Page 9 of Honey Sugar
“He’s coming to stay here?” I asked. I had to make sure I heard her right.
“Yeah. You know I love Titan but I don’t know him like I used to when he was little. That was back when y’all were inseparable in the summer. Used to run all around Honey Sugar stealing candies and hiding in corners.” My lips curved upward at the pleasant memories.
I rocked from side to side a little, thinking about the way Titan and I would always steal the fresh candies from the chiller. He stole honey hard candies and I stole lollipops. We’d sit under the front counter when we were small enough to tuck our skinny bodies beneath the overhang. When we got older we sat on the floor resting our backs against the counter so Mama wouldn’t see us. I used to stash my naked lollipop sticks in the corner and wait until my mother was busy in the back before I put them in the customer trashcan so she wouldn’t know I stole them. Titan always called me klepto-squirrel because I stole then I hoarded the evidence. A laugh tumbled from my lips at the sunny memory.
Mama looked at me and dropped the corners of her lips in a frown. “Ivy, what are you laughing about?”
“Oh, just remembering something from when Titan used to spend summers here.” I realized I was high as a kite and my filter was fading fast. I needed to go to bed. “When is he coming?” I asked.
“Sarah said he’d be here sometime tomorrow. I have to concoct a story to tell your daddy.” Fear trembled in her eyes as she stood. “You go to bed. I want you up early to make those candies and don’t sneak any whiskey in the batch.”
“Okay, Mama. Good night.” I hugged her but when she hugged me back it was limp. I knew her mind was on what Daddy would say about Titan coming to stay with us.
They always bumped heads because Titan didn’t take shit from anyone and he didn’t back down. He. Never. Backed. Down.
Sometimes I wished he did because Daddy would say horrible things about him to break his spirit. It never worked but it always made me cringe.
I used to think of Titan as my superhero. His name was ripe with greatness. The way he carried himself was quiet but still waters ran deep and I knew when Titan was around no harm would come to me or Mama. My fingers and toes tingled thinking about his arrival. Maybe things in the Marchand household would calm down once he was here.
…
CHAPTER THREE
The drive down to Sugar Bayou was long and boring as fuck. After an hour of tires rolling on the pavement, I could tell I was getting near. Spanish moss started to appear, hanging like green blouses on dressed up cypress trees. The smell of damp earth rose from the swamps and filtered through the vents in my car.
I could feel the clock turning back decades the deeper I drove into the small town. Aunt Liv and Uncle Beau lived in the heart of Sugar Bayou in the biggest damn house in town. Their house was a landmark around those parts. Whenever anyone gave directions, they used Bayou Drive the private road leading to their house, as the main point of reference. I understood why though. It sat on several acres of land on top of a huge hill. It could be seen from any road in Sugar Bayou. They had sprawling gardens, a bayou, a small crop of sugar cane, and even a family cemetery.
When I drove past Honey Sugar on the main road, an involuntary smile pulled my lips upward. I had good memories of running through the vintage sweet shop with Ivy, stealing candies and hiding to eat them. It was too early for the sweet shop to be open though, so I kept driving until I came to the private road that led to my aunt and uncle’s house.
The road was still unpaved. Same as it was when I was little. My tires kicked up dust and gravel as I crept toward the house. Off to the side, honeysuckle vines climbed up the thick trunks of weeping willow trees and tangled around their branches. It was beautiful. Bright pops of white, orange and yellow twisting through the leaves. Their property was the only place I’d ever seen honeysuckle and weeping willow trees coexisting in harmony that way. It spoke to the magic of Bayou Drive.
The old plantation-style house rose from the ground like a monument draped in childhood memories. I put the car in park and got out to stretch my legs. I tipped my head backward and stared up at the pristine white pillars shooting skyward and the sprawling porch punctuated with yellow rocking chairs. I knew for a fact I broke one of those chairs when I was little. I wondered if Uncle Beau replaced it.
I stepped onto the white porch and the wooden boards creaked softly beneath my feet. Good to know. I’d forgotten which boards told on you and which stayed quiet. I knocked a few times wondering if Aunt Liv would open the door or Uncle Beau. I was relieved to see my aunt.
I wasn’t in the mood to deal with my uncle’s angry bullshit right then. I was still on high from killing one of Bear’s men. The best thing for me would be silence and space to unfold. Ever since last night, I felt like an unbound book. Chapters and pages were out of place. The binding I used to live in was far too small for all the words that had been forced into my story.
“Titan?” Aunt Liv’s wide eyes climbed up my frame until she was staring me in the eye. I didn’t have too many smiles left in my reserve, but I found a small one and offered it to her. She was too busy being shocked to notice.
“What’s good, Auntie?” I bent down and hugged her but she was stiff in my embrace. “What’s wrong?” I frowned. “Mama didn’t tell you I was coming?”
“She did. She did. I just wasn’t expecting you to be so…tall.” Her eyes flitted over my face before she took a giant step backward into the spacious foyer. Lemon Pine-Sol dragged me back in time to when I was twelve, cleaning baseboards with Ivy on our hands and knees with a toothbrush. Some things never changed.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod.
“Lord, you’ve grown up. You have a full beard. You look like a grown man, Titan.”
“I am a grown man.”
“How old are you again?” She asked, still eyeing me like I was an imposter and not the Titan she was expecting. In some ways, she was right. I wasn’t the Titan I used to be.
“Nineteen,” I told her.
“Sarah let you get those things in your mouth?” She gestured with disdain to the gold fronts I had. I only had them on my bottom teeth though.
“I paid for them,” I told her. Aunt Liv shook her head and sighed softly.
“Bring your things in, Titan. You can stay in the same room you used when you were little.”
