. It all put him to sleep almost immediately.

  At some point in the night he was woken by a yelp. When he slowly peeled his eyes open, he thought he might have just dreamt it. Then he heard it again. Mac had taken the couch parallel to the fire some time after he’d fallen asleep. Now she was dreaming. Her arms occasionally jumping up a little, her head giving a bit of a jolt. He looked out the large windows, and saw it was just becoming dawn. He wondered if he should just shake her out of it or let her sleep. He’d seen her up so many nights at the Block that he was almost surprised now to see her sleeping. Before he could make his decision though, she settled back down and seemed to go quiet.