Everything Is Blue

Chapter 32

Kimbra's feet hit the pavement as the night sky lit up with an array of colors from the northern lights. She walked all the way into town, but it didn't help ease her troubled mind. She knew she shouldn't be out this late, but she couldn't stay in that house for another minute.

The scientist stopped walking and tilted her head up to look at the sky. Just to look at the northern lights for a moment. Just to think.

Dinner went well, better than she had expected.

Grandma Carter only smacked Adam twice throughout the whole meal. She didn't even scold Loren as much. Bud had actually started to fit in with the family. Him and Loren swapped stories about St. Canard. Jax begged Ace to take him to see the big city someday. It was a perfectly normal evening at the table despite the event from earlier.

Yes, dinner went well, really well.

Until Ace brought up his Huntington's results.

Negative.

He had tested negative for the Huntington's gene. He joined Al and Aspen in never succumbing to the horrid neurological disease. That only left her and Adam not knowing. The walls were quickly closing in, suffocating her.

You're getting older, you know. Symptoms usually manifest in your 30's or 40's. Each year, you inch closer to it starting. You'll end up just like your mother.

Everyone at the table congratulated Ace. Well, everyone except her. She sat there, picking at her food with a fork. No one noticed her silence, thank god. Having to explain that would lead to a meltdown and a massive fight. Kimbra didn't want to have an emotional outburst in front of her entire family. It'd be unfair to Ace. She waited to cope when everyone else was asleep. When she could sneak out of the cabin and head into town.

So, she turned to what she knew best. Alcohol. She wanted to drink until she forgot how to spell Huntington's. She wanted to numb the ache in her chest. There was not much more she could do.

The smell of alcohol and cigarettes hit Kimbra in the face as soon as she stepped through the door of the bar. The red neon sign outside flashed O'Malley's. It was the only bar in Brittleburg. A sorry excuse for one, but better than nothing. An old jukebox in the corner loudly played Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen. A group of older men, sitting at a round table in the back, sang along at the top of their lungs.

Kimbra squeezed into the only vacant seat at the bar.

To her left, sat Adam. He didn't look up from his glass that he had been staring mindlessly into. "You took long enough to get here."

A huff. "I had to wait until everyone else was asleep."

Because they'd ask questions that they wouldn't like the answers to.

He finally looked at her with a childish smirk. "Aw, you're afraid of your daddy scolding you?"

She rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous."

"Why did you ask me to come here anyway?" Adam looked around the room as he leaned against the bar. "You know, I think this place is gross."

"Because," Kimbra flagged down the bartender. "I want to talk to you."

She ordered a beer which the bartender, a white mink, quickly brought back.

"You know, my ski resort has a much cleaner bar." Adam gave an apologetic look to the bartender, who glared at him. "Lovely place you have here. Loving the awful smell and all the obnoxious drunks. Very classy."

The mink ignored him and walked off to tend to another customer.

"Because there's so much noise in here that I can't think. I don't want to think right now, Adam. I want to drink and forget."