February 13^th 2pm EST

Indiana

(Sendai Feb 14 1am JST)

 

Genetics are weird. I mean the whole dominate and recessive thing. If you get a guy with blond hair and blue eyes and a girl with brown hair and brown eyes their kid would have a pretty good chance of having brown hair and brown eyes like the mother. Unless by some chance that brown haired brown eyed mother has the recessive gene then you’d get Mercedes; beautiful curly brown hair like her mom, and bright blue eyes like her dad’s.

But there is a bad side to this. There are so many diseases that are passed genetically from parent to child, or even worse, personality traits. Our mother is a very dominant person, and it seems the dominant trait is dominant. Kaden and I are both that way. Since I lived with Mom my dominance was out done by her own, but Kaden, his got beat down the hard way as I came to find out.

            After we left mom with her mouth hanging we got into Kaden’s truck and took off for town. We pulled into Kunkles, a local drive in that’s been open for over sixty years amazingly enough, ordered a couple of pizza burgers and ate while Kaden made a few calls. I had just finished my burger and was nursing my vanilla coke when someone walked up next to the truck and tapped on the window. I jumped and about spilled my coke, and then about dropped it when I saw who was standing outside the window.

            “What are you doing here,” I asked as I rolled down the window.

            “No, I’m not going to speak to you. The only reason I’m here is because you happen to be an dear friend of mine.”

            “You’re friends with Mike’s sister,” I turned in my seat to face him.

            “She went to high school up north as well.”

            “Hell a lot better than what you find in this run down town.”

            “Jen, no.” Kaden had already grabbed my wrist knowing that I was an inch away from punching her in the face. “Marie, you know the situation, and I know you aren’t a big fan of my sister, but please help us.”

            “Before Mike left for training we had a bit of a talk. It was mom and dad who forced him to sign up, he didn’t want to. He…he said he loved her. I argued with him of course, but his mind is set. I’m only doing this because I love my brother and I may not agree with him, but I will do what it is that he really wants to do. And I know that he would want this choice. If this baby is his, he would want to be a part of it.”

            “I’m not going to ask much. Just get a message to him. Have him call us…her, on my cell,” Kaden said as he handed her his phone number.

            “This doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try and convince him otherwise.”

            “I only expect you to be as good of a sister as you are.” She grabbed the phone number from Kaden’s outstretched hand, gave me a menacing look and took off.

            “So, now what?” I spat a bit more than I had intended.

            “We wait. Want to go shopping?” Kaden laid the tray on the post out his window and started the car. We drove north for forty-five minuets to where the mall was and walked around for a while. I really didn’t know what to do or say. There were several things I had wanted to talk to my brother about, but I was never sure how to bring them up. As we made our way back outside, I decided to try.

            “Kaden? Why is it you don’t talk to Aunt Celeste?”

“Why this all of a sudden?”

“Well, I’ve always wondered and it just seemed like the time to ask.” Kaden paused as we reached the truck and looked at me,           

“I’m afraid I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”

“When will you be ready?”

“I don’t know.” He pulled out his keys and walked over to the drivers door and unlocked it with a push of the button on his key ring. I pulled myself into the passenger seat and turned to look at him,

“You’ve just majorly intruded into my life. Are you saying I have no right to know why you get all tense when her name is mentioned?”

            “Ask me any other question and I will answer it.”

            “Okay, are you still mad at her for moving to Japan and getting married?”

            “No, I’m not that immature. I got over that after the first year.”

            “Then why?! In less than two weeks you’re going to be flying half way across the world, moving into the same zip code as her. You even going to be meeting her! If you can’t tell your sister why it is that you stopped talking, how do you think you’re going to be able to say anything to her when you see her?”

            “You seriously don’t know?” Kaden sighed and went limp in his seat, leaning his head against the head rest.

            “The only thing I know is that you lived with Mamaw and Papaw. Mom was pretty much non-existent in your life, except for random visits. You had good grades in school and were a star on the baseball team. You went to collage on a baseball scholarship and met your one true love and now have a beautiful daughter.” I looked off into the distance at the sea of cars in the parking lot, “But I don’t know why you stopped talking to her. I mean, if you forgave her for moving away and getting married, what else is there?” Kaden laughed a little and looked over at me.

“You make my life seem pretty good alright, but it was far from it. I was probably more trouble than mother was.” I looked at him in disbelief. How could he have caused more trouble for Mamaw? The only thing mom didn’t do was… “YOU DID DRUGS?!?!?!?!?!”

            “That didn’t take you very long to figure out.”

            “My brother did drugs!” I was shocked; I would have never believed it had it been someone else that told me.

            “Now, before you lose all respect for me, let me explain. It is true that I was caught with crack in my possession, but I never had the chance to try it. And it wasn’t my idea to begin with.”

            “Sure, blame others.” I mumbled just jokingly really, but Kaden didn’t seem to think it was funny.

            “Do you want me to continue or not?”

            “I’m shutting up now!”

            “Good. Like most people, when I entered Jr. High I was separated from my friends from elementary school. But I made a couple of friends in my homeroom. One was a basketball player and one a football player. Have you ever heard of T. Ericson?”

            “He’s just the biggest drug dealer in town. The police can’t touch him.”

            “And how do you know that?” He gave me an uneasy look.

            “I know so I can stay away.” He looked at me a little longer before he went on.

            “Well the T stands for Thomas and he used to play basketball.”

            “He was your friend?”

            “Not one of my better choices,” Kaden sighed and shook his head, “It was actually the football player, Mark Douglas, who came up with the idea of trying it.”

            “Who’s he?”

            “You don’t know him. He died in High School.”

            “High School? How?”  

            “Drug overdose.”

            “Shit.”

            “Like I said, it was Marks idea. I was quite hesitant and surprisingly so was Thomas. Mark somehow convinced us to try it just once. Thomas’s parents had gone out of town that day for an overnight trip trusting Thomas alone in the house. I told Mamaw and Mark told his parents we were going to Thomas’s house but lied about his parents being home.”

            “Man, Mamaw would have killed you just for that. I can’t imagine what she did when she found out what you were going to do.”

            “Well, we didn’t even make it though school. I still don’t know how they found out, but we were told our lockers had been randomly selected for searches.”

            “You took it to school?”

            “I never said we were smart. Remember, we were 3 jocks.”

            “So, what happened?”

            “We were kicked out of school for two weeks and forbidden to play any sports or be in any clubs.”

            “So, no baseball.”

            “No baseball.”

            “What did Mamaw do?”

            “She was so mad, and disappointed in me, every time she looked at me she started crying.”

            “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry in public before. When I told her I was pregnant she just shook her head and asked what was up with our DNA. I thought she was just talking about Mom, now I’m starting to wonder myself.”

            “Yea, I’m hoping Emily’s DNA is dominate over mine in Mercedes.”

            “So, how does this all tie to Aunt Celeste?”

            “Oh, we’re not to her yet.”

            “There’s more?”

            “A couple of weeks after our suspension was over, Mark gathered us in a deserted rarely used bathroom. This time his parents were leaving him alone for the weekend.”

            “What kind of parents leave a kid who had been found possessing drugs alone only a few weeks later?”

            “Where do you think he was getting the drugs?”

            “Oh!”

            “Right. Thomas was all for trying again, but I wasn’t. I told them they were stupid, grabbed Marks bag and pulled out the crack. I was just about the flush it when a teacher walked in.”

            “Wow, you have some horrible luck.”

            “Oh, it’s worse than that. Mark and Thomas immediately ganged up on me and told the teacher I was the one who brought it to school and tried to get them to do it.”

            “Did the teacher believe them?”

            “Of course not. We were all in equal trouble.”

            “What happened this time?”

            “Complete expulsion. We had to find another school to go to. They both went East, but I went up North since that was closer for us.”

            “Well, were you allowed to play baseball then?”

            “Hell no. They knew what happened.”

            “What did Mamaw do?”

            “Well, I lost what little trust I had with her.”

            “Didn’t she punish you at all?”

            “Are you crazy, Mamaw left it up to Papaw this time. If I wasn’t at school I had to be at home. If I was not studying I had to be doing something around the house. I could not watch TV, listen to the radio, use the computer, and I sure as hell couldn’t even thing about playing video games.”

            “A grounding from hell.” I whistled,” That would have driven me crazy.”

            “It did. This is where I made my worst mistake.”

            “You got busted for drugs twice, how could you possibly make it worse?”

            “I ran away from home.” All logical thought and verbal communication left me. Was it possible for anyone to be so stupid? I sat there for a moment, looking into nothing, trying to gather my thoughts back together. “I’m going to hope that you had some reason for doing this, and if you tell me it was to piss of Mamaw I might just have to punch you in the nose!”

            “As bad as it was, yes I had a reason.” Kaden held up his hands to protect himself from any surprise attack I might have made. “Nobody trusted me. Why? Because I did something stupid and proved that I couldn’t take care of myself. I could do one of two things; live like a prisoner until they said that I had earned their trust (but that was driving me crazy). So I went with the second option, find a way to earn their trust back faster.

            “Now, I figured that their biggest disappointment was that I couldn’t take care of myself, so to earn their trust back I had to prove I could take care of myself.”

            “So, running away was that answer?”

            “To a 13 year old, yeah.”

            “So, where did you go? Indy?”

            “Florida.”

            “Florida? As in four states south?”

            “Yep. I don’t remember where I had heard it but I heard it was easy for kids to get jobs down south.”

            “How did you get down there?”

            “By bus. I forged a letter from Mamaw allowing me to travel alone. They took it without question.”

            “I hope they’ve changed their policies now.”

            “I only made it to Georgia though, ran out of money.”

            “So what did you do?”

            “This is where she comes in.”

            “Aunt Celeste? But she was still in Japan wasn’t she?”

            “Yes, she was. Now I want you to understand what kind of relationship we had. She was still living at home when I was born, and she lived there until I was eight. Mamaw was my mom. Celeste was something between an older sister and best friend. There were three rules that we never broke. First was that we never told on each other. We could hint at it or bug each other until we confessed but we were never tattle tales. Second we trusted each other. A promise was always kept no matter what. Third, we could always count on the other for help. Through it was Celeste who did the helping usually. These three rules were unbreakable. We even wrote them down and signed them.”

            “With blood I take it? I blood oath?”

            “Hell no, I hate the site of blood!”

            “Fair enough. So, what happened?”

            “Well, like I said, I ran out of money in Georgia. I couldn’t really call Mamaw or Mother. With my poor choice in friends, I really had no other ones to speak of. So, I called the one person I knew would help me and would keep any promise I asked.”

            “Aunt Celeste.”

            “Yes. Of course she tried to get me to change my mind and go home, but I was too thick headed and determined. She promised she’d help me, so I told her were I was so she could wire me some money. The next morning as I slept under a tree in a park a couple of police officers came up. They knew who I was and told me I’d be going home.”

            “Celeste told them where you were?”

            “She was the only one who know.”

            “But she was only trying to help.”

            “That’s not how I saw it. She was supposed to have understood me. She promised. I had so much faith in her.” Kaden’s voice trailed off and he hung his head. I couldn’t even imagine the kind of trust Kaden was talking about, but I could understand how crushed he was. It was like a superhero turning evil, it just wasn’t supposed to happen.

            “But Kaden…” I started but wasn’t sure what I was going to say.

            “When I got back home, I was back in a virtual prison. I was mad at everyone, but especially her. After a month Mamaw did something surprising. She gave me a chance to earn her trust. I thought I’d have to be chaperoned everywhere until I was 60, but she said that I could stay home alone while she took our great grandparents to their doctor appointments or when she and papaw had to work overtime. She said she would also trust me to keep an eye on our great grand parents when neither of them were there.”

            “How long did that last?”

            “Maybe 6 months or so. I had made friends the next year at school and after awhile she started letting me hang out with them.”

            “Better friends this time?”

            “I don’t think I could have gotten any worse.”

            “So, I’m guessing you weren’t mad at Mamaw anymore?”

            “Not near as much. I think for some reason all that anger got concentrated on Celeste.”

            “Didn’t she ever try to apologize or explain herself?”

            “Yea, she called wanting to talk to me, but I refused. The one time I did get on the phone I just yelled at her.”

            “What did you say?”

            “A lot of bad stuff. She stopped calling after that. It was the last time I spoke to her.” We sat in silence for a bit as I tried to take all this in. I never had the slightest idea about any of this, and at the same time I wondered how I had never heard about it before. Though some comments Mamaw and mom have said make a lot more sense now.

            “But why Celeste? I would have thought that since you guys were so close you would have turned the blame to someone else, like mom. You hate her anyways.”

            “Celeste was the one who turned me in, not Mother. For a long time I thought my idea would have worked. It wasn’t until my high school graduation that I realized how stupid I had been.”

            “Why then?”

            “After I had gotten my diploma and we were all standing there listening to the principles final words, I looked into the stands and for a moment I thought I saw her standing next to Mamaw, but then she wasn’t there. I was supposed to go to some graduation parties that night, but I just stayed in my room. Mamaw was a little worried about me, kept asking if I was alright.”

            “What were you doing in your room?”

            “I had the phone in my hand, and turned it on and off… I was trying to get myself to call her. Tell her about my graduation, that I had just missed graduating with honors, about baseball, and the collage I was going to go to. But every time I started the last conversation I had with her echoed in my head. I was sure that she had gone on and forgotten about me. I was nobody to her anymore.”  I looked down at my stomach and laid my hand on it. I started to wonder what this babies life was going to be like, If things like this was our families fate. I started thinking about what the baby would look like. I started wondering whether it would be better if I were to just give the baby up. But I realized that I couldn’t do that.

            “If you were that important to her, I don’t think she would have given up on you, or forgotten you.”

            “I don’t think so either. Not any more. I realized that after Mercedes was born. I realized why Mamaw has let you and mother move in and out of the house so many times. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes a child makes, your still going to love them.”

            “So, why have you still not called her?”

            “Chicken I guess. What if I was wrong and she really had forgotten all about me. She has her own family and life now. I’m not really a part of it anymore.”

            “What are you going to do? You’re going to meet her. Mercedes is so excited about meeting her cousin, I don’t think you’re going to get out of it.”

            “Looks like fate decided to play its hand in things. I will go, I will meet her, and I will ask for her forgiveness for my stupidity.” Kaden sighed and turned to look at me, “Do you think she’ll accept?”

            “If she’s anything like Mamaw, she’d do no less.” I laid my hand on Kaden’s and squeezed it. He smiled and I smiled back. We sat in silence like that for several minuets until Kaden’s cell phone jumped to life. He picked it up and the display said  unknown number. Quickly he answered it.

            “Hello? Yes, she’s here. Hold on.” He held the phone out to me and nodded. “Now, it’s your turn to do what is right. Prove to me that you’re better than Mother or me.” I widened my eyes and dropped my jaw. I couldn’t believe he had just said that, and I couldn’t even think of anything to defend myself with. He looked at me for a moment and opened his door.

            “Your right, that wasn’t fair of me. Do you what you think is right.” I took a deep breath and shook my head as he slid out of the truck and shut the door, then raised the phone to my ear.

            “Mike?”