Mentor was already settled in bed. He picked up his phone from the nightstand and found Shilla's number.
After three rings, the call was picked. A baby voice came over the line."Heyyo?"His eyebrow quirked and he smiled. That had to be Dexter, his two-year-old nephew."Hi, Dexter. It's Uncle Mentor. Can you give the phone to your mommy?""I don't have a uncle," the boy protested rather loudly.A chuckle broke from his lips. "Yes, you do, sonny. I'm Mommy's brother."The boy didn't reply to this and all Mentor heard was heavy breathing on the line. He started to wonder if he should cut the call or try calling his brother-in-law and he settled for the former, the latter being something he didn't look forward to doing.As luck would have it, Shilla's voice came in the background. He heard her asking her son who he was speaking to. The boy blew a loud raspberry and giggled, and then Shilla's voice was speaking on the phone."Oh my God, Mentor. Sorry about that." She chuckled. "I can hardly wait for him to start pre-school too."Her first son, Dustin, would be six now and had started elementary school last year."He said he didn't have an uncle."Shilla didn't say anything at that. He heard her pop gum in her mouth and he knew was Shilla rolling her eyes and blowing a bubble because that was just so characteristic of her."Stop being petty," she said.He noticed her voice was a bit off. Raspy. He shook his head, Shilla had gone back to smoking. Anyway, he had called for a different reason, he could scold her later."Queen said you called today," he stated. Then a feeling of suspicion combed at his heckles when his sister kept mute. "So?" he said, impatient."Are you going to keep ignoring my pleas?" Shilla started. "You know I'm right and you know I have Ilene's best interest at heart."Slight anger made his pulse click higher. This was exactly the reason he tried to avoid conversation with his sister. And the same reason he had been wary of her since she started up three years ago. He was never going to give his daughter up, whether to a family member or not. The very thought made him want to puke blood. Maybe in a profound part of him, he was scared his defences would get porous and he'd have no choice but to give in."Do you really plan to raise the kid alone in that middle of nowhere?" Shilla continued. "Mentor, a kid her age needs a motherly figure to look up to, and since you've refused to remarry, I don't think there's any hope for that there."She told me she was starting elementary school next week, do you realise how stressful that's gonna be on you? If she's over here with me, she could attend Harsh's school and . . . I did raise her as a baby, after allMentor rubbed at his forehead. A peaking headache was forming between his eyes and it pounded something wicked in his skull. All these talks about Shilla taking his daughter usually caused it." Yes, I'm aware you raised her when she was a baby, thank you very much. But, that doesn't mean you can come take her just because you want to. If you feel entitled, you had better delete that feeling, Shilla. I'm not letting my daughter out of my sight."And you didn't have to rub it in about her starting school. If I could handle her on my own for the past five years, I don't see why not now. Have you heard of the word 'single-father'?"Shilla sighed deeply into the phone. He could imagine her now pushing her gum around her mouth with her tongue. It was something she did when she couldn't have her way with a cause and was thinking deeply about the line of action to take next."Okay," she finally said. "What do you think about taking a vacation then?""Huh?" He was confused by the twist of conversation. If he didn't know his sister better, he'd say she really meant it at face value and had no ulterior motive."Yeah. You could come up here with Ilene for a few weeks. Who knows, you might meet the love of your life here and fall in love. I don't suppose you fancy anybody in that small town, seeing as you've married none."A mixture of disgust and chagrin blended in him and churned his insides up. His jaw clenched and unclenched and he wished for something to hit. "What's with you and me getting married?" he spat out."Oh, don't be silly," Shilla berated. "It's more for your daughter's sake than your own sake." She hissed. "I could come over anytime you want. . . ""I swear to God, if you come over again with one of your single friends to matchmake me with, I'm sending you back before you get to put your bags down.""Tush," said Shilla. "You're having a storm in a teacup. I -""You know what, I don't even know why I stay long on these conversations with you. It's night here and I'm going to sleep." He pressed the red button and tossed the phone on the bed beside him. He combed his dark-blonde hair back from his head with his hands, trying to calm his orbiting pulse.What right did Shilla have to interfere in his life?He definitely didn't have time for women right now. And even if he did, he was keen on finding someone who would get along with his daughter, someone who actually liked his daughter and wasn't after his money or looks alone. Since that was what most of the ladies in Lucerne-Alpane were after, to his best knowledge.The last time he had let himself get match-made by his friend Garth Mowman's wife he had almost fallen into believing the lady was alright. That was until he caught her threatening his cheeky three-year-old kid.He wiped a hand over his mouth. He didn't feel so sleepy all of a sudden. He threw back the bed covers and made his way downstairs to the revolving bar where he picked up a decanter and poured himself a glass of sherry. He found comfort in the way the drink burned something hot down to his stomach.Shilla of all people should have understood his hesitation. His fears. They had both been victims of their stepmom, after all.Their own mother had died from cancer when they were both kids. He had just turned seven then and Shilla was around ten. When a year later, their father had come home with a woman and announced she was their new mother, they hadn't known what to make of her. The woman was indifferent towards them and their father who was always busy at work was never around to notice. It had been like they had had no mother at all.Within the next year, they had had to relocate to Lucerne-Alpane as per the family doctor's prescription for their father's health.As if having their lives being uprooted from beneath them didn't suck enough, their stepmother had gotten pregnant. She had obviously been excited about it, so when she had miscarried the twins six and a half months later, Mentor and his sister had understood her pain.Unfortunately, the miscarriage had been a bad turn of events for them. He didn't know if the sight of them every day had made her miss what could have been hers or if the woman had been plain abusive before. Anyway, the woman had descended on them. She has been just plain insensitive before her pregnancy, but then she hit them if they so much as laughed in her sight.Their father had been preoccupied with running his business remotely and regularly travelling to and fro the city, so he never noticed anything. The two siblings had learnt to stay out of her sight and take care of themselves.They finally got peace of mind when she packed her stuff and left them and their father three years later. They never heard of her after then.All these were what he thought about that made him fear his daughter could be a victim. He'd rather raise his kid alone than make her subject to all that.If this wasn't pure bliss then Everest didn't know what it was. Lounging in a cold and calm lake on a cool night, all alone and with nothing to disturb you.Despite the frigid cold in the air, the pale white full moon shone down in all its glory. Its multiple bursts of reflections on the repose lake shimmered and sparkled like a thousand white jewels on the sleeping water.Although it was yet to rain for the season, the fresh, earthy scent that came with rain permeated the air like an air freshener. Everest could see the bright, translucent beads of moisture that the early late-night dew had formed on the blades of grass about the lake.Daring to explore beyond her backyard had been worth it after all. The landlady hadn't mentioned anything about a lake being on her property, so when she had found it in all of its restful glory, she had been astonished.It turned out the picturesque prairie that stretched on at the back of her house had an ending after all. She had just finished her s
The next two days were pretty uneventful for Everest. She spent time setting up her small rented house properly and of course, keeping up with her friends online.She had been wanting to go into town to check out stuff but had been putting it off to enjoy a few days of quiet she had come here for. Opening the pantry and finding it full of all of a bag of chips and pretty much nothing else had done it for her. She had had no choice but to go into town today.She walked down the piazza and broke into a small laugh on seeing the bustle before her.Finally! It seemed like she had found her way to the market successfully. She dropped into the nearest canopied seat at an open shop to the side and stuffed the map back into her tote bag to wipe the film of perspiration from her hot brow, breathing heavily. The real reason she had been postponing going into town was the absence of transportation. The distance from her side of the town to the umbra was a huge fucking stretch that couldn't be
Mentor Gayle Calloway had never found himself so worked up like this before. Well, at least, not in the past four years. The most he had done was get angry at some occurrence on the ranch or get worried.But the way his heart palpitated so fast like the workings of a water turbine, and the way the thing called fear clutched his whole being in a vice-like grip, it all sprung a new one on him.And that it was all happening because of his new neighbour was something that scared him the most. Akin to the emotions of a prepubescent school boy getting a first glance from his crush.When the subject of his unwonted feelings smiled his way, Mentor could have sworn his heart had done a rolling somersault in his chest of its own accord. Was it because of the way that elegant smile showed the slight dimple on her left cheek and lit up the room? Or the way that same glow of a smile seemed to affect all the males around her, dazzling them into a frozen audience?"Hi," she said softly. He struggle
It was early morning, maybe a bit past six. Filmy blankets of mist still wandered in the low sky, shrouding everything down below it in damp layers of cold. Everest wrapped her white terry robe tighter around her body and shut the curtain. Then she turned away from the window and leaned against the wall beside it.She covered a yawn and eyed the four-poster bed. Going back to sleep would be a good thing right now, but she had made up her mind to start working today. Her days of lazying about were over.After that trip to the market a few days ago, she had barely stepped out of the house. With the gardening equipment she had found in a metal box in the barn, she had worked on her front garden, discovering her very green fingers. Then she had been to the big bookshop cum library in town just yesterday afternoon. Bored and having all day on her hands, she had wandered her front yard as though looking over her garden when Mrs Casss's rusty old truck Lassie pulled up at her front gate.Th
A normal day at Calloway Cattle Ranch involved nomadic cowhands and ranch hands herding the cows out to new pastures all day, workers that operated the dairy and those that were in charge of animal care and the likes. Most of the ranch hands slept in the ranch bunkhouse, a gentrified redbrick building that sat further up the hillMentor walked towards the large stable, having handed off his daughter to a trusted worker who was wager to give her a tour. The stable held a total of thirty-four stalls and twenty-nine horses, with seventeen lined on either side of the wide longitudinal walk path.The smell of juniper and steed enveloped the air as he entered through the main front door.He could hear some whistling ranch hands busy in the empty stables with spades and iron pans and he remembered the stables were supposed to be mucked today."Nice morning, boss," they greeted him.He returned their greeting and nodded."Where's Pinky?" he asked a guy carrying a filled pail beside him."He's
It was afternoon before Everest knew it. She had spent all day on her laptop sketching and then working on the foundation of two houses. Now the inertia had worked a kink into her shoulder.She pushed to her feet from the desk and massaged her shoulder blades, working her neck from side to side. She closed her laptop to put it to sleep and walked toward the dressing table.She bent to inspect her fatigued face in the mirror. Her black curls were packed into a puffy bun on the top of her head, and now perspiration clung to her hairline.She stood and examined her pink dress shirt and tight black leather shorts. Maybe she could go out.The sheet of perspiration in her hairline trickled down her right temple. A cold shower should probably be in order first. Everest had started toeing off her sneakers when she remembered the lake and how it'd be a perfect place to have a cold afternoon bath. Besides, the shower was likely to be too hot at this time of the day anyway.While slipping off t
When Everest had made the offer to help the rancher's kid braid her hair someday she hadn't expected the girl to show up on her doorstep thirty-two minutes later with a toothy smile and a kvetching goat.She had been mixing cake batter and had just slid the last cupcake tray into the oven whether doorbell chimed.The little girl had changed out of her dress into a sky-blue spaghetti top and blue and pink jeans. She gripped a small box to her stomach and also tried to plead to the recalcitrant goat with the same hands."Mrs Rosenthal said I could come," she explained with a smile."Come in." Everest opened the door wide and let the girl walk in. She cast a glance at the goat and hoped the headstrong creature wouldn't cause a nuisance in her house.She closed the door and turned to the girl. She wouldn't lie, she was excited. And nervous. She hadn't made someone's hair in a long while.The time she had been consistent with hair making had been when she was young and her kid brother youn
"Girl, you never said how long you'll be staying."Everest exhaled and shrugged, glancing over at Leesa. "I don't know yet. Maybe about a month or so. Maybe I'll be extending my rent when it expires."Khessica gasped. She swiped madly away at her overgrown jet-black bangs. "You're kidding," she declared. "Girls, don't just sit there and watch her make crazy decisions." Khessica glowered at the other four faces in the video call - including Everest's.Jinny was busy spooning large portions of green ice cream into her mouth. Her pregnancy had given her a strange craving for freezing cold and soft food. She set down the large striped tub with a roll of her eyes. "Our girl is being a bonafide cosmopolitan bitch," she said to Khessica. "I support you, woman," she said to Everest, picking up her ice cream again.Elise groaned. "Why do we have to argue about when Evie's returning?" She stabbed at her pink glasses and tsked. "No offence, babe, but you're as stubborn as a fucking mule. You don