Ten Thousand Truths (6 page)

Right after the accident, Rachel had cried. Mrs. Clark, their next-door neighbour, had been the one to tell Rachel that her mom and brother were both dead. Rachel had been sitting on the front step, waiting for them to get home. She could clearly remember seeing Mrs. Clark walking across the yard. She was walking in slow motion and the look on her face was not like anything Rachel had ever seen before. Not in real life, anyway. Rachel knew before Mrs. Clark even spoke that it was her Mom and Caleb. Somehow she knew just by the look on Mrs. Clark's face and the way she walked that what she was about to say was going to be the worst thing in the world.

Mrs. Clark had hugged her tightly and said, “Cry, honey. Go ahead and cry.” But during the next few days, Rachel had quickly realized that crying was not going to change anything or take the pain away, and she hadn't cried since.

Rachel walked along the shore to the place where the brook ran into the lake. She sat on a large rock nearby and threw Sam's stick for him. She could hear the loons crying in the still morning air.

“In Alabama it is illegal to play dominoes on Sunday,” Amelia said as she set the box of dominoes on the table. Supper was over and Zac was helping Rachel put the dishes away. Raymond had washed and the twins had dried. Rachel was glad for the chance to move around. The second piece of apple pie piled high with butterscotch ripple ice cream had left her feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“If I didn't eat all week, Sunday supper at Amelia's would do me.” Zac laughed as he set a stack of plates on the pantry shelf. “Sunday night supper and a good game of turkey foot dominoes. That is always a good way to start a new week.”

“Hurry up,” called Amelia from the other room. “Rachel has been here over a week and we haven't even taught her how to play dominoes yet.”

After a few rounds, Rachel was starting to catch on to the game. She had gotten caught on the second round with the double nothing so her score was the highest, but in the last round she had caught everyone with lots of dominoes, so the scores were getting closer.

When the game was finished the twins carefully placed the dominoes back in the box. Zac had won by 20 points and was doing a little victory dance. “The last Sunday night of summer holidays calls for a bonfire,” he announced. “Grab the stuff for s'mores out of the pantry, Raymond,” he said as he stood up and put his sweater on. “Are you coming down with us, Amelia?”

“You kids go and have fun,” she answered. “I think I'll stay up here. Let me rest my old bones and take a little time to get my wits about me. Tomorrow night we'll be busy getting ready for school. I can't believe how fast the summer went.”

The twins jumped up, grabbed their matching fleece hoodies, and headed out the door.

“Did you know that naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of the swamp?” Amelia asked as she passed Rachel an orange flashlight. “It's a good thing there are no alligators in Walton Lake.” She stood at the screen door, able to feel the summer breeze, and listened as the kids' voices faded into the night.

Four kids in school again,
Amelia thought to herself with a
sigh as she closed the door. She much preferred the summer months, when no outside contact was required of her or of the kids if they didn't want it. The busy summer days of working in the garden and around the farm were good medicine. The beautiful afternoons at the lake were treasures that seemed to bring out the best in them all.

The twins had a hard time at school since they kept so much to themselves. They were both smart as whips and had no trouble with the work, but the social part was difficult for them. Amelia fought the battle every year to convince the principal that they still needed to be in the same class if they were to do well. A whole day separated from each other was more than they could do now and possibly ever. The first few years of their lives had cemented the strong need to protect and shelter each other and that was not something that could easily be set aside.

Raymond took a lot of teasing and bullying from the other kids because of his size. Even though he had shed at least 40 pounds in the last year, he was still much bigger than all of the other kids his age. He was so content here, and he hung off every positive word that Zac gave him. His confidence had grown in leaps and bounds over the summer months and she dreaded his transition back to school.

Amelia didn't know exactly what to expect from Rachel, but her experience told her that there were sure to be some challenges coming. She would make some calls right away and try to get the teachers and the guidance counselor on her side, which she hoped would help with Rachel's settling in.

Zac pulled a log up close to the flames of the bonfire and
sat down. Raymond passed Rachel a stick and she stuck a marshmallow onto the end of it. She could hear the twins' excited voices as they ran back and forth along the shore trying to trap fireflies in mason jars. Raymond was rattling on about something to Zac. Rachel stared at her marshmallow as she held it above the flames.

Every summer Rachel's mom had taken her and Caleb camping for a week. For seven days, Rachel and Caleb would run all day long from the beach to the playground and their mom would follow behind them, slathering them with sunscreen and bug spray. Every night they would build a fire in the fire pit at their campsite. Caleb would always fall asleep curled up in their mom's lap with his hands and mouth sticky after eating his fill of roasted marshmallows. Rachel would keep cooking her famous gooey-on-the-inside, perfectly browned, not-burnt-on-the-outside masterpieces and share them with her mom. After a while her mom would carry Caleb into the tent and come back out. Then the two of them would stay in front of the fire until the last ember faded. As it got colder, they would snuggle together on the lounge chair with Rachel's Care Bear sleeping bag wrapped around them both.

Rachel stuck her marshmallow closer to the red coals, turning the stick slowly to brown all sides. She studied its perfection and then stuck it back in the flames, watching it catch fire and melt until the last bit of marshmallow was completely burnt off the stick. Then she stood up, threw the branch into the flames, and left the bonfire.
These people are not my family and that shack is not my home,
Rachel thought as she climbed the hill.

Rachel had been lying awake staring through the window at the moon for a long time. She wished that the summer was just starting. Since getting here she had thought many times about ways she could escape, where she might go, and how trapped she felt being stuck in this forsaken place. But when she really thought about her choices, she had to admit that if the choice was between staying here or going to school, her choice would definitely be to stay here. She knew as she was thinking these thoughts that there was no way she could do that. School was something no one would let her hide from. She would put her tough face on during the day and get by just as she had for the last five years.

Rachel rolled over, pulled up the blankets, and closed her eyes tightly in an attempt to conjure sleep. As a little girl, when she woke up in the night she would quietly tiptoe into her mother's room and crawl into bed beside her. Some nights Caleb would already be there and her mom would move him over and make room for her. Once she snuggled beside her mother she could always go back to sleep, no matter what had woken her. Her mom always pretended in the morning that she was surprised to find them there. Then they would play a game they'd named “Lump,” where her mom would start to make the bed while she and Caleb hid under the covers. Her mom would smooth out the blankets and pretend she didn't know what the lumps were as Rachel and Caleb giggled hysterically.

Rachel pulled the covers completely over her head. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to imagine the feeling of her mom's hands pressing on her as she made the bed. Rachel wished more than anything that the covers would be pulled back suddenly and she would see her mom standing there, laughing.

Rachel watched each orange foot take deliberate steps as she left the bus and began the walk up the long driveway. All she wanted to do was get to her bedroom. All day she had thought of getting back to her room, where she could forget the way being in this new school surrounded by new people had made her feel. At least at her old school she had a routine and a group of kids that didn't have any expectations of her. She had well established the reputation that made people leave her alone. Getting close to her was off-limits and she had worked hard at keeping it that way.

Raymond came up behind Rachel, falling into step with her. He walked along beside her for a couple of minutes before speaking.

“Who's your homeroom teacher?”

“What?” Rachel replied like the words he had spoken were not even English.

“I'm in the 7/8 split. It would have been funny if we had got in the same homeroom.”

“Yeah, friggin' hilarious.”

Rachel thought back to the morning when she'd stepped off the bus and walked up the stairs into the school. Some gushy woman who she later found out was the TA in her classroom had offered to take her to the office to see what class she was in. The secretary had recognized Rachel from the market and told the TA to take her to Mr. Johnston's room. The TA had chatted the whole way to the room, asking Rachel all kinds of questions and telling her details about the school as if she were some kind of tour guide. Rachel hadn't answered any of them and had showed her enthusiasm for this new school by slamming her locker door before entering her homeroom, which was full of strange kids who stared at her like she had arrived from another planet.

All day long smiling people had asked her stuff. “Where do you live?” “What school did you come from?” “What are your parents' names?” The gym teacher had asked every kid he didn't recognize who their parents were and who their brothers and sisters were, showing great pleasure when he knew the parents or had taught a sibling. Rachel had told him that she was new and that she was in foster care and he'd quickly moved on to the next kid. The whole day had been like that. And then there had been that look—the one the Science teacher had given her when she'd glanced up from her class list and said, “Oh, you're at Amelia Walton's.” That one fact had apparently told her all she needed to know about this new kid and the trouble she was likely to make.

Rachel didn't say a word to Amelia as she walked into the kitchen after slamming the screen door. She just hurried past, ignoring her greeting.

“Did you know that carrots are better for us after they are cut with a knife?” Amelia said as Rachel headed for the back stairs. “The slash of the knife kicks up the juice and the carrot pumps out phytochemicals that makes it more nutritious.”

“I would love to take a knife to something—or someone—but it wouldn't be a carrot,” Rachel muttered as she stomped up the stairs. Rachel could feel tears pricking her eyes by the time she got to the top of the stairs. That just made her even angrier.

Amelia had kept herself busy all day, trying hard not to worry about the kids and what they were facing on this first day of school. She was pleased that Raymond hadn't refused to get on the bus this morning. There had been many days over the last two years when she and Roger and sometimes Zac had needed to force him up the bus steps and into the front seat. Then arriving at the school it sometimes took both the principal and the vice-principal to get him off the bus. The twins had never put up any physical resistance to going to school, but they definitely would show their anxiety in the way they acted, getting extra quiet and even more reclusive. And she hadn't known at all what to expect from Rachel, who had left this morning in a robotic manner, showing nothing at all about how she may be feeling about starting at a new school. The sound of her feet stomping up the stairs a few minutes ago had been the first real emotional reaction Amelia had seen from Rachel since she'd arrived at Walton Lake.

Rachel didn't intend to ever come out of her room. She knew of course that she would have to, but for now she told herself that she was never going to leave. She pictured how she could live her whole life in this room. Amelia and the others would bring her food, and set up a place for her to use the bathroom and wash. They would bring her books and maybe even some kind of work for her to do. She could invite certain people in to visit her, though the list would probably be really short. In fact, she couldn't think of a single person she'd want to put on that list. She lay there, creating her new life, not wanting to think about how horrible her day at school had been. She ignored the call to supper when she heard it. Sooner or later the others would realize that she wasn't leaving this room and they would bring up some food.

She was getting hungry. She hadn't eaten much lunch. She had spent the lunch break sitting alone in the cafeteria, imagining that most of the loud chatter and laughter was from kids talking and laughing about her.

Rachel must have drifted off to sleep because it was almost dark when she heard the knock. The door opened a crack. “You haven't been to the lake today,” Amelia said matter-of- factly. “Why don't you get up and go now? There's a plate of food for you in the warming oven. Zac was here with a wagonload of furnace wood and we left you some to put in the basement. You can eat before you go to the lake and I'll help you put the last bit of wood in when you get back up. Zac and the kids are in the middle of a riveting game of dominoes.”