Chapter Four
I pulled my black Chevy Silverado into Carly’s driveway.
Carly was my sister-in-law.
We didn’t have the best relationship, but we made it work for the sake of Macy.
Kim, my wife, had died a little over three years ago after giving birth to our baby girl. Everything seemed to be fine, the birth was reasonably straight forward, and when Macy finally made her entrance into the world she was beautiful and bright eyed.
A few hours later things went downhill fast. Kim was struggling to breathe and by the time they hurried her away, leaving me with our wailing newborn, she had already passed out.
She never came back to me.
It shredded my heart into a million pieces knowing that she was gone.
I remember talk from the doctors about internal bleeding.
Also remembering, punching the doctor in the face and having to be restrained by my brothers as I screamed at him for letting my wife die.
That day, I’d lost a part of me. It had died with her.
I looked up from the steering wheel of my truck to see a headful of bouncing curls bounding their way down the path. I shook off the dark haze that had settled over me and plastered on a smile for the little girl who had essentially saved my life.
I leaped out and caught her just as she threw herself from the concrete step and into my arms, pulling her against my chest and burying my face in her hair.
After losing Kim, I’d let myself fall into an abyss of drinking. Alcohol seemed to be the only thing that could numb my emotions. At one point, I’d even considered joining Kim on the other side, hoping that by some miracle the world would be in my favor and send me to heaven where she was waiting, as opposed to the hell that I knew would like to swallow me whole.
“Daddy!” Macy giggled as I layered kiss upon kiss to her baby soft skin.
This was the only thing that had kept me here. My friends and my family had shown me that Macy deserved more. She needed a father, someone who would watch out for her, scare the bogeyman away and create the life that Kim would have wanted her to have.
Carly stood on the front step, her criticizing eyes watching as I carried Macy back toward the house.
“Macy, you shouldn’t run out like that,” she said softly but sternly as I stepped through the doorway and into the house. I could navigate this house with my eyes closed. It was the same one Carly and Kim had grown up in.
The same pictures on the walls, more seeming to be added monthly as Carly’s own kids grew and grew.
“Hey, Uncle Leo.” I ducked my head into the dining room area where Carly’s eldest sat at the table, her books spread across the surface.
“Hey, Meyah. How’s school, kid?”
She shrugged. “It’s okay… I guess. Be glad when it’s over.”
Meyah was seventeen and a senior at Athens High School. I adored the kid, she had a good head on her shoulders. Carly always boasted about her prospects for the future, but Meyah would never confirm nor deny any of her mom’s wild ideas about how she would become a doctor or a lawyer. I dropped Macy to the floor and walked over to Meyah, placing a firm hand on her shoulder in a show of support. “You can do it, girl.”
She smiled up me. “Thanks.”
“Leo, Leo!” Denver, Carly’s other child skidded into the room, sliding across the floor on his socks. Macy giggled and attempted to copy him as he pulled up in front of me.
I scruffed his hair. “How’s it going?”
“Can you take me for a ride on your bike today?”
I cringed and looked over him to where Carly was shaking her head softly. “Not today, man. Another time.”
He sighed in disappointment. “Mom-m-m.”
“No motorcycle riding. You know that,” she scolded softly. Carly would never let me take the kids out on my bike. Meyah’s senior prom was coming up, and she had asked if me and one of the boys would take our bikes with her and her date on the back. I hadn’t had an issue with it, but Carly was firm with her no response.