The Good Sister: Part One (6 page)

“Now, L.J.! You owe her an apology.”

L.J. held up his hands in surrender. “Sure. Don’t get so worked up. Fuck, dude.”

Reid pressed his finger into L.J.’s chest. “Apologize!”

I was going to lose my ability to breathe. L.J. moved around Reid. I grabbed onto Reid’s arm. Shudders ripped through my body. Reid tucked my under his arm.

“Listen, I’m sorry,” L.J. said. “I’m an asshole most of the time so you can’t really take anything I say to heart.” He paused. “What’s your name?”

“Trinity,” Reid interjected.

“Trinity,” L.J. echoed. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. It’s cool if you’re with Reid. I didn’t mean what I said.”

I whispered, “I’m not with Reid.”

Reid held me close. He’d secured my shaking body into the side of him, absorbing my shakes, taking them into his body.

“Not that it is any of your concern what I do and who I do it with, but Trinity and her family live here, L.J.,” Reid confirmed.

“Oh…. This is the girl you were talking about last night? The daughter of your new housekeeper?”

Reid’s face looked angry. “No, this is her sister.”

My body slumped. Reid had been talking about Bentley. No doubt how beautiful and sexy Bentley was, but what did I expect? Bentley would be Reid’s type, I never would be.

“Sister Trinity…” L.J. said with a crooked grin that gave him one creased dimple. “You must be the good sister?”

Reid’s brow pulled down. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, L.J.?”

L.J. winked. “Nothing. I don’t mean anything by it, Trinity. You just look shy and innocent.” L.J. eyed me. “I would say completely opposite of how your sister was explained to us last night.”

“Okay, L.J., I think you need to go,” Reid said, coolly.

“Go? I was trying to get ahold of you about a party on the beach. Grade A ass.” L.J. smirked. “Go get dressed and let’s get going.”

“I have other plans, L.J.”

L.J. looked perplexed. His chocolate brown eyes flickered. “Tell me you aren’t going to do the sister thing and bang both of them?”

“Fucking hell, L.J. You’re not going to be happy until I kick your ass, are you?”

L.J. chuckled. “Whatever, dude,” he said, as he turned muttering a plethora of smut under his breath while he walked off.

Reid glanced down at me. “I’m sorry,” he said, moving me forward. He had opened up the front door of the guesthouse and helped me in.

“It’s fine.” My body was still shaky and my mind was a swirling whirlwind of conflicting emotions and thoughts.

“No, it’s not. L.J. is an asshole who needs to have his ass kicked. He has a big mouth and he never thinks before he speaks.”

“I need to sit down.” Reid helped me into the kitchen, pulled out the bar stool, and lifted me up, placing me onto the stool. “Thanks.”

I placed my head into my hands. My curls swirled around me, completely obscuring my face and arms.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Reid offered.

I lifted my head. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened the door.

“Bentley and my mom went shopping today, so we don’t really have anything. I think there are some bottles of water in the cabinet.”

Reid opened up the cabinet, pulled out a bottle, unscrewed the top, and handed it over. “Do you want these in the refrigerator? You’re going to drink warm water.”

“Sure,” I said.

Reid placed the bottles into the refrigerator before he sat down beside me.

“So how long will it take to stop shaking?”

“A while. I don’t do well—”

“You don’t do well with people, with strangers, with loud noise, with crowds, with touching, with open spaces…” He hesitated. “Have I left anything out?”

“I’m afraid to fly. I’m afraid of the dark.” I paused. “I’m not normal, let’s just leave it at that.”

“Who is normal, baby bird?”

Baby bird?

“Listen. I have to go. Are you really going to be okay?”

“Sure,” I lied.

I walked Reid to the door. His black corded necklace dangled around his neck. The metal barb caught the glint of the sun and sent the metal luminous for a moment.

“I’ll see you around,” he said.

My heart sank. I nodded in agreement and watched him until I could no longer see him. The breeze blew. My clothes were actually damp, wet from where he’d carried me. I smelt of chlorine and sunshine. I smelled like Reid, like summer. There was something about Reid that made my want …
what?
That’s one question that required an answer.

The sun was shining. White billowy clouds floated effortlessly in the clear blue sky. They were puffy, and reminded me of cotton balls. It looked as if you could pluck them from midair. I shivered, and thought it strange to feel a cool crisp edge to the breeze, especially with the sun out. I glanced down to find something glint copper by my feet. I picked it up.

“Look, dad,” I said. I’d found a treasure, so I held up the bright new penny for his inspection.

His attention fell to me with loving eyes the color of fresh cut grass. “Make a wish,” he said. He patted the top of my head. “Find a penny pick it up, make a wish and have good luck.”

I smiled, closed my eyes, and made a wish. Something rang out reminiscent of booming thunder. The earth below my feet began to shake. I gasped, jumped, and opened my eyes. People were screaming, and scattering. The sky was enveloped in dark, forbidding clouds.
Floating.
People were floating. Billowing gray smoke filled my lungs as though an insidious intruder. I could not breathe. I grabbed at my throat. Coughed. My eyes watered.

I yelled, “Dad!”

No answer.

The earth shook again. I stretched my arms out, but felt nothing. Sirens. Buildings shuddered. The ground quaked. Things tumbled. I heard them fall, and felt the repercussion of the impact hit the ground. The noise, the chaos, was shattering.

“Daddy, where are you!”

Nothing.

Someone grabbed my arm. They were tugging me. Some stranger was touching me. I’d lost my father and a stranger was taking me farther from him. Fear, unlike anything I had ever known, gripped me. It attached to my body like slithering tentacles that moved beneath my skin. Terror seeped into my veins, twisted up my spine, and manacled its insidiousness onto my very bones. Black shadows roamed around like demons from hell. I fought, not knowing who or what was touching me. I was unable to fully see.

Was my mind playing tricks on me? It had been daylight, but now it was dark, black. There was debris; I felt it beneath my feet. Something snagged at my ankle, tore my pants. I tried to say stop. No voice. Some sort of thing dragged me through what must be hell. I reached up with one hand to rub at my eyes. They burned. Smoke and the soured smell of chemicals oozed into my lungs. Things were unclear. Noise came from everywhere. Some sounds were indefinable, some quite definable. I experienced heat
. Fire.
Breaking glass. Building alarms. More tugging. Screams. Moaning.

I felt my face.
Blood.
It rolled down my cheek and mixed in with my tears. I tasted the metallic rusty taste upon my lips. My vision, gone. I no longer had a voice. My breath was leaving me.

Something covered my face, over my nose.
Hands.
At least I thought they were hands. They carried me away.
Where are they taking me?
More screaming. Explosions. Glass shattering. More sirens. Nothing….

I shot up in bed. Labored for breath. Unable to focus for a moment. The beating of my heart, fierce. I looked around. I was home, in California, in my bed, and not the hospital. I relaxed. My shoulders slumped. My cotton sheets were tangled around my feet, binding me. It took a second, but I shook them free.
Bentley, where is Bentley?
I
focused. Thought.
Bentley’s in Georgia. At college. She’s safe.

I glanced at the alarm clock beside my bed. Bright red numbers glared 1:24 a.m.
Saturday morning
. Stretching, I took in another breath, rolled out of bed, and felt my feet hit the floor.
Air.
I needed air. I snuck out of the house, in the dark. This was unlike me. Out of character. I feared the dark.

I forgot my glasses, but instinctually knew the way to my secret garden. I visited almost every day, and have done so since the first day of my arrival at the Addison estate, two years ago. I glanced down at my bare feet. The ground beneath them felt cool. One of the straps to my powder-blue nightgown fell from my shoulder. I slipped it back in place. The baby-doll nightgown was a hand-me-down from Bentley, so it was much skimpier than I would have bought, but I liked it. Wearing my sister’s clothes, I pretended to be someone else.

When something rustled in the bushes, I stopped. For a moment I considered going back to the house. I should get back in bed, but I couldn’t take any more nightmares. I wanted the peace, and the soothing quiet of my garden. I needed to feel the tranquility I always felt as I sat on my bolder and listened to the breeze tussle with the leaves of the maple. I longed to feel the echo of the wind whisper across my skin. I wished to focus on the soft gurgle of the fountain. I required serenity so much so, that this desire, this need, outweighed my fear of the dark.

As I ducked into my garden, a beam of light scattered across the path. I figured it was Reid, coming home from a date.
Date.
I gritted my teeth with the thought, and heard the familiar
humming
sound of his motor as it pulled up the long drive. I would know the sound anywhere. He drove a slick black Jaguar.

I found my boulder bench and sat. I brought my knees up to my chest, tucking my head down. Here in the dark, with only the dim light of the estate, and the moon that popped in and out of existence, playing peek-a-boo from behind the clouds, I finally felt like I disappeared. I wanted to hide away from the nightmares, from the fears. I hoped to vanish. Lose the scared little girl who stayed trapped within those nightmares. If only I could evaporate. Change from whoever this Trinity had become.

There was a noise somewhere close. I didn’t want to move, to look.

“Baby bird, it’s just me,” Reid said, assuring me in a calming tone.

“Reid, what are you doing?”

I adjusted my legs. Put them down. Folded my arms over my breasts, and crossed my legs. I wanted to blend into the bolder. Mesh into the structure. Dissolve.

“I thought I saw you. I was wondering why you would be out here in the dark?” Reid replied as he sat down beside me.

Feeling weary to the bone, I decided not to lie, not to hide the truth. I was tired of hiding the truth. Reid already knew I was a freak so one more confession wouldn’t change his opinion.

“I have nightmares.”

I dropped my face from view. Reid reached, lifted my chin up.

“About what?”

“Different things,” I confessed. “Sometimes about darkness, sometimes about open spaces, sometimes—”

“Trinity, have you always been so frightened, so scared of everything?”

I did something I would have never thought; I grabbed Reid’s hand. I held on to it in an attempt to absorb some of his strength.

“No,” I confessed.

“Then what happened?”

I skimmed my lips over Reid’s knuckles. I had nothing left to lose, I figured. He was leaving soon. He may not come back. Someday he wouldn’t come back. I feared that, the thought of him moving on with his life and leaving me and my fantasies of him behind. I considered for a moment. I knew my fear never got me anywhere so I was going to give a part of my fear up.

I clenched my smaller hand around his large one.

“I almost died,” I said. The sound of my voice seemed to come from nowhere as if it were part of the night itself.

“Tell me how, baby bird?”

“We haven’t always lived here in California,” I said. “At one time we lived in New York. My father was an architect. Anyway, I’d gone into the city with him. I’d been bugging to go with him. I was closer with him than my sister Bentley was.” A shudder racked my body. He brushed his hand down the back of my head, twined his fingers into what had to be wild tangles.

“It’s okay, Trinity. Tell me.”

“We’d gone to meet one of my father’s friends. After their meeting, we would spend the day together. He planned all the events. There were some buildings he wanted to show me. He knew I liked architecture. So he was going to show off ‘some of the best’ as he called them.”

I pulled back from Reid’s hold. He was looking at me. Really looking. I shivered.

“We were walking. I found a penny. I remember the bright shining color of copper flickering on the ground. I picked it up and showed it to my father. He told me to ‘make a wish.’ I remember his smile, the way his face looked. His eyes were deep green, you know, like Bentley’s.”

“Like yours,” Reid offered.

“Then the world came apart,” I said

“I don’t understand. What do you mean the world came apart?”

“At the time I didn’t know. I didn’t understand what was happening. Someone pulled me out of the gray, out of the vast nothingness. I’d never been so frightened, so confused, so scared.”