Behind Your Walls

21 | a conversation

When I place the cup of coffee in front of a stressed Melody, she smiles and I take it that she doesn't think of me as an unwelcome presence during a time like this. I sit beside her on the sofa. She takes a sip of her coffee and I wait for her to comment on its taste.

"It's good. You can drop that worried face," she says.

I beam at the compliment and take a sip of my coffee. For someone who has had a bad relationship with the kitchen, it does taste good. I place my cup on the table and face Melody who drinks her coffee slowly while staring blankly at the wall ahead. I want to ask her about Mr. Bell but I don't want to disturb her either so I stay quiet.

"He won't survive." Melody breaks the silence between us.

"Is it that bad?" I ask and she nods.

It breaks my heart to hear that. Carter is already in pain because of his mother leaving them. If something happens to Mr. Bell too, it will tear him apart.

Melody finishes her coffee and puts the cup on the table. She turns to face me and to my surprise, takes my hands in hers and looks me straight in the eyes. Her eyes are teary and they carry a sympathetic look that I don't know what to make of. She is Mr. Bell's nurse. She should be in the hospital with him but she is sitting here with me like it is not a matter in which she can meddle.

"Amaya, I have never seen him like this before," she says.

"Mr. Bell?"

"No, Carter," she corrects me. "I have never seen him like the way he is when he is around you. He smiles and laughs with you. He has changed."

I swallow a gulp at Melody's words. Her tone is sad which makes it difficult to understand whether she is concerned or upset.

"Is that bad?"

"No." She shakes her head as she speaks. "It isn't. It's the best thing that I have had the luxury to see and it's because of you. Ellie would have been so happy to see him like that."

Her eyes cast downwards, staring at the floor in a daze.

"Ellie...as in his mom? You know her?"

Melody's gaze is back on me and for a while, she looks at me like I have asked a bizarre question.

"I do," she sighs after a while. "It's hard to forget a face you grew up with."

My lips part in surprise and I blink my eyes, soaking her words in. "You grew up with Carter's Mom? So, you're..."

"She was my sister. I'm Carter's aunt."

"Oh.." I exclaim softly, the new information making me feel ashamed of having assumed things about her without ever speaking to her.

"I know what you're thinking," Melody says, making me look back at her. "It's fine if you assumed something wrong, I don't mind. Carter doesn't know either."

"Why?" I inquire.

Carter not knowing that he has an aunt is amusing. I know all my relatives even though I have never had the chance to meet them personally but pictures of your family members are hard to miss when they are scattered over every album in your house.

"It's a long story. Carter never saw me because his Mom avoided me." Melody's eyes carry a reminiscing look as she speaks. "I was eighteen when I ran away with my lover against my parents' and Ellie's wishes. They have torn off their ties with me since then. They said he wasn't a good man and he wouldn't keep me happy. I was rebellious, unlike Ellie, and so I ran away but turns out...they were right. He left me after my miscarriage and never returned. I came back here to Ellie and she was the only one who welcomed me but kept me hidden from her family. It was after she was gone that I gathered the courage to face Parker Bell again and he agreed to keep my secret if I can look out for his son."

"Look out for his son? You're here for Carter?"

She nods again and continues with her story. "Carter's a fragile boy and with his Dad being in this condition and without his Mom to take care of him, he has already messed up a lot in his life. I just want him to be happy."

Something strikes my mind and I squeeze Melody's hands as I say, "You talk of Ellie in the past tense. Carter told me she left. Don't you speak to your sister anymore?"

Melody appears startled by that question.

"Did Carter say that to you? That she left?" I nod and she sighs, letting go of my hands and running them through her hair. "Oh no...he's still stuck in that thought. Ellie isn't just gone from their lives, Amaya. Ellie died when Carter was twelve."

I feel my body turn cold. The words take me by shock and as I watch Melody, with her hands on her knees and covering her face with her palms, I rub my mouth with the back of my hand, perplexed with what I have just heard. I had no idea that Carter's Mom could be dead. It means if anything happens to Mr. Bell, Carter will be an orphan.

"Oh my God!" I gasp, making Melody lift her head to look at me.

"I know how you feel. Ellie's death was a shock for everyone. She didn't have a good married life. Parker had started to drink after his company closed down. Ellie was the only earning member of the family but she got tired one day and decided to leave. She took Carter with her in the car but there was a collision with a truck on the highway and she died on spot. Carter survived with some injuries and when he was told of his mother's death, he couldn't believe it. Parker was devastated and it was then that he took me in to take care of Carter but told Carter that I was his nurse. I have been in the family since."

The confession slowly starts to sink in but the thought about Carter being an orphan roams in my mind. I knew his life was messed up but that it would be this tragic was unexpected.

"How did Carter cope with it?"

"Badly," she replies. "He started to skip school to visit his mother's grave and then started to get into fights. We had to change towns because the schools wouldn't keep him with his violent nature until we came here. Carter got the scholarship and promised his Dad that he won't fight in school anymore when Parker got diagnosed with lung cancer. I thought it wouldn't work but it did. He did stop getting into fights at school but he still keeps showing up with those injuries. He says they are from the games he plays at school but I...I don't know."

He doesn't. He gets them from those underground fights of his. I wonder how Carter has been able to manage to hide his secrets from his guardians for so long but it doesn't come as a surprise when I think of Mark. The guy's presence in Carter's life is toxic, just like Panther's presence in mine.

I reach over and hold Melody's hand, pressing softly as I look into her eyes and nod in understanding. I see a teardrop that trails down her cheek and rubs off quickly.

"Your secret's safe with me," I say.

Melody smiles and is about to say something when the sound of the front door opening pulls our attention to it.

With bated breaths, we wait as Carter walks into the sitting room, and by the look on his face and the fresh injuries covering his body, I figure out instantly that he has messed up again.