As Kai came to a stop at a red light, he tilted his head back against the headrest. He wasn’t all that surprised to find the town was moderately crowded already. Ivy Hills Plaza was pretty much the only place to buy, well, anything. There were other businesses and corporations but one had to cross the lengthy bridge over the expansive Yvette River in order to find anything that wasn’t a small town bargain store or a butcher shop. Tourists liked to stop in town for the quaint, outdated Ivy Hills museum as well as the bakery that sold the pastries that put them on the map; fruity danishes and doughy bread coated with a thick layer of powdered sugar that made your teeth ache from the sickly sweetness that seemed to coat your entire mouth.

For residents of Ivy Hills, they had to leave their neighborhood consisting of copy and paste, two story homes and venture into town for something as simple as toilet paper. There were gas stations; one exactly two miles away from the looming ‘Welcome to Ivy Hills’ sign that marked the official entrance to town and the other, much smaller and less cared for, lived right outside his neighborhood. Outside of his neighborhood, were secluded cabins in the woods, a trailer park that had been built at the bottom of a tall, oppressive cliff face that gave the residents no choice but to gaze up at their wealthier neighbors, and a few (and, emphasis on a few) basically-mansions. Kai suspected that the blueprints had been deliberately designed to make the normal people of Yellow Bridge Trailer Homes feel as small as they looked to the wrought iron gates of the towering manors on the cliff above.

The founder of Ivy Hills, Richard Scott Hills, had been a real pompous asshat. A “explorer, adventurer, and family man” (according to the one book written about Ivy Hills and some pamphlets in the gas stations) who discovered a vast forest in 1695 and decided to take his axe to a hefty portion of the trees, hunt the deer, and feed off the fish from the Yvette River. Then more families migrated to Ivy Hills so he built houses, a lumber mill, a church and store fronts. What a curious reader, though Kai had no clue why anyone would be curious about Ivy Hills, could find after some deeper digging were the rumors that Robert Hills had relocated his family after his wife had been accused of witchcraft. Kai liked to imagine Elaine Hills was a witch and cast a spell to stop her husband’s heart at the age of 36. He thought it’d make a pretty interesting screenplay.

Before Kai’s family moved to the residential neighborhood ominously coined “Ivy Hills End”, the Goodwins lived in a small but comfortable mobile home that was perched between the beginning boundaries of the forest and the trailer park. It was a single floor- the kitchen so narrow that their mother forbid anyone from being in the kitchen while she cooked. Kai, being the only guy besides their father, had been lucky enough to get his own room while Janine and Melissa had to share. His sisters had bunk beds to make room for their dressers and a desk. He still had to, unfortunately, share a bathroom with two girls who took endless showers and always left the bath mat and floor soaked. Kai had asked them several times if they just directly aimed the shower head at the poor tiles.

Despite having to carefully navigate around furniture and each other, Kai had loved the mobile home. He missed the outdated, orange shag carpet that constantly needed vacuuming and the flowery wallpaper that their father had painstakingly put up to surprise their mother with. She’d pretended to hate it at first but Kai would always catch her tracing the small petals of daffodils with a fond smile. Her favorite flower. Sometimes, Kai would find himself staring at the plain, clean, boring white walls of their new kitchen and he’d wish he was staring at the faded spots of wallpaper where the sun would stream through the window every morning. Kai couldn’t stand staring at white walls anymore.

He missed the pond outside their home. The pond that would be immortalized in the home movies Kai filmed when he was a kid. The same pond where Melissa and him pointed out the turtles that periodically poked their small, green heads out of the murky water and gave them silly names and voices. Each turtle had its own story. Stories they would later tell Janine in great detail. Janine, with a fear of turtles she never grew out of, loved to hear the stories but never joined them in turtle-gazing.

The light finally turned green. Kai eased his foot off the brake and maneuvered it to the gas pedal. He was cruising at a comfortable (and legal) thirty miles per hour with his eyes occasionally wandering to the shops lining the road. A record store that he really needed to check out again, the library, a pet groomer, and a pawn shop caught his eye. Each store looked as empty as the next. The Jeep crept past Fowler’s Flour and he caught a glimpse of his boss, Kiersten, wiping down the white, metal table sat outside her shop. Her thin shoulders were squared as she scrubbed the table vigorously. The light ahead turned yellow so he slowed the Jeep to a crawl before coming to a stop. Right outside the bakery. Great… As long as his boss didn’t see him.

It was his only day off this week; which meant it was the one day he didn’t have to play therapist to his thirty-six year old boss. It made him uncomfortable hearing things about Carter’s family drama that Kai highly doubted the other would be pleased with him knowing. Kai had known about Carter’s parents’ separation before he did… The thought always made Kai grimace. The universe, with her cruel sense of humor, had other plans for Kai that day.

Kiersten cast a glance over her shoulder and perked up when she must have recognized Kai’s Jeep. Though he didn’t drive it to work often, it was still pretty much impossible to not notice the banana-yellow car.

Kai hesitated, debating how rude he was feeling that day. His instinct to look forward and pretend he hadn’t noticed the woman nearly outweighed the morals his parents had staunchly raised them with. Kiersten waved and he politely returned it. Her wave quickly turned to a “come here” motion and he paused. She wanted to actually talk to him?

“Ah, fuck…” He sighed, forcing a bright smile.

The light was still red and there were plenty of places to park outside the shop. There was only a single car in front of him. He had a feeling his boss would not let him live it down if he chose not to pull over to talk. He checked his mirrors as a precautionary as well as a way to stall whatever family drama he was about to be sucked into. Kai eased out of the lane and pulled up alongside the curb. He double and triple checked that he was inside the thick, white line that marked the parking spot. Satisfied, he rolled his window down.

“Hi, Malakai!” Kiersten greeted, dropping the rag on the table she was wiping before approaching his window. “Enjoying your day off? I hope you’re resting.”

Kai chuckled softly. “Yes, I just had to grab a few things for a project.”

Kiersten nodded, smiling bright. She was wringing her hands together, a habit that betrayed her intentions of a good-natured conversation with a familiar face. She let Kai’s words hang in the air a moment before sucking in a deep breath.

“You haven’t happened to see my son, have you?” She asked.

Her eyebrows were raised in a way that she might have thought was friendly but it only made her eyes look wide and manic. The gentle breeze carried the tart smell of wine under Kai’s nose. He rolled his lips together, feeling his brows twitch with pity.

“I think so? I might have-”

“Was he at your house?

“Uh…” Kai scrunched his face up in thought.

“Kai, was he at your house or not?”

Kai was a little wary of her questioning. Would she really go to his house to confront Carter? No, that would be unreasonable. But as the smell of wine strengthened and a subtle glance at the small, digital numbers on the car’s dashboard told him it was only 1:25, he had a gut feeling that Ms. Fowler was not concerned about being reasonable.

“I don’t know.” He settled on.

This answer melted any attempt at a sunny disposition. Kiersten’s eyes narrowed in barely contained annoyance as she crossed her arms over her chest. Whether it was aimed at Kai or her MIA son, Kai wasn’t sure.

“He hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts.” She sniffed, clearly not willing to let Kai leave yet.

“They might be hiking or something. The service is kinda spotty.” He offered.

Kiersten scoffed softly, clearly not buying it. Kai glanced at the traffic light, watching it change from red to green. The craft store was just one more block… The oddity shop was only a block and a half after that.

“We had a silly argument.” Kiersten said after a moment. “So…So silly.”

“I’m sorry… But I’m sure he’ll text you soon once he calms down.”

Kiersten looked Kai’s face over, eyes intense. Carter must have gotten her calculating, serious eyes; just as naturally low-lidded as his mother’s but still quite expressive when they were fired up about something. Kiersten reached past the window to pat Kai’s cheek gently.

“I’m sure you don’t like to worry your mother, right?”

“Of course not.”

She gave his cheek another pat before crossing her arms over her chest. Kai was used to her oddly affectionate touches. His boss was just… touchy but not in the way that made Kai wish her small business had an HR. The Fowlers spoke with their hands and seemed to get their points across by putting a hand on your shoulder or arm.

“You’re good, Kai. Don’t tell my son I said this but I wish he was more like you sometimes.” Her words were hushed- a secret she only wanted Kai to hear.

His discomfort had reached a new peak. A blanket of guilt settled over him as he gave a curt nod. God, he hoped Carter never heard that. He couldn’t imagine the hurt of hearing his own mother tell another person that she wished he was different. However, there was a small part of him that preened from the praise. It was a rare occurrence where Kai heard he was good. He had grown so accustomed to insults and jabs that any source of complement, no matter how inappropriate or illy placed, was a welcomed source of warmth. His face didn’t know what emotion to settle on, lips twitching. He decided a polite smile was safe enough.

“Thanks, Ms. Fowler.”

“You know I hate when you call me Ms. Fowler.”

“Right… Thanks, Kiersten.”

Kiersten hummed as she affectionately ruffled his hair. Her hand linger a second too long but before Kai could duck his head, her hand was by her side again.

“Alright, I’ll let you go now.” She chuckled, shooing him away. “Enjoy the rest of your day off, Kai.”

“I will. See you tomorrow.”

Kai, chest tight with a swirl of battling emotions, tried not to pull away from the curb like he was obviously fleeing as quickly as possible. The itchy sting of discomfort eventually won the fight. Though her affection was not new, that had felt odd. An invisible line had been crossed but Kai did not have a name for it. He pressed the button that rolled his window up, ignoring the sight of his boss in his rear view mirror watching his car as he drove away.

Kai scratched his neck, hoping he could itch away the unease surging under his skin. He told himself she was buzzed and harmless. A sad woman recovering from a tumultuous divorce and driving a wedge between her and her only son in the process. He could see why Carter spent so much time with Janine; just a few minutes with Kiersten outside of work had felt suffocating. Benefit of the doubt… Everyone deserved it. As Kai turned left on the street where the craft store was located, he couldn’t shake the nagging thought that he did not want to go to work the next day.

Next Chapter: Zach