She Never Knew (24 page)

Plush Pillows was another amazing
experience Kat and Tyler enjoyed. The store was the only one in the entire
outlet that still had its original factory attached. Kat and Tyler went on a
guided tour in which they were able to watch the manufacturing of luxury
pillows. Tyler took delight in watching quality inspectors fluff pillows to
ensure it met standard requirements for sale in its adjoining store. In the
end, Kat had bought a decorative pillow for Rhonda.

As she began taking items out of their
bags, Tyler sat down at one of the chairs. He had picked out most of his
clothes and was excited to be wearing them soon to school. Most of all, he
loved his new sneakers which had Velcro straps instead of laces and wore them
on the way home. When they returned from their outing, Tyler had darted around
the driveway and claimed that his new sneakers made him run faster.

Kat glanced at her son. With elbows
propped on the table, his face rested contentedly on his fists as he watched
her sort their purchases. Kat decided that this would be a good time to talk to
Tyler about her sister.

“Honey, do you remember the other day at
the park when Daniel and I talked with you about sharing things with our
friends?” Kat began.

“Uh huh.”

“Yes,” she corrected him.

“Yes.”

“And we talked about how if we don’t
share, people’s feelings get hurt?”

“I remember, Mommy.” He looked at her
sleepily.

“Well, a long time ago, I hurt someone’s
feelings.”

“You did?”

“Sure did. And that person hurt my
feelings, too.”

“Why?”

“Well, because we didn’t talk about it.
We didn’t share our feelings with each other so we could become friends again.”

“And happy again?”

Kat sat down and pushed her packages to
the side of the table. Taking Tyler’s hands into her own, she hoped he would
understand what she was about to tell him.

“It was my sister, honey. She and I had
hurt each other’s feelings a long time ago.”

“How come?”

Kat was surprised Tyler didn’t seem to
mind that he suddenly acquired an aunt. Perhaps this was going to be easier
than she had anticipated.

“Remember how I told you Grammy and
Grampy got into a car accident?” When Tyler nodded, she continued. “Well, Grammy
and Grampy and I were together in a different state to celebrate my graduation
from college.”

“Just like my graduation from
preschool?” Tyler perked up.

“Just like that, honey.” Kat leaned back
and paused, trying to think of the best way to proceed. “Well, I had a sister
and she couldn’t come to my graduation.”

“Why?”

“I can’t remember exactly why, but it
had to do with work. But she really wanted to come, I know that for sure.”

“What’s her name?”

“Mary.”

“That’s Jesus’ mommy’s name!”

Kat laughed, relieved somewhat that
Tyler didn’t display any hint of resentment toward her for hiding the truth
from him that she had a sister. In fact, she was rather pleased that Tyler
associated Mary’s name with his lessons at Sunday school.

“Well anyway, after Grammy and Grampy
went to heaven, Aunt Mary got mad at me.”

“Why?”

“Well, she felt that if Grammy and
Grampy didn’t go to my graduation, they would still be here, and not in
Heaven.”

“Oh.” Tyler let this soak in as he tried
to understand what his mother was getting at.

“It means that she felt it was my fault
for taking them away, for sending them to Heaven.”

“But it was an accident, right?”

“That’s right, it was definitely an
accident. It wasn’t my fault, but Aunt Mary thought it was.”

“So that’s why her feelings were hurt?”

“Yes, and mine were too. It’s because
she and I didn’t talk about those feelings.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I think both of us were
very sad when Grammy and Grampy went to Heaven that we forgot to talk about our
feelings and make up.”

“So are you friends now?”

“Yes, we’re friends again, but the best
part is, that we’re sisters again.”

The realization that Tyler had an aunt
was slowing sinking in. Kat got up to fetch them lemonade while Tyler thought
about what his mother told him.

“Where is she, Mommy?”

“Aunt Mary lives in New York.”

“In Albany?” Tyler said, remembering his
state capitals.

“She lives in Rochester. That’s a city
on the western side of New York state.”

“I better go look. I’ll be right back.”
Tyler dashed upstairs in his new sneakers as Kat chuckled to herself. A few
moments later, Tyler had an outdated atlas in his hands. He set the book on the
table and turned the pages until he recognized the state of New York. Kat
pointed to the city on the map so Tyler could see how far away it was from
Albany.

“Can we go there someday?” He beamed at
Kat, excited at the prospect of learning about a new city.

“We sure can!” Kat tousled his hair.
“But what do you think about having Aunt Mary come visit us first?”

“Okay! When is she coming, Mommy?”

“She is coming this weekend and is going
to spend a whole week with us!”

“A whole week? Cool!”

Kat sat there and watched her son,
amazed at his ability to accept things at face value. She didn’t know why she
thought he would be upset to learn he would be meeting an aunt he didn’t know
he had until recently. She chided herself for not giving Tyler the benefit of
the doubt.

As she began sorting through her
shopping bags once again, Tyler focused on the highway numbers surrounding the
city of Rochester. He took his miniature toy car and pretended he was driving
around the city.

“Mommy?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“What does Aunt Mary look like?”

Kat stopped what she was doing and admired
her son’s facial features. “She’s very beautiful. She has blond hair and blue
eyes like we do!” Mary had emailed a picture of herself the other day and Kat
wanted to show it to Tyler. “I have a picture of her but it’s on the computer.
Want to go see?”

“Oh, yes!” Tyler dismissed the atlas and
got up from his chair. “Last one’s a rotten egg!”

Laughing, Kat was right behind him as
the two ran up the stairs into her office. “You’re really fast in those new
sneakers, you know that?”

“Thank you for buying them for me,
Mommy.”

“You’re welcome.” She kissed the tip of
his nose and went to her computer. After turning it on, she settled Tyler on
her lap.

The picture of Michael seemed to loom
over her. Before she could say or do anything, Tyler saw the picture and said,
“Did Daddy know Aunt Mary?”

“No honey, they never knew each other.”
Kat said sadly. “The first time they would’ve met was at my graduation.”

“Oh.”

Kat was acutely aware of Tyler’s
reference to Michael as his father. She thought about Daniel’s words and
suddenly, it seemed terribly wrong to keep misleading Tyler. When Mary arrived,
Kat would ask her for guidance. Her sister would know what to do.

When the computer was fully booted, Kat
logged into her email account and opened the email from her sister. She
scrolled to the bottom of the message where a picture of Mary was displayed.
She wore her hair short and had a smile on her face.

“That’s Aunt Mary? Oh, Mommy. She’s so
pretty.”

“Yes, she is. And she’s going to be here
in a few days to meet you!”

“Mommy?”

“Yes?”

“Can you print that out so I can put it
in my scrapbook?”

“Okay, what a great idea!” Kat leaned
over to where her printer sat and pulled out photo paper from the cubbyhole
storage compartment. After inserting a sheet into the printer, she clicked on
the print icon and waited for the photo to print.

Tyler loved to take pictures of anything
and everything. When Kat bought a new camera a couple of years ago, she gave
Tyler Michael’s old camera. His scrapbook contained pictures of his friends,
his stuffed animals, his bedroom, the house, and Kat’s car. Tyler was ecstatic
about adding a picture of his aunt in his scrapbook.

After the printer spit out the photo,
Kat handed it to her son. Tyler looked at it for a long time as if memorizing
her features.

“Mommy?”

“Yes?”

“How come you don’t have any pictures of
Aunt Mary in the house?” She knew that was coming but she was prepared to
answer him.

“Remember how I said Aunt Mary and I
hurt each other’s feelings?”

“Mm hmm—I  mean, yes.”

“Well, I didn’t want to have pictures of
her around the house because I didn’t want to see her.”

“Because you were mad at her?”

“Kind of. It hurt my feelings to know
that we couldn’t talk to each other and try to work things out.”

“But she’s coming to see us.”

“Yes, she is. That means she and I
talked to each other a while ago and decided we wanted to be happy again.”

“So, you’re not mad at each other
anymore?”

“Not at all. In fact, we can’t wait to
see each other.” She tickled Tyler in the ribs. “And she can’t wait to meet
you!”

“I can’t wait to see her too.” He hopped
off of Kat’s lap, holding the picture in his hands. “I’m going to put this in
my scrapbook.”

When Tyler left the room, Kat decided to
print another copy. She would put it on the refrigerator so she could see her
sister every day as well. A few minutes later, she typed an email to Mary,
letting her know Tyler was aware of her and that he was excited to be meeting
her. Later, she would dig out her old scrapbooks and show Tyler pictures of
Mary and her when they were children.

As Kat shut down her computer, she
looked at the picture of her and Michael. She still missed him terribly and
didn’t know if she would ever get over him. She couldn’t wait for Mary to
arrive. She needed her sister now more than ever.

He had been watching Kat for a few days
now. He knew she was single and lived alone with her little boy. When he was
hiding in the bushes behind the Burnses home, he had heard the little boy call
out to his mother when they went in the house. Apparently, the neighbors were
away and Kat was responsible for taking care of the family pet.

Darryl thought about taking the cat to
make Kat look bad, but he didn’t want to do anything that might arouse
suspicion. He needed to focus on his plan for revenge. Besides, he knew the cat
wandered around the neighborhood and even if he took it, the owners would
probably assume it ran away when it didn’t return. He didn’t want to waste time
on trivial matters. He had more important things to worry about. The fact that
Kat had a little boy threw a wrench in his plans, but he would find a way
around that. He didn’t come this far to give up now.

The little boy seemed happy but Darryl
knew what it was like to grow up without a father. His latest memory of his
father took place in the parking lot of a seedy bar when he was around four
years old. He was strapped in a car seat in the back of his father’s station
wagon and left behind for over an hour while his father got drunk inside the
bar. It was a cold winter night and his mother had been frantic when she came
home to find her husband and son missing. When she called the police, they had
found Darryl alone inside the locked car, crying and shivering. They had also
found Darryl’s father shot to death, his body dumped in the alley behind the
bar. The police never recovered the weapon, had no clues to go on, and could only
speculate his death was a result of a drug deal that went south. His toxicology
report had come back positive for opiates.

Darryl’s mother was a waitress and
worked long hours to support the family. Somehow she paid her bills and managed
to put food on the dinner table every night, but there never seemed to be
enough money to do fun things other families did, like visit Disney World or go
skiing. While Darryl knew how much his mother loved him and did her best to
instill in him good values, he was always embarrassed by how poor they were. Although
he socialized in school and played on the football team, Darryl kept to himself
when he was at home. He read as many books as he could from the school library
and kept up to date on current events.

When he turned fourteen, he worked as a
custodian for a small church within walking distance from his home. He had lied
about his age since Darryl knew he appeared older than he really was. He was a
hard worker, did what he was told, and was paid from the petty cash fund.
Darryl worked every day after school for two hours and was always home by the
time his mother returned from work.