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Aunt Kate looked at me strangely as I stared out the window, letting the tears fall. She sighed. Finally, she said, “Jessica, what on earth happened?”
I
looked her straight in the eye. I took a deep breath and just said it. “I saw Isaac.”
She practically ran off the road. Cars honked. She regained herself and looked
at me with a strange look on her face. “Where?”
“At
the mall.”
“Well,
did he say anything to you?”
“Oh,
yeah! ‘Jessica, I didn’t know that Aunt Kate and Uncle Tom lived in Arkansas.
Jessica, I didn’t know you dyed your hair!’” I mimicked.
“Us?”
Aunt Kate said incredulously. “Well, hell, why was HE here?”
“I
have no clue, but I bet Elizabeth and Marie know.”
“Haha,
very funny. Was there anyone else with him?”
“In
terms of family, no.” She heaved a huge sigh. “But they could be here
anywhere,” I said.
“I’m
going to have to call your mother. But, I don’t know how if she’s here.” My
head practically exploded.
“WHAT??
NO! You can’t!” She looked at me.
“I
think I have to tell you this now. This is probably going to make you really
mad, but you have to know. Your mother and I have kept in touch the entire
time. We had to. You couldn’t just be completely cut off. They had to know how
you were doing.”
Surprisingly,
I wasn’t as mad as I thought I would be. I guess it felt good to know that even
if I didn’t live with them, my family still cared about me.
“Besides,”
she said, “don’t you think it’s about time to talk to them? I mean, think about
how much your mom would love to talk to you. She really does miss you.”
“Aunt
Kate, I’m not mad that you and Mom wrote each other. I always thought you had
to. I mean, there was no way that you could just not talk to her. You always
have been really good friends with my mom. I guess I just never really thought
about it. I’m not mad. I just don’t know how to tell all my friends. I mean,
what will they think? It’s gonna be so hard. And then, how am I gonna talk to
them again after 2 ½ years? It’s been so long!”
“Yes,
it has. But you need to talk to them. And you should tell your friends too. I’m
sure they’ll be surprised, but it’ll feel good to know that your friends know
the real you. And yes, it will be hard to talk to your family, but you need to.
A lot has happened to them in these past 2 years too. You might even find that
you want to go back to them. Anything is possible.”
The
next day, my friends swamped me with phone calls. After one hung up, another
would call. Finally, after about five calls from each of them, I invited them
all over. My aunt was out, probably talking to my mom, and my uncle was at work
even though it was Saturday. Adriann was the first to show up. She was at the
door within minutes of hanging up with me.
“Hey,”
I said casually.
“Hey,” she said.
“Everyone
else will be here in a minute,” I said. The doorbell rang.
“Speak
of the devil,” I muttered. The door opened. It was Lucile and Elizabeth.
“Hi,”
they said. “Marie’ll be here in a minute, we saw here on the way here.”
“Hi,”
Marie said, stepping up.
“Good,”
I said. “You’re all here. Just let me go get something and I’ll tell you guys
what happened.” I headed out of the
room to get all our old photo albums.
Meanwhile,
in the other room, the phone rang. Adriann, Lucile, Marie and Elizabeth stared
at each other.
“I
guess one of us should get it,” Lucile spoke up.
“I will,”
Marie, who was closest to the phone, said.
“Say
Lawyer Residence,” Adriann whispered as Marie picked up the receiver.
“Hello,
Lawyer Residence.”
“Uh,
hi. Jessica?”
“Nope.
Don’t live here.”
“Jessica
doesn’t live here?”
“No,
I don’t live here.”
“Oh.
Well, um, is Jessica there?”
“Uh,
who is this?”
“Isaac.
Tell her it’s Isaac.”
“Okay, just a minute.” Marie put her hand over the receiver.
“Jess?”
she called as I came in the room.
“What?”
“Um,
the phone rang and we picked it up. It’s…Isaac?” I gulped. He actually called. He really and truly called me. I
could fake and tell Marie to say I couldn’t come to the phone. I remembered
what Aunt Kate had said the day before. I dropped the photo album on the table
and reached for the phone.
“Okay.”
Marie handed it to me.
“Hello?”
I said quietly. So quietly, I was surprised that he heard me.
“Jess?”
I swallowed hard at the sound of the familiar voice.
“Jessie?”
he asked again.
“Yeah?”
I said.
“I thought
you hung up or something.”
“Nope.”
“Hey,
um, did you know Aunt Kate’s here? She’s talkin’ to Mom.” I almost dropped the
phone. I had played with the thought that she went to see Mom and everyone, but
I didn’t think she would actually do it. This was going to far.
“I
gotta go, okay?”
“Okay.”
I could tell he was a little surprised at my sudden outburst. But right before
I hung up, I looked at the caller ID. It said Holiday Inn. I scribbled down the
number it had and went back to my friends.