Page 21 of Reeve

“What? What are you—Aaron! That’s two hours from here! In—in Canada!”

“Yep, and yep.”

“There are plenty of places in Skagway!” I cry. “Why the hell are we going two hours north to Canada?”

He’s quiet for a moment. Take a breath. Lets it go.

“I get one night with you,” he says softly. “I intend to make it count.”

I’m touched by his words, but still thrown off by his plan.

“Do you like music?” he asks, reaching for the radio dial and turning on Sirius. “I’ve known you for years, and I have no idea what kind of music you like.”

“All kinds,” I say. “But Gran played a lot of 60s and 70s when I was growing up.” I lean forward and press the up button until 70s on 7 pops up. Billy Joel’s classic, “She’s Always A Woman,” finishes, and the chords for Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” begin. “Is this okay?”

“Sure,” he says. “I grew up on this stuff, too.”

“You know,” I say, kicking off my boots and getting more comfortable for our two-hour journey north. “That’s a good segue. I don’t know a whole lot about your childhood, where you’re from, all that stuff.”

“Interested?”

“Actually, yeah. I am.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Start with the basics.”

“Okay. Um…let’s see…my mom’s from this little island in the Caribbean called Jamaica. You heard of it?”

“Of course. I’m not an idiot.”

“Okay.” He chuckles softly before continuing. “When she was eighteen, she went north to Florida for college, and spent her freshman year spring break in Key West. That’s where my parents met—in the Keys. My dad was on a weekend leave.”

“Leave?”

“From Patrick Air Force Base.” He grins at me. “I guess it was quite the weekend, because I came along nine months later.”

“Your parents got married?”

His smile fades. “They did. For a while. But they were way too young, you know? And my mom wasn’t really cut out formilitary life. During the first ten years, they lived in Florida for a while, then Colorado, then Idaho. When my father’s transfer orders to Elmendorf in Anchorage came through, she asked for a divorce. She was a Caribbean girl who’d lived through seven winters in Colorado and Idaho…she said that Alaska was out of the question.”

“Did she go back to Jamaica?”

“She did. Got remarried, too. I have two half-sisters down there.”

“You stayed with your dad?”

“My mom’s from this little town in Jamaica called Aberdeen. To get there, you fly into Montego Bay and drive two hours south. You ever heard of Appleton rum? The plantation and distillery are there. My aunts and uncles all work in the factory.” He shrugs. “Jamaica’s nice. It’s especially beautiful along the coast. But it’sreallyhard to understand Jamaican if you don’t grow up there—the accent is super strong. And my mom’s family is really religious, which we weren’t here. And I—I don’t know. I just didn’t feel like I fit in. I was this half-American kid who came to visit every few years. My cousins didn’t know what to make of me.” He sighs like he’s doing a bad job explaining this, and I wish I could give him a hug because this is heavy stuff to share. “Honestly, between living on an air force base with my dad or moving to a Caribbean island with my mom? The choice was pretty easy. Jamaica never felt like home to me, and I’d been a military kid since birth.”

“I get it. But…easy?” I ask, wondering how such a decision could ever be called “easy.”

“No! Not like that.” He glances at me for a second, and I see a flash of pain in his eyes. “Noteasy! That’s the wrong word. Um…clear. The choice wasclear. I knew I wanted to stay in the US. But looking into my mom’s face and telling her that? Hardest thing I ever had to do.”

“I bet. I’m sorry, Aaron.”

I’m moved by his story. What a tough choice for a little kid, to leave everything you know behind and move to a Caribbean island with your mom, or stick with what you know and stay with your dad. It was a lose-lose situation.

“My mom was really awesome about it. She hugged me and told me it was okay. She and my dad weren’t enemies or anything, thank God. Still aren’t. They talk a few times a year and always on Christmas. She understood that staying with my dad was the right decision for me. And I get to visit her every two or three years. Extra bonus? She and my stepdad moved to Montego Bay, which is amazing. It’s a huge resort town on the ocean. You’d love it.”

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