Redeeming the Darkness

Chapter One - Ivy

I started talking about moving to Taylorsville, Ohio to live with my grandparents when I was sixteen years old. My mom was hurt for a long time because she thought she'd done something to drive me away, but that wasn't the case at all.

I always seemed to be the Murphy kid that broke all the rules. It didn't bother me that people saw me in that light, but when I graduated high school, I was ready to leave that brand behind.

I was ready to experience new things.

I was ready for my adventure.

Not many people would think moving in with their grandparents, in their seventies would be an adventure, but they had never met Pop and Gram.

Mom and Dad tried to convince me to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Murphy, and while I loved them and would miss them, it wasn't far enough away. I think after a while Mom finally understood moving was something I didn't just want, it was something I needed.

Pop said I could live with them and I was beyond grateful even though I wanted to work hard to get out on my own. Gram told me to take my time, but I knew I wanted to be independent more than anything. They were both so happy to have one of us living near them since we'd been a three-hour drive our entire lives.

Pop offered me a job cleaning cars and doing janitorial things at Cooper's Cars & Stuff, the business he built from the ground up, and I accepted. I became the fastest car cleaner they'd ever seen. I was technically quicker than my mother had been, and she'd worked there since she was a baby.

Three years had passed since I moved away from home, and almost two since I'd moved into a small house across the street from Cooper's. My uncle Ryan happened to be a realtor and owned a few homes in town, so I was lucky enough to rent from him. He started his business shortly after moving to Taylorsville, to be near Gram, and then stayed because he met Aunt Sam.

The day the universe decided to step in and change my life, I was working in the office in the garage. The day had gone rather smoothly, so when an angry man came in twenty minutes before closing, demanding we fix his car, I was a little thrown off.

I was number three in the chain of command. Aunt Sam ran the place. When she wasn't around, the title of 'boss' usually went to Oliver, the shop's backup manager that Pop appointed. When they were both off duty, it went to me.

In my months of being part of that chain, my worst day had been when I realized I ordered four times as much oil as our shop went through in a month. Not only was it too much, but it was also the kind we used the least. I think I sat and stared at the shipment for over an hour before I got the nerve to call Aunt Sam.

That day in June was very different, though. It happened to be my dad's birthday, and I was on the phone with him when I heard yelling near the front desk.

"Hey, dad, I've gotta hop off here. Some jerk is out there screaming at Randy, again," I said, standing to head out there.

"That poor kid gets yelled at an awful lot," he chuckled.

"Yeah, it's because he's young. These idiots don't think he knows what he's talking about, but I'll teach this one a lesson."

"Take the wrench with you," he said.

"Got it. Hope you have a good birthday, I love you."

"It would be a lot better if you were here," he said, as usual. "I love you, too, Ivy. Be careful and knock some sense into that jerk." I loved that he had complete faith in my ability to take care of things. I think it was something he learned about women when he met Mom.

After hanging up, I grabbed the wrench off the shelf next to the door and walked out to the front desk.

I came face-to-face with a man that was six feet three, around two hundred and fifty pounds, and a face that conveyed enough anger to convince me he was part rodeo bull.