Overcome (5 page)

It’d been a difficult year for all of them, but after months of watching her shrink, lose her hair, her breasts, and everything she ate, she was on her way back to her former self. Her hair was coming back in and she was gaining weight. She’d been laughing again and working on her garden, her retreat, she called it.

She was proud of her plants, the winding jade and purple vines up the trellises. The rainbow of blooms and rich greens felt like being in the middle of a fairytale especially when the cool breeze blew through carrying with it the fresh aroma the foliage let off.

“All right,” his dad cleared his throat, bringing everyone’s attention toward him. He scratched the bottom of his chin and his arm reached around his wife.

She slid closer to him, blinking.

“We had … an appointment yesterday,” his dad said. The table went completely silent.

Kamberlee’s phone dropped with a loud thud. “What kind of appointment?” Her voice waivered, exactly how Parker knew his would if he spoke.

“Well, it was just a routine check. When someone … has cancer … even when it’s gone they still have to be checked.”

“But I thought that’s why you had everything removed. So it wouldn’t … come back.” Owen narrowed his dark eyes. His blond hair was only stubble on his head. He’d shaved it when their mom lost hers and decided on keeping the do. Turned out girls liked tattooed muscle-guys with bald heads.

“It lowered the chances of it returning.” His mom’s voice was light when she spoke. “But not one hundred percent.”

His dad’s voice cleared.

Parker’s heart jumped to his throat.

“They found something … again.” His dad said.

“But we don’t want you to worry … it could be nothing.” But the way she twisted her hands together on the table’s surface told Parker she didn’t think it was nothing.

“That’s what you said last time.” Parker finally spoke up. Remembering the day they’d told them she’d found a lump. They also said
that
was ‘probably nothing’. It wasn’t.

“I know, but …” she swallowed and looked up at his dad.

“There isn’t any reason to worry right now. Things like this happen. It could be anything.”

*****

It could be anything…those four words echoed in Parker’s head as he made his way down the long staircase. Sleep was the farthest thing from him. When he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he shouldn’t have been surprised to see her up as well. What did surprise him was his dad wasn’t with her.

The dim night light cast a subtle orange glow across her frail-robe-covered body. Her face was down and a light ping from her spoon hitting the side of her mug echoed. She looked up as if she could feel him staring at her.

“Hey, honey.” A faint smile appeared on her face. “Couldn’t sleep?” she tilted her head and brought her large cup to her mouth.

“No,” his voice scratched and he ran his hand over his head.

“Want me to make you some warm milk?” She was the only mother who cared about him. He remembered little of his real mom, but what he could she was never like her. Mindy was never caring or comforting. She was distant and didn’t nurture. He often wondered how much different he would be if he would have been raised by his real mom.

“That’s what I’m having.”

“Do you … are you scared?” He stepped toward her.

She didn’t answer right away, though he hadn’t told her yes to her question, she retrieved the milk from the fridge, pouring the liquid in the already heated pot on the stove.  “Do you remember when we used to do this?”

A lump rose to his throat. Parker was tormented with night terrors after being taken from his real mom and brought here, to family Mindy never let him meet. On nights he woke screaming with sweat dripping from him, worried he’d be taken, Linda, the mom who adopted him, the one who stood so small in front of him, would fix him warm milk and sing or just talk, reassuring him, those were just dreams.

“Yeah.” Why didn’t he have anything else to say? He just wanted her to reassure him again that everything would be okay. That nobody was going to take her from him.

His mom poured his warmed milk into a matching brown mug and handed it to him. He followed her to the kitchen table that seemed so large and empty without the rest of the family.

“You didn’t answer me,” he finally said as she brought her milk to her mouth again.

She nodded, twirling the mug around in a circle. The large windows behind them, nearly taking up the entire wall, let in blue moon light. “I can’t think about it right now,” she reached over and covered Parker’s hand with hers. It was cold and dry. Not the soft warmth he remembered. “I’ve been thinking. And you should go back to Cambrooke and find your sisters and your mom.”

He swallowed his milk. “I ...” he sat his mug down on the wooden surface. “You’re my
mom.
Kammie’s my sister.”

His mother’s eyes wrinkled in the corners as she stared at him. “It’s not your sisters’ fault you were taken away and brought to us.”

He took a large gulp of air into his lungs. It was enough he had to deal with his mom’s health. Now she wanted him to deal with the past he’d fought so hard to get over.

“You’ve had a long year,” she whispered.

“We all have.” He pushed his milk away.

“Yes, but when you first came here you missed them and, Parker, life is way too short to not try to get in touch. They’re your family, too.”

He scratched the top of his head. She was right. He needed to go back, to see Bree and Maggie again. To get to know them and Bryson, his little brother he never knew about.

Chapter 9

Carly

The classroom was even worse than Carly could imagine. It smelled like stale cigarettes and body odor. The few whistles and crude comments made her skin crawl as she sat down in the empty front row.

The teacher, Mr. Green, was hunched over papers at his desk. His dark hair was slick with perspiration and the arm pits of his blue short sleeved button up were damp.  He looked up when the guy’s comments became louder.

“All right, all right.” He clapped his hands in the air, only giving everyone a better view of his sweaty pits. The commotion lowered, but didn’t cease.

Carly gripped her hands around her desk like it would create a barrier between her and the lions she shared the room with.

Mr. Green rose to his feet and clapped again, only making the guys clap back. One pimply, BO emitting stoner, moved to the seat next to her. The scraping metal legs on the desk echoed as he slid his seat closer.

“Okay, sexual harassment rules still apply in the summer time, boys.” Mr. Green glared at the BO boy as he pushed his thick glasses up his pointy nose.  The stoner stopped heading toward her, but didn’t move back any.

“Don’t think you are here to slack off again.” Mr. Green gathered papers from the mess of documents on his desk. “The very reason we’re here is so you can advance to the next grade. If you think you’re here for any other reason.” He stood up, cradling the papers in his arm. “There’s the door. Don’t waste my time and I won’t waste yours.”

“Dude, this is lame.” A mumble came from behind Carly and another chair scraped the floor. A lanky guy whose pants hung way too low sauntered out of the room as he continued to grumble something under his breath.

“That’s a shame, Braden.” Mr. Green shook his head and frowned then he looked back to the rest of the class. “Anyone else?”

No one said anything. Carly looked down at her desk. The normal graffiti done with pen and pencil throughout the year had been scrubbed away.

“Great, I trust the rest of you are serious about this.” He cleared his throat and began to walk around the room passing out the papers. “This is the list of what is expected from you the next six weeks.” He gave Carly’s desk a double tap when he sat his rule document in front of her.

It was too hot and sticky to care his about ‘precepts’ as he’d put as the heading. He babbled on about how they needed to remember that they were the reason they were there. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault and just as he was walking down the final row, giving the papers to the two guys in the back, Carly felt a warm, moist blob hit the back of her neck. Bile rose in her throat as she wiped the mass, a little white ball of chewed up paper, away. She turned in her desk to see the only other girl who she hadn’t noticed when she came in. Kat narrowed her eyes at Carly. Her hair was shiny, pitch black like she’d thrown on the bottle of dye the night before and she had it cut into a punk rocker spike.  Her black tank top had slashes through it as if she’d gotten into a knife fight or something. Kat glared at Carly like she dared her to say something.

Carly turned around without saying word. This was the last place she needed trouble. She needed to get through the summer school so she could start her junior year with the rest of her class. 

Mr. Green rambled on as he walked toward the white board in the front of the room. Carly felt another spit wad hit the top of her head. Low, raspy chuckles followed. Carly closed her eyes and reminded herself it was only going to be six weeks.

*****

With her back pack slung over her shoulder, Carly rushed through the parking lot toward the hotel.

  Just like during the school year she hurried home from school, changed into work appropriate clothes, and headed to work for the evening just in time for her mother to leave, though not go home. Carly still wondered where she was going every night.

Tires squealed and loud-metal-screamer music blasted from the vehicle as Carly stopped on her heels.

She whipped her face around to see Parker just a few feet away from her in his Jeep, top down.  His eyes were hidden behind sleek shades and blue baseball cap sat on his head.

She scowled. What was he doing back? She’d spent the last few weeks feeling guilty keeping him from Bree.  It was easy to do since Bree didn’t have a lot of time for Carly with the new baby.

The smirk that widened on his face only made her scowl that much more.

She felt him staring when she headed into the hotel.

“You’re late,” Judd said, not even looking up from the computer screen as he typed away.

“I have school.” She hung her backpack in the cabinet.

“You have a job, too,” he replied.

Carly liked him much better when he was just a fellow co-worker. His new assistant manager status had him on a power trip.

“What’s your buddy doing back?” she grumbled.

“Huh?” Judd finally turned to look at her.

“Peter Parker.” She lifted an eyebrow, leaned against the counter and crossed her arms.

Judd looked toward the doors. “Yeah, uh, he’s staying again for a while ... if he messes with you, let me know cause …”

“He didn’t, like, play me or anything.” Carly wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

“He didn’t?” Judd’s hands dropped off the keyboard. 

“Redneck farm boys aren’t my type.” She curled her nose up just as Parker was slipping inside. A large, light blue duffle bag was slung over his shoulder.

“All right, then.” Judd laughed, shaking his head and running a hand over his light blond point. “I never know what’s going to come out of your mouth.”

Carly shrugged. “I have to go to the bathroom.” She smiled and rushed off before she was the one who had to check Parker in.

“Carly,” her mom called from her office before Carly could get past. She peered through the crack in the door, plastering on a smile.

Her mother sat at her desk. Several strands of her hair fell out of her ponytail around her face.

“Yeah mom?” Carly noticed the buttons on her mom’s shirt were uneven. Did she dress herself in the dark this morning?

Her mom waved her into the office. Carly resisted groaning as she shuffled in the room. She didn’t feel like a mother-daughter heart to heart right now. But she sat in the brown cushiony chair across from her anyway.

“Feels like I haven’t seen you forever.” Her mom tilted her head and folded her hands together in the middle of her desk.

“Well, we’ve both been busy.” Carly crossed her arms and legs. Her flip-flop clicked off her sole as she bounced her foot.  She stared at her mom, waiting for her to confess where she went every night, but knew she wouldn’t.

“How was school?”

“Like hell, literally.”

“Carly …” she gave her the normal, momma-knows-everything-and-you-don’t-know-nothing look. “You are the only reason you have to do this.”

Carly took in a long breath, to keep herself from ‘sassing’ as her mom would say. She’d heard the speech a thousand times. Did Mr. Green and her get together and come up with the same line?

“Yes ma’am.”

“Don’t do that.” Her mom narrowed her eyes.

“Do what?” Carly shrugged.

“You know what you’re doing. You may have not applied yourself last school year, but I know you aren’t stupid.”

“Yep … can I go now?” Carly looked toward the door. “You should get going. Dad’s waiting on his six pack.” She smiled and stood without waiting for a reply.

“Carly,” her mom quipped back, but they both knew she wasn’t going to do anything about it.