The Fey (21 page)

“
My safe
place…”

“
Has always been with me,”
John said. “And when we rebuild, we’ll make a place for Raz to
live, a place for our bees and a place for our love.”

“
The future,” Alex
said.

“
Yes.”

“
Our future?” Her mind
reeled with doubt.

“
Of course.”

Alex’s eyes held John’s eyes. She opened her
mouth but he kissed her quiet.

“
Let’s see what’s left of
our home,” John said.

Alex nodded. She held out her hand to
Joseph. Taking his hand, they walked to the Durango where Cian and
Eoin were under the car checking for explosives. They rose, shaking
their heads, and got in the car. Without saying a word, Joseph
started the car and drove through Fort Logan Cemetery.

The devastation of their homes wiped clean
any memory of the silent drive. Even the chaos of news reporters,
helicopters and police disappeared from memory. Alex’s Homeland
Security badge allowed them to walk past the police barricade to
the edge of their South City Park homes. They stood, stunned, at
the wreckage.

The hundred-year-old Craftsman, where Alex,
John and Max lived until she was injured, was leveled. Standing at
the edge of the home, they could see into the basement. One and a
half stories, and eight years of their lives, lay in tiny pieces on
the ground.

Next door, the hundred-year-old Denver
Square, where Alex and John had created a home, was destroyed. Most
likely due to the reinforcements from the secure office, part of
the front wall and the sub-floor covering the basement remained.
The water streaming in from the Denver Fire Department would
destroy anything that remained. Two stories of love, laughter, and
brick disappeared in the explosion and subsequent fire. The garage
was flattened.

Looking past the house, Alex saw that the
bricks and fire had destroyed all but one beehive. Frantic bees
flew back and forth looking for a place to call home. At the end of
the day, the surviving bees would assimilate into the remaining
hive. Bees were like that.

Where would she assimilate?

She closed her eyes for a moment touching
the place where Max lived inside her. At least they were alive.
Opening her eyes, she saw that Homeland Security was taking over
from the Denver Police. With another flash of badges, she and the
men escaped to a coffee shop a block away. They sat in shocked
silence while the people around them gossiped about the
neighborhood bombing.

“
You need to go home to
your family,” Alex said to Joseph. “Nancy must be crazy with
worry.”

“
She is,” Joseph said. “I…
You’ll let me know about the other stuff?”

“
Of course,” Alex said.
“Go home.”

“
How will you get
around?”

“
We can take a cab,” Alex
said. “My Jeep was parked on the corner. We can go and get it if we
need it.”

“
I’m sorry Alex,” Joseph
said standing. Alex hugged him.

“
I know,” Alex said.
“We…”

“
You’ll work this out,
Alex. I know you will,” Joseph said. “You’ll do it.”

“
I’d like to get through
today first,” she said and kissed his cheek.

Joseph nodded. John hugged him good-bye.
After shaking Cian and Eoin’s hand, Joseph walked out of the coffee
shop.

“
I wouldn’t get the Jeep,”
Cian said. “If it was me? I would set up all three cars. I bet the
CJ will go off if it’s started.”

“
Always good to have a
Volunteer around,” Alex said attempting a joke.

“
I turned the oven off.
I’m certain of it. It wasn’t me,” Eoin said.

Alex and John laughed at the absurdity of
Eoin’s comment.

“
Can you find us a place
to stay John?” Alex asked.

John pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
In a matter of moments, he arranged for a suite where everyone
could stay. As the news of the bombing reached the airwaves, Alex
fielded phone calls from her friends and siblings, while deftly
avoiding her parents. Her parents told Erin that they would return
to Denver by nightfall.

Two hours later, a Homeland Security team
arrived to escort them to their hotel suite. When the hotel door
swung shut, John and Alex were finally alone. Lifting her from
standing, he made good on his promise to make love to her all
night.

FFF

The next morning

September 9 – 9:30 A.M.
Denver, Colorado

“
Of course, you will move
into our house,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca Hargreaves shook the ash off the
bent head of a lone giant sunflower that somehow missed the blast.
Three inches smaller than Alex, Rebecca’s perfect hair, makeup and
clothing gave her an almost regal air, even among the broken brick,
glass and wreckage of their homes.

“
I’m not moving into your
house,” Alex said.

They were standing in the front yard of what
had been Max’s home. John had to work, so Alex agreed to meet the
insurance adjuster. Somehow, her mother got wind that she would be
alone and decided that this was the moment for them to talk. Alex
made a mental note to scream at her siblings or let Max do it. She
smiled at the thought of Max yelling at their siblings.

The insurance adjuster picked his way
through the debris in order to take pictures of the wreckage. He
had been there for two hours wandering the building with the fire
inspector and the Denver Police Department explosive expert.

Alex put her hand under her mother’s arm to
stabilize her, “Watch out Rebecca.”

“
Do not call me that. You
only call me that to punish me. I am your mother. God damn it. You
are the most infuriating child on the planet.”

“
You told Max he was the
most infuriating child yesterday. So which is it? Bastard number
one or bastard number two?”

“
Alexandra!”

“
What do you want,
Rebecca?” Alex asked. She stared down at her mother.

“
Don’t call me that,”
Rebecca said.

Alex dropped her head back to implore the
heavens for patience.

“
Why won’t you move in to
our home? We are in Washington until Thanksgiving. The house is
large enough for you and all of your friends.”

“
Because I am angry with
you.”

“
Well get over it. You and
Max are being petty and childish.”

“
Why do you have such a
hard time believing that Max and I are struggling with this? You
were so ashamed of our pedigree that you didn’t tell us… for
thirty-two years, you didn’t tell us. Finding out about our
pedigree creates the same awful hole in my life as destroying my
home. Don’t you get that?”

“
Oh,” Rebecca said. She
softened for the first time. She shrugged. “I guess I feel
guilty.”

“
Well you should,” Alex
replied.

Rebecca stepped back as if she was
bitten.

Alex shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mom. My
life is falling apart. I’m not very nice right now.”

Rebecca nodded.

“
Erin tells me you’re
getting married again,” Rebecca said.

“
Erin talks too
much.”

“
I would like to be
involved in this wedding,” Rebecca said.

“
We have to dispose of the
other wife and child first.”

“
Benjamin tells me that
there is no legal record of John Kelly marrying anyone.”

“
They found a church
record. For whatever reason, the priest didn’t file the paperwork
with the government.”

“
Benjamin also told me
that the child is not John’s.”

Alex turned to look at her mother. She bit
her tongue against the harsh words that sprung from the awful
despair of seeing her home in pieces.

“
You and the sperm donor
talk quite a bit.”

“
Alexandra. My God. Do you
have to be so crude?”

Alex looked out across the two lots that
were their homes. Everything disintegrated in the blast. Every
piece of paper–mailers, recycling, bills, books, even
recipes–burned in the fire. Every photograph, token of affection,
journal or memory vanished. For a hundred years these homes stood,
for almost ten years they lived in one or the other of these homes,
and in one instant everything was gone.

Alex looked down at the heat register in her
hand. The neighbor who lived behind them, across the alley, called
to say that she found a heat register in her elm tree. Alex stopped
by this morning to pick it up. This ten pound cast iron heat
register, and the clothing on their backs, was all they had
left.

“
I’d like to throw a
proper wedding for you and John,” Rebecca said.

Alex grit her teeth.

“
You can’t, Rebecca.
Remember? Your son Alexander is dead. You never had a daughter
named Alexandra. Fuck. Where have you been?”

“
You will not swear in my
presence.”

Alex let out a string of curses causing her
mother to laugh.

“
We’re standing next to
the crater that was my home and you’re concerned about my language?
I think you should go.”

“
I’m not going to let you
do this alone,” Rebecca said.

“
Then stop being such a
pain in the ass,” Alex said.

“
It just
doesn’t…”

“
AGGGGHHH!” Alex
screamed.

She stomped away from her mother rather than
hear one more time that something didn’t look right. Peering over
the edge of the pit that was Max’s home, she noticed that his
stacked washer and dryer were still there. Surrounded by pieces of
bright red brick, blackened on one side by the fire, the appliances
stood like white pillars in a field of black stone. That didn’t
look right either. She turned, feeling her mother’s hand on her
arm.

“
I’m sorry,” Rebecca
said.

“
I know,” Alex said. “You
can’t help it. We’ve known that for a long time. It doesn’t mean we
like it.”

“
We? You and Max? Or all
of your siblings?”

“
We agree that there are
worse things a parent can be than obsessed with how things
look.”

Rebecca’s hazel eyes searched Alex’s face.
Alex was such a foreign creature to Rebecca that she had no idea if
Alex was joking or serious. She saw only kindness in her daughter’s
face.

“
Let’s get out of here,”
Alex said.

She raised her hand to the insurance
adjuster. Walking through the rubble to him, he shook his head. He
would be there for a few more hours. She told him that they were
going to the coffee shop a block away. He promised to call when he
was done. Alex held out an elbow to her mother, which she took, and
they walked toward the coffee shop.

“
Where will you stay?”
Rebecca asked.

“
We’ll stay at the hotel
for a while. Did you know that if you drink all the little bottles
of alcohol, they will replace them?”

“
It’s a good way to spend
your inheritance.”

Alex laughed. “The insurance company is
paying for the hotel or some of the hotel.” She yawned. “Sorry, I
didn’t get much sleep.”

“
I bet,” Rebecca said.
“Listen Alex, I know this isn’t the best timing, but we have to
talk about this.”

“
What?”

“
Your
parentage.”

“
Why?” Alex asked. “You
cheated on Dad with Ben. What’s left to tell?”

“
Alexandra.”

“
Can I at least get some
coffee before you lay bullshit on me?”

Rebecca smiled. Alex could be so like
Patrick. Biological child or not, this daughter could pass for
Patrick Hargreaves any day of the week. Alex ordered a Macchiato
then made fun of Rebecca when she ordered a low fat, low foam,
half-caffeinated latte. Rebecca made faces at Alex. While Rebecca
paid for their drinks, Alex walked away to take a call from her
Sergeant. She was off the phone by the time Rebecca walked over
with the drinks. Setting the heat register next to a tattered gray
armchair near the store front window, Alex sat down. Rebecca sat in
a matching chair next to it.

Alex took a sip of her delicious espresso
and milk foam mixture and smiled.

“
I love coffee,” Alex
said.

“
I know,” Rebecca said.
“May I put on your wedding?”

“
How are you going to do
that?”

“
I told Page 6 that I am
working through my grief over the loss of Alexander by throwing a
large wedding for my son’s college roommate. He is like a son to
me, you know.”

“
Yeah, an Irish Volunteer
son,” Alex said. Rebecca laughed. “We don’t have anything set
because we’re waiting…”

“
I was able to arrange for
Father Seamus and I booked the Cathedral for October twenty-second.
That’s your anniversary, isn’t it? It’s a Sunday this year. They
had a cancellation in the evening. We were lucky because usually
you have to schedule a year in advance for the Cathedral. Father
Seamus said you were married around eleven at night, but that’s too
late for a formal wedding. We have the Cathedral from four to
sixish. There’s a Mass at six-thirty.”

Alex stared at her mother. While she was
angry at the nerve of her mother for scheduling her wedding without
asking, she couldn’t help but be impressed. Rebecca could make
almost anything happen when she set her mind to it.