Twisted Roots (DeBeers 3)

"Heyden," I called. "Heyden."

He heard me and stopped playing.

-Hannah," he said, emerging from his roam. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you. Don't you want me here?" I asked sharply.

"Sure, but... your stepfather said..."

"I don't care what he said or what anyone says, Heyden. There's nothing wrong with us seeing each other, and there is especially nothing wrong with us singing together."

He smiled.

"Never thought there was." he said with a shrug. "but who am I to take on the high and the mighty?"

"You're Heyden Reynolds and I'm Hannah Eaton, and we are the high and the mighty," I replied.

He laughed,

"C'mon, maybe I'll turn that into a song."

I laughed, too.

It was as if a damn had broken and all my joy and happiness, shut up and stifled, could come pouring out again. How I welcomed it.

As soon as I entered his bedroom. Heyden's eyes and mine met and told each other how much we had really missed each other. I was so hungry_ for affection and love. I couldn't wait for him to put his arms around me and bring his lips to mine. For me the kiss 'vas like a long drink of water after traipsing through a desert. I wanted to remain in his arms forever.

This time my tears were tears of joy.

"Hey," he said, wiping them off my cheeks gently, "What's happening. Hannah?"

"Oh, Heyden, I am more than a stranger in my own house now. I feel so unwanted. And my mother has forbidden me to visit my Uncle Linden!"

"Why?"

"She blames me for everything, I know. If Miguel hadn't come for me, he might have been able to do something for little Claude. And now even my uncle's madness is somehow my fault."

"He didn't seem that mad to me." Heyden said.

"He isn't. My mother is just blind to everything but her own pain. I hate living there. I hate being there. I wish..."

"What?"

"I wish that somehow we could go away."

"Boy, don't I?" He shook his head. I sensed there was an added pain or weight on his shoulders.

"Something new?" I asked.

"You probably thought I was just afraid to talk to you at school and I was avoiding you because of your stepfather. Well, there was some of that, but the real reason was I didn't want you coming back to this place."

"Why not?" I thought a moment. Now that I realized it, it was unusually quiet. Where was Elisha? Why wasn't she playing her music too loudly? "Something to do with your sister? Something's happened to her?"

She and two of her friends were caught with cocaine. Don't ask me how she and those friends of hers got a hold of as much as they did, but it was enough to have them all arrested,

Because of her age, her name hasn't been in the papers. Of course, my mother is beside herself, and I didn't want to have anything to do with it.

"We called my father, but he can't get away from his gig without losing it I'm supposed to keep him abreast of what happens next. She could go to some juvenile detention center, and if you ask me, she should."