We stayed in Portland for a number of days parallel to the number of days it took us to get there. We would have stayed longer, but with costs of gas, hotel fee, food, and entertainment, we had enough money left to get us home, and scantily fed. As we all climbed back into the car for the drive back, Angela pulled a candy bar out of her pocket and offered it to me. Of course it was a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar. I should have known she would buy me one. "Oh," I said, "Um, thanks." She smiled and buckled her seatbelt next to me. I stared at the bar as Angela's iPod was hooked up to the car speakers, and I put it into my pocket, assuring Angela I would eat it later, as Feist spilled out of the speakers, and Ed turned the key in the ignition.
The first thing I did after getting home, and sleeping for eleven hours, was drive to the mall with my mom and my sister. My mom had to do Christmas shopping, and she dragged us along with her. We walked past the store that sold strange house decor, and, seeing the heart-shaped window frame still leaning against the the store window, I got an idea.
At least they hadn't thrown a full-on surprise party. I came down from my room the day after coming home and found my parents, Linda, all my road trip members, and a man I'd never seen before in the living room, smiling around the coffee table with presents in front of them. I groaned loudly and covered my face. "Ambush!" I cried as Tyler and Jake came up to me, hugging from either side and laughing. "Not fair, not fair!" I cried, pushing them away, laughing despite myself as they pushed me into the living room. I might have lost my smile to despair if I had been given the opportunity to think about how Dustin would never even have this small seventeenth birthday party, but the stranger came forward and stuck out his hand to me. He had dark hair, and his eyes were almost as dark, but they were nestled in his skull in such a way that they looked sweeter and more enticing than any blue eyes, excepting Tyler's and his immediate family's, ever could. "I'm Tyler's father," he said, "Charles." My eyes widened. "Oh," I said, "Um, hi. Nice to meet you." His eyes were thick with a Heathcliff-like mist, a shadowing of a happiness that was lost, an innocence that was stolen. When he glanced over at Linda, the mist disappeared for a moment, and his eyes sparkled with anticipation, but when he looked back at me, away from the woman, they clouded over again with all that history of a lost love. Linda stared at her feet. Tyler stepped in and said, "My father lives in Rome. He flew in just for you." He smiled at me, and I watched his eyes, those beautiful eyes which imitated the ones that caused the pain in Charles's. As I had seen them before, they were full with many emotions. Happiness, anger, sadness. And hope. "Happy birthday," he said. I smiled at him, my eyes watering for more reasons than one. "Thank you," I said, and he smiled back at me, and kissed me, right in front of my parents, our siblings, Selena, Ed, Linda, and Charles.
© 2010
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