Southern Comfort (Southern 2)

“Is there anything I can help with?” she asks my mother, who just shakes her head.

“I can set the table.” Olivia walks over to the plates. “I wonder if Kallie is coming today?”

“She’ll be over in a bit. She had things to do,” my mother says. I walk into the kitchen to help Olivia set the table. I ignore the look that my mother and father give me when I do this, and no one says anything when we eat breakfast. The three of them talk, but I don’t even know what about because all I think about is what will happen when she leaves. A knot forms in my stomach, so I get up as soon as I’m done and put my plate away.

“I have to go,” I tell them. Looking down, I try not to look at Olivia, but I fail and glance at her before walking out the back door. Walking back to the front of my house, I get into the truck and head deep into my property. I have this sudden energy, and my mind is going all over the place. Stopping my truck, I go over to a pile of wood that needs to be cut. This should help to clear my head. I slide on the gloves sitting on top of the ax and then take a piece of wood. Moving it into place, I raise the ax over my head and swing, splitting the wood into two pieces. I do it over and over again until my muscles scream, but my head remains more confused than before.

I wipe the sweat from my forehead when I hear another truck approaching. “There you are,” my father says when he gets out of the truck.

“Yeah, here I am,” I say, grabbing another piece of wood. My chest is heaving from the exertion.

“Do you want to talk about what’s gotten into you?” he asks, and I just shake my head. “It might be better if you do.”

“Nothing to say, Dad. What do you want me to say?” I ask, taking another piece of wood and swinging the ax to make the cut.

“It’s okay to be scared, son,” he says while I toss the cut pieces of wood into the growing pile.

“I’m not scared,” I say. I’m really not. Confused maybe, but not scared. “Why would I be scared?”

“Well, you almost lost her.” Those five words cut me to the core. The five words I tried not to think about since I walked into that room. Those five words could have changed my world forever.

“Everyone almost lost her.” I look at him. “Kallie, Mom, you.” I point at him.

“This is true, and we would mourn her, but you …” he says.

“But nothing, Dad.” I throw the ax down. “She’s just here until it’s safe to go home, and then she’s going home.” Just saying the words causes my stomach to burn, and I get that feeling again in my chest. This time, though, it’s followed with dread and pressure. “I need to finish this,” I say, and he doesn’t say anything more to me. He walks back to his truck, and only when he’s gone do I roar out in frustration.

Chapter Nine

Olivia

Last night when I woke and I was clinging to him, he brought me to the couch. When I saw that he was sleeping on the couch with me, I almost sobbed. This man is sleeping on a couch because I’m the bitch who made him not safe in his house. Lying there in the room with him, I felt my heart calm down, and the nightmare didn’t seem so scary anymore. I suddenly felt so safe, knowing he was there, and was able to fall asleep. When I opened my eyes this morning, I don’t know why I was expecting to see him. I also don’t know why it bothered me when I didn’t see him.

“Good morning, beautiful girl,” she says from the kitchen while she cooks breakfast.

“Morning,” I say, getting up, trying not to do it too fast so my head doesn’t spin.

“How are you feeling this morning?” she asks, and I just smile at her. The last thing I want to do is worry her again. “I was scared that you would wake up when I covered you up.”

“You covered me up?” I ask, and I need to walk away as my stomach starts to flip.

“Well, the blanket was off you a bit, so I just made sure you weren’t cold.” I look at her while she smiles as if she just did what everyone else would do. Not once did my mother ever cover me for anything. She would leave me sleeping on the couch and have someone else carry me to my room and tuck me in, and even at that, the people did it because they were paid to do it.