The Impact (Book II)

Garden

Luke was spending a lot of time around the house, much to my chagrin. Ever since he had attacked me and Will all those centuries ago, any hope for cordiality between the two of us flew out the window. I had only just started to call him by name rather than his title. We could barely tolerate each other, much less stay in the same room.

He lounged in the living room with Will, their heads bowed close together as they whispered. I figured it had something to do with angels, so I steered away from them. I meandered outside and perched myself on one of the deck chairs to soak in the afternoon sun.

Cole and Zach were roughhousing together as they tossed around a football they had gotten for Christmas last year. Zach had Cole in a headlock and was vigorously rubbing his knuckles into the latter's head, while Emily sat nearby, roaring with laughter.

I shook my head and stretched my legs, wiggling my toes as the sun warmed them. Emily, seeing me, came over to me, wiping mirthful tears from her eyes. I spread my legs so she could sit in between them, her back to me.

"Will you braid my hair, Mom?" she asked.

I sat up and ran my fingers through her silky hair. She had gotten Will's fine hair. "Of course, Emmy."

Lightly, I used my fingers to brush her hair to get out any knots, not that I was expecting any. I split her hair into three sections and began to wind them around one another. Back and forth, back and forth. Faintly, I recalled doing this for Father when he was in one of his better moods. Though he would never admit it, he loved it when someone played with his hair. He tolerated me and Mikayla doing his hair for him so long as he didn't look ridiculous.

Cole got out of Zach's headlock and was now sitting on his chest. The latter was wriggling and struggling to get his brother off but Cole didn't seem intent on moving anytime soon. Emily giggled.

"It's nice to see Cole interacting with Zach," I remarked as I grabbed the elastic band I always kept around my wrist. I tied it around the base of the braid.

"Yeah, Cole's gotten really quiet." From her tone, I could tell she was frowning. Like Will, she would furrow her brow when she was contemplating something rather intently.

Zach managed to get out from under Cole and the two were back to tossing the football between each other. Idly, I wondered where Keith was; it was unlike him to miss spending time outside looking for insects, especially when it was this nice out. Then, I thought of his spat with Zach the night before. Will and I asked Zach if he was certain Keith had been standing over him with a knife but he insisted we leave it alone. That he would take care of it. It made me suspicious he had been making it up but Will would hear nothing of the sort about his favorite child. Ever since he learned Zach would go essentially unpunished for attacking him, Keith avoided everyone. He was likely in his room, sulking.

"Perhaps he doesn't have anything to say," I said, observing Cole. He seemed to have gotten bored with tossing the football and had opted to lounge on the ground, observing the clouds as they lazily drifted by. At least, that was what I was assuming; it was difficult to see where he was looking with that infuriating fringe hanging in his eyes. I wondered how he could even see through his thick hair.

Emily reached back and fingered the braid. She twisted her head to beam at me, her red eyes bright. "Thanks, Mom!"

She stood and skipped to where her garden lay. She had a green thumb—or rather, the Angel of Life's touch—for none of her plants had ever died on her. I was a little envious; every plant I tried to tend to always ended up wilting. Will even said one time I would give Luke a run for his money with the number of plants I've killed. Needless to say, neither Luke nor I were amused.