Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
I had a visual in my mind of her poor father drowning in grief and regret, slowly fading, until the chief showed up at his door, charged into his room, and made him face the world again.
“At least my dad gets up now, and he got a job as a property manager with Sterling.”
Amanda again. She probably met the man, saw him struggling, saw his pain, and put him to work. It was very much like her. “That’s good.”
“He has to drive around and talk to other people. He’s still mostly a zombie when he’s at home with me and Uncle Lorne, but it’s better than it was.”
“He’ll come around.”
“I hope so.”
“In the meantime, how about asking your Uncle Lorne for that hug you needed?” I suggested cheerfully.
“Nooo,” she breathed out like that was the worst thing she could think of.
“Yes,” I said, nodding. “He’s the one who got your dad out of his funk, right?”
“Yeah. I mean, kind of.”
“He got him in the shower that first day and brought you both here with him, yes?”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“So I’m thinking he’s more of a caretaker than you’re giving him credit for.”
“Maybe,” she said, looking at me skeptically.
“And if not, if you’re not ready for that, Delia’s aunt Rita is a world-class hugger. And I know what I’m talking about because after my grandfather died, she was the second one at the door, squeezing the stuffing out of me.”
Quick nod as the tears came fast, both of them crying now.
Delia needed to open up to her aunt and uncle, Cass needed to talk to her uncle. They could both do with a lot more communication in their lives. Epiphanies were painful but necessary.
When I felt the soft wind on my face, I took a deep breath. “Okay, you two, listen up. I want you to lean into the breeze and stretch out your arms wide like this,” I said, modeling it for them, “then lift your face, close your eyes, and let the wind wash everything away.”
They looked uncertain.
“I bet you both did this when you were little, and that was a bit of whimsy, thinking maybe that with that much wind around you, you could fly,” I murmured. “And some of that was your ancestors speaking to you.”
“I don’t think—” Cass began.
“No, I can see that,” Delia assured her friend. “My mother was always saying to listen to the universe, that it would never steer me wrong.”
“It won’t,” I agreed. “Your mother sounds like a very wise woman.”
She nodded quickly, looking ready to cry again.
“I promise. You’ll feel better.”
Cass gave me a shrug like she wasn’t sure.
We stood there together on the patio, arms out, letting the wind do its job. After several moments, Cass smiled at me.
“That’s crazy, but I do feel better.”
Delia sighed. “Me too.”
“Wind chimes are good for this as well,” I told them. “I stand on my back porch and listen to the wind and my chimes, and it’s healing, I promise you.”
“Oh, I believe you,” Delia said.
“Okay, now tell me what happened after you lost your folks.”
She explained how at first she went to live with her aunt Chantal, her father’s sister, but she had younger kids and her husband was super strict, and very quickly the situation became untenable. She started ditching school and staying out all night, acting out, and no one knew how to deal with that. They took her to the emergency room when she had alcohol poisoning and had the medical staff place her on a seventy-two-hour psych hold to determine if she was suicidal.
“I was not suicidal,” she assured me.
“I didn’t think you were.”
“I just didn’t know what to do with missing my folks, and Chantal and Brent wanted me to be all happy all the time around their kids.”
“I understand.”
“After they put me in the hospital, I couldn’t go back and live with them. No way. Screw that. I mean, I didn’t trust them, and they didn’t want me anyway. They thought I was a bad influence on their kids.” She looked at her feet. “So they called Troy and Rita because I wasn’t going back home with them.”
“Rita was your mom’s sister, right?”
She nodded.
“Does she look like your mom?”
“Yeah.”
“How come you went with Chantal and Brent first?”
“They lived close to us, in San Diego, where I’m from, and everyone thought it would be better not to move me.”
“And your friends?”
She shrugged. “People get really sick of being around someone who’s sad all the time. My friends bailed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“It was hard there,” I summed up, “and it’s hard here too because Troy and Rita are different from your folks.”
“Yes.” She nodded quickly and took hold of Cass’s arm. “Cass has had it rough too. She just lost her mom, and her dad’s not doing well…”
Cass looked at Delia, opened her mouth, then shut it, unable, it seemed, to say anything.