The Curse of A Lifetime

Chapter 47

SARAH

Carter and I arrived at the New York cottage a few hours ago. We slept in the car last night and left early in the morning before the sun was up.

We were exhausted last night and needed to rest. The past week is catching up to us to the point that I hallucinated a little bit.

The rain had stopped about an hour before we got here. It is now one in the afternoon, warm with no winds. When we got here, we parked the car in the garage. Carter explained that we need to ditch the car and get a new one.

I don't know how that will work, where will we find a new car? Plus, we can't ditch the car, it is my dad's.

Right now, Carter is making hot chocolate for us. There isn't much stuff here, food is scarce. He said we can go into town to get some things if we want to. He does not want to risk going into town for a long period of time just in case he sees someone he knows. He is paranoid that they might contact his dad or something.

I understand.

His back is turned towards me, and the light blue shirt he changed into clings to his body. The fabric is too tight around his arms and ribs. He said he hasn't been here since his mom died. It will be three years this June.

Coming over to me smiling, he places the warm mug in my hands. Sitting next to me, he places the blanket over us and I cuddle into him. His warm embrace made me feel all sorts of things. One of them being comfort and thankfulness.

"Do you mind if we went into town a little bit, later?"

I got my period this morning when we got here. There is just spotting, but I know it will get more heavy as the week goes on. It is embarrassing and I don't want to tell him or ask him if there is any here. Money is tight right now, the money my dad had left in his car was used for gas. There are only about one hundred fifty dollars left for us.

Carter has been so generous to me, his demeanor is challenging my independence. He nods, "we can do that."

Hung up on the wall are older pictures of people I have nerver seen before. Paintings of all sorts are arranged in different order and sizes.

A specific picture captures my eye. An older couple sitting together and what looks like a swinging bench on a deck. The older gentleman has his arm wrapped around the woman and is looking at her as she smiles. The woman is looking towards the camera with a huge smile on her face as if she is laughing at something. From the clothing choices, I can tell this was taken maybe a decade or two ago. The background is kind of blurry, the camera quality probably wasn't the best.

"Hey, who is that?" I point to the photo, "are they your grandparents?"

Carter looks up from the T.V and looks around until he spots where I am pointing. His lips slightly moves up and then falls after realization.

"Yeah, my dad's parents." Carter brings me tighter into his side, "they both passed away a few years ago."

"Before my mom died, they were always here at the cottage. They were the life of the party." He chuckles, "I remember this one time when my uncle had broken his leg and my grandpa built him a wheel chair sled for the winter."

"My uncle sat down on it wrong and as he went down the hill, he couldn't pull the breaks fast enough because his good leg was stuck." He shakes his head, "he went tumbling out of the chair and his leg snapped."

I gasped, "OH MY GOD!"

"He was fine though, too drunk to feel a single thing," Carter smiles at the memory. He settled down his laughter. The core of his hand clasped in mine, reminded me of last night.