Ghosts of Our Past

June 26th, 2027
Sunday
Evangeline’s House, Jefferson, ME
2:00 P.M.

Evangeline decided to let Lucille go to Florida and spent all of Sunday helping her pack. As she was folding some clothes into her bag in her room she heard the house phone ring. She stopped what she was doing and went into her room to answer it. She didn’t recognize the number and picked up and said

“Hello,”

“Hey Angie,” she recognized Nathan’s voice.

“How’d you get this number?” she asked.

“Online,” he said. “I was wondering when you wanted me to come back up.”

“Lucille’s leaving Tuesday night,”

“I’ll come Wednesday then,” he said.

“Sounds good,”

“I gotta go,” he said. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” she said.

On Tuesday night Evangeline got Lucille over to Danielle’s at around 8:00. She made sure she had everything and then kissed her goodbye. She wasn’t too worried about sending Lucille anywhere, she knew she was a smart kid and wouldn’t put herself in harms way. She stayed up late that night watching soap operas. Around 2:00 she shut off the TV and headed up to bed. She checked to make sure Trenton was there. All the lights were off and he was asleep in his bed. She would have to start keeping a bay monitor in his room again to make sure he didn’t leave during the night. She walked into her dark room and turned on the lights. She jumped back in shock when she saw Nathan standing by her bed.

“Surprise!” he said smiling.

“I thought we agreed on Wednesday,” she said out of breath.

“I decided to come early,” he said. “I planned out a night for us.” She pulled her bathrobe tighter around the form-fitting silk nightgown she was wearing and said

“What do you wanna do?”

“You have a boat right?”

“No,” she said “We’re not doing that, I’m not leaving Trenton here by himself.”

“He’s seventeen isn’t he? He’ll be fine.” She stood there quietly thinking about it and she said

“Fine let me just check on him one more time.” Nathan followed her into Trenton’s room and she went over to his bed to see him still asleep, lying on his side like he had been before.

“He’s grown a lot,” said Nathan. Evangeline laughed and said

“Since you last seen him fifteen years ago, ya I think he has.” With a frown Nathan said

“I wish I had watched him grow up, what’s he like? Why are you so worried about him?”

“I’ll tell you when we get outside,” she said. As they were about to leave Nathan noticed the silver chain around Trenton’s neck.

“Hey I gave him that,” he said pointing to the chain. Evangeline smiled and said

“Oh ya, he loves that thing, he never takes it off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without it.”

“I’m glad he’s still wearing it,” said Nathan smiling, feeling pride for his son.

It was a hot night, to hot for the bathrobe she had draped over the silk nightgown. She left it in the kitchen when they left the house. Evangeline grabbed the boat key and they went down onto the dock.

“I haven’t driven this thing in awhile, Trenton usually uses it.” Nathan took the key from her and started the boat.

“I have one back in Florida we use in the summer.” He unhooked the boat and began to drive it out. It felt so unreal like fifteen years ago, the night they’d snuck out in Tennessee to the lake in the woods behind her house. Except tonight the sky was cloudy and the heat seemed to be overwhelming. Nathan drove the boat at a slow speed out of the cove and got faster as they got farther away from the house.

“Any special places around here you wanna go?”

“There’s this small cove I know about further down where there are no houses.” She directed him where to go as he drove. She had never been out on the lake this late. Everything was so quiet and peaceful. She was scared to talk at a normal voice and felt that they should be whispering instead. He pulled into the cove and just as Evangeline had said there were no houses, or people to see them. Nathan turned off the boat and threw the small anchor they had down into the water so the boat wouldn’t drift to shore.

“So,” he said leaning against the edge of the boat “What’s up with Trenton?” The thought of his alcoholism made her burst into tears. Nathan concerned and confused, went over and wrapped his arms around her in comfort. “What is it?” he said. She looked up at him with tear stained eyes and said

“He’s becoming an alcoholic.” Nathan felt shocked and said

“What?!”

“He has been since his freshman year of high school. He almost dropped out in his sophomore year because he missed half of his classes to go off and party and drink with friends. Sometimes at night he’ll sneak out and go places without telling me. It’s horrible I don’t know what to do to stop it.” Nathan felt an incredible guilt crash over him. Was this his fault? Was it because Trenton had been fatherless his whole life? “I’ve got him going to a therapist who tells me that he thinks Trenton is depressed. He talks to me all the time about how he doesn’t care about college and that life doesn’t matter.”

“Is this my fault Evangeline?” he asked feeling tears form in his eyes.

“It’s mine,” she said still sobbing. “I did something wrong, I must of. Why else would he be like this? I just want him to get better.”

“It’s not yours you did nothing wrong.” He said. “It’s mine, for not being there.” He could smell the sweet scent of fruity shampoo in her hair as he pressed his face to her and cried softly. They stood there for a minute crying in each others arms before Nathan remembered what was in his pocket.

“I’ve got something for you,” he said. He reached down and pulled out the same diamond and pearl locket he’d gotten her fifteen years before. He handed it to her and said

“Please keep it this time, I’ve held onto it for years, waiting for this day to give it to you.” She opened it and still found that their names were engraved into the gold. She leaned up and gave him a long deep kiss before putting it around her neck. He smiled and said

“So does this mean we’re back together?” She didn’t answer but instead pulled him into an unexpected hug and asked

“How’s Dylan?” Nathan smiled at the thought of his son.

“Really good, he just graduated high school. He skipped a grade so he got out a year early. He made it into the NHL a few days ago; he’s in next year’s draft.” Evangeline thought about how opposite Trenton and Dylan had turned out. Dylan seemed like the perfect child, amazing grades, wanting to excel, and was into professional sports. While Trenton got mostly D’s on his report cards, had no motivation at all, and had an amazing talent but chose to hide it rather than go further with it.

Nathan was hesitant for a moment before saying

“I have another son, his name’s Zach, he’s fifteen.” Evangeline was slightly surprised and said

“Oh that’s good, so you and Tammy healed things up after I left?” Nathan shrugged and said

“It was a surprise to me when she got pregnant it wasn’t a plan.”

“Is he like you?” she asked.

“He looks like me,” said Nathan smiling.

“Congratulations,” she said “I heard you’ve been the Bruins captain,”

“Ya,” he said. “Do you watch games?”

“Trenton does, he loves the Bruins,”

“Does he play hockey?” asked Nathan brightly.

“Ya,” she said. “There isn’t a school team around here so he plays on a select team for Maine. He’s really amazing at it, I think he’d have a shot at the NHL or a college team but he refuses to do anything with it.”

“I wanna see him play,” said Nathan.

“He actually does a summer program in Portland. It starts in two weeks, you could come watch but you’d have to stay separate from me so he doesn’t know.”

“Does he have any idea?” asked Nathan.

“About what?” she said sitting down in the drivers seat.

“About me,” he said.

“No, not a thing,” she said being bluntly honest. “I’m not telling him nothing. He’s asked me but I’m not telling, he doesn’t need to know.” She said. Nathan looked a little downcast and said

“What about Lucille?”

“She’s actually never asked me,” said Evangeline. “I don’t know why. She’s really smart; maybe she knows some things are better left untold.” They sat in the quiet, listening to a loon off in the distance call out. Evangeline felt extremely sweaty underneath the nightgown and she took a deep breath trying somehow to cool herself off. Nathan noticed and said

“Hot?”

“Ya,” she said.

“Well we are on a lake?” he said with a smirk. “We could go swimming.” She shrugged and said

“Sure,” he stood up and began taking his pants off.

“I’m not taking this nightgown off,” she said watching him pull off his shirt.

“Oh come on,” he said. “Skinny dipping is funner.” He winked at her and she rolled her eyes at him. She jumped in with the nightgown on feeling it flow around her in the water as she waited for him to jump in after her. The water was like a bath tub but it cooled her off from the hot air. He jumped in with his boxers on.

“I thought you didn’t want any clothes?” she said as he came to the surface.

“I’m not taking everything off until you do,” he said playfully. She turned over so she was floating on her back and looking up the sky. She wished she could see the stars but they were hidden behind the clouds. “You know at this point it wouldn’t even matter if you were naked or not because that nightgown is completely white and I can see right through it.” She floated up straight to give him a angry glare. “Just telling you the truth,” he said.

“You think you’re going to get something tonight from me but your not, I’m not going to have meaningless sex with you. I’m not an easy slut.”

“I don’t think you’re an easy slut,” he said. “It wouldn’t be meaningless, not when I know you still love me.” His words affected her again and she climbed back up onto the boat. She pulled a towel around herself and sat down in one of the seats. She watched as Nathan continued to swim around.

“Having fun?” she asked.

“It’d be better if you got back in,” he said.

“You only want one thing from me,” she said.

“Would I follow you around for fifteen years if I only wanted one thing from you?” he said laughing. She couldn’t deny the truth in what he had said. “I don’t reveal myself because I didn’t want to mess up this life that you’ve made for yourself,” he said. “But I messed up and it was a mistake that you even know right now.” His voice got softer and he said “Now will you please come back and join me, I would love to be able to hold you in my arms again.” She smiled and got back up to jump in. He took her in his arms when she came back to the surface and held her against the side of the boat. She felt him slowly lifting her nightgown off of her. She didn’t do anything to stop him and he finally pulled the wet cloth off over her head. There was a small break in the clouds overhead, giving a small clear window view of the glistening stars.
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