Part 20: Prodigal Father
"You seen Devon lately?" Mike came into the breakfast room the next
morning.
"No-o," Rahab said, putting strawberries on her cereal. "Doesn't look as
though he came home again, last night."
Mike dropped into the nearest seat, and rifled through the morning paper.
He let it fall to the table in mild disgust. "No news is good news, I
guess."
Rahab heaved a huge sigh.
Mike turned and went over to where she was sitting, and leaned his chin on
her shoulder. "What's doing?" His arms slowly enveloped her, and he nuzzled
her hair.
"Hm," she said. "I just realized how the kids are growing up so quickly.
I suddenly feel old."
"We will NEVER get old," Mike said, turning his head to the side to look
into her face, as he reached to tickle the underside of her arm. "So don't
eeeven THINK... about laughing..."
She twitched, and looked up at Gaele, who had been quietly eating an English
muffin. "Hon-ey, not in front of our daughter."
Mike straightened to look at Gaele. "Are you kidding? Maybe she could give
us a few pointers."
"Very funny, Daddy..." Gaele said, rolling her eyes. She then noticed her
parents were looking expectantly at her. "Wha-at, you want me to leave or
something?"
Mike sniggered. "Uh, no, babe. Just wondering how you are feeling, now that
you're back up to Gaele speed."
She suppressed the surge of anxiety. "Oh, I’m fine," she said airily,
hoping that it would be the end of the conversation.
"What’s wrong?"
"Hm? Nothing."
Rahab stared at her a moment, then burst into uncharacteristic laughter.
"What’s so funny?" Gaele looked at her mother in surprise.
"You," Rahab said when she recovered. "The heiress to a multi-billion dollar
corporation, and you’re just fine?"
"Well, what else am I supposed to be?"
In the pause that followed, Rahab continued to gaze at her.
"Now what?"
"Was just wondering..." Rahab picked up her coffee cup to gaze absently into
it. "How you and uhm, Don were... getting along."
"Getting along?"
Mike had been looking out the window. "Yeah, your mother wants to know if
you and Don are sleeping together yet."
"DADDY!"
Rahab inhaled sharply as though to protest, then let her breath out again.
"Really, honey."
"Hey, I was just kidding." Mike's grin was mischievous. "You know what he's
like."
"I can't believe you would even THINK of such a thing!" Gaele got up and
busied herself clearing the table to hide her discomfort. "He's my uncle,
for heaven's sake."
"Well," Mike muttered, looking back out the window. "As you know, technically
speaking, he and I aren't really related. So technically, he's not REALLY
your uncle, and uhm, neither is Raph related to Riahna, for that matter."
"But-- it's still--"
Rahab was staring hard at Mike. "What did you say?"
"Huh?"
"What did you just say about Raph?"
"Well, nothing, really. I mean, its not like they are really doing anything..."
At that point, Rahab jumped up and went to see what Mike was staring at.
Gaele followed.
They had a good view of the pool deck, where Raph was draped on a lounge,
with Riahna curled blissfully in his lap.
"Will you get-- go down there and talk to him, will you? He can't be DOING
that!" Rahab's nostrils flared like a winded race horse.
"C'mon, Rahab, calm down. He's not gonna--"
She batted his hand aside, and grabbed his shoulder, her claws making his
skin dent. "Go DOWN there, and TALK to him, or I WILL," she ground out through
clenched teeth. "And believe me, it WON'T be pleasant."
"OKAY, okay... okay." Mike heaved a sigh and headed toward the rear outside
door, rubbing his shoulder as he gave Rahab a flustered look. "Let's
not overreact, shall we?"
"Overreact, I'll GIVE him 'overreact'..." Rahab muttered as she gathered
up the newspapers and stuffed them into the recycling bin. "I'll GIVE him..."
the rest was lost in pointed muttering.
"Well?"
"Well what?" Mike looked quizzically at Rahab, as she stood in his path,
her fists resting resolutely on her hips.
"What happened, did you talk to him?"
"Well, yeah," Mike said with uncertainty. "and... hey, I told you,
everything’s cool."
"Cool?" Rahab exhaled gustily in frustration. "What, is he leaving, or
what?"
"Uh, I dunno, Rahab," Mike said, looking as though he’d rather be somewhere
else.
"MIKE!"
"Okay, okay! Geez! Just CHILL. It’s just that... Riahna looks really
happy."
Rahab grinned mirthlessly. "Oh?"
"And... she uh, seems to like him a lot. And... he likes her a lot. And so--
hey, where you going?"
"Since we are waxing SO eloquent today, I think I’ll be better off finding
out for myself," Rahab muttered as she pushed open the rear kitchen door.
"Ah, come on, I don’t want any trouble..." Mike started to follow her
out.
"Oh, there won’t be any trouble, I promise I’ll be as polite and
diplomatic as I possibly can be, after all, who knows?" Rahab said, smiling
sweetly at him. "I just might be a candidate for the Nobel Prize for
PEACE."
Mike followed Rahab out the back door as Gaele got up to go look out the
window.
Rahab was striding down the steps toward the pool deck, her tail switching
behind her, like an annoyed cat. Raphael noticed her approaching, and had
a look on his face as though he were expecting a personal Armageddon of sorts.
Riahna had gotten off his lap, and was gazing at her mother with her head
cocked quizzically. Rahab’s shoulders hunched, as she began her tirade.
She then noticed Mike bounding down the stairs in a two-steps-at-a-time pace,
and his arrival at the pool deck made Rahab turn and glare at him. She gestured
in annoyance, and then pointed at Raphael, who raised his hands as though
to placate her. She could see they were all engaged in a heated discussion.
Gaele’s curiosity goaded her into wanting to go outside so she could
hear what was being said, but then she saw Raphael jump up and stalk past
them, and head for the path leading away from the house. He turned and angrily
said something, that made Riahna react in dismay, and start to follow him.
Rahab reached for her, but she ducked, and ran to follow Raphael. Rahab gave
chase, then Mike grabbed Rahab, who turned as though to cuff him. He grabbed
her hands, and got in her face, talking with an intense expression on his
face. Rahab pulled half heartedly, and then Gaele saw her shoulders drop,
as though to give up. Mike continued to hang on to her, and talk. Then,
apparently Raphael had not reacted well to Riahna following him, because
she was now walking back, head down, and scuffing her feet. She gave her
mother a scowling glare as she passed.
Uh oh, thought Gaele, absently munching on the remnants of her English muffin
as she watched. Now Riahna looked like she was entering her Shut-Down Mode...
when Riahna got angry, she would lapse back into the habits of her younger
days, by closing off from all forms of communication, and curling up inside
herself. Sometimes it lasted only a few minutes, sometimes it lasted for
days. Mike called it her Turtle Mode. And it usually was due to a conflict
of interests, from what Riahna wanted as opposed to what someone else wanted
of her. Riahna now stood at the edge of the deck, arms folded tightly against
her as though she were caught in a sudden blast of arctic air. Mike was
approaching her slowly, his head tilted at her as though to get a look at
her face. The closer he got, the colder that wind seemed to get. Suddenly
she dropped to the ground and grabbed fistfuls of Rahab’s irises that
were growing around the pool and savagely flung them in Rahab's direction,
screaming loud enough for Gaele to hear through the closed window.
"HATE YOU, HATE YOU, STUPID UGLY OLD RAHAB WITCH! HATE YOU, HATE RAHAB FLOWERS,
UGLY, HATE!"
At that point, Gaele decided she’d seen enough, and went back to
straightening up the kitchen, then went up to her room, to organize her things
for when she eventually returned to school.
School... it no longer seemed to hold its magic for her like it used to...
it seemed so mundane and trivial, and repetitive and boring...
A commotion downstairs interrupted her thoughts.
"Rahab, nothing good is going to come of this until you CALM down," she heard
Mike say at the base of the stairs, as she heard her mother’s feet thudding
on the risers.
A loud thump against the wall startled Gaele, and her mother was now just
outside Gaele’s bedroom door as she turned to answer Mike. "I AM being
calm," she shot back in a low venomous tone. "If I weren’t calm, I be
TEARING him apart, right now."
"Sweetheart-" Mikes voice was now closer.
"DON’T you 'sweetheart' me. YOU are responsible for this, this is YOUR
fault, you let him stay here and STAY here and now he’s practically
moving in and taking liberties with MY daughter-" Rahab seemed to stop, and
then a loud crash punctuated the short silence. "He has to come in here and
make my life MISERABLE all over again, doesn’t he? Won’t stop,
will he? He-" another resounding crash... "biggest, SELF centered, miserable-"
another crash and the sound of splintering wood, "JERK, messing up my life
all over again, making TROUBLE, all he CARES about is-" her speech dissolved
into inarticulate screeches of rage, punctuated with a painfully resounding
thumps against the walls of the hallway, and then into their bedroom.
Gaele held her head a moment, and sighed gustily. Guess it would be a good
time to go for a walk... her mother had thrown wingdings before, but this
one took a prize for the top ten. She went out and skirted the wreckage of
a side table, a couple of fallen paintings and some broken pottery. There
was a hole in the plaster, where Rahab had apparently punched the wall. There
was still a lot of commotion coming from her parents’ bedroom, and now
it seemed Mike was nearly as riled, judging from his tone of voice. Seemed
like he had lost his patience with her...
Once outside, Gaele felt a bit calmer. She looked around for Riahna, who
was no longer sitting in the irises, but had disappeared. Maybe she had followed
Raph to wherever he had gone. Gaele decided to go up that way, as well. She
reached the rear gate of the garden, at the edge of the woods, and
saw it was left open. She slowed, when she heard voices under the trees.
They suddenly stopped, and she called out softly.
"Riahna?"
Silence.
"Ri, it’s me, Gaele. Are you okay?"
"Go AWAY," Riahna’s voice said sulkily from the shadows.
"Are you okay? I just want to-"
"She’s fine," Raphael’s voice said, with a hint of defensiveness.
"Oh, okay." Gaele decided to leave, when Raph’s face appeared from behind
a massive tree trunk.
"SHE sent you down here, huh?"
"Uh, no, I just came out here to get away from the ruckus."
Raphael narrowed an eye at her. "Ruckus?"
"Well, yeah. Mom has flipped out big time, and she’s fighting with dad,
and tearing the house apart... its pretty scary to hear."
Muttering under his breath, he looked in dismay at where Riahna was hiding,
and then back at Gaele. "I’m TRYING to high tail it outa here," he said
low enough for only Gaele to hear. "But she won’t stop following me,
and I’ll be damned if I can’t lose her, she’s got some kinda
built in radar pointed at me or something..."
Gaele couldn’t help but smile at his comment. "She’s hooked into
you, Raph. And sneaking off won’t do much good, cause she’ll freak
when she finds out you are gone, which can cause a lot of problems for everyone
involved. I mean, you don’t want to do a thing like that to her, do
you?"
Raph looked defeated. He cursed under his breath and then, glanced behind
him again, to see if Riahna was within hearing range. "Well... no, I don’t.
She seems like such a nice girl, and-" his fingers came up to press against
his temples as though warding off a headache. "Aah, screw it, gonna have
to face this crap head on. That’s just the way it is. She’s gonna
have to deal with me being around, I’m through running away from my
problems. And nobody is gonna chase me away from my family any more, you
know?"
Gaele looked into his eyes, and realized he wasn’t so much the shiftless
derelict she thought he was. She saw reflections of Devon there, whom she
knew well enough.