*
Later that evening, he stopped by his parents’ house on the way home to his cottage, which was situated just along from the family home. His mom leaned over her vegetable garden pulling weeds from between her tomatoes plants, loading them into a wheelbarrow for her compost heap. Her garden seemed to get away from her during cherry picking season and being away on vacation meant things had really gotten wild and overgrown but she refused to give up on it.
“Ethan, I wasn’t expecting you this evening. Everything all right?”
“Hi, Mom. This is an impromptu visit. I have something to tell you.” He gave her a quick hug. “Guess who I bumped into today?”
She pulled off her gardening gloves and shrugged. “No idea. Just tell me.” She swatted at a flying insect buzzing around her face.
He had a quick moment of doubt but forged ahead. His mom wasn’t normally the type to judge a person, not like his father and she deserved to know. But Ethan thought this would be different. She loved Mari, thought the world of her and the feeling had been mutual. Pearl was everything Mari’s mother wasn’t. Caring and warm, firm but kind. She’d gone a long way to making the lost teenager feel as though someone loved her when her own mother had failed in her duty. He fully expected his mom to lash out in pain more than anything. “Mari.”
Her eyes went wide and her jaw slack. It took a moment before she could form a coherent word. “Is she okay? What happened? Why didn’t she call us? Does she want to see me? Did you talk to her?”
He put his hand on her shoulder. “Mom, calm down. She’s fine.”
“But what happened to her? Did she say why she wouldn’t speak to us when Rake died? Why she had to sneak into town and leave without giving us the opportunity to say goodbye to our son?” Tears filled her eyes and the old pain surfaced. “I missed her so much when she ran away and blame myself for what happened. I couldn’t even give her a hug.”
“We both know it wasn’t your fault she ran. You did everything you could for her. If anyone was to blame it was me and Dad. I pushed her away when she needed me instead of standing up to him. I could’ve been a much kinder boyfriend but that’s something on my shoulders, not yours. You did so much for her, stepping in when her own mother let her down, raising her alongside of us.”
“It wasn’t enough.” She gave a shaky sigh. “I love your dad, you know that, but for a clever man he can be a stubborn fool sometimes. I don’t care what anyone said, she’s not the type to break into our house and trash it. She wouldn’t do it. You siding with him was so unlike you, Ethan. For the life of me, I don’t know why you wanted to hurt her like that.”
“I know, Mom. I was young and stupid, wasn’t thinking straight. We’d had a falling out and I wanted to lash out at her. If I could take it all back I would. We were too young to settle down and I didn’t tell her that in the nicest way. Things got out of control.”
“I wish I knew why she didn’t keep in touch with us.” She wiped her hand over her eyes. “What she must have gone through when Rake died.” A huge sigh shuddered through her body. “We could’ve helped her if we’d known how ill he was. It’s not right, Ethan.”
“I know.” He leaned against the fence he’d helped her build to keep out the marauding chickens. “She’s done well for herself though. I didn’t think it was the time or place to quiz her over everything she’s done because she was busy. But I was surprised at how well things turned out for her.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe it was the best thing that happened at the time.”
Shock rendered his mom speechless for all of five seconds. “Ethan. How can you say that? The poor girl ran away from home because your father accused her of trashing our house right on the back of her mother dying and you did nothing to help her. If anything, you stacked the odds against her for some petty, childish reason. You two were so close up until just before she left.”
She wiped the back of her hand over her cheek, leaving a smear of dirt on her skin. “And Rake left as well despite us wishing he’d choose a safer career. This family was so traumatized at the time. Losing both of them did nothing but make you and me question everything we’d done, every decision I made for you boys.” She shook her head. “Do you know how many nights I lay awake sick over what happened, wondering if they were both okay? Until I found out they were together, I imagined her sleeping rough under a bridge or getting stuck in with the wrong crowd and ending up in trouble. I had nightmares about it, wondering if she was going to follow the same path as her mother.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No, she didn’t. We all knew your brother could take care of himself because he was older and he did, even though I missed him like crazy. We knew he had somewhere to go, a place to stay while he chased his dream. Still, I worried about her more, even though she had Rake to look after her.” Tears swam in her eyes. “So many wasted years, Ethan. Years we’ll never get back now that he’s gone. Things we’ll never know, questions we’ll never get answered because he’s not here to tell us.”
“We all know how well he did for himself. She was okay with him.”
“That’s beside the point. I missed my son. Being a big pro boxer didn’t keep him safe,
