Chp 17
~Chapter 17~
It had already turned to the next day and Valencia still didn't return. AJ was getting worried.
"She's been gone all friggin' night and day! What could've happened?!"
"Relax! Worrying your tail off isn't going to help," reasoned Denise.
"If I could, I would go out and look for her! But the damn sunlight…"
*ding dong* The doorbell rang. Everyone jumped out of their skin. Denise looked through the window to see who it was. She saw Elaine impatiently tapping her foot on the porch floor with her hands on her hips.
" *gasp* It's Elaine! AJ, you have to hide!" she hissed as she turned to face him.
"Oh shit!" He scrambled up the stairs. "Where?!"
"I don't know! Anywhere!"
She heard the sound of his rapid footsteps and the slamming of the closet door. It was safe to let her in. She unlocked the door and put on a fake smile.
"Elaine, hi! Big surprise seeing you here!"
"Denise, we have to talk," she abruptly said as she entered the house.
Denise groaned and rolled her eyes as she quickly shut the door behind her.
"About what?"
"About what happened in the cemetery that day. I don't understand---" She stopped in mid sentence and her eyes focused on something. "Hello, I'm afraid we haven't met before."
Denise followed her gaze and found a very shocked Toni just standing there.
"Uh, Elaine, this is Toni, my…my niece."
Elaine raised an eyebrow.
"Your niece? I thought I met all your nieces."
"You have f-f-from my side. She's from Bob's side of the family."
"Oh. But you're divorced. How can she still be your---"
Denise put her arm around Toni's shoulders and laughed nervously. "Oh, she's still considered family to me! Right, hon?"
"Right…Aunt Denise. I'm pleased to meet you," she said as she extended her hand out. Elaine took it.
"The pleasure's all mine. I haven't heard from Bob in the longest time! How is he?"
"He's fine. Great," she answered as she looked at Denise. She hadn't realized until now that she had never seen or heard anyone mention AJ's father before. Denise nodded in assurance. "Um, excuse me," she said and then jogged up the stairs.
"So…"
Elaine looked around with a strange look on her face.
"Why are all the windows covered?"
"The windows? Uh, because…cuz, cuz I was going to repaint the walls and I didn't want anything getting on the windows."
"Why? They were just painted a year ago!"
"I know. I just want to keep myself busy to keep my mind off…you know."
"Speaking of AJ…" She sat down on the couch and motioned for Denise to sit down next to her. "How are you?"
Denise took a seat next to her. "I'm fine. Good. As good as I could be anyway. I've learned to accept the fact that he's gone and he's never coming back. I have to move on."
"I'm very proud of you, Denise."
"Thank you."
"Denise." She moved closer and almost in a whisper said "What happened at the cemetery?"
Denise pretended to be baffled. "What do you mean?"
"That day at the cemetery. The man said that there was no body in there."
"Uh…"
"I don't understand! How could it happen?"
"Uh…oh no, dear! You must have heard wrong! Of course there's a body in there!"
"I distinctively heard the man say 'Mrs. McLean, there is no body in here'!"
"No, the man said 'Mrs. McLean, there is a body in here!' Because there was! AJ's---body---was---there."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, of course!"
Elaine closely studied her eyes to see if she was telling the truth. Denise prayed that she wouldn't see through her. Elaine softened her expression and sighed.
"Oh, then I must be getting old! Can't hear a darn thing!"
"We're all going down that road."
"I suppose. Well, I guess I better get going…unless you want me to stay and keep you company…"
"That's ok, Elaine. That's why Toni's here. She'll be here for a while to help me with this."
"Ok. But remember, I'm here."
"Thanks, I'll remember."
Elaine got up and walked to the door followed anxiously by Denise. Then she turned around. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yup. I'm fine."
"Alright. Well then, good bye."
"Bye."
She left. Denise closed the door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief.
"AJ! Toni! It's safe to come down now!" she yelled from the bottom of the stair case.
AJ and Toni emerged from their hiding places and slowly walked down the stairs.
"Phew! That was too close!" exclaimed AJ as he wiped his brow with his arm. "Does she always drop by unexpectedly like that?"
"Not usually." She looked at Toni. "I haven't noticed before, but you have unique eyes."
"Thank you. It's a characteristic of my clan."
"Clan? Oh, you're a vampire, too?"
"Mom, you didn't know?!"
"Well, I don't know! It never came up!"
"Yes, I'm a vampire. A Praedari."
"Praedari? So you morph into, what was it, tigers or something?"
"Wolves."
"Oh, right. Wolves. Wow."
"Yeah."
*ding dong*
"Argh! What is this?!" exclaimed AJ as he threw his arms to his sides and ran up the stairs again. Toni followed. Annoyed, Denise didn't even bother looking out the window. She expected it to be Elaine, coming back for one more word of assurance. She unlocked the door again.
"Elaine, really I'm f---"
When Denise looked up, there wasn't a 5'4" blonde middle aged lady standing there like she thought. Instead, a tall man with glasses, a white mustache and beard, and with no hair on the top of his head stared down on her with a grave expression on his face.
"Robert. What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Denise. May I come in?" he said not answering her question.
"Yeah, sure, come in," she said hesitantly.
"Thank you."
He stepped into the house and looked around.
"Don't mind the windows," she said before he could open his mouth. "What do you want?"
"I-I-I came here to, to redeem myself for not---"
"No."
"What?"
"No. I can't forgive you."
"Denise---"
"No. What you did or more like didn't do is inexcusable! He was your son!"
"I know! But we are in bad terms and---"
"This isn't about us, Robert! This is about you and your relationship with AJ that barely or more like never existed! You just completely disappeared from his life! You lived only a matter of minutes from here and you never came to spend time with him! He had to find you!"
"I've been busy with my daughter! She's trying to get her architect career started and I had to be there to---"
"You have TWO kids, Robert! AJ had dreams of his own! You don't know how it broke my heart everytime he asked me why his daddy left him in elementary school, or why you couldn't make it to his plays in middle school, or why you weren't present at his high school graduation! I couldn't answer him because, frankly, I didn't know how!"
"I'm here now!"
"Yeah and now he's gone! You didn't even have the decency to show up at his funeral!"
"I couldn't! I couldn't bring myself to see him lying there in the coffin so…he was always so full of life and I knew I would break down if I…"
"That's not an excuse! How do you think I felt?! I was the one who found him! I was the one who took care of all the funeral arrangements and everything---"
"I paid for the burial!"
"That's not enough! Not even close to what you should have done! You should have been there for him throughout his life and until his death! But you weren't!"
"I know! I know that and I regret it! I regret it more than anything in the world! If I could turn back time, I would change everything!"
"But you can't! Now please leave."
Robert realized he couldn't win this. Defeated, he walked towards the door. But then he tried one more time.
"Denise, believe it or not, I loved him."
"You sure had a funny way of showing it."
"Is there anything, anything I can do to make you forgive me?"
She nodded her head. "Robert, you're asking the wrong person for forgiveness. I hope AJ, where ever he may be, understands you and does, but I will never never forgive you. I hope you and your family have a long, successful, and happy life together and that you've changed, for your daughter's sake. But I never want to see or talk to you again. Good bye, Robert."
"Denise…"
"Good bye, Robert," she said more sternly.
Robert left, head hung low, and pride shredded into a million pieces. Denise closed her eyes, took a deep breath, counted to ten, and then exhaled. It only helped a little. She had never been so angry in her entire life. How she managed not to claw his eyes out was beyond her. Then, a thought entered her mind. AJ could have easily heard the argument from upstairs and there was no doubt that he did.
"Heaven help us," she prayed as she made her way up the stairs. "AJ? Toni?" She found them in his room. AJ was sitting on his bed staring blankly at the floor, while Toni had her hand on his shoulder and a look of pity on her face.
"AJ?"
He looked up at her with sadness in his beautiful chocolate brown eyes.
"He didn't even come to the funeral?"
Denise nodded her head sadly. "I'm sorry you had to hear that, but…"
"No. It's fine." He got up and walked out the door. "Who needs a father, anyway. I don't."
He ran down the stairs and grabbed his jacket. The other two followed him.
"AJ, where are you going?"
"Out," was his only reply as he slammed the door behind him.
"Oh no," stated Denise as she ran her fingers through her short red hair in frustration.
"I can go after him," offered Toni.
"No, that's alright, dear. I think he needs time by himself right now. I can't believe he had the nerve to---especially at this time---urrrrgh!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. McLean, I had no idea…"
"It's alright. It's over now. I just hope AJ's alright."
Meanwhile, AJ strolled down the streets resisting the urge to kick something. 'Calm down. Calm down. Getting violent won't help. Who needs him, anyway? I don't. I've got Mom. She's everything to me. She's always been there for me.'
He found himself entering the gates of the cemetery and walking towards his grave. 'Why? Why didn't he want to be part of my life? Did I do something wrong?' He sniffed and wiped away the only tear that fell. He looked up and saw that someone was standing over his place in the graveyard. He hid behind a nearby tree and watched silently. It was too dark to clearly see who it was.
"I'm sorry," said the stranger to the tombstone. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you. I know I'm a poor excuse for a father."
AJ's eyes widened. It was Robert. He hadn't seen his father ever since he turned eighteen, which was when he tracked him down and gave him a surprise visit, using the address on the child support papers. His stomach started to turn. He wasn't sure how to feel…nervous, happy, sad, or angry or a combination of all four.
"I just hope and pray that you can hear me," he continued as he stared up at the brilliant stars in the night sky, "and that you can forgive me."
AJ noticed Robert's voice was strained as if he was crying and his eyes gleamed in the moonlight. He was.
"I don't know what to do. There's a hole in my heart that will never be filled and I don't know how I'm going to live with the fact that I wasn't there for you. Neither in your life or your death. I couldn't even…"
He broke down. AJ tried holding back the tears, but no success. He wished he could tell his father everything that was on his mind…how it hurt when he never came to visit, or how it stung that he couldn't really celebrate Father's Day, but most of all, how he had forgiven him, in spite of all that.
"I don't know what else to say. Only that it had nothing to do with you. It was just me. I'm a mess." He bent over and placed a single blood-red rose on his unoccupied grave. "I love you, son." Robert looked at the site one last time before walking away and leaving AJ all alone in his misery and sadness.
"I love you, too, Dad," he whispered as he watched his father's dark figure getting smaller and smaller as he walked farther and farther until finally, he disappeared, off in the distance.
Chp 18
Chp 16
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