Chapter 4

Everybody sat up late watching television but paying little attention to the programs, all lost in their own thoughts trying to make sense of the day’s events. Finally, from pure emotional exhaustion, first Adam, then Lynn and lastly, Aaron went to bed.

Next morning Aaron had to satisfy himself that Lynn would be okay staying home from school by herself, then he waited with Adam for the school bus before heading off himself in the pickup. During lunch break he got a call from Fran who had some good news. The will was valid and no claims had been filed against his grandfather’s estate since his death. The money would be his on his eighteenth birthday. In the meantime, Fran would see that they had food in the house and that the utility bills were paid.

And after that issue was settled, they’d begin the process of making him legal guardian of his siblings, first making their case to the county medical examiner about why Aaron had cremated his mom instead of calling the sheriff’s office. The guardianship wasn’t going to be easy, given his young age, but the fact that everybody knew he’d been the responsible caretaker for most of their lives should probably sway the judge in his favor.

“Oh, and one other thing, Aaron.”

“What’s that?”

“I checked with the school and they said you’ll have enough academic credits at the end of the semester to graduate. They said they don’t encourage students to leave before graduation exercises, but that you’re entitled to a diploma if you need to. That means you can start looking for work on January 24th, and you can honestly say you’re a high school graduate. And if I can toss in a personal opinion, you should keep your options open about college. Your GPA is good enough to qualify you for several scholarships, and the fact that you left school early doesn’t affect that.”

“That’s good news. Yeah, I’ll give it some thought, but somebody’s gotta take care of Lynn and Adam. Thanks for looking into that for me.”

Aaron was developing a deep trust in Fran, so much so that he was tempted to tell her about Jay fuckin’ Neely, but he stopped short of bringing it up. He felt pretty sure that another death, especially one happening under such violent circumstances, was more than she’d be able to keep to herself, being an attorney and an officer of the court. And with the will and the custody issues coming up, he couldn’t afford to have any big ugly messes like that hanging over his head. So as he ended the call, he made the decision that this would be one of those skeletons that would forever remain in their family closet.

When he got home, he found that Lynn had kept herself busy all day doing some major cleaning followed by some major decorating. To keep her mind off the previous day’s horrors, she’d scrubbed the place ‘til it practically shone, then all by herself, she took a handsaw from the shed and climbed up the mountain behind the trailer and cut down a small pine tree. She set it in an old Christmas tree stand she found in the shed and decorated it with all sorts of odds and ends she found around the place, including a single string of colored lights she found in a box and a string of popcorn she’d popped in the microwave.

Aaron stepped in the door, looked around and said, “Whoa! You been busy, haven’t ya! Looks good, baby sister.”

She glowed at his approval. “Yeah, I needed to keep myself busy. And I really needed some Christmas around me. I hope you don’t mind the decorations.”

“No! No, you go ahead and do what makes you feel good. I know I’m a grouch about Christmas, but I’m not the only one livin’ here, so I won’t spoil it for ya. Just don’t expect me to be singin’ any carols.” He sniffed the air and asked, “You cookin’ somethin’?”

She grinned and nodded toward the oven. “I’m making some sugar cookies. I’m gonna ask Adam to help me decorate them when he gets home.”

Aaron looked at his little sister with a new appreciation. “I’d say you’re gettin’ to be a pretty special lady. In fact, you’re turnin’ into everything mom wasn’t. If you weren’t my sister, I’d marry ya.”

That put an even brighter smile on her face and she rushed across the room to throw her arms around him, squealing, “I accept! When should we have the wedding?”

He laughed and hugged her back. “Okay, enough of that. Tell you what; while you and Adam do your cookies, I’ll cook dinner tonight.” He pushed her away gently because her womanly body pressed against his was stirring up his nether region.

Adam got home as Aaron was rifling through the refrigerator and the cabinets to put together some sort of dinner. When he looked up and saw his younger brother’s face, he could see he’d had a bad day.

Adam didn’t even say hello as he trudged through the kitchen and down the hall to his room without even taking off his jacket. Aaron looked at Lynn, then he followed. His brother had flopped onto his bed with his forearm across his face, not even bothering to pull off his wet boots.

It was a pretty sure bet what was going on. Aaron sat beside him and said, “Look, Adam, I know this is hard. What happened yesterday should never happen to anyone, let alone a kid your age, but it did and it’s done. What you did was right and proper, protectin’ your sister the way you did. There’s nothin’ you should feel guilty or ashamed about.”

Adam moved his arm from over his teary eyes to look at his big brother and whined, “I know, but I can’t get it out of my mind! I keep seein’ Jay layin’ there on the floor dead and knowin’ it was me and Lynn that did it. I know we had to do what we did, but that ain’t makin’ me feel any better.”

Aaron took hold of Adam’s jacket and pulled him up into a hug. “Adam, yesterday you had to man up and do somethin’ awful, somethin’ nobody should ever have to do. But you did it because you had no choice. I know it hurts now, but after a while it won’t feel so terrible. Did school go okay for you today?”

Adam swung his legs over the side of the bed and admitted, “I didn’t even go to class. I just walked around all day ‘til it was time for the school bus to load up. I wouldn’t have been able to keep my mind on any school work anyway.”

“Yeah, I know what ya mean. Well look, there’s no school until after New Years, so that’ll give us all a little time to recover. Now, it ain’t doin’ ya any good to just lay here and brood about it, so get yourself movin’ and help Lynn decorate some cookies she bakin’ in the oven.”