House Divided (3 page)

She spent lots of time at the Jackson mansion, and more and more, Brady’s parents insisted on him staying home. I tried
not to be jealous. Brady constantly told me not to worry and that she couldn’t
hold a candle to me and that he was just as unhappy about it as I was, but I
knew in my heart she had her sights set on Brady, and his parents were more
than happy to aid and abet her.

Our senior year started and Amber seemed
to be everywhere we were. Brady made a point of being as affectionate with me
as he could in school, but that didn’t deter her. Maybe it wouldn’t have been
so bad, but she had this squeaky voice and the IQ of a rock. I thought
, no
wonder Brady’s momma needed to coach her
, I could only imagine the answers
she would give to the judges. One of my aunt’s favorite sayings was, “You can
fix ugly and you can fix dumb, but you can’t fix stupid.” The quote seemed to
fit her.

Brady had a stellar football season, and
there was no doubt that on signing day, he would be choosing his beloved team. Alabama
was salivating for him. I was still on track to be the valedictorian. For just
a moment, life seemed perfect; then December came and the unthinkable happened,
at least in my mind.  First Brady’s daddy was diagnosed with lung cancer, which
wasn’t a huge surprise; the guy smoked like a pack a day from what Brady said.
Of course Brady was upset, and I was upset for him. Sure, I didn’t like the guy
and he didn’t like me, but I would never wish that on him. I still remember
when Brady told me.  He drove me out to old Tate Farm, and we parked in the
middle of the empty cornfield. He had brought blankets and hot chocolate, and
we wrapped up and sat in the back of his truck. He began to cry, which was
unsettling; I had never seen Brady cry before.

I just held onto him. “I love you. I
promise it will be ok.”

He held me tighter. “I love you, Ellie.”

Under the circumstances, I wanted to get
Brady something for Christmas that said I love you and I’ll always be there for
you. I wanted to ask my aunt for her opinion because she was an amazing gift
giver, but that would be like pouring alcohol in an open wound. Eventually I
felt like I came up with something that conveyed what I felt. I couldn’t wait
to give it to him. We had planned on meeting at the old tire swing late
Christmas night after we spent the day with our families, but I had a surprise
Christmas evening when our doorbell rang and it was Brady. He had never been to
our home. He knew the rules, but maybe because it was Christmas, or maybe
because his daddy was sick, or maybe because she knew what was coming, my Aunt
Lu let him stay, because she thought it would be better for me to be at home
when it happened.

I was so thrilled that Brady was in my
home that I didn’t notice he wasn’t acting like himself. I pulled him into our
drawing room where the fireplace was lit and the twelve-foot high Christmas
tree sparkled in the dimly illuminated room. Under the tree sat my wrapped
present for Brady. I retrieved the present and sat in front of the fireplace on
the floor. Brady sat next to me, and before I could say a word, he pulled me to
him and kissed me like he never had before. It was like a man kissing a woman,
not a boy kissing a girl. I could barely breathe when he was done. His
breathing was ragged too.

“Well, Merry Christmas,” I said. That was
present enough for me.

He smiled that country boy smile I loved
so much, but it was then I noticed it didn’t touch his eyes like his smile
always had.

“What’s wrong, Brady?”

He pulled on my hair, like he always had.
“Ellie …”

“Brady?”

He took a deep breath and looked at me
with his baby blues. “We can’t be together anymore,” he quickly blurted out.

I just shook my head. Surely I had heard
him wrong, but I knew I hadn’t.

I backed up, and he scooted closer. The tears
welled up in my eyes and in his. “Please, Ellie, just listen to me.”

“My name is Ella,” I replied bitingly.

“Ok … Ella. I’m so sorry, but being with
you is tearing my family apart, and with my daddy so sick … I … I have to … I
have to do this for my family. Can you please understand that?”

I was speechless. I loved him. I had
broken my aunt’s rules and heart for him. And he,
he
was the one who
pursued
me
and who had to shout it to the world that we were together.
How could he just end it like that? I didn’t understand. The tears began to
flow. He tried to wipe them away, but I wouldn’t let him. I didn’t want him to
touch me.

He stood up, but before he left, he looked
down at me. “I love you, Miss Ellie.”

How could he? I just stared up at him
blankly.

“Don’t worry, Ellie, you don’t have to say
it back. I love us enough for the both of us.”

In anger, I threw his stupid gift at him,
and he caught with his wide receiver hands. He turned silently, but before he
left, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a tiny wrapped box and placed it
on the sofa table before he walked out of my life forever.

As soon as he walked out the door, I fell
apart. My aunt wasted no time in coming to me. She sat on the floor and held me
and stroked my hair. I kept waiting for her to say I told you so, but she never
did.

“I’m so sorry, Aunt Lu,” I repeated over
and over. 

“Shhh, sweet girl,” she said as she held
me tighter.

Until that night, I had never understood
how my aunt could hate the Jacksons so much. She hated them so much because she
had loved Isaac, and her friend Elizabeth. That night, I understood her
perfectly.

10 Years Later

I looked at my bedside clock; it read 3:36
a.m. Who in the world would be calling me at this unseemly hour?

“Hello,” I managed to say scratchily. It
was the best I could do this early.

“Oh, Miss Ella, thank goodness you’re up.”

I was up
now
, especially since I
recognized the voice. No one called me Miss Ella anymore. Panic quickly set in.
“Doris, what’s wrong?”

I could hear the tears in her voice. “Miss
Ella, it’s your aunt. We think she had a heart attack.”

Please, God, please don’t let her be dead.

“She’s at St. Vincent’s in Birmingham, she’s asking for you.”

Thank you, God.

“Tell her I’m on my way.”

I quickly dressed and threw together a
suitcase, just in case. Atlanta was only three hours from Birmingham, but I
didn’t know what waited for me on the other end. I knew if she was in Birmingham, it was serious; if not, she would’ve been at Kaysville General.

As I opened the door to my garage, a blast
of cold air hit me. Though it was December, it was unusually cold for Georgia.
I thought maybe I should run back in and get my long wool coat, but I
rationalized that I would either be in my car or in the hospital, and I just
wanted to get to my aunt. I threw my suitcase in the back and jumped in my
newly-purchased BMW. It was a gift to myself for my latest book,
Aunt
Calliope and Jane in London
, reaching number one on the New York Times best
seller list for Children’s Picture Books. The thought made me tear up. My books
were based on my adventures with my Aunt Lu as a girl, and now she was lying in
a hospital bed. I didn’t know what I would do if I lost her. She was the only
person who ever really loved me.

I hit I-75 and tested the limits of what
my new car could do. The salesman at the car dealership was right, she was fast
and smooth. I hit the Alabama border before I knew it. I hated being back in Alabama,
I usually avoided it at all costs. I felt like everywhere I turned in that
state, there were reminders of things I didn’t want to remember. Of course I
still saw Aunt Lu all the time, but it was usually in Atlanta or in some
tropical location on vacation. I hadn’t been to my childhood home since I
graduated from high school. Aunt Lu agreed I should leave and never come back.
She said Kaysville had a way of sucking the life out of people and she didn’t
want that for me. I’d asked her several times to move in with me, but her
excuse for never accepting was that she was old and set in her ways, but I
think she wouldn’t because it would be like saying the Jacksons had won, and
she wouldn’t ever let that happen.

Oh the Jacksons, that’s one name I wished
I could forget. Everything about Alabama reminded me of them, especially a
particular Jackson. If only I would have followed the rules. Even though I
moved away, I’d never been able to forget. I wanted to move further than Atlanta, but my agent and my publisher were both there and the thought of being too far
away from Aunt Lu didn’t sit well with me. At least Atlanta was better than Auburn.

Oh well, it didn’t matter, the only thing
that mattered now was getting to the hospital. I pushed that particular Jackson out of my mind. I only needed to think of the one person that loved me. I turned
up the radio as a distraction, in hopes of keeping my mind where it needed to
be. It worked well for a while until I passed a sign directing travelers to Auburn.

I would have gone to another school if
Aunt Lu hadn’t had her heart set on me attending her Alma Mater, because when
you attend a school that is the rival of the school where your ex-boyfriend is
the star football player, you can’t help but know what’s going on with him. His
name was everywhere, whether in the school paper, the news, or even just in
everyday conversations I was privy to. What made it worse was that his
girlfriend, Amber Capshaw, was just as popular.

I looked down; I was going way too fast. I
shouldn’t be thinking about the Jacksons and the Capshaws while I drove, or
ever, especially now under the circumstances. It was a dangerous combination,
but that’s what being in Alabama did to me. As soon as I eased off the pedal, I
passed the sign directing travelers to Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama.
I didn’t need this. Why couldn’t I get Brady Jackson out of my head, and even
more important, out of my heart? I was twenty-seven years old, for crying out
loud. I was a successful author and I had toured the world and country. I had
even dated some very handsome and successful men along the way, but no one, and
I mean no one, made me feel like Brady had. It seemed so wrong that the only
time I had fallen in love was when I was sixteen years old. What do sixteen-year-olds
even know about love? I obviously didn’t know enough or at least I didn’t know
better.

I felt like the highway was mocking me.
How many stupid billboards did the University of Alabama need? Seriously! I
needed to stay focused on my aunt, but my mind kept drifting back to the past.
It kept going back to my senior year in college. That was the worst year.
Brady’s name was everywhere. Alabama was having an incredible year. They were
undefeated and Brady had broken all kinds of records, and unfortunately Auburn
was having a very off season. Everyone thought Brady would, hands-down, be the
next Heisman Trophy Winner, and he would be the number one draft pick for the
NFL the following year.

His girlfriend, Miss Alabama, was making headlines
too. I honestly took a little, or maybe a lot, of joy from the reason why. I
always knew Amber wasn’t all that bright, but I figured since Brady’s momma had
been grooming her for years, she would have been better prepared for the Miss
America pageant that fall. She wasn’t even asked a difficult question; she was
asked, “Why are you proud to be an American?” Her response, “I don’t know if
I’m proud to be an American, because you know it’s kind of a sin to be proud.
But I’m super happy that I’m American, because if not, I wouldn’t get to be in
this pageant, which is like the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
And I just love the colors red, white, and blue.”

They practically crucified the girl in the
news for days. Needless to say, she didn’t win Miss America; she wasn’t even a
finalist. But Brady came to her rescue. He was constantly asked about it in
interviews, and he would always politely and kindly say things like, “She was
under pressure,” and, “Of course she loves America.” He would always ask for
respect for her and to give her a break. His reaction didn’t surprise me
because he was the nicest guy I had ever known, but it hurt me because he had
chosen her over me. It wasn’t too long after that it was reported they were
engaged. During each game, the cameras would pan over to where she and his
family sat, and there was a ring on her left finger. She gushed to all the
papers about how much she loved him and couldn’t wait for his career to start
in the NFL, and how wonderful their lives were going to be together. It was
really nauseating. I tried not to pay attention to it, but it was everywhere.

Then the Iron Bowl came. The Iron Bowl is
an unofficial holiday in Alabama. The stores close early, the streets are
empty, and everyone is home watching Alabama and Auburn battle it out. We all
knew it was a long shot for Auburn to win that year. Brady had made Alabama’s offense almost invincible. Alabama was ahead the entire game. I didn’t want to
watch, but my aunt expected me to watch all Auburn games; she didn’t care that
Brady Jackson was playing, but I don’t think she ever realized how in love with
him I had been and that it still hurt, or maybe she had and she thought the
reminder would ensure I would keep the rules in the future. During the third
quarter, Alabama was on the fifty yard line, and it was second down. Their
quarterback threw a perfect spiral that landed in Brady’s hands almost
flawlessly. He was at the forty yard line and turned to run, and then it
happened. I couldn’t believe it. As he turned, he was hit from behind by a
cornerback at the same time a linebacker slammed into his front. His leg was
twisted all wrong, and when they came down on him, it broke. It broke for the
whole world to see. Compound fracture, bone protruding from the skin, it was a
horrific sight. And, of course, they kept replaying it over and over again. I
remember gasping alone in my apartment. I cried as I saw Brady’s face and the
horrible pain he was in.

In a matter of seconds, his NFL dreams
were over. It was the kind of injury you don’t fully recover from, at least not
well enough to play football. Alabama still won, but Brady lost. Brady also
lost the Heisman and his fiancé. Amber was once again excoriated in the news
for leaving her injured fiancé for the quarterback, Doug Abrams. He ended up
being the first round draft pick for the NFL. I wanted to say that Brady
deserved it, but I couldn’t. I wanted to feel delight that she left him, but I
couldn’t muster that up either. I hated him, but only because I loved him.

As the sun began to peak over the horizon,
I came back to my senses and the present. Thankfully, I was almost to my
destination. I hated being alone with only my thoughts for company. Too often
they drifted to the past, and too often they landed on Brady Jackson. You may
be able to run away from home, but memories follow you everywhere.

I came to a hard stop in the hospital
parking lot; I was out my door before I even turned off the ignition. I
practically sprinted across the pavement. I just needed to see my Aunt Lu. As I
entered the ICU, I didn’t even need to ask what room she was in. I could hear
her raised voice yelling at some poor physician. His only crime was where he
earned his degree.

I checked in at the nurse’s station and
tried not to laugh; she had the whole floor in a tizzy over her behavior. I
quickly made my way down to her room before they restrained her or sedated her.
At least I knew she was well enough to throw a fit. I walked into her room, and
there were two nurses and one poor, harried doctor. They were all trying their
best to calm her down, but every time the doctor approached her, she started
back in about the incompetence of the University of Alabama. She was being
ridiculous, but I couldn’t help but smile.

“Aunt Lu.”

All heads turned toward me.

Aunt Lu looked pale, even for being all
worked up. She was hooked up to all sorts of machines that were beeping
frantically—I’m sure in response to her unseemly behavior. For an old dame, she
was still feisty, but I hated seeing her like that. She was approaching seventy,
but could still pass for someone in her early fifties. She was still the most
beautiful woman in the world to me.

Aunt Lu looked at me. “Ella Lu, tell these
people that I am not to be seen by anyone from that forsaken school.”

I sheepishly grinned at the doctor. “May I
please speak to you in the hall?”

The poor man seemed relieved to have an
excuse to leave. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say to him. How did
you explain a forty-five year grudge against a school just because your
ex-fiancé, who was a graduate from that school, left you for another woman? And
that woman just happened to be your best friend, and their son did the same
thing to your daughter. Instead, I opted to lie through my teeth. I rationalized
that my aunt was in no condition to be this riled up and she needed to be
treated quickly.

When we entered the hall, I reached out my
hand to shake his. “Hello, I’m Elle Eaton.”

I had also changed my name too. Elle
sounded more sophisticated as an author. My aunt hated it and refused to call
me Elle. I would always be Ella Lu to her.

He responded by shaking my hand. “Nice to
meet you Ms. Eaton, I’m Dr. Sandstrom.”

“Dr. Sandstrom, please forgive my aunt’s
behavior, you may have noticed she’s very partial to Auburn.”

He just shook his head and smiled.

That’s where the lying began.
“Unfortunately, she had a very bad experience with a doctor that graduated from
your illustrious …” I had to stop myself from gagging when I said that, “… Alma
Mater. I have no doubt you are an excellent doctor, but by chance, is there
another doctor on call that can see to her this morning?”

“Miss Eaton, I’m the only cardiologist on
staff this morning.”

Well that was a problem. I wanted her to
be seen to. “Dr. Sandstrom, did perhaps you attend another school for Pre-Med?
Maybe Auburn?”

He looked at me oddly, but I think he
finally got it. Yes, I was asking the doctor to lie too.

I smiled convincingly. “I know it’s is a
lot to ask of an Alabama man, but could you please?”

He looked at me thoughtfully. “You look
familiar to me, and your name sounds familiar.”

“Do you by chance have any little girls?”

“Yes, two.”

“Do you read to them?”

Dawning crossed his face. “You write the
Aunt
Calliope and Jane
books. My daughters love those books.”

“Fabulous. How about in exchange for your
help this morning, I’ll get you some signed copies of my new book.”

He readily agreed. I also suggested to him
that it might not hurt to mention to my aunt how much he and his daughters
loved my books. Thankfully we were able to appease her with our cooked up
stories. He was able to examine her and get the tests she needed ordered, but
she did make sure to tell him what a big mistake it was for him not to finish his
MD at Auburn. He just shook his head in agreement. Just for that, I would be
throwing in some Calliope and Jane dolls.