"Well, maybe if you held your head up, you'd see what and or who is in front of you!" I ran into Jimmy again. It seems to be a routine for me. I absent mindedly run into him and he chews me out for it. Apparently, I like getting yelled at by him. I just keep my head down, so I don't say something snarky in return. But I really, really want to. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."
"I would if you were actually talking to me instead of yelling down at me."
"I can't help that you're short."
Short? Did he just say that out loud? 5'8" isn't short. What a jerk. Is it my fault this is a family of giants? "Are you always this much of an asshole, or is today a special occasion?"
"You, Missypants, are the special one." He raised an eyebrow of victory.
Missypants?! He called me Missypants?? I hate Missypants. Only Jude calls me that. Not Mr. Jimmy Joe John Boy. I snapped back with as much sarcasm as I could muster. "And I suppose I just bring out the best, or rather, the worst in you?"
"Something like that, yeah."
"Yeah, well... You're not much taller than me, shorty. I can look you in the eye with tiptoeing."
"Yes, well... At least you're looking up now." I tried to think of a good comeback, but my mind went blank when he smiled. He's never smiled at me before. So, it's more of a smirk, but still he's never done that before. I was caught off guard. I sighed in frustration, pursed my lips, and just glared at him. "Now you can watch where you're going." He said as he passed by me.
"Jerk!" I muttered as he left.
"It's genetic." He called back all sing songy like. I just need to figure out where he sleeps so I can put peanut butter and chicken feathers in his bed.
I headed out the door to find Mackerel, convinced he would know where Jimmy rested his head. I found Gram instead. Nearly tripped over her on the porch step. "Pick your head up child." She chided. "Take some pride in your step."
"Don't you mean, watch where I am going so, I don't hurt anyone?"
"I saw you. You wouldn't have hit me." She winked at me. "By the way. Mackerel is off today. His wife is having their baby as we speak. What do you need him for?"
No Mackerel? That's unfortun... wait. What? "I didn't say I needed him." Seriously woman. Sometimes you're just creepier than creepy.
"You didn't?" That knowing smile of hers plastered to her face. "My mistake. Well, carry on with your chores then. Melinda should be bringing Bethany home in about an hour."
Just then, a black car pulled up to the step with an Asian man sitting in the passenger seat. He rolled the window down as it came to a stop. "Mom! Surprise!" He smiled as he bailed out of the car and hugged a very surprised Gram. "I know we should've called but Missy Ann wanted it to be a surprise." He kissed her cheek and hugged her again.
Gram was speechless. The man was giddy as a kid in a candy store. I was immediately hit with the question of how she ended up with and Asian son but dismissed it almost as quickly when I remembered how Jams came to be considered her son. I'd get the story later, no doubt. My thought train was interrupted by Gram's frantic voice. "Chores Magpie. Now!" I wanted to be angry and argue. I wanted to know why I couldn't at least greet this new uncle of mine. I wanted to say something, anything, but my attention was directed to the woman who had just stepped out of the car. A middle-aged woman of modest height, dark hair and black/brown eyes. I know my eyes were the size of saucers when I looked at her. She glanced in my direction and gave me the biggest smile I've seen so far. "Now," Gram said pulling me by arm. "You can meet the company later. Now go!"
"Aww, Mom. Aren't you gonna introduce me?" The dark-eyed woman said as we locked stares.
"Later, Missy," She said wrapping and arm around the woman to lead her to the house. "Let's get you guys inside and cooled off a bit first." She pointed her finger past me to the barn for me to go. I glared at her for a moment then retreated to the barn where I about to tell Bojangles all about the mysterious visitors when Jimmy came up behind me.
"Who peed in your Wheaties today?" He asked as he poured grain into Bojangles' bucket.
"Your mother," I replied without looking at him.
"Shocker."
"Do you happened to have a sister?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Oh, no reason. I mean, she's here and instead introducing me to her, Gram sent me out here to do my chores." I let my annoyance laced each word.
"She's here? Already?" He asked with surprise in his voice.
"Yes. Her and some Asian dude that I assume is her..." Jimmy ran out of the barn towards the house before I could finish my sentence. You know what? Heck with it. I'm just going to go walk in that house and introduce myself. Hide me in the barn, will you. I stalked back towards the house only to be stopped by May.
"Guess what, Buttercup. You get to go to town with me today."
"I don't want to go to town." I snapped a little sassier than intended. She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms as if to say 'really?' "Fine." I relented and followed her to her car. "I already know that's her daughter. Jimmy said she was his sister. The question is, why can't I meet her?"
"I'm sure you will. She lives in Japan with her husband, so Gram is probably just trying to give them time to settle in from the long trip. Don't take it personally."
"Yeah, whatever. Guess I shouldn't care, huh? What are we going to town for anyway? Or is this to just get me out of the way."
"Clothes. I've noticed yours are a little snug these days."
"Yeah, well, I hear pregnancy does that."
*
We got back to the house a few hours later. The black car and its occupants were gone, and gram was sitting the porch sofa with a photo album in her lap. May took the shopping bags from me and gestured me to sit with my gramma. Gram and I locked stares; violet to black/brown; for a moment as May entered the house. At least she was in a good mood. I can't say the same for me. I sat next to her in a huff expecting an explanation of some sort. Instead, she opened the photo album and began showing me pictures of her boys when they were young. Page after page of pictures of the two boys together. Playing, fighting, painting, music... an entire childhood worth of pictures of Jeremy and Jimmy growing up together. In the photos of their younger years, it was hard to tell them apart but their appearance changed with age. Jeremy growing to be a tall blonde; Jimmy to be of average height and dark hair.
"Why are you showing me these?" Yes, I liked looking at them, but my mind was on the daughter. So far, I haven't been shown one picture of the daughter that came to visit.
"I just wanted you to know how close your dad and Jimmy were. They were thick as thieves, they were. There's nothing they wouldn't have done for each other. Nothing." She turned the page to a photo of my dad in a hospital bed and Jimmy sleeping in the chair next to his bed. "When Jeremy came home from the army, he wasn't himself. The injury he sustained was... there's no gentle way to put it. The truck he and four other guys were riding in got blown up somehow. Jeremy ended up with shrapnel from the blast in his backside and his..." She waved her hand over her crotch. "I imagine it looked something like your face did when you got here."
Really? We're gonna crack on my piercings like that? "Ha. Ha." Sarcasm lacing those two syllables.
"Laugh, but I have those pieces in a jar too. He brought them home to me as a gift. Truthfully, it's just weird. But I kept them anyway and now that he's gone..."
I grimaced. "That's kind of gross."
She nodded. "Indeed. But regardless, those pieces represented the end of his dreams. Doctors had to surgically repair and reconstruct things. They couldn't tell him if he'd ever function as a man should ever again and fathering children was more than likely something he'd never get to do."
"Obviously, they were wrong because I'm here."
"Yes, you are." She looked down at me expectantly for some reason but I still had my mind on the woman I saw earlier.
"So where are the pictures of your daughter?"
"My daughter?"
"Yes, your daughter. The woman who came by earlier. She called you 'Mom' and..."
"So did Rikki, her husband."
"Yes, but SHE looks exactly like me. HE does not." She smiled that knowing smile.
She closed the photo album and stood. "You'll meet them soon. But before that can happen, I need to you to help get the guest house ready for them. They will be staying with us for a few weeks when they return."
"Guest house? You have a guest HOUSE?"
"Yeah. I'll let them stay in your parents' old place."
"Jimmy said I'm not allowed in there. He found me in there once and chased me out of it telling me it was his and stuff."
"Well, technically speaking, it is his now. His father gave it to him a few years before he died."
"So, I can't help you with that."
"We will go out there in the morning together."
"I told you, Jimmy doesn't want me there."
"Then maybe, Magpie, you should go ask him why."
"I don't want to ask him nothing. He's mean to me."
"Jimmy doesn't have a mean bone in his body."
"Are we talking about the same guy? Because the Jimmy Joe John Boy I know never has anything nice to say to me when he does talk to me. Most of the time he avoids me. I told you before he hates me."
"I will remind you that one, the only person Jimmy hates is himself, and two, you still don't get wants. So, go and talk to him. Tell him I want you to get that house ready for his sister. And ask him about your dad while you're at it."
"But..." I protested.
"No buts. Go. You have at least an hour before dinner."
"What about Bethany?"
"Your shadow is fine. She's at May's house playing with Mackerel's boy."
"That's right! His wife had their baby today."
"She's still working on it. Things are moving a little slower this time around."
"Really, but she been there all..."
"Enough stalling, girl. Get. He's in the barn right now."
I rolled my eyes and stood. "Fine." I stalked off the porch for the barn. I stopped to give Bojangles a quick pet before aiming for the tack shed in the rear. I knew I would find him there. He was in there a lot. Except for today, that it. I knocked on the door and pushed it open when I got no response. I called out for him yet got only silence in return. I looked around the room surprised to see look more like an apartment than a tack shed. Sure, there was his saddle and gear but that was it. There was a table against the far wall with a lamp on it and single chair pushed beneath it. The right of that was a small kitchenette setup, complete with a small refrigerator, microwave and sink. Instinctively, I looked up and saw the loft and there, barely in view from the ground was a bed. Jimmy's bed. I found it. This made me chuckle evilly and forget what I had come out here for. Feathers. I need chicken feathers. I turned around with my new goal and ran smack dab into the one person I always run into.
"What are doing here?" He growled grabbing me by my arm and dragging me out of the shed.
"Gram sent me out here to talk to you," I snapped jerking my arm out of his grasp and rubbing the sore spot.
"That doesn't give you a right to snoop around."
"I wasn't snooping!" I yelled. I forced myself to calm down and speak evenly. "She told me I had to help get my parents' old house ready for your sister."
His eyes went wide for a split second. "She's coming back here?"
"I guess. Don't you want her to?"
"It's not that. It's..." he turned are started walking away from me.
"Hey," I called after him. He ignored me. I had to jog to catch up to him. "Wait up Jimmy, please?" I called. He stopped and waited for me to catch up without saying a word. He just looked expectantly at me. "Look, I know I'm not your favorite person here, but..."
"What makes you think that?" He interjected.
I blinked. I completely lost track of what I was about to say. "Ummm, seriously? Okay... It's just that you... I'm sorry. I mean you're not the nicest to me, so I assumed..."
"My apologies."
I stared at him contemplating not just what to ask, but how to ask it. "Anyway, Gram says you and my dad were really close."
"And?"
"Can you tell me about him?"
"You can ask your gramma. I've got work to do." He took three long strides to his truck and hefted himself into the seat.
I put myself between him and the truck door so he couldn't close it. "Gram said to ask you."
"Well, I'm busy." He snarled.
"What's your deal, dude? Why are you such a big jerk?!"
"Genetics." He snarked off.
"You say that a lot. Is that your way saying your mom is a jerk or that your dad was?"
"You never even knew my dad."
"Didn't know mine either. Funny how I look nothing like him."
"Just leave it alone!"
"I won't! Not until you tell what your problem is with me!"
"I have work to do. Move!" He put his hand on my shoulder.
I glared. "Do it. I dare you. Go on. Push me out of the way. But unless you kill me, I'm going to keep bugging you until you talk to me."
"Why is it so damned important to talk to me right now? I am not only one who knew your dad, you know. And now is not a good time."
"You're the only one who was close to him but the only one here who doesn't talk to me about him. You're also the only who doesn't even try to be nice to me around here."
"Well, then that should make you want to stay away from me now shouldn't it?" He shoved me aside far enough to get his door shut. "Look, I've made prom..."
"Gram says I have your eyes." I blurted. "And your attitude." Okay that's a lie, she didn't say that, but I noticed that I have just spent the last ten minutes arguing with a male version of myself and I wondered if he noticed the same thing.
His eyes went wide for a moment before he steeled his glare. "Why would she...?" He murmured turning away from me.
"I know the two of you had different fathers. She showed me pictures of you and my dad growing up and I noticed something really strange." I waited for him to shut me up, to stop me my rant but he kept his eyes forward as he gripped the steering wheel. "I look like you." There I said it. Dots started connecting in my brain. Mom and dad were married three months after meeting, three months after that I was born. Dad's injury. The dark eyes came from Pops to Jimmy to me? Is that what Gram had been hinting at all these months? No, I couldn't be Jimmy's. No, it was just coincidences. I mean, Gram's daughter looks just like me too. So maybe the dark eyes came from her side of the family. Yeah, that's more plausible. He had his eyes squeezed shut and a death grip on his steering wheel. "You really do hate me, don't you?" When he still wouldn't look at me, I added with great sarcasm hoping to inflict as much pain as he was causing me. "Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm stuck out here with you and your family. I'm sorry I'm not the kind of girl you think I should be. And I'm sorry genetics made me your niece."
"No," he said with a shaky voice. "Don't be sorry. There's nothing wrong with you. It's all me. I'm in the wrong. You're right. No one could have loved your dad more than me. There's nothing I wouldn't have done for him. There was no sacrifice to great. At least, that's what I keep telling myself." He rubbed the steering wheel with a clenched fist. "If you were 'just' my niece, this conversation wouldn't be this difficult."
Wait. What? What the living frick? I stared at him dumbstruck. "What do you mean 'just'..."
He took a deep breath, running his hand over his face. Turning his face back towards me with pain in his eyes and tears streaming down his cheeks. "Look! Y-you... I mean I- We're alike because... we're... y-you..." he blew out a breath he'd been holding and slammed his fist on the steering wheel. "Damn it all! Because I am your father, Magpie, not your uncle. I'm your fath..." He sucked a breath. "You were never supposed to know. I was never supposed to tell you." I clamped my hand over my mouth in disbelief. "I promised your mother that I would never say anything you, or anyone else for that matter but you're just so stinkin... obstinate, bullheaded, and crass. Just like me. You just couldn't let sleeping dogs lie."
"But... How?"
"It's a long and complicated story... I promised your mom... I can't. I'm sorry. Please, just leave it alone."
He put his truck in drive and pulled away, leaving me standing there like an idiot. My mind threatened to cave in on itself. Gram said this family had a lot of secrets buried and so many of them have unearthed before me that I didn't really know what to believe anymore. How could mother lie about who my father was? I was hoping Jimmy would refute my suspicions, not confirm them. I think I need to give my mother a call.
I felt Gram's hand rest on my shoulder and leaned into the side hug she offered. "You weren't kidding about this family having a ton of buried secrets, were you?"
"I never kid about the important stuff."
"You knew?"
She spoke softly, the hint of an apology laced within her words. "Yes, I knew."
"Then why not just tell me, yourself."
"It wasn't my secret to tell. But now that the cat is out of the bag, you will now be able to meet his sister and your namesake."
"My what?"
"Melissa Ann Gabbard; Pop's daughter from his first marriage. She goes by Missy Ann though Jimmy and Jeremy always called her Missypants. She is Jimmy's biological sister, but not my biological daughter."
"I look exactly like her."
"Which is why you needed to learn the truth from Jimmy before meeting her."
"I need to talk to Mom. I need to know why she did this."
"Time will come for that. For now, we have a supper to get on the table."