Shadow Riser, Page 3

towel to her. She wrapped it around her body and stepped out, letting out an undignified, “eep!”, as she almost slipped on the cold tiled floor.

  She got dressed quickly and left the bathroom without even stopping to look at herself in the mirror. But, when she reached the top of the stairs, she hesitated for a moment and toned down her urgency to carefully go down them.

  She had been eleven years old when a bully at school, who had been making fun of her Freak Girl status, pushed her down a flight of stairs. Kennedy had ended up with a broken ankle, a few bruises and an even more wounded pride. It also made her paranoid when going down even two steps ever since.

  By the time that she arrived at the kitchen, her mother was already on what seemed to be her second round trip to the car. There were three bags on the counter and the backdoor was open. She was tempted to go trough them then and there. However, she stepped out and headed to the car. She met her mother on the way and took the heavy bags that she was carrying off her arms.

  “Gracias, Kennedy.” Her mother smiled her infectious smile as she thanked her and she couldn’t help but to smile back. Kennedy watched her turn back around to get the remaining packages from the car.

  Her mother was a very beautiful woman, whereas Kennedy considered herself a plain girl. The only extraordinary trait that she actually possessed was the weird gray color of her eyes.

  It wasn’t just Kennedy's perspective, people often commented on it. She was sometimes jealous that she hadn’t inherited her mother's good looks. Her grandmother in Spain was always telling her how she looked so much like her father. She really couldn't see the resemblance to either of them.

  She wanted so badly to please her mother, which may have been the reason why she let her decorate her bedroom.

  Kennedy placed the bags on the counter besides the others and went to fetch some more. When she reached the doorway, she saw that her mother was already on her way back signaling that she was bringing the last of them.

  She turned around excitedly and began taking stuff out from the bags. She kept an expert eye out for the candy bar that she knew her mother always bought for her.

  “Has your father come out of his hole yet?” The soft Spanish accented voice of her mother startled her. Kennedy almost dropped a jar of grape jelly at her question.

  She had forgotten all about the Archer incident. She looked up and smiled guiltily at her mom.

  “He went out to meet with a Mr. Archer. Do you know him, mama?” Her mother’s face paled at hearing the man’s name. It made Kennedy even more curious as to what role this James Archer played in her parent’s lives.

  “Yes, your father has been working with him on some freelance project.” She seemed to have regained her composure, but smiled a fake smile and made a point of sifting through her handbag without looking at her.

  “Really? I didn’t know that, you guys haven't mentioned it before.” Kennedy wasn't fooled.

  “Well, it’s a freelance thing, as I’ve already told you, and you never heard it mentioned because you aren’t interested in your father’s research and you always leave the room when the topic arises in conversation.” Her mother’s tone had taken a chiding quality. Kennedy didn't buy it. It was no secret that she didn’t approve of her daughter having anything to do with Steven’s bizarre interests.

  So she was going to play the guilt trip card now, was she? Let her keep her undisclosed information, she would find out about it soon enough.

  “Anyway, he gave the impression that it was important. But, okay.” She straightened up and crossed her arms over her chest. “Where’s my chocolate?”

  “Here, but wait for dinner first. You’ll ruin your appetite.” Her mother looked relieved at the change of subject. She took the bar from her purse and handed it to her, with a real smile that time.

  “Mama, you know I can have chocolate for breakfast and down a plate of pancakes right after that as if it were nothing.” Her mother shot her a caustic look, but assented and turned around with a wave of her hand.

  “Eat it. But you better not leave even a single grain of rice on your plate.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You know I won’t.” She smirked and made a quick job of opening the wrapper. The sweet smell of the candy bar attacked her senses at once and her mouth was watering by the time that she broke off a very large piece and placed it on her tongue.

  “Mm, bliss!” She squealed when a little chocolate escaped from the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away with her finger and licked it. Her mother rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full!” She scolded and gave her a light slap on the wrist. Kennedy made a show of looking hurt. Still, she shut her mouth. Her mom always had that power over her.

  “Hurry and finish that so you can help me put all this away before dinner.” She nodded and swallowed, folding the wrapper on the candy and putting it in her pocket to finish later. She moved to help her mother with accommodating the cans and non perishables in the cellar.

  Kennedy hated cellar duty. Her mom was a neat freak and she wanted everything to be classified by contents and expiration dates. It took her almost half an hour to sort through and organize all of the items in their specific order. The new ones at the back after she'd moved the old ones to the front.

  As soon as she set foot outside the cellar, she was met with the appetizing scent of her mother’s cooking. She headed towards the kitchen to see if she could help her mother out with anything else. In truth, she was mainly going to see if she could steal a piece of that delicious smelling meat from under her nose. But, eh, tomato, tomâto.

  She found her mom stationed at the sink with her back to her. It seemed that she hadn’t heard her come in because she was still humming the familiar tune of the old lullaby that she used to sing her to sleep with under her breath.

  That was her chance.

  Kennedy moved stealthily to the counter besides the stove and extended a hand to the serving plate that was filled with the first piece of cooked meat. She could already savor the spicy taste of it.

  “Don’t even think about it.” How did her mother do that? It was as if she had eyes on the back of her head. Her father would have a field day with that one if it were true.

  “What? I was just going to cover it. We don’t want a fly to stand on them, they vomit everything before they eat it, you know!” Maybe she hadn’t been that stealthy after all.

  “Uh-huh and I was born yesterday. Por favor, Nena.” Nena was her mother’s nickname for her. A sweetened version of its original, Niña. It meant girl when roughly translated to English. Somehow it didn't sound that cute when you did.

  “Okay, so I’m hungry! Can’t we eat yet?” Kennedy whined like the little girl that she often liked to pretend she wasn't.

  “You're always hungry. But, I guess we may as well go ahead, your father hasn’t called yet. Did he say when he would be back?”

  “No, he just told me to tell you that he was meeting that Archer guy. I’m gonna set the table.”

  “Okay, I’ll just finish this up and meet you there.” Her mom walked to the stove and began to take the remaining pieces of meat out of the pan.

  To the untrained eye, her mother appeared to be fine with her father’s rendezvous with Archer. Kennedy knew better, she could see the concern written in her eyes when she had asked about it.

  She knew that if she pried, it was possible that she would have been able to squeeze a few details out, given her mother’s state of mind. But, she decided that it was best to stay silent and let the whole thing play out.

  One thing that she had learned while growing in that family unit was that patience and perseverance were the key to achieving everything. Unfortunately, those were two things that she didn't have in abundance.

  She took out the plates, glasses and utensils that she would need and stacked them up so that she could take them all in one trip and proceeded on her way to the small adjoining dinning room.

  After the tabl
e was set, they sat down to eat their arroz blanco con habichuelas y chuletas fritas – white rice, beans and fried pork chops – and made light conversation between bites.

  Her mother talked about their new neighbor, whom she had baked the brownies for as a welcome gift. That left Kennedy with a very limited amount of pieces for herself. She hated him already.

  He'd moved in that very morning and she had yet to meet him. According to her mom he was ,“a fine young man in his early twenties, polite and well mannered.”

  All that, she had surmised after a thirty second greeting while she'd been watering her orchids.

  She also asked about the movies that she had seen that week and Kennedy indulged her since she knew that she was just trying to keep her mind off her husband’s whereabouts.

  When they were done, she helped wash the dishes and told her mom to go ahead and take a well earned bubble bath while she finished cleaning everything up.

  She took a small serving bowl and placed a brownie inside, heated it up in the microwave, carefully handling the dinner they had left out for Steven in the process and placed a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the warm cake. Then, she swirled some chocolate syrup in, a handful of chopped hazelnuts and topped it off with a cherry. It looked so perfect that it was almost a shame to ruin it by eating it.

  Her dessert in hand, she headed giddily up to her room, opened the sliding door that lead to her private balcony