The family sit around the red oak table in the dining room that is lined in floor length windows and eat their sandwiches and chips together. The conversations are light. Angie and Tom do not want to pry too much into Kenzy's past for the fear of running her off. They catch her up on the past four years. They tell her of Brett's prize-winning science fair project and how Hailey broke her arm in cheerleading last year. Angie brags about her promotion at work and about the opening of Tom's gym. As Kenzy listens to their stories, she is happy for them and envious at the same time. She is glad they have found a way to move on despite her father's death and her disappearance. They are a family and have never given up on one another. It does not seem that they have given up on her either. For a split second, she regrets leaving them without so much as a goodbye. At the same time, if she had stayed, they would probably all be dead. The red-eyes would have killed them. Everyone is safer with her gone.
"What about you, Kenzy? What all have you seen?" Tom asks and when he notices her un-easily shift in her seat, he adds, "Have you seen any landmarks?"
Kenzy smiles. "Well, I've seen the world's biggest ball of yarn and a two-headed cow."
"A two-headed cow?" Brett shouts and nearly drops his sandwich. Tom, Angie and Kenzy laugh.
"Yeah, a real two-headed cow." Kenzy answers her overly excited cousin.
"That's it?" Tom again weasels for information.
"I've seen about a thousand different versions of Elvis Presley."
"Did you go to Memphis?" Angie asks and cocks her head in curiosity.
"I passed through, not much of a tourist trip." Kenzy answers and shoves a mound of chips in her mouth.
"Wow, you really have been all over." Angie replies. They finish their lunch in silence. No one knows what to say at this point, not even chatty little Hailey.After lunch, Angie takes Kenzy on a tour of the house and shows her to the guest bedroom, which is decorated gorgeously. The floor is hard wood and the walls are an off-white color with sea green trimming. There is a queen sized four-post bed in the middle of the room with two matching nightstands and a tall dresser near the closet door on the left. The room is decorated with fake potted plants and flower paintings on the walls.
"This can be your room as long as you want it." Angie says while watching Kenzy looking around in awe.
In a discouraging tone, Kenzy speaks. "Oh, Angie. I'm sorry but I can't stay. I..."
"I know you have things to take care of." Angie interrupts. "I'm just saying the room is always here for you." She sits on the bed. "Are you ever going to open up and tell us what's going on?"
Kenzy gazes at Angie before walking towards the large window and lookingout. "It's complicated and somewhat unbelievable."
"Try me.""I can't." Kenzy watches Hailey and Brett play so innocently on their swing-set. If anything were to happen to them because of her carelessness, she would not be able to live with herself.
"Why not?" Angie is irritated but tries to remain sympathetic. Only God knows what Kenzy has been through. "We used to talk about everything."Kenzy sits next to Angie on the bed.
"I'm a different person now, Angie. I'm not sure you'd be very proud of the way I've turned out either. I can't explain it all to you. You'll just have to accept that I can't stay and understand that I'm not doing this to hurt you. I'm doing it to protect you."
"Protect me? What in the world are you talking about, Kenzy?"
"Forget it." Kenzy starts to storm out of the room but bumps into Tom who is entering.
YOU ARE READING
UnEarthed
ParanormalKenzy's father was a secretive man. She only knew his job had him working on the road a lot. When he started behaving paranoid, she knew something was wrong. Then, after several men with red eyes broke into their home and murdered her father, she kn...
