Summer Rain

XII ~ "She Prefers Ava"

{I'm Alive - Celine Dion}

...You've set my heart on fire, filled me with love, made me a woman, on clouds above...

----

June 8th

        It's not easy remembering the way someone used to be, in all of the nostalgic, rose-tinted memories in which they are present, to then be faced with the stark reality that is: people change. Nothing ever remains the same and that, I've learned, is both a blessing and a curse.

          While I settled into my cramped tent, attempting to take a nap, I felt the claustrophobic tightening of my chest. It was easy to tell myself to take deep breaths, but it was another when I could hear the voices of Tim Beaumont's groupies arguing outside the tent. Yes, Mom and Dad were arguing again. What a surprise. All I needed was a nap after my hike with Bodhi up to Eagle's Peak, and now I had to listen to the same old record from my parents. It was like the soundtrack to my life was 5% debutantes and balls and dates with boys, 5% lectures from Dad, and 90% bickering between the people who brought me into the world.

    "Rosalind, please. I am at my wits' end with all of them! I don't even want to speak about it anymore." Dad exulted in his usual dramatic fashion.

      I could imagine him gesticulating before my Mother like some interpretive dancer as he complained.

       I remained deathly still, intrigued by the 'them' he was so fed up with. My bets were on Bodhi, Cady and I. All I wanted was solace in my tent before I had to endure the night's activities with the other families while my parents circled Tim and Clara like lapdogs.

    "The only reason Cady is back down at the cabin is that she misses her friends and wants a day to spend online to them. It's not as if it's a crime, Alex. You don't understand how much this family have given up to be here with you." She sighed audibly, earning a tired groan from Father as though he had heard it a thousand times.

      I knew Mom meant business in the authoritative tone of her voice.

    "It's not Cady. Avalina is rebelling, and I'm scared that if we don't intervene, she'll end up like Bodhi. We let him roam free when he left for College, called it a phase, and look where he is now, Rosalind!"

    "Don't be so dramatic," Mom groaned, tired from listening to Dad's rants about his own children. "Avalina is just sick of you constantly berating her, and Bodhi has been doing well with us!"

    "Dramatic? She spent a night in a hotel room alone because I refused to accept her behaviour at the dinner table. She was rude to the Beaumonts and nearly"—

    "Cost you your promotion, I know."

      At least Mom understood how draining it sounded when Dad was constantly harping on about his promotion.

    "If you're going to be so flippant about this whole thing, maybe you won't mind if I tell you that I found Bodhi snorting cocaine in the bathroom last night. Rosalind, our children, are off the rails!" My heart literally dropped to my stomach. It couldn't be true, I thought.

    "He was... Doing drugs?" Her voice shook with a deflated, heartbroken tone. Her voice sounded how I felt.

        It all made so much sense. Bodhi's various mood changes at different times of the day, his weight change since I last saw him, his erratic behaviour and decisions, and his physical fitness (or lack thereof). My brother had a drug addiction.