Part one is here. I'll be sharing one more part to reach the hook I've had in my head for a week. If you're reading - thanks!
Talia had been put on fire duty with Roman, Kyle, and Will. She had no complaints as her sisters and sister-in-law made their way inside the cabin to assess the state of the bedrooms and kitchen. The farther she could be from Selene, the better.
A nagging feeling still chewed at her as she half-heartedly collected branches for kindling. She kept glancing to the cabin, a strange, possessive feeling overcoming her as she wondered what they were combing through or throwing out. Selene was right about what thing. It was hers. Whether she understood why or not. The cabin, the land. It had always been Talia’s. The same way it had always been her mother’s and her grandmother’s before that.
She let her feet carry her down the hillside to the edge of the pond. It was so quiet this time of year. No buzzing mosquitoes. No noisy birds. November’s cloudy, midday gloom hid the pond’s secret: its sparkling, surprisingly clear waters. There was no dock, so as kids they had been forced to walk through the squelching, weedy mud or rope swing their way into the water.
Talia’s breath caught in her throat.
The fraying, knotted rope directly in front of the cabin swung in the breeze. A memory flashed across her mind. Another rope swing. The wood fort built into the trees. She reached for her necklace. She ran a thumb over the insignia she had studied so many times she had lost count. Surrounding it was a circle of text in a language even Will’s linguistics roommate could not place.
She shook her head, brushing away the thought of the rope swings and the fort. It was not there anymore. None of it was there. She had made sure of that at seventeen.
“Talia?” Will’s voice drifted down the hill and across the water.
“Down here,” she called back up to him. She trudged back towards him, her arms full of small branches. Will met her halfway.
“Roman’s demanding the kindling,” he said with a smirk, then stopped short at the look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She forced a smile.
“This is a lot, alright? It is okay if you are not fine.” How many times had he said that to her in the last nine months since her dad’s death. How many times had he comforted her despite her trying to push him away, too. Her face must have revealed something, must have cracked, because he was hugging her again. She let her head rest on his shoulder.
“I really don’t deserve someone as nice as you,” she murmured.
“Don’t say that.” He pinched her side, and she shrieked into his shoulder. “But if you don’t get this stack of little branches over to your brother, he might not be so nice.”
“You think Roman is nice?” She pulled back from his hug with a frown, meeting his honey colored eyes.
“He’s nicer than your sisters?” Will quipped. She could not argue with that.
“If you two teenagers could stop making out and bring me the kindling?” Roman drawled from atop the hillside.
They returned to the fire, depositing the kindling where Roman instructed. Within minutes, a fire was roaring to life. Hamburgers and hot dogs were produced from coolers. Buns, condiments, and sides were lined up along the porch. Sour cream and onion chips - mom’s favorite - were opened. Camp chairs for all were pulled from Roman’s truck. And it wasn’t long before everyone was seated around the fire, plates of food in hand.
“Do you remember Selene’s eleventh birthday out here?” Roman asked Rhea between bites of his hamburger, fighting back laughter.
“You mean when you scared the piss out of my friends when they were walking to the outhouse?” Selene said with a roll of her eyes. Talia, being two years old, did not remember this story.
Roman set down his burger, tears of laughter leaking from his eyes. “Literally,” he gasped. “One of them peed their pants.”
Selene chucked a piece of hot dog bun at him.
“What about the time mom actually went hunting with the guys,” Rhea said with a wistful smile.
This one, Talia remembered. “Didn’t she shoo away a giant buck when it approached the deer stand?” Talia had only been seven or eight, but she remembered her mom’s guilty expression when they had returned to the cabin.
“YES!” Roman exclaimed, still laughing too hard to eat. “Dad was so mad. Mom had apparently decided she did not want to know where her food came from.”
A chorus of laughter around the fire followed. So many memories had been made on this land, in the very circle around the fire they sat. Talia looked around as the laughter died and saw all her siblings lost in thought, too. Will gave her foot a nudge and she returned it with a small smile.
“What about when Talia got lost out here?” Selene said with a chuckle.
Talia’s smile disappeared.
“You got lost on the land?” Will asked, looking amused.
“Oh yeah,” Roman agreed, diving back into his burger. “God, Tee. How old were you? That was actually kind of crazy.”
She forgot to breathe, her chest tightened.
“I think she was Char’s age,” Rhea mused. “It was an entire afternoon. Like four hours or something. We were all losing it.”
“Yeah dad called the police, remember?”
“Mom was so pissed that he did. They found her a few minutes after calling.”
“Hey,” Will murmured, leaning towards her. “You alright?”
Talia stood up. Her plate balancing on the camp chair fell to the ground and sent chips flying.
“Woah,” Kyle exclaimed to her left.
“I need water,” Talia murmured. She walked away from the fire and towards their SUV. When she reached the trunk, she leaned against it with an exhale and closed her eyes. Breathe. Just breathe. Footsteps approached and she braced herself for Will’s barrage of questions.
Her eyes snapped open at the sound of Selene’s voice. She straightened. “Uh, no. You didn’t.”
“Really.” Selene crossed her arms.
“I just don’t really remember that day, Sel.” The truth. She threw up her hands in exasperation. “All I remember is how mad dad was at me.”
“He wasn’t mad at you.” Selene sighed, looking down the empty driveway. Talia waited for her to go on. “I remember it vividly, you know. We looked for you for hours.” A pang of discomfort hit Talia in the gut. “We had even asked the neighbors down the road for help. When we got back to the cabin after searching, mom and dad were screaming at each other. Right there.” She gestured to the empty gravel a few feet from them. “It was the biggest fight I have ever seen them have. Dad was insistent we needed to call the police, but mom refused. She kept saying you’d show up. She’ll show up, David.”
Talia gave a half-shrug. “Well, mom was right.”
“You know we found you at that old fort,” Selene added.
“Mom found you just wandering around it, acting oblivious. We had all searched by the fort. We knew you were always playing up there. I had personally searched that area at least three times.”
“Obviously not well enough.”
A dry laugh escaped Selene. “Don’t be a bitch, Tee. Don’t you know that’s my job?”
“What is it you want me to say about a day I don’t remember, Selene?”
Her sister raised an eyebrow. Talia wrapped her arms around her chest, glancing back to the fire where Will was eyeing her with concern. A signal to him and she could get away from this conversation; get away from whatever line of inquiry Selene had planned.
“You are so much like her, you know.”
Talia’s hazel-green eyes flicked back to Selene. “Like who?”
“Mom.” Selene wasn’t smiling. “She handled hard things the same way you do. Avoided talking about it and isolated herself from everyone.”
Talia shook her head, looking past Selene and gesturing to Will. She was done with this bullshit. “A great story,” Talia replied finally, turning away from her sister to open the trunk. “Glad we could have this talk.”
“Wow. Really? You are one piece-”
“Ladies,” Will said tentatively as he stepped around Selene, his gaze rotating between them.
“I think it’s time for the wine.” Talia lifted a reusable grocery bag that clanged together as bottles bumped one another; a sleeve of red Solo cups in her other hand.
Selene eyed her offering warily. “Reds?”
“Obviously,” Talia replied. Will reached in and lifted up the most expensive bottle they had purchased. He held it with both hands like a sommelier.
Selene snatched it from Will’s grip. “This one’s mine.”
Will glanced at Talia as Selene stalked away and she shook her head. “Leave it. And don’t ask.”
Will produced a corkscrew from the bottom of the bag and began to unscrew the next bottle. As the cork came undone with a satisfying pop, he merely smiled. “All I was going to ask is…when?” Then he began to pour. The red cup was three-fourths full before Talia said when.
“We come bearing gifts,” Will said as they returned to the fire, wine and cups in hand. Talia plopped back into her seat and sipped her drink in silence. She glanced at Selene over the fire who was drinking directly from the bottle she had stolen. Lord, help them.
“Here we go!” Roman declared, standing up to help Will distribute drinks.
“A cup might be helpful,” Kyle said to Selene as he threw one in her lap.
“Aren’t you underage?” Rhea remarked, a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised at Talia. “Or did I miss a birthday?”
“Oh lighten up,” Kyle muttered to his wife.
“She’s in college, Ray. She’s done a hell of a lot worse than had some wine,” Selene said, opting to actually use the cup she had been thrown.
“If it’s any consolation, I find it alarming that our kid sister can drink,” Roman said to Rhea as he sat back down. All the adults, except for her very pregnant sister-in-law, held cups of mom’s favorite wine.
“That’s because you still think of me as like eight years old,” Talia replied. She lifted her cup feigning cheers. “I’m twenty, remember?”
“How is that possible?” Selene muttered with a shiver. Another piece of her platinum blonde hair fell from her clip. “God I am so fucking old.” She tipped back her cup , eyeing the rest of the bottle at her feet.
“Thirty’s coming at ya fast, Sel,” Anna said to her with a wink and a raise of her sparkling water. “Four more months, right?”
Selene gave her the middle finger.
“Twenty is still not legal,” Rhea muttered under her breath as she took a sip of her wine. Will’s eyebrows knitted together. He looked ready to take back the cup he had just handed her oldest sister.
“Talia literally owns this cabin and the two hundred acres we’re standing on,” Kyle said with a dry laugh. “I think she can have a drink on it.”
A silence followed his words. An uncomfortable, heavy silence.
Who would have thought it would be her brother-in-law to rip off the band-aid.
“So I guess we’re talking about it then,” Selene observed, her cup to her mouth, her eyes on Talia. Everyone’s eyes were on her.
Even nine-year-old Charlotte, who had been plowing through a bag of chips while reading the chapter book Selene had gifted her, looked up with a frown. “Auntie Tee owns the cabin?” she asked. “I thought grandpa and grandma did.”
Will’s hand reached for Talia’s knee. I am here and got you, the gesture said.
“After grandpa died last year, they decided to give it to Talia,” Rhea said matter-of-factly. Resentment dripped from every word.
“God knows why,” Roman muttered, looking away from Talia and down into his drink.
“Maybe God and Talia know why?” Selene suggested with a devilish smile.
Talia took a drink of the dry, earthy red in her cup. She thought of mom; of her smile and her auburn red hair, even more striking than Talia’s own. She thought of her warm presence and the light she brought into every room she entered.
“Mom told me once that if I wanted the land, it was mine,” she said finally.
The fire crackled. Someone coughed.
“How old were you?” Roman asked. His voice was cold. “When she said that?”
“It was just before she-” Talia’s voice cracked. “My twelfth birthday.”
“Wow,” Selene exhaled with a slow nod. She tipped her cup back again, looking ready to drown in it.
“I am sorry mom and dad didn’t leave you guys an explanation, okay? I am sorry.” She cleared her throat, her voice growing. “But it was their choice; mom’s choice. I don’t understand why everyone is mad at me for a choice they made?”
“You didn’t even show up to the reading of the will,” Roman said with a shake of his head.
Talia gaped. “I had class? At a college two states away?”
“You didn’t bring dad to a single treatment,” Roman continued over her. He stared into the flames. “You didn’t help clean out their house or help sell it. You didn’t come home to go through their stuff. You didn’t show up at one, single get-together we’ve had since dad’s death. You waltzed in for the funeral and waltzed out.”
Talia’s heart was thundering in her chest.
“No, you never have to do the dirty work, Talia. You are always too young to deal with the tough shit. Little Talia can’t hear about the details of mom’s death-”
“For fuck’s sake, Roman,” Selene scolded.
“Little Talia can’t deal with dad’s treatment or his funeral arrangements. But sure, little Talia can be gifted a huge piece of our family-”
“That’s enough.” Will’s voice was sharp as it cut over Roman’s, his knuckles white as he gripped his cup. “Just stop. You’re not the only person who lost someone. Talia was-”
Talia placed her hand over Will’s hand on her knee. He stopped, and thankfully so had Roman. Her brother tipped back his rocking camp chair, draining the rest of his cup like it was water.
“It would never have passed to a man anyway,” Selene mumbled under her breath.
“What?” Roman shot back.
“The land,” Selene looked around the fire. She shrugged. “It was in our great-grandmother’s name, and then our grandma’s, and then mom’s, and now Talia’s. You can be pissed about all that other stuff, Ro, but no man was ever inheriting this land. Mom was first and foremost, a feminist.”
“Is that true?” He directed the question to Rhea.
She frowned. “I guess? Mom had two brothers. Grandma had like seven other siblings. It’s always been a woman on the deed.”
“Then it should be yours,” Roman said, his eyes darkening. “You're the oldest daughter.”
Rhea waved a hand towards Talia. “Did you miss the part where mom told her the land was hers?”
“Who’s to say that’s even true?”
“Fuck you, Roman.” The words left Talia’s mouth before she could stop herself. Her brother at least had the decency to look shocked. This was as bad as she had anticipated. Maybe even worse.
“That was low,” Selene muttered to their brother, “even for you.”
“I’m going for a walk,” Talia announced, launching upward and abandoning her drink. Her pony of auburn hair swinging as she walked away. Will rose from his own chair, opting to keep a tight grip on his cup.
“I wanna go!” Charlotte exclaimed.
“No,” Rhea and Kyle said simultaneously.
“I’m happy to keep an eye on her,” Will offered. Talia paused mid-step. What, he mouthed.
“Awh, Will. You’re too sweet.” Selene grinned, and everyone prepared themselves. “I’ll join, too.”
Talia massaged her temple.
“We’ll keep a close eye on Char,” Selene promised Rhea, slinging an arm around their niece. She winked at Talia. “Try as you might little sister, you can’t avoid your siblings or confrontation today. We should be together on mom's birthday."
“Fantastic,” Talia muttered to Will as he handed her a jacket.
The four of them started down the trail closest to the fire.
