Читать книгу Hunter's Redemption - Eleni P Sianis - Страница 7

CHAPTER 3

VERSUS

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

—Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard

The next day, Mason comes down for breakfast in his favorite H&M sweatshirt and jeans. Hannah is scrambling eggs, frying bacon, and cutting up some cantaloupe. Mason always looks forward to these big breakfasts. He has a sip of his mom’s coffee and internally debates telling her about Wesley but decides he doesn’t want to get into it. He figures Hannah would want to summon Wesley’s spirit back, and Mason really didn’t care to see him again.

“Good morning, Mason.” His mom hugs him tight, and he squeezes her back. She smiles widely. “I’m so proud of you, Mason.” She holds a letter in her hand. “This $25,000 academic scholarship to Boston University is such a tremendous accomplishment.”

Mason looks down and then lifts his gaze to meet Hannah’s. He pauses a few moments before replying, “Mom, you know I don’t want to go to Boston University. I want something else, something different.”

Frustrated, Hannah answers her son sternly, “Mason, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Life isn’t a game. You can’t turn down a scholarship because you want to do something else but don’t know what that something else is. You can’t just throw it away! You’re not making any sense!”

Mason rises from his chair, pushing it backward that it almost falls, and storms out of the kitchen. Sitting alone in his room, he recalls how sad and defeated his mother always appeared when she had to pick up Mason from the school for fighting with other kids. Mason put his mother through a lot, but this is his life, and he can’t let his guilt get in the way of his goals. He can’t just do what Hannah wants to appease her for the burden of raising him as a single mom.

When Mason was a little boy, his days were filled with days at the beach, nights catching fireflies, and finger painting with his grandparents who lived with him in the house on Peaks Island. But when they died, Mason was suddenly alone with his mom in a town where many people considered Hannah an outcast because of her work as a medium. When his grandparents were alive, Mason always felt he had their support and protection. They were well respected with the neighbors and would never allow anyone to speak negatively of Mason or Hannah. In particular, Mason’s grandmother was known to have a sharp tongue and never hesitated to tell someone to mind their own business when they inquired in a negative way about Hannah being a medium, and her quiet, oddly serious son.

One day, when Mason was about nine years old, their neighbor, Ms. Langely, was trimming her boxwood bushes. When she saw Mason’s grandmother sitting in the backyard with her usual afternoon iced tea, she walked over still wearing her wide brimmed hat and gardening gloves and asked, “Honey, what is going on with all those people coming and going from your place lately?”

Knowing that Ms. Langely had a penchant for gossip, Mason’s grandmother replied, “Ms. Langely, such a hot day today, isn’t it? Come here and have a glass of iced tea with me. Rumor has it that you are no longer interested in being the town gossip.”

Ms. Langely’s jaw dropped, and she walked away in a huff. But now, Mason’s grandparents were gone, and Mason felt the town’s eyes and talk around him everywhere he went.

Then there was also Anthony Villas, James’s father. The friendship between Anthony and Hannah began to develop when Mason and James were only four years old. Their relationship slowly grew over afternoons watching the kids play hockey. Anthony would always bring Hannah a hot coffee and sit beside her as they cheered their kids on. He was warm and understanding toward Hannah because he could relate to being a single parent. Anthony became a father in his midtwenties when his girlfriend unexpectedly became pregnant with James. They knew the relationship was not meant to last and decided to share custody of their son.

Mason always cringed when he saw how Hannah smiled in Anthony’s presence. He could tell his mother was attracted to Anthony’s rugged appearance. His hair was dark and wavy, and he always had a bit of facial hair. Anthony always smiled when he looked at Hannah, and it was genuine and bright. His eyes were a light brown but looked hazel in the sunlight. A regular at the gym, Anthony had a muscular physique. He was intelligent, giving, and not arrogant in the least. He seemed perfect…a perfect threat to Mason. The idea of his mother with his best friend’s father was unnerving. More than once, Mason missed a shot on the ice because he was too distracted trying to catch a glimpse of how Hannah was behaving with Anthony.

Mason didn’t discuss his agitation about Anthony with James. He and Mason played hockey together since they were toddlers and were more like brothers than friends. Oddly, the two boys always looked like brothers too. They had the same hair and eye color, but James was just an inch or so taller than Mason. Unlike Mason, James was always popular with the kids at his school.

One evening when Mason was about twelve years old, Hannah came to pick up Mason from the Villas’ home. He heard Anthony invite Hannah in for a cup of tea. Mason listened in while James finished playing a video game. Anthony talked about how he moved to New York after college, but when his father fell ill, he returned home to Maine to help his parents.

“I have an idea I’d like to share with you. I see plastic cups all over the beach, and as you know, I grew up beside the beach in Maine and have loved the ocean my entire life. Every time I go to the grocery store and see all the plastic bags being used to pack food, all I could think about is how much of it will end up in the ocean. I can’t pick up a plastic fork at a fast food restaurant anymore without thinking that I am holding a meaningless and wasteful object that never disintegrates. I have been saving money for years but need more to accomplish what I want. Do you think you’d be interested in organizing and hosting fundraisers for me? I think you’d be great at it, and I would be forever in your debt.”

Over the next two years, Hannah helped coordinate many of those fundraising events. Eventually, Anthony opened a small grocery store concept where absolutely no plastic or waste is created. Together with a friend of a friend who owned a farm, they produced all their own produce, meat, and dairy and sold it at the store. There was no plastic used. Everything was transported with reusable crates. The store sold canvas tote bags and glass containers that customers were urged to bring back and reuse. The first store was a huge success, and Anthony opened several more stores in the East Coast.

One year ago, Anthony was approached by a representative of a chain grocery store who offered him a massive sum of money to use the store’s name, “Tony’s,” and turn his concept into a nationwide chain. Anthony agreed and since then has slowly amassed a small fortune.

Mason was bewildered by the fact that despite his financial success, Anthony chose to live rather simply. He didn’t move out of town but bought a new house for himself with a bedroom for James that was only slightly larger and nicer than his previous one. He chose a newer version of his Jeep Wrangler with some extra features, but other than that, he spent a lot of his free time at his stores, charity functions, and hockey games with James, Mason, and Hannah. Mason imagined the glamorous car, home, and toys he would buy if he had the kind of money that Anthony has.

Mason was well aware that Hannah admires Anthony’s humility, but Mason found that aspect of his personality underwhelming.

“James, why doesn’t your dad move you out of this boring town and into some Beverly Hills mansion? You know he has the money to do it.”

Mason knew that James was always protective of Mason’s feelings, and this made James feel more like a brother to him. The fact that Mason was very sensitive to the idea of his mom with Anthony was mutually understood by both Mason and James, without Mason ever having to come right out and say it. They both knew that Anthony stayed in Portland to be close to Hannah, and Mason anticipated James’s feigned ignorance when he shrugged and said, “Right? I’ll never understand the man.”

*****

The two of them glide on the ice naturally and hit shot after shot to victory with their team. It was nearing the end of the season, and their coach invite all the players and their parents to meet after the game at Salvage BBQ on Congress Street in Portland, Maine.

While sitting with his teammates, Mason can still catch pieces of Anthony and Hannah’s conversation. Anthony is thanking Hannah for helping him in the early days of Tony’s whenever there were hiccups. Something about a power outage and the backup generator malfunctioning. “Not only did you help clean out the refrigerators, you offered me a loan to pay for the damage. Even though I couldn’t accept your money, Hannah, I want you to know that your offer meant the world to me back then and still does today.”

Mason doesn’t know any of that had happened. How could Hannah have offered Anthony a loan when she keeps pressuring Mason to get good grades for a scholarship? Does Anthony mean that much to her? Does he mean more to her than Mason does?

It is time that he interrupts the conversation. Leaning over the table to talk to Anthony, Mason says, “The other day, I came home from school and my mom was just finishing up a séance. You know she works as a medium, right?”

James nudges him to quit, but Mason knows that Hannah’s work as a medium is often the elephant in the room because Anthony is aware that Hannah works as a medium and finds it very strange. From what James had told him, it is not a part of Hannah’s life that Anthony particularly likes but is able to push it aside and focus on the many things he does like about her.

“Yes, I know that, Mason.”

“Mason, you know I help people find closure when they lost someone close to them. Don’t talk about my work like it’s something shameful. By looking at photos of their departed ones and talking to them about the person a little, I can help ease the pain of their loved ones’ parting,” she explains.

“So, do you actually see the ghosts?” Anthony asks.

Hannah senses his disbelief and lies, “No, I just try and talk to them more like a psychologist would and assure them that their loved ones are in a better place and at peace.”

Hannah throws Mason a disapproving “we’ll talk about this later” kind of look.

Anthony turns toward Hannah so Mason and James can’t hear him and quickly changes the subject. “James is asking to go to Lollapalooza in Chicago this summer…if Mason hasn’t brought it up yet, I’m guessing he is still just buttering you up.”

“No buttering up is happening yet, but I’ll be looking forward to it,” Hannah replies.

The music in the restaurant changes, and Mason cringes at the sight of Hannah and Anthony smiling at each other. “Let It Happen” by Tame Impala comes on, and Hannah starts singing along. Anthony joins in on the singing, and the hockey team erupts in laughter. Some of them hide their heads and others pretend to throw things at them to stop singing.

“We’re such rock stars, Tony. Looks like our boys might have two parent chaperones at Lollapalooza,” Hannah whispers to Anthony.

James’s mother remarried when James was still a baby, and he was accustomed to spending days with his mother, stepfather, and stepsister. When it was Anthony’s turn to have James at his house, James immediately felt the quiet loneliness in his father’s house and worried that his dad would never meet anyone. But for Mason, it was different.

Mason did not have the same hope as James of seeing his parent in a new relationship. Hannah and Mason lived with Hannah’s parents after Mason was born, but they were already much older and passed away just months apart when Mason was ten years old. Mason was particularly close to his grandfather and cherished days spent with him reading books and playing card games like Old Maid and Go Fish. As his only father figure, his grandfather’s passing was very difficult for Mason and left a void he couldn’t fill. For a few months after his grandfather’s death, Mason was able to recall the peculiar smell of his sweater, a combination of dryer sheets and aftershave. He always hid mints in his sweater pockets for Mason to find. But slowly, Mason’s memories of his grandparents started to fade.

Just a few days after his grandfather died, Mason came home from school to find Anthony consoling Hannah in an intimate embrace in the kitchen. Mason felt betrayed, became furious, and threw his schoolbag at Anthony. He realized that they were more than just friends, and the new image of his mother with James’s father was overwhelming. Hannah tried explaining the importance of grown-ups having meaningful relationships with other grown-ups, but Mason couldn’t understand. Soon after that, Mason started acting up aggressively toward other kids in school, so Hannah decided to wait until he was older to date openly.

After lunch at Salvage BBQ, the hockey players and their parents walk out to the parking lot.