“Good. I work from seven to seven. Are you sure you’re good with her?”
Katie laughed. “Please. I’ve been giving this little one stories before bed forever. We always have fun.” Katie shrugged. “And she sleeps most of the time while you’re gone. Win-win.”
“You’ll tell me if it becomes too much, right?”
Katie had been my rock since the moment I was born it seemed. She and I had been through so much together. I’d do anything in the world for her. And she would do the same for me. With her only a year older, we were thick as thieves.
“It won’t. Thick or thin, sis,” my sister replied, warming my heart because those words meant everything.
See what I mean? “Right.”
“Cyrus.”
My heart stopped, and my body broke out in a cold sweat. The world tilted on its axis just from that one little name. A name that never needed to be said again.
I'd left Cyrus behind in order to be Remy’s mom. I was Ensley now and proud of it. Cyrus was cursed, stained, damaged, and the life I had now was full of blessings and a future so bright it was blinding, even though times were hard.
Taking a deep breath to try to calm myself, I pinned her with a stare that would melt ice. She shook her head. “Ensley, sorry. It’s hard sometimes,” she stammered before I could say a word. She knew she couldn’t make mistakes. Knew it down to her bones. Too much was on the line for her, for me, but mostly for Remy.
“It’s been a couple of years now. We aren’t those kids anymore, Katie. You have to remember. Sybil and Cyrus are strangers. They are ghosts. Don’t think about them. It only takes one wrong move. One slip up…” I paused and sucked in a deep breath. “He can’t find us, and if you slip up in public ...”
Katie’s eyes widened. “He won’t. I swear he won’t. I’ll do better. I’ve got this.”
Just the thought of him finding us made me panic inside. The room became hot like the fires of Hell, and my hands wouldn’t stop trembling. It took several deep breaths later before I was able to breathe. “No, he won’t.” That was something I’d die to prevent.
Remy popped her head up. “Eat,” she announced, touching all of her fingers to her lips. We’d taught her simple sign language. I’d read somewhere that kids could get frustrated not being able to communicate. We looked up simple signs and began using them with Remy. She learned quickly. I told Katie, Remy was gifted. Katie agreed, and we rolled with it. All moms think their kids are the smartest, most talented, and the list goes on. Remy, though, she was something extraordinary, even if only to Katie and me.
Katie and I smiled. Our little one loved her food.
“I’ll get started, but no more of that, Katie.”
My sister nodded as I turned to the kitchen.
This was our family. The three of us making a go out of life away from where we were. Each trying to build a good life. So far we’d managed well.
Happiness was all I wanted, and we'd found our small slice here. In a small town in Georgia.
3
Micah
Pulling up to my parents' home, the motorcycles following us spread out across the lawn. As my dad parked, I listened to the signature sound of each one giving one last twist of the throttle for a solid rev to the engine before being shut down. The steady tick of a motorcycle engine wasn’t something I focused on.
Until my first deployment, it wasn’t something I even thought about. The sandbox, as we Marines called it, was a special kind of hell. Waiting for battle was a mind fuck like no other.
To sleep, I wouldn’t count sheep; instead, I would let my mind replay the sound of my dad’s Harley over and over. In time, the sounds from the recesses of my memories comforted me, calmed me, and finally sleep overcame me.
Having Ravage here and each of them parking their rides, it calmed me too. No matter what the future held, I would endure like the steady tick of those engines.
The clubhouse looked exactly the same as when I left, and it brought back a bit of nostalgia. I’d wrapped myself up in so much of the negativity that the positive things, such as being home, were swept aside. Seeing it now filled me with a comfort I’d forgotten for way too long.
Swinging on the tire swing and dangling from the large oak tree was one of my favorite things to do. Getting as high as possible was the only way to go. Then jumping off and practically breaking my foot. Okay, that part wasn’t positive, but since I had no broken bones it was all good. Crutches weren’t so bad, I had learned, especially with Emery offering to help me any way she could. That constant support and encouragement from her was something I took for granted much like everything else in my childhood.
The large porch had a swing that my mom and I would sit at and watch the cars pass. Those were two of the few times I hung outside without my nose behind a screen. Video games was where I got lost most of the time. Now thinking about it, there was so much time wasted in front of a television instead of being active in life. Instead of seeing what else existed, I closed my mind to anything outside of my views … my very skewed, angry views.
Tons of emotions hit me one after the other in rapid succession. The onslaught gripped me tighter than I ever could have imaged. I thought I had made peace inside of myself. Yet, the guilt was eating at me. Yes, it was time to face Ravage and their wrath.
Redemption road was definitely bumpy and full of loose gravel, but I didn’t plan to come out of it with road rash. Nope, no matter what I had to do, I was ready to find the end of this highway of my own personal hell and right every wrong I had done.
The SUV turned off, and my father turned around in the seat. “Glad to have you home, son.”
“Good to be home, sir.”
My father chuckled. “Sir. I like that shit.”
A small smirk played at my lips. “Yeah, it’s a hard habit to break.”
“Don’t need to. Come on.” My father exited the car, my mother and I following, grabbing my bag in the trunk. My dad was relaxed. We were truly a family in a way I had never experienced before. Finally giving my father the respect he deserved had changed so much between us. I liked where we were headed.
I sucked in the crisp Georgia air.
Yeah, this was home. For the first time in my life, it actually felt like the place I was always meant to be.
“Come,” my mother called, motioning me into the house, and I followed. Chaos ensued inside the kitchen as everyone was bustling all around, grabbing this and that and taking it all outside where there were tables and chairs set up.
After throwing my seabag in my room, I went to the kitchen where my mother was carrying two huge bowls, one pretzels and the other potato salad. Snatching them away from her, she smiled up at me. “Thank you.” She beamed as I moved out the door and set the things on the table where everything else seemed to be.
“You don’t need to be doing that,” my mother said on my second trip into the house.
“Ma, I got this. You tell me what you need, and I’ll do it.”
While she smiled, there was a tenseness that came over the room, and when I turned around, I figured out why. Princess had entered the space.
She was one woman no one messed with. I’d seen her in the ring many times fighting, and she knocked men twice her size out. After all these years, it didn’t seem to change because her tank showed off her muscular arms.