The Reunion

Chapter 1 - Karlie

Returning home had never been a part of the plan. Not that Karlie Harris ever found herself to have a plan to begin with. It seemed that whenever life decided to throw something her way, she flew by the seat of her pants, hoping that everything would turn out alright. That kind of mentality seemed to have worked so far.

It had been a little over ten years since she had graced her hometown with her presence. There hadn't been any need for her to come back. Nobody there wanted her around, and she didn't feel like putting herself through that kind of turmoil. 

But as fate— that funny little son of a bitch— would have it, she found herself buying the first flight to Pennsylvania after an unexpected phone call in the middle of the workday.

"Your father had a heart attack, Karlie. I need you to come home." Aunt Lisa sounded frazzled which conflicted with the upbeat island-style music playing in the background. "I can't—" she sighed, "I'm not able to make it. He needs you."

"Needs me?" Karlie just about shouted. Scanning the floor around her frantically, she was relieved to find that no one in the office had heard. She quickly scurried to the far wall of tall windows that overlooked the parking lot and retention pond. She watched as a soft breeze swayed the palm leaves. "He doesn't want me there." And I don't want to be there either, she refrained from mentioning.

Her aunt was well aware of the situation and had maintained a good distance between Karlie and her father. "I don't care what he wants." Aunt Lisa said sternly. "He needs someone there. He had a heart attack."

As if repeating the words to her would make her change her mind.

"He has no one else." She pleaded.

He chose for it to be that way. Karlie wanted to say but bit her tongue. Dwayne Harris had made that decision when he kicked her out at eighteen.

"You go." She said instead. "He likes you more than me." He liked a lot of people more than Karlie. "If I'm there, he'll probably have another heart attack in the hospital."

Her aunt sighed again. She was fluent in the sighs that inflicted guilt. Karlie could feel it building in her chest. "Your uncle and I are on a cruise. We departed yesterday and have no way of getting there in time."

Great. They were in the middle of a god damned ocean. Perfect. Wonderful.

That meant there truly was no one else that could go.

"He doesn't want me there." Karlie whispered. It was her last feeble attempt of getting out of going.

"He's going to have to suck it up." Aunt Lisa stated.

But what about me? she wondered. Would she have to just "suck it up" too?

Karlie wanted to see her father just as much as he wanted to see her.

"Someone needs to be there."

Karlie stared out the airplane window, watching the patches of fields and forest blur beneath as she thought of her conversation with her aunt. The hum of the engines was a dull backdrop to the chaos in her mind. She clenched the armrest as the seatbelt sign turned on, signaling the descent into the town she had vowed years ago she would never return to.

She knew there was no sense in wallowing over her misfortunes, vast as they were. It would only bring her down. Or it would raise her anxiety. Or both, probably both.

Over the intercom, the captain spoke in a crackled voice, announcing their imminent arrival and alerting them of the massive heat wave that they would soon feel once they were out of the airport. They hit a patch of turbulence, but Karlie's churning stomach couldn't be blamed on the bumpy descent alone. Just thinking of the messages, the ones she had received from her aunt yesterday, brought her back to the harrowing notion that she would be facing her father in less time than she would care to. She would have to share the same room, the same air, as the man who had pushed her away with harsh words and cold silences, who now lay motionless in a hospital bed needing her help.