Clan of Redemption (10 page)

“Go on, Saska, get in the
back,” I commanded.

He just sat there. I let go
of the seat, and he jumped in the front seat.

“Hey Saska, now don’t push
your luck with me, I don’t really care for furry creatures, but I
like you, but….you can’t have the front seat that’s for humans, at
least creatures with less fur,” Sully said as she opened the
passenger door.

Saska growled at
her.

I laughed. “Well it looks
like you two are going to have to share the front seat. I’m not
getting involved in your domestic problems,” I said as I sat
down.

This car was so clean. The
interior was black with red accessories. The seats are black
leather with red stripes like on the outside. I love the gear
shifter, it has an eight ball.

“Your dad did a great job
Jayden, I can’t wait to take it out.” Sully said as she rubbed the
dash board.

“Hey I need to change my
clothes, let’s go back in the house and then well go to Sam’s,” I
said as I got out of the driver’s seat.

Dinner
nightmares

I changed into some tan
corduroy pants and a pink tee shirt with a zip up hoody and my
hiking boots.

My normal
attire.

“Wow you are such a
fashion queen, aren’t you.” Sully chuckled.

“Hey, I like being
comfortable, and I like to make my own holes in my pants, they cost
less that way. Thank you very much,” I said as I grabbed my
messenger bag and put the items in them that we found in the chest
today. We were just about to leave my room.

“Oh, wait,” I said as I
ran back over to my bed and fetched my letter from under my
mattress.

I didn't want to leave the
letter, not that I thought my dad would look for it.

We went downstairs and
said goodbye to Dad and went out to the car.

“So, how about I drive?”
Sully said.

“Um, No! I would like to
get there in one piece if it’s all the same to you,” I said as I
opened the driver’s door.

"Plus, it was my birthday
gift," I stuck my tongue at her.

“Great, it’s going to take
us a week to get to the other side of town,” Sully said as she
opened her door.

Saska jumped in the
front.

“Ok, look here mutt, I
will not share this seat with you, your too big, now if you don’t
want to see where your heaven is you’ll jump in the back before I
get mad,” Sully said as she put her hands on her hips.

Saska let out a howl and
jumped in the back.

“Well at least your dog
knows who's boss,” Sully said as she shut the door.

“I wouldn’t test his
tolerance, Sully, his teeth are bigger than yours,” I giggled as I
started the car.

“It looks like your Dad
installed a nice system, do you mind if we listen to some rock,”
Sully said as she was already turning the station.

“I don’t mind. Just don’t
blow the windows out before I get a chance to drive it,” I said as
I pulled out of the garage.

We test drove the Camero
while listening to Three Days Grace, it’s not my favorite but I do
enjoy a few of the songs.

Sam’s house isn’t very far
away so it only took us a few minutes, which means I didn’t get a
chance to really see what the car could do. Well I’m sure I’ll have
my chance soon.

I wasn’t looking forward
to going inside Logan’s house, I’ve spent as much time in his house
as my own.

“Jayden, let’s not stay to
long, I hate being around emotional people. I’m not trying to be
harsh, but I just can’t deal with too much drama.” Sully said. I
understood where so was coming from. Logan's Mom could be a lot on
a good day.

“Ok, I understand, there
will probably be quite a few people there anyway, so if we say
hello and sneak out, Sam won’t notice,” I said as I pulled up in
front of Logan’s house.

Logan’s house is an older
home in an established neighborhood. It’s white colonial style with
the pillars on either side of the front door. Logan always loved to
keep the lawn mowed and manicure the garden. Last summer we planted
some tulips and lilacs by the front door. They bloomed so beautiful
this year. I couldn’t stop staring at the flowers, until Sully
grabbed my arm.

“Jayden, snap out of it,
what’s your deal?” she said.

“I’m ok, let’s go.” I
opened the door and Saska jumped over the seat and out on my
side.

Saska was at the door
before I was, which really made me start to wonder about this
dog.

Sully rang the bell, but I
wasn’t ready yet. I hadn’t seen Logan’s mom since the day after
Logan’s drowning.

Sam answered the door. “Hi
Jayden honey, how are you?” she asked and put her arms out to give
me a hug.

“I’m ok, how are you?” I
asked searching her face for signs of a break down.

“I’m getting by, it’s been
hard, but I’ve had a full house since that day so it’s kept my mind
off of Logan,” she said as she put her arm around both of us,
ushering us into the house.

“Sam, I’m so sorry, I
can’t imagine how hard it’s been,” I said as I followed her into
the house.

The house was packed with
people and food. I knew most of the people here, but crowds always
made me jumpy.

“Sully, I want to thank
you for being there for Jayden, I know how close you three were,”
Sam said as she offered us a drink. We both shook our
heads.

I noticed she didn't even
flinch when a dog walked into her house with us.

“Sam, I wanted to talk to
you about something, I hope that it’s not a bad time,” I said as I
sat down on the stairs in the hall.

“No dear, you ask me
whatever you like,” she said.

“At the funeral today, a
guy named Blake Hamilton showed up and was talking to me…well he
said that he was Logan’s brother,” I said as I was shocked that Sam
didn’t show any reaction at all.

“Yes, Blake is Logan’s
brother,” Sam said as she turned to say bye to someone that was
leaving.

“Are you girls hungry,
there is so much food, please help yourselves. I have to go fill
some of the trays, if you’ll excuse me,” she said.

“Wait, Sam I wanted……” I
tried to finish my sentence but she was already gone.

“Ok, well that went well,
so what do you want to do now?” Sully asked me.

Saska ran past me up the
stairs and I turned on instinct and followed him, he went into
Logan’s room.

Saska went and leaped onto
Logan’s bed and laid down.

“Well I guess you feel
comfortable here don’t ya boy,” I said as I went and sat next to
him, stroking his soft fur. He liked the petting so much that he
rolled over on his back and started fishing back and
forth.

Weird.

Being in Logan’s room was
making it hard for me to breath. The room smelled of him so much
that I couldn’t help but close my eyes and take a deep breath. The
woods, that what he smelled like, fresh cut wood. I laid down on
his bed and started thinking about him. I'd spent as much time in
his room as he had in mine.

“I think your laying on my
coat,” A boys voice said.

“Uhh what,” I said. I sat
up and standing in front of me was Blake.

“My coat, your laying on
my coat,” he said as he pointed to the bed.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said as
I stood up and handed him his coat, trying to brush off the dog fur
that had managed to layer his coat.

“So I think we got off on
the wrong foot. I want to be friends and I think my news of being
Logan’s brother threw you for a loop,” he said as he put on his
black pea coat, which now looked a gray color.

I couldn't help
it.

I busted out laughing,
uncontrollably with tears running down my face.

"What's funny?" he asked
me with a frown.

I got myself under control,
or tried to anyway.

"Sorry, it's just been a
strange couple of days. I'm not laughing at you exactly," I wiped
the tears from my face.

"Saska, let's go. Off the
bed,"

He just laid
there.

“Saska, get off the bed,
please?” I asked. He jumped down.

“So that dog seems to be
with you all the time,” he asked.

“Yeah he is, so what,” I
said as I started to look around Logan’s room.

“I was just making an
observation,” he said.

“So, who didn’t invite me
to the party?” Sully asked as she stood in the bedroom
doorway.

“Hi Sully, you remember
Blake from last night,” I said.

“Sure do, it was a good
thing that you followed Jayden or we might be going to two funerals
today,” Sully said.

“About last night, do you
know those two guys, what was that all about?” Blake
asked.

“I have no idea what that
was about, I think they were just bad guys, but I’m really lucky
that you showed up, or I would be dead. I can’t thank you enough
for saving me,” I said as I picked up a picture on Logan’s desk. It
was a picture of him and I at a picnic last summer.

“Your dog seems to be ok,
even though it looked like he got shot last night.” Blake stated as
he raised one of his eyebrows.

“It just grazed him, he
was lucky for a mutt,” Sully said.

Saska growled
softly.

“I don’t think he likes
you calling him a mutt Sully.

“So Sam tells me that you
are going off to college in a few weeks,” Blake said.

“Well I’m not sure what’s
happening right now,” I didn't feel comfortable with telling this
strange guy about my plans.

Sully looked at me and
mouthed something. I couldn’t tell what it was.

“Well, if you’ll excuse
me, I haven’t eaten yet,” he said as he left the room.

I waited until he was
almost down the stairs.

“What were you trying to
tell me?” I asked her.

“Why are you not being
honest with him, he seems like a really nice guy and he might be
able to help,” Sully said.

“My mother told me not to
trust people, and him throwing it out there that he’s Logan’s half
brother just doesn’t sit right with me,” I said.

“Hey Jayden, you need to
let that go, no one can control who their family is and it’s not
Blake’s fault,” she said as she went over and started opening one
of the dresser drawers. "Imagine what it feels like to find out
that you have a sibling that you never knew about, let alone one
that dies right after finding him. Yesh, why am I the one having to
tell you to be compassionate?"

“Sully, what are you
doing, get out of there….that’s Logan’s personal space,” I said as
I hurried over and started to shut the drawer.

“It’s not likes it’s a big
deal, he’s dead Jayden,” Sully said as she walked over and sat on
the bed.

“Sully….do you have to
talk like that,” Jayden asked.

“Oh…so sorry…he’s passed
away onto peaceful plains. Is that better?” Sully asked as she
crossed her arms glaring at me.

“I feel weird enough being
in his room, I don’t want to go through his things, what if he’s
watching,” Jayden said.

“You mean like in ghosts,”
Sully laughed. “You're not serious are you Jayden,” Sully
asked.

“With what’s been
happening already, I wouldn’t be surprised,” I said as I was almost
done closing the drawer when something caught my eye. I opened the
drawer again and pushed the clothes a side. There sat an envelope
with my name on it.

“Jayden, I thought you
said I couldn’t look through his drawers, what would you call what
you are doing?” Sully asked and she came and stood next to
me.

“Sully, this envelope has
my name on it,” I said as I pulled it out from under the
clothes.

“Gnarly, another letter
from the dead,” Sully said as she rubbed her hands
together.

“He didn’t write it from
the dead, he must have written it before he died,” I
said.

“So, are you going to open
it?” Sully asked.

“Open what?” Sam
asked.

Sam had come into the room
without us noticing, she must have floated in, because the
hardwoods in this house creak before you even think about stepping
on them.

As I turned around I kept
my hand behind my back so that she couldn’t see the
envelope.

“Oh, well, um, Sully and I
were just talking about Logan. Sam, I wanted to talk to you about
something. I know you are really busy with a house full of guests,
but it’s important,” I said.

“Sure Jayden, I’m sorry,
I’ve been ignoring you haven’t I…..Please have a seat and we’ll
talk,” she said as she motioned for me to sit on Logan’s
bed.