Tempest Relief Chapter One (standard:drama, 2202 words) [2/4] show all parts
Author: Ari Walker	Added: Oct 21 2001	Views/Reads: 2850/1926	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Three sisters must learn to put their differences aside and keep the family legacy going.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

respect for Heidi, who was well liked in the community. Nobody seemed 
to like Callie much. 

Niall McBride was sitting in the back of the church, watching her with
his sad gray eyes, a strand of white-blond hair falling over his 
forehead. Beside him sat his brother, Jude, his sister-in-law Mo, and 
Jude and Mo's two children, Callum and Maggie. 

Molly May Joskeff, or Mimi as everybody called her, was sitting beside
Heidi, an arm around her shoulder. Mimi and Heidi were best friends. 

Makenzy Finnegan and Lorelei Elliot, teenage girls from town, had come
also, and were sitting beside Lorelei's Aunt Jessie and Uncle Kaleb. 

Makenzy's father and stepmother, Rob and Jenna, had come, Jenna looking
tired, cranky and very pregnant. Rob and Jenna, she knew, had only come 
because Rob had worked for her father. She should have told him not to 
bother. 

Theo Donahue and his wife Fayrene hadn't come, she noticed. Nor had
Theo's cousin Cody and her husband Zachary O'Reilly. But then, she 
hadn't expected them. Theo had too much history with her family- her 
mother at least- and Cody hated funerals. 

Charity Mogler, Mo McBride's 11-year-old niece and the sweetest girl
Callie had even met, was there, looking at Callie as if she wanted to 
cry. Callie smiled to let her know she was okay. Beside Charity were 
her uncles, Arthur and Gawein Schiller, the 24-year-old identical 
twins. 

The whole Sullivan family had come, she saw, sending a smile their way. 

A couple of old timers, Samuel Lawrence and Mike Piper, were also in
attendance; Sam in his Hawaiian shirt and Mike in his customary scowl. 
Neither had liked her father, she knew, so she supposed they had come 
simply out of curiosity. 

In the very back of the church was a woman who caused a frown to appear
on Callie's face. The woman was slouched down in her seat, her face 
down, shoulders heaving as if she were crying. 

Callie's frown deepened. 

"He was a son-of-a-bitch," she started, "And I for one will not miss
him." 

The woman in the back looked up, her hair covering her face. Callie
tilted her head, wondering who she was. With a shrug, her eyes drifted 
back to her brother and sister. Heidi's lips were pressed together, 
shaking her head. 

Callie knew she was being harsh, but she had never been one to lie. She
was honest, and would have felt like a hypocrite if she had stood in 
front of the church and talked about love and grief and life 
everlasting. 

"Now don't get all holy on me, I know none of you are here to mourn.
You're all glad he's gone." 

The woman in the back stood up on unsteady feet, her keys falling with a
clatter on the floor. Everybody turned to look at her. She bent down to 
pick her keys up, unaware that anybody was staring. When she stood up, 
her eyes caught Callie's gaze. Callie raised her eyebrows. The woman 
froze and then suddenly ran from the church. 

Heidi, who had watched the whole thing, pulled away from Mimi and half
stood, then looked at Callie. Callie shrugged. Heidi glared, and then 
ran after the woman. 

**** 

Jade leaned against the brick wall, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed.
She knew her mascara was all over her face, and her clothes were 
probably wrinkled from the long drive, but she didn't care. To lose the 
father she had never known, again, was more than she could deal with at 
the moment. 

She heard footsteps behind her and quickly wiped her face and stood up
straight. 

"Hi," she heard a sweet clear voice say softly. Jade turned. It was the
younger sister. Heidi? 

"I'm Heidi," the woman added, a slender, well cared for hand reaching
out to take Jade's. "I'm the one who wrote the letter." 

Jade hesitated before shaking her sister's hand. 

So this was the woman, the catalyst that had shattered Jade's nearly
perfect life...a perfect life she had worked hard for. 

The other sister, Callie, looked exactly like Jade; it was disturbing in
fact. Jade had felt like she was looking in a mirror. Heidi, though, 
took the beauty that Jade and Callie had been blessed with to the next 
level. 

Heidi had her caramel hair cut in a pixie cut, with wispy bangs. Her
green eyes were larger than Callie and Jade's and fringed with the 
longest lashes Jade had ever seen. And whereas Jade and Callie had a 
lopsided smile with one dimple, Heidi's smile was wide and perfect, 
with a dimple in each cheek. Her skin was smooth and flawless, with not 
even a hint of a freckle. She stood just over five feet tall, and 
probably a hundred pounds. Jade figured she had five inches on her 
younger sister, and at least 20 pounds. 

"Hi," Jade said, her voice hoarse from crying. 

"If I had known you were coming," Heidi said, "I would have sent a
driver to pick you up. I just assumed you didn't want to meet us." 

Jade shrugged. 

"I'm not sure what I want," she said slowly, her eyes looking towards
the sea. Heidi nodded, understanding. She put a hand on the woman's-her 
sister's-shoulder. 

"I am sorry it had to be like this," she began. "But we never knew about
you until recently, when I was cleaning dad's office out." 

Jade was silent. 

"Is it true?" she said then. 

Heidi cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. 

"What would that be?" 

"That he was... wasn't very nice?" 

Heidi hesitated. 

"You don't have to hide the truth from me," Jade said quickly. "I've had
enough of that to last me a lifetime." 

Heidi nodded and lowered her lashes, chewing on her lip before speaking.


"He wasn't too nice," she finally said. "Callie has always been very
honest, honest to the point of being rude. And, well..." her voice 
trailed off as the church doors opened and people started coming out. A 
few people looked at Heidi and Jade in curiosity, but most people 
averted their eyes. 

"I'm sorry," Heidi said, taking Jade by the shoulders and looking her in
the eye. The pain she saw there was very real and brought tears to her 
eyes. 

"Why should you be sorry?" Jade asked harshly, pushing Heidi away from
her. "You got to know him, to be his daughter, while I..." when her 
voice broke, Jade turned and ran to her Miata parked beside the church. 


**** 

The wind was brutal that night, whipping the trees into submission,
carrying the scent of the sea far across the land. The waves crashed 
against the black rocks, almost succeeding in blocking the sounds of 
the crying woman. 

Almost, but not quite. 

Arthur Schiller was walking along the ocean, deep in thought when he
first heard her. Frowning, he trudged through the sand, his bare feet 
sinking, making his way towards the sounds of the crying woman. 

It was dark, but the moon was round and full, so he had no problem
finding her. She was sitting on the rocks, facing the ocean, her bright 
hair drifting in the wind. 

"Callie?" he asked softly. The woman turned and he stopped. It wasn't
Callie, but a woman who looked so much like her she could be her... 

Sister? 

"No," she said shortly. "I'm not Callie. And if anybody else says I look
like her, I'm not responsible for what I do. It just so happens, Callie 
looks like me, not the other way around. I am, after all, older than 
she is." 

Arthur stood, stunned, then stepped closed, staring at her. 

No, he could see differences. This woman's mouth was softer, unpainted.
Callie always wore lipstick. And Callie kept her hair shoulder length, 
straight as a pin, while this woman's hair came almost to her waist in 
a mass of bright curls. But other than that... the same arched eyebrows 
and stubborn chin. The straight nose sprinkled with freckles; it was 
incredible. 

Who was she? 

"You're the woman who was crying at Koby Ayala's funeral," he finally
said, stepping closer. The woman tilted her chin and then nodded. 
Arthur found himself wondering if she had one dimple like Callie, or 
two like Heidi. 

"Why?" he asked bluntly. 

"Why should I tell you?" the woman asked, standing and taking a step
backwards. He saw her eyes flicker to his bare chest. 

"I'm harmless," he smiled softly. "Just a small town boy." 

She deliberately let her eyes rake up, then down, taking in his bare
chest and tight, ripped jeans; the tattoos he wore proudly across his 
chest and down his arms; the silver hoop glinting in his left ear; his 
dark hair just a bit too long. 

"Sure," she said, taking another step back. "You don't look like a small
town boy. You look like a pirate." 

Arthur grinned and winked. "Thanks. What's your name?" 

The woman didn't answer him. 

"Did you come from the sea?" he looked out to the water, black as the
sky, the moon reflecting a white path, only half-joking. 

"Who are you?" 

Her green eyes were caught in his gaze, like a startled doe caught in
the headlights of a car. Art frowned. 

"Why are you crying for Koby Ayala? Who was he to you?" 

She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears. 

"Nobody," she whispered, and then suddenly her legs buckled. 

"Well hot damn," Arthur muttered, and stepped forward to catch her
before she fell and hit her head. 


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