Chapter 4

“Do you want anything to drink?” I asked and headed for the kitchen.

“Well,” she said, not sounding very surprised. “Yes. What do you have?” One thing that had always irritated me was Faith’s accent. I didn’t have one, but she did, as well as our sister, Alyssa, and our mother. I thought it was a southern accent. I don’t know how many times they corrected me, claiming it was southern belle.

I looked in the fridge. Katrina was really good at keeping our place stocked with food, and she didn’t skimp when it came to a variety of drinks. “Water, tea, orange juice, Vodka mixers, the usual...”

Faith studied my face. “Was that a joke?” Then she smiled. “Have you finally decided to loosen up?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Seth, you were always so uptight. You hid in your room or ran off to that garage you worked at, but you never offered any kind of hospitality until now.”

I shook my head in confusion. “What’s your point?”

She cocked her head to the side. “My point is you have changed.” Then she waved at me. “And changed for the better, you dress nicer,” she waved at the door, “You have friends.” Then she looked at me with a big smile. “I daresay you even have a girlfriend.”

I watched her carefully, wondering when the demeaning nature of my sister would surface. “Why do you say that?”

She shook her head. “I have been to college too, and let us say that I have seen a few apartments that the male students called home.” She waved around mine. “None of them were this nice.”

I swallowed. “I ... I don’t understand.”

She chuckled. “What I am saying is congratulations. You have successfully integrated into the real world. You have escaped the influence of Newton Grove. You have found a life you can call your own.”

If I was hearing her right, then she was complimenting me. “Who are you, and what’ve you done with Faith?” Yes, I really asked her that.

She smiled. “May I have some tea?”

I nodded and poured two glasses. I joined her in the living room, handed her a glass, and sat on the only chair. I didn’t recall seeing anyone sit in it, either because I was in the room and the few people who visited my place wanted to be closer to me or because it didn’t face the entertainment center. It turned out to be very comfortable and offered me a view of the entire space, which included the living room, dinette, and kitchen.

Faith sat down on the end of the couch closest to me. She took a sip of tea, which I mimicked, and then set her glass on the end table. “So,” she said, “How are you doing in school?”

I nodded. “Well,” I said, suddenly feeling awkward. “What about this job you got? At a manufacturing plant?”

She nodded. “I will be managing one of the divisions of the plant, but beyond that I won’t know anymore until Monday.”

I nodded. “And how are Mom and Dad?”

She blinked and took a deep breath, and, for the first time ever, I realized that Faith wasn’t only my sister, but a woman. The jacket she wore was buttoned and whatever she had on beneath it didn’t do much to cover her chest. In fact, it looked almost like she didn’t have anything on under the jacket, and that made me feel even more uncomfortable.

“Dad is gone,” she said almost under her breath.

I blinked at her for a second, registering the words, trying to make sense of them, and then sitting up and putting my drink down so I could focus better. “What do you mean?”

She looked up. “Dad is gone. We don’t know where. All we know is we got up one morning and he wasn’t anywhere to be found.”

I frowned and shook my head. “Did someone take him?”

“Tom Humphreys, the Sheriff, came by the house when Mom and I couldn’t find Dad anywhere in town,” she said. “He says there’s nothing they can do. There are no signs of a struggle and as far as anyone knows about Dad, he doesn’t have any enemies. So, Tom thinks dad left of his own volition.”

I sat there, stunned and slack-jawed. “When did this happen?”

“A few days after you left,” she said. “He didn’t say anything about leaving. He never told mom about going anywhere. He simply disappeared.”

“How is Mom taking it?” I asked, half-bracing for the answer.

“She was distraught at first,” Faith said. “She couldn’t believe that Dad would just up and disappear like that. She was convinced someone had taken him.”

“Is there anything that suggests that happened?” I asked.

Faith shook her head. “It was a coping mechanism. The sheriff called a psychologist, and she’s been working with Mom.”

“Have you talked to her?” I asked. “The psychologist?”

Faith nodded. “A couple of times, but mostly to make sure Mom wasn’t going off the deep end.”

I studied Faith’s face and posture. She wasn’t comfortable, but she didn’t appear to be upset either. Faith and Alyssa both adored Dad. I was surprised Faith wasn’t more upset about this. “What do you think happened?”

She looked up. “Really?” she asked and I nodded. “I think he left with someone else.”

I blinked at that. “Who?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, but why else would he leave Mom?”

I tried to think about Mom and Dad together, but nothing wrong jumped out at me. Of course, I had had ideas about them long before anything like this reached me. None of my ideas had anything to do with adultery, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. Then I remembered a detail that might have influenced some of the ideas everyone had about Dad. “And did you come up with that idea on your own or did someone from the church suggest it?”

Faith frowned at me and for the first time since she showed up, I felt I was really talking to my sister. “How can you blame them for this?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t blame anyone. I was asking where the idea came from.”

She rolled her eyes. “You really haven’t changed, have you?”

And just like that, I felt like I was back at home again. “You should make up your mind before asking something like that.”

“And what is THAT supposed to mean?” she asked, crossing her arms.

I relaxed back into my chair, finally comfortable with the idea of confronting my past. “Not ten minutes ago, you were complimenting me on growing up and making it on my own. Now you’re flat out telling me that I haven’t actually changed at all. Make up your mind.”

She glared at me. “You are such an ass.” She stood up and walked toward the door. “I don’t know why I even thought it would be a good idea to ask if I could stay here.”

I got up and followed her, not sure if I was going to stop her or help her on her way. “Faith,” I said and she turned to face me. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“And why should I?” she asked, looking me up and down like something someone pulled out of a dumpster. “You’ll be just as judgmental as always.”

I stopped. “I’m judgmental?” I asked with a slight chuckle. “Me? The one boy in town who couldn’t take two paces without having done ten things wrong? I’m judgmental?”

She looked away. “I knew you would take it that way.” She turned for the door again.

I grabbed her arm and turned her around to look at me. “Answer my question, Faith,” I said, quietly, and surprisingly calmly.

She stared at me with a touch of fear for a second. “It was Anna.”

“Anna?” I asked. I hoped it wasn’t the Anna I was thinking of.

Faith nodded. “Anna Begley. She was the first person to suggest Dad might have been having an affair.”

I let Faith go and turned to pace. Anna Begley was the worst kind of person, at least in my opinion. She enjoyed suggesting the worst things about other people. For me, she was one of the first people I heard verbally suggest I would have raped Lisa Hartwell if Ms. Langston hadn’t nipped my evil thoughts in the bud. She didn’t need proof of any accusation, simply her wild imagination, and the ear of half the town.

My anger grew. I needed an outlet and Faith was quickly becoming a perfect target. However, when I looked at her and saw the fear in her eyes, I quickly calmed down. This wasn’t her fault. Dad didn’t leave to be with someone else, at least I didn’t believe that, and Anna Begley’s assumptions only made her the very thing I was acting like.

I took a couple of deep breaths and calmed down. When I focused on Faith again, I waved at the furniture. “Please, have a seat. We have a lot to catch up on, and bickering about things neither of us can do anything about isn’t going to help.”

I turned and walked back over to my chair. Faith followed, albeit more slowly, and sat on the couch again. “I’m sorry I got so upset,” I said. “I guess I never considered how I would react to news like that.”

Faith blinked at me and then said, “I doubt anyone would take that kind of news well.”

I drank more tea, thinking about any other subject to talk about. Her last statement made me think of one other person though. “What about Alyssa? Have you told her?”

Faith nodded and frowned. “Yes. She reacted about like Mom did. In fact, it took a lot of talking to convince her that she didn’t need to fly home.”

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. However, Faith had something else to drop on me.

“Are you not going to ask why I didn’t call you?” she said.

I looked up and frowned. If Dad left a few days after I did, then she would have called right after my Initiation ended. I was still trying to cope with that. To be honest, I was thankful she hadn’t called. I didn’t tell her that though.

She must have taken my silence as a yes, because she then said, “It’s because I found out something else. Something you have never been made aware of.”

I sat there, waiting. For all I knew, she was about to tell me I was adopted.

“You are not our brother,” she said. “And Dad was not our Father.”

I frowned. “Are you saying you’re not my sister and Mom isn’t my Mother?”

She nodded. “Alyssa is my real sister and Mom is our real mother. But when Mom and Dad got married, all three of us were already born.”

“Then I guess Mom, you, and Alyssa all changed your names to match ours,” I said.