Mackenzie Legacy, The (9 page)

Calvin took one last look at the two men in the room, closing the door on them and rushing back to her side.

“Wait… Cali– Where are your shoes?”

She turned to look at him with dazed eyes. “I don’t know how long it will last. We need to leave right now.”

~

Within minutes they were packed up and in the truck, heading out of town fast. Once they were out of the city Caledonia described what had happened dispassionately, her voice completely level. Calvin looked nervously over at her, worried that she seemed so calm and distant.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked gently.

“Yes,” she nodded, her face unreadable.

Truthfully, she was shaken, and not only by the attack. She’d been feeling queasy about the way they’d been using her powers for some time now, and Roxy’s talk of a curse had struck a nerve. She couldn’t help but feel that somehow she’d brought some bad karma down upon them, thinking that she should have known better all along.

Calvin reached over and squeezed her knee. “I never expected to run into anyone who knew Jarod– let alone
those
guys. It was just bad luck.” He shook his head in disgust, “I mean… what are the odds?”

She turned to look out the window, wondering about the nature of her powers, regretting that she wouldn’t get another chance to question Roxy. She thought about Layla, being forced to use her abilities to help the professor finance his atrocities, and grimaced.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, looking over at her nervously. “I acted like an idiot. I guess I just got carried away.”

“It’s not your fault,” she replied, thinking that he couldn’t change the things he wanted any more than she could change the color of her eyes.

“Are you mad at me?” Calvin asked.

“Of course not,” she replied.

“If it wasn’t for me– for me and my brother, those guys would never have bothered you…”

“If it wasn’t for you and your brother, I’d still be stuck with the professor.”

“Well, you were awesome… And now we have all the money we need. No more gambling… Okay? I promise.”

She nodded, rubbing her throbbing temples, “I’m sorry I had to disappoint you.”

Calvin gripped her leg tighter, “
Nothing
about you disappoints me! I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you…”

She sighed, scooting closer to his big warm body for comfort, resting her aching head on his shoulder.

He stroked the hair back from her face, turning to kiss her forehead. “I love you Cali.”

“I know,” she said.

She laid her hand on his chest and could feel his heart beating, focusing on the steady soothing rhythm. The highway spread out before them, leading off into the dark desert night. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes were the bright lights of the city receding in the rear view mirror.

She never wanted to see them again.

~

Chapter Eleven

THE CABIN

~

Caledonia woke up to the low rumble of the engine, her head nestled on Calvin’s lap. She sat up, blinking, surprised to see the pink light of dawn glowing on the horizon.
 

“Good morning,” Calvin smiled at her.

She looked out at the rows of vineyards flying past the window, “Where are we?”

“Back in California.”

“Have you been driving all night?” she asked in shock. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You needed to sleep, and we made really good time.”

“What about you?”

“I’m fine… I just wanted to get out of the state in case we got turned in.”

“We need to warn Jarod. That guy might come looking for your brother.”

“If he can walk,” Calvin smirked. “I wouldn’t worry about Jarod. When he found out I got jumped, he was pissed. He had the club run that dude out of town. Jarod said he’d never show his face in Santa Rosa again.”

He took the next exit and pulled into a gas station, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before hopping out to fill the tank. She rummaged through their bag for her brush, trying to get her wild hair under control before stepping down from the cab into the cool morning air.

Calvin watched her as she headed to the restroom to freshen up, and he darted into the store when she rounded the corner. When she returned he was standing by the passenger door, opening it for her with a silly grin on his face.

“What?” she asked, noticing his peachy pink anticipation. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he said blithely, watching her climb in and closing the door behind her.

When he came around to the driver’s side door he paused for a moment, flinging it open to present her with a cupcake, a single candle burning on top of it.

“Happy birthday to you…Happy birthday to you…Happy birthday dear Cali…”
 
He climbed into the truck to lean in and kiss her on the nose, “Happy birthday to you.”

She listened shyly as he sang. “Funny… I always thought that my parents made that song up just for me.”

He chuckled softly, handing her the cupcake. “Make a wish.”

She paused for a split second, a barely perceptible flicker of sadness in her eyes before she smiled at him and blew out the candle. She set the cupcake down on the dashboard and leaned over to wrap her arms around his neck. “I love you,” she whispered in his ear, making him glow with happiness.

“I want to take you someplace nice to celebrate… What do you want to do today?” he asked.

“I want to go home,” she said.

He started up the truck. “Your wish is my command. We’re only a few more hours away.”

She fed him pieces of cupcake as they drove along, watching as the landscape grew more and more familiar.

Eventually they left the freeway, driving down progressively smaller country roads that led them out into the middle of nowhere. The pavement gave way to dirt and narrowed to a single lane, winding through tall stands of redwoods that blocked out the sunlight, finally opening up to magnificent vistas of rolling hills carpeted with oak trees. Caledonia was like a homing pigeon, getting increasingly excited as she started recognizing landmarks.

“It’s a good thing we have four wheel drive,” Calvin said, getting jostled in his seat as they bounced up and down the last long stretch of rutted, bumpy road, overgrown branches scraping overhead. Caledonia leaned forward, straining at her seatbelt, scarcely able to breathe.

“Stop!” she cried, bolting out of the truck as soon as it rolled to a halt.

Calvin looked out the window to see a tiny cabin covered in mossy shingles facing out towards a small clearing. Its single window and door were boarded up, pieces of wood nailed across them at odd angles. The place looked ancient and organic, and it blended into the trees behind it as if it had grown there all by itself. He would have driven right past it if she hadn’t stopped him.

He climbed out of the truck to take a look around. A light autumn mist swirled above them, making the place look even more magical and otherworldly than it already did. Caledonia went around behind the structure and returned wielding a crowbar. She set to work, struggling to pry the boards from the door one by one.

“Let me help,” Calvin said.

She handed him the tool woodenly, moving as if she were in a trance. “I’ll go fetch some firewood.”

By the time she came back around with an armload of split logs he had the door uncovered, and was just finishing up with the window. He opened the door for her and stood back, following her inside the tiny house.

She froze for a moment, struggling to compose herself as the smell of the place brought memories flooding back. Her eyes started stinging, and she swallowed hard, fighting back the tears.

Calvin put his hand on her back. “Are you okay?”

Her spine stiffened under his palm, and she cleared her throat, “It looks like it’s going to rain soon… I’d better make a fire.”

She knelt in front of an ornately scrolled cast iron stove, and the rusty hinges squealed in protest when she opened it. She busied herself, expertly arranging the kindling inside, reaching for a tin of matches and striking one automatically, blowing gently until the fire was underway.

She stood and rushed outside, and he watched through the open doorway as she pumped some water from an underground cistern, bringing it inside in a pail she set down by the hearth.

“Do you want a hand?” Calvin asked. She shook her head no.

He stood awkwardly for a while, finally sitting down at a small table made out of a wooden spool to take a good look around. The cabin was only one room, divided by a brick hearth that hosted the stove, with cooking pots hanging from hooks in the ceiling. The rafters above them were festooned with bunches of dried herbs and flowers.

Everything seemed to be cobbled together out of other things; Calvin could make out bits and pieces of packing crates, bicycle parts, and old hubcaps. It was like a cottage out of a fairytale or storybook, and could have easily been populated by forest fairies or trolls. The whole thing seemed oddly magical– exactly the sort of place someone like Caledonia might have sprang from.

Shelves lined every square inch of wall, laden with jewel toned jars of golden peaches, red tomatoes and bright green beans. There was a curio cabinet in one corner, filled with bird’s nests, shed snakeskins and unusual rocks. A framed print of the painting they’d seen at the museum hung over the little table that sat opposite the stove.

There were two beds on either side of the room, and one of them was almost completely surrounded by stacks of books, like a little fox’s den of words. Dried daisy-chain necklaces hung from a headboard made of gnarled branches.

“Is that one your bed?” Calvin asked, “The one with all the books?”

She nodded yes without looking up, fussing with the stove damper to keep herself busy. She knew that if she stopped moving it would hit her all at once. Once she had the fire roaring, she stood up reached for a battered copper teakettle, her hands shaking, “I’d better boil some water for tea.”

Calvin stood too, coming up behind her. “Cali?”

She froze when he touched her shoulder, putting the kettle down and turning to look at him. When their eyes met her face crumpled, and when he took her into his arms she burst into tears. He walked them back over to the chair and sat, pulling her down onto his lap to cradle her, wrapping his body around hers.

“I’m s-s-sorry,” she gulped, “I should just… I should–”

“Sssh,” he said, stroking her hair and drawing her closer. She started sobbing in earnest, her slender shoulders shuddering as she surrendered, collapsing onto Calvin’s warm body. He held her as close as he possibly could, waiting patiently while she cried until her eyes couldn’t make another tear.

Calvin realized that he’d never allowed himself to cry like that, and he almost envied her the release of it. In that moment he didn’t feel helpless or uncomfortable, and it surprised him. He understood her grief completely, and he sat quietly, enfolding her in the circle of his arms, dropping his head to rest on top of hers. They were locked in an embrace for a long time, listening as the wind picked up outside, howling its lonely cry outside the window.

She finally sat up, sniffing and wiping her eyes. “We need to get our things out of the truck before it gets too dark… And bring some dry wood inside.”

~

Soon they were settled in, drinking mint tea at the little table in front of the warm stove and listening to the light rain tap out a rhythm on the roof. Caledonia cooked them spaghetti from the bag of groceries they’d picked up at the last town they’d passed, using a jar of her mother’s tomatoes and dried herbs to make sauce.

She served the food on chipped and mismatched plates, and they ate their dinner side by side, their faces lit by firelight. Calvin felt like he’d been put through a time machine and transported back to another era.

“It’s like you grew up in Little House on the Prairie or something,” he observed.

She perked up, “You read those books?”

“Nope,” he said sheepishly. “But I saw the TV show that they made from the story.”

“Do they make TV shows about every book?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Just the good ones, I guess.”

The cast iron stove heated the small space nicely, casting a cozy golden light on the rustic interior. For a moment Calvin could actually imagine himself living there with her forever, hunting and fishing, or doing whatever you did when you lived in a cabin in the woods.

Until nature called.

“Uhm… Where’s the bathroom?” he asked.

“Did we pack that flashlight?” she asked in return.

They stepped out of the warmth and coziness into the blackest dark night he’d ever seen, and Caledonia showed him across the clearing to a little structure set back away from the house. She handed him the light.

“Watch out for the black widows,” she said lightly, turning to make her way back inside.

~

The next morning sun steaming through the small window fell upon two lovers tangled up in each other. Calvin cuddled closer to Cali, realizing that he’d missed the smell of wood-smoke in her hair. He was nostalgic for the time they’d spent camping, but as romantic as the cabin was, he had a newfound respect for the hard life she’d led before he’d met her.

“Cali?”

“Hmm…” she replied, soft and warm and barely awake.

“When you blew out the candle yesterday… What did you wish for?”

She yawned, mumbling, “I wished I was taking you to meet my parents. I wish they could have met you… They would have loved you.”

An enormous lump formed in his throat and he didn’t know what to say. He never imagined he’d ever hear that from a girl, and yet, when Cali said it, he had to believe her.

“My mom would have loved you too,” he finally said, his voice gruff.

“Do you think you could handle staying here once in a while?” she asked.

He nuzzled the back of her neck happily. “I don’t care where we are as long as I’m with you.”

She looked around the small room with her newly informed eyes. “It’s like I remembered… but it’s also not. I used to think I wanted to live here forever, but now there are
two
things I’m afraid I’d miss too much.”

He smiled, thinking he was finally going to be included on the short list. “And what would those be?”

“Hot water,” she bit her lip, “And pizza.”

“What about me?” he asked in mock indignation.

“Don’t I already have you?” she asked.

He sighed, realizing that she would always have his number. “Completely.”

When they walked outside the sky was clear, the air was fresh and clean, and the whole world seemed brand new.

“Do you want to have a picinc?” she asked him.

She packed up some food and led him through the woods, her excitement mounting as she neared her favorite spot. She pointed out fronds of poison oak for him to avoid, leading him deeper in the wilderness than he’d ever been before. He watched her gliding ahead of him like a forest nymph, gracefully navigating the uneven terrain with a light step. He did his best to keep up with her.

“Are you sure there aren’t any mountain lions around here?” he asked, a little creeped out by the dense underbrush that surrounded the secret little paths they traveled.

“It’s okay,” she reassured him, touching the long sharp knife that hung openly from her belt. He knew how fast she could pull it if she wanted to. She stopped suddenly, inspecting the disturbed earth of the pathway.

Calvin glanced down to see nothing, looking back up at her. “Cali? What is it?”

“I’m not sure,” she replied, pressing her lips together with concern. “But these are fresh.”

“What’s fresh?”
 
Calvin asked, unable to see anything besides dirt.

Caledonia pointed, “See these boot prints? Here… and here… There were at least three or four men. They must have been poaching.”

“Poaching?” he asked. “There are poachers around here?” he looked around nervously.