Essence (Nectar 3)

Tristan was keeping an aircraft and a boat on standby and showed her how to use the satellite phone to summon either, should she need to leave the island without him.

The idea of that made her heart hurt but she sucked it up and listened to his directions.Sasha, Tristan, and Kyla were in the house that was next door to Sasha’s house, getting a tour. And Kyla loved the place.

There wasn’t a close neighbour on the other side and the place was secluded, similar to Sasha’s, a charcoal-coloured log home with red cedar shake shingles on the deep pitched roof. The house was two storeys with four bedrooms and a big open concept main floor that was essentially a big great room with a large Hollywood style kitchen and a utility room and powder room. The place was very bright with plenty of windows, had an attached small green house and a dock and boathouse as well. It was just two storeys and wasn’t built into the hill as Sasha’s was but still backed up close and Sasha said that like all the other homes on the island, there was hill access from the basement into a cave system, for emergencies. She assured them that no one could simply access the homes from the cave. There was no way into the homes from the cave as there were no doorknobs and the locks were strong but there were exits from the cave system, including an entrance deep into a forest on the island.

The home was sparsely furnished but the previous occupant had left a few things and Sasha augmented that, equipping it enough for them to be comfortable for the few days they’d planned to stay. An older TV, three seater brown leather sofa, and half a dozen chairs, some mismatched, around a round kitchen table were all the furnishings on the main floor but the kitchen had a newish three door fridge and a propane stainless steel chef’s stove with six burners. There were non-fancy but totally usable cooking implements and dishes stocked there.

As for communication, there was satellite line-of-sight internet and minimal but still existent satellite television. The living room had an older large screen rear projection TV. On the front porch, which had a big covered veranda, was a red wooden swing and a side deck with screened in gazebo area that held an octagonal patio table with seating for six. Directly across from that was a tire swing hanging from a big old tree with a branch as wide as a standard tree trunk in the perfect spot for holding that tire swing or for sitting on, getting lost in a book, or for maybe building a tree house that could hold a bunch of kids.

Upstairs, the only furnished bedroom was the master and it had a big beautiful oak canopy bed with red drapes pinned back on the canopy. Small night tables that didn’t match and a big pine armoire that also didn’t match were all that was there but there was a stationary bike in the corner of the room as well as an elliptical machine. The room had a wall of large windows covered with thinish off-white drapes.

Sasha had explained that Sam had talked of her love for running but they didn’t have a treadmill. She had gotten Sam to bring this exercise equipment in from her clinic. The same patchwork quilt from Sasha’s guest bedroom was on the bed. Kyla fingered it.

“Your mother made that. After your parents were brought in, some of their belongings were fetched by my brother. I saved that for you. I meant to tell you so if you leave again, you can take it with you.”

Kyla felt a pang in her chest. She had very few memories of her mother. She remembered her parents being lovey dovey. She remembered her mother’s gentle touch. But she didn’t remember much else and didn’t really allow herself to feel much about her lost parents over the years.

She’d been too young when they’d supposedly died to have full memories but what memories she did have, she suspected she’d just kept in a secret place that was only hers but that she hadn’t allowed herself to unlock, really.

She’d never wanted to let the memories out of wherever they’d been locked because that’d leave the door open to let the pain in, too.

She smiled at Sasha, “Thank you for that.”

“I saved some books and a few things for Kyle, too. He appreciated it but wanted the quilt for you. And he said you loved to lie on that quilt with him to watch cartoons when you were small. It was made from your and Kyle’s baby clothes and baby blankets. He said that he wanted it saved, just in case, but hoped you’d never be found, that you’d never have to know the truth about who you are.”