Until the Tide Returns

It’s early, sort of, as we pack the car with all of our stuff to head back to Gram’s, home. It’s nearing 8 a.m. and we wanted to be out of there before Perry woke up because running into him would be just too awkward. Luckily years of playing Tetris have enabled me to pack more into the car than Landon was able to. Even if I can’t fit everything in.

“We’re going to have to make a second trip.” He says setting down a bag full of paints and brushes on the trunk. “Even with your awesome packing skills.”

“I have no idea where we’re going to put this stuff.” I sigh looking at the car. “Everyone went insane with the Christmas shopping.”

“There’s plenty of room in the garage for all of your art supplies.”

“Have you seen my closet? I’m going to have to do some serious sorting if I have any hope of fitting anything I got in there at all.” Landon smiles.

“There’s room in my closet.” This is true. He folds most, ok all, of his clothes, he has maybe three things actually hanging in his closet. He’s great with an iron though, which is amazing since neither Gram nor I can iron anything without smoke rising. We have yet to determine if that’s a family thing or a Keeper thing.

“I love you.” I sigh happily placing a kiss on his cheek as I hear tires make their way up the driveway behind me. When I turn I instantly recognize Perry’s car, but I have no idea who is driving it.

“Well this complicates things.” Landon mutters as the man cuts the engine and steps out. He’s roughly a few years older than my dad and when his eyes fall on Landon he gives a surprised smile.

“Landon, hey, I was wondering what happened to you last night.” The man says as a young girl steps out of the passengers side. She can’t even be in high school yet.

“Do I know them?” I ask Landon who shakes his head. At least now I won’t have to feel awkward about not recognizing them.

“Wouldn’t you know if you knew us?” The girl asks crossing her arms. “Who are you and why are you at my uncle’s house?” Her uncle?

“Willa, don’t be rude.” The man says. Standing before me is my half-sister and who I’m assuming (because Willa looks just like him) is my step-father. “I’m Eric, and you must be Beckett, Maya talks about you all the time.” This, for some reason, is like a punch to the stomach. I’m a secret that she talks about. “She liked Landon’s last girlfriend even less than his mother did.” He pauses for a moment. “I’m sorry, should I not have mentioned that?”

“No,” I say a little robotically, “it’s fine. I’m sorry, it’s a bit early and I’m a little fuzzy,” I turn to Landon, “how do I know Maya?” I am not going to be the one to reveal my mother’s deep dark secret. I would let her do that when she decided to. If she decided to.

“She’s my moms best friend, Gram’s daughter.” Landon answers playing along.

“Oh,” I nod, “right.”

“How do you know Grandma Christina?” Willa narrows her eyes accusingly. If this is what being raised by my mother does to someone then I’m glad I wasn’t.

“I live with her.” Standing out here in the cold isn’t very pleasant and I’m starting to feel a tad stiff. “I’m going to go inside and get some hot chocolate.” I say bending and unbending my arm a couple of times as another car, this one unfamiliar, pulls in. Loraine immediately hops out of the passengers side.

“Huh, I’m slightly disappointed to not see a scratch on you Land-o. She’s too good for you.” Loraine sighs walking over, her eyes take in Willa and Eric for a second but she doesn’t acknowledge them. “You’re too good for him Beckett. The first thing I would have done is punch him in the face.”

“She’s lying.” Landon says to me, “There’s no way she’d risk breaking a nail because of me.”

“Very true, but then again you did lie to-”

“Morning guys.” Calvin interrupts shutting the door to the drivers seat behind him cutting Loraine off just in time, I have a feeling this is something he’s had a lot of practice doing. “Perry still asleep?” Landon and I both nod, as far as we know he still is. “You ok Beckett? You’re looking a little… stiff.”

“I think my joints are starting to freeze.” I sigh.

“That’s not possible.” Willa says, “People don’t freeze.” Loraine narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, undoubtedly to say something sarcastic and more likely than not rude, when Calvin gently pushed me towards the house.

“You should probably get inside, get something warm to drink.” I nod in agreement since that had been my plan only a moment or two earlier. “Eric, you guys coming in or leaving?”

“We’ll stay for a bit.” He said and the six of us walked in together.

“Whose is that?” Willa asks pointing to all of the stuff that had yet to be packed into Landons’ car, it was highly probable more than one trip would be needed.

“Mine and Landons’.” She gives me another accusing look.

“Why would you spend Christmas at my uncles? Why not spend it with your own family?” I knew that she was my half-sister but that didn’t mean I had to like her.

“Willa, quit interrogating Beckett.” Eric sighs. I continue into the kitchen and pull out a cup and packet of hot-chocolate mix. Calvin comes in while I fill my cup with water from the tap. “I’m not going to say anything.” I tell him. “I have a lot of experience being my parents dirty little secret.”

“I came in here to make sure you were ok.” He looks worried. “What do you mean you have experience being a secret?”

“Apparently for 12 years my dad never told anyone he had a daughter. The only person in Arizona who knew about me was Maggie.” I place my cup in the microwave and turn it on. When I turn around he has his arms crossed and he’s leaning against the counter. “I sort of blew it when I snuck out of the house, but, it had been a few years since I had gone further than the backyard. That’s when I ran into Loraine. Turns out she knew my dad, she thought I stole his credit card. At least now I know who to keep quiet to this time.”

“That’s not funny Beckett.”

“She’s not kidding, up until she came in the store she was an urban legend.” Loraine says walking in, she asks where the stuff for the hot chocolate is and I point her to it. “Landon kicked me out of the room.” She adds. “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.” She’s staring at me bug-eyed. “I told you how we met, but I couldn’t have known how long it had been since you left the house, so how did you know that?”

“I remember everything I’ve talked to Landon about. The whole being 'one' thing?”

“Oh.” Her face drops in disappointment. The microwave beeps and I pull my cup out and stir in the hot chocolate mix.

“So you’re being completely serious about being locked inside your house?” Calvin asks.

“Yeah, haven’t we talked about this before.”

“Most definitely not. Does Christina know about this? No, more importantly does your mother know about this?”

“Well if anything I learned yesterday is an indicator then my mom did know. As for Gram you’d have to ask-”

“Landon!” Calvin yells. Why does he look so mad? Loraine and I exchange a glance as she presses the start button. “What the hell happened?” He asks before Landon can open his mouth. Landon looks at me worriedly. “You were supposed to find her, help her understand everything, protect her. And up until a few months ago your girlfriend was an urban legend, what the hell were you doing up until you finally pulled your head out of your ass long enough to do what you were supposed to be doing?” This was the last thing I ever expected to come from Calvin, ever. Unless he was like this before and I just don’t remember but judging by Landons face he’s just as shocked as I am.

“I was looking for her, every day.” Landons tone and stance is defensive. And angry. “Would you like me to bring the journals I kept by sometime for you to go over? You could always talk to Loraine, she’s practically a living version of them. I don’t know what you think it was like, but I wasn’t looking under rocks or behind trees. I couldn’t exactly go up to a girl and ask her if weird things happened when she was near water. So for years I watched every girl I met. Recorded everything I saw. And then miracle of miracles she just happened to meet the only person on the planet who would decide spying on some girl she met once in the middle of the night is a totally ok thing to do.”

“Not to toot my-” Loraine clamps her mouth shut when both Calvin and Landon give her dark looks.

“If you want to know why it took my so damn long to find her talk to your sister.” Landons voice is quiet but thick with anger. He storms out of the kitchen. I have never seen him like this.

“Apparently I’ve missed quite a bit.” Perry shuffles into the kitchen taking in Loraine, Calvin, and I all standing there silently, none of us looking at each other. “You told him about how you were handed over?” I shake my head.

“What are you talking about Perry?”

“When Beckett was given to her father it wasn’t as we were originally led to believe. She apparently, had been placed in a basket and dropped off outside his dorm room.”

“Billy found me, Dad was in class.” I add.

“You asked why he called her Moses,” Perry says.

“It wasn’t… Maya didn’t give her to Jason.” Calvin says.

“What?” Perry and I say at the same time. Loraine perks up listening intently.

“She had me do it. She promised me it was the right thing to do, that you would be ok. I checked up on you a lot before you moved, everything was fine. You were happy, you went to the playground, to the local pool. I just had to make sure what I had done for her was the right thing for you. And then you moved. I tried to find you a couple of years ago, just to make sure you were still doing ok, still happy. When I found you, you were out getting ice cream with Jason and Billy. Everything seemed fine. But if I had known what was going on, what your life was really like, that Landon hadn’t found you yet I would have stepped in. You shouldn’t have been kept locked away like that. I would have told Landon where you were.”

“So you thought Landon was out just screwing around instead of looking for her and that’s why you were so pissed?” Loraine asks. Calvin nod. “And you partially blame yourself for the way Beckett grew up.” She adds. He nods again.

“It wasn’t so bad,” I say quietly, “other than not knowing what was wrong with me he always made sure I had plenty to do. Dad was just trying to protect me, he was convinced if someone found out of me I’d be taken away from him, I guess in a way I was, but not the way he imagined. If Landon had found me earlier it would have been less time I got to spend with my dad, he wouldn’t have had as much time with his friends either. Other than a few key things going on right now everything’s ok Calvin. You did do the right thing giving me to my dad. But you shouldn’t have yelled at Landon, he doesn’t talk about it but he feels bad enough that he didn’t find me sooner.”

“Totally.” Loraine agrees. “A few days before Beckett wandered into my shop he was really upset with himself. His parents and Grandpa Frank were giving him crap about not finding the Keeper and it wasn’t because he wasn’t trying. Growing up we’ve always been close so I’ve known what he’s supposed to do since kindergarten, and he didn’t go anywhere without a journal on him watching every girl that walked by him. He figured out how to do it covertly otherwise he would have looked like a creep, but, they day before she came into my work he wasn’t doing so good. He was entirely convinced he had failed.

Then Beckett came, Jason and my dad showed up, Jason freaked because Beckett wasn’t at home and then, you know, we found out he had a daughter. So I went over to return Jason’s credit card and snoop a little. There were rumors that a girl lived on her street but no one was really sure since they never saw her, I had told Landon to check before but he didn’t want to snoop. Anyway after that I called Land-o and told him what happened, that I met a girl with some really blue eyes, she was kept a secret, and it sounded like she might be who he was looking for. But he decided to wallow for a couple of weeks before I made Tank help me kidnap him and make him snoop.” Loraine shrugs.

“I didn’t know when Charles said Landon was practically drooling over some girl he meant Beckett, he perked up once he saw Beckett through the window and I didn’t know why till later. I thought it was because he instantly knew she was the Keeper, turns out he was just excited he found the girl Charles was talking about.” She finishes the last of her hot chocolate and sets the cup down. “I was just happy at the point the was taking an interest in someone new, he doesn’t see the need in making a ton of friends, sticks with the ones he’s got.”

“I should go apologize.” Calvin says pushing himself off the counter. For a moment it’s just the three of us and then Willa walks in holding a soduku book.

“Why is everyone in here?” I glance at her puzzle.

“That three is in the wrong spot.” I say and tap it. “So is the seven.” She pulls her book away from me.

“No it isn’t.” I shrug, I tried to help her.

“So, we’ve already figured it’s going to take more than one trip to get everything. And as of right now we can’t fit Loraine in the car.”

“So you’re going to leave me here?” Loraine asks. “All alone in this giant house with- I’m kidding. I’ll be fine. If you need me I’ll be taking advantage of the super awesome I tub I saw when I was sneaking around the other day.”

“Towels are in the closet to the left of the shower.” Perry calls after her as she skips out of the kitchen.

“Landon will come back and get her after we drop everything else off. I’m sure Gram has a lot she want to talk to me about, and I want to start researching.”

“Research what?” Willa asks.

“Nothing that concerns you.” Perry says. Willa clearly doesn’t like this response and narrows her eyes. “You should probably fix the parts of your puzzle Beckett told you were wrong, otherwise your going to have a lot of erasing to do.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side, you’re my uncle. And what she is doing with my grandmother concerns me too. Why don’t you live with your own family?”

“She is not normally like this, she just got her period for the first time yesterday and has been insanely unpleasant as a result. Tell her to talk to me about it when she gets home.”

“You lie about me, I lie for you.” I mutter. Willa gives me a weird look. “When you go home, talk to your mother about it, she’ll explain it.” Landon enters the kitchen then bringing me some relief. “I’ll see you later Perry. Nice meeting you Willa.” Landon looks at me questioningly as I walk over to him. “I told them we’d go now and you would come back to get the rest of the stuff and Loraine.”

“Ok.” He nods seeming slightly distracted. I wrap my arms around his neck and peck his lips with my own.

“Everything ok?” His hands come up to my hips and he nods. “Calvin didn’t mean what he said, it was his own guilt being lashed out at you.”

“I know, I’m just…” He shakes his head and it worries me, I’ve never seen him like this. “I should have found you sooner.” He sighs shutting his eyes.

“Hey.” I say trying to make my voice stern, it’s almost there, his eyes open. “There is nothing to be upset about. You did. That’s all that matters.” I press my lips and body to his, just as he responds to the kiss Perry interrupts.

“Turns out I wasn’t that drunk last night, any chance you can return the favor and wipe my memory?” Without another word Landon and I rush out of the house.