Brave This Storm

Only a couple of days had passed since Mariana had woken up from unconsciousness, but she was already starting to feel comfortable in Amelia’s house. Her Grandma was so kind-hearted and had such a warm smile that Mariana wished they’d met earlier in her life. Amelia also refused to let Mariana do anything around the house to help out too. As much as Mariana tried to help out with cooking and cleaning, the only thing Mariana had persuaded Amelia to let her do was to tidy hers and Donovan’s room. Yes, Donovan had his own bedroom for the first time in his life, and he was ecstatic about it. Obviously he barely had any of his own possessions to put in the room, but it was his all the same.

Today Mariana had woken up at midday to Amelia having gone out, leaving a tray of freshly baked pastries for her and Donovan to eat for their brunch, and after giving Donovan a few pieces of paper and some crayons to occupy himself, she’d opened a book from Amelia’s small collection. Mariana hadn’t had the time to just sit down and relax with a novel in years, so she was going to take advantage of this while she could. Around four hours after she’d started reading, around mid-afternoon, Mariana heard the front door being opened, and the voices of Amelia and Jacob filling the house. True to Amelia’s word, she hadn’t forced Mariana to meet any more people yet, and Jacob had made his visits a daily occurrence to make the most of this.

“Mariana! Donovan!” Amelia called.

Mariana smiled at her son and took his hand in her own as they walked out of the living room to meet Amelia. But when Mariana saw Amelia and Jacob standing with arms full of shopping bags, Mariana froze.

“W-What’s going on?” Mariana managed to stutter.

“The council have all chipped in to provide you and Donovan with new clothes, as well as toys for Donovan,” Jacob grinned, putting the bags down.

“Really?!” Donovan asked excitedly.

Mariana put her hand on her son’s shoulder to calm him down.

“I don’t accept charity. I’ve been providing for my son just fine for 5 years, I don’t need anyone’s help,” she said simply.

“This isn’t charity really, Mariana. I’m part of the Reservation council and all I’ve told them is that my granddaughter has travelled from LA by foot with only the clothes on her back and a few legal documents. They wanted to help, Mariana. That’s what people do here. We all share what we have because we’re a tight-knit community. It’s obvious that you’ve been an amazing mother to Donovan and have brought him up well, but right now you need help, so that’s what we’ve done,”

Mariana chewed her bottom lip, tears springing to her eyes slightly.

“I-I don’t know what to say. No-one’s ever bought me as much as this before,” Mariana said quietly.

Jacob and Amelia shared a look, before looking back at Mariana and her son.

“Let’s go to the living room, and we can show you what we got you,” Amelia announced.

The four of them walked into the large living area, and sat down on a sofa, except for Jacob who sat on the floor to be able to face Mariana and Donovan. Tears trickled down Mariana’s cheeks at the sheer amount of clothing that had been bought for her, as well as toiletries and even a little bit of make-up. T-shirts, jumpers, jeans, skirts, dresses, shorts, socks, underwear, a couple of coats, a few pairs of shoes…it was endless. Donovan had a lot of clothes too, as well as all sorts of toys that Mariana had never been able to afford. She was truly grateful, and she couldn’t even imagine how she was going to be able to pay them back.

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” Mariana sniffed, wiping her face dry.

“You’ve come into my life, Mariana. After being alone for so long after your granddaddy died, I finally have family back again. This was all I could do to pay you back for that,”

Mariana leant over and squeezed Amelia in a tight hug, before doing the same to Jacob, earning a shy smile from him. Amelia chuckled, making Mariana smile as she pressed a kiss to the top of her son’s head.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask since I woke up. If you don’t mind telling me,” Mariana said suddenly.

“You can ask anything,” Amelia said warmly.

“How did I get here? The last thing I remember was someone walking up to me as I entered the Reservation,” Mariana said softly, looking up at the two Reservation natives.

“That person was me. I was staring at the snow outside when I saw you walking towards my house, a bundle clutched to your chest. You were only wearing a cardigan, a t-shirt and jeans so I ran over to you to find out if you were okay. You told me that Amelia was your grandma so I offered to take you to her. When I went inside to get you a coat, you passed out. I realised then that the bundle you were holding was actually Donovan, and after I eventually persuaded him that I wasn’t going to hurt either of you, I carried you across the Reservation to this house,” Jacob explained.

“You carried me across the Reservation? But it’s huge!” Mariana gasped.

“The boys on the Res are stronger than average. It’s the good clean air that does it,” Amelia said with a small smile, Jacob chuckling.

“Well thank you. I owe you my life,” Mariana said to Jacob, standing up.

Jacob stayed still in confusion as she got off the sofa and crawled over to him, but blushed deeply as Mariana kissed his cheek. Donovan clapped his hands as Amelia laughed, only making Mariana laugh too as Jacob blushed even deeper.

“I-I’d better be going – Sam’s expecting me at his soon,” Jacob said, standing up, “Uh, Mariana, are you coming to the bonfire on New Years’ Eve?”

“What bonfire?” Mariana frowned.

“You haven’t told her about the bonfire?!” Jacob exasperated to the older woman.

“I’ll tell her once you get your ass out of here, Jacob Black,” Amelia laughed.

“Alright, alright, I’m going. See you later Mariana. Donovan,” Jacob grinned.

Mariana couldn’t help but laugh as the tall boy quickly exited the house, leaving Mariana, Donovan and Amelia alone.

“So…a bonfire?” Mariana prompted.

“Ah yes. Well, every year to celebrate New Years’ Eve, the Reservation hold a bonfire on La Push first beach for anyone to attend. Normally our bonfires are for council members and selected guests only, but seeing as I’m on the Reservation council you get to come as well. Jacob’s dad is on the council too, and all his friends are important members of the community, so I think it’ll be good for you to meet them. They’re all such lovely boys. There is one girl, Leah, but she hasn’t been the friendliest of people since her dad died. Her mom’s on the council too, Sue, who’s a good friend of mine. Besides there are fireworks, food and everyone has a good time. Obviously it’s your choice, but I think you’d really enjoy yourself. You might even make some friends,” Amelia said warmly.

Mariana bit her bottom lip and looked over at her son. Would it really be a good idea to expose her son to new people already? She wasn’t ashamed of having a child at such a young age, but she knew that Donovan didn’t like meeting new people. She had to think of him instead of herself. But maybe making friends with Jacob’s friends would be good for them – more protection never hurt anyone.

“Donovan, what do you think? Do you want to go to the bonfire and meet Grandma’s friends?” Mariana asked.

While Mariana only called Amelia by her name, Donovan had already taken to calling her his Grandma, even though she was technically his Great-Grandma. Mariana hadn’t corrected him because this was the quickest he’d ever accepted anyone into his life, and because Amelia was overjoyed by it.

“Will there be that hot choco stuff?” Donovan asked hopefully.

Mariana and Amelia laughed immediately. Of course he would ask that.

“I’ll make you your very own flask to take,” Amelia nodded.

Donovan looked back at his mother and grinned.

“I’ll take that as a yes then. Well Amy, it looks like we’re going!”

“You’ll like it here, Mariana. You’ll see that after you meet everyone. This Reservation may not be the biggest place in the world, but the community is so strong. It’s one of the safest places I’ve ever known, actually. The schools are good, the scenery is beautiful, and there’s always something to do. I wouldn’t leave here for anything,” Amelia said happily.

Mariana smiled at her grandmother’s words. She hoped with all her heart that they were true, because not only did she want somewhere that she finally felt was safe enough to bring up her son, but she wanted to be able to appreciate the beauty of where she lived without always having to look over her shoulder in fear. Hopefully this place would be somewhere she could finally be herself.