Strings of Fate

Chapter 1

I can't sing. I can't dance. And I definitely can't play an instrument.

People are always surprised to hear that the Danny Vixen's daughter didn't inherit his musical talents. Trust, it's what I've heard all my life. Every year, our school holds a talent show, and our band teacher, Mr. Arvidson, asks if I'm "going to break out the fender?" I tell him the same thing as always: "Those genes haven't kicked in yet. Maybe next year." He would laugh and suggest I join his band class, but I never did.

Everyone in our town knows who my father is, and everyone knows that he left my mother when I was three months old. It's sort of like a legend; everyone knows it, but nobody really speaks on the actual details. Some say that my father is a jerk with a huge ego, and a few think he was at the height of his career and made the best choice for him. If he did abandon us, I don't blame him. Why would you give up that lifestyle to raise a family? I don't know if my mother ever forgave him or if she just dealt with it.

My mother was never the kind of woman to chase after anything. She would say, "Will, if something is meant for you, it will always come to you." She believed those words through everything. She never reached out to my father the entire time she was alive. Sure, things were tough, but we always found a way to get through it together. She got a job at Antonio's Pizza on the weekends and waited tables at the Metro Street Diner on weeknights. Sometimes, after school, I would help at the diner to make some extra money. We would work a shift together, and when it was time to close, she would ask Tom, one of the cooks in the back, to make us some burgers to go. Our apartment wasn't too far away, and we would walk home together, elbows linked.

Things didn't get bad until my mother got sick. We always had just enough to scrape by until the chemo treatments. That's when my Grandma came up from Florida to stay with us. When she first arrived, my mother was furious. She would yell, " I'm a grown woman! It's not your job to look after me!"

Grandma always had a stiffness to her words. Her voice was always level, and I never heard her shout anything back, "Just let me stay and at least help look after Willow. I want to spend time with my granddaughter while you get treatments."

We both knew that she wasn't staying for me, but my mother gave in and agreed for her to move in temporarily.  "This is just until I'm finished with treatment." My mother had told both of us.

What was supposed to be a few weeks turned into a six-month battle. I'm glad Grandma stayed with us, and I think deep down my mother was too. She was scared, and I could tell by the faint look in her eyes and how she grasped my hand tighter every time she saw me. Before I left for school, she would say to me how much she loved me as if we may never see each other again. I tried to be strong. Seeing me cry would have only made things worse. So I pretended like everything was fine. I told her about all the good things in my life. That Ethan had finally asked me to the Winter Formal and that we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. I told her about how I passed all my classes with A's. Anything that would bring a smile to her face, I made sure she knew.

It was July when I finally got the call. Ethan and I had driven down to Kitty Hawk for the weekend to stay at his parent's beach house. It was warm and cozy, just the two of us. We had just returned from the beach, and his lips still tasted salty from the ocean. This was going to be our weekend away from it all. He was in a fight with his coach over something with cross country and I needed to be away from home. Our escape didn't go past on night though because that's when the phone rang. Grandma's voice drowned with tears as she spoke, and I knew our vacation would have end. Ethan offered to drive me home right away. I hoped he wasn't mad at me for ruining our getaway. I knew he wasn't, though. In the three years I had known Ethan, I had never seen him upset or raise his voice at anyone. For the car ride home, we rode in silence. My head felt heavy, and there was a rush in my chest. I fidgeted with the radio, looking for something to distract my thoughts, but nothing worked.