Chapter 7
After their hearty meal at Freddy’s, Gary dragged along a reluctant Aubrey with him to the birthday party of a family friend. The celebrant was the eleven-year-old daughter of Gary’s friends. The cheeky little girl wore Aubrey down with a series of questions that made her cranky enough to shoo the child away with a stern warning for her not to come back if she didn’t want to be bitten in the face. Aubrey disliked children because they were noisy, clingy, and downright destructive. She couldn’t for the life of her understand why anyone would have them.
“I saw what you just did,” her father said as he settled down on a plastic chair beside her. It was an outdoor party in the family’s backyard and the place was buzzing with festivity, tons of food and lots of children running around and playing. “You can’t keep scaring off ad ease stop talking to me as if I am a little girl,” she said with a smile. “Besides, that child was bugging me. I needed to get rid of her before I lost my temper.”
“That sweet child was bugging you?”
“She wasn’t sweet to me,” she shrugged.
“Does this mean I shouldn’t have hopes of seeing my own grandchildren someday?”
Aubrey sighed. “We’ve talked about this before, Daddy. I don’t want kids. I don’t like them and I’m sorry if that sounds awful, but I don’t have a single maternal bone in my body. Why is that so hard to understand?”
“It’s ok, honey. Everybody is entitled to their feelings. I’ll just adopt some strangers’ grandkids and make them mine.”
When she frowned, he laughed and punched her playfully on the arm. “I’m just kidding, darling. No grandkids for me in this lifetime, I get it.”
Aubrey shook her head. “You’re just a drama queen. You and mom should have had more kids, maybe one of the others would’ve been interested in having grandkids for you.”
Gary stroked his beardless chin. “We did try, your mother and I, but it just never happened. And then that stupid colon cancer came out of nowhere and took her away from me just like that.”
Aubrey heard the bitterness in her father’s voice and her heart ached for him. Even she still hadn’t come to terms with her mother’s sudden death 23 years ago. She’d only been sick briefly and before they knew it, she was gone. What they hadn’t known then was that she’d been sick for quite a long time, but Maria Silver had kept her illness a secret from her family to prevent them from worrying. When they’d finally found out, it had been too late to do anything. Aubrey still couldn’t fathom why her mother had chosen to suffer in silence instead of seeking help early enough. It was a secret grudge that she still had against her dead mother till this day—because if her mother hadn’t died, she would’ve grown up like all the other kids in her neighborhood who had their mom and dad with them as they grew up, and not like her who only had her workaholic dad as an occasional companion for years.
“I’m sorry I brought back painful memories for you with my careless words. Please, forgive me.”
“Oh, stop it, sweetheart,” her dad said dismissively while blinking away tears. “Those memories are always with me, whether you bring it up or not. It was Maria who broke my heart, not you.”
She broke my heart too, Aubrey thought sadly.
“Say, why don’t we go visit ol’ Reverend Timothy and his wife at their barn?” Gary said, his sad mood instantly replaced with a cheerful smile. “He wants me to come and look over some of his land documents for him. Someone wants to buy a portion of his land to build a vocational training center for the folks around here.”
Ugh! Aubrey thought in exasperation. She knew her father well enough to know that he wasn’t asking her if she wanted to come along with him to his client’s place, he was telling her to come along with him whether she liked it or not. She should have known this was going to happen the moment she asked him to go and have brunch with her. First, he dragged her to this hullabaloo of a birthday party, and now he was attempting to drag her to the Reverend’s barn for another windy ass get-together with the dreadfully boring old couple.
Gary Silver was a brilliant lawyer with over three decades worth of experience under his belt. Although now he had his own private practice, he still worked as hard as he did in the old days with no days off.
“Daddy, please. You’ll have to take a taxi there because I’m not going with you,” she said in a don’t-even-think-about-it tone.
“Come on, darling, please. You know I hate riding in those taxis that take forever to show up, and most of the drivers drive like maniacs.”
“I’m not going,” she said stubbornly.
“Darling, you’re hardly ever around, so now that you’re here, this is an opportunity for me to spend some quality time with you. Come on, sweetheart. Don’t you want to spend some time with your old man?”
Aubrey knew her father was playing mind games with her, but she also knew that he was right. She spent so much time away from home that she and her father communicated mostly over the phone and on video calls. She may not like the kind of crowd he moved with, but this was his chance to hang out with her before she left Fairbanks again until God-knows-when.
She sighed and conceded defeat graciously. “Ok, Daddy, but don’t expect me to participate in any boring conversation you guys might be having. Agreed?”
Gary chuckled. “Agreed. Let’s go tell George and Malika that we’re leaving. And you owe their daughter an apology for being nasty to her.”
“Great,” she said flatly and followed her dad to go bid their hosts a quick goodbye. Their daughter, the birthday celebrant, was jumping on an inflated bouncing castle with her friends, so Aubrey was saved from apologizing to the little bugger.
They drove down the other side of town to the Pearson’s residence that housed their huge farmhouse, a barn, and a wide expanse of land (part of which used to be a cornfield). The Pearsons retired from farming nearly a decade ago after the last of their four children got married and moved out of the family home. They tried to keep the farm going for a while, but they were too old to run it and they weren’t impressed with how the hired hands ran the place, so they shut it down. Only the barn remained active with a few farm animals that they continued to keep mostly as pets. The Pearsons were famous for being hard to please, so nobody was surprised when they fired all their workers and said goodbye to full-time farming. The back-breaking farm work was one of the reasons their children all ran off (as Mrs. Pearson always said) as soon as they could. Now, the gigantic property was an echo of what it used to be—grand but nearly devoid of life.
Aubrey parked her sleek Mercedes car on the driveway before she and her dad walked arm in arm to the front door of the Pearson’s massive house which had been built by the elderly Reverend’s great-grandfather. Aubrey knocked on the door twice and waited a few minutes before the heavy oak door swung open to reveal Mrs. Pearson standing there with a wide smile on her face.
“Welcome!” She greeted cheerfully. “Oh, my goodness, is that my little Aubrey?”
Everyone in Fairbank was little to the ancient Mrs. Pearson because she’d lived in the neighborhood since forever and everyone (except her husband, of course) grew up right under her cute button nose. Her long hair was white and held up in her usual firm chignon style. She was dressed in her customary dull-colored housedress with a white apron in front.
“Yes, Aida, it’s your little Aubrey,” Gary replied to the friendly old woman with a warm smile.
“Hello, Mrs. Pearson,” Aubrey greeted politely.
“Well, come on in you two,” she said, opening the door wider to let them in.
They stepped into the hall and were greeted by the rich smell of freshly baked chicken pie and brewing coffee. Aida Pearson was legendary for welcoming her guests with delicious meals, no matter the time of day, even on a short notice.
“Goodness gracious, Aida! Don’t tell me you baked that pie just for me,” Gary said with an excited laugh.
“Yes, I did just that, Gary,” Mrs. Pearson replied, pleased. “I know you love your chicken pie, so I baked some for you to munch on after you and Timothy are done talking business.”
“That’s mighty thoughtful of you. Thank you,” Gary said with a flourish.
“You’re most welcome. Although, someone already beat you to the first piece. Eric is here.”
Aubrey’s senses perked up the moment she heard Eric’s name. What are the odds of running into him again barely hours after having wild sex with him in her father’s house? Had he known they would come here or was this just a coincidence? Aubrey also wondered if things might be awkward between them given their last encounter. Well, that remains to be seen, she thought as she followed her father to the Pearson’s dining room where the Reverend and Eric were laughing about whatever they were discussing before the others showed up.