It's Our Last Chance to Feel Again

Breakfast with Uncle Jack was different that morning. Mainly because it wasn't morning by the time I had reached the house. It wasn't my fault the weather here in La Push was so horrible. With the rain pelting down on me and my feet still bare, would you really have expected me to reach home before noon?

Of course, that wasn't the only reason. Another reason why it was different that morning was because Uncle Jack had been silent throughout. It wasn't in the way where he simply refused to talk to me because he was furious with me. This silence was different. It was as if he was avoiding any possible conversation that we might have had if he had so much as uttered one word.

He hadn't acted that strangely when I first arrived back, completely drenched. Instead, he'd been livid, scolding me for just running out on him like that and making him wait. I hadn't blamed him, of course, for berating me. I had after all made him wait for a good four hours.

His scolding had continued as he stood outside my room while I changed into dry clothes. However, the moment I had stepped out and mentioned the fact that I had seen my dad, all trace of anger was wiped from his face. His face, like I expected, was flabbergasted. He had been speechless then, and he still remained speechless four hours later.

I was currently sitting on the sofa watching an old Mexican romance movie, trying my best to ignore Uncle Jack's whispers. I had to admit though, he was doing a pretty good job of keeping his phone conversation a complete mystery. So far, the only thing I've heard out of his mouth was 'Hello?'. Not bad for a person who didn't seem like he could be sneaky.

After a few more minutes of a black and white Miguel serenading a black and white Amorita, Uncle Jack's phone conversation finally ended, and I felt Uncle Jack's gaze on me. I brushed it off initially, but then grew sick of it and turned to look at him with a questioning look.

With a quizzical look, he asked me, "Are you sure you saw your father?"

"I'm not blind, Uncle Jack. And I'm not dumb, either. If you had said that before the strange behaviour during breakfast, I might have actually second guessed what I saw. But after that hushed phone call, I'm pretty sure that the man I saw was my dad, and that you know more about it than you're letting on."

The look of shock that crossed Uncle Jack's face made my chest swell with pride, and I folded my arms with a smug smile on my face. He opened his mouth, but when nothing came out, he snapped it shut. Maybe the inability to speak in times of pressure ran in the family. If that was the case, I wouldn't have to worry about having a conversation with my dad if I ever met him. We'd just be two idiots, trying our best to imitate fish.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. I had no idea your dad was here," He shook his head defiantly, and I suddenly felt like the parent.

I raised my eyebrow, "You do know that I'll find out eventually, right? La Push isn't exactly huge, and I'm pretty sure that if I was persistent enough, I'd be able to get the answer from someone."

He kept his gaze on me, his determined look slowly turning to one of defeat. "Your dad's been living here for the past fourteen years."

I shrugged, "I know," and replied his questioning gaze, "Billy told me."

He nodded slowly and walked to the sofa, taking a seat beside me before asking, "So what do you want to know?"

I bit my lip and pretended to be thinking even though I knew what I wanted to ask. I was finally getting answers to the questions that I've been wondering about for the past fourteen years. I know that I should've been excited. And I was. But part of me was also worried. I didn't know what to expect, whether the answers were what I wanted to hear. Pushing the thoughts to the back of my mind, I took a deep breath and plunged right in. "Why did my dad leave?"

"La Push?" He asked, and I nodded, "He left because he met your mom."

I waited for a moment, but when he failed to continue, I raised both eyebrows. "That's it?"

Uncle Jack shrugged, "What more did you expect?"

"So then why would he leave my mom and I in Carbondale?" I asked him with a frown on my face.

Uncle Jack sighed, "Your dad and mom just... Sometimes, things don't work out between adults because they make certain mistakes and-"

"I'm not a kid," I cut him off.

With a sheepish smile, he said, "I know. But I really can't explain in detail why your dad left. It's just not my place to say it."

I exhaled noisily, "Just like the gigantic people."

He nodded, "Exactly."

"So uh, do you talk to him often?" I asked him, hoping to know more about my dad from the next best source.

He let out a small laugh, "We're brothers. Of course we do."

"So basically, you've been speaking to him while I've been convincing myself that he's dead?" Uncle Jack nodded, and I continued, "And he's never mentioned me? At all?"

Uncle Jack frowned, "What makes you think that?"

I gave him a blank look, "You. You said my mom didn't tell you a lot about me. You didn't even know my age."

"I'm bad with numbers. I can't even remember today's date. And it's true, your mom didn't tell me much about you. Your dad's filled me in on enough information to make me your best friend for life. How else would I have known that you loved blueberry pancakes?" He dismissed, waving his hand about.

"He knows I like blueberry pancakes?" I gaped.

"You were two when he left. You ate then," He shrugged, and then smiled at me, "He really misses you."

I folded my arms defiantly, turning the role of the adult back to him, and huffed, "I wasn't the one who absented myself from his life for the past fourteen years."

Uncle Jack, who was about to answer me, whipped his head around, distracted by the loud knock on the door. He slowly turned back around to look at me expectantly. However, when I remained seated with my arms still folded, he shook his head as he got off the sofa and muttered, "You're just as stubborn as your dad."

It took a while for that sentence to sink in, but when it did, a large smile spread across my face. It wasn't because Jacob was standing at the doorstep, obviously looking for me. It was because I resembled my dad, that my dad lived on in me.

"Uh, Katherine?" I heard Uncle Jack ask, and I looked at him.

Beside Uncle Jack's wary face, a very worried Jacob stood looking at me. Of course I have to be smiling to myself when Uncle Jack finally lets the giants in the house, much less Jacob.

"Are you okay?" Jacob voiced with a frown.

"Yeah, I am. I... I just thought of something funny," I replied pathetically, knowing how dumb I sounded.

I sat there for a few seconds, watching painfully as Jacob tried to keep himself from laughing before deciding that I had had enough. "So why are you here, exactly?"

The question seemed to do the trick of snapping him out of his struggle. His face straightened considerably and he squared his shoulders as he cleared his throat. "Well, we're having a little get together at my place tonight and I was wondering if you wanted to come?"

"Get together?" I repeated, imagining that Rebecca had finally came back from Hawaii and they were celebrating her return.

"Yeah. With the rest of the pa- guys. Sam, Paul, the two other guys you met this morning, and a bunch of others you'll get to know tonight."

I nodded, taking Jacob's words in and ignoring Uncle Jack's incredulous tone as he asked, "What do you mean 'the two other guys she met this morning'? Where was she this morning!?"

"All these people are huge!" I pointed out, diverting Jacob's attention to me once again. Jacob continued staring at me blankly, not sure where I was going with it. "Uncle Jack said there was something wrong with the huge people..." I trailed off, looking intently at Jacob as he turned to look at Uncle Jack with an unreadable expression.

Finally, Jacob turned to look back at me and, cautiously it seemed, he asked, "Are you going to ask me what the um, the problem is?" He waited for my nod before asking in the same tone, "Can we make a deal?"

Curious, I raised my eyebrows and waited for him to continue.

"If you go as my date tonight, I'll explain everything to you then. Right from the beginning," He smiled, his cautiousness gone and in it's place, a great sense of confidence.

Unaware that there had even been a beginning, I looked over at Uncle Jack who shrugged his nonchalance. Finding comfort in the fact that he didn't mind it, I smiled back at Jacob. "Deal."

Jacob's smile grew. "I'll pick you up at six-thirty, okay?"

At my nod, he clapped his hands together and announced, "Right, I've gotta go so I'll see you later Kat! And Jack, Billy's expecting you there too."

Uncle Jack rolled his eyes. "Only because he loves my chicken."

Jacob laughed and with a final smile in my direction and a nod in Uncle Jack's, left the house. Once the door clicked shut, I turned my attention to Uncle Jack. "We're continuing the conversation about my dad later. For now, I've got to go get ready. I've got a date with a huge man."

Uncle Jack frowned as he looked at the clock while I made my way to my room. "But you have a good five hours before Jacob comes to pick you up!"

"Exactly!" I called back, happily skipping into the room that, I was sure, my dad helped Uncle Jack decorate.