Through The Dark

43 - Emmalyn

43 - Emmalyn

I laughed out loud as Ben sang at the top of his lungs along with Olivia to a popular pop song of the moment. I knew she was still pretty shaken up by her mother's sudden and careless departure. She would not be on a car on the highway to a city four or five hours away otherwise. But I was positive that Ben and I were cheering her up just enough to get her there.

All Olivia needed was a family member that cared about her, and apparently her grandmother was the perfect person for the job.

Olivia held onto a birthday card that had her grandmother's address. We had reached a rest station halfway there and there I urged –pretty much forced - Olivia to call her grandmother to at least let her know she was arriving, and with two strangers.

'She said she would have cookies and lemonade for us,' Olivia said as she put the cellphone back into her jean's back pocket. I nodded in understanding and waved at Ben to hurry up. The line to get Slurpee's was long.

'See, that was not so bad,' I chirped.

'Emmalyn, she has no idea I am going there to tell her my mother abandoned me to go to Italy –probably with her twenty-years-younger-boyfriend.'

I scratched at the back of my neck nervously. How did I rebut that?

Ben came back and filled the silent gap. 'Let's go back to the car,' I said in a small voice.

'You already went to the bathroom, right?' Olivia confirmed, looking at Ben.

'Yeah,' he said with a crimson blush. He hated being treated like a kid. Too bad he could not see he still was one.

I was a bit nervous. Mom had said she would explain to the school why we had left in the middle of the week with just a couple of weeks left and with quizzes happening every other day. Both Olivia and I needed to get all the credits we were taking this school year, so that our senior year to come was not that stressful.

I was doing great, I barely needed to take those tests, but that did not mean I was going to pass on them. I tried to keep it off my mind but it was hard to pretend I did not care for my grades, which were the very thing that defined my future.

It was dark by the time we parked in front of a small one floor house. The outside light was on, and Olivia looked quite relaxed as soon as she laid eyes on the place. I could tell Ben was tired and I needed some rest myself.

An elder lady came out to meet us and embraced Olivia in a warm hug. I was glad to see it. Olivia surely needed it to hold up. The woman had her grey hair up in a bun and a simple smile adorning her face along with glasses that were pinched on her nose merrily. It was hard to believe Olivia could have such a normal relative.

She was her father's mother, though, so that explained a lot.

'You guys alright?' she asked after she had finished hugging her granddaughter. She came up to us. Ben was standing behind me, feeling shy to meet the grandmother of his crush, I assumed. I almost wanted to laugh at his silliness. 'Nice to meet you. You must be Emmalyn. My name is Pamela.' Mrs. Pamela extended her hand to shake mine and I took it eagerly. 'You must be Ben. Hello, darling.' Ben cleared his throat but still looked timid. 'Let's go inside, you must be tired.'

'The place looks lovely, granny,' Olivia said, putting her arm around her grandmother affectionately. I smiled placidly. Olivia was safe here.

'Yes, I get a young boy to tend to the garden once a month,' Mrs. Pamela commented to Olivia.

'Your lilies are beautiful,' I complimented.

'Thanks, darling. They were my Anna's favorites.'

We finally got into the house. Pictures of Olivia and her family in better times adorned the walls and tables. Anna smiled by the side of her brother happily. Other people I did not know joined them for some more photographs. Olivia's mother was in one, standing with her husband about twenty years ago. Less, I think, because Olivia was there, in her mother's arms as a baby.

'Was the journey tough?' Mrs. Pamela asked us as we sat on a couch in the living room, drinking lemonade as if there was no tomorrow.

'Not really,' Olivia said, biting into a cookie. 'These are really good, granny. I missed them.'

'And I missed you. That mother of yours never replied to my letters. I asked her time and time again to come with you to visit me.' Mrs. Pamela had a sour look on her face now and I gave Ben a warning glance to keep to himself and his cookies.

Olivia hummed in response and I understood she wanted to wait until the morning to talk to her grandmother about her mother and what she had done. I respected her decision and went for another cookie, reminiscing on the flavor as I gave another look at the house. While Olivia did small talk with her grandmother I dove into the pictures once again, trying to figure her and her family out.