The August sun was blazing as I drove along the back roads of Rt. 42.1 spent most of the day in Harrisonburg trying to find moving boxes to finish packing the rest of my belongings. Today was the day that I'd decided to talk to morn about her long lost dead relative and the will? Everyone else would be at work putting in their two weeks notice, while I was trying to find a way to tell mom that she'd only got two weeks to pack up all her stuff and sell the house.
Since it was official that Stephanie was moving with us, Mom wouldn't be able to stay by herself. She needs constant supervision due to her illness. Our new house was located in an area that most of the residents referred to as Wolfman's Cove. I was cruising along the highway listening to a CD that I had made a few months back. The song that was blaring from my stereo speakers was Breath No More by Seether and the lead singer from Evanescence. As I began to listen to the words, a dream came back to haunt me.
It'd been three days since the meeting with the lawyer and things just didn't feel right. Something strange was about to happen to me and my family, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop it. You see for the past three nights I'd been having these reoccurring dreams, there was only a beginning and middle, but no end. I tried to piece the puzzle together and every time, I came up empty handed. The dream started with me standing in the middle of a forest. It was dark with a light mist moving in from the south. The howls of wolves could be heard in the distance. The hair on my arms began to stand on end as a strong force began to call to me.
My feet began to move toward it, although my mind was screaming no, to turn around and run the other way - that I was in danger. The power became too strong to fight and I began to walk faster towards it instead of away from it. I came out of the trees into a huge clearing that faced a huge mountain side. A carved wolf's head protruded from the rock's surface. The muzzle of the beast was spread wide open into a smile that reached from ear to ear.
Figures began to pour out of the opening of the wolf's mouth. I realized then that it must have been an entrance to some sort of cave or catacombs that went deep within the mountain. Shadows of wolves began to emerge out from the trees all around me to create a circle within the clearing. They all bowed to the figures at the entrance of the cave, and then they all turned to stare at me. A man and a woman smiled at me as something around me began to change. I glanced down at myself and found that I was no longer wearing my normal clothes but a long deep dark green robe. A staff appeared in my right hand as something stirred within me.
The wind began to pick up causing my hair to blow up around my face. Voices on the wind began to speak to me as if they'd known me all their life. Someone came up beside me and touched my elbow. I jumped and turned quickly to see the shape of someone standing beside me. The figure looked all too familiar to me, and when they leaned close to whisper in my ear, I could have sworn I'd heard that voice somewhere before. But before I had a chance to figure out where I'd heard the voice, I would wake up in a cold sweat and the whole dream would be over, just a distant memory. The dream never ended, it just left me wondering what was going to happen next.
A car horn honked violently bringing me back to reality. I had to swerve to keep from hitting them, not realizing I had crossed over to the other side of the road. It was a close call and when the other driver passed me, he had flipped me off and yelled something obscene at me. I just stuck my tongue out at him and went on my merry old way. It took me twenty minutes to get to the suburbs of Buffalo Gap and another five minutes to get to Mom's house. It was going on three thirty when I finally pulled into the drive behind her Dodge mini van.
I saw mom coming around the house from the backyard. The only time she goes out of the house is to either let Bear out or to go to the doctors. Her health has been failing for some time and you could see the strain on her face as she shuffled to the walk way. I shut the motor off and got out of the car and walked over to her to try and help.
She smacked me on the hand and said, "I can make it on my own."
I threw my hands up in defensive mode and replied, "Sorry, just thought you could use some help."
"I'm not an invalid Punkin. I can do things on my own, so stop treating me like a child," she snapped.
This was just great, the day I picked to talk to her and she was in a very bad mood. I backed up and let her walk herself to the front door, but made sure I wasn't too far behind in case she fell or went into a coughing fit. People in my family have trouble exercising due to the many illnesses we carry and the fact obesity runs in the family. She finally made it to the door and turned around to look at me with suspicion.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
I smiled and answered, "I came to see how you were doing today."
She snorted and commented, "That's what a damn telephone is for. You never come out unless you want something. Now what is it?"
I glared at her, but kept my temper in check. I knew it was the cancer treatments that were making her this way and it was killing me to see her suffering like this.
I made my way on to the porch and stated, "I think it's something we should discuss inside."
Mom gave me a dark look and entered the house, going straight into the living room. It was a small one floor house and she kept it dark with the TV turned up loud enough for the neighbors to hear. We made our way toward the kitchen, where Mom began cleaning up some dirty dishes that were left lying around by my siblings. I walked over to the counter and started flipping through a Seventh Avenue magazine. There was some nice stuff in it, but everything was way too pricey. Silence dragged through the air between us for what seemed like an eternity.
Mom finally finished the dishes, then turned toward me and said, "Didn't you have something you wanted to talk to me about?"
I put the magazine down and looked at her, then took a seat at the table and replied, 'Yes I do. You might want to sit down though before I start."
She raised a brow but joined me at the table. Mom loved putting puzzles together and there was one in progress on the table. She moved the top covering board and began to study it. I just sat there trying to find the words to tell Mom what had happened in the past few days. Mom pulled out a pair of glasses from the cabinet over the bar and perched them on the bridge of her nose.
She then pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. Placing it between her lips, Mom moved back toward the table and began going through the puzzle pieces. Time seemed to stand still while I just sat there staring at her, still not knowing what to tell her.
Mom must have felt my stare because she glanced at me over the rim of her glasses and asked, "Well are you going to just sit there, or are you going to tell me what's wrong?"
"What makes you think that anything's wrong?" I questioned.
"Because I gave birth to you and I know when you're beating around the bush," she stated.
I sighed and replied, "All right here goes. You know how you found out that you were adopted and that your last name was actually Jones instead of Hoover?"
"Yes, but what's that got to do with anything?" she asked.
I was getting tired, and decided to just blurt everything out all at once, "Your real father's brother has passed away and left his fortune to Mike, Winky, and me, but in order to claim it we're going to have to move to Arlington, Virginia."
Mom just looked at me over the rim of her glasses, and then she burst out laughing. Something told me that she either thought I was joking or she knew more than she was letting on.
After a few seconds Mom stopped laughing, looked me straight in the eye and replied, "Punkin, I'm very aware of my Uncle Theodore's will."
My mouth dropped open at my mom�s confession while my eyes bugged out of my head. "Do what?" I squeaked
She smiled and replied, "I've been keeping a secret from you kids, but you're old enough now to know the truth,� Mom look straight at me and continued on. I was in a world of shock and didn�t know what to say. All this time she�s been lying to us and it makes me wonder what else she was keeping from us, �When I learned of my adoption I ask the records officer if there were any relatives alive on either side of my real parent's family. They said they weren't sure and could find out if I wanted them to. I gave them my address and phone number in case they found anything. A month later Uncle Theodore contacted me and we've been in contact ever since. I knew about the will because we talked about it over the phone three months ago. He originally wanted me to have everything since he had no children of his own, but I convinced him to leave everything to my three youngest children since I don't know how much longer I'm going to live. The lawyer was supposed to contact you with all the details after my uncle's funeral."
She left it there and got up from the table, moving around it to place a hand on my shoulder. "I know this is a lot for you to take in, but I had my reasons for keeping this from you," she said.
I didn't know what to say and she understood how I felt. Mom patted me on the shoulder again and replied, "I'm going to go lie down now and get some rest. You go home and get some rest yourself. You look like you haven't sleep for days."
She was partially right and with the dreams it didn't help me rest good at nights. I just sat there thinking about what Mom said. She knew all along about Uncle Theodore, his will, she was prepared for it. I was shocked that Mom kept this from us, but at the same time I knew and understood that Mom had her reasons. Every family had skeletons in their closet, mine more than others.