The Trouble with Hades

Chapter 17

"What happened after you got her pregnant?"

"Nancy disappeared. I woke up the next morning, and my bed was empty. There was a note that said that she would return when you were five so that your training could begin. She said that she would keep in contact with me and that she would involve her brother to ensure that he was adequately prepared for the future. I waited. I was in the same house for many years, but I never saw your mother again. There was no way of finding you and your mother was determined to hide. I suppose from me but definitely from the enemy. Perhaps she changed her mind about our agreement for your training. There was no way that she would have died from our interaction for a few years, but I feared that something else might have happened. Knowing that you could not have died, I searched the orphanages to no avail."

Well, that was certainly a tale. I just wished that my mother had been sober enough to tell it to me. I suppose there were a lot of things that I could wish for, but knowing what she was like, I knew that not one of them would come true.

"Tell me about your life."

"Well, our life was always on the go. She lived her life on the street corner, or at least, that's where I thought she was. I really have no idea where she went at night. I'd come home from school, and she'd be walking out the door."

Carsten was shocked, almost horrified.

"I learned how to cook thanks to a neighbor who could smell the burning food and was banging on the door, begging me not to burn the apartment building down. She figured out that my mother was hardly ever home and made sure that I knew she was always around if I needed her. It would have been great, except a month later, we moved. I think she called child services, and my mother got wind of it. Anyway, I'd wake in the morning and my mother would either be in her bed or on the lounge suite. Either way, she was always passed out. I'd have breakfast, get ready for school and then leave. She was always angry. I couldn't do anything right, and everything she shouted at me contradicted what she'd yelled at me previously. When I didn't do the right thing because I didn't know what was right or wrong, she'd hit me."

Carsten's head turned as his eyes shut tightly. His fists balled on his legs. Slowly, he exhaled, and when he returned to me, I was faced with a much calmer being. There was still a lot of pain on his face, but he'd shut it down to listen to me.

"I always thought that I was a bad child. Nothing was ever right. Everything was always wrong. We moved constantly, and I began to think that I was the reason. I got in trouble at school, with the law, I never had friends, I was always the outcast. Nothing ever made sense until I came here. Pieces have been falling into place and I keep thinking that there was a reason for everything that she did. You might agree with that, but I don't. I was trying to sanctify her abuse but I can't do that anymore, especially not when I now know that she could have honored her agreement with you. She could have left me with you. Then, I would know everything that I need to know right now. I wouldn't be floating aimlessly in that stupid rowboat."

"I don't agree with your mother, Evelyn, and I am sorry that you endured that life. If I could have found you, I would have. I know that it will mean little to you, but it sounds as if Nancy had lost her mind. The past that you have spoken about, the person that she was, that was not the woman that I knew. Yes, the light was fading from her eyes and yes, she believed that she would be found one day, but not once did she ever show a sign of that kind of a life."

"Do you think she was trying to make a warrior out of me?"

"Perhaps in her sick mind, yes. If Nancy had any sense, she would have returned to me. I would have brought the two of you into my home and my life. Your mother would have been safe within my walls, and you would have been prepared for this moment. That is what I'd planned to offer her when I woke the morning after. It wasn't love, but it could have been. We'd been friends for many years, and I always enjoyed her company."

That was the life that I should have had. It was far better than the one that I'd endured. As I thought about it, I wondered how the rest of my life would have been shaped. There would be no Anzide, at least not in the way that we'd met. We might have met in the portal, or maybe I would have found someone else.

Would we have returned to Hades? Yes, but under what circumstances? At what point would we have come across Niko in his jail cell, that was more like a poorly constructed tomb?

I had no answers, and I wanted to say that everything happened for a reason, but at what point was I supposed to stop making excuses for her terrible behavior and admit that she was an awful mother?

"I have a meeting to go to. Well, not really a meeting. I'm looking at the rental property across the road."

The house that Mardyl had stayed in when he was here in town, lying his ass off to me and the Nephilim.

"Some fellow named Tom Garrow. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, kind of. He rented this place to us before we took over as owners. He's a nice guy, kind of overdoing the spray tans and teeth whitening, though."

Carsten chuckled as we stood and walked to the door.

"If you like, I can return afterward."

"Sounds great."

"I know it's not easy for you, Evelyn. I understand your apprehension and I am not offended by it. As I said earlier, I will do my duty to you, and then I will leave."

Our walk to the front of the property stopped when Tom got out of his car. He looked over at us with a slight frown and then an uneasy wave. I waved back.

"He won't understand the situation."

"And he should be kept in the dark. I look too young, and to suggest that you are my daughter would seem impossible to his mind. I am merely a man who arrived early, saw the curious situation, and decided to say hello."

I nodded, giving Carsten a smile.

"Okay, normal man. I guess I'll see you later."

"Until then."

Iwatched him walk away for a few seconds and then turned back to the marquee. Mywalk across the lawn was quick because I needed a little insight before hereturned.