The Color of Darkness COMPLETE NOVEL

Color

Because it was so late by the time we arrived at the house, we didn't really get to see anyone (expect for Ronald Reagan and Nova's aunt Claudia) until the next morning at breakfast. We were given the floor of the attic/loft to set up our stuff. Claudia found us all blankets and pillows and we just spread out on the shaggy carpet. We all slept in until about nine (the funeral was supposed to be at five in the evening), when we were awoken by the wonderful aroma of bacon frying somewhere downstairs. Nova and Rick headed downstairs to get food while I jumped in the shower and attempted to scrub the scents of gasoline, burnt leg hair, and road trip off my body. After I dried off and changed into fresh clothes, I went downstairs to find breakfast, and additionally found a very somber kitchen full of people. Almost everyone I had seen at Thanksgiving the year before, even Nova's aging grandmother, who was sitting in the corner in a rocking chair staring out the kitchen window into the lush garden.

"Good ta see ya, Andy." Mudder was the first to stand up. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days, eyes red and puffy around the edges. He shook my hand tightly and patted me solidly on my back. "Thanks fer helpin' Natalie get out here, it sure means a lot ta her. An' us."

I nodded silently. Rick handed me a plate loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. I sat down next to Nova, who was picking listlessly at her own breakfast. The rest her family watched her, as if anticipating something, until Mudder shooed them away with various preparation tasks. He sat down at the table with us, hands clasped in front of him, and waited patiently for us to finish before asking us about the drive.

"It was... interesting," Rick summed up in a word.

He took his plate, as well as mine, over to the sink and sat back down. We lapsed into a tense sort of silence as Nova pushed her eggs from one side of the plate to the other.

"So, I've spent the last two days avoiding thinking about it, I guess," Nova finally spoke up, voice a little strained. "What happened? Why'd he do it?"

"It's complicated." Mudder sighed, rubbing his temples with two bear-like hands.

"I'm not a kid anymore. I haven't been since I was about seven years old, actually."

"Alright, alright. Are ya sure ya want these two here ta hear this stuff?" Mudder looked back and forth from Rick to me.

"They just drove almost two thousand miles with me just to make sure I got here and could figure out this stuff," Nova said with a little edge in her voice. "Yes, I'd like them here." She reached for my hand under the table and grasped it tightly. Rick's hand disappeared under the table and I assumed she did the same to him.

"Well, ya know as well as anyone that yer daddy's life was different. He never stayed in one place too long after they took ya away. He went ta Florida right after an' worked on a fishin' boat for a couple years. He split logs at a mill in Kentucky, worked as a huntin' guide in Tennessee, and rode out ta California on his old eighty-three Sportster motorcycle when he got it all fixed up 'n' pretty. Shoot, that was... what, five, six years ago now?

"He never really settled down, even after he married Stacy and they moved up to this house. He was workin' fer a photography company--developin' film and whatnot--for a couple years before they let him start takin' pictures professionally an' all. Man, he sure loved his pictures. Drove all the way from Seattle ta Maine just over a year ago ta take pictures of all the national parks. Stopped off at your aunt's place in there in Colorado on his way out. That's... that's the last time I ever saw him, actually."

Mudder coughed violently and wiped his eyes. Nova reached across the table and patted his arm. Rick and I looked at her carefully, but her expression was unreadable. There was pain in her eyes, but no more than normal, I guessed. There was glint of something unrecognizable too--something fierce, something determined. The will to force herself through the memories of the man who had dealt her both love and pain.