Page 28 of Claimed By my Father's Enemies
"Come on," I say. "Take your shoes off. Let’s feel the earth."
He looks at my feet as I'm already crouching to unlace my boots.
"You mean…Grounding?" He scoffs. "You actually believe in that?"
I look up at him. "You know what grounding is?"
"Direct contact with the earth's surface electrons." He seems to find this entertaining. "The woo-woo practice that's supposed toheal you." He says making air quotes on the final two words.
"There are studies," I say defensively. "And even if it doesn’t do all that is supposed to, it’s not going to harm"
He considers this for a moment. Then he sits on the edge of the path and starts removing his shoes.
The moment I step onto the grass the cold hits my soles immediately. Sharp and specific, every blade of grass distinct, the damp of the earth coming up through it.
I close my eyes.
I breathe.
I think about Charlie. About the surgeon sayingfull recoveryand how those words released the part of me that had been braced since Officer Alvarez’s call. About the specific feeling of relief that was waiting underneath all the hours of holding it together, and how it's only arriving now, here, in this cold grass at four thirty in the morning.
It's letting go now.
Here, bare feet on cold grass, cedar in the air, the whole long night somewhere behind us.
I breathe.
I think about the journey that got me here. Not just tonight. These past years. The parts I survived, what it cost me and thefact that I am standing here with bare feet, building a life from the parts that remained.
The tight place at my cheast releases.
Then my shoulders.
I open my eyes.
Adrian is standing a few feet away. He's stopped walking. He's looking at me. Steady and open.
The morning light is just beginning to show, grey-blue and thin, coming in from behind the tree line. In it his hair seems darker, and the planes of his face are sharper. His eyes are grey, with faint lines at the corners. And they are locked on me.
My pulse starts to speed up.
I look toward the water.
"So." I keep my voice even. "You, William and Carter, are friends?"
A slight pause. Something moves across his face.
"William and I go back a long way." He gives me a meaningful look: "Since his family moved next to mine."
I understand what he is really saying. Since his family was forced out by my father.
"Carter," he continues, after a moment, "I know because of William. Since they started working together."
Neither of us says anything. There is now the weight of the past between us.
Adrian reaches over and takes my hand. His fingers close around mine, and he tilts his head toward the koi pond. We walk to the edge and sit. The water moves in slow dark circles, the koi invisible in the low light, only the surface disturbed to show they're there.
Adrian is quiet beside me. Both of us are absorbed by our inner thoughts.
