Page 129 of Crystal Iris
“What?!” She keeps eating.
“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Johanna asks, looking back and forth between us.
Hoyt and I don’t say anything.
“It’s not like it’s a secret,” Akira adds. “Their prisms, or something.”
“You guys can’t… touch?”
We shake our heads.
“How the hell do you date someone without… touching?”
I look at her and take another sip. “Complicated, remember?”
She’s still trying to figure us out when Akira stands up. “Who’s taking me to the airport?”
“You’re leaving today?” I ask her.
“Tonight.”
“It’s not really a question, is it?” Hoyt says, laughing at us.
I’m left alone with Johanna while Hoyt drives Akira to the airport. We put a chick flick on TV, glancing at it occasionally. We’ve stopped drinking, but we’re both still feeling a little inebriated.
“Akira mentioned you teach in Boston,” Johanna says from the couch.
“I thought I mentioned it.”
“You didn’t mention Harvard.”
I shrug.
“And you’re an equestrian vet, right?” I ask Hoyt’s sister; they really look alike, even have similar mannerisms.
“Was.”
“Was?”
“I’ve been working as a waitress for the past three years. Been moving around a lot.
“How did you… find your mom?”
“It hasn’t been easy. People seemed… I don’t know. They pretended they didn’t know her. Our dad told us very little about her; all I had was a last name—my last name. But I drove around, took odd jobs, asked every person I met, until an old man told me a story. I wasn’t even far from here when I found him—just a little above Malta. He said he knew my mother and knew of my father. I pushed him until he told me how they met. My father owned some land near the reservations. My mom lived there.”
“The tribal chairman told us she was from there,” I say.
“Tribal chairman?”
“We went to see the families there… Long story, continue.”
“My mother lived there with her family. There was trouble at some point, and her family was killed. She was left alone. I think she was only nineteen. My dad heard about the conflict and went to check it out. There was talk about things getting bad, and I think he wanted to avoid them crossing his lands. He found her fighting for her life. He brought her here, and I think they got together then.”
“You guys don’t have any other family around?”
“Dad’s family members are either dead or hate us because of him. Or they just want the money. I guess there could be more of my mom’s family around, but… who knows? I only recently found out what her maiden name is. We grew up here; our family was our… employees.”
“We have more in common than I realized.” I tell her. “How do you know she’s in Alaska?”
