Midday Clouds - The Charlie Swan Story

Chapter 56 (Eclipse 15)

I'd been meaning to catch up with Jake at some point during the party, but he and Sam had both taken off before the third period was even over. I noticed the troubled expression on the faces of the Uley's and Billy when they left, the hushed whispers, but Billy rolled over to me and assured me that it was nothing to worry about.

"One of their friends," he said. "Got his truck stuck in a ditch or something."

I was a few beers deep and enjoying the company and the game, so as sad as I was to miss a chat with Jake, I was glad that no one was hurt and that they wouldn't need a police officer on the scene.

The Oilers ended up beating the Ducks by a score of 3 to 1. The crowd hung around for an hour or so afterwards, and I made sure to mix in a few waters to sober up for the eventual drive home. Most of the conversation was on the lighter side; talking about the game, the work being done on the rez, upcoming grad ceremonies for the kids. Leah was eventually the one to bring up Bella.

"I'd been hoping to see her again tonight," she said. I hadn't known the two were acquainted, but it was a small town and an even smaller rez, after all.

"Yeah, well, she's out of town," I said, trying to leave it at that.

"Oh, is she catching the Nasty Habits show in Port Angeles tonight? I wanted to go, but tickets were sold out," Seth asked.

I had no clue what a Nasty Habit was, so I just shook my head.

"Where is she?" He pressed.

"She's visiting her mother. In Florida," I finally confessed.

"By herself?" Sue asked, seemingly fraught with motherly worry about a teenager making such a journey by herself.

"No, no. She uh. Well. She went with her boyfriend, Edward."

I couldn't help but notice the room quieted a smidge in the moment after I'd said the name. Maybe I was just hearing things. But the look on Leah and Seth's faces were plain to see; that of utter disdain.

"Hah. Well, that's not surprising," Seth said, filling the awkward silence that had been left to linger. "I mean I wouldn't be shocked if the Cullens had their own private jet and everything."

The silence I thought I'd heard after mentioning Edward was deafening after mention of Cullen in the room. I even noticed a few faces turn to look in our direction, as though Seth had instead uttered a slur. Sue just gave her son a slight shake of the head, and said "I'm sure they're having a wonderful time visiting Renee. When are they expected back?"

"Sunday night. Gotta be back before school on Monday. They're just going for the weekend."

"Well, you tell your Bella that we would love to see her one of these weekends! Or maybe we could come out to Forks for a visit sometime soon. Honestly, we don't get out there enough."

"Yeah I'll tell her, of course. And that would be great, if you'd like to. Anytime," I said with a smile. I felt myself fall back into the old formalities with Sue, especially in front of her two kids. We were so many different things to each other; the parents of kids who were friends, the wife and best friend of Harry, ex-highschool sweethearts, lifelong friends. It was difficult to know which version of us we were supposed to be at any given time or conversation. Especially now that it felt like we were becoming something new entirely...

"Did I hear that Bella is in Florida?" Billy asked, rolling up beside the couch.

"Yeah that's right," I said. The last thing I wanted was a discussion, or a fight, with Billy about the Cullens.

"I'm jealous! Even when it's warm here, it's still raining. I could go for a nice sun tan."

"Bill, we're indigenous – we're always tan," Sue said with a laugh. He gave her a playful push, which really just sent himself rolling back a bit.

"You know what I mean! To feel the warmth of sun on my skin. It's not something to take for granted."

I could tell that there was an undertow to what Billy was saying that the Clearwaters were picking up based on their reactions, but I had no clue what. I supposed it was just another aspect of Indigenous culture that I wasn't privy to, so I let it lie.

"How'd you feel about the game?" I asked in a bid to change the subject.

"Oh I thought it was just great. I knew the Oilers were going to take it!"

"You did not!" Sue scoffed. "Charlie, before you got here he was promising that this was the Ducks' year."

"I just didn't want to jinx it for the Oilers, you know I bleed orange and green."

"It's orange and blue, uncle Billy," Seth corrected.

"Yeah yeah, that's what I said, orange and blue. Been cheering for them all year. Feel free to hop on the bandwagon."

"But that's..." Seth said, perturbed. "No you didn't!"

I knew that Billy was just messing around, and couldn't help but laugh. He'd usually pull something like this to rile Harry up, and it seemed like Seth had inherited this particular brand of teasing.

"Don't mind him," I said to Seth. "The old man's brain is going. It's a surprise he can even remember who we are these days."

Billy smiled up at me. "You got that right, stranger. Hey, who let this white man into my house, anyway? And what the hell happened to my legs?"

We all laughed then, at the absurdity of it all. People had begun filtering out, but we stuck around for one more drink in the mostly empty living room. I thought maybe I'd catch Jake coming back home, but he hadn't shown up yet.

I ended up being one of the last to leave, with Sue giving me an extra long hug on my way out.

"We should do lunch sometime," she said as we embraced.

"Oh of course, ya'll are welcome to come by any time," I reiterated, thinking of the conversation from earlier.

"No," she said looking up at me. She still hadn't let me go, and it turned out that I hadn't, either. "Me and you. Lunch sometime. Okay?"

I could tell that she was still a bit drunk. But I could also tell that wasn't where this was coming from.

"Yeah," I said, pulling her in closer. "Yeah that would be nice."